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Echoes of the Plum Grovecombines thecozyaspect of afarming simulator gamewith death, taxes, and diseases. Styled off a 1600s colonial town, you’ll need to navigate your way through life in Honeywood, from finding a life partner to managing a successful farm. However, while you’ll get to enjoy a cozy life, you’ll also need to learn how to survive, especially during the harder months of the year.
Making it through your first few seasons in Echoes of the Plum Grove is an important milestone. Discover our beginner tips to help you get started, from understanding the settings to learning some of the number one features to beware.
Choose The Right Settings For You
There are various settings that you can adjust in Echoes of the Plum Grove to make in your gaming experience eithereasier or more challenging. This includes choosing to turn on or offsurvival systems.
There areseveral different survival systemsincluded in Echoes of the Plum Grove that will determine how your farming world operates. For example, one setting that you can control is whether or not your playable character will age. Other survival systems include:
If you’re looking for an easier experience but still want some challenges, you cankeep some systems on while turning off others. For example, you may choose to keep on hunger and energy but turn off item decay to help prevent one of the most notable problems in your earliest years of farming: food spoilage.
Beware Of Food Spoilage
Unless you turn off the hunger survival system, making sure you haveenough food for your character is essentialin Echoes of the Plum Grove. Unlike many other farming games you may enjoy,your little farmer can in fact die from starvation. As a result, one of the most important tasks is acquiring and storing food, whether through foraging or cooking.
However, like in real life,food won’t last forever. When item decay is activated, the food you make and find will slowly spoil over time. Eventually, it will reach a point where you are no longer able to eat it. Spoiling can happen in your inventory or in storage.
Food that is spoiled can be used to make fertilizer for your crops.
Different food will spoil at different rates. Food that is rated gold tier will last the longest, followed by silver and copper.
Prepare For The End
Echoes of the Plum Grove is all about building a bustling farm and taking care of it generation after generation. However, in order to make it to the next generation, things have to get a little dark.
Death is a prominent featurein this otherwise cozy game. In fact, it’s one of the few consistencies in Honeywood—along with taxes. There are several different ways that your playable character, and the people around them, can perish.
Characters in Echoes of the Plum Grove can die from causes such as starvation, age, and sickness.
However, thankfully in this game, death doesn’t equal a “game over” screen. Instead, when your playable character dies,you’ll have the option to continueyour work in Honeywood byplaying as one of your children. As a result, while your character is still alive, you’ll want to make sure you are properly preparing for that faithful end.
This, of course, involves having children. There are several ways one may acquire offspring in Echoes of the Plum Grove, includinghaving one with a partner or adoption. As your child ages, you’ll be able to control certain aspects of their life, such as whether or not they will go to school.
This plays a direct role in theskills your child will develop,which will later impact how you are able to play them in the next generation.
Don’t Get Too Attached To The Townsfolk
Death is a prevalent force in Honeywood, and it won’t just occur to your character. Instead, many of the townsfolk you’ve come to know and love will meet their demise at some point in the game, especiallywhen sicknesses begin to spread.
Sickness is spread by being in close proximity to other characters, such as by interacting with them. Children won’t become sick, but they canact as carriersandfurther spread diseases.
However,death isn’t the only thing that can take a particular villagerfrom you. If you’re interested inmarryinga specific person in town, you’ll need to bequickandcareful. This is because the townsfolk continue their lives even when you’re not interacting with them, andthey may decide to marry someone else in the town.
Partake In Side Quests
Day-to-day life can become mundane, especially because Echoes of the Plum Grove is designed in such a way to encourage slow gameplay. Although this may seem tedious at first, side quests can help keep the game refreshing.
In some cases, you may even be able togain essential supplies by doing quests, helping you to continue on accomplishing the main milestones within the game.
Don’t Forget Your Taxes
Living a life of leisure in Honeywood isn’t free. Instead, you’ll need to work hard to make ends meet. This is because Honeywood imposesweekly taxes on its citizens. The amount is variable, increasing as you continue playing. Taxes are due before the end of the day each Sunday.
When your character dies, you’ll have the opportunity to play as one of their children, a never-ending generational cycle of farmers. If your character doesn’t pay their taxes on time, however,it’s an automatic game-over.
In order to pay your taxes, you’ll need tospeak with the mayorto hand in your payment. Or, if you’re running short on time, you can alsosend in your payment by mail.
Choose Interactions Carefully
When you interact with your fellow citizens of Honeywood, you’ll have several different options to choose from. This includesinsulting them or offering them gifts. Different interactions can help you achieve different goals, be it finding a life partner or an enemy. As a result, make sure to carefully choose your interactions, as they can dictate how a person feels about you.
Certain quests may require you to interact with people in a certain way, such as insulting them.
Take Care During Courtship
If you’ve played games like Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon, then you may be familiar with acourtship mechanic. However, in Echoes of the Plum Grove, courtship can take on a different appearance—one that you’ll need more care for when navigating.
First, you’ll need todevelop close relationshipswith the townsfolk, specifically who you’re interested in marrying. Then, when the time is right, you’ll have topick out the perfect ringandpropose on a date. Of course, this involves showing up for your date on time, lest you miss your chance to pop the question.
You’ll have one hour from the start of your date to begin it. After that, the villager will leave.
However, the townsfolk have independent lives outside of your interactions with them. This means that certain events can arise, leaving it impossible to marry them. After all, as mentioned previously before, thetownsfolk can die for various reasons, be it age or consumption, leaving you without the opportunity to confess your love and start a family with the villager of your choosing.
