Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town on GBA — Crop Profits, Marriage Requirements, and Tool Upgrades

Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town on GBA is most profitable when you plant Cucumbers in Spring, Corn and Tomatoes in Summer, and Sweet Potatoes in Fall, marry after triggering all four heart events at the correct locations, and upgrade your Hammer and Axe before your Watering Can.

Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town GBA vs. More Friends of Mineral Town

Friends of Mineral Town (2003) and Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town (2005) are the same game on Game Boy Advance with one key difference: the protagonist. In the original Friends of Mineral Town you play as Pete, a boy who can court six bachelorettes. In More Friends of Mineral Town you play as Claire, a girl who can court six bachelors. The town map, crops, tools, mines, and festivals are identical. All crop profits, tool upgrade costs, and heart-event mechanics in this guide apply to both versions, only the marriage candidates change.

Both games also connect to Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life on GameCube via GBA link cable to unlock new characters and items, but no link cable is required to complete the main game, get married, or upgrade every tool to Mystrile.

Season-by-Season Crop Profits: What to Plant

Profit in Friends of Mineral Town depends not on single harvest price, but on profit per day and whether a crop regrows. Regrowing crops save you the cost of rebuying seeds and the days lost replanting.

Spring Crops

*Assumes planting on Spring 1, excludes festival days that block planting. **Turnips break even on raw seed cost, only useful for quick cash. ***Potato yields 2-5 potatoes per harvest at ~80G each, average ~240G per planting. Cabbage is a trap for beginners due to its long grow time.

Verdict for Spring: Plant Cucumbers as your main income. Add a 3×3 patch of Turnips in the first week for early cash flow, then replace them with Cucumbers by Spring 10.

Summer Crops

Verdict for Summer: Corn and Tomato beat everything. Pineapple looks valuable but you only get two harvests and tie up your field for 21 days. Plant Corn and Tomatoes in a 60/40 split for maximum daily income.

Fall Crops

Verdict for Fall: Sweet Potato is the most profitable crop in the entire game. Eggplant is second. Never plant a full field of Carrots or Spinach after Fall 15.

Worked Calculation: Why Regrowth Matters

Here is why a cheap regrowing crop beats an expensive one-time crop. Take Fall Sweet Potatoes vs. Carrots on a single tilled square planted on Fall 1:

Sweet Potato: 300G seed + 6 days to mature. Then harvests on Fall 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 30 = 9 harvests. Potatoes yield 2 tubers per harvest on average, 2 x 100G = 200G per harvest. Total revenue = 9 x 200G = 1800G. Total profit = 1800G – 300G = 1500G. Profit per day = 1500G / 30 days = 50G/day.

Carrot: 300G seed + 8 days to mature. You must re-till and replant after each harvest. You get harvests on Fall 9, 18, 27 = 3 harvests. Revenue = 3 x 300G = 900G. Seed cost paid 3 times = 900G. Profit = 900G – 900G = 0G if you replant the same square, or 600G if you count only two rebuys after the first planting (900G – 300G = 600G shown in table). Profit per day = 600G / 30 days = 20G/day.

Same field, same season: Sweet Potato earns 2.5x more per day and saves stamina because you do not need to till and replant every 8 days.

Grass is the exception. Plant Grass in any season; it grows year-round and provides fodder for chickens and cows in winter when no other crops grow.

Marriage Requirements and Every Bachelorette’s Heart Events

To marry in friends of mineral town gba you need: a Big Bed from Saibara’s shop (costs 10,000G and requires house upgrade level 2), 60% friendship completion with the girl, all four heart events seen, and the Blue Feather from the supermarket after she reaches Red Heart (65,000 affection points). You must also have rescued the Harvest Goddess by finding her at the waterfall.

Heart events trigger at Black (10k), Purple (20k), Blue (40k), and Yellow (60k) affection. Give loved gifts daily and talk to her. If an event does not trigger, check time, location, and that you have an empty slot in your rucksack.

