13 Ooblets tips to know before you start playing
These Ooblets tips will help you dance, grow, and build a new life in Oob
These Ooblets tips aim to give you the best start on your adventures in Oob. Like other life simulators, including Stardew Valley, understanding how everything works in Ooblets can take a little time. But, don't fear, we've spent quite some time in Oob, and bring you our top Ooblets tips to make sure you're not wasting your time, your Wishies or your Gummies.
1. Talk to everyone in town on a daily basis to build friendships and unlock side quests
It pays to be friendly in the world of Oob. Not everyone will be quite as amenable back to you, but if you make it your mission to speak to everyone in Oob on a daily basis you'll slowly start becoming friends with them. Make particular notes for any character with a little white dot above their head, as it's these main characters that you can literally build relationships with, and when you reach a new level you'll earn a special sticker, along with a number of valuable rewards. Plus, the more you talk to people, the more likely they are to give you a little side mission too.
2. Always be nosy and check people's homes for valuable items to 'acquire'
Now, I don't usually suggest stealing as a valuable pastime, but in Ooblets having a regular nosey in people's homes can be a very lucrative mission. Recipe fragments, Gummies (the main in-game currency), club tokens, and even food can be found lurking under cushions, pots, and just left lying about. Help yourself! Just don't question how long that caroot cake has been under that flowerpot before you eat it.
3. Break down rocks and branches on your farm daily for useful resources
If you've played a game like this before, you'll know that there are certain activities that it will benefit you to complete every in-game day. For Ooblets, these include taking time and energy to break down the big logs and rocks on your farm that appear each day as it's a really great way to stock up on valuable resources. Breaking rocks will allow you to collect the spring-like Nurnies, and the incredibly rare Oobsidian that you'll need for major crafting projects. Logs meanwhile will get you Planklets, which you'll also need for various projects that the community of Badgetown will set you.
4. Don't forget to go sea dangling for useful, and rare, items
Another activity that you should aim to do on a daily basis where possible is sea dangling, aka fishing. You can get bait by recycling those mysterious cans that litter Badgetown at the Reconstitooter machine near the beach, and then use that bait to go sea dangling from the end of the pier. There's no mini-game involved, you just pick your bait and off you go. You'll mostly get really useful fertilizer from sea dangling, which can speed up the growth of crops, or make them retain water for longer, for example. But, you can also get other resources like Oobsidian, clusters of Planklets or Nurnys too. It's well worth a daily dangle.
5. Watch your energy
The more you do in Ooblets, the more energy you'll exert so watch your energy levels as you potter around farming, dancing and generally living a happy Oob life. It's the bigger bar in the top right-hand corner of the screen, and you'll know when you're getting tired as your character will droop down lower and lower, and even start emitting some Zzzs when it gets really bad. Eat some food, drink some beanjuice, or take a nap in your house to replenish some energy, otherwise you'll find yourself unable to do anything than stagger back home for some rest.
6. Plant clothlet seeds early as they're expensive and one of the most highly prized materials
There are two resources that I'm constantly needing more of and that's Oobsidian and Clothlets. You can buy more of both using Wishies (earned by completing side quests, daily tasks and other missions) at the well or via the menu, but you should also make it your mission to start growing your own Clothlets as soon as you can. You can buy seeds from Meed's Seeds for 32 Gummies a pop, but Clothlets are seriously valuable. It's worth checking Meed's Seeds on a daily basis too, as each day she'll have a special offer on a certain seed type, which slashes the price in half. The seed on sale that day has a special red flag in it to make it super obvious what's half-price as soon as you walk into the shop.
7. Buy the Oobcoop upgrades as soon as you can for more ooblet storage and additional benefits
If you're in the business of collecting every ooblet that exists (and if you're not, what are you doing?) then you'll quickly find yourself unable to release new sprouts into the world due to a lack of space on your farm. This is where coops come in. You can craft them via the weird saw mill machine in the furniture shop Manatwee, and will initially allow you to add one more ooblet to your farm per Oobcoop. But, you can buy upgrades for your Oobcoop (four in total) using Wishies. Each upgrade will let you add another ooblet to your farm, but also unlocks additional benefits for the ooblets that you assign to it. They'll clear weeds, rocks and twigs as a baseline, but as you start to upgrade your Oobcoop they'll water your crops too, as well as giving them growth bonuses. These perks only get better with every upgrade too, taking a lot of the busywork out of the day. More time for dancing!
