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It can be kind of intimidating to come into a newer game, especially one centered around beginning an entirely new life like inStory of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. You play as a farmer moving out of the city and into the small town of Forgotten Valley in search of a quieter life on an old farm.
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And over the course of the game, you’ll be growing crops, raising animals, making friends, getting married, and so much more. In our Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life guide below, we cover some beginner’s tips and tricks to help get you started.
Updated on May 09, 2025:Now that we’re further into Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, we’ve come back to our Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life tips to add in a few more things we missed the first time around, things we wish we’d known or done differently as we began playing Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. Good luck with your new life on the farm!
Make Friends With Everyone
One of the most intriguing parts of Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is that thetownsfolk come and gothroughout the span of the game.
There are some characters you meet in Year One who aren’t around anymore come Year Two, but in their place, a whole new family has moved to Forgotten Valley.
While you’ll definitely have your favorite residents before long, it pays tobefriend everyone- not only does it make the town feel more alive, but you may alsoget rewards exclusive to being friends with certain characters.
There aretool upgradesandunique outfitslocked behind friendship-related quests, so be sure you’re making time foreveryonein town, not just those you enjoy the most.
To make this easier,everyone has gifts they likereceiving from your farmer. You cangive multiple gifts each day, so long as the items are in different categories.
We have a full list ofeveryone’s favorite giftsto help you along in this process.
You cancheck your relationshipin theResident Infotab in your menu. Marriage candidates also have anaffectiontracker in here as well.
Don’t Go To Bed Just Because You’re Tired
With theenergy meterup at the top-left of your screen so prominent, it can be easy to fall into the trap of ending your day once you’ve depleted your energy.
Doing so in Year One will automatically advance you to the following day unless there’s anighttime festivalscheduled for that day.
However, there’s stillplenty to do in Forgotten Valleythat doesn’t require the use of your energy.
This will be mostlysocial thingslike making friends torunning errands, butmoney-makingthings like breeding hybrid crops toopening your storeare on the table as well.
While it’s definitely a good idea to keep a way to replenish your energy on you with food or drinks from Van’s store, your day isn’t over just because you’re tired.
If you truly do need to pass the time, you canvisit the cityby leaving Forgotten Valley through the Mountain Pass by Vesta’s Farm.
Doing so willmove time forward by six hours, which you can doonce per dayto speed up time if you’re waiting for the clock to strike a certain hour for something.
In Year Two, though, you’llunlock an alarm clockthat allows you totake napsby setting the alarm a few hours ahead of time.
You’llwake up feeling refreshed, so as the years go by, feel free to lay down for a bit if you find yourself growing tired.
Maybe it’s not the most straightforward way to get to what you want, but there are a few things you canchange the outcomeof by simplyreloading a save.
This comes in mostly withdetermining the sex of babies bornon the farm.Whether you get a boy or girlbaby animal isdetermined at birth.
If you’re trying to keep a farm of only female animals, as they’re theproducersbetween the two, you cansave manually when it says the animal will give birth soon.
You’ll need tokeep an eye on your isolated animalfor this to work, but if you’re able to pin down when the baby will be born, you can simplyreload the save if you don’t get the gender you want.
It comes in handy in a number of situations, but an ideal one iswith the Goat.Buying a new female Goateach year from Van will cost you 40,000g per year, but if your Goat gets pregnant toward the end of the year, and you save-scum to have a girl, free Goat for next year!
You can also reload old saves if you’ve missedan eventyou wanted to see, or maybe have changed your mind on a decision. This isyourWonderful Life - live it however you want!
You Have To Get Married, But You Can Choose To Who
Sorry, singles and aromantics -you have to get married by the end of Year One, or the game willmake you get married before Year Twocan begin.
As soon as you’re of ahigh enough affectionwith someone in town, the Nature Sprites give you aBlue Feather.
This is traditionally recognized in the Valley as amarriage proposal, and they advise you togive it to who you’d like to marry.
However, if you’re taking your time getting to knowall eight marriage candidates, after yougo to bed on Winter Ten of Year One, you’ll be forced into marriage.
The bright side of this is that, even if the marriage is forced, you canchoose your spouse.
You’ll have a list of theromanceable characterswho have ahigh enough affectionwith you that they’d have accepted your Blue Feather had you given it to them before this.
Every spouse is different, and the child you’ll have together is influenced bybothparents, meaningyour child changes depending on who you marry.
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Children Are Our Future - Literally
In addition to forcing you into marriage,you have to have a child in A Wonderful Life.
A central mechanic of the game iswatching your child grow upand influencing their character along the way.
At your wedding, your spouse asks if you have a preference betweenhaving a son or daughter.
The following year,you’ll have whichever you picked.
As mentioned,your child changes depending on who you marry, but this isn’t just an aesthetic difference -children receive traits from both parents.
This means that they’ll always have an inclination towardfarmingfrom you, but theirsecond interestis different depending on who you’ve married.
From there, you play an active role inshaping your child’s futurethrough things likeinteracting with themto build a relationship,giving them giftspertaining to different interests, and more.
Your childgrows up as the years pass, so you’ll get to watch them from a sweet baby into a fully independent young adult.
