General Tips and Tricks

Credit: -Kenthos-

Preface

As it's quite often that a new player comes to this subreddit and ask for beginner advice, we decided to compile it here. This thread will be added to the sidebar, so if someone is asking for beginner tips and tricks, you can redirect them here. If you have any tips that isn't in this page yet, feel free to contact us instead via modmail so that it can be added to the page.

Tips and Tricks

• Don't mess with your device's date and time.
• You get a speed boost and bonus chance to get a "burst of resources" when you have yellow energy bar. You need to eat meals to get it.
• Once you get the yellow energy bar, you can glide/hover. You can do that by pressing and holding the A button (Switch) / B button (Xbox) / Shift (PC) / O button (PlayStation).
• Always do anything with a buddy. Obviously, if possible, you choose the buddy with the relevant role. If not possible or if the activity doesn't align with any of the roles, take someone that needs the EXP most.
• Immediately get new characters to level 2 so you can select their friendship type and "hang out" with them. That way, you can then level up these new characters even more quicker and have more buddy to choose for your activities.
• When a crop or tree flashes gold, it means you can keep harvesting it. You need to press the harvest button repeatedly instead of holding it.
• There is no limit of how many chests you can have. If you need more storage, that means you need to craft another chest.
• You can run through the sea to the small island near the Skull Cave on the Dazzle Beach.
• There's an autofill button for cooking. When you select a recipe and select "Autofill", the game will automatically insert the recommended ingredients.
• There are 6 mining spots on each biome and 12 in the Vitalys Mines. Locate and memorize them so you can make the best route when you're mining.
• You can go to the other realms instantly by using the map.
• When you open your inventory or chest, you can drag and drop items to organize your them.
• You can use meals as decorations too. To do that, you need to have the meals in your inventory and then drop it. You then can move the meals to the desired place using the Furniture Edit mode.
• You can remove most trees. If you change your mind, you can add them back by accessing the "Landscape" section in the Furniture Edit mode.
• You can move almost everything in the game to anywhere. Exceptions for this are Goofy's stalls, as they can only be moved within their respective biomes.
• Don’t waste moonstones. They are not free.
• Read. That applies to the dialogues, and to the "Collection" tab in the game. There are many information you can get in that tab, like where a certain item can be found, or how much it will sell, among many other things. Read also the "Quest" tab to see what things you need to unlock to get quests.
• You can hold down action button instead of repeatedly pressing it when you're mining, digging, planting crops, and harvesting crops.
• You can select a character or a building on the map and the game will give you a purple magic trail to follow to them.
• Things you previously purchased from Scrooge become unlocked and available to order through him from his catalogue. You don't have to wait for that particular to show up at the store again.
• Water-based houses don't have to be connected to the mainland, nor do they have to stay in the beach biomes (some can fit in ponds). Characters with water-based houses will have the dialogue option "Let's see your house". This is so that if you decide to place their houses in the open sea far far away from the land, you can still go to their house without moving it to the shore. Just go find the house owner and select that dialogue, and you'll be teleported inside their house.
• You can offset the time of day. That way, you can make the game looks like it's morning even if it's actually night. It's just visual change, though.
• There is a special pose that's available when you're taking a picture with your companion. To do that, you need to select the wide angle view of the camera mode.
• If you like to do cooking, it's recommended to unlock Remy as fast as you can.
• The ingredients in Remy's realm are free, so you can cook meals for free in Remy's Realm. You can't take the meals you cook there out of the realm, but you can dump them on the floor to be used in the future.
• Save regularly, especially if you're playing on Nintendo Switch. It's still possible that your game crashes at an unexpected moments.
• Sitting down on a bench, or any other object that you can sit on, will replenish your energy very slowly.
• Save at least some of your resources before you start selling them. This applies to everything: wood, flowers, crops, gems, fishes, etc. You never know when you need some.
• If you don't collect flowers and wood that spawn in a biome, no more of those will spawn.
• Read and follow the instruction of a quest to the T. If the quest hasn't asked you to craft something, then don't, even if you've already collected all the materials.
• If you have hard time leveling up Ariel and Ursula, just give them flowers or meals repeatedly. There's no limit of how many things you can give to a character in a day.
• Make a habit of digging up the glowing spots throughout the valley to get Night Shards and Dream Shards. You need a large amount of them for many quests.
• Make a habit of picking up everything. Some quests need a large amount of wood or flowers, and doing this will help a lot.
• You can move your well to unreachable areas, such as the other side of a blocked bridge.
• If you just dug up a lot of holes and want to remove it, you can just place a random furniture or building on top of them. Or, you can just wait for a day or so and the holes will disappear.
• If you're working on a characters quest, have them follow you so you don't have to keep hunting them down.
• Don't forget to upgrade the shops and other buildings. Goofy's stalls and the wishing wells are your main priorities, while Remy's restaurant can probably be delayed for later, at least for the last upgrade.
• When you first unlock the Sunlit Plateau, it's recommended to not go to the Vitalys Mines (the cave near the river) before you start Scar's "Nature and Nurture" quest. There are various bugs here that can potentially prevent you from progressing further.
• If you need to get a lot of irons and nothing else, go mining on Forest of Valor and Glade of Trust only. You're just wasting your time if you're mining on the other biomes too, as other biomes only drop iron ore scarcely or none at all.
• To make collecting wood easier in a biome, remove all trees there except 3 or 4. Place them together in one area and all of your wood will all spawn there. It's recommended to use Plaza Tree as they are small and doesn't block view. It may be aesthetically unfitting though.
• Have at least 2 buddies with a same role. That way, if one of them is sleeping, you still have someone to hang out with. However, don't just give everyone the same role. You will get the bonus 100% of the time if you have 5 level 10 buddies with that role (6 if it's gardening). Therefore, if you already have 5 buddies with the same role, it's better to assign the next character with different role.
• If you're planning on decorating and organizing the valley, it's recommended to do it later in the game. This is because if you do it early in the game, you'll be reorganizing everything everytime a new building is unlocked.
• Upgrading Moana's boat will make you spend less energy for fishing. You can also potentially get some fishes you can't catch yet.
• Upgrading Wall-E's Garden will make you spend less energy for planting crops and digging. You can also potentially get some crops you haven't unlocked yet.
• Craft duplicates before delivering quest items if you can. Some items are only available during the quest. For example, a certain character asks you to make them a crafting table. Making 2 during the mission is the only way to get it. However, sometimes the game won't allow you to do so.
• You can upgrade your tools to remove various obstacles throughout the valley. You do that by completing Friendship Quests:

1. The corals (the game calls them storm debris) on the Dazzle Beach can be removed when you receive the pickaxe upgrade from Maui's realm quest and level 4 quest.
2. The Mushroom Stumps on the Forest of Valor and Plaza can be removed when you receive the shovel upgrade from Anna's level 2 quest.
3. The Mushroom Patches on the Glade of Trust, Peaceful Meadow and Sunlit Plateau can be removed when you receive the watering can upgrade from Merlin's level 8 and level 10 quests.
4. The Wildebeest Bones on the Sunlit Plateau can be removed when you receive the shovel upgrade from Scar's level 3 and 7 quests.
5. The Ice Blocks on Frosted Heights and Forest of Valor can be removed when you receive the pickaxe upgrade from Elsa's level 1 and 6 quests.

• Place some crafting tables and campfires in strategic areas so you don't need to go too far to craft or cook something.
• Serving customers in Remy's restaurant will give you money.
• You can give Ariel a role once she got her legs.
• Most important advice: Don't do anything that take out the fun from you. Having fun is the main objective of playing a game, so if you don't like any of advices here or anywhere else, you don't need to follow it.