Upgrading tools is a crucial part of not only succeeding in Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town, but also important to make the game more enjoyable and less of a grind. You only have so much time and energy a day, and if you have to go to the hot springs twice you’re not going to get much else done. But a common problem comes up which is the question: How do you level up your axe in Mineral Town?
Leveling up your axe in Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is actually very easy and is done by repeatedly swinging the axe, even if there are no branches or stumps on screen.
For many of us the original Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town or Harvest Moon Back to Nature were the original games that introduced us to the farm-sim genre. For me it was Friends of Mineral town, so when it was updated and re-released on Steam I was thrilled to buy it and visit the old Harvest Moon world that introduced me to the farm-sim/cozy game genre.
But it’s also a new world, and mechanics that didn’t seem grindy or confusing back then suddenly felt odd, antiquated, or unintuitive in a world where Stardew Valley is an old game that spawned dozens of great imitators and other cozy games that have continued to establish a baseline for what players expect out of these games.
And not knowing how to upgrade my axe in Friends of Mineral Town drove me nuts. Harvest Moon’s re-release was more stressful than I remembered, now that I was used to better.
The good news is with a little research it became easy to level up your axe, or any other tool, in Friends of Mineral Town.
Let’s dive into everything you need to know about Friends of Mineral Town how to upgrade your tools, including your axe and everything else – because it’s easier than you think!
Special Note: The redone re-release of Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is now available on the Nintendo Switch!
How To Upgrade Your Axe the Easy Way in Friends of Mineral Town
I ran into this problem early on. There was no problem at all getting the experience so I could upgrade hoes and scythes, but early on you could only find sticks and there weren’t nearly enough of them to level up the axe. Stumps are a bigger source of experience, but the original axe couldn’t even put a dent in the weakest of them!
The way to level up your axe in Story of Seasons is simple: just use it.
While this seems like a “Duh” answer, swinging your axe adds experience to your axe skill even if you’re not actually cutting wood.
This is how you can upgrade your tools fast in Story of Seasons. Just pick a tool and keep on swinging it even if there’s nothing around for you to get out of it. Focusing on one tool piles on the experience
How the Axe Leveling Up Mechanic Works in Friends of Mineral Town
The mechanic gives experience for using the tool. While in most games this means actually using it the way it is meant to be used (chopping a tree for axe, hoeing dirt for a hoe, watering plants for a watering can, etc.) keep in mind that when the original Mineral Town came out over 20 years ago in 2003 gaming systems had much bigger limitations which meant more basic in-game mechanics.
Why does this matter?
Because to level up your axe in SOS Friends of Mineral Town, you don’t have to chop a branch or a stump, you just need to swing the axe.
This means if you need more experience to level up the axe, just wait for a rainy day in spring, run up to the hot springs, and just swing at the air like a crazy person until you’re out of energy. Soak in the hot springs to regain your energy, and do it again.
While leveling up isn’t fast in this game, it solves the problem of there not being enough branches/sticks in the entire year one of the game to level up if you just do it “the honest way.”
Related Article: Our Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town Winter Guide will run you through everything you can, and should, be doing in winter including getting to the hidden lake mine, upgrading tools, training helpers, advancing certain story lines, and more!
So take advantage of this mechanic to level up to a copper axe, at which point you can get a lot more wood and level up a bit easier without nearly as much mind-numbing swinging at air moments.
This video is clear evidence that swinging at air is a perfectly viable way for upgrading your axe, or any other tools, in Friends of Mineral Town.
How to Upgrade Your Axe Fast in Friends of Mineral Town – 2 Minute Video
This works at more advanced levels, as well. Generally speaking, none of the other Friends of Mineral Town tools are hard to upgrade because there’s always enough resources to use them naturally and level up.
You Can Upgrade All Tools in Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town The Same Way
The same mechanic you can use to upgrade the axe can be used to upgrade any of the other tools in this game. Swing the scythe, swing the hammer, slice the air with the axe – they all help to gain experience to level up.
This is the mechanic is what you need to know to get the most out of your tools in this Harvest Moon remake.
