Unless you truly hate fighting, turning on Monsters Spawn at Night in the initial setup gives you the advantage of something useful to do at night when you are out of energy and a small but welcome supply of monster loot. I think of bats as 15g considerately flying over to me. It's slow work killing them with the scythe but once I have the basic sword, I welcome their appearance.

preserve jars are the easiest way to make early and late game money. chuck in forage and you’ve got easy and quick money for those needed but pricey upgrades

Either:

1 Let yourself make mistakes. Play slowly and with intent to learn the lore as it is delivered to you. Read the lost books in the library, engage with characters and their dialogue, embrace the small things. Don’t worry if you didn’t get everything done in a season cause there’s always next year.

OR

2 Look up everything and use the wiki as your best friend. Find out ways to max out your time in each season so you make quick progress. Watch lets plays and perfection runs on YouTube and use their techniques to min max.

Basically, it really depends on how you enjoy playing! I would recommend starting with style 1 and seeing how you go, and then if you do get bored or impatient you can try 2. But you can’t go the other way

If you can mod use look up anything! It's basically the wiki so it's not cheating. Try not to overwhelm yourself if you are loosing intrest or gaining fustration take a break and play somthing else or do something else. It's not going anywhere. Also you do not have to reach perfection or do the community center in year one it tends to stress people out. I personally increase my bundle through mods cuz it makes me feel not in a rush to do it fast because it's legitimately not possible.

Build chests. By the end three weeks, aim to have at least 4 on the farm and 3 in town (foyer of mines, by Willy, by Clint). Even with a backpack upgrade, chests make your life so much easier and less stressful. Anytime you settle down for an extended fishing day, have a chest next to you.

Don't try to clear the whole farm. Clear a small area right outside the house and hoe a plot for some seeds. 15 or so seeds is a manageable starting point. You just water daily to grow. It's late in spring, and seeds take varying amount of days to grow. Each season is only 28 days, so I'd recommend seeds that take 4-6 days to grow so you can harvest in time.

You might have an easier time starting over just so that you can better set yourself up for the rest of the month.

On your first day you're gifted the 15 parsnip seeds and you have 500 gold that you can go spend to buy potato seeds because those have a chance to harvest multiple potatoes. Those two crops have the shortest harvest time so you'll be able to sell them in a couple of days. On day two you are given a fishing pole and fishing is really good money but it is more difficult to fish on switch than it is on the PC.

From there, while your cops are growing you can be fishing/harvesting wood for materials. The mine opens up on day 5 as does the community center. (use seeds from trees to create field snacks for the mine and general stamina help). You need ore from mine to make things and to upgrade your tools.

Sell the fish for money to buy more seeds then sell your crops. Potatoes are most profitable overall, but you want to plant a few of all crops either for quests, community center, gifts etc. Crops that are not harvested by the 28th will not finish growing and will die with season changes (except wheat, corn, sunflowers)

Once you harvest the crops, the plot will be "empty" and you can plant seeds in a different spot that you cleared. Early game when you're slow and have no energy, I prioritize planting near the house. Later on you'll have more resources (and access to sprinklers!), and you can grow larger plots elsewhere on the farm.

Buy some crops from Pierre's that only take a few days to grow, they seed packets tell you what season to plant in. Plant them! Explore town!

Getting exhausted soon is how it is in the early game. It will get better as you advance. Eating food like fish, crops, forageables, or other items will give you energy back

You can go to Pierre's and buy some seeds. They are not that expensive, I typically start with a little bit of parsnips, green beans, and potatoes. As those crops grow you can sell them and then get money for new crops. If you want more money selling fish can help as well.

You don't need a silo. Your animals can go outside every (except rainy days and winter). Let them out into a grassy area and they will not need hay for that day.

Hay is pretty cheap. Buy some hay from Marnie and store it in a chest near the coop. Then just move some hay from the chest to the bench in the coop everyday. You have to do that everyday anyway until you get the deluxe coop. Then the silo will autofill the feeding bench.

I always build a silo first, as soon as I can. Then I cut the grass growing on my farm. I usually only build up to three silos, but I don't have a lot of livestock.

