As always, when we enjoy a game, we like putting together a guide to help new players get started. So here’s our beginner’s guide for Harvest Moon: Echoes of Teradea. While farming remains at the heart of the game, this latest Harvest Moon is also a grand adventure filled with exploration and a light bit of puzzles to progress.
By the way, if you are still on the fence, read my review here!
The game takes place many years after Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos. A mysterious mist has spread from the Forest of Echoes, guardian spirits have fallen asleep, and once-thriving regions have become isolated. Together with an unusual tiny version of the Harvest Goddess, you’ll have to revive the Spirit Trees of Teradea and bring life back to the world.
Here are my tips to get you started.
1. Take Your Time with Character Creation
Before your adventure begins, you’ll create your farmer by choosing their appearance, name, and birthday. Depending on how many seasons you expect to play, choose the season that best suits you. What I mean is, when you choose your birthday in Winter, you’ll have a long time to wait until you can experience it.
There’s a reasonably robust character creator this time around, with a variety of hairstyles, outfits, and skin tones available. As you’ll be spending dozens of hours with your character, it’s worth taking a few extra minutes to get everything just right before heading into Bloomfield Village.
Don’t worry too much about your outfit, as you can change it later on in front of the mirror in your house. Talking about your house, you’ll also be able to decorate your room and make the space feel more personal.
2. Learn What Happilia Is as Soon as Possible
One of the most important systems in the game is Happilia, as you really can’t progress without collecting enough.
Every region has its own Happilia colour that represents how much you’ve helped the local community. You earn it by completing requests, assisting villagers, rebuilding communities or even just chatting to the villagers and generally making life better for the people living there.
When you go from night to day after your character goes to bed, you still see a screen showing you how much you have collected. Also, on the screen you can see the little bottles displayed and how many you have filled for every area you are in. Once you’ve collected enough Happilia, you’ll be able to revive that region’s Spirit Tree.
In the first region, Bloomfield, for example, reviving Lupo and the Spirit Tree of Spring makes the area safe to travel again. Later, you’ll help other regions by restoring their own guardian spirits and Spirit Trees.
If you’re ever wondering whether a side quest is worth your time, the answer is usually yes. It all contributes towards filling those Happilia canisters.
3. Explore Earlier Than You Think
If you’re coming from older Harvest Moon games, you may be tempted to stay close to your farm during the first few days. After all, money has to be earned by growing as many crops as you can.
However, Echoes of Teradea places a much greater focus on exploration than previous entries. New storylines, villagers, crops, animals, resources, caves, and secrets are scattered throughout the wilderness. One of the things I enjoyed most was simply seeing what lay beyond the horizon.
You will be turned back though at certain places, by a heavy mist or the lack of a bridge…which you can repair later on!
It took me a bit to get used to the logic of moving around. I had the hardest time finding Lupo to be able to revive his Spirit Tree. Turned out I needed to pay attention to little tufts of green peeking over the cliff: I had to climb down! You won’t believe the things I tried, thinking Lupo would only show up if I stealthily moved around the wolves so they didn’t notice me. So you can explore by climbing, at some points jumping down when you see a pole with a red ribbon, and some water is shallow enough to walk through.
Oh, and be sure to activate Goddess Warp Statues whenever you discover them. Fast travel unlocks early on and becomes incredibly useful as the world opens up.
This one in the image below isn’t a Warp Statue by the way, but these will give you some goodies while you unlock them. You have to bring a certain item, or search for power fragments and whatnot to unlock them.
4. Your Horse Is Your Best Friend
Did you notice that walking is slow, and when you use fast walking, very stamina-consuming? Fear not: one of the best quality-of-life improvements is that you receive a horse right from the start.
Whenever you’re out exploring, simply whistle, and your horse will appear beside you. No idea how he does it over the huge distances, but he pops up immediately. Considering the size of the world, you’ll quickly learn to appreciate this convenience. You can even tame other horses and decide which one answers your whistle.
What makes horses even better is that they can learn skills. The first improvements are fairly simple, like increased movement speed, but later abilities become much more useful for travelling across the landscape. I especially like the skill, Bunny Hop!
5. Animals Are Much More Useful Than Ever Before
There’s a barn ready to use on your farm, and you get a calf and a horse straight away. Other animals like sheep and chickens can be bought in the Animal Center in Bloomfield. In that first barn, there are 8 spaces with feed bins.
The Feeder Machine in there can create animal feed from weeds and grass, and you can have it automatically refill feed bins. So fun to see! You need one feed per day per animal, and although you can mow weeds too, it’s a good idea to plant grass as soon as possible.
Animals can graze outside too. Just ring the bell in front of the barn, and ring it again when you want them back inside.
Animals aren’t just there to look cute or provide products for your farm.
Early in the game, you’ll rescue a Cockatiel, and this little bird soon proves just how useful companions can be. So even if he might be a bit annoying, fluttering constantly behind you, once the delivery service becomes available, your Cockatiel can send items back to your farm while you’re still out adventuring. Trust me, that’s incredibly useful when your inventory fills up halfway through exploring a distant region.
