Littlewood – Getting Started

Overwhelmed or not sure where to start? Here’s an overview of what I focus on in the game!

An Absolute Novice’s Guide to Managing Your Day

All credit goes to gunsage!

Introduction

Early in your Littlewood experience, the game is deliberately scaled small so as to not overwhelm you. However, as time goes on there are more and more things to do, focus on, villagers to acquire, books to gather, places to unlock, and so on. What starts off as a very casual experience eventually climbs to a crash course in proper time management complete with learning what abilities are most necessary to acquire. So how to manage all of it? Well, this guide will hopefully help giving you a starting point for understanding some of the finer details within the game that I’ve learned through LOTS of playtime. Enjoy!

Window Shopping Is Free

So lets say I enter the Endless Forest to get certain types of wood. Before I chop ANYTHING, I browse around every little section of the randomly created section of the Endless Forest. Why? Because walking around doesn’t cost you energy and since energy is the “time” in the game, you can literally browse as much as you want provided you don’t intentionally or unintentionally (get whacked by an evil tree) exit the section. If there are any chests, I’ll grab those first. I’ll consider them lower priority if they’re blocked by weeds or whatever. I’ll then remind myself why I’m there and focus on just those collectibles. Early in the game everything can be considered a collectible, but as you progress you’ll eventually have to become more laser focused on what you need right then.

The idea of “window shopping” also comes into play in Littlewood itself. I know where all the weeds that have popped up are, where the bugs are hanging out, if any meteorites have accumulated overnight, if any animals need tended to, etc. There are also certain actions that don’t require any energy such as donating items, watering flowers, grabbing dew drops from the marketplace, checking your mail, looking at the quest board, and strangely, building literally anything. While talking to and flirting/complimenting villagers costs energy, it’s a very low amount, so I’ll usually touch base with each and every villager as I check their desks to see if I can build anything new for them every morning.

Make sure you also grab from the researcher box in the museum if you’ve leveled it up high enough and ensure you’ve donated everything you can every day. Also, talking to anyone outside of Littlewood doesn’t take any energy.

Things to Do Every Day (After Window Shopping)

Talk to all your current villagers and decide who you’re going to hang out with before you do ANYTHING ELSE. Villagers can randomly “find” dew drops as you perform tasks, so this is a great way to make a little money here and there doing tasks that otherwise don’t net you any money outright (this does not apply to the tasks previously mentioned in the window shopping subsection). Check your personal goal desk, mailbox, quest board, water your flowers, build stuff, make a mental note of where things are, collect your dew drops from the marketplace, grab the dew drops from the research box at the museum, feed any animals that are asking for food, and donate everything you can. If you spot any gobbys around town, ensure you talk to them because they’ll give you random items. Go into the tavern every day for a new recipe idea.

Sure, you can also cheese this by just looking up a guide and doing all the recipes, but if you decide to do this au naturale, then you can use the recipe hints as a way to guide your cooking attempts. While you’re at the tavern, make any recipes that were requested on the quest board. Now, the rest of the day very much is up to you, but here are some suggestions. Decide what you’re going to focus on and what would be the best item to get at the coffee shop. Your first one is free every day so take advantage of this every day if you can. I harvest anything my animals have for me, then harvest any crops I can. I then check my energy levels and make a decision on whether or not I want to harvest anything from my trees.

I then make the decision on whether or not I can afford to hit up the smelter, lumber mill, and/or master forge. After that I head to Deluca to go on a fishing trip, fishing experience and money permitting. Any donations I make throughout the day I ensure are NOT monetary (more on that in a second) and that I can afford in so much as I’m not saving those ingredients for something else (i.e. I can’t donate 12 perfect bricks right now because I need those to build Item X, etc.). I also try to donate as wisely as possible because while some will always be worth it (upgrading your office for example), some are just kinda okay (upgrading the coffee shop).

Now I should be running pretty low on energy. I may decide to hit up the Endless Forest or Dust Caverns if I need to find certain people for the library, collect certain things, hopefully stumble across the exotic merchant, or just plain treasure hunt by focusing on grabbing only chests (which costs absolutely no energy). Another interesting sidenote is if you go to chop a stump up for wood, it takes two hits, but it only counts as one hit to your energy. As SOON as it says I’m tired, I’m done with this section.

