Looking at how skills and adders (tables, chairs, etc., in your house) radically changes what you accomplish in a day, I've been trying out a new (to me) start -- almost exclusively based on gathering, and with respec being so cheap, easily "fixed" when needed.

Day 2 -- Complete first test right away. At 0.5x, you can do this and still get to commerce before it opens. When the level happens put it in "Lucky Me". Complete second test, go ahead and run up the wood a little if it's on the way back to the farm. Presley is at cafe. Pick up at least the salad sauce. Top up stamina at Djangos -- the deal of the day plus at least one of the most expensive +XP dishes. Get license and take bridge, plus hopefully an easy commission like charcoal. Fix house, and remember to place license on the wall. Spend the rest of the day harvesting apples, eating them as needed, putting all points into "Lucky Me". Likely need the sauce, so plan ahead a bit so you don't have to wait. (I have a "standard" route where on a full day I get one tree on the way to the forest, seven in the forest, two near the bunnies, one near Sophies, cut through the pastures looking for feces, hit the three trees near the east gate. Day 2 I usually pass out in the forest.)

Day 3 -- Fill commission, take another, set it running if a furnace commission, do the west apple run, fill second commission, do east apple run, use up stamina on rocks. Craft 4 tables, 1 stool, place in house to maximize stamina.

I'm consistently starting Thursday morning at L9, maxed out in "Lucky Me" and "Mastery of Pickaxe", and a single point in "Power Up" and 294 stamina. I find I can hack at some rocks on the way to town, take a commission, go to the ruins and mine most of the day, returning in time to trade a lot of rocks for wood, grab a bite to eat, get the research started, do the east apple run, then fill today's commission. Pass out on the west apple run. Repeat Fri. On Sat and Sun, I just do the ruins until I'm out of stamina, do dinner, and apple runs.

I really like the fact that with 5 points in "Lucky Me", I can end up with a few hundred apples to spare by Fishing Day. More than makes up for the fact using the axe costs me so much stamina. At least in the short run.

Wondering whether that last point should be placed in "Advanced Mining" instead. The "Power Up" is only good for, what 6 pts? Doubled drops 8% for 290 pick strikes seems like it would work out about 4x as well. Or maybe something outside the resource path like "Smooth Talk" or "Intensive Training". I NEED "Fish Encyclopedia" by Fishing Day at the latest, so I can't neglect the resource path too much.

Any suggestions? Or am I all wet? Am I overestimating the value of leveling up?

You missed one little trick I use - on day one when you meet Presley at the harbour, stop at the first rubber tree you pass and kick it until it gives no more rubber fruit, then the tree next to it until you're out of stamina. You don't need any stamina at all Day 1, and Pres will just wait for you. I put any level gains from that into intensive training, as it speeds up further levelling up.

Nice. Just the 2 trees, right? Blow the rest on "This tree won't give you any more..."?

Played out day 2 several times, and only twice did I not run out of stamina before running out of apple trees unless I put at least 3 of the first 5 points into Lucky Me. I can see the advantage to doing Intensive Training first only if you are willing to reload until you get lucky drops.

Changed it up a little bit. Day 1 was as threp suggests. Gets me to 2nd level, a third of the way to 3rd.

Had a bit of luck in that Higgins' ingot was copper, so I was able to make a fishing pole day 2. Got a commission for 3 talismans, which I could just collect, plus sell the magnetic bracelet. Put in a commission for worn fur, minimum qty, maximum time, while I was near. Went out to grab the 100 and the 200 gols and whatever shells are close. Stopped by Sophie's on the way back to spend everything else on bait. Then mine until I hit 6 data discs, buy food, get research started, grab and drink the juice, sit a spell, hit the 3 apple trees, and fish until I run out of stamina, but reserving all apples. Sell the goliaths. For no particular reason, I did not sell the salmon. I guess I thought they just weren't enough to bother with. Hit the tree farm, and use up all the apples kicking apple trees. I did run out of stamina, so spent some time collecting chests I had not yet hit.

Day 3, Lucy wanted a few stools, which was easy, and I found out I had the cooking set on the way. That was when I appreciated how OP fishing really is. Each of those salmon will soon, with the addition of 16 gols worth of stuff from the Farm Store, recover about a quarter or more of my max stamina. A single common goliath buys enough to make 21 meals and change. Depending on what you are doing, you might go through 300% of your max stamina per day, so one day a week fishing is more than enough to keep you going all day until you pass out. That's just unachievable with anything else that I know of. Juice is too weak and too slow, or too expensive, and even dried apple slices are nice, nice, not thrilling, but nice.

It took a bit to get the Abandoned #2 opened, but once it was, stamina was never again an issue.

Well, that didn't go as I thought it would.

Seems the best case is day 1 fishing and then grab a bite and go straight to mining is the best bet. Skip tree kicking entirely except to get the 4 cocoons for 2 fish poles. Or you can get by with just the one pole if Higgins has a copper ingot.

While I can pretty easily get the bridge done by Friday, I can't seem to get 4 Dee-Dees done in time.

