Demo's Guide: http://pastebin.com/B7EF5CXk
TBJESE's guide:
The goal of this run is to get the 10 Power Berries. Timer starts when you select a new Diary "file". Before you start, please read the relevant portions of the following guides. All guides are available in the guides or the resources section.
Kirbyarm's Power Berry Guide, for obvious reasons.
SomeCrazyGuy's guide, particularly with respect to upgrading tools (hammer) and conversation/gift mechanics, with focus on Basil, Stu, and the Harvest Sprites. There is one relevant oversight in the guide: Basil gets +5 if you talk to him when he introduces himself on his farm and he has no other introduction scene.
Kirbyarm's NPC location/appearance guide so that you know when, where, and in what weather characters will appear. For this run, the only relevant characters are Basil, Stu, and the Harvest Sprites. Note there is one relevant oversight in the guide: Basil actually is available by the Greenhouse from 9-5 on Sunny Thursdays.
Kirbyarm's Festival Mechanics guide, primarily to know how the Flower Festival and the Egg Festival work, but also to know which Festivals override regular scheduling (most relevantly, the Vegetable Festival and the Swimming Festival on Summer 9th and 24th).
A calendar: Demo provided one.
Characters:
Stu needs to be raised to 80 affection, ideally by Summer 2. He's not the limiting character so you won't necessarily lose time if you're late on the date, but the deeper you go into summer before you get the marble, the higher the chance of a typhoon ruining your run.
The Sprites also need to be raised to 80 affection, but they rise slower than Stu.
Basil needs to be raised to 200 affection. He rises quickly, but takes the longest because he has the furthest to go.
Schedule:
Spring 3: Get fishing rod and fish off Ocean Pier. Fish until either you receive power berry or sunrise teleports you back home. Discard all small fish when caught as they`re likely not worth the time.
Spring 4: If Ocean Berry not received, sell rucksack of fish when you wake up, being sure to save one Large Fish. Then go fish off pier until you catch the Berry. If you don't receive the berry by this day reset the run.
Spring 4-14: Once you've received the berry, sleep through these days. Basil doesn't show up until the 15th, so don`t bother playing until he shows.
Spring 15: Sell any fish in rucksack, while still leaving at least one Large Fish. Introduce yourself to Basil on farm (you cannot give him a gift here). Then do farm chores, forage as necessary, visit outside Sprite [2 convos + gift], Basil [1 convo + gift], Stu [2 convos + gift]. You should buy one bag of Turnips when you visit the Flower Shop to see Basil.
"Farm chores" and "foraging" for these purposes ideally should be done during that brief window in the morning before the Sprites appear in their cave at 8am. So basically you're doing ~15 seconds of work per day for as many days as it takes. The priority of the chores during this stage is probably: 1) clear the field area for your 16 Flowers and 1 Turnip, 2) till that area, 3) fill your watering can, 4) idly till a soil tile, digging for the power berry, 5) idly smash the hammer, upgrading to Gold. For foraging, if you don't have enough money from fishing (require 1800G), then you should grab the medicinal herbs in the Sprite cave. Otherwise, you're only foraging for gifts, All three characters are indifferent to which edible items or flower that you grab, so just grab the closest things. Where practical, carry the item directly the character and only put the item into your bag if necessary. Note that for the Sprites and Stu, if you hold a gift during your first interaction with them in the game, then the gift does not count. So a good hypothetical route is to visit the outside cave sprite; talk to him twice; grab the nearby herb and gift it to him; go to the fisherman's screen and grab the flower, berry, and herb (bagging two of them: one for Stu, one for backup); go to the flower shop and give the item in your hand to Basil and then talk to him; and then find Stu (he'll be in school if sunny, at potion shop if rainy) and talk to him twice then gift him the gift; then go to bed.
Spring 16-22: Do farm chores, forage as necessary, visit sprites, Basil, Stu, every day. It probably makes sense to skip Sunday the 21st because it's slow to find Basil when sunny and impossible to find Basil when rainy. Be cognizant about how weather and days of the week affect the placement of Basil and Stu. You may want to get the Kappa berry one of these days by throwing the large fish into the fisherman's pond between 9-5. I suggest doing it your first sunny Saturday or right after you get the Goddess Berry so that you have another reason to be on that screen after 9am.
Spring 23: Flower Festival. Go to the square ASAP. You need 1600G to buy the Power Berry from Sam and at least two Bags of Pink Cat Mint Seeds. Speak to Basil and Stu, wait for the Goddess to arrive, speak to the mayor and then ask the closest non-Goddess Bachelorette to dance to complete the Festival.
