📖 How to Make a Living

🎯 The goal

Do chores, make things and sell them to earn money. There's no timer, so take it at your own pace (just remember to eat and drink!).

🎮 Controls

• Face the thing you want to use and press Action. A dashed box in your colour shows what you're facing.
• On a phone or tablet, each player gets an arrow pad and a big DO button. In Solo, the arrows are bottom-left and DO is bottom-right.
• In the shop or your house, use up/down to choose, Action to pick, and left/right to leave.
• Esc or the ⏸ button pauses the game.

🍗 Food & drink bars

Each player has two bars that slowly go down:

Little bars pop up over your head when you're running low, so you'll see it coming.

🌙 Day & night

The village has a day and night cycle. The little clock next to the ⏸ button shows what time of day it is and how long until it changes.

At night you can only see a tiny circle around you, unless you have a 🏮 lantern from the shop ($20), which lights up a big warm circle. Houses, shops, towers and magic shots glow in the dark, zombies have a faint glow so you can just spot them, and fireflies come out. 🌟

🏠 Your house

Player 1 has the orange house and Player 2 has the blue one. You start at your front door. Once you leave, an arrow next to you always points back home.

Walk up to your door and press Action to go inside. You can only enter your own house. Inside:

🎣 Fishing

1. Stand on the shore or a dock and face the water.
2. Press Action to cast. Your bobber floats…
3. When a big yellow ! pops up, press Action quickly!

Pressing too early scares the fish, and waiting too long lets it swim away. Walking away also reels your line in. You might catch 🐟 fish, 🐠 big fish, a rare 🐡 pufferfish… or an old 🥾 boot.

🌱 Farming

1. Face an empty brown soil patch and press Action to plant. You start with 3 carrot seeds, and pumpkin seeds get planted first if you have any.
2. Press Action again to water it 💧. Crops don't grow until they're watered.
3. Wait until the 🥕 or 🎃 is bouncing, then press Action to harvest.

Your watering can 🪣 holds 5 splashes. Refill it at the well. Carrots take about 18 seconds to grow and pumpkins about 35. Watch out: anyone can harvest a ripe crop!

🥚 Eggs & 🪓 wood

• The chickens lay an egg about every 11 seconds, up to 4 at a time. Face the red coop and press Action to collect them.
• Face any tree and press Action 3 times to chop it down for 2 🪵 wood. A new tree grows back in about 35 seconds.

🐄 Cows & sheep

The big fenced pasture on the right has a cow barn 🐄 and a sheep shed 🐑. Face one from the path above and press Action.

• 🥛 Milk builds up about every 13 seconds (up to 3).
• 🧶 Wool builds up about every 18 seconds (up to 3).
• A little bubble above each building shows how much is waiting.

🍎 Apples, bees & tulips

• 🍎 Apple trees in the top-right orchard grow up to 3 apples. Shake one with Action to pick them all. Apple trees can't be chopped.
• 🐝 Beehives make 🍯 honey about every 20 seconds (up to 2 jars). A tiny jar appears when it's ready.
• 🌷 Tulip beds above the shop bloom about every 12 seconds. Pick 3 tulips to make a bouquet!

Playing Solo? There's no neighbour, so the spot where P2's house would be is an extra tulip garden. 🌷

🍄 Foraging & beachcombing

• 🍄 Mushrooms pop up on the grass right next to trees. Face one and press Action to pick it.
• 🐚 Shells poking out of the sand (with a pink glow) hide treasure. Dig them up to find a 🐚 seashell, a 🦀 crab or, if you're lucky, an 🏺 old vase worth $65!
• New ones keep popping up around town, so keep your eyes open.

⛏️ Mining

The grey rocks in the bottom-left corner are the quarry. Face a rock and press Action 4 times to crack it open (only 2 times with the Steel pickaxe).

• Every rock gives 🪨 stone.
• Sometimes you also find a 🪙 gold nugget or a sparkly 💎 gem.
• Rocks come back after about 40 seconds.

