DARK RANGER'S HARVEST MOON DS GUIDE
Good day and welcome to my guide about harvest moon DS.  It's Darkranger
again and I am writing on harvest moon DS this time.  Okay, the nickname
is corny as all get out, but there is a long story behind it that I
don't want to share here. Anyway as many of you know, the game was just
released the second week of September and there aren't too many guides
out for it yet.  I have been playing it quite a bit since I bought it
and I am starting to get a little ways into the game.  So, I thought I
would throw this guide together to help everyone out a little bit.  If
you would like to contribute any information that can be accurately
verified, please feel free to email me at the address listed in the
legal section at the bottom of the guide.
Several of my friends and siblings have also purchased the game and we
have learned quite a bit about how to find the harvest sprites and some
other useful information between us.  This guide will be a work in
progress which means that I will update it as more information becomes
available.  So, without further ado here we go.
0. Updates
-------------------------------
This is just another section that I am adding to keep track of the
progress of the guide as it develops.  Listed below are the version
numbers and the updates made during each one.
v 1.00
The original version of the guide.  I released this about a week after I
got the game.  I had enough information to provide a little useful
information, but nothing all that special except the quick start mining
trick.  It contained basic information on crops, animals, tools, some of
the buildings, how to find several of the harvest sprites and a quick
section about the copy write and contact information available for the
guide.
v1.01
After another week or two of play, I found quite a bit more about the
game.  I decided it was time for an overhaul to update the existing
sections of the guide with the new information I have available, and it
was also time to add some new sections that I finally have enough
information to construct.  I added the mining and home shopping sections
and updated the crops, tools, animals, and building's sections.
V1.02
Another much needed update.  I am adding a couple of new sections this
time and finally adding some of the email input to the game.  Keep it
coming.  Also, a new section this time is an Analytical look at harvest
moon.  If you have some time on your hands and want to see what makes
the game tick inside have a read over it.  Sorry its so long but it is a
complex topic that needs explaining and exploring.  I have also updated
most of the major sections with new information and added the credit do
some others whom without this guide would not be possible.
Additionally, I added some new sections including the much requested
marriage section and an outline of how to hire the sprites and their
casino games. Keep the submissions coming.
Table of Contents:
------------------------------
Sections:
0.  Welcome and Updates
1.  Crops
2.  Animals
3.  Tools
4.  Buildings
5.  Unlocking the Harvest Sprites
6.  The Harvest Sprite Casino and Medal System
7.  Mining
8.  Marriage
9.  Shopping Network and Other Items.
10. Quick Start Mini Guide
11. Legal Stuff and Contact Info
12. Email questions I will not answer
11. Thanks and Acknowledgements
13. Linking to Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town
14. An Analytical Look at Harvest Moon
15. Coming soon
1. Crops
-------------------------------------
Crops are nothing new to the harvest moon series.  They are one of the
best ways to make money early in the game and they can provide you with
a multitude of income later in the game.  Crops come in two varieties,
ground crops and trees.  You can buy ground crops from either the
supermarket or Vesta's farm.  However, you can only get trees from
Vesta's farm.  In order to grow crops, you need to have both the hoe and
the watering can.  The process is the same as it has been in the last
few harvest moon games.  I am going to cover the basics and provide some
information on crops and profits in this section.  Later, I will provide
you with which crops to grow to make the most of your time and effort.
For now just go with the one with the highest profit margin.  The
profits assumes that you harvest the bag once, but some crops regrow so,
you can harvest them multiple times and make more money.
Ground crops: These are the crops that you plant in the ground and they
grow for one season and die off.  Note, grass seed is the exception
because it grows for multiple seasons and years.  In order to grow on of
these crops you need to take the how and plow a 3X3 area and sow a bag
of seeds over it.  You should also leave one space between the areas, so
that you can reach all of the plants, unless you want to use the harvest
team to gather the crops for you.  You might also want to leave one of
the outer spaces on the pattern blank so you can reach the middle crop
until you get the silver watering can or better.  This way you don't
have to wait for the middle crop to finish growing if you want to plant
the same plot of land multiple times.  If you are growing a renewable
crop, you probably won't harvest the center plant until later anyway.
You need to water the crops for the specified number of days and then
you can pick them and ship them or sell them to Van for a profit. They
can also be used as cooking ingredients or as gifts.
Trees:  You can purchase tree sees from Vesta's farm and plant them
anywhere you could grow crops.  To prepare the area, plow out a 2X2 area
with the hoe.  Stand in the upper left hand corner of the plot and
spread the seeds over the area.  Make sure you leave one space all the
way around the outside of the tree.  Once the tree matures, nothing will
be able to grow in that area anyway. You cannot plant trees right next
to each other.  You need to water the tree everyday until it becomes a
saporling.  Afterwards, you just need to let the tree grow.  It takes
several seasons for a tree to mature and bear fruit.  Trees will only
bear fruit during a specific season.  They will bear fruit every couple
of days, which you can ship or cook with.  Generally, trees require less
maintenance once they become saporling, but ground crops yield a better
profit in the long run.
Crop    Grow time  Regrow time  Shipping price 1 Bag Harvest price
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Spring Crops
Turnip      5 days    none          60g               540g
Potato      8 days    none          80g               720g
Strawberry  9 days    2 days        30g               270g
Cucumber    10 days   2 days        60g        540g
Toy Flower  13 days   none          130g              1170g
Cabbage     14 days   none          250g              2250g
Summer Crops
Onion       8 days    none          80g               720g
Tomatoes    10 days   2 days        60g               540g
Corn        15 days   3 days        100g              900g
Pumpkin     15 days   none          250g              2250g
pineapple   21 days   5 days        500g              4500g
Pink Cat FL. 7 days    none          70g              630g
Fall Crops
Spinach     6 days    none          80g               480g
Sweet Pot   6 days    2 days        100g              900g
Carrot      8 days    none          120g              1080g
Pepper      8 days    2 days        40g               360g
Eggplant    10 days    3 days        80g               720g
Magic Red fl 11 days  none          200g              1800g
Peach 250g
Banana 200g
Orange 200g
Apples 100g
Grapes 200g
Grass grows in all seasons but winter and regrow every 15 days or so to
make fodder for building or animal feed.
You can plant any of the ground crops or trees anywhere on the map
including your farm or any of the other fields available around the
town.  I have noticed that the crops will grow at a different rates in
different areas.  The table above list the time it takes for them to
grow on your farm.  The take another day to grow if you plant them in
the many fields located around the main part of the city.  They will
grow one day faster if you plant them in the fields located near the
waterfall in front of the dig sit.  Crops will grow the fastest if you
plant them in the secret field behind the waterfall.  You need the
Legendary Swords from the second mine to break the rocks blocking your
way to the waterfall cave field.    Regardless of location crops sell
for the same price everywhere.