Spring 24: Plant your 2 bags of PCM seeds, ensuring at least 16 viable flowers. Plant your bag of Turnip seeds, ensuring at least 1 viable turnip (more if you want backups). Watering these plants are now your #1 priority farm chore. Water them all every day, even if it takes longer than the 15 seconds previously budgeted.
Note with respect to rain: occasionally it will rain overnight (usually on festivals) and you will not need to manually water the plants. You can tell by the colour of the soil. Conversely, if you sow your seeds on a rainy day that does not count as watering the plants that day - if you want them watered, you'd need to do so manually.
[Alternative strategy: plant at least 3 full PCM bags for 27 viable flowers (Typhoon insurance) and pray for rain. This way you can be patient with the Calendar (i.e. not be pressured to play slow days), focus on the Farm Tilling Berry, and likely save that would otherwise be spend watering].
Spring 25-Fall 20th:
Summer notes: The berries will have disappeared and walnuts and summer fruits will have replaced them (in different spots). The green walnuts make conveniently-located forage gifts and are just as effective as every other available flower/edible.
Your Turnip needs 4 waterings in Spring to grow or it will wilt in the Summer. Harvest and bag it once it's ready. Your flowers will bloom Summer 2nd if you've watered it every day. In any case, they will grow after 8 days of watering, consecutive or not, and will never wilt in summer (but some may be destroyed by Typhoon). They will wilt in fall.
Continue with your farm chores, foraging as necessary, visiting sprites, Basil, Stu, every day with all the previous caveats still applying. Once your PCMs bloom, Stu will visit your farm. If 16 PCMs are on your farm and Stu has 80 affection he will come again and offer to trade one for a marble. Accept (first option, so you can mash).
Once Stu hits 80 affection, you can cut him out of your route for good. He will reach 80 affection on your 13th day of conversation with him (including flower festival, excluding the first time he visits your farm, and assuming you followed the guide re: gifts and introduction)[80 = 6+2+12¤(3+3)]. Once you have the marble you need no longer maintain your flowers.
Continue with the Sprites and Basil until the Sprites reach 80 affection. Sprites will reach 80 affection on 25th day (same caveats as with Stu)[80=5+25¤3]. On or after 80 affection and if you have the marble, the outside sprite will stop spawning in the cave. Go into the inner cave and speak to the closest sprite and he will give you a Power Berry. It's fastest to do this on that same 25th day after the convo+gift (and before the sprite despawns). You waste time if you check early or wait until the 26th day.
Continue with Basil until he reaches 200 affection. He will reach 200 affection on the 34th day (same caveats) [200>=5+2+33¤6]. There is no known sign that he has reached 200 affection. You'd best just keep count. Because if you're short, it'll cost you at least 17 minutes as you'll have to sleep through a full extra year. If you're long, you'll waste time by as many unnecessary days you play. In any event, he disappears in the wild from Fall 4 until the next Spring 15.
You can get the Goddess Berry at any time once you have a Turnip. You do so by wishing for Strength (2nd option) at the Goddess with full stamina. Doing any work or acquiring a power berry earlier in the day will bring you below full stamina unless you replenish your stamina by eating food or sleeping. I think the fastest/most efficient way is to do it immediately before you get the Kappa/Fisherman's Pond Berry, on a Saturday while you're still befriending Stu.
Hopefully you will have received the Farm Berry and upgraded your hammer to Gold during your chore time. If you have not received the Farm Berry, then till until exhaustion every day until you get it.
Once you have the Ocean Berry, Kappa Berry, Flower Festival Berry, Farm Berry, Marbles Berry, and Goddess Berry, then proceed by sleeping until Fall 20th.
Fall 20th: Go to the Egg Festival. Win as fast as you can. I suggest doing checking the chimneys counter-clockwise. When you win, take the exit by Rick's shop as it's fastest.
Fall 21st-Winter 8th: Sleep through. If you don't have a golden hammer, then pound your bedroom floor until you do. It makes sense to spread it across days to save time on tired animations. U
Winter 9th - Spring 14th: se the golden hammer to smash the boulder behind the fisherman's tent on Winter 9th. Then mine until you get the mine Power Berry. The Berry only appears on the 2nd level or deeper. Go as deep as you can. This berry has been known to be miserable and has taken the majority of a run before. If you don't get it by Winter 30th and don't hate yourself and want to finish the run, then don't save because doing so will take you into Spring and the mines will close until next winter: instead reset and replay the day. The reset-and-replay method may also work at fixing RNG bugs or simply as a way to warp home quicker.
Spring 15th: Emerge and Basil will give you the 10th Berry. Timer stops when you hold it.