🍳 Cooking

The pink Kitchen stall near the well has two stoves. Face a free stove and press Action. It cooks the best recipe you have the ingredients for. Every recipe needs 🪵 wood for the fire!

A ring in your colour shows the cooking progress. When it dings, come back and press Action to pick up your dish. Only the cook can take it! Dishes are worth much more than raw ingredients, and they're the best food to eat at home.

🪚 Crafting at the workbench

The blue-striped Workbench under the kitchen has two benches. It works just like the stove: face a free bench, press Action, and it makes the best thing your bag allows. No wood fire needed!

If your food or drink runs out while something is on the workbench, it gets ruined 💥, just like burnt food.

🌿 Pulling weeds

Little weeds keep sprouting on the grass around town. Face one and press Action to pull it. The village pays you $3 for keeping things tidy, and sometimes you find a 🥕 carrot seed in the roots!

📦 Delivering parcels

1. Go to the red mailbox 💌 next to the shop and press Action to pick up a parcel. It takes one bag slot.
2. Your panel at the top shows where it goes, e.g. 📦→🐄 Barn.
3. Walk to that place, face it and press Action to deliver it for $20.

You can only carry one parcel at a time, and the market won't buy parcels. If you get too hungry or thirsty, you drop the parcel.

💰 Selling at the market

Face the green-roofed Market and press Action to sell everything in your bag at once.

Prices are shown at the bottom of the screen. Every time something is sold, its price drops a little (red means cheap). Prices slowly recover and can rise above normal (green). Mix up what you sell!

📜 Villager orders

The orders board next to the shop lists three requests, like “2🐟 + 1🥚 → $40”, along the bottom of the screen. If your bag has everything for an order, face the board and press Action to get the bonus. Orders pay much more than the market, and a new one appears straight away.

🧟 Cute zombies

You get about 1½ minutes of peace first (with a warning 15 seconds before). Then sleepy pastel zombies start shuffling in from the edges of town, one at a time at first. They're slow, but they really want a hug! More of them come the longer you play. Don't worry: there's no blood, and a defeated zombie just goes 💨 poof and disappears.

• Zombie hug: if one catches you, you bounce back and drop one random item from your bag (never your parcel). With an empty bag you lose $5 instead. You blink for a moment and can't be hugged again straight away.
• Stay safe: zombies can't follow you into your house.
• Fight back: buy a weapon at the 🛒 shop, face a zombie and press Action. Zombies have 3 💚. Every poofed zombie pays a $6 bounty.
• With a weapon, pressing Action while facing empty ground swings it (or shoots a bubble).

You always use the most expensive weapon you own. Don't want zombies? Untick 🧟 Cute zombies on the title screen.

🏰 Tower stations

Look for the grey stone tower pads with a 🏗️ sign around town: near the farm, by the tulips, next to the market, by the pasture and on the beach. Face one and press Action to build a tower. Towers shoot the nearest zombie all by themselves, and you get the $6 bounty for every zombie your tower poofs.

Press Action on your tower again to upgrade it, up to level 3 (★★★). Each level does +1 💚 and fires 20% faster, and costs the build price × its current level. Facing a tower shows its range as a dashed circle. Tower shots fly over fences and home in on their zombie!

🛒 The shop

💡 Cosy tips

• Plant and water first, then go fishing or mining while your crops grow.
• Keep a little 🪵 wood in your bag so you can always cook (or craft a chair).
• Eat a dish instead of selling it when your food bar is low. A pie fills you right up!
• Buy a 🏮 lantern before your first night, and build towers near your house to keep it safe after dark.
• Drink before you're thirsty. The drink bar empties faster than the food bar.
• In co-op, split the jobs: one looks after the farm and animals and cooks, the other fishes, mines and crafts.
• Grab a parcel whenever you pass the mailbox. Deliveries are easy money on the way to other chores.
• Check the orders board. Crafted things like scarves and bouquets often earn a big bonus.