Rune Factory 5: Tips for Beginners
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Rune Factory 5 is a role-playing simulation video game developed and published by Marvelous for the Nintendo Switch. It was released in Japan in May 2021 and will be released worldwide by Xseed Games in late March 2022. I highly recommend this game if you enjoy fantasy farming games taken to new hights. It is also not required to play the previous games to keep up with the story of Rune Factory 5, as each of them are seperate stories with unique characters with some little references to the older games.
Here are some tips before you get started!
1. Seeds for easy money
Recommended crops for easy money earlier in the game are pumpkins, bell peppers and strawberries. These can be unlocked easily with requests early in the game! However, the best one will be tomato seeds. Tomato seeds can be obtained early in the game with the New Ranger Care Pack, which you can get from the digital deluxe version of the game. If you do not have the digital deluxe version, they can be unlocked later, after a request asking you to ship some crops.
2. Leveling up seeds
If you want to earn more money with your crops, you will have to level up your seeds so they are higher quality. The base level of a seed will always be level 1, but by equipping your sickle and using it on the crops after they are fully grown, they will turn into seeds that are higher level. Then you will plant the higher level seed and harvest the higher level crop, which you can ship and get the higher level seeds sold in the stores instead.
3. Saving up the things around your farm
I know there is the temptation to collect the rocks, twigs and weeds around the farm to sell them for money early in the game, but I recommend saving them up. Similar to the previous Rune Factory games, you will also need a lot of these materials for various things later in the game. Even weed will be helpful to have as you will be able to use it in the fertilizer for the crops.
4. Having companions in your party
Building relationships with the villagers will be very important for the game, and this is also how you can get married too. To help with this, you should invite companions to join your party as much as you can, and they will also aid you in combat. While the combat in Rune Factory 5 feels easier compared to the previous games, it will still be important to have companions in your party to raise friendship levels with them. You can have up to 3 companions in your party, and each hour you spend with them will help you earn friendship points. You will also be able to control their equipment and how much they get involved during combat.
5. Buying recipe breads
There is a large crafting system in Rune Factory 5, with thousands of recipes. These are for cooking, accessory crafting, alchemy, and weaponsmithing. It will be very useful to work for these skills and craft your own items, so it is recommended to get started for this as early as possible. At the bakery, you will be able to buy different recipe breads. You can find the cooking recipes in the restaurant with buying the breads here.
6. Using the bath
You will be very busy in Rune Factory 5, and your HP and RP will start decreasing as you do activities. A great way to restore these is to visit the bathhouse and take a bath! By doing this, you will also notice your bathing skill increase each time, and this will be important to follow daily as it gives you more HP, RP and STR. The best news is, visiting this bathhouse will be free of charge until level 20, so make sure to visit it daily.
Let me know in the comments what you are most excited about in Rune Factory 5, and which characters you like the best! I hope you find these tips helpful, and feel free to share your own too. I hope to see you soon with more news and thoughts on video games, and wish you all short loading screens!
