Original Mode vs. Seedling Mode
When the game was released in Japan it contained one difficulty level. The challenge of the game was a sore spot for many players, as it took a lot of mind-numbing work to meet the game's requirements to unlock features. Five months after the initial release, Marvelous created a patch available for download from the Nintendo 3DS eShop that added a new version 2.0 novice difficulty mode to the game.
The addition of a beginner's mode helped to decrease the tediousness of the original game, but only in certain areas. In general, the game plays the same in both version such as with marriage requirements, animal and crop growth rates, and festival victories.
Stamina Conservation
Your character's stamina is displayed as heart markers in the upper-left corner of the game's top screen. You will have a maximum of 100 stamina, and each heart represents 20 points (with the exception of the last half heart). The hearts will shrink as you use your farm tools and complete other chores on your farm.
The beginning tools that Eda gives to you are not very efficient. Since it takes many uses of a tool to complete its task, the stamina points will quickly deplete as you complete your farm chores. For example, using the Old Hoe will use 2 points of stamina at full health, which may not seem like a lot, but you have to till the soil five times with the Old Hoe to turn it into plantable space. That's 10 stamina points just to make one field!
This has changed in the easier difficulty mode. Now using a tool in Seedling mode will take half the stamina as it did in the original game. With the field example, the Old Hoe now uses 1 stamina point per swing at full health to create the plantable space. That's half of the stamina (5 stamina) to do the same task.
Shop Inventory Prices and Inventory
You can get a lot of items by growing them or picking them up, but some of the items come also from vendor shop inventories, either Otmar's general store or the Trade Depot vendors. Seedling mode decreases the amount of money required to purchase items from the shops by 30%. For example, Animal Medicine costs 500 G in Original mode and costs 350 G in Seedling mode. The first rucksack upgrade to increase your bag size to 70 slots costs 100,000 G in Original mode, yet only 70,000 G in Seedling mode..
This difficulty change does not affect the buy price the vendors at the depot will pay for your products. It also doesn't change the material requirements for building the specialty areas of the Safari zone; building the Boulders for the bears will still requires 300 Lumber and 500 Stone Lumber, but only 70,000 G instead of 100,000 G. Because of the 30% discount, you can buy the Lumber and Stone Lumber for cheaper from Corona's building supply inventory, although it is still expensive (1050 G for one piece of each building material).
Players can use the discounted prices to their advantage. Since the items in Seedling mode cost less to buy than in Original mode, yet the buy-prices are the same, you can buy items from the vendors and then turn around and sell them back for a small profit. If the vendor is having a sale on its inventory items, you can make a larger sell-back profit:
- Silver Yarn and Gold Yarn: Buy from Cabin Country (Fa yr 2) for 2632 G, sell for 2500 G = 132 G profit
- Crystal and Ruby: Buy from Silk Country for 3500 G, sell for 3700 G = 200 G profit
- Yellow, Red, and Blue Pearls: Buy from Antique Shop for 2800 G, sell for 3000 G = 200 G profit
- Green Pearls: Buy from Sakura Country (yr 2) for 2730 G, sell for 3000 G = 270 G profit
- Topaz: Buy from Wheat County for 3360 G, sell for 3700 G = 340 G profit
- Round Glasses: Buy from Rose Country for 5600 G, sell for 5200 G = 400 G profit
- Sil. Goat-Hair Cloth and Gld. Goat-Hair Cloth: Buy from Cabin Country (yr 3) for 2800 G, sell for 4400 G = 1200 G profit
- Sil. Goat-Hair Cloth+ and Gld. Goat-Hair Cloth: Buy from Cabin Country (yr 4) for 3850 G, sell for 6300 G = 2750 G profit
Trade Vendor Unlocking Requirements
The Trade Depot has seven vendors that will set up shop on a regular basis. The basic five vendors will naturally unlock as you proceed through the game. The last two vendors are unlocked after the player ships a specific number of items to the existing vendors. In the easier mode of the game, the required number of items to be shipped has been decreased by 30%. It may not seem like much, but the shipping requirements are normally really high!
First, you will need Rose Country to be unlocked, which only requires you to ship 1,000,000 G through the vendors at the Trade Depot. The second requirement is to ship a total of 3,000,000 G or more through the vendors. Third, you need to ship the following items through the depot:
Ice Country
- Original mode = 100 fences, 200 decorations, 200 garden objects, 100 streets, 100 furniture, and 100 wallpaper/flooring
- Seedling mode = 70 fences, 140 decorations, 140 garden objects, 70 streets, 70 furniture, and 70 wallpaper/flooring
Tropical Country
- Original mode = 100 tools, 500 seeds, 15,000 crops, 15,000 cooked recipes, 10,000 processed goods, and 600 clothes
- Seedling mode = 70 tools, 350 seeds, 10,500 crops, 10,500 cooked recipes, 7,000 processed goods, and 420 clothes
Note that Seedling mode does not decrease the 3 million G worth of shipments requirement. Even if you ship the required number of objects to unlock the special vendors, you still need to earn a total of at least 3,000,000 G. The items that you sell at your personal booth in the Trade Depot do not count; you specifically need to ship items through the vendors.