What Happens Now?

Doing any further actions is a gamble. MAYBE you’ll eek out one more action or maybe (more than likely) you’ll pass out, wake up the next morning, and receive an energy penalty. At this point, you need to wrap it all up and get ready for bed. Check any stores in and outside your village and make as many smart buying decisions as you can. Try to get things villagers have requested, new crops, farm animals, and buy up as many good town wishes as you can from your office. As a side note, you could buy up villager dew drop upgrades before you decide on the villager you want to have roaming with you, but it’s a very subtle increase so it’s up to you.

Fill EVERYTHING in the marketplace up with stuff you can sell, but again, do so wisely. If it’s something you’re saving away for crafting, cooking, building, etc., then definitely don’t put it up for sale. If a villager has requested something for the marketplace, do it. Double check your journal and see if there’s anything you can provide that will attract certain people that will eventually donate a book to the library. Unless you need to save them for something, sell any weeds you have. I usually end up putting up as many crops as possible that I have an exorbitant amount of. Once I’m satisfied with all that, I go home, double check my desk, form a plan of attack for the next day, then go to bed.

Things to Do on Certain Days

There are special days in Littlewood and I’m not just talking about different holiday event days. On Saturdays and Sundays all of the stock at Deluca changes as well as casino drops, Tuesdays and Thursdays are when Littlewood shops restock. On Wednesdays and Saturdays what’s offered for town wishes in your office. This is why saving and managing your money in the game becomes so important because what’s required for donations is static. Before you participate in ANY event such as finding cows, hunting down ghosts, etc., make sure you understand EXACTLY how it works because some of them give you a time limit and once it’s up, that’s it, you can’t do it again for another year in the game.

Another side note regarding the casino. On Saturdays and Sundays you’ll get another chance to do the right casino machine, but you only get one chance until the next Saturday or Sunday. This costs Deluca coins, so you’ll want to save those. The left machine can be used as many times as you want. I would recommend only using that one if you have excess coins and/or you see something in there you could really use.

Final Suggestions

Keep a mental note of where all the blue chests are in the game. No, they don’t house anything that amazing, but it’s still free goodies once various abilities have hit a certain level. Focus on getting as many villagers as quickly as possible. Talking to villagers does cost energy, but it’s negligible. They can give you presents on a regular basis that are often upgrades, building ideas, and so much more. The best upgrades acquired through donations (in my opinion) are the balloon dock so you can eventually get the master forge, Deluca so you can eventually unlock the card shop and auction house, and your office so you can acquire all possible town wishes.

Try to get all of your abilities up to at least level 50 as quick as possible, firstly so you can get all those blue chests, but secondly so you can unlock fishing trips. Once you’ve unlocked fishing trips, get your fishing ability up to level 60 so you can also unlock the dark sea. When you go on a fishing trip, prioritize any area that has something you haven’t gotten yet first and EXP Plus second. This should go without saying, but don’t bother using coffee to upgrade an ability that’s either maxed out or there’s no immediate benefit to it climbing any further at this time unless this action is all you’re going to be doing that day.

Getting all of the book donations is HARD. Double check your journal every day for information on how to get people to visit and where you can find the others. To get the maximum possible “attempts” at finding these people every day (as well as impressive ingredients, chests, exotic merchants, etc.), get your woodcutting and mining abilities up to level 60 as quickly as possible as well. Keep at least ONE of everything when you’re first starting just in case you’ll need them for cooking, crafting, donating, etc. If you acquire a new crop or tree for Littlewood, do NOT donate them until you’ve planted and harvested from them at least once. Even if you can’t plant them yet due to your level, do NOT donate them outright (yes I’ve made this mistake).

Finally, have fun! There’s a lot to absorb in this game and very little you can do to actually mess up. What I’ve provided is a very simple way to help you maximize your experience as quickly and early as possible and really, it’s more of a work in progress, even with the 40+ hours I’ve put into the game. I hope you’ve gained something from this and continue to enjoy Littlewood!