Harvest Moon: It's A Wonderful Life
Tartan FAQ
DetroitDJ, with help from the GameFAQs message boards
July 13, 2004
Version 1.8

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Anyone want to make a Tartan ASCII picture to put right here?
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Table of Contents:
0. Version History
1. FAQ Intro
2. Searchable Index of Questions
3. Answer Listing
4. The Three C's: Copyright, Contact and Credits

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0. Version History
------------------
1.0: First version, with the basic questions.

1.2: Added two new Tartan questions along with new information to the
older questions.

1.4: Gave the Hybrid questions section a major overhaul. The section is now
more than three times longer than in the original, now with charts and tips.
Oh, and put that nifty title up there.

1.6: Added two new Hybrid questions based on information contributed by
Jumalacca and Zebramage.

1.7: No additions, just corrections. One from Jumalacca regarding obtaining
Tartan, one from linkman95 regarding Upseeds, and one from a plethora of
others regarding hybrids.

1.8: New information in H07 from Nakochan17.

1.9: Expanded upon several old questions; added various new information.


1. FAQ Intro
------------
On the surface, this FAQ will look brief, and it may seem rather pointless to 
have an FAQ solely covering these questions. But, one look at the GameFAQs 
message boards on the dates of its creation and it will become apparent that 
this FAQ was a necessity. Tartan questions plague the A Wonderful Life message 
board, so here is the place for all those questions we've been assaulted with 
to be answered.

Please understand this one concept. The answer listed in this FAQ is the exact 
same answer you would receive if you asked your question on the GameFAQs 
boards. Asking there will not get you a more detailed answer or a different 
answer or an answer more to your liking. I can be sure of this because all 
answers in this FAQ are from a combination of personal experience and the 
knowledge of those AWL masters that would answer your question were you to ask 
your question there.

This guide started out as simply a Tartan guide, but since Tartan and Hybrids
are inextricably intertwined, it's become more of a Tartan/Hybrid Guide.
However, so that people aren't tempted to visit this instead of FeosMiao's
amazing hybrid guide (which is much more specialized towards hybrids, which
is not this guide's intention), the title of the guide remains the Tartan FAQ.

Part 2 is the Searchable Index of Questions. Enter the keycode with the 
brackets [] into the Find box (under the Edit menu in Internet Explorer, click 
'Find (on this page)...') and hit find to jump straight to the question in 
part 3.

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2. Searchable Index of Questions
--------------------------------
Introduction to Tartan Questions
[I01] What is this Tartan character I hear so much about?
[I02] When can I get Tartan?
[I03] How do I get Tartan?
[I04] Why can't I get Tartan?
[I05] I've done plenty of farm work. Why can't I get Tartan?
[I06] Urgent! I still don't have Tartan! Please, please, please help me! How 
do I get him?
[I07] I get a glitch when I trigger the Tartan event. What should I do?

Tartan Functionality Questions
[F01] What exactly can Tartan do?
[F02] Do I need to take care of Tartan at all? He says he wants food, should I 
feed him?
[F03] How can I get the hybrid option?
[F04] How do I use the hybrid option?
[F05] Is it possible to lose the hybrid option?

Hybrid Questions
[H01] How do I hybrid?
[H02] Why use hybriding?
[H03] What crops and flowers are good for hybridng?
[H04] Where do I find those flowers and crops?
[H05] What effect do the classes of ingredients have on hybrids?
[H06] What are some good ways to make money using hybriding?
[H07] Does hybriding always succeed? How can I raise the success rate?
[H08] Is there any other way besides fertilizer and Upseeds to raise quality?
[H09] What can I hybrid, using what, and what crop will result?
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3. Answer Listing
--------------------------------
Introduction to Tartan Questions

[I01] What is this Tartan character I hear so much about?

Tartan is a big, green, two-headed talking plant that lives in Takakura's 
house. Sound strange? Well let's just saw AWL's realism aspect didn't prohibit 
the presence of a two-headed talking Venus flytrapper-look-alike. Tartan is, 
in my opinion, one of the most fun and intriguing characters in the game. He 
has one of the most well defined personalities of any character in AWL, and to 
me he bares a striking resemblance to C-3PO. I may be wrong in that though.

[I02] When can I get Tartan?

Tartan is first available in chapter 2, but you can get him during any chapter 
except chapter 1. Some people have trouble getting Tartan, but others get him 
relatively easily.

[I03] How do I get Tartan?

Enter Takakura's house sometime during Chapter 2 or beyond when Takakura is 
there. I'd like to say there are more requirements than that, but sadly there 
are not. I, personally, received Tartan at around 6PM game time, which is the 
most common time I've heard from fellow AWL players. I also received him the 
second time I went in Takakura's house around that time (exited and 
reentered), so if you don't get him the first time try a couple more times.

