Like so many farm sim fans, we’ve fallen in love with Fields of Mistria, a pixel art farming-RPG inspired by Stardew Valley and 90s anime. Whether you’re new to the genre, or have sunk hundreds of hours tending crops, petting cows, and gifting flowers and meals to hot singles in your area, Fields of Mistria has a lot of game to offer.
We’ve compiled some quick and easy tips to for new players in Fields of Mistria to get you through your first month of Spring.
Get the Bag Upgrade ASAP
One of the biggest pain points early in is the extremely limited inventory space. The first inventory upgrade is called the Bag Upgrade, and it can be purchased from the General Store for 1,000 Tesserae. That’s a big ask for new players, and you’ll need to spend much of your initial money on buying seeds, so you can then harvest them and keep making more money. But your initial goal should be reaching that 1,000 price point, as that first Bag Upgrade doubles your inventory space!
Complete Requests
Fields of Mistria is constantly throwing little fetch quests at you via the Request Board next to the General Store. Almost every day you can find a new request for a different item, whether it’s a raw crop, a cooked meal, or loot dropped from a monster in the mines. Completing Requests provide a nice infusion of money, as well as Renown (upon which reaching certain thresholds provides even more money).
Always check your mail tab/quest tab before sending any items to the shipping bin!
Check Balor’s Wagon for Random Items
Some Requests are easier to complete than others. If you’re having trouble finding water chestnuts, or clay, or whatever, stop by Balor’s Wagon just south of the town entrance. Often times you can find the items you need. Spending 100 Tesserae might not seem like a great deal on a piece of fluff, but turning in the Request could net you 400 coin, plus the Renown boost.
Strawberry Plants are Expensive, but Keep on Producing
Strawberry Plants are a unique early Spring plant that keep on producing crops harvest after harvest. After planting and watering for five days, they’ll produce a new strawberry every three days, which can be sold for 180t a pop! The initial investment is quite steep, 300t for a single seed, but more than worth it to get a couple planted early when you can afford them.
Like the expensive fruit trees, however, it’s only worth planting strawberries if you can plant them early enough to get multiple yields before the season changes.
Get the Bountiful Perk for Free Seeds
The Bountiful farming skill perk is amazing, providing the occasional free seed whenever a crop is watered. This is especially nice for expensive plants like strawberries! To get Bountiful, you’ll need to grind your farming skill up to level 15, then unlock it for 60 magic points.
Cook Meals for Better Gifting and Healing
Cooking is unlocked fairly early, though your skill and crops will be limited. Cooking Sliced Turnip and Baked Potatoes make for decent recovery items, as well as better gifts, than the raw crops. However, it’s not necessarily a good money-making venture until you unlock more advanced meals and ingredients.
Don’t Forget About Your Free Baths!
Juniper runs the bathhouse on the northeast side of town, and you’ll be given five free baths early in your adventure. Don’t forget to use them! A quick dip in the warm waters will fully restore your stamina bar. Super useful if you spend the entire morning chopping wood or digging in the mines, and you still want to do more before the day is done.
Put Your Animal Companion to Work
Your dreams soon come true (literally) with the addition of a friendly dog or cat. Not only are they cute, they’re also helpful around the farm! You can assign your pet to collect wood, stone, or forageables in the animal tab of the main menu. They’ll drop any gathered material in your house at the end of the day.
Turn Excess Wood and Stone into Profitable Fireplaces
While clearing your farm (and the mines) you’ll probably end up with a large amount of wood and stone. You can craft a Worn Fireplace at a Woodcrafting station (either in town south of the Blacksmith, or east of town at the Carpenter’s) for only 10 wood and 30 stone, and turn around and sell it for a decent little profit of 85t.
Just be aware: wood and stone will be needed in bulk once you start buying farm upgrades and ranch buildings.
The Jump Attack Perk Can Quickly Clear Grass and Weeds
You’ll find the Combat Skill Perks at the dragon shrine in the mines. The Jump Attack frankly isn’t all that great in combat, but it is good for clearing out patches of grass and weeds on the farm! For a nice combat improvement, grab the True Strike perk to unlock critical hits.
The Mines Are a Great Place to Grind for Breath of Spring
On the Sunday before the Spring Festival (Spring day 14), Celine will tell you to gather as many Breath of Spring flowers for a contest. These unique flowers only drop during the few days before the Spring Festival (Spring 17), and they drop as a bonus item while doing basically anything: planting, watering, harvesting, chopping trees, mining rocks, etc.
The best place to farm (no pun intended) for Breath of Spring is in the mines. The mines are unlocked after reaching the first major rank of the town, Stone Rank, so make sure you’re completing those Requests and main story Quests! The mines provide tons of rocks as well as a few enemies, all of which drop Breath of Spring. Plan on spending at least two days in the mines before the Spring Festival to really rack up the flowers, and easily win first prize for some unique decorations.
Fields of Mistria is available on Steam PC.
