Ahh, the great outdoors. It’s where man can once again reconnect with nature, admire its beauty, and get away from the hustle and bustle of urban life. Many of those who choose to leave the city for a slice of untamed relaxation opt for some fishing, gaze at the stars, catch some bugs, or go birdwatching. For others, they can have all these activities rolled into one by camping.
Camping is the ultimate activity that unites you with nature’s goodness. You will be out in the middle of the woods, living off of what supplies you have or the land itself if the camping grounds administration permits it. Otherwise, it’s an activity that makes one appreciate how easy they have it in the city, especially if they didn’t bring many supplies with them.
Usually, camping is done in a very controlled environment where there are little conveniences here and there such as outhouses and clocks. How this environment is managed and more can be explored by playing Forest Camp Story.
Created by famed Japanese developer, Kairosoft (the makers of Dungeon Village 2, Forest Golf Planner and many, many more titles), Forest Camp Story puts you in the shoes of a campsite manager that tries to turn a small part of a forest into a place where man and nature can coexist. There is plenty to manage here: from facility construction to expenses management, from product restocking to natural preservation, the responsibilities of managing a camp are all yours.
If your camp itself might be stuck in a rut or you’re trying to find a way to earn your money quicker to pay for your expenses, then look no further than our Forest Camp Story beginner’s guide! You’ll have the number 1 camp and become the talk of the town in no time!
1. Save Only When You Need To
Unlike most games out in the mobile market these days, Kairosoft games have the distinct feature of allowing players to manually save their game.
This kind of saving is a double-edged sword. What benefits the player when it comes to this kind of saving is that you can reload your previous save in case something bad happens to you (for instance, you made a bad decision in-game and your camp is now in debt). On the other hand, saving sporadically can make you live with this mistake for good.
Luckily, the game keeps a backup save of your progress (a few in-game months before your actual save) or so, so in case you do make a mistake like that, you can quit the game and reload the last save using the red diskette instead of the blue one as pictured below.
In short, it’s best for you to choose when to save. Save after a major upgrade like a camp expansion, save after an in-game year had ended, save after a session of camping fever, etc. These are usually the best times to save and that way you might have not made any mistakes by then. But otherwise the power of saving is ultimately in your hands. Just wield that power carefully!
Now that that important note is out of the way, let us tackle a few important points about how this game works.
2. Keep Playing To Earn Better Stuff
From how the game looks, you’d wonder if it plays similarly to other games available in the mobile store today. On the contrary, Forest Camp Story is not an idle game.
You will have to get on and manually earn the money you need by making your camp better. When you unlock the store, it’s your responsibility to claim your earnings and put them to use. While it is unfortunate that you don’t earn anything offline, you can try playing Forest Camp Story on the side of a major activity.
You can try playing this by passing the time on your commute to school or work (just don’t miss your stop if you aren’t the one driving and definitely don’t play this while you drive). It’ll keep your mind running before you get busy with what you need to do for the day.
How about playing this game while you’re taking a break from anything? It will surely bring your camp forward in progress. Or how about playing this at the end of a long day? The choice of when you wanna play Forest Camp Story is entirely up to you.
The beauty of the game is that when you leave and then come back, your camp will be as you left it. In fact, it gives you, the player, a sense of pride in that your efforts of making your camp the best place to be is all on you. You did this yourself and the game will respect that — no hidden tricks, no idle management, just pure patience and hard work. Doesn’t that feel great?
You know who else should feel great? Your customers. Sure, they’re made of pixels and data, but treat them as though they are your real customers. They want to stay at your camp to get away from city life and relax with nature. So how else should you make them feel comfortable and happy? How can you make their stay at your camp a memorable, once-in-a-lifetime experience?
To increase the happiness and satisfaction of your customers, the location of your facilities is an important factor to consider.
3. Location Is Important
Sometimes when you’re admiring the great outdoors, having a view of the wilderness should be one of its selling points.