A tip for finding Takakura inside his house: order something (bird feed's 
easiest) that he must deliver to your workshop. After he does, follow him 
until he enters his house. Otherwise, just wait until he goes in later at 
night.

There is one way to improve your odds of getting Tartan. The details are not
entirely known yet, but it appears that hard work on the farm is an aspect
in getting Tartan. Do not expect to get Tartan if you've never done any
crop work. I, personally, received Tartan after growing around 15 crops
per season for the first year. But while farm work does appear to improve
the odds, it does not guarantee Tartan's appearance; the cutscene is still
random, with the odds apparently based on how hard you work on the farm.

[I04] Why can't I get Tartan?

HM:AWL is far more advanced than previous Harvest Moons (excluding Save the 
Homeland) in that it utilizes randomness a bit more often. This means that 
triggering the Tartan event occurs randomly. If you've done enough farm work,
just keep trying and hoping for the odds to bless you. If you feel you must
do something that might improve your odds, do more farm work. That is the only
way. No there are no other ways. Yes, I mean it.

[I05] I've done plenty of farm work. Why can't I get Tartan?

Perhaps the video game gods are mad at you? Is there a black cat under your 
chair? Perhaps you walked under a ladder recently? There really isn't anything 
to it beyond luck. Keep trying. The thing about the odds is that, even if odds 
are good that you'll get Tartan, there is always a chance that you won't. And 
with thousands of people playing the game, there's bound to be some people who 
have an incredibly hard time getting him. So keep trying. More farm work never
hurts.
[above three questions revised by Jumalacca]

[I06] Urgent! I still don't have Tartan! Please, please, please help me! How 
do I get him?

Well, since you said 'Urgent' and had three pleases and three exclamation 
points, I'll tell you the REAL way to get Tartan. Farm work and luck. Farm
work and luck. Farm work and luck. Luck, luck, luck. Steps to getting Tartan:
1. Do farm work. 2. Be lucky. That is all.

[I07] I get a glitch when I trigger the Tartan event. What should I do?

There's a rare glitch in which, AFTER the Tartan event has been triggered,
the event randomly stops half way through; it happens after Takaura tells how
he received Tartan. When the glitch happens, the scene stops there, and while
Tartan does twitch and move every once in a while.
[above information contributed by oracleofdarkness and lady beth]


Tartan Functionality Questions
------------------------------
[F01] What exactly can Tartan do?

Tartan has two options initially when you talk to him. 'Analyze' will tell you 
the quality of the seed or crop you offer him, along with what seasons it 
grows in and how fast it grows. This option is not terribly useful, but it's 
good for finding out when certain hybrids grow. What's a hybrid? We'll get 
into that later.

The 'Talk' option is how you befriend Tartan. Use it often to get the hybrid 
option. Tartan will ask you questions sometimes, in which case you'll have two 
or three answers to choose from. The one he wants to hear is usually obvious; 
compliment him a lot and tell him he doesn't talk about himself a lot and 
you'll do fine.

Eventually you'll get the 'hybrid' option (see question F03 for more details). 
This option is how you hybrid crops and seeds together to make new crop seeds. 
For more information, see question F04 and the 'Hybrid Questions' section.

[F02] Do I need to take care of Tartan at all? He says he wants food, should I 
feed him?

When Tartan says he wants food, he's really only talking about analyzing. You 
don't have to take care of Tartan in anyway beyond simply befriending him 
(which you don't actually have to do, but it has its benefits if you choose 
to).

[F03] How can I get the hybrid option?

To get the hybrid option, simply befriend Tartan. To befriend Tartan, talk to 
him a lot. You can do this different ways. Some people choose to simply talk 
to Tartan once or twice a day, and after a couple seasons he gives them the 
option of hybriding. Some, like myself, take an alternate approach. Instead of 
talking to him a couple times a day, we talk to him dozens and dozens of times 
at once until we see the hybrid option. I, personally, got the hybrid option 
the first day I had Tartan by talking to him for about 15 minutes real-time on 
end. No matter which way you choose, the only way to get the 'hybrid' option 
is to talk to Tartan and be nice to him until you see it. Talk to him 
frequently, compliment him when he asks, tell him he doesn't talk about 
himself much and you'll get the hybrid option pretty quickly. Luckily, unlike 
getting Tartan himself, getting 'hybrid' isn't random. Just keep going until 
you see it.

[F04] How do I use the hybrid option?

To use the hybrid option, select 'hybrid' from Tartan's menu. He'll give you a 
screen to choose which two crops you want to hybrid. Then, after a little 
ditty and a dance you'll get a seed of some sort. If you're lucky, it'll be a 
hybrid. Read on for more hybriding information.