Crops also have multiple levels.  Crops begin at level one and can go
quite high, I haven't found the upper bound on them yet, but I know they
go above 10 levels.  Higher level crops will ship for a lot more than
their lower level counter parts.  For example, level 1 sweet potatoes
sell for 100g each, while level 10 sweet potatoes sell for around 8000g
each.  As you can see, leveling up seeds can quickly lead to a higher
profit margin.  However, this takes quite a bit of work to achieve.  The
process to obtaining higher level sees is quite simple in nature, but it
takes a great deal of patience and time to achieve.  The process is
described in detail below.
Raising the level of crops is very simple, all you need to do is plant
multiple bags of seeds on the same 9 squares of land overtop of each
other.  The seeds you plant all need to be at the same level, and you
need to plant at least two bags in order for them to advance a level.
You simply water and harvest the crops in the manner described above as
you normally would.  However, when you pick the crops, there is a
reasonable probability that some of the crops you harvest will have
increased one level above their standard seeds.  The more bags of seeds
you plant on an area, the better chance each particular crops has of
increasing one level in value.  Planting multiple bags of the seeds that
you buy from the store will yield level two crops.  Unfortunately, this
is as far as you can go with the crops from the store.  To advance their
levels higher, you need to purchase the seed maker from the black smith.
The seed maker costs 20000g and requires a piece of admit from the third
mine to construct.  It takes several days like upgrading a tool does,
and it is then delivered to your farm.  You need to purchase a maker
shed before you can buy it from the black smith.  You can read more
about finding admit in the mining section and the shed in the building
section.  The seed maker allows you to turn harvested crops into bags of
seeds at a 1 to 1 ratio.  The transformation is instantaneous.  Each
crop you put in will yield a bag of seeds equal to the level of the
crop.  For example, a level 2 crop yields level 2 seeds.  You can then
take these new seed and plant multiple bags of them on the same plot of
land to increase the crops one more level.  Then, you can repeat the
process to grow higher level crops.  However, this is a time consuming
process, because each time you do it you have to start growing the crops
all over again.  It takes several game years, so be patient with it.
The secret waterfall field can be a big help here, because seeds grow
faster their than on the normal farm.  I will add the profit increase
equation later when I break it down.
Another interesting thing about crops is the ability to grow giant
versions of crops in the game.  I have only had this happen to me twice
so far, but it's a neat addition to the game.  Sometimes when you plant
a bag of crops, a giant version will grow and take up for spaces on the
screen.  These larger crops seem to be random and rare in nature.  If
you are luck enough to have one, on the day that it is ready to harvest
Thomas comes over and offers to take it off your hands.  If you accept,
you will view a short cut scene where the harvest sprites from mineral
town come over and take it.  Then you will find that it shipped out for
several thousand dollars the next day.  I don't have any idea what
causes it, but it's just another neat addition to the game.
As far as strategy goes, I am still out on that one.  I would recommend
getting your crops to the highest level you can because their shipping
prices seem to grow at a geometric rate.  Try to focus on crops with a
short growing time and a fast regrow period regardless of price.  This
will allow you to upgrade their level quickly, and it will also allow
you to get multiple harvests out of higher level crops without having to
regrow them from seeds every time.  Unlike previous games, growing speed
will ultimately determine the best profit margin unless you get all the
crops to the highest available level.  If you have two different crops,
and they are two levels apart, the higher level crop will sell for more
than the lower level one.  So, you want to focus on speed over shipping
value.  I would recommend sticking with strawberries, tomatoes, and yams
for the time being.  I will add more on this as the guide develops.
2. Animals
------------
Like all of its predecessors, Harvest moon DS. has a wide variety of
animals that you can keep on your farm in order to make money and have.
However, a few things have changed from the previous games.  This time,
you don't start with barns for most of the animals you get.  You have to
build your own before you can buy animals.  See the building's Section
for the price and requirements to construct the buildings.  The wood
cutter will make all of them for you if you have the right amount of
money and material.  The game's touch screen also adds a more impressive
interface with the touch panel gloves to caring for the animals.  You
can now pet, milk, and wash your animals with the tough panel gloves
rather than only the other tools if you prefer.  Just a side note, I
prefer to focus on Crops rather than animals, so I haven't kept track of
how long it takes them to mature.  It takes a week or two for them to
grow into adult form and start producing milk, eggs and wool, ect.  I
will provide you with the information that I have available.
You can move your animals outside on days with nice weather if you want
too.  If there out on rainy weather or in a hurricane or blizzard they
will often get sick.  This will also happen if you forget to feed them
inside.  If they are outside for several hours, chickens and ducks will
find food on their own and cows will eat mature grass if there is any.
Otherwise you will need to return them to the barn and give them food in
their food box.  Cows and sheep eat fodder which you can grow or buy
from yodel ranch.  Chickens and Ducks eat bird feed which you can buy
from the poultry farm.  If your animals get sick, you can cure them with
animal medicine, otherwise they will die after a few days.  Note, I
usually leave my animals inside and just feed them.  That way they won't
get sick unless their is a storm.
You can have only a limited number of animals on your farm.  Each animal
requires a shed to live in.  Each shed holds a total of 4 animals.  You
can have a total of 7 animal sheds which means you can have a total of
28 animals at any given time.  Note, you also need a pond to buy ducks.
You can get new animals by buying them from one of the farms or having
the ones you have reproduce.  You can get a new chicken by placing an
egg in an incubator and letting it hatch.  This is cheaper than buying
them from the farm.  It takes 3 day for a bird to hatch and a week for
it to mature into an adult.  I don't really know how long it takes cows
and sheep to reproduce.  It's better to just buy them as adults from the
ranch.  The miracle potions only save you 1000g and they end up tying up
one of your mature animals for a few weeks.  During that time period it
still needs to each but won't produce anything. So, they end up costing
you more money than they are worth.
Listed below are the types of animals and some information about them
Dog: You start with the dog and give him a name at the games beginning.
You can throw him or pet him with the touch panel gloves to raise his
affection rate.  Also, you can train him with the ball that Thomas gives
you on the first day.  He will play fetch with you.  Supposedly, he will
chase away wild dogs from your land at the end of the day. Otherwise, he
is pretty useless.
Cat: You also begin the game with the cat.  It can be picked and thrown
and petted with the touch gloves.  It's basically a worthless animal.  I
just ignore it because it severs no probative value.
