How to make hybrid flowers
Honestly, we couldn't find a great reason for growing flowers that wasn't A) "oooh pretty" or B) fulfilling flower-related quests, but nevertheless, we will explain them to you!
You'll need special flower soil patches to grow flowers, for a start, so make sure that's placed down.
Much like in Animal Crossing , flower hybrids are made by planting two differently-coloured flowers of the same species next to one another with a gap somewhere next to them. A flower will only create a hybrid once it is fully grown, so leave it alone and don't pick it, and eventually you'll get a hybrid-coloured flower.
You'll be able to tell if you were successful when you see a new flower sprout growing in the gap. Hover over it to see what colour it is, and what genetics it has inherited. If it's not the right flower, just reclaim the soil patch and try again.
Invest in your farm
There are a few must-haves for making your farm life as easy as possible:
All the crafting stations You'll need these to make just about anything. Get ahead of the game and build them as soon as you can!
Hydro soil bed Retains water for a day longer, saving you time in the long run.
Watering can upgrade This upgrade + the pickax upgrade are the ones we'd suggest investing in first. They just save so much time!
Upgraded animal trough This holds up to 10 feed, so you can feed your animals automatically for almost half a season. Head to the farms west of town to buy this.
Zippy & bounteous fertilizer Use these two to increase the speed and output of your crops respectively. Some crops take forever to grow — like, half a season — and this will mitigate that a little.
... and then invest even more in your farm
Alright, we're cheating a bit because this isn't a "beginner"-level tip, but... when you can, build some seasonal soil on your farm to reduce the headache of trying to unlock all the crops. It takes a bit more time to take care of than the hydro soil bed, but it's still better than waiting for spring to roll back around!
Learn about your animals First things first: your farm animals will be spread out across multiple farms, and you can't move the barns closer together, which is a bit of an irritation. You'll have to get used to it, we're afraid, but fast-travel points are once again your friends.
Luckily, they don't need much looking after, anyway. You can pet them — and we recommend you do, to raise your animal handling skill, which increases their production — but you don't need to. In fact, as far as we can tell, you don't need to feed them, either.
If you let them outside using the bell next to the barn/coop entrance, it'll keep them passively happy, which seems like a good thing. Make use of the animal gathering lure to keep them out of your way, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work. You can use the wave emote to gather them towards you — accessed through the left D-pad — if you want to pet/milk/shear them more easily, or just move them away from your crops.
Understanding Job Quests
Fae Farm has Job Quests, which are specific to individual NPCs. There's a guy who wants you to chop down increasingly difficult trees, a woman who wants you to mine things, a guy who wants you to beat up creatures in the mines, and so on.
But the vitally important thing is this: you cannot passively complete these quests . If you've already mined a ton of copper ore, you still have to go to the Blacksmith, select the quest that says "mine 8 copper ore", and then do it before you'll get the reward.
We recommend finding all the NPCs with Job Quests, making a note of them, and taking on their quests when you're about to do a bunch of stuff relevant to their interests. In return, you'll get small rewards — potions, food, decor, and so on.
Be aware that you can only take on one quest at a time, though, and changing your Job Quest will cancel all the progress on the one you had before.
Completing all of an NPC's Job Quests will net you the ultimate reward: a new outfit!
Feng Shui is the key to success
There are no HP upgrades in this game. There is only furniture.
In order to increase your HP, stamina, and mana bars, you'll need to craft what the game calls "Cozy Furniture". Each item of Cozy Furniture is sorted into Relaxing (stamina), Inspiring (mana), or Comforting (HP), and will increase that bar when placed in your main home. Moving homes will remove all these upgrades, though.
Miscellaneous tips
(fart noise) — Don't bother with artisan goods
They sell for a lot, but they're really not worth the time it takes to get all the materials. Save these for recipes, not selling.
Reduce, reuse, reclaim
Don't ignore the "Reclaim" feature! If you're tired of furniture, want to move your farm around, or desperately need materials, you can walk up to any piece of home or farm decor and hit ZL to reclaim it. This returns all materials used to build it to your inventory.
You'll need a lot of Lunens
We found that a lot of recipes required silk, which requires Lunens, one of the fae animals you can raise. So... get a lot of 'em.
Find recipes everywhere
Hidden scrolls throughout the world will teach you new recipes, usually for home decor. Some are obvious and hidden in plain sight, but many are tucked behind waterfalls and rocks, so make sure to check everywhere for that telltale sparkle.
Buying colours
You can recolour your furniture, but at the start of the game, you'll only have six drab colours to pick from. New colours can be purchased from various sellers throughout the world, which means you might not get a chance to have a bright pink sofa or a yellow bed until pretty late in the game!
Pick up shells Go down to the beach and grab a bunch of shells whenever you have time. You'll need these for fertilizer later.
PICK UP FROGS You will always need frogs in this game, to harvest their sweat (gross). It's used in a number of vital potions that will either keep you alive, or grant you access to new areas. You will ALWAYS. NEED. FROGS.
Save the bees You'll need them later to get honey! Don't sell them — they're rarer than other bugs.
Don't plant crops late
Crops die at the start of every season, even if they're non-seasonal. Yeah, it's really annoying. Sorry.
Nope, sorry. No presents for you — Birthdays? What birthdays?
In general, we found that it wasn't worth bothering with birthdays, gifts, friend quests, or relationship quests. Talking to people was usually enough to get them to like us, and that's WAY cheaper.
Bedtime? What bedtime?
Fae Farm will prompt you to head home at 11pm, but you don't have to. Stay out until the clock strikes midnight, and you'll be teleported back to your bed without losing anything from your pockets.
We hope you have enjoyed this somewhat exhaustive list of Things We Wish Someone Had Told Us When Starting Fae Farm, and that it has helped you on your journey towards creating the cutest darn farm this side of the fae realm.
Let us know your tips and tricks in the comments!
