The Beach
| The Beach | |
|---|---|
| Type | Location |
The Beach runs along the southern edge of the map below Pelican Town, and it is the only place in the valley with salt water, which makes it the home of every ocean fish in the game. Shells wash up on the sand faster than forage appears almost anywhere else, so a walk along the shore most mornings pays for itself. Willy keeps the Fish Shop on the docks and sells everything a rod needs, and Elliott writes in the cabin a little further east. Three hundred pieces of wood rebuild the broken footbridge to the tide pools, where Coral and Sea Urchins gather and the Old Mariner turns up in the rain with a Mermaid's Pendant for sale. Four festivals take over the sand and the pier across the year, which makes this the valley's second square.
Area
The way in is the path south out of Pelican Town, and a Warp Totem: Beach or a Water Obelisk drops the farmer at the statue in the treeline to the west. Buying the town shortcuts opens a path west to Leah's Cottage and another in the northeast up to the ground south of the Museum.
The main stretch is wide dry sand with two wooden piers running out into the water. Elliott's Cabin stands just east of the entrance, and Elliott is usually inside it, on the sand in front of it or out on the docks by the Fish Shop.
The river cuts the beach in two, and the footbridge across it starts out broken. Repairing it takes three hundred wood, or the second community upgrade does the job instead. Past it lie the tide pools, a shallow rocky shelf with sea anemones growing on it, which is where the beach keeps its best forage. On rainy and stormy days the Old Mariner stands on the north side of that far section.
Two curiosities sit at the edges. A gap between the trees on the northwestern side looks like a path but is boarded over with planks, and a rare green creature sometimes appears south of the docks.
Shops
Willy owns the Fish Shop at the end of the main docks and sells rods, bait, tackle, crab pots and the fish tanks that decorate a farmhouse. He is also the one who repairs the boat in his back room, which is what opens Ginger Island, so his shop matters long after the fishing has been learned.
The Old Mariner is the other seller, and he only appears while it rains. He carries the Mermaid's Pendant, which is the item a farmer has to be holding to propose, and he will only hand it over once the relationship is far enough along.
Residents
Elliott lives in the cabin on the sand. He is writing a novel, he talks like it, and he spends most of his days either at his desk or looking at the sea.
Willy grew up sailing around the Fern Islands and now lives here on the beach. He fishes for a few hours each morning before opening the shop, and the door stays shut on a fine Saturday because he would rather be out on the water. In Winter he walks up to the saloon after work. Between the two of them, the beach feels like a place that two men chose over the town.
Foraging
The beach is the richest foraging ground in the valley, because the shells spawn quickly and three separate systems drop items on it at once. Everything picked up here counts as forage and gives experience, even the shells and the odd scrap.
Clam is the common find, with Mussel, Oyster and Cockle behind it, and all four appear in every season. Rainbow Shell only washes up in Summer, and Nautilus Shell only in Winter, which makes the Winter beach worth walking for the Field Research bundle. Four out of five shells appear west of the bridge, and the sand west of the river holds only six standard items at a time, so clearing the shore every day keeps it producing. Shells are also swept away before the first day of a new season and before Sunday morning, so nothing left lying about survives the week.
The tide pools run on their own count, which means Coral and Sea Urchins are never squeezed out by the shells on the main beach. Coral is the usual find and Sea Urchins are rarer, and both hide easily behind the anemones. Seaweed turns up now and then in the narrow strip right at the water's edge.
The middle of Summer brings the beach's best three days. The ocean turns visibly green, shells appear faster, and Coral and Sea Urchins spawn in numbers across the whole beach rather than only in the pools, which is the one time of year they appear at the western end. Anything already placed on the sand, crab pots and chests included, stays where it is through those days.
Artifact spots give the beach its second harvest. Dried Starfish, Glass Shards, an Anchor, a Nautilus Fossil, an Ornamental Fan and a Skeletal Hand all come out of the sand, which covers several museum slots, and the holes also turn up clay, stone, Gold Ore and Lost Books. Winter adds Winter Root and Snow Yam.
Festivals hide all of this while they run, because each one uses its own version of the map. The forage keeps appearing underneath, so the morning after the Night Market closes, three nights of shells and artifact spots are waiting on the sand at once.
Fishing
Every drop of water here counts as salt water, including the river upstream of the bridge, so the same fish bite wherever the line goes. The only exceptions are the Crimsonfish and, later, the Son of Crimsonfish, which live at the eastern end beyond the bridge.
Spring brings Sardine, Anchovy, Herring, Halibut and Flounder, with Eel on rainy days. Summer swaps in Tuna, Octopus, Tilapia, Red Mullet and Super Cucumber, adds Pufferfish on sunny days and Red Snapper when it rains. Fall keeps the Sardine and Tilapia and brings Albacore and Sea Cucumber. Winter is the Squid season, alongside Tuna, Herring, Albacore and Red Mullet.
Two pieces of received wisdom about this beach are wrong. The piers look like deep water access, but the game treats them as land, so a cast from the end of a pier is no better than one from the shore. The paler water to either side means nothing either. What is true is that bubbles appear here more often than anywhere else, because so much of the map is water, and that many of them form too far out to reach.
Notes
The broken footbridge here is not the Quarry bridge, which catches out players following a guide too quickly. This one takes wood and nothing else.
Panning is impossible on the sand, except during the Night Market, when the pier counts as a different map and ore spots can appear.
Salt water is dangerous to plants everywhere except in the watering can: filling up from the ocean and watering crops with it works perfectly, which is a free refill for anyone farming near the shore.
All Locations
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