Horse: Tanaka brings you a horse after you ship about 1200 items through
a shipping box.  You can pet it with the touch gloves and brush it with
the brush.  You can ride it around the valley, which is faster than
walking, but slower than the teleport stone.  It can also be used to
ship items anywhere in the valley.
Chickens: They are bought from the poultry farm or hatch from eggs.
Chickens need to be feed bird feed once a day.  They can be thrown or
petted with the touch gloves to increase their affection rating.  As
their affection increases, the quality of their eggs will also increase.
Small eggs sell for 50g, medium for 60g and large for 100g.
Ducks:  Ducks are similar to chickens in every way accept they cost more
to buy and require a pond before you can purchase them.  However, their
eggs sell for more than chickens do. Small 80g, medium 100g and large
150g.
You can also purchase a manoise maker to increase the selling value of
eggs slightly.  It is made by the blacksmith with adamant from the third
mine for 20000g.  Or, you can use oil to make it in the kitchen. I don't
have the maker's yet, so I will disclose their shipping prices in a
future version of the guide.
Cows: you buy cows from the yodel ranch for 5000g each.  They need to be
feed fodder once a day and you can brush them and talk to them to
increase their affection ratings.  You can milk them when they mature
with either the touch panel glove or the milker.  The selling value of
their milk increases with their affection rating.  small 100g, medium
150g, large 200g. you can also get makers for cheese and yogurt to
increase profits slightly.
Sheep: Sheep produce wool that you can sell and have to be shorn once a
week.  They eat and have their affection increased like cows do.  You
can use the touch panel gloves to wash and shear them, or you can shear
them with the clippers.  The wool sells as follows small 100g, medium
400g, and large 500g. There is also a yarn maker to increase their
selling prices slightly.
The selling value of animal produce increases along with the affection
rating of the animal.  You can make an animal happier by brushing it,
talking to it, and taking it outside.
3. Tools
---------------------------------
Tools allow you to perform work on the farm such as clearing the land,
watering crops, caring for animals, or gathering resources.  They are of
cardinal importance to the game.  Listed below are a description of the
tools I have accumulated so far and their purposes and upgrades.
You can only upgrade the six main tools in the game.  Many of the tools
such as the brush and milker don't have upgrades and only function at
the first level.  To upgrade a tool, you need to gather ore from the
first mine and contact the black smith.  The levels of upgrades are as
follows:
copper   1000g 1 day
silver   2000g 2 days
gold     3000g 3 days
mystrile 4000g 4 days
In addition to having the required ore and money to upgrade the tool,
you also need to have worked the tool to a certain experience level by
using it repeatedly or performing work with it.  In order to upgrade a
tool, you need to call Gary and Sabina when the blacksmith is open,
11:00 to 4:00 except Thursdays and holidays, and provide them with the
ore and money.  You cannot upgrade a tool if you lack the experience to
do so.  You can view your current experience by touching your
character's head portrait on the progress report screen.  The days are
cumulatively spent but the money is not.  For example, it only takes one
day to go from silver to gold level, but it still costs 3000g to
upgraded the tool. So, you may want to go straight to mystrile to avoid
wasting money.  Be aware that while a tool is being upgraded, you will
not be able to use it.  To use a tool at a higher level, hold down the Y
button and release it at the desired interval.  Using a tool at a higher
level burns more stamina and fatigue, but it generally does more work
than using the tool at the first level repeatedly would.
Tool List
Hoe: You begin the game with this tool in your possession.  It can till
soil to prepare it for planting or be used to dig in the mines.  It
begins by tilling one square in front of you.  Each level you advance it
up to mystrile will increase the number of squares tilled in front of
you in a straight line by one.  You can only till one square at a time
in the mine or dig site. The Blessed hoe tills three rows by 5 squares.
The mythic level does 5 rows by 10 squares in front of you.
Axe: You begin with the axe at the beginning of the game.  It is used to
chop tree branches and stumps to gather lumber.  At first you can only
cut branches with it.  Increasing its level allows it to cut stumps by
charging it up multiple times.  The higher the level you have, the less
swings it takes to break a stump into lumber.  The mystrile axe can
cleave a stump in one chop.  The blessed and mythic levels allow you to
cut all the branches and stumps around you in one swing.  The mythic axe
has the longest reach.
Watering Can:  The watering can is used to water your crops.  It can be
filled at any body of water or the watering hole on your farm.  The
number of squares it holds and waters depends on its level.
material  capacity  waters
Iron        30       1 square in front of you
copper      45       3 squares in front of you
silver      60       6 squares in front of you
gold        90       9 squares in front of you
Mystrile    150      15 squares in front of you
blessed     255      54 squares in front of you
mythic      255      252 squares in front of you
Hammer: You begin the game with the hammer and it has several uses.  It
can break rocks to acquire stone for building.  If you upgraded it, the
hammer can break boulders and even larger rocks into stone for building
material. Like the axe, the more you upgrade the hammer, the more few
swings are required to destroy boulders.  The blessed and mythic levels
allow you to break all the rocks around you in one swing. This includes
the very large stones by the mine, but not by the waterfall or on top of
the hot springs. You can also use the hammer to dig though rocks in the
mine and unplowed plowed land.
Sickle:  You begin the game with the sickle. The sickle is used to cut
weeds and mature grass to make fodder.  As you upgrade it, it will cut
more spaces.
material  cuts
iron       1 space in front of you
copper     2 spaces in front of you
silver     6 spaces in front of you
gold       9 spaces in a arc around where you are standing
mystrile   2 rows around where you are standing
Blessed    6 rows around where you are standing
Mythic     9 rows around where you are standing
Fishing Pole:  To acquire the fishing pole, go to Galen and Nina's house
around noon on a Saturday.  You will view a short cut scene where Galen
found an old fishing rod and is passing it onto you.  The fishing rod
allows you to catch fish in any body of water on the map.  The more you
upgrade it, the better the quality of fish that you can catch with it.
The blessed and mythic fishing poles allow you to catch higher level
fish.  The mythic rod fully charged can catch pirate treasure and
fossils.  The are found on the beach during the summer and fall
respectively and ship for 10000g  and 5000g respectively.
The following tools cannot be upgraded.
Brush: You can buy it from the blacksmith. You can use it to brush your
horse, sheep and cows to increase their affection rating.
Milker: This is also bought from the black smith.  It allows you to milk
your cows without the touch panel gloves.
Shears: These are purchased from the blacksmith and allow you to shear
the wool from your sheep to harvest it.
Bell: You also purchase this from the blacksmith.  When you ring it, it
calls all of your sheep and cows to where you are standing.  It comes in
handy for moving them inside and outside quickly.
