At first glance, Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town seems like a typical Harvest Moon farm simulator, where Story of Seasons players is left with their grandfather’s Farm in the pioneering Olive Town. However, fans of the Harvest Moon franchise know that there’s more than meets the eye in this Story of Seasons installment, as there’s a lot of mysteries to be solved and stories to be heard throughout the player’s journey.
Thing is, before players even embark on their journey to learn about the town their grandfather helped begin, they may want to learn everything there is to know about their Farm. Moreover, players may want to ensure their Farm’s success before diving deeper into the rest of what Pioneers of Olive Town has to offer. How should players approach their Farm’s layout to begin this journey?
Focus On The Basics
Before players focus on optimizing their Farm both in terms of beauty and efficiency, players of Pioneers of Olive Town should first understand more fundamental components of the Farm and how they play into this process. Understanding how some Farm components work together may be able to give players better insights on how best to arrange the elements in their Farm.
Put Up Specific Makers Beside Their Raw Materials
Part of what makes Pioneers of Olive Town gameplay quite attractive for players is how there are a lot of extra structures players could build to further add a layer of realism to the farming experience. However, just because certain structures exist to provide certain functionalities doesn’t mean players can get reckless in putting them anywhere they like.
To ensure that the Farm stays efficient, players should consider the placement of certain necessary structure combinations in their layout. For instance, the Well should always be next to crop areas in case of emergencies. Likewise, Mayonnaise Makers should be beside the Coop, since they’re made mostly of eggs.
Put Chests In Various Areas
While it’s tempting in Pioneers of Olive Town gameplay to just put Chests all in one location, the more optimal solution is to place Chests in locations all around the Farm. That way, players don’t necessarily have to run all the way to opposite sides of the Farm just to store extra equipment and items that they’ve procured.
Ideally, players should have Chests situated close to entrances of Farm “sections.” That way, players can easily gather items they need or have acquired after entering or before exiting these areas. This also allows players to store Hidden Items they’ve found throughout their Pioneers of Olive Town playthrough.
Focus On Optimizing Supplies And Machines
One of the best ways to make the best Farm layout in Pioneers of Olive Town is to organize the Farm in such a way that everything players need in terms of supplies are easily accessible to them.
Due to how vast the Farm could be, it’s easy to get lost just touring the entire Pioneers of Olive Town Farm for secrets. And while this adds to the entire appeal, min-maxers and serious farmers might not appreciate this complication. Thankfully, there are ways to maximize the Farm layout in Pioneers of Olive Town.
Separate The Farm Areas
While most farming sims would recommend players maximize their farm land as often as possible, this can easily lead to a congested, factory-like setup in Pioneers of Olive Town gameplay. To avoid making something inefficient as this layout, players may want to consider separating their farmlands in spurts.
When tilling soil, it’s best to consider setting up plantings paces in 3x3 or even up to 6x4 layouts. That way, there’s more than enough space for multiple gathering opportunities while at the same time providing enough room for sprinklers to reach the plants.
Maximize Secret Locations
When players start to make offerings to the Shrine, part of their potential rewards would be unlocating Secret Locations. In the context of Pioneers of Olive Town gameplay, these Secret Locations are able to help players get access to an extra few spaces of land where they can plot more crops outside their Farm.
These Secret Locations, called Gardens, have set climate settings, meaning they’re built specifically to help players grow specific crops such as those for Winter. Players should use this to their advantage, and should focus on their mass-production efforts in these locations to further expand the main Farm into something more appealing and optimized.
Remember The Upgrades
As with other farming sims, the gameplay of Pioneers of Olive Town does feature a way for players to acquire multiple things and synthesize resources to generate more materials. Called Makers, these generate a wide variety of materials ranging from mayonnaise to clothing. However, what’s important to note here is that players should refrain creating a ton of Makers on the get-go.
Aside from being space-consuming, too many Makers in a Farm can make the location seem like a manufacturing plant or a factory. Instead, players should focus on acquiring materials to upgrade their Makers into their Giant counterparts instead. That way, players can produce more materials while occupying smaller spaces.
Focus On Aesthetics, It Can Take Time
Players who want to make the best Farm layout in terms of overall visuals don’t necessarily need to clog their views with super-optimized machines. In fact, with the right tweaks, players of Pioneers of Olvie Town may be able to transform their Farms into a visual paradise, focusing on beautiful trees and flowers to populate their new virtual home interspersed with other important components of the Farm.
Random Weeds And Trees Make For Good Accessories
Similar to other farming games, Pioneers of Olive Town gameplay will likely have the game respawn random generic plants such as weeds and trees in empty places provided players leave them alone for long enough. This can actually become a saving grace for Farms in terms of aesthetics, as “random” trees and weeds overgrowing in a Farm gives the location a more natural appeal.
Aside from just leaving a spot alone, players can further control the growth of trees and weeds by first placing pathways around the Farm. That way, players “dictate” where the game can spawn random plants. Players can even just scoop out rocks, small ponds, and other spawned materials until they get their desired result.
Transform Rocks And Ponds As Highlights
Aside from trees and weeds providing for visually-immersive natural decoration in Pioneers of Olive Town, players can also use rocks and ponds to their advantage in the context of becoming a Farm’s highlights. Similar to trees and weeds, rocks and ponds may grow randomly in empty plots of land. Compared to the former, however, rocks and ponds pretty much spawn in the same area unless covered with a path or a structure.
Players who want to add a more natural “highlight” to their Farm may want to leave these areas alone and instead adjust some parts of the Farm to accommodate the appearance of rocks and ponds. A lamp post beside a rock or a pond just in the center of a group of plants can give the Farm an irregular, asymmetrical appeal.
Combine Fence Layouts
One of the best methods players could use to optimize their space in their Pioneers of Olive Town gameplay is through fences. And with different styles available, players may just be able to find the right kind of fence depending on their desired aesthetic. However, one of the more creative ways to use fences would be combining them to give the Farm a more aesthetic appeal.
This means trying to mix things up by choosing a different style of a fence when doing corners, such as using stone fences in between wooden fences, just to give an area of the Farm a “different” look. This is also a good way of slowly transitioning from one part of the Farm to the next.
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town was released in 2021 for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC.