Playing through the game a second time as a boy, I find myself returning to my old, more careful ways of noticing things and oddities. Rune Factory, like Harvest Moon requires a lot of time, energy and patience. You cannot forge the weapons you would like to make at the beginning, nor can you craft armour and accessories that are very powerful, even if you find potent upgrade materials in the dungeons. The first of any item found, by the way, really ought to be shipped as you then will have an opportunity to purchase it in the future, even if that option does not exist quite at the start. Later, merchants can be enticed to the village who will offer any item you have shipped (apart from a couple of odd exceptions) randomly for sale.
So, what is a poor farmer/adventurer to do? You may have a wonderful Lightning Mane, but the difficulty value is far too high to use it. Here is a list of items that are found easily at the start that can be used either to upgrade weapons and accessories you actually intend to use or to use simply to raise your experience level at the Forge and Crafting Table.
Note that the items listed below are NOT War Trophies or items that one would expect to carry increased abilities or potency. They are the items that do NOT give any values when you hold them or look at them on their own. You have to insert them in the Materials box at the Forge or Crafting Table to see what would happen if you were to use them.
A very happy discovery here was that the lowly Spinach carries with it the power to increase the item's poetncy by +2 Magic Attack. I do not think there is any War Trophy that has a Difficulty Level of 9 that has the same potential at the start of the game.
Note furthermore that this list is not exhaustive. It is simply a little project that I undertook using whatever was in my Backpack, Fridge and Storage in the middle of Spring in the first year. It is not the potency of the Items that make them useful particularly but the fact that they can be used with very little forging or crafting experience. Obviously, you will obtain many War Trophies with far greater potency but you will be unable to use them as your total RP will be insufficient. These all require little RP to use.
Toyherb: Vit +1, Ftg Res 5%
Moondrop: Int +1
Pink Cat: Int +2
Medicinal Herb: Ftg Res +1%
Antidote Grass: Psn Res +3%
Rock: Critical 1%
Branch: ATK +1
Can: Knock +1%
Lumber: ATK +1
Material Stone: Critical +1
N.B. The stats of Lumber are no different from Branch, nor is Material Stone any different from Rock... no point in processing the raw material if using in forging or crafting.
Potato: Vit +2
Turnip: Str +1
Spinach: Mag Attack +2
Radish: Vit +3
Bamboo Sprout: ATK +1
Roundoff: Seal Res +7%
Paragone: Para Res +7%
Food items can be used to raise the level of the Weapon or Accessory but will not give any increased stats to it. The value of the food item in terms of those stats will accrue only if you eat it. I am speaking here of Cooked Dishes and Ingredients purchased at the Market. Crops, on the other hand, DO affect stats as do Medicines.
Another tip that may be helpful in terms of acquiring Materials that you cannot access through dungeon hunts or 'dungeon farming' near the start is to take any unusual item that is given as a Reward for completing a Request and shipping it rather than using it. You can use your Prince/Princess Points early on to bring a Gem Merchant to the village. He will stand in the northwest corner of the main chamber of the Bathhouse and will sell random Gems, Crystals and Ores that you have shipped previously. He will NOT offer any item that has not been shipped.
Thus, for instance, when you complete the Request that carries Silver as a Reward, make certain to SHIP that piece of Silver if you are at a point in the game where you have not reached a dungeon that contains any Silver. Silver is needed in almost all the Weapons and Armour that can be made early in the game above the level of those made with Bronze.
Finally, there is a good use for Scrap Metal and all the Iron that you find everywhere at the start. Use it to upgrade any cheap item made at the Forge or Crafting Table, NOT in order to equip the finished product but to ship it only. You need to practice your forging and crafting (as well as cooking!) in order to raise your Level to the point where you actually can use GOOD materials and make powerful weapons and accessories. One way to do this is by making hundreds of Broadswords and Small Shields and so on, upgrading each to Level 10 before shipping them. As I wrote at the very start of this post, any Harvest Moon or Rune Factory game imitates life in the sense that nothing is easy, and everything good takes time, energy and patience!
N.B. I have written about this elsewhere, but it probably is worth repeating for the player who is unfamiliar with the game. Any Material used to upgrade a Weapon, Tool, Armour or Accessory will give its value ony ONCE to that item. In other words, it is only the first piece of Iron that you use to upgrade an Item that will increase the potency of it. You can use 8 more Iron Ore on a Level 1 item and the LEVEL will increase to the maximum of 10 but the stats will not change after the first piece is used.
Iron by the way is useful stuff where increasing your own Skill Levels are concerned, because you find it everywhere. I ship very little in the initial stages of the game, choosing to store it for use in Forging and Crafting instead.
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