Hints and Tips (Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming)

Frantic farming is being received almost university as a game that is simple to learn, and very challenging to play -- especially against some of the aggressive computer players in story mode. Here are some tips to help you when you find yourself frustrated and unable to go on.

To learn how to play the game, refer to the in-game tutorial, as its very thorough and easy to understand. Once you know how to play, here are some things to be mindful of:


 * 1) Always use the stylus, never the D-pad. This should be pretty self-explanatory -- you need the quickness of hand motions to succeed.
 * 2) Chains, chains, chains. Go for as many chains as you can, as fast as you can. These will help water a larger area around as well as get you major points. If you can, always try to get a mature golden crop at the end of your chain. Your score will skyrocket.
 * 3) Be watchful of the amount of mature crops left. A very quick way to lose a stage is to run out of mature crops, and this can be infuriating especially at the end of a ten-minute survival round you've been busting your butt to win. Remember that the harvest sprite will water the four spaces that surround him on either direction when he harvests a single crop. Try to drag some almost-grown crops to these areas quickly before he waters if it looks like you're running low on mature crops.
 * 4) Rocks can be a BIG problem. The computer will ruthlessly murder you with a constant stream of rocks in the later stages of survival mode. A nice, easy going match can quickly turn into an instant loss when you've got all your crops blocked off by rocks.
 * 5) Go for a couple LONG chains per stage. While four or five crop chains can sustain you for most of the game, sometimes you'll get to a stage where you've got an outrageous score quota to fill. This is where a really long crop chain can come in handy. You can easily score up to 60,000 points in a single chain if you do it correctly. From the beginning of the stage, start to save up a multitude of your character's favorite crop for the 'score' category. Once you've got about a 10-14 crop chain with a mature gold crop at the end, let the harvesting begin and watch the score rocket up. Doing this two or three times in a very difficult stage almost guarantees a win.
 * 6) Know where the harvest sprite is going. This can save A LOT of grief. Make sure to observe his movements and his patterns during earlier gameplay to get a good hold on this.
 * 7) Take a break. If you're getting frustrated, take a breather. This seems like an odd way to beat the stage, but it works wonders.

There are four really good ways to avoid being swamped with rocks...
 * Number one - always drag rocks to the flashing outlines that indicate big crops will be appearing. Great way to get rid of them and save other crops
 * Number two - start early with rock management. Even when there's just a few here and there, try and eliminate them as quickly as you can while still concentrating on play. Completely focusing on removing rocks can be a big mistake too, so find a good balance
 * Number three - Harvest a SINGLE golden crop without a chain attached. Harvest a single golden crop by itself will summon all the crops of its kind to the bin while watering some other crops, thus bursting them from their rocky shells. Though it may not help on score, it'll help ease a rock problem
 * Number four - Take advantage of special moves. Most of the special moves in the game provide some easy manner of blowing a lot of the rocks clean away. If you see a ton of rocks coming up, don't waste your special until they all land.