You know our slogan: when we love a game, we make a guide. Before we begin, it’s important to know that you have a very different game before you than the Story of Seasons games you might expect when the name Harvest Moon pops up. For one, it’s clearly visible in the graphics, and the mechanics and the ways to proceed are different. We felt Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos will surely benefit from a guide. So here’s one to get you started. And if you want to know more about the game, here’s our review.
Waking Up In Lenctenbury
Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos starts with the Harvest Goddess surrounded by her four Sprites facing the big volcanic eruption. Each of the sprites locks up an area to help the people stay safe from this catastrophe. The goddess herself sends a note in a bottle.
10 years later, you wake up on a farm in Lenctenbury, where Doc Jr. tells you to learn the ropes on how to farm. During a quest to catch a runaway chicken, you find the bottle, and together with Doc Jr., you read the note. You two decide to investigate the wall surrounding Lenctenbury. When you get close, you hear a voice, which gives Doc Jr. an idea for an invention.
The next day dawns, and after watering the crops, putting fertilizer on them and having breakfast in the town’s restaurant, Doc Jr. shows his invention: the Wall Whacker. To make it work, you need six stone and three iron ore. You can get it in the village’s mine that to the North. When you get outside of Doc Jr. lab, you need to go to the back of the lab and, from there, head straight North. You can’t jump down in this game when you are on higher land; you have to find a path to follow. The path is to the left, and following it, you’ll soon see torches. The little map in the right downside corner will show the location with an exclamation mark.
In the mine, you see a path leading away from the main chamber blocked by two big rocks. Using the pickaxe Doc Jr. gave you. You can reduce one of them to rubble and get stone in the process. Go past the rock to another chamber and see an ore. Smash this, and you’ll get iron.
Go back to the ladder, and it’ll bring you up to the surface. Bring the ores and stones to Doc Jr., and the next morning, the Wall Whacker is done. It’ll breach the wall, and Ver pops out, the Harvest Sprite of Lenctenbury. This starts a sequence of quests. Ver would like a Turnip Stew to get their powers up before an opening can be made in the wall. Neil, from the restaurant, is happy to make it if Doc Jr. can fix the kitchen etc. Guess who has to supply the materials?
Intro Gameplay Is Different
Anyway, while doing all of this, you get to grips with the basic mechanics of the game. So, the intro is also a tutorial of sorts.
Know that you don’t need to pick your tools. Every action comes automatically. For example, you have to till the land first, and after that, the only action can be to sow. After that comes watering, and if you have fertilizer, that will be next. And if a crop is ready to harvest, that’s the only action that can be done.
The same goes for getting lumber. If a tree has things to harvest from it, like apples, that’s your action. But a tree without fruit only has the option of chopping.
Know that you are working on the intro. And notice that the time isn’t progressing like it will later on. It’s going in leaps.
As soon as the wall is indeed breached and your character can go into the outside world, the real game starts. BUT, before you are really off to an enjoyable gameplay, first, you have to finish the quest for getting a barn. Doc Jr. offers to repair it if you bring stone, bronze and silver. And here lies the problem.
Finding Silver Ore
It took me 10 hours of gameplay to finally find silver and be able to progress. You can go into the next town of Providence on foot, which means you don’t have a lot of time to explore and get back in time to sleep. And with only 5 hearts that depleted mighty quickly and not much food available to replenish it, I had to resort to apples and mushrooms to stay alive.
The shop owners keep reacting with the same standard line, but you can’t buy anything. I quickly understood that the barn quest would be the turning point, but where to get silver?
I feel the game isn’t balanced well in these early stages, but I’ll tell you what you need to know to perhaps get there quicker than I did. You can indeed find Silver in the mine in Lenctenbury. Stock up with the meals you can afford (though here, too, I feel the prepared meals are very costly as compared to the money you can make) and take apples and mushrooms aplenty.
In the mine, you need to douse pressing B to see the circles on the ground, concealing ores and the stairs to the lower floor. Watch out for the ! and the sound that signals falling rocks. Get out of the way quickly, as you’ll lose a lot of health otherwise.
Don’t bother to douse for ores, and don’t smash rocks or such. Just find the next ladder as soon as you can, as silver won’t be found on the upper floors. Try to make it to floor 11 on that first attempt. It may sound easy, but I spent the entire day and night in there to get there. And after 6 am the next day, you’ll get little zzzz’s above your head, and the stamina will deplete even quicker.
Go back up to the surface and go back another day, and don’t forget to be equally prepared. Now you can choose to go straight to floor 11 and work your way down in the same way. I’d advise to start dousing for silver from floor 15 and down. I’ve heard it can be found around floor 20 and that the dousing circles are slightly smaller than usual. In the end, I found mine on floor 16, but I think the floors change constantly. If you don’t find it, try to progress to floor 21. Because then, next time you go in the mine, you can jump straight to floor 21.
The game opens up after you have finally given Doc silver and the Barn is done. You get the Expando Farm, and you will also find that you can now use the little stone goddess statues as warp points. Plus, the store assistants even have wares for you to buy, and you’ll get tons of quests.
