@Soriku
Nope =P But if you can: "make it so."

Yea DK, I restarted my game, I'm at about 15 hours and approaching the end of Spring.. I'm not looking forward to the summer storms.

Right now I'm focusing on catching various monsters and preparing for the long haul those summer plants require... I wish I didn't have to water them all. V_V, Going to push deeper into whale island after I finish my craftsman ship and blacksmithing, I want the Tomohawk Axe and the Crest, I can make the Crest, but that Axe is going to be an issue, I haven't had much time to really get into leveling combat though.

I really want to know which monster waters crops for me. That would save me a lot of time.

Actually Torllian said elephants water... ok which dungeon are they in, the only one I saw was the one that does nothing, in the summer.. unless I have to use my rune stone to open that door to get to them... which is where the one that does nothing makes it's appearance.

No clue. I'm 20 hours in, and I think I've barely scratched the main story. But then it's definitely secondary in my book.

No way man. Strawberries>all: 900 gold/day/3x3 plot. That jumps to 1,440 per day per plot if you turn them into jam first. Plus, about a quarter of the townsfolk like/love the things. Strawberries FTW!

The elephants do water your crops, but NOT the baby one you find on Whale Island.

You want to find the enemy elephants in the lava dungeon, 1st floor. Spoilers ahead.

Either beating the boss or waiting for summer causes the little sapling in the Mountain Path to grow until it has a hole in it. Put a Rune Stone (Tree, I think) in the hole, and the next day you can access the dungeon.

You've got the entry to the Lava Ruins thing a little messed up:

There are two conditions you must first meet:  Encounter Iris for the first time on Whale Island, and defeat the boss of the Green Ruins.  Then the tree will be large enough for you to insert a Tree Rune Stone, then the next day the dungeon will be open.

Strawberries only sell for 100g each and only regrow every 2 days, how are you getting 900g/d/plot since I'm getting 450?  Even with the cooking that's 720g, plus you have to spend all that RP doing all the cooking.  Though it does seem to have one of the best returns on cooking it, I haven't done all the math on that aspect but cooking up a million strawberries a day would tax my meager time/energy resources (plus my limit on tedium).

Cabbages sell for 680g after 8 days, but you need to keep one to remake into a seed.  You still get an average of 680g/d/9-square-plot that way.  Plus I just water them on the way up Whale Island which takes up very little RP for me these days.

Anyway that's one of the things I like about this game, there's not really any one way to make money, all the different economic paths are pretty well-balanced, and not so over-powered that buying all the expensive house upgrades and recipe books is trivial.

Ah, thanks for the correction. So THAT's the secret...

My strawberries ripen every day in the Green Ruins. Maybe it has to do with beating the boss, or the runeys in Mist's area, but for whatever reason I started to get fresh strawberries EACH day (assuming I water them after harvest). Come to think of it, my strawberries in the field started ripening each day by the end too, after I tossed a crapload of runeys in there. Perhaps there's a correlation?

But you're correct that the game offers you plenty of ways to raise cash. I'm delighted at how open-ended it is, actually. Perhaps on the next playthrough I'll start a almost-pure adventuring save, just to see the results.

Yea could be the Runeys. I tried micro-managing them for an in-game week or two before I gave up and just let them run wild (I always seem to have too much water and tree and too little grass). It's one of the least well-done aspects of the game imo (the only new system really, too, go figure).

Agreed. It seems like some runey just reproduce TOO quickly, while others don't at all. I'm almost positive that the numbers vary by region, with only your homestead being "true neutral," but there's zero explanation on the system. I actually had the lake go from being completely balanced to completely extinct, without doing anything to affect the place...

well, I'm growing strawberries in green ruins now and probably going to start working on rosetta since she loves that stuff, just beat lava ruins last night and still lvling before i can go into snow ruins, and i really don't think you can beat bosses efficiently without magic after i saw how the boss worked in lava ruins, jebus lol, I literally had to switch in between staffs to beat it, not to mention the hours i spent doing fish days for RP and making HP pots in my lab before i was confident to take it on again after dying once. this game isn't easy at all, i'm currently trying to save money for my second floor bedroom and i probably can't do it until the second spring since i'm only almost done with my first fall, this game is mega long lol.

In regards to the runey system;

I've just began working with it, but it seems to just be a system based on knowing when to put in and when to take out.

I've found that I have a strong balance when I take away wood runeys in areas that grass runeys are dwindling in numbers yet some times I get a better result by adding a few rock runeys to that area.

Also Beach Road has a great mix of runeys also, and I try not to take runeys from my farm because of the adverse effect it has on crop growth.

The ultimate goal for me though is the water runey keeping the rock runey population high helps water runeys thrive, I simply harvest them when there are a lot and use them to make rain. This in consequence helps increase the rock runey population which helps lower the wood runey population which helps increase the grass runey population.

The more grass the better. imo, I'd rather have a whole map of green than yellow, then just add two or three yellows and let them have at it.

Did you try eating some defense foods, one of them gives like 44 to defence, turns you most formidable nemesis into a wimp.

I downed the chicken thing in green dungeon at level 9, because I had a crest on as well as my trusty axe oh and a full tummy.