Leased Fields and Conquest
Veronica will stop by your farm on Spring 22 of your first year. She'll explain that the guild owns many public lands that they lend to farmers who don't have enough room on their own farmland to grow a lot of crops. If you want to lease a public field, talk to her at the Guild Hall and select the Rent A Public Field option. You can then tap the field on your bottom screen that you are interested in. Only fields that are marked with a blue ! can be leased. While the field is in your control, you can grow and harvest crops within the field.
Each field is set aside for a certain type of crop for a specific period. A signpost near the field will give you a general idea as to what the field can be used for. The 10 fields are:
- Leafy Crop Field (28 days): Cabbage, Strawberry, Pumpkin, Watermelon, Melon, Spinach, Napa Cabbage, and Broccoli
- Root Crop Field (31 days): Turnip, Potato, Onion, Burdock Root, Carrot, Sweet Potato, Andes Potato, and Radish
- Tea Field (93 days): Tea bushes
- Spice Field (21 days): Chili Pepper and Sugar Cane
- Orchard (93 days): Fruit trees, Bamboo, Softwood Tree, and Hardwood Tree
- Tall Crop Field (31 days): Cucumber, Corn, Tomato, Sweet Pepper, Pineapple, Eggplant, Green Pepper, Cotton, and Flax
- Flower Field (21 days): Marguerite, Pink Rose, Tulip, Carnation, Sunflower, Hydrangea, Red Rose, Lily, Hibiscus, Pink Carnation, White Rose, Hilton Daisy, Snowdrop, Gentian, Blue Rose, and Cactus
- Mushroom and Honey Field (21 days): Honey bees, Shiitake, Shimeji, Trumpet Mushroom, Mushroom, Poison Mushroom, Coral Mushroom
- Water Paddy (124 days): Rice, Lotus Root, and Wasabi
- Grain Field (31 days): Wheat and Soybean
Each field will be leased for a specific number of days. Once the lease is up, you can go to the Guild Hall and inquire about gaining rights to the field. If you have the rights to that field once it expires, you can renew your existing lease for free. If a rival farmer has the rights to the field, then you will initiate a conquest challenge. Likewise if you allow your lease to expire, a rival farmer can challenge you to take control of the field.
Taking Over a Field - Conquest
When trying to win control over a public field, you will be given a selection of challenges. The choices available will depend on how many Trade Depot vendors you have unlocked:
- Face off via Yearly Event - No requirements - Win a competitive seasonal festival
- Face off via Shipment Earnings - No requirements - Earn more money than your rivals
- Face off via Total Items Shipped - At least 3 vendors unlocked - Ship more items than your rivals
- Face off via Item Varieties Shipped - At least 2 vendors unlocked - Ship more unique items
- Talk it over - At least 4 vendors unlocked - Offer to pay off the current field owner
Each of Veronicas's challenges will take place on one specific day chosen by Veronica. For example, if you are accepting a Shipment Earnings challenge, Veronica would tell you that all shipments that take place on Winter 2 will determine the winner. This means anything you ship on Winter 1 would not count towards the public field conquest. You've to hoard everything and ship specifically on Winter 2nd. If there are no vendors available that day, then you're out of luck! If a storm takes place on the date of your conquest, the challenge will be cancelled, and the existing field owner will retain the lease on the field.
Sometimes after you confirm your chosen challenge, another rival will barge into the Guild Hall and declare interest in the same field you are trying to conquest. Veronica will always allow the extra rival to participate in the public field challenge.
If you ever forget what the conquest challenge is, talk to Veronica at the Guild Hall and ask about the Public Fields. On the field being challenged you'll see VS on it. Highlight the field and then press the X Button to learn more about the field, then press X again to see the names of those involved in the challange, its challenge date, and what the challenge actually is.
Yearly Event
The winner of this challenge will be the first-place winner of the next contest festival. If there isn't a competitive festival available within the next 7 days, then Veronica will tell you that nothing is available and suggest you select a different challenge.
