Watering Cans
| Watering Cans | |
|---|---|
| Type | Tool |
The Watering Can keeps crops alive, and in the first year it is the single biggest drain on a farmer's morning. A crop that goes unwatered does not die, but it does not grow either, so a missed day is a day of profit lost. Rain does the job for free outdoors, which is why the weather report on the television is worth checking before bed. Upgrading the can both widens the patch a charged pour covers and raises the number of charges it holds before a trip back to the water. Sprinklers eventually take the chore over completely, and the whole point of the mid-game is reaching that handover.
Use
Filling the can at any water on the map costs nothing, and the sink in an upgraded farmhouse counts as a water source. A Fish Pond works as well, which saves a walk if the pond sits near the fields.
Watering a tile keeps a young crop growing that day. An unwatered seedling simply pauses, so the loss is time rather than the plant. Crops that give repeat harvests still want water every day once they are grown, while a crop that gives one harvest can be left standing dry until it is convenient to pick.
Rain covers everything planted outdoors, so a wet day is a free morning. Anything under glass is on its own: the Greenhouse and Garden Pots need the can whatever the sky is doing. Winter Seeds and Powdermelon are the odd case, because snow does not water them either.
Charging the can works like the Hoe. Holding the button steps the highlighted patch outward, first to a short line, then a longer line, then a square, then a wide block. Walking while the charge builds shifts the lit tiles without turning the character, which is how a block gets lined up against the edge of a field.
A charged pour costs more water and more energy than a single tile. The deeper the charge, the more units leave the can, so an iridium can emptying across eighteen tiles drains quickly. Watering fewer tiles than the can is capable of costs only what the smallest can able to cover that patch would cost. The game lets a charged pour go ahead even when the water left will not strictly cover it.
Farming level decides how cheap all this is. Each level trims the energy a pour costs, so the same field is far less tiring to water late in a save.
Upgrades
Clint's ladder runs copper, iron, gold and iridium, five bars and a sum of gold at each rung, taken in order. Capacity climbs with every step, and so does reach: a line of three tiles, then five, then a three by three square, then a block six wide and three deep.
Timing the handover is the real skill. The can spends two mornings away, and crops do not wait. Most farms watch the forecast, water everything, then hand the can over on an evening before rain. The rain covers the next day and the can is back in time for the day after. A Rain Totem forces the same outcome without waiting on the weather.
The end of a season works just as well. Most crops wither when the season turns, so almost nothing needs water on the last day, and a can given up on the twenty-seventh comes back on the first of the new season. The multi-season crops are the exception, since Ancient Fruit, Coffee Beans, Corn, Sunflowers and Wheat carry on growing across the boundary and still want their water.
Winter is the easiest window of all, because only Powdermelon and Winter Seeds need watering at all in the cold. Festival days are the ones to avoid, since rain never falls on a festival and Clint is sometimes away from the shop.
A Prismatic Shard and twenty Cinder Shards at the Forge buy one random enchantment. Bottomless is the prize, giving the can infinite water and ending refill trips for good. Reaching stretches the charged area to five tiles by five. Efficient removes the energy cost, which turns the morning round into a formality.
Notes
The can is useful away from the crops. Pouring water into a pet's bowl adds friendship by the next morning, which is an easy habit on the way out of the farmhouse.
Lit objects shrug the water off. A Torch or a Campfire stays burning after a soaking, so a charged pour can sweep safely across a decorated yard.
The sink inside the farmhouse refills the can, while the sinks in villagers' houses do not, so a trip into town still means finding the river or a pond.
Retaining Soil is the stopgap between hand watering and full automation. It keeps a tile wet for extra days, which covers a trip to Ginger Island or a long night in Skull Cavern. Sprinklers are the real answer, and a field laid out around Iridium Sprinklers never needs the can again.
All Tools
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
| Name | Image | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Iridium Rod | 
|
25000g |
| Auto-Grabber | 
|
25000g |
| Auto-Petter | 
|
50000g |
| Axes | - | - |
| Bamboo Pole | 
|
500g |
| Fiberglass Rod | 
|
1800g |
| Golden Scythe | 
|
- |
| Hay Hopper | 
|
- |
| Heater | 
|
2000g |
| Hoes | - | - |
| Incubator | 
|
- |
| Iridium Rod | 
|
7500g |
| Iridium Scythe | 
|
- |
| Milk Pail | 
|
1000g |
| Pans | - | - |
| Pickaxes | - | - |
| Scythe | 
|
- |
| Shears | 
|
1000g |
| Training Rod | 
|
25g |
| Trash Cans | - | - |
| Watering Cans | - | - |