Year 1 Spring 25: Starfruit Seed count

[nathan-alden-sr]

Your Year 1 Spring 25 guide says to aim for "around 400-500 Starfruit Seeds." I am wondering how such a high count is possible on Year 1.

According to my calculations, it would cost 400 * 400 * 2 = 360,000g just to buy the Seeds and the Deluxe Speed-Gro, not counting another 5,000g one must spend on Spring 25 to upgrade the Copper Hoe to the Steel Hoe. That's 50 Quality Sprinklers, so add on another 50 Iron Bars, 50 Gold Bars, and 50 Refined Quartz, which costs 150 Coal to smelt.

Given I just have the crummy Gold Pickaxe--which one is supposed to have at this point in the guide--and I must use all of my Coal smelting Bars and all of my Iron Bars and Gold Bars to make Quality Sprinklers, I am really struggling to see how this is possible. I began running Skull Cavern relatively early and also reached Mining level 10 relatively early, using your guide as my reference point. I have been trading in Gems to the Desert Trader as expected and keeping my speed buffs up. I usually reach anywhere from level 40 to 60 in Skull Cavern before passing out. I have the second Backpack upgrade so I am able to take back virtually all the drops.

I am hamstrung by the inability to make Explosive Ammo--not enough Iron Ore and especially Coal to spare and perhaps not having had a best-luck day in awhile. I can't afford Mega Bombs due to purposely saving G for Spring 24.

I simply don't have enough Jade to spam Staircases and only just recently made a second Crystalarium with the one Battery Pack that dropped from a monster. I've also been using Warp Totem: Desert items to reach the desert very early. I haven't used the Bus since the first day when I had to buy a ticket.

Am I missing something huge here? Can a minimum if 360,000g really be acquired that easily before Summer 2? That's 240 Iridium Bars, or 1,200 Iridium Ore! That's 93 Iridium Ore per day assuming one mines all day every day from Spring 17 to Summer 1 (this doesn't actually happen due to the need to do other things like visit Clint and clear the farm).

You can see in my spreadsheet that I've maximized the number of Quality Sprinklers with eight Seeds per each.

Help!

[nathan-alden-sr]

I chanced upon this video of a guy doing min-max runs on Spring 17 with the Gold Pickaxe. He crafts Bombs on the way down. I suspect this is where I'm going wrong. From the video, it looks like he collects more than enough Coal from Bomb explosions to cover.

[nathan-alden-sr]

A question: When you say to aim for 400 Starfruit Seeds on Summer 2, you mean not only the Seeds but also the 400 Deluxe Speed-Gro, no? Therefore, a total of 320,000g. Then on Summer 10, another 400 Starfruit Seeds, correct?

[nathan-alden-sr]

Assuming nine days, Spring 16 to Spring 24, with one day used to prepare the farm and no inventory:

My actual Spring 16 information (it was an excellent run to this point, as I have access to Skull Cavern on this day):

To me, that daily Iridium Ore target seems really aggressive, especially considering that some of the time:

• One will not have the Galaxy Sword, and it's RNG whether one will acquire it early
• One cannot go to Skull Cavern for the entire day every day due to tool upgrades, Seed purchases, etc.
• Bad luck days

[nathan-alden-sr]

Wow, I feel dumb. I didn't notice that Deluxe Speed-Gro is 80g on Thursdays. This brings the Iridium Ore necessary down to a reasonable number.