I was genuinely curious about Forager because it looked like a very cute game. I am always on the lookout for games that I want to play and that I think would be fun to play on my Twitch streams. Forager hit all those bells and whistles. A member of our community graciously gifted me the game (thank you JFTigers!) and I couldn't wait to try it out. Forager uses a mechanic that combines idle games with exploration and adventure. Right from the start I was hooked at the cute world of Forager, but I really got drawn in by all the crafting, exploring, and adventuring you can do. Automation and crafting is the name of the game in the world of Forager. You can build tools for crafting like a loom or a forge for smelting iron bars while you run around foraging and harvesting materials for crafting.
You have a certain amount of energy and hearts which represent your health in the game. The various tasks that you do take up that energy so you have to constantly forage for food. You can also level up cooking by making meals in your forge or in a cooking pot. Cooked meals restore more energy and health. This comes in handy when there are monsters to fight all over the different areas. You can craft weapons on an anvil to fight the monsters and the monsters drop materials for crafting.
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| Exploring, adventuring, and crafting ahead! |
One of the things in Forager is being able to make money. This doesn't have to be a hassle at all. This is also how you level up your character and skills. When you level up, you get points that you can use in the skill tree to unlock abilities and different crafting paths. In the user menu, you will find several different paths you can unlock for your game that help with the crafting, adventuring, and foraging. The first thing you should unlock is the finance path because this makes coins worth more, allows for trade, and lets you build banks which will gradually accrue money for you slowly. You just run up and click on the banks and get your coins. Having two of each crafting machine and building is a good idea so you have plenty of materials and money to go around.
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| The skills menu in Forager. Starting with the finance path first is a good idea. |
One major aspect of Forager is buying land. There are several different land types in the game ranging from desert to snowy horizons. Each island has unique plants, animals, and ores that you can gather for your crafting needs. There are various NPCs on the different islands as well that offer quests you can do for rewards such as money and more crafting items. There are dungeons on some of these islands too which you can explore. Unlocking the islands does cost money and the price increases as you unlock each one, but it's worth it because you get a wider variety of crafting and building materials.
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| Buy land and expand your foraging empire. |
Speaking of dungeons, each dungeon has its own unique theme with monsters to fight and puzzles to solve. It has a very Legend Of Zelda vibe with the combat style and boss battles that works quite well with the world of Forager. When you successfully finish a dungeon you are rewarded with special weapons such as a lightning sword. These come in handy when fighting monsters on the map and it's a lot of fun to see what each magical weapon can do. You can also farm in Forager if you wish, growing crops and raising animals like chickens. The nice thing is you don't have to focus on one thing at a time. The game encourages you constantly being on the move foraging, crafting, building, and seeing what adventure awaits you.
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| Exploring a dungeon. Adventure! |
Another fun thing you can do in Forager is customize your character. You can swap in different masks and costumes. Two of my personal favorites were the Cthulhu head and the Hollow Knight costume. As you progress in the game and open up different islands, this also unlocks more costumes and masks for you to swap in and out as you wish. You can also customize your backpack depending on which style you have unlocked.
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| Choosing the Hollow Knight costume. |
Speaking of the backpack, you will need this for the items you forage and craft. All that gathering does add up and you will find yourself running out of space very quickly. The good news is that you can upgrade your backpack on your loom as long as you have the appropriate materials. This gives you more inventory slots. It's fairly easy to organize the items in your backpack. You can also build vaults which will automatically store items if your backpack is full. The only drawback is the vaults only have six slots, so building multiple vaults as needed is a good idea.
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| Storing all the things in the backpack. |
There is a fun nod to Stardew in Forager with the museum on one of the islands. You can gather items for bundles and donate them to the museum. For example, you can gather ore and gems and donate them to the museum to complete the mining bundle. There are some items you won't be able to find until you buy more land or explore specific dungeons, but there's no rush. You can take your time doing all the things and there is an auto save function which allows you to keep playing and having a good time.
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| Donating bundles to the museum. |
Forager is a great game for chilling out. It is a grinding game, but it's not a stressful one. You can play as much or as little as you like. The choice is entirely yours. For me, I spent hours foraging, crafting, and adventuring and I loved every minute of it. The cute designs of the characters and the world of Forager have a wonderful sense of whimsy that makes it a delight to play. It's a nice relaxing game that adds the right mix of grinding, exploration, and adventure. Now, I'm going to explore more islands and get my crafting on. Thanks for reading, see you at the next adventure!
* Forager is available to play on the following platforms: PC, Playstation 4, and Nintendo Switch
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