Touch Panel Gloves:  You can purchase these from either of the animals
farms for 1000g.  They allow you to interact with your animals on the
touch screen.  You can pet the dog, can, horse, chickens cows, sheep and
ducks to increase their affection with them.  They allow you to wash
your animals to increase their affection rating by equipping them at the
same time as the brush.  They allow you to milk your cows by combining
them with the milker. Finally, the allow you to shear your sheep by
equipping them with the sheers. The touch panel gloves are a basically a
minigame that you can use to increase the affection rating of your
animals based on your score with them.  They will also yield higher
level produce if you are proficient at the minigames with them.
Seeds:  These are purchased from either the supermarket or Vesta's farm.
They vary in price and grow into crops that you can sell.  See the crops
section for details.
Animal Medicine: This can be purchased from any of the animal farms.  It
cures an animals sickness when you forget to feed them or leave them out
in the rain.  They keep sick animals from dying, so its a good idea to
keep some on hand.
Miracle Potions:  There are two types, one for the cows and one for the
sheep.  These allow you to have your mature animals have offspring.
They are pretty self explanatory.  Use them next to the animal and it
will become pregnant.  It takes a few weeks to give birth during which
time your animal won't produce items to ship.
I have found some of the cursed tools.  They are located on various
floors in the third mine.  The requirements to find and upgrade them can
be located in the mining section.
4. Buildings
---------------------------------------
As the game progresses and you upgrade your farm, there are several
buildings that you can buy from Gotz the wood cutter.  You need them to
store materials and to house your animals.  You cannot buy animals for
your farm until you have sheds to house them in.  So, buildings are a
very important part of building your farm up.  You can place an order
for a building over the phone like you would to order any other service.
Gotz is available from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm and is closed on Saturdays
and holidays.  You can only have him constructing one building at a time
and it usually takes him two days to construct anything.  So plan your
time carefully when you order buildings and expand the farm.
You can build each of the available buildings out of any one of four
different materials with a few exceptions.  You can either gather the
material for the building yourself, or you can buy it from Gotz or the
Yodel farm if you want fodder buildings. You can also use any material
besides fodder to make fences to keep your animals in and wild dogs away
from them on the farm. Fodder is the cheapest building material but it
is also the least sturdy.  You can buy it from yodel farm or grow and
harvest grass.   Fodder buildings are relatively cheap to construct, but
they can also fall apart in rainy or even sunny weather.  The only
benefit is their cheap cost.  Next, you can build structures out of
wood.  They are a little more expensive than fodder buildings, but they
can hold up in most normal weather situations.  However, they can still
sustain damage in a hurricane or blizzard. You can obtain wood by
cutting trees and stumps or by purchasing it from Gotz.  Be aware that
any animals in a building are killed if a building collapses so choose a
good building material.  Here are their purchase prices.
fodder 20g
lumber 50g
stone  200g
gold lumber 100000g
The third and probably most economic option is stone.  Stone is very
strong and will only risk sustaining damage in a heavy storm with a
small possibility.  It offers stability and is still an affordable
option.  You can obtain stone by purchasing it or by breaking stones and
boulders with the hammer.  The final choice is to build things out of
Gold Lumber.  Gold lumber is indestructible, but at 100000g a piece it
really isn't affordable.  You can buy it from Gotz or complete Thomas's
winter request to get one piece.  Listed below are all of the buildings
I have found to date and their uses and costs.  You can only have one of
any specific building unless its and animal or a bird shed.  In that
case you can have a combined total of 7 of the two of them, which allows
you to have 28 different animals.  Overall, stone is the best building
choice if you can afford it.  I have included a table that show the
number of pieces and the costs to expand purchasing the materials and
providing them yourself.
House: You begin the game with a small house and you can expand it
twice.  Your house is indestructible and constructed of lumber.  You
cannot expand it using other materials.  Once you unlock the second
harvest sprite channel, and buy a few items from the TV shopping
network.  The option to expand your house becomes available from Gotz.
You can expand your house twice, which is necessary to open new items to
buy from the home shopping network.  It is also required to get married
later in the game.  I have heard that there is an option to add a
basement, but I haven't gotten that far yet.
House Upgrades    provide own material     purchase from Gotz
1st upgrade material required 200
lumber                  33000g                 43000g
2nd upgrade material required 700
lumber                  115000g                150000g
Bird and Animal sheds: These buildings are required to house your
animals on the farm.  They are basically the barns from the previous
harvest moon games.  Each of them can hold up to four animals and come
with a place to feed them.  Bird sheds hold ducks and chickens while
animal sheds hold sheep and cows.  They also each have a place to
retrieve feed if you have a silo and an indoor shipping bin.  The Bird
sheds also have an incubator where you can place eggs to increase the
number of birds you have.  You can have a total of 7 sheds for a total
of 28 animals.
Material           Provide your own     Buy it from Gotz
Bird shed requires 420 pieces of material.
fodder              500g         8900g
lumber              5000g             26000g
stone               10000g            94000g
gold lumber         100000g           42100000g
Animal shed requires 500 pieces of material
fodder              680g         10680g
lumber              6800g             31800g
stone               13000g            101300g
gold lumber         130000g           50130000g
Silo, Lumber, Stone, and Gold Lumber storage:  These small structures
each holds a specific type of material you gather.  The silo holds
fodder and the rest of them hold what their name implies.  You can put
material in them and remove it when needed.  Basically they just give
you a place to store material outside of your ruck sack.  Each of them
requires 100 pieces of material to build
Material        Provide your own       Buy it from Gotz
Silo, Lumber, Stone shed
fodder              200g      2200g
lumber              2000g          7000g
stone               4000g          24000g
gold lumber         40000g         10040000g
Gold Lumber shed
fodder              3000g          4000g
lumber              20000g         25000g
stone               40000g         60000g
Gold lumber         100000g        10100000g
Mushroom Shack: The mushroom shack is another little building that you
can get from Gotz.  The shed allows you to plant and grow mushrooms
similar to the wild ones you find in the fall.  The process is pretty
simple. Inside the shed, there are several platforms.  You need to place
a piece of lumber on each of them and then you need to plant mushroom
seeds on them.  Next, you need to water the mushrooms for about two
weeks, when they will first start to grow.  The type of mushrooms you
get are vary from the toadstools to the truffles.  Once you harvest
them, if you continue to water them they will regrow at a much faster
rate than their initial growing time. Basically, it's just another way
to get a renewable crop to grow.  A thanks to Kayla D for the
information provided here from her email. It requires 320 pieces of
material to construct
Material        provide your own       Buy it from Gotz
fodder              1000g          7000g
lumber              10000g         25000g
stone               35000g
gold lumber         200000g        30200000g
Pond:  The pond allows you to buy and raise ducks on your farm.  It also
allows you to store the fish you catch.  Finally, it is a requirement of
you want to Mary Leila the Mermaid.  It can only be made from stone and
requires 600 pieces and 100,000g  if you provide the material and it
costs 220,000g if you buy the stone from Gotz.