While your campsite is next to the road, the view of a couple of passing cars isn’t all that exciting or breathtaking is it? It’d be certainly breathtaking if you account for the pollution, but put yourself in the shoes of the camper — you wanna see the birds, the bugs, the fish swimming in the river, the trees, the mountains, not so much of the intrusive glimmer of civilization but the untamed beauty of the wild. While Forest Camp Story is indeed a game, some real-life mechanics help the player make the most out of their camp.
For instance, a cabin or camping area completely isolated from the main camp might not attract so many campers, but if you give it company by putting another camping area or cabin next to it whilst being isolated, it may make the would-be campers feel a bit more safe.
Camping is a social activity after all, and given that there are activities that happen in your camp, you would most likely want your campers to get along with one another. This would be even better if the two amenities were put high up on a hill. A lot of people enjoy a great view, after all.
Another example we can provide is what surrounds the area. It may feel a bit too comfy to have outhouses nearby your tents, but because we now live in the 20th century and you wouldn’t wanna inconvenience your campers with the unpleasantly interesting scents of “poo-poo” and “pee-pee”, a sanitary camp goes a long way.
This also goes for having food stations nearby, for campers who might not know how to start fires and cook their meals with them. Location, in other words, is all about convenience — your camp is like a hotel out in the woods. Ponder on this before you set up places for your campers to check in.
As you progress through the game, you will want to put variety in your camp for your campers to enjoy.
4. Research For More Facilities And Add-Ons
Wouldn’t a camp be boring if all it had were the same activities over and over again?
Let’s face it — humans thrive off of variety. When something becomes routine, humans cease to be, well, human. We tend to become more robotic, more unfeeling with what we’re doing and see it more as a task to complete for the day. Having something thrown in the middle of a routine can really spice things up no matter whose routine it is. The same goes for how you can diversify what your camp has to offer, and this is through research.
Researching for new facilities and add-ons to your camp will attract new customers and maybe even have some of them return to your camp. They will always check back to see what new activities you might have and give them a try. The best part about this is you’ll make researching for other stuff much easier since research requires a currency of its own.
The research points fall under 4 different types indicated by unique icons:
- Food – Indicated by a plate with utensils. You get these from facilities that give food like the BBQ Pit or the Cooking Area.
- Leisure – Indicated by a hot-air balloon. These can be acquired from activities and fixtures like the Tables or the Climbing Net.
- Study – Indicated by an open book. This research currency can be earned by campers who use facilities like the Bird Sanctuary or the Bug Habitat.
- Relaxation – Indicated by green sparkles. You can get these by having campers spend time on the Swing Chair or Tree Stump.
Do note that some of these may produce two different types of research points. Depending on what your next big project will be, try to focus on the research points that you need so you can speed up your progress toward it.
Let’s say you want to invite a new animal like the Shiba, you may need to have more sites that produce Relaxation all over the camp. Where you place them is entirely on you!
Which brings us to our next point…
5. Scatter Multiple Facilities All Over The Camp
Let us pretend that you’re one of the campers. Someone’s using the climbing net and you’d wanna have a go at it. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had another climbing net all to yourself? Wouldn’t it be more fun if you made a bet with your friend that you’d reach the top of the net before they could?
Having multiple facilities all over camp is a great way to harvest research points and money. While it is a bit costly, it will help you keep up with shop restocking expenses and prevent your camp from going into debt. This can be done by manually studying what your camp might be missing.
To clarify, when your camp is in debt (you’ll know this when your funds are in the negatives), you won’t be able to buy new things for your camp or your store. Your progress will be halted by a great degree. Try giving your camp a look and see what more it needs.
Let’s take outhouses for example. Realistically, having only 2 outhouses for the whole camp is extremely unpleasant and unsanitary. You wouldn’t wanna stay a second in any one of them! In-game, having multiple outhouses will help you harvest Study and Relaxation points rather quickly.
If you have multiple Ice Cream Shops, Vending Machines, or Drum Baths, you know what that means! *cha-ching* So earning money more quickly should be done through the best way you know how: selling products and services.
