Happy Farm'n Friday! The Christmas light extravaganza is still in process. Currently it stands at about 9600 lights, with lots of unopened boxes of mini lights waiting to be plugged in this weekend. We added some leftover strings to the Christmas tree, but the strings included a strobe light every 4 bulbs. The rave-like flashing white lights are a bit too much for an indoor tree.

I'm still playing through Harvest Moon: Mad Dash too. It's a great Switch game for when you just want to pick up a quick puzzle game for a few minutes before going to bed. The downside is that it has become VERY difficult to successfully complete the higher levels on my own. I've failed Level 55 over and over again!

Not even the Helper Sprite assistance can get me through this level. The stones in the middle of the field really make it tough to maneuver around. The cows are restricted to the top of the field and can't get to the fodder because ponds and crops spawn that block their movement. Super challenging! Underworld Level 4-2 is another one I can't complete by myself.

Luckily Mr.Fogu plays with me on the Playstation 4 version of the game, but on the Switch version he just shakes his head and reminds me I'm trying to solo play a party game. I'll get through those levels eventually, dang it...

Mining in SoS:FoMT

Just like the original Gameboy Advanced game, there are two mines in Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town: an all-year mine next to the Goddess' waterfall (the Spring Mine) and a mine on the island in the middle of the lake in the field next to the summit of Mother's Hill (the Lake Mine), which is accessible during winter when the lake water freezes. Both of these mines are 255 floors deep and require some patience to reach the bottom. Each floor contains a staircase down to the next floor below. Players will use their hammer to break apart the rocks to locate hidden ores/gems and use their hoe to dig for the stairs down to the next level.

In the Switch version of the game, there are now hidden pitfall holes that will drop players up to 5 floors. The holes help to reduce some of the tediousness of having to dig down to floor 255 one floor at a time. The pitfalls don't appear until you've reached at least floor 20, and then become more common the further you descend into the mine. To utilize a pitfall, you simply have to run over the patch of dirt where they're hidden, and then see what floor you land on. Pitfalls can be uncovered by using the hoe too. Not every floor beyond level 20 will have pitfalls though; in the Spring Mine there are no pitfalls between level 94 and 100, and in the Lake Mine there are several 10-floor gaps where you'll be forced to locate the hidden staircase in the dirt of each floor to make progress.

Sometimes, there are too many pitfalls, and they become obstacles to avoid. For example, when trying to locate Kappa Gems or Alexandrite in the Lake Mine, you're more likely to stumble into a pitfall before you can locate the hidden gem within the rocks on their designated floors. This is where you'll need to utilize the available save slots in the game to ensure you stay put before moving down to the next floors.

1. Get as close as you can to the floor above the floor you want to explore and then save your game before moving down to the next floor.
2. On the new floor, save your game on a different save slot than your first save.
3. Save your game frequently on the second save slot until you find what you're looking for in the stones.

If you never find what you're looking for, you can reload back to your first slot to go back down the stairs and try again, as you'll get a freshly-generated floor when you go back down and another chance to locate what you seek. If you do run across a pesky pitfall during your search, reload the save game from your second save slot and continue searching the floor. In my case, I like to reload and then dig where the pitfall was so I know not to run into it again. On one large floor I ran into over 25 pitfall traps!

Bokumono Mobage Events

It's a new month and a new batch of holiday-themed events in the online Bokujou Monogatari game on the Mobage social game network.

• On the first a Merry Cookie House harvest event began, where players grow cookie crops and care for stocking korgies and hamsters. Awards are given at the end of the event for the amount of harvest points earned compared to all other players. During random special times, the number of points earned during harvest can be double or triple the normal amount, which can then award farmers with Friend Hearts to exchange with other social game users. These friendship hearts can then be exchanged for another group of prizes. There's also a third group of prizes based on the 10-person team that players join. This event is scheduled to end on the 9th.
• Starting on the 11th is a bingo event. Farmers will grow special bingo crop seeds and hope they get three of the same crop in a row or a full board of the same crop for a max bingo, which is worth more points. In-game prizes will be awarded based on the total number of bingo points collected during the event. Players can use their Sunshine Ability to increase the number of harvestable items on their friends' bingo cards, but bonus bingo points will only be awarded if the ability is used on an active three-in-a-row bingo. Typically it is best to wait until the board is full of the same crop to trigger a max bingo and then wait until a multiplier triggers to earn bingo points. This event often has time-based prizes that no longer become available for players to win once the availability time expires, so it's good to earn points as fast as possible before the prizes expire!
• Finally on the 22nd is a Hungry Animal event. During this type of social competition each farmer will be assigned one of three random animals for a few hours. Each animal has a specific number of treats it wants before it will be full; the easiest is only 100 treats and the most difficult is 500 treats. If you don't feed the animal during their appearance time they'll go away and a new animal will appear in their place. Feed the animal to have it count towards unlocking in-game rewards. Your in-game friends can also feed the animal that you're assigned, helping to complete the feeding task for everyone who participates. The animal food is obtained by growing event crops on an event-specific field, with normal crops being worth 1 treat and rare crops being worth 2 treats. When everyone successfully feeds enough treats to an animal, those who feed the most snacks will be rewarded with mystery nut seeds. These seeds can be planted to harvest nuts that can be used in a random gotcha pull to win more in-game prizes.

Famitsu Game Sale Data

This week in Weekly Famitsu's sale data for November 25 to December 1, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town has sold another 2300 retail copies, bringing its total to about 104,100 physical sales. The game has dropped a little bit in the top-30 ranking, moving down to spot #28 since its release 7 weeks ago.