Cozy Grove combines my love of camping, animals, and spooky ghosts to create one of the most charming games I've ever seen. While the hand-drawn imagery puts you at ease, some of the tasks you are asked to complete aren't so easy. I've created a list of 10 tips and tricks I wish I'd known before starting Cozy Grove to help you out. At this point, most animal life sims put me in mind of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so get ready for a lot of comparisons as we dive into Cozy Grove tips and tricks.
This is a relatively small game that only takes up 596MB, so you won't need that much room on your microSD card to play it. But you'll still want to make sure you have the space before downloading it.
1. When Flamey gets all fired up, a new character might appear
Source: iMore
After giving Flamey the specified number of logs he asks for, he'll shoot up into a spooky blue flame. When he turns back to normal, some changes will have been made on your island. Check around; you'll likely find new items and bear spirits to interact with.
2. Don't Feed the spirits!
Occasionally, you'll notice a small imp walking around with a bubble over its head depicting an item. If you give that item to them, they'll reward you with money or other items. However, they're shy, so you can't get close. Instead, equip the item in your hand and then use ZR to hurl it at them. They'll run over and pick it up. When you see a heart over their heads, approach and interact with them to get your reward.
3. You're gonna want to make money fast!
You'll soon find that upgrading things around the island takes a lot of money. There isn't a whole lot you can do at the start of the game to add funds to your pockets, but you're going to need it as even quest items get expensive fast. Here are the best ways to earn money.
- Go fishing: Once you get your fishing pole, you can catch fish all over the island and then sell them to Mr. Kit for money.
- Check leaf piles: You'll find piles of leaves all over the place. Sometimes cleaning these up will result in you finding old coins.
- Dig up cracks: Once you get a shovel, use it to dig whenever you see a crack in the ground. You'll often dig up food items or old coins. As always, you can sell excess foods to Mr. Kit for money.
- Hack away at shrubbery: When you get a machete, attack the curly plants around the island to get items and old coins.
4. Check your mail for goodies
You'll receive letters every day in-game. Most of them have presents attached. Sometimes these items will be needed for quests, or they'll just allow you to do more in the game, so check your mail daily.
5. Add to Captain Billweather Snout's collection
In some ways, this bear (which looks way more like a bird) acts like Blathers from Animal Crossing. You can turn in one of each item you find to him, and he'll reward you with Quartz Gemstones, which can either be used to purchase special things from Mr. Kit, the fox, or to craft valuable items.
6. Upgrade your camp ASAP!
The size of your camp is directly linked with the number of items you can keep in storage. Fortunately, Flamey can help you move to larger digs if you pay him to. It costs a lot to upgrade but being able to store more things definitely makes life easier.
7. Some quests have time limits
As you get further into the game, you'll start to notice that some quests have time limits. If you don't want to miss out on the rewards for these quests, you'll want to finish them as soon as you can.
8. Sometimes Mr. Kit has the answer
You might go looking all over the island for an item only to realize that Mr. Kit has it in his shop. You can also help him upgrade his shop and carry more items by giving him old coins. Sometimes doing this is necessary for completing other quests. Just note that if you pay to upgrade his shop, it will automatically close until the next day. So, make sure to do all of your shopping for the day before initiating the upgrade.
9. Consult Flamey, Charlotte Pine, or your guide book when stumped
- Charlotte Pine is the first Bear spirit you'll meet after starting your game. If you can't find an object needed for a quest, you can pay her to help you locate it. A small green icon with a magnifying glass symbol will appear and point you to one item.
- Flamey can tell you how many logs are currently out there for you to retrieve and can also tell you if nothing else can be done for the day. Sometimes you'll literally need to wait until the next day before you can progress any further in the game.
- Your guide book is accessed by pressing X. Scroll through the quests on your right to learn more details about what you're trying to do. You might realize that you have all of the items you need to complete a quest, but you just need to do something with them, like burn them.
10. Don't forget to redeem your badges!
You can bring up your list of Badges by pressing the - button. Badges are rewarded for completing various tasks, like catching 5 fish, placing 10 decorations, or harvesting 15 leaf piles. Much like Nookmiles in Animal Crossing, you only receive your rewards for completing these badges if you actually interact with them, so check your Badges regularly to get some sweet goodies. Common rewards include hundreds of old coins or Quartz Gemstones.
11. Items have likes and dislikes
Several items, especially plants, are influenced by what is around them. The happier a plant is, the more you'll be able to harvest from it. For example, in the picture above, the Potted Tulip likes potted flower plants, lamps, and cozy decor but dislikes rustic decor. Since it's near a lamp, its leaf gauge fills more than one unit. It will be even happier and produce more Tulips if more of its likes are placed near it.
12. Sometimes you can't do anything else for the day
Cozy Grove is only intended to be played for 20-30 minutes each day. As such, there comes a point each day where you cannot progress in your quests until the following day arrives. So just go into the game knowing that, and you won't feel as frustrated. This is supposed to be a chill game, after all.
If you don't want to wait, you could always go into your Switch's settings and change the date, but we don't know if this will negatively affect the game. For example, if you do that in Animal Crossing, any turnips you've purchased will automatically rot. We haven't experienced anything like that yet in Cozy Grove, but something like that may have been built into the game.
Living life at Cozy Grove
With those Cozy Grove tips and tricks, you'll be able to start making money and helping ghosties out in no time. Just remember that sometimes the game won't let you progress any further, and you will have to wait until the following day for more quests to appear.