[F05] Is it possible to lose the hybrid option?

Yes, if you go a long time without talking to Tartan you will lose the hybrid
option. Never fear, however, retrieving it easy. All you have to do is befriend
Tartan again the same way you did the first time. It won't take nearly as long
this time, either. 

Hybrid Questions
----------------
[H01] How do I hybrid?

There's not much to it beyond the answer in F04. Here are some basics to 
hybriding: 
:You can give Tartan either seeds or the crops themselves to form hybrid 
crops.
:Not all combinations form hybrids, and sometimes combinations that form 
hybrids don't--again, it's randomized, but usually you have good odds of 
getting your hybrid if your combination is correct.
:You cannot breed crops with trees or vice-versa, but you can breed both with 
the three flowers (Upseed, Happy Lamp and Gemsoil; see H02 and H03 for more 
information).

[H02] Why use hybriding?

Hybriding can yield two things. First of all, it can yield more valuable, more 
versatile, or simply more unique crops. For example, very few crops grow in 
winter, but through hybriding 5 new crops whose earliest planting time is 
winter can be found. Also, no buyable trees produce fruit in Winter or 
Spring, but by hybriding tree seeds one can create two trees that produce 
Winter fruit and one that produces Spring.

Also, there are three floral hybrids. Hybriding with a Happy Lamp allows the 
seed to grow in any season (note this does not work for trees; the 
times when trees produce their fruits cannot be altered).

Hybriding with a Gemsoil allows a seed to grow in any of the three fields, 
useful if you've filled your stronger fields with trees and crops but have a 
new hybrid you're dying to plant.

Hybriding with an Upseed is possibly the strongest of all. It raises the rank 
of any seed without the use of fertilizer. It works on tree seeds to, saving 
you tons and tons of money.

[H03] What crops and flowers are good for hybridng?

As stated above, Upseeds, Gemsoils and Happy Lamps are the flowers you want
for floral hybrids. None of the other flowers have an affect on hybrids,
unfortunately.

For crops, every crop combines with every other crop to form a hybrid of
some sort. Some hybrids are harder to form than others; keep trying, switch
their orders, and as with getting Tartan in the first place, hope to be
lucky.
[corrected by Kirby Master Eoje, astrofan1121 and many others]

Also, you have a greater chance of getting a hybrid when using an S-class
crop/seed than an A or B-class.
[contributed by ]

[H04] Where do I find those flowers and crops?

All crops can be grown on your farm, in the seasons listed by Vesta. For
flowers, here are the listings of where each flower can be found:

Upseed: The rarest flower. It is small with red petals, and there are only
two places it shows up. One is on the side of the river towards the dig sight,
the other is next to Cody's house (where Mugworts and Royal Ferns are found
in other seasons). They take 2 days to grow back, but if you're lucky and
you always pick flowers the first moment they're available, you can get 10
Upseeds in a season. They grow in winter.
[corrected by linkman95]

Happy Lamp: The little red flowers next to Gustafa's tent, near the bridge
over the stream. There are about 8 or 9 in the area (and there's also one
right next to Cody's house), and it grows back every 3-4 days, so you can
gather around 25 or 30 in a season. They grow in Summer.

Gemsoil: Small yellow flowers around the dig site. There are about 10 of them
and they grow back every 4-5 days so again you can collect around 25 a season.
They grow in Fall.

[H05] What effect do the classes of ingredients have on hybrids?

Sadly, the effect of classes is either unknown or randomized. I, personallity,
think it's randomized. Fairly extensive testing has been done, but the
information found is almost completely inconclusive. For example, while two B
quality crops hybrided almost always produce B class seeds, two S quality crops
hybrided sometimes results in an S, an A or even a B class seed. Breeding a B
crop with an S crop also sometimes results in B, A or S class seeds. The only
rule that all tests follow is that the resulting seed is never higher than the
highest class of the ingredients (for example, a B crop and an A crop cannot
produce higher than an A crop). Beyond this, the effect appears to be random.

[H06] What are some good ways to make money using hybriding?

Hybriding is not the best way to make money in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.
General hybriding and selling the crops themselves is not significantly more
profitable than the original crops themselves, and none of the hybrid's seeds,
even the tree seeds, touch the 750G selling point that bananas set. However,
there is one extremely profitable tactic that involves hybrids.

Crossing a Strawberry with a Turnip (in that order) results in a Dhibe fruit.
While not valuable on its own, you can cook the Dhibe with a Milk and an Egg
(in that order). The result is a Dhibe Cake. Worthless, right? Wrong. The
Dhibe Cake can be sold to Van, like any other recipe. But unlike every other
recipe, the Dhibe Cake is worth a whopping 1675G, one of the highest prices
for anything in the game.

