HM:StH Any% Cake Contest Notes (Stolen Milker+Forage/Chicken Route)

Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland
Any% Cake Contest Notes (Stolen Milker+Forage/Chicken Route)
[Updated 21 Jan 2026]

- You don't get an egg from a chicken on its first day of maturity (5 days after hatching), thus some of the complications in the route (e.g. having to sell 5VB early just to afford a third egg at Ronald's, to guarantee 3 chickens hatched by Summer 4).
- This also means you're short an additional 50G in the endgame, making extra eggs/Herbs/MHs a little more valuable.
- The full Summer forage might be a bit tight getting back to the cafe by 5pm, meaning you might have to make some sacrifices; obviously, you'd prefer to leave behind less valuable forageables, and shore up your money with eggs/minerals.
- By taking a separate trip out on Spring 22, you do waste some time, but in a sense it can ease the rest of the forage on Spring 23 (Katie intro day). If you do the full forage in one go, you waste ~1 hr (25s) past noon anyway, so this is a way to take advantage of this, and also get an extra chicken out of it (+300G, as well as extra eggs).
- May be worth just getting VBs on Spring 22, and skipping MDs

FULL FORAGE (SPRING)
- Carpenter's: 5VB, 5MD = 100G
- Lake: 5BB, 5MD = 200G
- Goddess: 5VB, 5MD = 100G
- Villa: 5VB, 5MD = 100G
- Total: 500G

FULL FORAGE (SUMMER)
- Carpenter's: 5VB, 5MD = 100G
- Lake: 5BB, 5MD, 5PC = 300G
- Goddess: 5VB, 5MD, 5CB = 200G
- Villa: 5VB, 5MD, 5CB = 200G
- Total: 800G

CARPENTER MINERALS
- Blue Rock: 90G
- Rare Metal: 180G
- Copper Ore: 40G
- Iron Ore: 60G
- Limestone: 40G

***Track your "bonus" money throughout the run prior to the load storage day; this includes Herbs and Medicinal Herbs. If you have a pretty good count of both, then you get 3 normal eggs on Summer 26 (+150G), you can probably safely do the cutscenes/load storage on that day and rely on getting at least 1 saleable mineral at night.***

- Spring 2: Sleep until Spring 22
- Spring 22:
	> Forage VB+MD at the carpenter's (grab a weed if you see one)
	> Ronald's: Sell all VB, buy 3 eggs
	> Incubate an egg and sleep until Spring 25
- Spring 25:
	> Hatch egg, incubate another, and put the chick outside
	> Full forage at carpenter's, lake, and Goddess (grab a weed if you didn't get one on Spring 22)
	> Weed intro+gift Katie (forage BBs and intro Katie before you forage at the Goddess pond, or else you'll miss her)
	> Enter the cafe ~10-11s after Parsley to trigger CS1
	> Re-enter the cafe after the CS and show Katie the weed 7 times before leaving (save the weed!!!)
	> Sleep until Spring 28
	> GET THE RECIPE!!!
- Spring 28:
	> Hatch egg, incubate another, and put the chick outside
	> Sleep until Summer 1
- Summer 1:
	> Grab egg
	> Hatch egg, incubate another, bring chick outside
- Summer 2: Grab egg (+50G)
- Summer 3: Grab egg (+50G) (safety save if marathon)
- Summer 4:
	> Grab 2 eggs (+50G; incubating 1)
	> Hatch egg, incubate another, bring the chick outside
	> Do chicken escape and spam Gina 49 times
	> Put the chick back on the farm
	> Sleep until Summer 28
-------------------------------------
- At this point, you have 490G and 4 chickens that can produce a Golden Egg
- Early Golden Egg is nice, but they can't be sold, so they eat into your earnings
- You can't do the cutscene/load storage day on Summer 27 (since it's Monday), nor on Summer 29 (since Summer 30 is Thursday), nor on Summer 26 (since it's Sunday), so it has to be Summer 28
- You can use Summer 26/27 to gather eggs for money and potentially get an early Golden Egg
-------------------------------------
- Summer 26/27 could be used to grab 1 egg each for extra safety, but it's best to skip them otherwise
- Summer 28:
	> Grab eggs
	> HATCH EGG!!! and put the chick outside (must be done today, because picking up the chick tomorrow would trigger the stored load)
	> If you already got a Golden Egg, then you don't need to hatch
	> Head to Villa FIRST and forage CB, then enter at 8am and sell eggs to Martha; you have to do this detour because the Villa kitchen closes at 2pm, but by doing Villa CB instead of Goddess pond CB, it still works out
	> Forage order: Carpenter's (VB), lake (PC, BB)
	> Enter the cafe at NOON SHARP for CS2, then head to the Villa
	> Head to Villa and enter to trigger CS4
	> Sell at Flower Shop (MD, PC)
	> Sell at Ronald's (VB, CB, BB)
	> Enter cafe by 5pm for cutscene
	> Head back to the farm
	> You should have at least 1300G at this point, but if you're a bit short, then mine as a backup
	> Before 5am, get into the chicken escape position, pull out the weed, and at ~4:56-4:58am, pocket the weed to store the load
	> Assuming you leave the cafe at ~4:30pm, you'll arrive on the farm at ~5:30pm
	> If you want to start pause "buffering" at ~4:30am, then wait ~4m30s real time from when you enter the farm screen (~11 in-game hours)
- Summer 29:
	> If you did any backup mining, go straight to sell the minerals at the carpenter's shop
	> Talk Katie at the lake
	> Head to Brownie Farm, sell 4 chickens, and buy a cow
	> Start PTW, then do PTW escape (whistle)
	> Back on the farm, brush the cow and put it out to pasture
	> If the current weather is sunny, sleep until Winter 5; if cloudy, sleep until Winter 6 (safety save the night before)
- Winter:
	> Start checking eggs (if you didn't already get the Golden Egg)
	> Brush the cow before milking on the first day you milk
	> Dry season ends on Winter 7, so YOLO!!!
- Once you have Golden Egg and Golden Milk
	> Give them to Katie outside the cafe on a non-rainy non-Monday
	> Enter/exit/re-enter the cafe at noon until the successful cake cutscene
	> Head home, sleep a week, and exit the house to finish the ending
	> Mondays are Winter 9/16