Other than that, play at your own pace. I recommend saving all the raw materials you find/harvest.

My advice would be watch the TV every morning and buy the training rod when you get the opportunity. The closest thing this game has to a main quest should start on the 5th day. Otherwise, enjoy yourself, relax, build a nice farm!

When you wake up the first morning, the game will give you 2 quests.

If you follow and complete these quests, they will lead onto more quests that will show you all the basic stuff in the game.

Occasionally you will get mail in your mailbox outside your house which will introduce new stuff as well - read everything you get in the first month or so carefully.

The game is best if you learn as you go along and work it out on your own - the first time experience can't be replicated once spoiled so enjoy it!

There's no real 'end goal', but first thing on your list once you get things going will be to explore the abandoned community center above the town. It will be obvious when you can get inside - there will be a cutscene. Check out everything inside once you're in!

And read what people tell you in the game! A big mistake a lot of people make is to think that the big box next to your farmhouse is a storage chest. It is not. The mayor tells you that you put things in it in order to ship it out for selling (items sell overnight and you receive the money automatically before you get out of bed the next morning).

Just keep in mind that there's no rush for anything or time limit. You can do whatever you like! The game will give you a few tasks to start with but you can literally just not do them if you don't feel like it and there are no consequences

The game gives you the tools to start playing when you start playing it. You have to find out a lot of stuff “on your own“, but in early game, they do advise you. The first thing I always do is clear a bunch of the grass around my home using the scythe so I can get seeds, plant those seeds, and then head into town and start introducing myself to people. You can go through trash cans as long as there’s not an NPC within seven tiles of you. After a couple of days you will be able to get a fishing pole, that will prove very helpful. Learn how to fish early, fish are your best chance of getting decent money in the beginning. You won’t be able to access everything/talk to everybody initially, but you’ll get there. Seems like the best generic advice I can give you, good luck!

Don't stress! Go at your own pace. Don't look at the huge, amazing farms here and feel that you're plating the game "wrong". There is no wrong way

Depends what you like to do in the game.

Personally I like to focus on farming as much as possible on the first year in order to have a comfortable amount of money and be able to do upgrades and such. I use the wiki to know what crops make the most gold/day and I plant as many as I can.

But you do you, sdv is a game with no rush other than getting to bed before 2am. Explore the mine, get married, do some community center bundles, just have fun.

if you're focusing on money, I recommend cutting weeds on your field to get mixed seed and use the 500 gold you have to buy all parsnips at spring 1, you can also sell the fiber you get by cutting weeds, and the stone, wood, clay, anything that can give you more money, there is a field of weed next to the community centre

Empty out your entire plot of land, except for a dense copse of trees. Keep it empty for a year or two and see what shows up - special rare events like the alien capsule, meteorite or owl statue. This will leave you with a lot of time to spend. Focus on mining, foraging and fishing (crab pots too) to earn money and level up. You'll get most of the stuff you need to complete quests/collections/bundles...so just hoard like 3 of everything until you're satisfied you don't need to.

When you forage things like flowers (crocus, daffodil etc) just give them away to NPCs to build their friendship. They will mail you things back, which is very helpful. I suggest focusing on just a few NPCs for gifting, until you have maxed them out.

You don't have to spend 100% of each day; Going to bed early has it's benefits.

Consider going animal- and child-free to avoid the fluff.

Put a chest at the bus stops, mine entrances, common fishing/foraging spots and one by the blacksmith for geodes/upgrade bars and items to donate. (the inventory management mini-game gets old, quick)

Save 10k for the stables asap. The extra mobility really opens up your options. THEN get the backpack upgrades.

Thanks for the comments and help guys! Responses were quicker than i thought they would be

As many parsnips as you can until you can sell them, then as many potatoes as you can. Sell all of them on the night of the 12th, then buy as many strawberries as you can afford at the festival on the 13th. You should get a few Harvest of strawberries and they sell for a lot, so that will get the ball rolling.

Spend any free time (that you are not using on planting or watering crops) fishing. Save as much of the fish as you can, then wait to sell it until you hit Level 10 and get the price boosts. That will make you a ton of cash.

