Every Season 30 - Harvest Festival
Talk to the festival MC between 10:00 and 13:00 in the Crossroads to enter the seasonal contest to have your crop entry judged against three other fellow farmers. MC will give you the choice of difficulty level (Beginner, Veteran, Expert, or Legend, with each unlocking as you win the easier challenge) and then tell you what properties the contest judge will be looking at: Color, Sweet/Aroma, Juiciness, and/or Size. Depending on the difficulty level you might have just one criteria being judged or several at the same time. The Beginner rank doesn't judge on any four properties (basically, just judges on the Star Rank), and the Legend difficulty judges on all four properties plus the Star Rank.
You can enter any crop into this festival regardless of the season you currently are in, but there is a small advantage to entering a crop that grows in the season the festival is taking place in. You can enter field crops, flowers, tree fruit, honey and mushrooms, and water paddy crops. Not every type of crop has all of the properties, but the judge will still compare the properties that the difficulty level requires. Basically, submitting a crop that doesn't have all of the properties into a contest that is judging on those properties may not earn you a victory. For example, mushrooms only have two of the four properties (color and scent), so entering a Legend level festival will not allow for a win even through the other three contestants might have also submitted mushrooms. I've tried, but received fourth place every time even when both mushroom properties were 100%.
Once the contest begins, Matsuba the crop judge will look at each of the four submissions and whichever one has the highest percentage of properties will be declared to be the overall winner. Hopefully it is yours! If so, you will raise your brand for the crop that you submitted and win a prize based on the difficulty level you selected. You will also earn +1500 FP with the villagers as well as +3 AP with the marriage candidates. If you don't win, you'll still earn +500 FP and +1 AP.
For winning the Beginning rank you will receive a random item prize. For Veteran and higher you will receive the following prizes in sequential order:
Veteran
- Piperade recipe
- Caprese recipe
- Curry Salad recipe
Expert
- Rosti recipe
- Clafoutis recipe
- Napolitan recipe
- Baklava recipe
- Beret Hat clothing
- Houtou recipe
- Ratatouille recipe
- Pot-au-feu recipe
- Puffer Stew recipe
Legend
- The Secrets of Frying recipe set (Deep-Fried Monkfish, Deep-Fried Catfish, Kakiage)
- Sweets from the West recipe set (Rice Flour Pancakes, Castella)
- Potato Salad recipe
- Udon recipe set (Stir-Fried Udon, Cold Udon Soup)
- Green Streetwear clothes
- Coleslaw recipe
- Fried Rice recipe
- Butterfly Mask glasses
Technical Details
Like many judgment festivals, this one is based on an invisible point scale. Your contest submission should be at the high end of the point range (or higher) to be the winner. For a Beginner rank, you will need to be between 30 and 60 points. For Veteran it is 61 to 120. Expert is 121 to 210, and Legend is 211 to 299. You'll earn points based on the Star Rank and the percentage of the crop's properties that are being judged.
- The Star Rank of a crop is increased by using fertilizer to increase its four properties. The Star Rank for honey is based on the Star Rank of the flower you used to seed the honeybee box. For a half-star you'll earn 5 points, 1 to 1.5 is between 7 and 15 points, 2 to 2.5 is 18 to 30 points, 3 to 3.5 is 34 to 49 points, 4 to 4.5 stars is 54 to 70 points, and anything that is 5 stars is between 76 and 82 points. Note that there are gaps in the number of points awarded (e.g., you won't be given 6 points).
- The percentage of the properties that are being judged also award points. A property that is between 1% and 10% will get you 5 points, 11% to 15% is 7 points, 16% to 20% is 9 points, 21% to 25% is 12 points, 26% to 30% is 15 points, 31% to 35% is 18 points, 36% to 40% is 22 points, 41% to 45% is 26 points, 46% to 50% is 30 points, 51% to 55% is 34 points, 56% to 60% is 39 points, 61% to 65% is 44 points, 66% to 70% is 49 points, 71% to 75% is 54 points, 76% to 80% is 59 points, 81% to 85% is 64 points, 86% to 90% is 70 points, 91% to 95% is 76 points, and 96% to 99% is 82 points. You'll earn 90 points if the property is at 100%.
Submitting a crop that grows in the season the festival takes place in will only earn you 8 points, so it is only a small advantage over an out-of-season crop submission. Giant size crops will earn you +15 points, and Gold crops will earn you +25 points.
The Veteran, Expert, and Legend difficulty ranks will always judge on a crop's Color property. The other properties judged on during the Veteran and Expert difficulties will be randomly set, but Color will always be a factor. Color should be the property that you concentrate on for trying to win this festival, as the Star Rank will naturally reflect the properties of your crops.