But did you know that other stuff can contribute to the efficacy of a facility and/or product in the camp store?
6. Use Plants Or Shop Decor To Boost Effectiveness
When you are out seeking a campsite, would you go camping in one that might seem like a soccer field with add-ons? Might it be too boring without trees? Sometimes trees and flowers tend to spice up any location in the most natural way you can think of.
Let’s suppose you do want to be at a camp with all sorts of trees and flowers in it. Depending on the time of year, the flowers might be in full bloom and they’d be quite pleasing to look at. Trees turn orange during autumn, adding a new hue to your previous shades of green and yellow.
All of these colors make the camp all the more attractive, sometimes even making the stay worth it, especially if it’s the right season. Keeping camping areas or cabins near trees and flowers will add to the quality of the camper’s stay. Who knows? If they enjoyed their stay that much, they might come back for another. The same principle applies to your camp store.
The camp store shouldn’t be full of just shelves and products; they should have some decor to go with them. A simple potted plant in the shop should remind your customers that they’re expecting an unforgettable time with nature, whereas decor for shelves and passageways should give the store a more professional and enticing look.
How many times have you been lured in by deals solely by the banners that they came with? How about items endorsed by celebrities? This is the idea we’re trying to get at. Keep the decor near the shelves and the products might sell slightly more than usual.
If you don’t have any more plants or flowers to arrange, in the camp anyway, you can get new ones by removing overgrown thickets and/or trees. These have a price per removal, but in doing so allows you to unlock new plants along the way. The best part is after unlocking these, you can easily relocate them wherever you’d like.
But that last bit comes with a caveat.
7. Move Items Or Trim Foliage Selectively
Imagine your money rolling in the millions. Got it? Great.
Now, imagine those millions disappearing right before your eyes after remodelling your camp. You’ve relocated all your camping areas, flowers, facilities and more only to see that you’re running your camp funds into the ground. Will Jenny, your assistant, lose her mind? How could this have happened?
Moving things, anything, has a price. Much like in real life, it does take some amount of logistics to perfectly move one facility to a new location. You will need all kinds of tools, workers, time, and yes, even money. So it’s not too far-fetched when Forest Camp Story puts a price on its “move item” feature. This is why we recommend you to move any of your items selectively.
Take for instance moving a camping area from Point A to Point B. First, ask yourself these three things:
- Do I have enough money to move this?
- Why am I moving this?
- Is the new location going to be better?
The first question is quite simple. Having enough funds (and keeping your camp far away from debt) should be the very first factor to consider before moving an object. The second question is a little less rigid in an answer. One example would be for you to move X because you want to make space for Y.
Lastly, the third question depends entirely on you. If you’re moving something out of the way but it doesn’t benefit you other than give you space, that’s your call. Otherwise, relocating the facility in an area with a better environment might be that which matters most when you use this feature. Do this often and you will save money better than wantonly moving stuff around.
The same goes for trimming foliage. Using the Remove tool, you can trim down foliage and unlock new plants. You can also do this to move them around the camp. Unlike moving things, however, this is far more expensive.
Now that the saving part has been addressed, how about earning money faster?
8. Get The Campfire As Soon As Possible
How does something become a craze?
Does it happen because of aggressive advertising? Do rave reviews on social media count? What about recommendations from friends and family? In Forest Camp Story, there is such a moment when your camp (and store!) gets flooded by customers from all over. This is called Camping Fever.
Camping Fever is a temporary boost to the traffic you get in your camp and camp store. The number of customers that show up will be surprising in volume and your store might even have some difficulty keeping up stock. Don’t see this as a negative, though, Camp Fever is a great time for both you and the people who flock to your camp. You earn more and your customers enjoy themselves. But is there a way you can trigger this more frequently? As a matter of fact, there is.
Researching and building a Campfire is what you should do as soon as it becomes available to you. With this Campfire, you will gradually build a gauge beneath it every time a camper has a great time spending their moments next to it. They could use it to cook food, socialize, relax, and more.