Various animals can learn unique skills, and many wild animals can eventually be tamed and recruited as companions. You do so by creeping up on them, then petting them and offering them food. After a few encounters like this, the animal is tamed. You do need barn space for them before you can take them with you. There are 93 animals in the game, which is a huge number! It’s worth experimenting to see which animals best fit your playstyle.
6. Farming Is Surprisingly Accessible
Despite the larger focus on adventure, farming remains an important part of daily life of course. Tool selection is automatic, which means less time switching between equipment and more time actually playing.
If the land needs tilling, your hoe is selected. If seeds can be planted, you’ll plant seeds. If fruit is ready for harvesting, your character automatically performs the correct action. No need to set tools to buttons or use a quick access belt.
Harvest Moon: Echoes of Teradea also offers a huge variety of crops and flowers. There are 160 crops in all, some varieties with a different colour, stripes or other differences. Plus, you can also grow mutations on the varieties. There are also 80 different flowers to grow and find in the wild.
Everything (except for the orchard seedlings) needs to be watered daily, unless it rains. But you can upgrade your watering can if you have the right materials so you can water more tiles at once.
The Fertiliser Machine turns manure that you clean up in the barn into fertiliser. Using fertiliser, you can get crops that are higher quality.
You have four fields available from the start, and to the right side, four orchard fields. These orchard fields that you see in the above picture are used to plant the tree seedlings you can buy. There are two designated spots per field for those trees.
At your crafting table you can instantly erect a fence around the field, with gates and all, if you have the right kind of wood. Fences protect your crops, but they can also be annoying, in my opinion, as you can’t position yourself well for working the land.
Having multiple fields available from the start is wonderful, but don’t immediately plant everything everywhere. The Soilbot keeps track of field health, and it’s worth checking regularly. Overworking a field isn’t a great long-term strategy, and maintaining healthy soil helps keep your farm productive.
7. Fishing and Mining
Fishing
Fishing returns in Harvest Moon: Echoes of Teradea, complete with its own minigame. You can buy a rod in the general store, so don’t wait until someone gives it to you.
It’s not the easiest mini-game, of which I became aware when I had to earn fishing points in Tidewind to be able to find the second Spirit Tree. It feels a bit like having to do two different motions with each hand at the same time! On Switch, you have to press the A button when the fish bites, but don’t keep pressing that button when the fish struggles. Point your L button in the other direction to its struggles, and only when it stops struggling, press A again. Be patient; if you do this, you will bring it in.
As you explore the different regions of Teradea, you’ll find plenty of fishing spots to try. There are 63 different fish in the game. It’s a good way to earn extra money, gather ingredients for cooking, and complete requests from villagers. Later on, you can also take part in fishing tournaments, earning points and prizes for your efforts.
Mining
If you played Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos, you’ll probably appreciate how mining has changed.
Remember the struggle to find Silver in The Winds of Anthos to be able to progress? This time, gathering ores and gemstones is much more straightforward. Instead of spending ages searching through dungeon floors and digging blindly, valuable resources are clearly visible in the environment. When you spot an ore deposit or gemstone vein, simply break it apart and collect the materials inside.
And you can discover the first mine fairly early on. Go to the beach in Bloomfield, and notice how you can walk in shallow water to the right of the beach until you reach a cave where you find silver and bronze.
8. Some Good Quality-of-Life Features
Harvest Moon: Echoes of Teradea includes some great quality-of-life improvements.
One of the best is automatic storage access. Materials stored at home can still be used while crafting and cooking, meaning you don’t have to carry a backpack full of ingredients everywhere you go.
The horse you get from the start is another great addition, as it broadens the world for you and whistling for it works admirably well.
Another fantastic feature is the tent. Instead of constantly travelling back to your farm, you can set up camp while exploring, recover (although you don’t recover the same amount of stamina), and continue your adventure the next day.
A feature we already had in The Winds of Anthos is the little coloured wisps. They are scattered throughout the landscape and often provide free seeds. And sometimes they are special seeds, so be on the lookout for them.
9. Talk to People and Join Events
There is plenty to do besides farming and exploration.
The game features ten marriage candidates, regular festivals, fishing competitions, and community events throughout the various regions.
Talking to villagers often leads to new requests, story developments, and opportunities to earn Happilia. It also helps make the world feel more alive, especially as you gradually reconnect isolated communities.
And if you’re like me, you’ll probably find yourself getting distracted by side activities long before returning to your original objective.
10. Don’t Stress About Playing Perfectly
This is probably the most important tip of all.
There is no perfect way to play Harvest Moon: Echoes of Teradea.
You might spend an entire day exploring caves instead of farming. You may become obsessed with collecting animals. You might focus on romance, fishing, completing requests, or restoring Spirit Trees. All of that is your choice!
I think Harvest Moon: Echoes of Teradea will be a favourite because it offers so many different activities while still maintaining the cosy atmosphere Harvest Moon is known for. So take your time, enjoy the journey, and don’t be afraid to wander off the path. Some of the best discoveries happen when you’re not actively looking for them.
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