Happy Animals Make Better Products
Though there’s much to be said for keeping avariety of animalson your farm, no matter which you have, be sure you spend some timeactively caring for your animals.
Withbirdsstaying in theCoopand livestock likecows, sheep, and goatsover in theBarn, you’ve got quite a lot to handle as your farm grows - especially once youbuy upgradesto increase the size of your farm buildings.
But just be sure topay attention to your animals, ashappy animals produce better products.
You can bond with your animals bybrushingthem out,snugglingthem every day, andtalking to themoften to see how they’re doing.
Like crops,animal products have grades, with thehigher-grade products selling for morethan their lower counterparts.
you’re able to sway this byforming good relationships, or even bybreeding female animals, sincefemale Cows and Goats produce more milk after giving birth.
In this vein, it’s usuallybetter, financially, to keep female animals, since they’re the ones whogive milk and lay eggs. Sheep are a different story, asboth male and female Sheep give wool.
Unless you’re activelybreedingyour animals, you’ll usually make more moneyselling male animals and keeping females that produce goodsthat you can sell.
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Crop Production Increases And Changes As The Game Goes On
Year One is there to help you get a handle on how to farm, and in Year Two and beyond,expect your production to increase as time goes on,
In Year Two, you’ll have your first opportunity tomake hybrid seedswith Vinnie, Takakura’s new plant. Doing so leads tounlocking a third fieldon your farm,biggerthan the other two and withbetter soil.
Hybrid crops are your fast-pass to earning money, ashybrid crops sell for more than basic crops, but you’ll spend quite a while making your hybrids, so the extra pay is worth the extra work.
They’re a convoluted science, though, so check out ourhybrid crop guidefor help in making a huge list of hybrid seed recipes.
Thesooner you make hybrids, thesooner you may make money selling them, so it’s always best tostart making hybrids early. And the sooner you start making hybrids, the sooner you can start makingcustom crops, which take a lot of work, but bring in the most money.
Regardless of which kind of seeds you’ve planted, you canuse your Sickle to harvest multiple crops at once.
This is whereupgrading your toolsbecomes pivotal, as the better your Sickle, the more squares you can harvest at once.
Overall, be sure tocheck your crops twice each day. You’ll need towater them regularly, with the soil changing color as it dries out, and you canapply Fertilizer twice a day.
Crops left in the field for too long will wither, so always be sure youstay on top of your harvest times, lest you lose an entire crop of produce!
Crop Grades Matter
While a variety of crops helps with things like recipes and gifting,the quality of your crops determines how much they sell for, with higher-grade crops naturally netting a higher sale price.
There aremultiple factorsthat go into deciding thefinal grade of your crop: thesoil qualityit was grown in, how muchFertilizeryou used, and thestarting grade of the seed.
Feed Vinnie a seed and anUpseed Flowerto instantly make a seed that’sone grade higherthan the seed you started with.
Thefield nearest the Coophas thepoorest soil quality, so it may be more beneficial to use this for fruit trees or crops you intend to cook with, since the quality is much tougher to raise.
If you’re worried about crop grades, just be sure toapply Fertilizer twice each daythroughout the entire growth cycle.
Each kind of crop needs a different amount of Fertilizer relative to its growth time, so juststay on top of your Fertilizing scheduleto boost the quality.
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You Need To Spend Money To Make Money
It’s exciting when you land your first big windfall from Van on a day he’s in town, or when Takakura finally shows up with a five-digit number, but you need toinvest in the farm and your life on it to get the most of everything.
Takakura introduces the concept fairly early, but you canupgrade your farm buildingsby paying for the upgrade at theLedger.
And while they can bea bit expensive, they’re all going toboost your profits in the endand allow you toaccess whole new parts of the game.
For example, you’re able to’t begin makingcheeses and buttersuntil you’d sprung for theProcessing Room, but these productssell for vastly morethan their raw ingredients alone.
You’ll also bespending a lot on seeds, especially in the first year of the game.
Before Vinnie comes along.Vestais your primary source for seeds (and will be even after, when you still need base crops to make hybrids).
That said,crops always turn a profit when sold, especially when you’veboosted their gradeas we mentioned above.
Fruit trees are something of an exception. Byputting fruit into the Seed Makeryou’ve bought, you’ll gettwo seeds per one piece of fruit.
Those two seeds willsell for morethan the one fruit would have.
Another big investment up top isanimals, who cost quite a bit up front, but willproduce goods continuouslyonce they’ve reached adulthood.
The exception to that is the Goat, who we give more details on in ourguide to getting the Goat.
Betweenselling raw product, turning them intorecipes, or giving them asgifts, it’s likely thatyour animals pay for themselves before long.
Finally, yourtool upgradesare a steep investment, costingtens of thousands for the best tools, but the impact they have on your daily life makes them more than worth their weight in (literal) gold.
This is where you’ll beinvesting in your own self, basically - the Golden Watering Can waters just the same as the regular Watering Can, but it can water a 9x3 area of squares in one pour, versus the single square the regular Can is capable of covering.
Youdon’thaveto buyupgrades for your tools, but we don’t blame you if you want to before long tomake life on the farm easierfor yourself.
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