Winter
| Winter | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Mechanic |
Winter is the season that closes the fields and opens everything else. Snow covers the ground, the usual crops refuse to go in, the grass stops spreading and standard trees stand still, so a farm that lives off planting suddenly has nothing to plant. What remains is animal produce, the Greenhouse, and a month of free time that most farms spend fishing, mining, upgrading tools and running the stockpile from Fall through kegs and jars. The valley makes up for the empty soil with forage that only shows up in the snow, the only month for Perch, Squid, Lingcod and the Glacierfish, and a birthday every few days. The Festival of Ice, SquidFest, the Night Market and the Feast of the Winter Star all fall inside it, and the feast closes the year.
Overview
The ground is the first thing to change. Nothing outdoors will sprout except Powdermelon, Winter Seeds and Fiber Seeds, and the grass that is left stops spreading and is buried under snow, so animals can no longer graze on it. That makes the Silo the thing to sort out before the season turns, because a scythe run across the fields in late Fall is the cheapest hay there is, and a full Silo covers the whole month. Hay also comes over the counter at Marnie's Ranch, and Wheat grown under glass gives more. Bee Houses go quiet for the month. Fruit trees are the exception that keeps working, so a sapling bought now matures while nothing else is happening.
Animals are kept inside by the cold, and a Heater is what stops the mood sliding while they are shut in. Marnie sells them, and the better barns and coops come with one already fitted, so the expense falls on the basic buildings. Mood directly affects the quality of what comes out, which is why a heater earns back its cost over a month indoors. Pigs are the one animal that simply stops, because they only find truffles outdoors.
Foraging is unusually good. Crocus and Crystal Fruit lie on the surface across the valley, and Crystal Fruit is the valuable one by a wide margin, with Dust Sprites in the middle floors of the Mines dropping it as well. Snow Yam and Winter Root are not on the surface at all and come up under a hoe, so the dirt paths east of the farm, the ones through Pelican Town and the sand at the Beach are the places to walk with the tool out. Holly turns up everywhere and is thickest in the Secret Woods, and it is best sold or handed in rather than eaten, since a mouthful drains energy instead of restoring it. A Nautilus Shell washes up on the Beach in this season alone and is wanted for the Field Research Bundle. Handing Crocus, Crystal Fruit, Snow Yam and Winter Root to the Crafts Room finishes the Winter Foraging Bundle, and the Community Center pays it back in Winter Seeds.
Those seeds are the quiet loop of the season. One of each of the four forage items crafts a batch of ten, or a Winter Root in a Seed Maker returns a few, and a week later the bed gives back any of the same four items. Powdermelon Seeds come out of artifact spots exactly the way Snow Yam and Winter Root do, which makes the hoe the real seed shop in Winter, and a Powdermelon put through a Preserves Jar is worth far more than the fruit. Both still want watering every morning, because falling snow does none of it. Fiber Seeds cover the shortage the dead grass creates, and Fiber also turns up in the Mines and the Mutant Bug Lair.
Fishing is where the money is. Perch bites in any river, pond or lake at any hour and is the easy filler, Lingcod runs the rivers and the mountain lake all day, and Squid comes to the ocean after six in the evening, feeding both the Fried Calamari recipe and a quest that asks for one. Sturgeon returns to the mountain lake, Pike comes back to the rivers, and Tiger Trout and Albacore carry over from Fall. The prize is the Glacierfish, which waits at the southern tip of Arrowhead Island in Cindersap Forest, needs six levels of Fishing and a bobber at least four tiles clear of every bank, and is caught once in a save. A Rain Totem bends the season further, since it puts Catfish, Walleye and Red Snapper back on the list.
The events are worth planning around. The Festival of Ice opens near Marnie's Ranch on the eighth, with ice sculptures and igloos set up across the fields and Mayor Lewis standing on the frozen lake; talking to him starts an ice fishing contest against Pam, Willy and Elliott, and five fish takes it. A first win pays out tackle, bait and a Sailor's Cap, and every win after that pays gold instead. SquidFest fills the twelfth and thirteenth, with a fisherman pitching a tent in the north-west corner of the Beach and paying for squid, and the rewards differ between the two days. The Night Market runs from the fifteenth to the seventeenth and takes over the docks from five in the evening: a shop boat whose stock changes daily, the painter Lupini selling a different canvas each night, a decoration boat with a fixed range of outdoor pieces, a mermaid show that rewards anyone carrying the secret code, a shrouded figure who teleports home for a small fee, and a submarine ride that pulls up Midnight Squid, Spook Fish and Blobfish along with the odd Pearl.
The Feast of the Winter Star closes the month on the twenty-fifth and works as a secret gift exchange. A letter from Mayor Lewis a week beforehand names the villager to buy for, and a second letter the day before repeats it. A loved gift here is worth several ordinary ones, which makes the feast the single cheapest push a friendship gets all year. Villagers hand something back in return, and the list runs from Robin's armful of wood to gems, cakes and fishing tackle.
Notes
Winter is the season for the blacksmith. Nothing in the fields needs watching, so the days a tool spends on Clint's bench cost nothing at all, and the Watering Can and the hoe are the two upgrades that change the following Spring most.
A repaired Greenhouse removes the problem entirely, since the season stops applying inside it and anything can be planted. Ginger Island does the same job once the boat runs, with Ginger, Banana and Pineapple growing while the valley is frozen.
The month also pays for itself through the sheds. Fall produce held back and fed into kegs, Preserves Jars, Mayonnaise Machines, a Cheese Press and a Loom turns a quiet month into a profitable one, and the money is wanted the moment Spring opens and the Potato and Rhubarb seeds go on sale.
All Mechanics
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