[H07] Does hybriding always succeed? How can I raise the success rate?

As stated above, hybriding does not always succeed. However, there is a way to
raise the rate of success. The better friends you are with Tartan, the more
likely the hybrid attempt will be a success. So if you're about to try a
bunch of rare (3rd generation) hybrids, it's a good idea to boost Tartan's
affection by talking to him for a decently long time before hand.
[above information contributed by Jumalacca]

Additionally, it has been noticed that you can predict whether a hybrid will be
successful by Tartan's face. Just before the hybrid screen comes up, check to
see if Tartan's smiling. If he is, continue with the hybrid. If not, cancel
and try again. This does not lower number of trials it takes to get a
successful hybrid, but does make the process faster, as well as save seeds or
crops.
[above information contributed by Nakochan17]

The reason for this is that the success of the hybrid is actually determinded
before the hybrid screen ever comes up. Tartan's facial expression changes based
on the success of the hybrid, but because the success is predetermined, his face
reflects it before the hybrid screen actually comes up.

It has also been suggested that hybrids are more commonly successful earlier in
the day, though this may be a result of other factors instead of time of day
[above information contributed by Nakochan17]

[H08] Is there any other way besides fertilizer and Upseeds to raise quality?

For crops, the only way to raise quality is through Upseeds and fertilizer.
However, there is a trick for trees that lets you easily upgrade a tree seed
to S quality. Approach Tartan to hybrid, and put a tree seed in the left box
with an S quality crop seed in the right slot. The result should be the
original tree seed, only S quality.
[above information contributed by Zebramage]

Now, there is one thing to remember about this trick. In order to get an S
rank crop seed, you have to have an S rank crop, which requires an Upseed
or fertilizer in the first place. The benefit is that raising the rank of the
crop gives you one S rank crop, which, through the seed maker, gives you 2
S rank seeds, therefore allowing you to use the trick twice, while if you
simply used Upseeds and fertilizer from the start you'd you twice as many
Upseeds or twice as much fertilizer. If you're doing a large hybridng
project, this is helpful. But, if you're only hybriding one or two trees,
this may be more trouble than it's worth. It's your decision.

[H09] What can I hybrid, using what, and what crop will result?

Well, for this, I direct you to FeosMiao's awesome hybrid FAQ. He has all the 
information you need for creating a hybrid empire, and putting it here would 
just be a waste of space. It can be found on the GameFAQ's A Wonderful Life 
FAQs page.

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4. The Three C's: Copyright, Contact and Credits
------------------------------------------------
Copyright: This FAQ is copyright 2004 DetroitDJ. All rights 
reserved. Feel free to distribute this FAQ freely as long as this section 
remains fully intact.

Contact:
E-Mail: [email protected]
AIM/Yahoo!/MSN/GoogleTalk: DDJGameFAQs
GameFAQs ID: DetroitDJ

If you have any questions to add to this FAQ, corrections to make, comments, 
suggestions, flames, etc., feel free to contact me using any of the above.

Credits:
To FeosMiao, for his awesome hybrid guide, and for copyright information about 
the game.
To MasterYoda73, for bringing Tartan questions to everyone's attention.
To Killkernal, romani999, Lady Morgana, Kiosk Wocky, rainparade, and the many
others who patiently answered question after question about Tartan. 
To astrofan1121, for bringing the need for a Tartan FAQ to my and everyone's 
attention.
To Nakochan17, for information in question H07.
To Zebramage, for the information in question H08.
To Jumalacca, for the information in question H07, and for tirelessly helping
on the AWL boards.
To drkpendragon, for asking intelligent questions that led to intelligent 
answers that led to the existence of this FAQ.
To schmkb27, for being patient beyond the call of duty and always being one of 
the most helpful board users around.
The A Wonderful Life board of about 2 years ago, back when they were actually
helpful, as opposed to today's arrogant and cocky members.
Mantastorm, LongLiveJoe, Zephy_Leone, and everyone in the modern generation
of the AWL board for doing everything in their power to make the board nothing
but another stupid social board. Sucks that something like this could happen
to what was once such a great and helpful board.
To CJayC, the GameFAQs staff, GameSpot and everyone else who has helped create 
this awesome place for gaming information and discussion, and for hosting this 
FAQ.
To Natsume and its partners, for creating an amazing game.
To God, for everything.
-----------------------------------------------------
Harvest Moon, Natsume and Serious Fun are registered trademarks of Natsume
Inc.
Copyright 2004 Natsume Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Copyright 2004 Marvelous Interactive Inc.
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End.