Nintendo DS Walkthroughs: Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon Rune Points and Tools Walkthrough
In the Beginning. . .
You start Rune Factory as a wandering boy with amnesia who collapses outside a woman named Mist’s house. She offers to give you an extra farmhouse on her land and a plot of your own so you can get on your feet and make a life for yourself in the village.
Rune Points
This is like stamina in other Harvest Moon games. Every action, except picking vegetables or weeds, takes up rune points. However, you can replenish them by growing food. As the food matures, sparkly things will appear over certain veggies, at least 1 or 2 for a plot of 9, and they will replenish your stamina so you can work longer.
Tools
The tools you can acquire in Rune Harvest are:
Watering can - waters 1 square of land. Must be refilled.
Hoe - tills 1 square of land.
Axe - chops branches for the wood shed (you need these to upgrade your house and build monster huts).
Hammer - smashes rocks. You need this for mining.
Fishing rod - you fish with it.
Pet Glove - You pet monsters with it to befriend them and get them to work for you.
Brush - Used to brush your monsters and acquire more friend points with them. The more friend points the more they like you and the better they will preform for you.
Shears - Used to cut the fur of Woolies.
Milker - Used to collect milk from the Buffamoos.
Basket - Used to collect eggs and honey from monsters.
At the beginning of the game you will only have a watering can and a hoe, which Mist gives to you. In order to get the rest of the tools you need, go into town and talk to everybody! Here is a list of the town’s people who will give you tools and what they will give you:
Axe - Bianca (the rich girl) will give you an axe if you go and talk to her inside her mansion.
Sickle - Till 50 squares of land with your hoe and talk to Rosetta at the seed shop.
Hammer - Unlock Carmite Cave (talk to the mayor and he will give you the pass), and then till 50 squares of land inside the cave. You don’t have to plant anything. Then talk to the blacksmith, Leo.
Fishing Rod - You must walk out onto the dock at the beach and go to the very end. Sabrina will then walk up to you and give you the fishing rod.
Pet Glove - Go to the mansion and talk to Tabatha (the maid).
You must have these tools and have built at least one monster hut and befriended one monster in order to get the rest of the tools. You can acquire them from:
Brush - Go and talk to Felicity while she’s in Neuman’s shop.
Shears - Go and talk to Camus while he is in his shop.
Milker - Go and talk to Jasper at his mansion.
Basket - Go and talk to Neuman at his shop.
Upgrading Tools
Tools can be upgraded by Leo, the blacksmith, or by yourself if you have a blacksmith shop built into your upgraded house. If you have Leo upgrade your tools, you will be out of that tool for a few days, so make sure you can live without it for a while. Also, you will need certain ingredients to upgrade your tools. All of the things you need you must get from either mining or fighting monsters in the caves (they will drop the items).
Hoe
Cheap Hoe: What you start the game with.
Sturdy Hoe
Forging time: 2 days
Materials needed: Cheap Hoe, 2 Iron, 1 Bronze
Tills 3 pieces of land straight in a row when charged.
Seasoned Hoe
Forging Time: 4 days
Materials needed: Sturdy Hoe, 3 Silver, 1 Iron
Tills 3x3 square of land when charged.
Shiny Hoe
Must be forged in your own blacksmith shop.
Materials needed: Seasoned Hoe, 2 Gold, 1 Diamond, 1 Silver.
Tills a 3x6 plot of land when charged.
Blessed Hoe
Must be forged in your own blacksmith shop.
Materials needed: Shiny Hoe, 1 Platinum, 2 Gold, 1 Earth Crystal, 1 Broken Hilt.
Tills a 3x9 plot of land when charged.
Watering Can
Cheap Watering Can: What you start the game with.
Tin Watering Can
Forging Time: 2 days
Materials needed: Cheap Watering Can, 2 Iron, 1 Bronze.
Waters 3 pieces of land in a row when charged.
Lion Watering Can
Forging Time: 4 days
Materials needed: Tin Watering Can, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze, 1 Sapphire.
Waters 3x3 plot of land when charged.
Rainbow Watering Can
Must be forged in your own blacksmith shop.
Materials needed: Lion Watering Can, 1 Gold, 1 Ruby, 1 Emerald, 1 Aquamarine, 1 Amethyst.
Waters a 5x5 plot of land when charged.
Joy Watering Can
Must be forged in your own blacksmith shop.
Materials needed: Rainbow Watering Can, 2 Platinum, 1 Emerald, 1 Magic Powder, 1 Fairy Powder.
Waters a 9x9 plot of land when charged.
Hammer
Cheap Hammer: What you start the game with.