Ran into something I thought odd, though. I've always upgraded my pickaxe ASAP, and decided to test that assumption. The bronze obviously runs me out of stamina faster, but I had not noticed that I am mining considerably fewer resources with that stamina. This is with both of the L1 pick upgrades, and just one of the L2 pick upgrades. I'm getting somewhere between 20% and 33% more resources with the stone pick, AND I'm getting significantly more artifacts, I'm assuming because the tunnels I'm digging as smaller diameter.

Now, yes, it takes a little longer to run out of stamina, but recovery is so slow at that point in the game. There are way too few stamina consumables for sale, and you can't make any until at Abandoned Ruins #2. Maybe with the massage chair, but that requires you to latch onto at least 1 king on your first day. Yes, I've done that, but kings are so rare it takes a lot of reloads to make it happen. I'd rather play the game than reload until the RNG comes through for me.

Anyone have a similar experience? Yes, you need the bronze axe asap in order to get hardwood planks going, but I'm starting to think "upgrading" the pick is a bad move in the early game.

Been looking at Steam and Youtube. I don't see that anyone has been able to get 4 DeeDees built by the end of the first week. I'm really close -- I came within about 15 minutes of getting to Antoine about the bridge before he disappeared Wednesday evening. Thursday morning is easy. It's just that I'm not seeing any way to accomplish it if you don't turn in the bridge on day 2. Not only does the Abandoned Ruin #2 not open up, Gale won't give you the battery mission in time. I'm just not finding a path to it, but I'm only missing it by about 15 minutes.

Any suggestions?

I never did figure out how to get 4 Dee-Dees built in the first week, BUT...

This time through, I decided to try out all kinds of things, regardless of how unlikely they were to work. The Roping mini-game, which always seemed to suck before, is OP to the max. Not only does the time pause, but you only have to catch one cow or one calf to gain SP, which is quite easy. If you can catch 4 cows, you get a bonus milk, and if you do that, it's not that difficult to get a bonus Worn Fur or Milk from the sheep and calves, respectively. If you simply let the horses go, you can easily get at least one, often 2 bonus resources.

But the upshot is you can get as many Milk (+6 SP) as you have to patience to play the Roping game. That means rather than spending a lot of time running to and later from the Falls fishing spot when you run out of Stamina, you can stay there until 3 AM. Rather than having to exit the Abandoned Ruins #1 when you run out of SP, you can keep going until it makes sense to run home and get new and existing machines running.

And because roping Sheep gives Worn Fur, I no longer have to take the time to go to the Civil Corps to issue a commission.

OK, game changer. Rather than having to wait until you have enough money from fishing so you can buy the Massage Chair, you can skip fishing and the Massage Chair entirely until after the Fishing Event if you play Roping long enough to get enough Milk (+6 SP) to tide you over. I think this is likely to get me enough resources to get the Bridge done on Thursday AND 4 Dee-Dees by the weekend. Since I was only missing it by 15 minutes before, I suspect I'll be able to accomplish it in Week 1.

If anyone is still playing this game, let me know. I'll reply how this comes out.

RNG messed up my plans to get 5 disks to Research by 1800 on Tuesday. But, on the other hand, it's going to work out.

Gave Sonia the Small Satchel on Tuesday, and Roses on Wednesday and Thursday. That's 35 points from Gifts. Talk is 3 points. Two Sparring each day is 12 more, pretty much guaranteed, but if you can't take her on Tuesday, grab the Slingshot and the Magnet Bracelet. That's 50 relationship points, and I think you only need 51 to get the Beauty is Hard Work mission first thing Friday morning. So you have to win only one round of RPS out of nine tries.

Just gotta remember to swing by the restaurant before the Research Center, where the RNG will probably screw with me and give me the Fish Display instead of the Cooking Set. But if not, I'll get all the important 5 disc research done in less than a week, plus upgrade to iron tools by sometime Saturday.

Yeah, I know there are people who can do better. This works for people like me who are competent at the game, but not game-breakingly awesome.

[EDIT]
Wait a sec. Sparring twice per day is only a total of 6 points. Now I have no idea how I got to 50. I should have been 6 points short. And I chatted with Antoine and Django every day, and so far Emily twice, so that's potentially 8 points from friendship network. Maybe interactions with friends get 3/4 point?
[/EDIT]

[EDIT2]
Turns out it happens on 50 points. Which is good because I failed all 9 RPS...
[/EDIT2]

[EDIT3]
DOH! The color-correction glasses is worth 10. Now I'm wondering why I was only at 50 with her. Should have been 20 for two days of roses, 15 for satchel, 10 for glasses, so 45 from just those. I know I won all 3 days of 2 sparring each, so that should have brought her to 51.

Regardless, I realized the second research should be a rushed 10-disc tech anyway. Give the extra 20 discs. Getting the next tech level is worth much more than a silly cooking set. I can either make do with the massage chair or put up with the tedium of the roping minigame for a couple days.
[/EDIT3]

Think I've streamlined this about as much as I can for my current player skills. By 8AM Wednesday, I'm cutting hardwood planks, by 10 I have a second cutter, by noon a third, and am making the requisite copper pipes. I think it might be possible to get the bridge finished Wednesday night, but I have not yet managed it. Thursday is almost a no-brainer.