Maker Shed: This shed allows you to store the makers that you can
purchase from the black smith.  Each maker costs 2000g and requires
adimate from the third mine and three days to make.  They will increase
the shipping value of your crops and animals produce or allow you to
make seeds out of your crops.  You need the second house upgrade to
purchase the maker shed.  It requires 360 pieces of material.
Material        provide your own       Buy it from Gotz
fodder              5000g                10200g
lumber              30000g               48000g
stone               60000g               132000g
gold lumber         600000g              36600000g
Basement:  The basement allows you to grow crops out of season.  You
need the appropriate seasons sun from the third mine to grow crops.  You
also need the second house upgrade to purchase it.  I don't recommend
building it out of anything but stone, because the losses of your crops
will be devastating if it collapse.  The second and third basement will
also be destroyed if the first falls. You need the second house upgrade
before you can buy it. It requires 400 pieces of material and costs
400000g to build from stone if you buy the material from Gotz.
There may be another building or two, but I haven't unlocked them yet.
If anyone has the information feel free to email it to me.  Otherwise I
will add it at a future update to the guide.
5. Unlocking Harvest Sprites
----------------------------------------
The harvest sprites were sent to another world by the witch princess in
order to look for the harvest goddess.  You can bring them back by doing
various things on the farm and return them to your world.  Some of them
require you to do a specific task several times while others just
require you to stand examine a specific square.  Anyway you look at it,
it takes a lot of work to get them all back.  It is rather unlikely that
you will find them all, but you should try to return all of them that
you can.  It takes 60 of them to find return the harvest goddess, and
you have to find all of them in order to Mary her.
Additionally, the harvest sprites can help you work on your farm.  In
order to get them to work, you need to go to their tree and talk to Guts
their leader.  You can then hire a team to help you on your farm for a
couple of day to do a specific task.  In order to hire a team, you need
to have medals to exchange for their services.  You can buy medals from
Roller at 10g each or you can gamble them up playing poker, black jack,
or a memory game when you unlock the dealers for each of the game.
Roller also runs a shop that you can exchange medals for items and Jet
runs a shop at the tree that sells some other useful nick knacks.  Also,
the harvest sprites function at the new TV on the submenu with channels
about everything you can learn about farming.  Overall, they are one of
the main objectives of the game and make it a lot easier to play and
enjoy.  Listed below are all the sprites we have found so far and what
is needed to find them.  Let me know if anything is incorrect.
I will be listing the harvest sprites by their team.  I haven't found
them all yet.  You need to find 60 harvest sprites to unlock the harvest
goddess and some are easier than others.
A very special thanks goes out to ExpertatFF for the additional sprites
he has provided.  I added a few more of my own. I will finish this
later.
Note: Examine means to push the A button while facing the edge of the
indicated object.
Casino/Store team
Guts: Leader of harvest sprites in charge of hiring out groups.
Unlock: He is around from the begging of the game.
Jet:  He runs the store that sells various items in exchange for money.
Unlock: Cross the bridge to Vesta's farm on the 8th of spring.
Roller:  Sells medals for money and exchanges medals for items
Unlock:  Examine the crate on the second floor of the inn where Van has
his shop
Jackie:  Keeps you from leaving the valley
Unlock:  Try to leave the valley by taking the path leading to mineral
town
Tep:  He is the Black Jack Dealer at the Casino
Unlock:  Examine the chimney thing outside inner inn in the fenced off
area
Jum:  He is the memory game dealer
Unlock:  Examine the front of the fountain in front of the villa.
Hops: He is the poker dealer.
Unlock:  Examine the well next to the bar.
Baby:  The white harvest sprite, he can be given gifts to up his
affection towards you.
Unlock: Examine the large pot to the left of the harvest sprite counter
in the tree after you unlock 60 or more other harvest sprites.
TV Channel team
Channel 1: Reports the next day's weather.
Unlock: He is unlocked at the beginning of the game
Channel 2: This is the TV shopping network.
Unlock:  Buy at least one item from the supermarket every day for 10
days.
Channel 3: Gives you information about the harvest sprites
Unlock:  Find 20 harvest sprites
Channel 4: Gives you information about farming.
Unlock: ship out 325 (upper bound)or so I am not sure about the exact
number.
Channel 5: Allows you to change background music
Unlock: Buy five records
Channel 6: Tells you about festivals coming up during the season
Unlock : go to three festivals
Channel 7: This shows a variety of shows that can be useful for finding
recipes and other things
Unlock: Get 100 friendship points with one person in town.
Channel 8: This channel has tutorials about how to play the game.
Unlock:  The channel is unlocked when the game begins.
Channel 9: It is a quiz show supposedly.
Unlock:  Ship 100,000 of the same item.
Animal Team
This team brushes and feeds your animals.  From here on, I am just going
to list their names and how to unlock them.
Red Ribbon:  Have 10 adult cows.
Woody:  Ship 302 animal products
Liam: Ship 508 animal products
Bade: Shear a sheep 103 times.
Stuart: Milk a cow with the touch gloves 102 times
Magic: Milk a cow  304 times with the touch gloves
Mick: Have 10 chickens or ducks
Harvest team: Collects resources on a specific area.
Bran: Cut 102 pieces of wood
Decoy: Cut 258 pieces of wood
Woody: Cut 506 pieces of wood.
Piere: Bread several stumps between 15 - 20
Tilus: gather 103 stone
Stone: gather 254 stone
Rash: gather 502 stone
Alpen: Break 5-7 boulders
Rocky: Break 15-20 boulders
Valie: Use the Mystrile Axe once.
Animal Team Brush and Pet's Animals
Kali: Throw your dog and cat 50 times or more.
Mouton: Pet your pets with the touch gloves 50 times
Boohoo: Pet your pets with the touch gloves 100 times.
Beta: Wash your animals with the touch gloves 50 times.
Harvest Team: Harvest crops and wild plants
Forest: Use the mystrile sickle once.
Fraw: Ship around 1000 items.
Ridge: Ship around 5200 items.
Veggie: Put something into your basket.
Kevin: ship an item using the horse.
Kamar: ship some cabbage
Moor: Ship pineapples
Vail: ship some peppers
Fishing team: Catches and ships fish.