The points stored in the gauge will eventually reach the end, triggering Camping Fever. The gauge will also change in appearance, acting now as a timer to when the Camping Fever will end. Be sure to make space for this communal Campfire, though, it’s huge!
But what if Camping Fever hasn’t been triggered yet and you’re already running low on funds? There are a few items that could save your camp…
9. Save Booster Items For Emergency Fund Raising
Camping Fever’s great and all, but there will be those little lulls in your business year that could be rough.
As you play the game, you’ll be able to research or claim some special items from achievements. Among these items are boosters that help increase sales, customers, or refill your store’s stock. While these sound powerful to use alone, they’re actually quite hard to come by.
A few examples of the booster items are as follows:
- Exchange Coupon – This restores all the stock of the items in your store. Use it if you need money and when it says that the store will restock a couple of in-game months later.
- Ad Campaign – This one will increase your camp’s fame by 1 level, allowing you to draw in more customers in the long run.
- Pamphlet – The pamphlet temporarily increases the number of customers that will check your camp out. Use this if your camp is close to going into debt.
- Promo Flier – Just like the pamphlet, but this one works for the store. It’d be best used if your store had been recently restocked.
We have given you a few hints here and there on when to use these, but the choice is yours when you want to use them. Always remember that these should only be used if you want to regain enough funds to keep your camp from going into debt.
As far as other hints go, there are other ways for you to find these out yourself. How about reading issues of the Camping Chronicle?
10. Read The Camping Chronicle For ‘Hidden’ Tips
In case you haven’t already seen this pop up as you play, the Camping Chronicle is a magazine that features popular camps all across the country and your camp is one of them.
Occasionally, the writers will talk about your camp (for the better, we hope), but you might also see some articles that interview prominent persons in the camping scene. These people range from celebrities to experienced campers or from fandom experts to camping magnates, so their opinions about your camp vary.
Their opinions actually hide little secrets here and there. Take the example we have up there in the screenshot. The title of that issue is “Fanning the Flames” and it’s about how you can keep your camp comfortable for other campers. We quote this excerpt from the issue:
“Direct appeals work well, but you shouldn’t underestimate the indirect stuff,”
The issue continues on explaining that every other facility in your camp should be upgraded every now and then so it can increase customer satisfaction. A few little things here and there will send even more campers over to enjoy your camp in their spare time.
To access the Camp Chronicle, just follow our steps below:
- First tap the Menu button on the lower right.
- Then tap on Info, right above System.
- Lastly, tap Back Issues. Now you can pick an issue you’d like to read!
Wrapping this all up, improving your camp is no easy task. But if we take away what we’ve learned from this guide, it might not be as difficult as it would seem:
- Save your game sparingly. If you made a mistake, don’t save it — quit your session and reload the game.
- Forest Camp Story is not an idle game. Therefore, it’s best that you find spare time to actually play the game if you wanna progress.
- The locations of your facilities are very important. Some prime locations are atop hills surrounded by flowers and trees that you’ve planted.
- Research often for better quality items. These are sure to attract more customers and make some of them return.
- Facilities shouldn’t all be in one area. Have more than one of the same facilities but scatter them about.
- Plants and trees will improve the quality of your facilities. Consider decorating your store as well, as it’s sure to help items sell even more.
- Moving items around is expensive, so only do this if you have spare cash to burn.
- The Campfire should be your first major role. If you can get it early, you’ll be able to get more customers easily. It can also send you into a Camping Fever which drastically increases the volume of traffic your camp receives.
- Booster items can be hard to come by, so save them only if you are in need of cash.
- The Camping Chronicle, an in-game magazine, contains tips and tricks. Just reading some of them should give you an idea of how to have a more efficient camp.
And that concludes our beginner’s guide to Forest Camp Story! If you have tips and tricks of your own that you’d like to share with your fellow camp owners or if you think that we might have missed something, leave your thoughts in our comment section down below!