First of I'd like to point out this is my first guide, and I've only been playing Rogue Harvest since yesterday. However, given how tough the game is and the complete lack of any guides, I thought I'd post some advice for other beginners from what I've learnt so far.

To begin with, it is imperative that you accept that, just like in real life, you are going to die. On the other hand, unlike in real life you get the chance to start over, hopefully having learnt a couple of tricks to help you in your next attempt.

There are two ways to approach the start of the game, and they depend on what has spawned near you. If you're lucky you'll have spawned near a quarry/mine of stone, and have a ready made base. The raw stone is not as good a defence as stone walls, but it's much safer to mine from the centre and set up walls as you go along rather than try to reinforce the flimsy wooden cabin you start off in.

If you have not been lucky enough to spawn near a mine, then fire is your best defence for the first few nights. Be careful, if you put a fire too close to your cabin, the fire will burn it down. Also, if you get too close to the fire it will harm/kill you. However, if you're stuck with the flimsy cabin then approach the nights with an offensive/hit-and-run tactic, luring the boneheads and goblins (and mushrooms) onto your fires.

With basic defence out of the way, the most important thing to focus on is energy. If you keep your energy above 40, it will replenish your health.
The leaves which are dropped from trees and bushes will restore one energy point, that's not much but the leaves are plentiful.
The second most easily availble food supply are mushrooms. Be careful taking on the mushrooms, although they are the weakest of the hostile creatures, they can stil be a pain in the backside. Do not eat the mushrooms raw, unlike the leaves, they have negative side-effects. Instead craft an oven (you must be within the crafting tables range to do so) and cook them. You'll need coal to cook, but it's easy enough to make with the oven, and wood is bountiful.
Following mushrooms, the most reliable source of food, short of organized farming, is rabbit meat. Rabbits won't harm you, but they will run away from you and if you give chase be wary of your surroudings. No point getting yourself killed by fire plants just for some rabbit meat. Again, do not eat raw, it will poison you.

Once you got your walls, crafting table and oven set up next on your list should be a weapon. The silver sword is a good main weapon, but the cloud sword (needs gold) will allow you to bat away fire balls. Keep in mind weapons have a limited number of uses, so don't go wasting them on rabbits, Woodies, purple mushrooms or small spiders unless you're desperate. In most cases hit and run attacks should be more than enough (and after a level up or two you should be 1HKO'ing rabbits with your axe anyway).

The final item to thing of for you base is a bed. Sleeping at night replenishes energy, although from what I've seen only up to 40 points. Still a useful top-up.

Now that the basics are covered, farming should become a priority. Fences are essential to keep critters from eating your crops, and scarecrows help out a fair bit too. The other thing to remember about farming is that tilled land will help your crops grow more quickly. On a side note, you can harvest souls easily if you place a soul pit next to your bed.

One final note for now, with the absence of any form of map, the only way to get back to base is by following your footprints in the ground. However, I don't knowif this is intentional or a bug, in my game footprints often disappear quite quickly and sometimes appear in places I haven't been to yet. To avoid getting completely lost, I've found making arrows with wooden floor tiles to be quite useful. I place four-piece arrows about a screens distance away from each other, and with that technique I've so far always made it back to my base.


That's it. So, good luck, and if anyone has more/better advice I'd be happy to update the guide.