I picked it back up this morning. I'm on Fall 27, I'm level 37, and I need better equipment. All of my areas are in prosperity, but what flowers do I need, TriforceBun? I've got all of the books from the library (well, all of them that I can purchase), so I think I have the best recipes, but I keep getting pwned in the Lava Ruins.

ludist210 said:

I picked it back up this morning. I'm on Fall 27, I'm level 37, and I need better equipment. All of my areas are in prosperity, but what flowers do I need, TriforceBun? I've got all of the books from the library (well, all of them that I can purchase), so I think I have the best recipes, but I keep getting pwned in the Lava Ruins.

I believe Selphy starts selling newer books after you clear the Lava Ruins. At this point in the game, my go-to weapon was the Steel Sickle, which does a remarkable amount of damage when you do its special attack. I do remember having to run past a fair number of the baddies on the lower levels near the end, though...it gets tough! Fortunately, the boss isn't too bad if you eat some sort of Att/Def boosting item prior to the fight, and use the Sickle.

After you do that, you should be able to buy new books from Selphy that let you craft the best stuff in the game. But be warned--many of them require flowers grown from those seeds that Rosetta sells. If you haven't already, you should take several of those to Whale Island's first cave, and plant them everywhere, making it a priority to water them each day as well (since crops don't grow on the Homestead in the winter, consider this your daily farming). Most players will agree that it's worth it for the best equips in the game, since the monsters get awfully mean later on.

But geez, some of these flowers take 90+ days to grow, right!? Sort of...but if you've been good with your Runeys, your prosperity should be up (you get one less day for every two areas in prosperity), meaning that a 100-day flower could potentially bloom in about 30 if you've got 8 areas in prosperity. Even better, Formulas A, B, and C can speed up flower growth by 1, 2, or 3 days respectively. You can get these by either crafting them in the lab, or buying them from Lara. If Lara doesn't sell the formula you want yet, raise her FP by giving her Strawberries and Chocolate Cake. By watering your crops each day with prosperity, and using Formula C on them (since it's one space per Formula C, I usually just put it on the middle on, or the middle row), you can potentially get one of each flower within a season, easily. And that leads to some good stuff in the future.

You also need a "forever-flower" for each of the final tool upgrades, which are nice as well.

I recommend pretty much getting all of the flowers at some point or another (if you had to pick one to miss out on, I'd suggest maybe the Red, Blue, and Green Crystals, which seem to have less use than the others). Start with the Emery Flowers since they take the longest to grow, and are quite useful.

Ah okay. I want to cook Lara a Choco Cake for her birthday (Winter 1, and I'm on Fall 28), but my cooking skill might be a bit too low (Level 44, I think it requires 65...so I could potentially pull it off in the next day or so) and I don't have the recipe. I think you can cook a recipe even if you don't have the book?

I'm not quite up to level 10 on my strawberry patches, but I'm getting there. I also found out that my Water Wand is killer in the Lava Ruins. I'm doing 108 damage to red minotaurs with a special attack. I'm only level 36, so I still need to grind a good bit more.

If you're making good progress on your strawberries, they're a great way to get extra stuff done during the day. Just cook up some Berry Jam in the pot over and over, and set that to one of your D-Pad buttons. At higher levels, they replenish a ton of RP, and you'll raise your cooking skill in the process. "HAHP-MM-MM, HAHP-MM-MM, HAHP--"

You can make any food without the recipe provided you have a large enough kitchen to handle the multiple ingredients. It looks like Choco Cake is made up of Egg, Flour, Chocolate, Milk, and Butter, so you'd probably need the final Kitchen upgrade before being able to make it. In the meantime though, you can always toss some strawberries her way to get on her good side, although Choco Cake is her favorite.

I've got the Final Kitchen and the biggest oven, so I'm set there. I've got all of the ingredients. I'll give it a go tonight and see how it works...

Fall 27? Like Year 1? I don't know how the game works entirely.

--I should start that again soon. Man, I keep saying this!

@TriforceBun

So I got my cooking level up to 46, got in the oven, put in the ingredients, and...I don't have the proper skill level to make that yet. Still working my way up...

I never did any of the dating stuff either. I must have missed out on a lot.