All Six Bachelorettes and Where Their Events Trigger

• Popuri (Poultry Farm Girl): Loves Eggs. Black: Poultry Farm 10am-6pm. Purple: Church 10am-6pm. Blue: Hot Springs 10am-6pm. Yellow: Poultry Farm 10am-6pm. Easiest for beginners because eggs are free from your chickens.
• Elli (Midwife at Clinic): Loves Milk, Flowers. Black: Clinic Monday/Wednesday, 10am-1pm. Purple: Supermarket, Wednesday 12pm-4pm. Blue: Clinic, 10am-1pm. Yellow: Clinic, 10am-1pm. Requires an upgraded barn for milk.
• Ann (Inn Girl): Loves Spa-Boiled Eggs, Onions. Black: Inn 10am-6pm. Purple: Inn 10am-6pm. Blue: Hot Springs 8am-10am. Yellow: Inn 10am-6pm. Check the Hot Springs early for her Blue event or you will miss it.
• Karen (Vineyard Girl): Loves Wine, Bamboo Shoots. Black: Supermarket 10am-1pm. Purple: Vineyard House 10am-1pm. Blue: Vineyard 12pm-3pm. Yellow: Supermarket at night 7pm-9pm. Her schedule changes after the vineyard reopens in Fall Year 1.
• Mary (Library Girl): Loves Mushrooms, Vegetables. Black: Library 10am-4pm. Purple: Library 10am-4pm. Blue: House by Library 10am-6pm. Yellow: Library 2nd floor 10am-6pm. She stays indoors on rainy days, making her events reliable.
• Ran / Ran Flower Shop Girl (called Jennifer in some translations): Loves Moondrop Flowers, Wool. Black: Rose Square 10am-6pm. Purple: Flower Shop 10am-6pm. Blue: Rose Square 10am-6pm. Yellow: Flower Shop 10am-6pm. Moondrops grow wild in summer and fall, so they cost nothing.

In More Friends of Mineral Town, the six bachelors are Kai, Doctor, Gray, Cliff, Rick, and Trent, with equivalent heart-event locations tied to their workplaces. The Blue Feather works the same way.

Common mistake: Raising affection but skipping an event locks the next one. You must see events in order. If Elli is already at Blue Heart but you never saw her Purple event at the supermarket, she will not progress to Yellow until you trigger Purple.

Tool Upgrades: Optimal Order and Ore Costs

Every tool upgrades through five tiers: Basic -> Copper -> Silver -> Gold -> Mystrile -> Blessed/Cursed (later). Saibara at the Blacksmith handles the first four tiers. Each upgrade costs G and requires ore from the two mines behind the waterfall (Spring Mine) and near the lake (Lake Mine).

Ore and Cost Matrix

You also need the tool in your rucksack and must have used it a set number of times to show experience. If Saibara says you lack experience, keep using the tool for 2-3 more days.

Optimal Upgrade Order and Why

Do not upgrade your Watering Can first. The best order for Year 1 is:

• 1. Hammer to Copper immediately (Spring 5-10): Lets you break small rocks in the field and in Mine Floor 1. Clears space for more Sweet Potatoes later. Costs only one copper ore.
• 2. Axe to Copper (Spring 10-15): Lets you chop stumps that regrow daily and give lumber, which you need for the house upgrade required for marriage. Also needed to clear the forest stump blocking the secret harvest sprite area.
• 3. Hammer to Silver then Gold: Silver breaks medium rocks in the Lake Mine. Gold breaks large boulders blocking Lake Mine 10+. This progression unlocks Mystrile faster than any other tool.
• 4. Axe to Silver/Gold: Same logic – bigger stumps and logs block forest growth. Gold Axe is required to get lumber efficiently in winter.
• 5. Watering Can to Copper/Silver (Late Spring): Copper waters 3 squares, Silver waters 6, Gold waters 9 in a line. Only upgrade it once you have more than 40 crops planted. Before that, the stamina saved is not worth 3-5 days without watering (keep your crops watered by asking the Harvest Sprites to help while tools are at the smith).
• 6. Fishing Rod and Sickle last: They do not gate ore or lumber. Upgrade them in Winter Year 1 when farming is slow.
• 7. Mystrile for all tools (Winter Year 1): Mystrile is rare – save-scum Floor 60 of Lake Mine by digging every square and resetting if you do not find it. You need one Mystrile per tool.

Decision matrix: If you have <2000G and only a few crops, hammer first. If you have >3000G and 60+ crops and no stamina issues, watering can moves to priority 3. If you plan to marry in Year 1, axe jumps to priority 1 to get lumber for the Big Bed.

How to Avoid Losing Days to Upgrades

The Blacksmith holds your tool for 3-10 days. To avoid dead crops: check the TV weather forecast – give him tools right before a rainy day (no watering needed) or before a festival. Hire the Harvest Sprites at the church to water for 100G per day. Never give him two tools at once in Summer or Fall.

Common Fixes for GBA-Specific Issues

If heart events do not trigger: confirm you have seen the previous color event, you are in the exact building at the listed time, and your rucksack is not full. The game silently fails the event if inventory is full.

If you cannot find Mystrile: you are mining too shallow. Copper is floors 1-9, Silver 10-29, Gold 30+, Mystrile 40+ in Lake Mine only. Use the elevator trick: dig to floor 50, save, dig all floors to 60, reload if no Mystrile. The load is random per floor reset.

If crops wither: you missed a watering day or planted out of season. Turnips planted in Summer will wither overnight. The game does not refund seeds.