When participating in the festival, the random festival participants will be replaced with your challenge competitors. Winning your festival will earn you the festival prize and the rights to use the field. This challenge is fairly easy to win if you have animals with high friendship or crops with high Star Rank.
Shipment Earnings
Veronica will instruct you to ship as much as you possibly can on the date that she assigns for the challenge. Whoever makes the most money will win the rights to the public field! Everything you ship on the challenge day will count towards your earnings tally, and items that you happen to buy that day with your earnings will not have a negative impact on your score. Any item you sell through your personal booth at the depot will not count though, so make sure you only sell through the vendors on the challenge day.
The challenge difficulty will increase based on the number of years you are in the game as well as the number of Trade Depot vendors you've unlocked. The easiest rival to win against is Eda, followed by Fritz, Giorgio, and then the wealthy Elise.
You can keep track of your daily earnings by checking your daily Balance. Tap on the pencil icon on your Nintendo 3DS touch screen, then select the Balances option. This tally will display the amount of money you have received (and spent) on each day for the past few weeks.
On the day of your challenge, keep an eye on the day's income and try to come as close as you can to the following values:
- 1 vendor = 26,600 G
- 2 vendors = 46,200 G
- 3 vendors = 105,000 G
- 4 vendors = 163,700 G
- 5 vendors = 242,100 G
Hoarding high-profit items such as gems to ship on your conquest date will help to achieve the maximum shipping amount necessary to beat your competitors. It also helps to check Jonas' Info booth for the Recommended Shipping list to see which vendor will be paying more for certain items that week, then ship those items to earn a higher profit.
Total Items Ship
To win you'll be trying to ship as many items as you possibly can, and hopefully you'll ship more in the specified category than your rivals do. It isn't the amount of profit you'll earn (so item branding has no weight in this challenge), but the total number of items in the category determines the winner of the challenge.
If you aren't sure that an item you're shipping to the vendors will count, check the Trading Category listed on the details screen for each item. You'll find this information on the top screen of your Nintendo 3DS when viewing an item within your rucksack.
If you select this challenge, Veronica will assign the category of items that will count towards the challenge. If you don't like the category she chooses, simply tell her that you will "Re-think it" to cancel the challenge, then select the Total Items Ship option again to have her select another category. Sometimes she won't assign a category at all; in those cases she will be looking at the total number of all items you have shipped.
The categories that will be assigned can be based on the current season you are in (e.g., you won't be told to ship Summer crops during a Winter-season challenge) as well as the number of Trade Depot vendors that you have unlocked (e.g., you can't compete in Tools if you've only unlocked 2 vendors). There are also some categories that your rivals have a tougher time competing in, so you can use the re-think/re-select option to try and get a category that your competitor is weak in.
Category | Season | Weakling | The ideal shipment goal if you have... | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 Vendors | 3 Vendors | 4 Vendors | 5 Vendors | |||
None (highest total items) | Any | Nobody | 770 | 870 | 1025 | 1180 |
Spring Crops | Spring | Nobody | 470 | 490 | 500 | 530 |
Summer Crops | Summer | Nobody | 470 | 490 | 500 | 530 |
Fall Crops | Fall | Nobody | 470 | 490 | 500 | 530 |
Winter Crops | Winter | Nobody | 470 | 490 | 500 | 530 |
Flowers | Any | Fritz | 470 | 490 | 500 | 530 |
Tea Leaves | Not Winter | Nobody | 470 | 490 | 500 | 530 |
Spices | Not Winter | Giorgio | N/A | 465 | 475 | 510 |
Grains | Not Winter | Giorgio | N/A | N/A | 410 | 440 |
Mountain Crops | Any | Giorgio | 140 | 160 | 210 | 230 |
Eggs/Dairy | Any | Fritz & Giorgio | N/A | 130 | 140 | 150 |
Fish | Any | Elise & Giorgio | 105 | 115 | 125 | 150 |
Materials | Any | Fritz & Giorgio | 125 | 145 | 195 | 215 |
Cooking | Any | Giorgio | 150 | 170 | 225 | 250 |
Tools | Any | Elise & Giorgio | N/A | 75 | 80 | 80 |
Products | Any | Fritz | N/A | 150 | 170 | 195 |
Wine | Any | Fritz | N/A | N/A | 95 | 100 |
House (furniture) | Any | Fritz | N/A | 110 | 120 | 125 |
Wallpaper/Floors | Any | Fritz | N/A | N/A | 120 | 130 |
All Objects | Any | Nobody | N/A | N/A | 125 | 130 |
Wardrobe | Any | Fritz | N/A | N/A | 100 | 100 |
The no-category option is the easiest way to win. This allows you to ship anything and have it count towards your challenge such as Fodder, Weeds, lumber, and so on.