----

Make a pick, go get the 100 Gols, play Darts 9 times, buy 6 Seafood Noodles with badges, sell 6 Seafood Noodles for Gols, grab the 50 Gols (one try -- if I miss the jump, just go on) and go get the ingot from Higgins.

Buy Wooden Storage from Best Brother, all the stone and wood plus the Simple Axe, 47 copper and 8 tin from Total Tool, take the shortcut through the park to get to Commerce Guild to finish first builder test. Can be done before 9AM.

Go back to Darts and sell the last 4 Seafood Noodles.

Head back towards workshop (jumping over the restaurant is most efficient), top up to at least 30 stone, about 50 wood. Don't stress the wood -- 36-39 is technically enough for the moment. The important bit is to NOT use up all your Stamina. Save at least 5, 10, or more, depending on your Roping skills. Build 3 Stone Furnaces. Check how many wood you have, and put 1/3 in each furnace, 2 with 4 Bronze Ingots each, the third with all the remaining copper.

Go to the Roping Game by way of the 25 Gols chest. I just rope everything because I will need fiber and worn fur for fiber cloth anyway, but do as you like. You need at least 30 milk and a full Stamina bar. 60 milk is better. Or rope as long as you like. Several stacks if you like. Free resources, and only costs a minute or two of game time each time you need to replenish your Stamina bar.

Gather wood from behind McDonald's, kick the tree for 2 cocoons, go to Sophie's for bait. You want at least 40, more depending on your fishing skill. If short on cash, sell a few milk. If you have money, a lettuce seed and can of fertilizer will save time later. A good run should leave you with the seed, the fertilizer, and around 65 caterpillars, depending on
exchange rate, without selling any milk.

On the way back to the workshop, gather at least 30 wood to add burn time to the furnaces. You need them running for at least 7 hours, depending on whether you luck out and catch a King early on. More than likely, though, you won't be back until at least 1700 hours, so plan accordingly. Drop off what you don't need. Make sure to leave at least 10 empty inventory spaces, just in case you catch one of everything possible. Optionally, bring along a Royal Honey for Abu, because what else are you going to do with it? Make a fishing pole. If Higgins had a bronze ingot, the copper won't be ready until around 1300 for the copper. Fill the time as appropriate, but be ready to pick up the bar as soon as its done.

Pick up one furnace (with "F") and carry it to go see Presley. (Once you talk to him, it will "teleport" to exactly where you picked it up from, and you did not lose processing time.) Run up the ramp at the back of the park, over the roof of the school, get the Small Satchel. Possibly the Apricot Juice, depending on how much free space you have and how full your Stamina bar is. Run to the fishing spot at the falls, meeting Abu on the way.

Fish. You need around 24 Goliaths, or 12 Emperor Goliaths or any combination thereof. Just count Goliaths caught, but count an Emp as 2. If you get lucky and get a King, you only need about 6 more Goliaths. Once you have it, head back to town. Your first stop will have to be Total Tool to sell as many fish as you can, starting with the most expensive. Buy 4-8 tin and the rest of the copper, plus 2 Upgrade Kits, and sell off fish to get that cash back. Go over to Best Brother, sell off at least enough to buy the Massage Chair, sell off as many remaining fish as you need for your personal goals. I hold on to all the regular Salmon, and, if it's a high market day, sell pretty much all the rest, if it's a low market day, I only sell enough for all 5 cloth,1 balloon and a set of roses, hoping tomorrow will be better. Buy what I need from those shops, go to Alice's for roses and maybe a paper rose for Django, give the Satchel to Sonia, the roses to Gale and register the workshop, get the Bridge mission. If I didn't snag a King, it's probably 1800 by now.

Plop down the Massage Chair and recover all but 48 Stamina. (Remember to take off the Meidi clothes if you bought them. That only saves about 12 minutes of game time or so, but it adds up.) Top up furnaces as you can, but don't queue up more than enough to last til about 10AM. You are better off adding furnaces than queueing stuff that won't be available until late tomorrow.

Buy the Fruit Salad at Django's to top up Stamina and mine to exhaustion. The goal is to find 2 Old Parts (ideally 4) to get a grinder going, and enough resources to keep a total of 3 furnaces each on copper and bronze and 2 furnaces of stone brick going until 10AM. A furnace on Glass is bonus points. Don't know that it's possible if Higgins had bronze, as fishing started an hour or so later. Might be if you use milk instead of the chair, or hooked a King early.

Build grinder, queue up at least 2 blades (4 is possible if you got another furnace going after fishing), get the 8-9 furnaces good to go til morning, repair the holes in your house, (not as critical -- with the Massage Chair, it will only delay the beginning of your day by 20 minutes or so) place the Builder's License and whatever other furniture you might have, upgrade the Axe, and figure out how much Stamina to recover so you can go logging and run out right at 3AM. (A few extra milk are nice here -- rather than running back to the workshop at 2:30, you can just drink a few milk and keep going.)

Seems pretty busy, and I guess it kind of is until you get the routine in mind, but this is the hardest day to get right. It's all easier from here on, including working on whatever relationships you want.