Seeds and Crops
You can’t buy seeds in the shops at first. Instead, you have to approach the red wisps that are just about everywhere. They give you bags of seed and offer quite some variety from the first. The purple wisps that you find from time to time are much more flighty. You approach them crouching. They give more bags than one and sometimes more special seeds. Later on, when you have earned stars for a town, the tools shop will have a few seeds in stock. Never many, but it’s nice anyway.
As mentioned, there is a huge number of different crops to harvest. As far as I can see now, there are 163 different crops, 68 different flowers, 37 items to forage, 140 recipes, 67 different fish, 54 different ores and processed metals and 85 different animals, where a calf and a cow count separately.
The varieties in crops and flowers happen when you use fertilizer but can also happen due to the climate you are sowing them in.
Cooking and Crafting sadly doesn’t automatically access the storage. Always a pity, as it would make it so much easier. What is nice though is that either in the fridge or in the cabinet, you can access the same storage. Just scroll right with the right stick to go to the next page.
Eventually, you can upgrade your tools like the watering can and the hoe. You can do this at Doc.Jr’s, when you bring him the right materials. After the first upgrade, holding down Y makes you water three patches. Or hoe three patches.
The World Map
Near Providence, you will see the stone statue in a semi-circle, resembling the Harvest Goddess. Examine it, and a tiny Harvest Goddess appears, further progressing the story. Also, at the statue, you can exchange Harvest Wisp Fruit.
Dotted across the landscape, you will find Harvest Wisp Fruit dotted around the world map. Try to get those, as it will give you benefits. You can exchange 3 Wisp Fruit for more stamina (one extra heart) or give 3 Wisp Fruit for a bigger bag. You will have to choose whether you want to upgrade your items bag, or the one for seeds and flowers or materials. And it gives you only three slots more.
The Search Function on the Overworld Map is brilliant. Everything you have encountered once can be searched for on the world map. Even the animals you meet in the wild. Sadly, though, it doesn’t work for fruit harvested from trees.
In the example below I’ve searched for the tiger that I met once. You go to the overworld map, press Y and choose as many as 16 things to search for!
Accessing your storage in every shop: one quality of life addition I love is accessing my storage in every shop in every town. See the little cabinet next to the counter? Through that, you can access your own stuff. Comes in very handy when fulfilling quests.
Ores and Lumber
The ores you find in the mine or at times, in the landscape, can be processed at Doc Jr’s for a small price, after which they can be used as building materials. Once you unlock Herbstburg Village and do some quests in there, there will also be a shop where you can process them too.
Lumber can be used for several things. For two items, board lumber and square lumber, you’ll get the recipe and a crafting table fairly early in the game. You can also have Doc Jr make white picket fences with wood. And that doesn’t only serve the purpose of looking good. A field surrounded by these fences is also automatically protected from bad weather. Be sure to include corner posts and a gate!
In the tool shop in Herbstburg you can buy board and square lumber.
Taking Care of Animals
The feeding machine in the barn has several functions. Refilling the feed bin is my favourite: if there is feed in storage, it automatically shoots feed off to every trough! First, you have to make feed. You can do this from weed, grass (that you can sow) and fodder corn, which again, you can sow. Don’t be fooled by the image of the cow on the feed package: the feed is for all kinds of animals. With the option Put in/Take Out you can take out a certain amount that you can choose, or put feed in that you have bought.
When you buy a pet, and max out its affection, you will gain some heart while petting it.
You can befriend animals in the wild, and have them come live in your barn. Be sure to take good care of them, otherwise, they will leave you.
Need a bigger barn? You can upgrade the barn (and your house too) at Doc Jr, provided you bring him the right materials.
The Inventory Screens
In the info screen, you will see some info:
For crops: a description of how many times you harvested them (and what level that makes you, like newbie or intermediate). If you have found a mutation and what places it prefers to grow in. It also shows how much stamina recovery it offers and if it has a special effect.
For flowers: a description, how many times you harvested them, if you found the mutation and if the flower is possibly edible.
For items to forage: number of times harvested, the amount of stamina recovery, if they have an effect and a description of what they are.
Recipes to cook: number of times cooked, the stamina recovery when eaten, a description and the effect it has on you.
Fish to catch: a description and where the fish is mainly caught
Ores and materials: a description and the place where it can mainly be found
Animals: a description of the animal has special skills and where the main habitat is where it lives.
The Effect a dish or crop can have on you is important. Early on in the game, you will try to reach Zimagrad Village, and you will have to cross ice and snow. Having, for example, coffee with you will make you resistant to the cold for one minute. Otherwise, you will run out of stamina very quickly.
General Tips
In the cold areas, like in Zimigrad Village but also at the North Wind Hot Springs (straight up from Lenctenburgh) you will find hot springs. Soak in these and regain your hearts. You’ll also be cold-resistant.
Pay attention to the rewards for the quests you do. I needed High Quality Board Lumber to repair a bridge just outside of Providence, and got it eventually by fulfilling requests. And it came in very handy, as it allowed me to finally get to Zimigrad Village.
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