Item Varieties Shipped
This category winner will be based on whoever ships the most unique items to the vendors at the Trade Depot. Each type of unique item will count towards your win criteria, not the total number of all items. For example, shipping 5 Turnips and 12 Cucumbers will count for two points in this challenge; the Turnip counts for one and the Cucumber counts for one, no matter how many of each you ship.
The challenge can be won once you understand how that works. Each type of insect and fish are unique, and since the money you earn for shipping doesn't count, you can spend the days before the challenge date catching as many different types as you can. Collect a Weed, a Twig, an animal treat, a crop, etc. to ship for the challenge. Another way to sell as many unique items as you can is by buying items from the vendor on the challenge date, then selling them directly back. For example, the vendors will have inexpensive crop seeds available for purchase. Buy one of each type of seed available, then turn around and ship the seeds.
The number of items you need to ship to beat your competitors will increase as you unlock more vendors. Elise always ships the most variety of items, followed by Giorgio, and then Fritz. To ensure your victory, try to ship the following numbers of unique types of items:
- 2 vendors = 54 types of items
- 3 vendors = 61 types of items
- 4 vendors = 93 types of items
- 5 vendors = 156 types of items
Talk it Over
With this option you'll enter into a contest of patience and negotiations. If you don't do well, the rival will reject your offer and demand one of the other challenge options. If your negotiations are interrupted by the other rival farmers, then Veronica will call off the talks and select one of the other challenge choices for everyone to participate in.
During negotiations, select the "Wait patiently" option to see if the rival will vacate the field for you. Giorgio is more open to giving up the field (25% chance), followed by Elise (20%) and then stubborn Fritz (10%). The more Reputation points you have with a rival, the more likely they'll be willing to give up their field lease to you. Having less than 3000 Rep Points with a rival will only add about 5% to their base percentage, whereas having more than 9000 Reputation will add 25%; basically, at maximum reputation with Giorgio, you have a 50% chance of convincing him to leave.
Instead of taking a chance, you may instead "Offer to pay" the farmer to leave the public field. Veronica will give you a list of five possible prices that may be acceptable to the farmer. Offering to pay money to the rival doesn't guarantee that he/she will accept your offer, as the value that the farmer will accept is random from the available options. The correct choice may be the highest price, it may be the lowest, or it may be one of the middle values. If you select the correct price, then you'll pay that amount for the rights to the field. An unacceptable price will result in the rival farmer suggesting one of the other challenge options.
The Challenge Results
The next morning after the conquest takes place, Veronica will call you to the Guild Hall. She will score your efforts against your competitors, then declare a winner. You can begin to use the field the next day if you win the right to use another farmer's public field. If you lose the contest, you'll have to wait until the field lease becomes available again.
If you have field rights and you lose those rights, then you have one day to harvest the products from that field. Anything you have planted will be wiped out when the rival farmer begins to use the field. For fields with slow growing crops (fruit trees, grains, rice, and tea bushes), try to renew the lease on these fields before your rivals clear out your long-term efforts.