Poolo: catch 50 fish
Fry: catch 500 fish
Pedro: catch 1,000 fish
Gerik: catch 5,000 fish
Reese: catch 10,000 fish
Tricky: catch 50,000 fish
Sammy: have cursed rod blessed
Fisher: use the mystrile fishing rod
Yacht: fish in farms pond
Fisher: Use the mystrile fishing pole
Riveriara: Fish in your farms watering hole.
Heal team: recovers stamina.  To use them, use up all of your stamina
and talk to them.  Then will recharge a little of it.
Anime: Eat 30 pieces of yellow grass
Spirity: buy something to drink at blue bar.
Watering Team: waters your crops.
Choriori: Water 1000 squares of crops personally.
Walter: Water around 5000 squares.
Rainy water 10,000 squares
Joro water 30,000 squares
Patty water 50,000 squares
Misti: Fill up the watering can somewhere between 9 and 12 times
Roli: Use the Mystrile watering can
Karaf: Examine your watering hole.
Ceruleano, Eviran and Owen: You apparently need to water a random square
someplace in the valley.  The mythic watering can help with this.
This isn't all of the harvest sprites in the game by any means.  These
are just the ones I have found so far.  I will add more as they become
known to me.  I have been using pencil and paper to keep track of the
number's you see above.  I started doing this when we learned that
chopping wood unlocked a harvest sprite.  I am guessing that some of
them are a little off, but they are close.  I would guess that you can
unlock more of them by increasing the number of times you perform the
above activities.  Some of the unlock details might be wrong, but this
is my best guess as to what unlocked each sprite.
6.  The Harvest Sprite Casino and Medal System
----------------------------------------------
I was originally going to make this section part of the harvest sprites
section. But the more I thought about it, the more that it seemed to
require its own section.  A special thanks goes out to Andrew who
inspired this section with a lengthy email that he sent me.  The email
points out that this is another way to make money quickly early in the
game.  However, I have tried it and I have found that digging through
the second mine will yield a better profit in the long run.  The tricks
mentioned here can generate about half a million gold in two to three
hours worth of work off of dumb luck.  A run of the mine stopping at
every floor divisible by three or five will yield 8 to 9 hundred
thousand gold.  But, this is another option.
However, I do like the idea of adding a section discussing the sprite
casino and medals.  But I want to take a more structured and complete
approach than the email outlined.  I am using some of the information
from Andrew's email here, but I am going to add some more of my own
thoughts and format to the plan here.  So, here we go.
Harvest moon DS takes quite a bit from the system that was developed and
introduced in mineral town.  One of the items that made mineral town so
popular was the fact that the harvest sprites could help you work on
your farm.  Hiring the harvest sprites in mineral town allowed you to
increase the productivity of your farm by not having to do all the work
yourself.  The sprites could do work faster and more efficiently that
your character could.  They could also get to places you couldn't, for
example they can pick crops in the center of a formation without cutting
one of the plants down to reach them.  This meant that you wouldn't have
to sacrifice a plant on crops that regrow.  Well, the harvest sprites
are back and better than ever, but there were quite a few changes to the
system.  This section is going to go through them.
Well, the first major change begins with the number of harvest sprites
available in the game.  Mineral town had only seven that could perform
one of three jobs. Harvest Moon DS has quite a few more at 101 possible
sprites and they can serve even more functions in this game.  But, the
system you use to hire them is a little different this time around.
First, there are several teams of twelve sprites each that perform a
specific task and this time you need to unlock them by doing various
activities on your farm and around the valley.  A compiled list of the
tasks is in the previous section for several of the sprites. Also, this
time you need to pay the harvest sprite teams with medals that you can
buy or win at the tree where they live.  The price depends on the number
of days you want to hire them for and which team you hire. The
experience system for increasing a sprite's productivity is still in
place.  A harvest sprite will become more proficient at their job as
they perform it over time.
The new harvest sprite hiring system is based on a currency of medals.
You can obtain medals either by buying them from roller or winning them
at the casino.  Medals cost 10g each, but it is easier to win them if
you are patient.  Once you have medals purchased, you can go choose a
team to hire by talking to Guts in the front lobby of the tree.  You can
only hire one team at a time and you cannot hire a team until you have
unlocked at least one sprite from the team.  This means that you cannot
distribute the work load as easily as you could in mineral town between
the sprites, so choose which team you want to hire carefully and plan on
doing the rest of the work yourself.  The sprites have a lot more
diversity in the jobs they can do in Harvest Moon DS, but they can only
do one job at a time.  Not all of the sprites can work on your farm.
Some of them work in the casino and serve as the tv station hosts.  Guts
hires out the teams and Jet also runs a small store in the tree next to
guts where you can buy several accessories and the records for the fifth
channel. The items and their prices can be found in their respective
sections in this guide.   I will have the accessories section up
hopefully in the next update.
The Teams:
There are a total of 7 different teams of harvest sprites you can hire
to work on your farm.  The cost of hiring each team varies and you can
only hire one team at a time.  I have grouped their unlocking
requirements in the previous section by team.  However, I want to give a
more detailed explanation of how each team functions here.  Note, the
harvest sprites will no longer work on festival days.
Healing Team (purple):
The healing team is useful if you need to recover stamina and fatigue
and don't have the hot springs unlocked or have the funding to purchase
bodygizer and turbojolt.  To use them, hire the team from Guts and
select an area on the map.  Go to that area and you will find them
standing in a central location in that area.  Speak to one of them and
they will tell you that they can heal you by 10%.  Then they will
restore 10 points of stamina and fatigue.  You can use them multiple
time in one day.  You just need to wait a game minutes for their powers
to recharge.  The more experience they have, the quicker their powers
will recharge.  If you have quite a few of them, it is possible to get
healed multiple times without waiting.  Just talk to different ones.
Harvest Team (Green):
The harvest team does just what their name implies.  The go around the
map and harvest items that can be shipped.  The will collect wild
foraging items like colored grass as well as any ripe crops you have in
the selected area.  The will begin the first area you selected and then
move on to the next area after they finish with the first one.  They
start out only able to handle a few bags of crops each, but as their
experience increases, they can handle more and more crops.  They are
essential to making a large profit from shipping out crops.
Animal Feeding and Collecting Team Red.:
There are two teams that can take care of the animals in harvest moon
DS.  This team feeds your animals and collects and ships anything that
they produce that is ready to ship.  They are helpful if your animals
are happy and you have a lot of them.  You can select different spaces,
but since all of your animals are on your farm you will likely be
selecting there more often than not.