8. Investing in coops is much better than sprinklers
Because of all those Oobcoop perks, it's much better to invest in them than sprinklers for your farm - at least initially. You'll get gifted several sprinklers for levelling up and completing projects for Mayor Tinstle, but it's the Oobcoops you'll want to plough your resources into. After all, sprinklers will only water your plants, whereas with Oobcoops you can get any of home babies (aka the ooblets you don't take travelling with you) to tend, water, and harvest your crops for you.
9. Use pathing sparingly or risk losing out on materials
When you first get introduced to pathing, it's tempting to rearrange your entire farm into snazzy little blocks to keep everything neat and tidy, edging everything with a path for easy access. But, if you pave and till every square available on your plot, you'll leave yourself with no space for new rocks or branches to appear each morning. Remember, these are fantastic things to mine for important resources for free. So leave a little space for your daily debris.
10. Don't forget to show your new ooblets to Rugnolia for maximum Gummies
As your ooblet collection fills out, make sure to take any new fellas you grow over to Rugnolia at the Lernery. Inside, there's a big green machine where she'll scan each of your new ooblets, in exchange for Gummies. You'll get 50 for a normal one, 100 for an unusual variant, and 150 per gleamy (aka the shiny versions). Plus, she'll give you a little statue of each to go put on display at the town hall too. Fill an entire case and you'll get more Gummies too. Don't worry, no ooblets are harmed during the scanning process.
11. Keep your eyes peeled for unusual and gleamy ooblets each day
Each day, a slightly different selection of ooblets will appear across Oob's various regions, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for unusual or gleamy (aka shiny) ooblet versions. These are rarer, different coloured varieties of each ooblet breed, and are definitely worth adding to your collection. And not just because Rugnolia pays more Gummies for cataloguing unusual or gleamy ooblets.
12. Unlock the Dance Barn as soon as you can for earning XP, Wishies, and rare seeds
Mayer Tinstle will give you a variety of projects to undertake to improve life in Oob, but as soon as the Dance Barn gets mentioned, make that your priority. You'll need 20 Plankets, 12 Nurnies, four Clothlets, one Oobsidian, and 300 Gummies in order to fix it up, but then each day you can head there to compete in three-stage dance battles. You'll be rewarded handsomely with Wishies, but also with a rare ooblet seed if you manage to win all three rounds. Plus, you'll get lots of ooblet XP for competing too.
13. Understand which of your ooblets are good at what for the best dance moves possible
When you start getting serious about dance battles, you'll realise that each ooblet has a different strength that it'll bring in battle. Some are purely about gaining points, others are more focused on building hype, while elsewhere you'll find some ooblets are better at stunning and otherwise flustering your foes. Pay attention to which dance moves each of your ooblets has, otherwise you may find yourself armed with only defensive wiggles rather than anything that can score the necessary points to win a battle.
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Sam Loveridge is the Global Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar, and joined the team in August 2017. Sam came to GamesRadar after working at TrustedReviews, Digital Spy, and Fandom, following the completion of an MA in Journalism. In her time, she's also had appearances on The Guardian, BBC, and more. Her experience has seen her cover console and PC games, along with gaming hardware, for a decade, and for GamesRadar, she's in charge of the site's overall direction, managing the team, and making sure it's the best it can be. Her gaming passions lie with weird simulation games, big open-world RPGs, and beautifully crafted indies. She plays across all platforms, and specializes in titles like Pokemon, Assassin's Creed, The Sims, and more. Basically, she loves all games that aren't sports or fighting titles! In her spare time, Sam likes to live like Stardew Valley by cooking and baking, growing vegetables, and enjoying life in the countryside.