@Zero

It's tedious, but it's part of the experience I guess. I'm 50ish hours in, still in Year 1 on Fall 29. I'm tackling the Lava Ruins soon. I really need some better equipment though...

Thank you, TriforceBun, for getting me re-addicted to this game. I have a shiny, new PS3 with five games (four unopened) waiting for me to play them, and what am I devoting my gaming time to right now? Rune Factory Frontier.

I am officially on Winter 1 and am on the bottom floor of the Lava Ruins. I opened all of the shortcut doors, crafted a level 9 Silver Bracelet and am about to go hunting for some Magic Crystals to craft some weapons. I need to get my crafting level up, then I'll tackle the boss (I'm level 38). I still can't make the Choco Cake, but you know what? Lara likes Berry Jam and I can make that relatively easily.

Hooray for backlogs!

So I went out on a date with Tabatha on Winter 24 (the Night of Holies). It was quite romantic...but I feel like a sucker for not having the necessary item to propose at that point, because it was totally the right time to. I thought I was making relatively quick progress in the game, but if only I had a couple extra days to grow the necessary materials...oh well, guess I'll propose some other time.

If you haven't yet, try to get your favorite girl to 8 LP before Winter 24! If you get her to that point, the game lets you ask her out on a date, which is one of the more rewarding sequences in the game.

I think Choco Cake requires a cooking skill of 60 or 70, which means you'd need an ACTUAL skill of 50 or 60 to make it. Keep cranking out that Berry Jam in the meantime.

It's actually 65, though I don't have the book yet. I'll whip up some more jam this morning and see if I can't get my cooking level over 50. Maybe that will help.

I might can get Lara that high. She's at about six and a half hearts now. I consistently take her a Strawberry or Berry Jam each day (after one gift, LP doesn't go up), so with her birthday being...well, Winter 1, the LP triple that day with any gift. I can see it happening. Plus the extra Berry Jam is great for restoring my RP in dungeons.

Did you already get the recipe for the proposal bouquet?

@ludist210
I did, but it requires a couple tricky ingredients that (as far as I can tell) you don't really get the access to grow until after you've received the recipe. But I think for most girls, it's not difficult to propose at pretty much any point--I just wanted a particularly romantic proposal. Oh well, maybe on the next date (which I think is in the Spring or Summer).

@TriforceBun

Bump that! My house is ready now. Once I get all of the necessary flowers and grow them with Formula C, I'm giving it to her. Still need a couple of hearts until Stella caves and gives it to me though...

Good luck! Remember that you'll still need several days after getting the recipe.

I think I kinda messed up by not talking to the right people right away--the Irises, who pretty much tell me how to get a blue rose--leading to some wasted time by essentially growing the same plant twice when I didn't have to.

@TriforceBun

Good to know. I've only met the nice Iris, though she's at 4 LP (which means I don't have to fight the mean one supposedly). Don't I meet the other in the Snow Ruins?

Yeah, you should. She was a lot of trouble for me to woo so I ended up doing the boss battle later.

In general, it's a good idea to get all the girls (and townsfolk) to like you as much as possible in the game; you pretty much get exposed to nifty character events and just more content in general. That's mainly what I've been doing during the Winter since farm crops don't grow (like in all HM games).

@TriforceBun

I've been trying to do that. I've got Melody, Cinnamon, and Anette up to 3 LP without even trying.

I should also add that Rosetta is at 3 LP.

So I'm on Winter 4, and I need to do a bit more crafting, but I think I'm ready to take on the boss. I have a Level 4 Water Rod, a Level 5 Crest, a Level 9 Silver Ring and I'm working on being able to craft the Feathered Hat (need a few more levels to get that). I've also got an Aquasword at my disposal. I've got 15 Energy Drink S's in my inventory, as well as some Tomato Juice and Berry Jam to keep my RP up.

15 Energy Drink S's should have you set for a lot of dungeon-crawling. Tomato Juice will definitely help out as well, and when/if you run out of it, hit up Lake Poli's orchard for the winter fruit, Apples (and subsequently, Apple Juice), which pretty much do the same thing as Tomato Juice.

I'm pretty sure you're going to be able to clean that boss's clock with relative ease at this point. Also, try out the Steel Sickle's special attack as a weapon if you haven't yet--it's pretty brutal.