From there, it's up to you. You can explore the mines, raise animals, plant more crops, pursue the community center, meet everyone in town, or whatever!

Early on, fishing is the best money. Going from 1-10 will net you around 50-60k. It's also great when its raining or you have some time to fish while waiting for something.

Otherwise, farm crops. Like hundreds of crops if you want to really unlock alot of stuff early in year 1 and get a good start on developing your farm.

Don't buy the bigger bag until you buy all the strawberry seeds you can.

First spring parsnips are the fastest rate of return allowing you to plant increasing sizes batches.

It takes a while to get the money wagon rolling. Plant as much as you can comfortably water. Parsnips to potatoes is a common start. Also plant and save a green bean and a cauliflower—you’ll be glad you did. Fish a lot; it’s good early money. It can be hard to get the hang of, so spend the 25g for the training rod from Willy and go fish the easy fish in the mountain lake to help you level up. Try to save some money to buy strawberry seeds at the Egg Festival on the 13th.

Another way to make money early on is to get Caroline (the wife of Pierre the shopkeeper) to two hearts, then go into her tea room through the back door of the kitchen. Once you do that, she’ll send you a recipe for tea saplings, which sell for 500g each.

These all help a lot. There are other things that help, but most people aim for a coop and barn to start getting artisan goods, or try to progress in the mines for ore to craft sprinklers to expand your farming.

Love it! Wait, what's the Farm Planner?

oh that's a nice looking farm ! I love the shape of the animal area, it's so unique

That little animal area might be the cutest thing I've ever seen on wilderness farm!

Maybe fish ponds! Also your English is actually perfect!

I just want to the thrive.

You're important.

You're membership matters

Could you spruce it up with some Joja iconography

It really doesn't matter.

The standard farm has the most available crop space. However All the farms have enough space to make work.

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The other farms introduce a challenge by having less space, but also offer a minor perk related to a single skill.

Usually before you finish your first year the perk isn't very useful anymore and only real benefit is the look of the farm.

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Wilderness farm has the second most number of available crop tiles and spawns monsters after dark, to gain a bit of combat experience. The monsters don't really spawn fast enough to power level your combat skill, so really it's just a minor annoyance to me.

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Hilltop has the 3rd most available crop tiles, and early access to ores, however the ore and gem spawn rate is pretty slow, and is really only good for a missing ore or two. Lots of people like it because it's easy contain animals to a single section without much fencing needed. And usually when people post a "surprisingly good looking" farm, it's hilltop.

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Riverland farm has the 4th most available crop tiles and has the same fish as river. If your a crab pot fisherman, it might be great for all the available crab pot shores, however normally you'll end up fishing somewhere else for bigger money.

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Forest farm has earlier daily access to more Hardwood, and forage items on the farm but the least amount of crop tiles. Of all the farms I would probably rank this as the easiest farm for progressing fast in community center and building upgrades, It was my favorite farm for a long time, but eventually I wanted work with more space.

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If it’s your first game, go standard. That farm is better tailored to new, learning players. Get through three years on standard, play without minmaxing or strategy guide, and play blind, just for fun.

Do a different farm, minmax, and play for achievements on your next run.

Standard! In my opinion it's best to learn without constraint before trying to challenge yourself, trust me

Don’t start any farms! You’re fooling yourself into hundreds of hours of addiction. You will forget what it’s like to ever play any other games, and constantly be asking yourself how the hell its already past midnight when you have to be up for work in a few hours. But if you insist, standard farm first playthru.

Straight crops: poplar and it's not even close.

Once you get enough money, go into goats and turn it into bottled milk.

The best money in the game is a greenhouse growing lettuce. So OP it feels like cheating.

Like everyone else says silage, I prefer bales so I can stack up and offload all at once but loose is just as easy. But yeah silage is a cash farm

Only tip I have for you, if you need a piece of equipment, it is cheaper to take out a loan and buy it than to lease it. Loan interest is a whole lot lower than Lease payments.

Have a practice save set out exactly like your main one and every time you feel like adding a mechanic crop or business mess around with it in the practice save first, wish i knew this at the start