Rune Factory 5: Beginner Tips

Quick Links

  • Don't Miss The Cure Rune Ability
  • Recruit Monsters For Production
  • Experiment With Crafting
  • Don't Go Alone
  • Plan Out Your Upgrades
  • Sleep Before 1 AM
  • Ship Everything
  • Buy A Magnifying Glass

Rune Factory 5 is a fantastic blend of farming simulation, life simulation, and fantasy RPG. You play an amnesiac who gets recruited to an organization called SEED. As they grow accustomed to this new way of life, they'll befriend their neighbors, deal with threats, and do a lot of farming.

If you are just starting your adventure in Rigbarth, we have a whole crop of tips for you to harvest. Hopefully, you won't find the massive amount of the game's content too daunting!

Don't Miss The Cure Rune Ability

One of the most important Rune Abilities, especially in the game's early sections, is Cure. This spell is cheap and will heal some of your HP in exchange for some RP. This means you don't have to carry around a ton of healing potions and meals every time you want to go on an adventure.

Your RP'll limit you, so try to save it when you're relying on the spell.

The Cure Rune Ability is located in the Meline Crystal Caverns on B1. You'll encounter a chest at the end of the floor, near the furthest exit from the starting point. The image above has the location marked on the map.

Recruit Monsters For Production

Just like in Rune Factory 4, taming monsters in this game can lead to a production line of useful resources. Many monsters, once tamed, will produce materials that they would usually drop once defeated.

While you will have an easier time recruiting monsters by giving them the items they like, you don't have to use them. You can recruit monsters with grasses and medicinal herbs, as long as they are not damaging.

Some of the most useful include Buffamoos and Cluckadoodles for Milk and Eggs, respectively – these are used in many cooking recipes.

Having lots of monsters producing materials is a great strategy for filling out your recipe books, as a huge portion of recipes call for certain material types. Getting one monster per material type is a very good idea.

You need to have befriended a Farm Dragon before you are able to construct a monster barn, and monster barns are required to tame monsters. You will get your first monster barn after beating the boss of Whispering Woods, the first dungeon in the game.

Experiment With Crafting

You'll be led to believe that the only way you can craft something is to eat Recipe Bread to learn what ingredients you need. While this is certainly one way you could go about it, you can also learn recipes by stumbling across them with some experimentation.

There are a few things to be wary of when doing this:

  • If you try a combination of items that don't form a recipe, you will end up with a failed item and a waste of resources.
  • Attempting to produce an item without knowing the recipe beforehand will make it cost significantly more RP. It's all too easy to pass out from this.
  • Attempting to produce an item that is a higher level than the crafting skill you are using may fail. The chance of failure rises with the gap between your level and the item's level.

Don't Go Alone

Your party in Rune Factory 5 can consist of up to three characters, not including the player character. It's a good idea to recruit a full party before heading on any dangerous expeditions, especially to whichever dungeon you're currently having to take on.

To get a character to go with you, you'll need to raise their Friendship to level three. Alternatively, you can equip the Companion Crest.

Once either of those conditions is satisfied, press either the L or R button when speaking to them, and you can ask them to go on an adventure. How long they'll stay with you depends on your Friendship level – at lower levels, characters will leave you in the evening.

If you go to sleep before the character leaves your party, they will still be with you when you wake up. This can be used to skip the process of finding the character and recruiting them again every day.

Plan Out Your Upgrades

Gradual upgrades are the name of the game when it comes to Rune Factory. You have to accrue a lot of resources for some of your upgrades, and others involve delving into dangerous dungeons. To that end, it's a good idea to get your priorities in order. Here are some tips:

  • Once you have a Forge, you'll want to start upgrading your tools and weapons. We recommend upgrading your Hammer and Axe first, as the upgraded versions have a chance of harvesting multiple Material Stones and Lumber logs from stumps and rocks with each strike.
  • When it comes time to upgrade facilities, it's a good idea to get the first Blacksmith upgrade as soon as possible. This will let you buy more things at their shop, including precious ores for crafting.
  • Conversely, the General Store is less of a priority when it comes to facility upgrades. The benefits you get aren't more valuable than, for example, the upgrades for your room or the Bakery.
  • Specifically, when looking at the cooking furniture, your priorities will be altered depending on your playstyle:
    • The Knife will be more useful if you enjoy fishing a lot, as the vast majority of Knife recipes use the fish.
    • The Oven is more useful if you have tamed a few Cluckadoodles and Buffamoos, as many Oven recipes require Eggs and Milk.
    • The Mixer is more useful for prolific farmers with fruit trees, as there are lots of fruit and vegetable juice recipes that require the Mixer.

    Sleep Before 1 AM

    In Rune Factory, your stats increase as you level up your skills, and you level up your skills by doing… well… anything. Alongside the typical skills – Forging, Swords, Farming – you have some skills that you don't normally see in RPGs, such as Walking, Eating, and Sleeping.

    Raising your Sleeping skill is great as it will vastly improve your maximum HP, along with slight increases to your RP, STR, INT, and VIT.

    You'll level up your Sleeping skill whenever you wake up after heading to bed, but only if you manage to go to sleep before the clock hits 1 AM. Any later than that, and you'll wake up feeling groggy, unrested, and without a skill increase.

    Ship Everything

    One statistic that the game will track is whether or not you've ever shipped an item. You can see whether you've ever shipped an item in the past by examining it in the Storage Box or Shipping Bin menus.

    It's a good idea to ship one of everything as you'll be rewarded with items and unlocks when you hit various milestones.

    A good rule of thumb is to craft one of everything, even if you don't need them. And when you're crafting something you do need, consider crafting a second one to ship. It'll only save time in the long run!

    Buy A Magnifying Glass

    You can purchase a Magnifying Glass early on from the General Store for 2,000G. This handy tool allows you to view the quality and health of your soil. It's important to keep track of how your fields are doing so you don't end up wasting precious seeds on soil that isn't going to grow them well.

    To use it, simply equip it and walk over the patch of soil you want to inspect.

    While you're there, you might want to grab a pair of Shears, too! These let you harvest the Fur from a Wooly without harming it, whether it's in the wild or in one of your monster barns.

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