Harvest Sprites

Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town for Gameboy Advance. [ Game Guide ]
Soapylion
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I've actually never utilised the Harvest Sprites much because I've never been very ambitious with my farm. I know they're essential if you want to make ridiculous amounts of money by making your farm one giant sweet potato field though.

So what's the best way of ~training them up~? I've recently started a new file and I'm halfway through Spring and I'm playing the watering and harvesting games every day with the sprites, but it doesn't seem to be filling up the gauge very much. Do they get better at watering/harvesting when they're working for you as well? Or is it only the games that make them better?
How many should dedicated 'harvesters' and 'waterers' should I have?
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Cal
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To be completely honest with you what I do is... Just use them, I guess. I make my watering sprites go for 7 days and then make them go water again and again. They're about halfway through their watering gauge. I bet there are some better guides to this, but I'm not sure. There's no ~ fast ~ way of getting them trained up imo.

I've always had 3 water sprites, 2 harvest sprites, and 2 animal sprites.
Soapylion
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That's encouraging though! Do you play the games at all with them then? Or do they just naturally get better the more you use them?

I can't be bothered training up any animal sprites. They're already unreliable enough with my turnips. I don't want to entrust them with the lives of my beloved livestock.
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Cal
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Soapylion wrote:That's encouraging though! Do you play the games at all with them then? Or do they just naturally get better the more you use them?

I can't be bothered training up any animal sprites. They're already unreliable enough with my turnips. I don't want to entrust them with the lives of my beloved livestock.
I barely play the games. I only play them when I'm bored, lol! But they're pretty fun; do they add friendship points or something? I didn't know that they added exp. For me, at least, they get better as I use them. Keep in mind though that every season I get a LOT of seeds. It fills up half of the farmland.

Yeah, me neither. My animal sprites do the job but they don't really give any affection to the animals. I always go back to brush them and make sure they're okay. (I'm emotionally attached to my animals in this game...)
Soapylion
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No, the games don't increase their affection towards you - it just trains them up a wee bit. You actually have to have at least 3 hearts to be able to play the games with them at all. It's so good to know they get better by just doing it though! I'll start hiring them soon I think!
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Getaris
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I just give them flour and let them do their work. Eventually they get really good at it and don't need my help.

I usually have two watering and two harvesting, organized so there's always at least one working. Like, I ask one for a week of watering and on day 3/4 of that week I ask the second one for his week.
Soapylion
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Man I have treating my harvest sprites far too kindly.

Do you have a recommended pattern for hiring them? Like...do you hire them for 7 days and then just re-hire them after those days are up? Or do you stagger it in some way?
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Getaris
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Haha I think I edited that in on my previous post while you were posting, I'll just put it here again.

I usually have two watering and two harvesting, organized so there's always at least one working. Like, I ask one for a week of watering and on day 3/4 of that week I ask the second one for his week.
Soapylion
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Oh sorry! I should've been more patient heh

Thank you!! <3 I'm looking forward to introducing slave labour to my farm~~~
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tpchittock
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Another point, which I'm sure you've probably figured out by now, is that when they will always have a rest day after working for you, so it's a good idea to keep a couple of them free to bridge the gap!

I.E. 2 sprites water and 2 sprites harvest for 7 days. On the 7th day, go and hire another couple of sprites to cover the rest day for the current sprites.The following day (the 8th day), while the original sprites are resting, you at least have some cover.

Now you can hire the original sprites to work again, and the process starts again!

EDIT: If you want to be really clever, you can work out which days will he harvest days and plan accordingly to have the majority of them working on harvesting. This works especially well if you have highly upgraded/blessed tools!
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Thank you!! Yep I've worked out a system so that I've always got a sprite working for me. They're actually a lot better at watering already than I thought they'd be. I should have had more faith in them.

And yeah I guess if I know the harvest day is coming up I can plan accordingly! With sweet potatoes it shouldn't matter so much though since they regrow so regularly, right?
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tpchittock
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Exactly, Sweet potatoes are ready all the time!

Also, with the minigames, you tend to see more progress when the sprites are at lower levels (the experience bar jumps up more after you play when they're at lower levels than it does when they're at higher levels).
But of course, they get more experience by actually doing the job!
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