Animal Brush and Pet Team (Yellow):
This is the second animal team.  They will brush and pet your animals
each once a day.  They are useful if you need to raise the affection
level of your animals without tending to them yourself.  Be careful
though.  You still need to feed your animals and collect their products
yourself if you hire this team to work for you.
Collection Team (orange):
When you hire the collection team, they will go to the area's you
selected on the map starting with the first area you picked.  Their
purpose is to collect the fodder, lumber, and stone locate in those
positions on the map.  They will clean an area out and move onto the
next area.  The amount of material they can collect depends on their
experience.  They are useful if you don't have the time or stamina to
collect building materials yourself.
Watering Team (Light Blue):
The purpose of the watering team is to have them water your crops.  They
can handle multiple areas of the map and follow the same progression as
the harvest team.  The amount of crops they can water is dependent on
their experience.  The more they have the more crops they can water.
They are helpful when you want to conserve stamina on watering crops.
You can hire them intermittently with the harvesting team to make
efficient work of harvesting your crops.
Fishing Team (Deep Blue):
The fishing team collects and ships fish from the area you select on the
map.  They are useful if you want to expand your list of the fish in the
game and they allow you to make a profit just by hiring them.  You will
want to spread their area's out from week to week as you hire them to
catch different types of fish.  The level and number of fish each sprite
will catch and ship increases as they gain experience.  You will notice
that they require a good number of fish to unlock.   You can hire the
team to gather the fish for you, but you need to catch the last fish in
each interval yourself to unlock the next sprite.  For example, if you
wanted to unlock the 1000 fish sprite, even if the team caught 2500
fish, you would still need to get 2501 your self to unlock the next
sprite.  You can only unlock one sprite per fish you catch, so if you
need to unlock two sprites you will need to catch 2 fish yourself.
Medals and the Casino:
The new system for hiring the sprites works on medals rather than giving
them gifts and razing their affection like in mineral town.  You can buy
medals directly from Roller for 10g each or you can win them from the
casino games.  Note, you must unlock Roller and each of the dealers
before you can play their specific games.  Roller also runs a small
store where you can exchange medals for seeds, accessories, and some
pamphlets that reveal some of the recipes and the shipping prices of the
level 1 crops.  A summary of the games is give below.
Poker: Dealer Hops:
There are three games that you can gamble medals at and poker is the
first from the left.  You need to unlock Hops before you can play poker.
To begin the game, speak to Hops and select play poker.  Then select the
number of medals you want to bet by using up and down on the control
pad.  You can bet between one and 10 medals on each game per hand.  Once
you place you bet, push the A button to begin the hand.  You will be
dealt five cards to make your starting poker hand.  The deck consists of
52 normal cards and one wild card joker.  You will win medals on a pair
or better.  After the cards are dealt, the game will highlight a winning
hand if you have one, at this point you can discard any of the cards and
draw more.  The joker is a wild card and can serve as any card in the
deck.  The payouts are as follows:
one pair: break even
two pairs: 2 to 1
three of kind: 3 to 1
straight: 5 to 1
flush: 10 to 1
full house: 20 to 1
4 of a kind: 50 to 1
straight flush: 100 to 1
royal flush: 100 to 1
Note: N to one means you win N time your bet. I.E. 2 to 1 means you win
twice your bet.
If you get a winning hand, you can play another minigame to go for
double or nothing or pocket your winnings.  The strategy you want to use
is pretty simple.  First, if you have a winning hand, i.e. a pair or
better on the start keep the winning hand and redraw the rest.  If you
don't have a winning hand, look at your cards and try to get one.  It's
tempting to hold the hire cards, but don't.  A pair is a pair and Aces
have the same pay out as a pair of twos.  You want to look either for
cards that are connected for a straight or save whatever suit you have
the most cards in the go after a flush.  If you have the same number of
each, go after the straight because it has a higher probability of
coming up than the flush.  This is a mathematical fact.  The straight
will come up 3:2 roughly over the flush.
Black Jack: Dealer Tep:
Black jack is a simple casino game where you try to get as close to 21
as you can with cards.  You have two options, you can either hit and
draw another card or stand and keep your current total.  Your goal is to
get closer to 21 than the dealer without going over.  Number cards are
worth their face value and face cards are worth 10.  An ace is worth 11
unless it would put you over 21 in which case it is worth one.  The
dealer plays the same rules as real casinos, which means that it stops
drawing cards when its score is 17 or higher.  The strategy is simpler
really, you want to hit until you have 16 or more.  When you pass that
mark, the probability is that you will more likely bust than hit under
21.  Black jack pays 2:1
Memory: Dealer Jum:
Memory is just like the game we all played as kids where their are a
bunch of face down cards and you try to find matching pairs turning two
cards over at a time.  You can see what your opponent turns over, so if
you match a card you can find its partner from memory hence the name of
the game.  You and the computer alternate turns turning over two cards
at a time.  If you get a pair you get another turn until you miss.
Whoever has the most pairs wins.  The computer uses a simple strategy.
First, it turns over a random new card.  Then if it know where the match
is it will take it and repeat this process.  Otherwise it will choose a
second random new card and try to get luck.  You should follow the same
plan of action.  It will sometimes give you the option of who goes
first.  Your odds are better if you go second.  Just trust me here, the
mathematical proof is too long for this guide and is over most people's
head to begin with.
Double or nothing games:
If you win the first of the three games, you have the option of trying
to go for double or nothing as part of two minigames.  They are listed
below.
High Low Draw:
This game begins by showing you two cards, one face up and one face
down.  You goal is to decide whether the face down card is higher,
lower, or the same as the face up card.  If you select correctly, you
will get double the medals you have won so far.  If you select
incorrectly, you will lose all the medals you have one for the hand.
Just pick the side of the card that has the greatest odds of winning.
9-A choose low, 2-7 choose high and the 8, go with your gut.  This game
is the better choice for the double up.
High Draw:
This game is another double up minigame.  Its pretty simple, you are
shown one face up card and 4 face down cards.  You then try to pick a
down card that is higher than the face up card.  The number of winning
cards depends on the size of the card face up.  You will lose
automatically if an Ace comes up and you don't get an Ace in the draw
cards.  The other game is easier because you always have a chance to
win.
Okay, now that each of the games are outlined here, it's time to explain
the best strategy for making medals.  To start with, you cannot win all
that many medals for just betting 10 and winning a minigame.  To make a
great deal of medals, you need to play the double up game and win
several times in a row.  To begin with, but about 100 medals and save
your game.  If you run out of medals, just reload your game and start
over.  This way you won't have to worry about buying medals again.  The
following strategy is based on Andrew's Contribution and partially on my
own experience working with this idea mathematically and trial and
error.  Thanks for the idea Andrew.