Iron Hammer
Forging Time: 2 days
Materials needed: Cheap Hammer, 2 Iron, 1 Scrap Iron
Breaks small rocks with 1 hit, breaks medium rocks with 3 hits. Does not break large rocks.
Silver Hammer
Forging Time: 4 days.
Materials needed: Iron Hammer, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze
Breaks small and medium rocks in 1 hit, breaks large rocks in 3 hits when charged.
Golden Hammer
Must be forged in your own blacksmith shop.
Materials needed: Silver Hammer, 4 Gold.
Breaks small and medium rocks in 1 hit, breaks large rocks in 2 hits when charged.
Platinum Hammer
Must be forged in your own blacksmith shop.
Materials needed: Golden Hammer, 4 Platinum, 1 Hammer piece.
Breaks small, medium and large rocks in 1 hit when charged.
Axe
Cheap Axe: What you start the game with.
Chopping Axe
Forging Time: 2 Days
Materials needed: Cheap Axe, 2 Iron, 1 Bronze
Chops logs in 1 hit and stumps in 6 hits when charged.
Lumber Axe
Forging Time: 4 days.
Materials needed: Chopping Axe, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze.
Chops logs in 1 hit and chops stumps in 3 hits when charged.
Mountain Axe
Must be forged in your own blacksmith shop.
Materials needed: Lumber Axe, 2 Gold, 1 Bronze, 1 Ruby
Chops logs in 1 hit and chops stumps in 2 hits when charged.
Miracle Axe
Must be forged in your own blacksmith shop.
Materials needed: Mountain Axe, 3 Platinum, 1 Angered Fang.
Chops logs and stumps in 1 hit when charged.
Sickle
Cheap Sickle: What you start the game with.
Iron Sickle
Forging Time: 2 days.
Materials needed: Cheap Sickle, 2 Iron, 1 Scrap Iron
Cuts 3 patch of grass or weeds when charged.
Quality Sickle
Forging Time: 4 days.
Materials needed: Iron Sickle, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze.
Cuts 3x3 patch of grass or weeds when charged.
Super Sickle
Must be forged in your own blacksmith shop.
Materials needed: Quality Sickle, 3 Gold.
Cuts a 5x5 patch of grass or weeds when charged.
Legend Sickle
Must be forged in your own blacksmith shop.
Materials needed: Super Sickle, 2 Platinum, 1 Bronze, 1 Iron, 1 Scrap Iron.
Cuts a 9x9 patch of grass or weeds when charged.
Fishing Rod
Cheap Rod: What you start the the game with.
Bamboo Rod
Forging time: 2 days.
Materials needed: Cheap Rod, 1 Scrap Iron, 1 Bronze.
Catches level 2 fish.
Willow Rod
Forging Time: 4 days.
Materials needed: Bamboo Rod, 1 Iron, 1 Strong String, 1 Strong Vine.
Catches level 3 fish.
Famous Rod
Must be forged in your own blacksmith shop.
Materials needed: Willow Rod, 2 Silver, 1 Strong String, 1 Strong Vine, 1 Fairy Powder.
Catches level 4 fish.
Sacred Rod
Must be forged in your own blacksmith shop.
Materials needed: Famous Rod, 2 Gold, 1 Pretty String, 1 Strong Vine, 1 Fairy Powder.
Catches level 5 fish.
Farming
Farming is the backbone of most Harvest Moon games, and Rune Factory 2 is no different. It is the easiest way to make money early in the game, if you do it right.
You start off Rune Factory 2 with a plot of land. You only need to hoe 50 squares to get the sickle, so don’t bother doing anymore than that. While your field might seem like a good place to grow fruits and vegetables, it isn’t. Your field is susceptible to the changing of seasons and storms, like typhoons, that can destroy half of your crops. Plus, if you leave your field mostly wild you can collect things from it daily like different colored grasses, branches, rocks, bamboo and more! All of these items can be sold to make some extra money!
You can grow grass in your field, to feed your monsters, since it is easiest to get to, but I wouldn’t grow anything else there.
So, if you aren’t going to farm in your field, where will you farm? Well, one of the things that sets Rune Factory 2 apart from other Harvest Moon games are the variety of caves you can go into. Each cave is set to a certain season (don’t ask how, it might be magic or something) and they are not susceptible to changes of season or storms, making them the best place to grow anything.
Caves are filled with plots of land, and the best thing to do is plow all the plots of land closest to the entrance of the cave (to save yourself time when watering and picking), till all the soil and plant. Choose plants that re-grow every few days and are worth a decent amount of money, and, as long as you water them, you will have a constant income!
