HM World - Harvest Moon: BTN Tools

Harvest Moon: BTN Tools

While you start with most of the essential tools, you'll need to get other tools to help your work on the farm. The tools you start with can be upgraded to make them more powerful and reduce your effort significantly. To upgrade a tool, you must first use it a lot. The more you use it, the higher you can upgrade it. There are five levels: default, copper, silver, gold, and Mystrile. Upgrading costs money and you must have the respective ore. Talk to Saibara, the blacksmith, when you're ready to upgrade a tool.

Hammer - Use the hammer to destroy rocks and broken fences, and to turn tilled soil back into regular dirt. You start with the hammer and it can be upgraded; you'll need at least a copper hammer to be able to break large rocks.

Axe - Use the axe to chop sticks and stumps. At least a copper axe is required to chop large stumps. It's important to get your axe upgraded quickly so that you can store up lumber faster, since lumber is so crucial for house upgrades.

Watering Can - This is necessary for watering your crops. There's no need to water grass, however. Once it gets empty, fill it up in your pond or any other water source (well, not the ocean). An upgraded watering can is crucial, since a Mystrile watering can can water a 3x5 plot it one swing.

Sickle - The sickle is used to cut high grass for fodder. Once you get vast fields of grass (which you'll want to have once you get 10+ cows), a gold or Mystrile sickle is necessary for collecting fodder quickly. Any weeds that you cut will not be stored as fodder, and it's best to pull weeds by hand anyway, since it saves energy. Be careful, as the sickle can cut crops as well.

Hoe - The hoe is used to till soil for planting. It's best to hoe in a U shape until you get an upgraded watering can, since you can't normally water the crop in the middle. The hoe is also used for digging in the mine for precious ores.

Basket - This must be bought from the Supermarket. The basket is crucial for mining, and also aides crop gathering. It can hold 30 items, and you can't remove an item once you've placed it in the basket, so be careful. Once you pick up the basket, you can dump all of its contents (into a shipping bin, hopefully) by pressing []. You can view how many items are in the basket by viewing your rucksack, highlighting the basket, and pressing /\. You can bring the basket with you deep into the mine, but if you leave it you must go all the way back down to the level of the mine on which you left it.

Brush - You must buy this from Saibara. Use it to brush your horse daily, as well as your cows and sheep. This greatly helps increase your animals' affection toward you, and is definitely worth the price.

Bell - This is given to you by Barley after you get your first cow. Use it to call all of your cows to you. It's very helpful when you have a field full of cows and need to get them all to cooperate.

Clippers - These must be bought from Saibara, and are essential if you're going to have sheep. You must use these to shear wool from adult sheep.

Milker - This must be bought from Saibara, and is essential if you're going to have cows. You must use the milker to get milk from an adult cow.

Fishing Rod - Get this from the fisherman, Greg, as soon as possible. Press and hold [] to cast your line, wait until you get a bite, then release [] to reel it in. You have a pretty equal chance of catching a branch, garbage, or a fish.

Fishing Pole - Once you get fifty fish in your stock pond, Greg will stop by your farm and give you the Fishing Pole, which is just like the rod, except increases your chances of catching a fish.

Cheese Maker - Buy this from Saibara, and use it to turn milk into cheese. Cheese is worth much more than milk.

Mayonnaise Maker - Buy this from Saibara, and use it to turn eggs into mayonnaise. Mayonnaise is worth much more than eggs.

Yarn Ball Maker - Buy this from Saibara, and use it to turn wool into yarn balls. Yarn is worth much more than wool.

Dog Ball - Won will sell you this your first year. Use it to train your dog for the big race in Winter. Be careful, because it's very easy to lose your ball. If you do lose it, Won will return later to sell you another one. Thanks to a glitch, it's possible to get more than one ball by throwing the ball against a wall and then picking it up at the exact same time as the dog. Then both you and the dog will be holding a ball. This is a hard trick to perform, but is worth it for insurance. Store extra dog balls in your cabinet.