Alright, I am going to give some of the actual odds of winning.  You can
verify these by doing some high level math.  I have and you can take my
word for them.  I did this a while ago, so I can guarantee these are
within about two percent.  Start playing poker!  The help on the game
boy and the strategy above will show you what to do.  If you play black
jack, using any strategy and the computer follows the Vegas casino
style, you will only win 44% of the time in the first place.  There are
several good books on the market that explain this probability well.
Playing the memory game, you will win about 52% of the time if you go
second and 48% if the computer makes you go first.  Again, this is a
simple problem but it involves a probability matrix that I don't want to
explain here.  However, with a joker in the deck, the odds of you
getting a pair or better without drawing cards is 58% roughly and if you
follow the strategy above, the odds of winning are about 66%.  You
should always bet 10 medals, the goal is to get to the high low double
up game.  Also, look at the payouts above, black jack will always pay 20
medals and memory will pay 100 at most.  However, Poker can outdo these
payoffs quite a bit by hitting 4 of a kind or better.  So, clearly poker
is the best choice.
Okay, once you get to the double or nothing game, you want to start
playing the high low double up several times in a row.  By winning
several times in a row at the double up, you can quickly earn a good
deal of medals.  4 wins in a row will yield at least 160 medals and
about 7 will yield a 1000 medals or more.  If you have more patience,
you can win even more medals into the upper thousands, but keep in mind
the odds of you getting more than three right in a row are less than 50%
The point where you choose to stop is up to you.  I usually stop if I
win a thousand or more.  Save each time you win a bunch, so you don't
risk a major set back. You will likely have to play between 25 and 30
hands of poker to win 1000 medals, but this will only take a few minutes
and can save you a lot of money in the long run.  Andrew made an
interesting point in his email.  If you have the patience to put
together 65000 medals, Roller has the animal cape accessory that he
sells.  You can buy it and sell it to van for more than half a million
dollars.  You can then repeat this process by buying more cloaks to make
more money.  Either way this is a very efficient way to get medals.  It
takes a little trial and error to get the hang of, but I doubt you'll
want to buy medals ever again after you figure it out.
Just another useful side note, while this trick is profitable and does
work.  It is time consuming and relies heavily on luck to make money.
If you are willing to win the double up 17 times in a row, you can buy
the cloak outright, but this is risky and terribly taxing on patience.
It takes several hours to get that lucky usually.  I have only been able
to do it once.  I still recommend the mine trick over this route to make
easy money.  While it takes a little longer, it is garneted to work and
if you stop on every floor divisible by 3 and 5 it will usually yield
between 800,000g and 1,200,000g per run. More than double the money from
this trick.  Still, it is a good alternative if you hate digging in the
mine.  Thanks again for the trick Andrew.
7. Mining
----------------------------
I think it was about time that I put in a section on mining with mining
trick in the ministart up guide below.  Be sure to take plenty of
provisions with you into the larger mines.  They are perilous, and
without supplies you will find yourself required to return to the
surface or collapsing from being out of stamina.
Harvest Moon DS is home to a number of different mines each containing a
different materials.  There are four mines in all. Each of the mine
entrances are located at the dig site, however you cannot enter the
until you trigger an small event with carter to open them.  In order to
view this event, you need to go to the dig site between 9 and 11 pm on
any game day other than a festival. All you need to do is walk into the
dig site during the appointed time and make sure you have your hammer
with you. Carter will greet you and tell you that he has found a hollow
space behind the wall and asks to borrow you to use your hammer to open
it.  You will then go to the back wall and open the passage way to each
mine with you hammer.  Note, you can only open one mine per day and you
have to meet specific requirements to open each of the other mines.  I
will comment on each of the mines below.
There are some similarities between the mines, but there are specific
items that are unique to each of the mines including the ores found and
some of the items found in the ground.  The digging mechanics are the
same for all the mines.  You can dig in the rocks for the different ores
with your hammer, and you can till the soil on the floor with your hoe.
Regardless of the level of your tools, each use of the tool will only
allow you to open one space or break one stone.  Once you break a stone,
open or dig on the ground, you might find an item or an ore that you can
store in your runk sack, eat, or throw if you don't want it.  When you
break rocks with the hammer, you can find nothing or some type of stone.
Stones vary by each mine, except junk ore that looks like three gray
lumps.  This is a worthless stone that is found in all the mines that
sells for 1g.
When you dig around with the hoe, there are a number of things that you
can find.   The first and most common is that you won't find anything
and you will need to continue looking.  Next, you can find a bag of gold
which is worth a small random amount of money.  You can also find black
grass which can be eaten to restore a small amount stamina and fatigue
or can be shipped to ship later. You can also retrieve cursed tools and
accessories located on specific floors on the third mine.  I will talk
about these below. However, the two primary things you are looking for
with the hoe are the stairs or holes in the floor.  A set of stair will
allow you to descend on floor lower into the mine.  The upward stairs
allow you to return to the surface of the mine at any time.  Just walk
over them and select the return to surface option.  The holes will drop
you a random number of floors lower into the mine.  The distance of the
fall depends on which mine your in and random luck.
Thanks to the new runk sacks size and stackability, mining can be a very
profitable career option.  Especially in the second mine.  Use the
following sequence of moves to find whatever you are looking for on the
current floor.  When you first arrive on a floor, save the game on the
first diary.  Next, kill any of the monsters on the floor (see below.)
The dig up the floor using the hammer  and hoe and memorize where
anything that you are looking for is located.  Next, reload the game and
gather any of the valuable items on the floor and leave the rest.  Also,
it's important to make sure you know the location of the way onward
before you proceed.  Then, open the way onward and save on the second
file.  Then you want to go down to the next floor and save the file in
the first diary.  Then repeat this process on the next floor.  You can
also continuously load the first file if you are unhappy with where a
hole drops you to.  By reloading the file, you can control you decent
with quite a bit more accuracy and more speed than digging up the stairs
on each floor.
Fighting:
New and unique to harvest moon DS is the enemies that live in the mines.
There is finally some fighting to be done in a harvest moon game, yeah.
Well, not really, all the enemies really do is get in the way and
deplete your stamina.  Each time an enemy touches you will lose one
point of your stamina or fatigue if your stamina is depleted.  You can
defeat any of the enemies by hitting them repeatedly with the sickle,
axe, hoe, hammer or the legendary sword.  The sword works the best,
defeating enemies in few hits than the other tools, but it also uses
more stamina than the other tools. The others all do the same damage,
but the s