Caves and Seasons
The following are the available caves and their corresponding seasons:
Carmite Cave - Spring
Toros Cave - Fall
Clemens Cave - Summer
Mt. Gigant - Summer
Misty Bloom Cave - Fall (only assessable during the winter).
Kasimir Ruins - Spring
Danann Cave - Fall
Greed Cave - Summer
Seasonable Seeds
Each seed has a season that it grows. If you don’t plant seeds during the correct season they will not grow. Seeds come in packs of nine, so one pack of seeds will give you nine of the item, if grown properly.
Grass is the only plant that will grow in every season, except winter. It’s stats are:
Grazing Grass
Cost: 600 gold
Sell: Used to feed monsters. Cannot be sold.
Growth Time: 9 Days
Regrowth Time: Does not regrow.
Unlike the other Harvest Moon games, grazing grass isn’t really worth it to grow in Rune Factory. It is cheaper to buy fodder, in most cases. Each cut piece of grass will go to each of your monster huts, but that is only worth it if you have more than one hut. Even then, it is a bit too expensive.
Spring
Radish
Cost: 200 gold
Sell: 60 gold per Radish
Growth Time: 4 Days
Regrowth Time: Does not regrow.
Potato
Cost: 340 gold
Sell: 120 gold per Potato
Growth Time: 7 Days
Regrowth Time: Does not regrow.
Cucumber
Cost: 240 gold
Sell: 90 gold per Cucumber
Growth Time: 9 Days
Regrowth Time: 6 Days
Strawberry
Cost: 400 gold
Sell: 200 gold per Strawberry
Growth Time: 8 Days
Regrowth Time: 2 Days
Cabbage
Cost: 220 gold
Sell: 150 gold per Cabbage
Growth Time: 14 Days
Regrowth Time: Does not regrow.
Moondrop
Cost: 200 gold
Sell: 60 gold per Moondrop
Growth Time: 6 Days
Regrowth Time: Does not regrow.
Toyherb
Cost: 150 gold
Sell: 130 gold per Toyherb.
Growth Time: 12 Days
Regrowth Time: Does not regrow.
Summer
Tomato
Cost: 210 gold
Sell: 80 gold per Tomato
Growth Time: 9 Days
Regrowth Time: 3 Days
Corn
Cost: 300 gold
Sell: 140 gold per ear of Corn.
Growth Time: 14 Days
Regrowth Time: 3 Days
Onion
Cost: 190 gold
Sell: 70 gold per Onion.
Growth Time: 7 Days
Regrowth Time: Does not regrow.
Pumpkin
Cost: 600 gold
Sell: 330 gold per Pumpkin.
Growth Time: 14 Days
Regrowth Time: Does not regrow.
Pineapple
Cost: 700 gold
Sell: 1,200 gold per Pineapple
Growth Time: 20 Days
Regrowth Time: 5 Days
Pink Cat
Cost: 300 gold
Sell: 70 gold per Pink Cat.
Growth Time: 6 Days
Regrowth Time: Does not regrow.
Fall
Eggplant
Cost: 250 gold
Sell: 80 gold per Eggplant.
Growth Time: 9 Days
Regrowth Time: 3 Days
Carrot
Cost: 210 gold
Sell: 90 gold per Carrot.
Growth Time: 7 Days
Regrowth Time: Does not regrow
Sweet Potato
Cost: 330 gold
Sell: 120 gold per Sweet Potato.
Growth Time: 5 Days
Regrowth Time: 2 Days
Spinach
Cost: 210 gold
Sell: 150 gold per Spinach.
Growth Time: 6 Days
Regrowth Time: Does not regrow.
Green Pepper
Cost: 260 gold
Sell: 70 gold per Green Pepper.
Growth Time: 7 Days
Regrowth Time: 2 Days
Charm Blue
Cost: 1,000 gold
Sell: 120 gold per Charm Blue
Growth Time: 10 Days
Regrowth Time: Does not regrow
Farming Tips
In order to grow food, you must first till your soil. Since seeds come in packs of nine, you have to till a 3x3 square of land in order to plant all the seeds. It should look like this:
xxx
xxx
xxx
In order to plant all the seeds, stand in the middle and toss them in the air.
Also, you must water your plants on a daily basis. If you miss a day, they will not die, but they will not grow for that day either. Keep that in mind!
Also, in order for a crop to regrow, it must be watered daily!
Strawberries are a very good way to make a lot of money. Grow them inside of Carmite Cave.
Grow a wide variety of plants if you want to cook. The only way to get ingredients is to grow them yourself!
This post is part of the series: Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon Walkthrough
Ever need help learning the ropes of Rune Factory? Look no further than this helpful walkthrough, which will tell you how to farm, use and upgrade tools, court and marry, fight through caves, and catch and raise monsters!