11 Things I Wish I Knew Before Playing Cozy Grove

I was so excited the first time I played Cozy Grove that I sold absolutely all of my fish the instant I arrived just to buy myself a shiny new scarf. Was that a mistake? Well, I figured I'd find out in the long run and throw caution to the wind. I'm here to have fun, and fun I'll have!

Okay fine, that story may be false because I've learned how to be careful, but it could just as easily happen to anyone else! It could happen to you! So here are the 11 things I wish my wife and I knew before jumping into Cozy Grove.

#1 - Hoard your rare fish early.

It's almost like we never learn, isn't it?

In Cozy Grove you'll soon meet Captain Billweather, a seagull that believes himself to be a bear, who will want to form a collection of every item. This will work as sort of your museum, where he will reward you for everything you give him. Oftentimes, even higher than selling prices.

Bonus: Fishing in Cozy Grove is very relaxing and forgiving. If your fish bites, but you didn't get to hook it immediately, your fish will just go back to trying again. This will happen a total of three times before it gets bored and moves on, giving you a second opportunity to try again!

#2 - Buy a bug net pronto!

Early after meeting Kit the vendor, he'll give you the opportunity to buy a bug net and a camera. Although playing around with the camera has netted us no reward thus far, the bug net is a different story.

Getting money in Cozy Grove is a bit tough, especially because fishing doesn't net a lot of Old Coins, but bug-catching does, and since you'll be encountering a lot of creepy-crawlies on your travels looking for items, it'll be a quick and easy way to get money. The sooner the better, because you'll quickly get back your 7,500 investment.

#3 - Upgrade Kit's shop when you are finished for the day.

Whenever I enter a game, the first thing I start spending money on is upgrades. If I can upgrade my character, great. If I can upgrade a shop, even better. Hell, if I can upgrade my pet from useless to more useless, I'll take it, it's still an upgrade.

So of course, when we had enough money to buy Kit's upgrade, we jumped at the opportunity and did it in a heartbeat. We were excited, we'd get more items to buy even more stuff. And there was this one particular bird we wanted to buy but were short 100 Old Coins, so we did the only thing we could and went to get more money, only to return and have him tell us he was closed for the day.

That's right, Kit closes his shop the day you upgrade it, so make sure to do that as the last thing in your day.

#4 - Everything should go to Captain Billweather first.

Okay, I know this one is a bit obvious, but whenever you get absolutely anything you should make sure that it isn't something you already have in your collection before you decide to sell it. This is because he gives wonderful rewards for many of the things you give him, and is quite frankly the best way to get a lot of items early.

#5 - Play a little bit every day.

Duh, right? To clarify, I don’t mean ‘play the heck out of this game because you paid for the damn thing’ - rather, I mean more in the aspect of play a little bit every day. Don't try to oversaturate Cozy Grove, the game is meant to be played little by little and this is definitely its charm. If you farm for Old Coins too much, you'll significantly reduce your capability to play daily because you'll be able to afford everything from Kit immediately. It's so much more rewarding and better to play it in shorter bursts, the way it was intended.

#6 - Upgrade your tent early.

Remember how I said I have an obsession with upgrading everything? Yeah, upgrade your tent too.

The reasoning for this is that you'll get a little item that allows you to put food into it that will lure cats, and of course, apart from the absolutely amazing part of having a cat, you can also sell these cats for quick access to relic ash, which is an item used in crafting.

Aside from that, the extra storage is an absolute must because you'll need to save up a lot of items a day to...

#7 - Keep one of each food item to feed imps.

Shortly into the game, I believe on day two, you are taught how to feed the skittish little imps that take residence on Cozy Grove. They will ask for unpredictable foods, and having one of each food item—or maybe even two—will allow you to be able to feed them immediately without having to go hunting for that one specific delicacy that the imp craves.

#8 - Burn one of each item.

 

Flamey has a particular taste for... almost everything. And whenever you can burn something, it might be best to experiment and learn what that particular burnt item will give you. Not only will it deepen your knowledge of the items and the game, but it will also assist you with Captain Billweather's collection and net you some nice rewards.

#9 - Gather limited resources and stockpile them.

There are resources in the game that are limited, and so you should try to focus on obtaining them daily, and it will certainly make your life easier if you stockpile them in case you end up needing them or wanting to craft something that requires a set amount of one. Since these won't just randomly spawn like mushrooms, it's important to stockpile them. Things like fruit and iron fall on this list.

#10 - It's barely ever worth it to sell raw materials.

 

My wife and I did a bit of a test and began selling raw materials and comparing them to different versions, and several times we would get more than double the price for the same item simply by processing it.

This was either using Flamey to burn an item and sell it cooked; crafting with branches instead of selling the branches raw, this particular one netted us 410 extra Old Coins when crafting a fence; or cooking with a character that is unlocked later on. The increase in worth was anywhere between 200% to 451% (the highest we saw).

#11 - You can hit clams with skipping stones.

So maybe we're dumb, but when we got a skipping stone we decided to completely ignore that it existed and not wonder what it worked for until the fourth day when I finally realised:

Those clams in the ocean can be hit using the skipping stones for rewards. The more skips, the bigger the reward!

And that's it for our 11 things to know before starting Cozy Grove! If you have any more suggestions, or things you particularly messed up on, let us know in the comments! We want to laugh at you - Sorry, we want to laugh with you!