Level Up Your Axe During Hurricanes & Blizzards
Once you understand how these mechanics work, you can actually do something on those annoying days where the storm or blizzard is so strong that you can’t leave the house.
Simply pick your axe, and start swinging at the floor. Because of the wonders of video game logic you do no damage to your house, but can get some experience stacked up on your tool. And since experience comes with swinging the axe instead of actually cutting, it’s a great way to level up your axe in Friends of Mineral Town on a day where you otherwise can’t do anything else!
IMPORTANT NOTE: Don’t go all the way to the bottom of your energy. I recommend leaving at least three hearts if not four, because if you use all your energy and go to bed you wake up with a deficit the next morning, which takes away from some of the benefit of training indoors.
This isn’t going to be a big boost to experience, but every little bit adds up, especially if it’s a day that would otherwise be completely wasted!
Upgrade to a Copper Axe ASAP
Once you have leveled up to a coper axe in Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, continuing to level up the axe is much easier because most stumps around only require a Level 2 Axe. There are several that require level 3 or level 4 axe upgrades, but there’s enough new sources of wood that leveling up seems less of a pain.
And if you’re like me and the idea of swinging at air to level up annoys you because it breaks the immersion of the game, this will help reduce that (although it won’t get rid of it completely) and let you also actually get raw resources for your actions and energy usage.
Not to mention the fact that the Level 2 copper axe saves energy which you will increasingly need as you’re trying to expand your farm and grow your overall fatigue/life bars.
Here’s a detailed table on Friends of Mineral Town axe upgrades for the 2019 re-release, and it’s important to note that as with many things in this game, there have been some small alternations or changes from the original game released back in 2003.
| Axe Tool Level | Cost to Upgrade Axe | Abilities/Special Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Level 1 | None – this is the starting Axe | Only chops small branches. |
| Copper Axe | 100 XP + Copper Ore + 1,000G | Chops small tree stumps with power hits. |
| Silver Axe | 100 more XP + Silver Ore + 2,000G | Chops Level 3 stumps, can chop level 2 stumps faster |
| Gold Axe | 100 more XP + Gold Ore + 3,000G | Chops Level 4 stumps, can chop lesser stumps faster |
| Mithril Axe | 100 more XP + Mithril Ore + 5,000G | Chops all stumps faster, uses less energy |
| Cursed/Blessed Axe | Cursed: Find Floor 49 of Lake Mine Blessed: Use Cursed Axe 50 Times | Chops all stumps faster, uses less energy |
| Mythic Axe | Mythic Stone + 50,000G | Can one-shot all tree stumps |
You only need one of each type of ore to upgrade a tool. The rest you can sell for profit in your shipping bin.
Leveling Up Your Axe in Friends of Mineral Town: Wrapping It Up
Don’t spend endless days wandering around looking for one or two branches to get a pittance of experience points for your axe like I did. I’m embarrassed to admit it took me until early Fall of year one to figure out that swinging gave experience, and that only happened by a happy little accident.
I was running down the path, frustrated that there wasn’t any more non-stump wood on the entire map because I was so close to finally getting an upgrade when I accidentally clicked, swinging the axe in the middle of the road…and received a message that I leveled up and could upgrade the axe now.
Surprised, I tested this after upgrading the axe and sure enough, chopping enough air led to XP growing. Knowing this from Spring day 1 makes life much easier when upgrading your axe (and other tools) while playing Mineral Town.
Shane, aggravated he didn’t know about this sooner and fortunate he figured it out at all!
Now you have all the information you need to level up your axe in Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral town so you can get back to making progress and enjoying this game, which influenced so many of the incredible games that would follow in the future.
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Proud to embrace the locally created moniker of “Corrupt Overlord” from one of the all time great Lords of Waterdeep runs, Shane is one member of the Assorted Meeples crew and will be hard at work creating awesome content for the website. He is a long-time player of board games, one time semi-professional poker player, and tends to run to the quirky or RPG side of things when it comes to playing video games. He loves tabletop roleplaying systems like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Werewolf, Fate, and others, and not only has been a player but has run games as DM for years. You can find his other work in publications like Level Skip or Hobby Lark.