Hey there, farmer! Looking to maximise your profits in Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar? Look no further.
Depending on how you like to play farming games, making a good profit might not be at the top of your priority list. You may be more interested in learning all the recipes, or making friends and building relationships. Personally, I like to try and make as much cash as possible, and as the game opens up and more unlocks and upgrades become available, if you’re not maximising your time at the bazaar every Saturday then progression will likely slow to a crawl.
Below I’ve put together some guidance on how to make the most of the weekly bazaar and make sure you’re earning some money from all the hard work you’ve put in on the farm. Don’t forget to read our full Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar review too!
Selling items at the bazaar
You get a tutorial for this early on so I won’t bore you with the basics. There are a few tips you can use to make things a bit easier though:
- Get a second counter: The sooner you do this, the better. It lets you put out another 4 items, so you’ve got more items on offer for your patrons.
- Buy the mysterious storage box: Once the Nature Sprites set up a stall in the wooded area in the north west of the bazaar area, pay them a visit and pick up the storage boxes for your bazaar (and the red, yellow and blue windmills, if you can afford it). This will let you access your storage from your bazaar stall, and makes it easier for topping up your stock in between shifts.
- Experiment with decorations: The game starts throwing these at you at quite a pace, so play around with them and see which buffs best suit the items you’ve got for sale.
- Watch out for requests: These can be easy to miss if there’s a crowd in front of your stall, but some people don’t want what you’ve got out on the counter, they want something else that you’ve got in stock. This will be shown via a thought bubble above their head, just swap in the item they want and they’ll make a beeline to buy it.
- Bell Pro Tip: Run back and forth left to right when the bell is ringing to get as many people on-screen as possible interested in your stall.
Cheer Time Explained
Once the Nature Sprites have revealed themselves, they’ll be on-hand to help you on bazaar days. You’ll see a bar on the top left of the screen and every time you make a sale it will fill up. Once completely full, one of the Nature Sprite faces underneath will start shaking, indicating they’re “banked” and ready to help. You can either press the left shoulder button to call in their help right away, or fill the bar up again and bank another sprite. You can do this five times until every sprite is banked and unleash all of them to help you. This is what each of them does:
- Ivy: Has a chance of increasing item quality
- Finley: Has a chance of boosting item freshness
- Honey: Has a chance to extend Cheer Time
- Webby: Has a chance of selling two items with a single button press
- Penny: Has a chance for larger bulk sales
Obviously having all five at the same time is ideal, however if your shift is nearing its end then just use whatever you can. Personally I find waiting until Honey is ready is the best, as her ability to extend Cheer Time is invaluable.
What to sell at the bazaar?
The short answer is whatever you’ve got. To give you a bit more guidance though, consider the following:
- Medals: You’ll get loads of these throughout the game, with gold being the most valuable, followed by silver, bronze and then the standard medals. They’re generally rewarded for quests or as gifts in your postbox, however there are several hidden across Zephyr Town too, so be sure to check out our guide to find more gold medals.
- Crops: It’s Story of Seasons, so obviously crops are high on the list. One thing to bear in mind is the quality of the crop impacts the sale price, and some crops are more valuable refined in a windmill first. Make sure you check our farming guide for full details.
- Animal products: It’s worth getting animals in your barn as soon as possible, and I’d recommend getting 4 as quickly as you can as you’ll meet the requirements for a quest later in the first year to get another stall set up in the bazaar. Make sure you pet each animal every day, and brush the larger ones or pick up the smaller ones. Keep fodder and feed topped up and they’ll be happy, giving you better quality products. Again, these are often better off being refined first, using the milk to make cheese or butter, and refining wool into yarn.
- Cooked products: If you’ve got time then it’s often worthwhile cooking some of your crops to create dishes to sell. Take your higher quality ingredients and see what your options are in the kitchen, sometimes it’s worth just bulk-cooking a simple recipe, especially early in the game. Other times it may be worth refining ingredients in the windmill, i.e. making rice and using that to create more complex dishes that’ll sell for more.
- Stones and jewellery: You’ll find plenty of precious stones dotted around Zephyr Town, either when breaking down rocks or given to you as quest rewards. These can be sold as they are for a tidy profit, especially in the early game. However, once you’ve got the windmill, it’s worth combining them to create pieces of jewellery which sell for thousands each. You can also craft a display box for your bazaar stall which helps increase the value further.
Forage and fish are both potential options in the early game too, although I found they either didn’t sell for much or weren’t worth the time spent getting them (particularly fish). If you have either of these items then I recommend taking them to the kitchen and seeing if you can incorporate them into any recipes.
And the golden rule for making money? Only sell at the bazaar! Don’t bother going to Miguel during the week, just wait until Saturday and you’re guaranteed to make more.
Make sure you check out our full suite of Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar guides.
