One major aspect of gameplay in Harvest Town is the ability to form relationships with the NPCs. This will allow you to progress in the game, gain rewards, unlock events, learn more about the citizens, and even receive the occasional gift from them.
Friendship Mechanics
In order to become friends and even romantic partners with the citizens of Harvest Town, you will need to increase your fondness. Fondness is increased by giving gifts the NPCs like, by talking to them, and by completing quests they give. You can have a maximum of 7 hearts with regular citizens and 12 hearts with romanceable citizens. Once you have reached maximum hearts with a citizen, a message will pop up saying “___ likes you very much!”
When receiving a relationship reward from a citizen, it may sometimes take a few days for the gift to arrive. Be sure also that you are at the correct amount of hearts by giving them an extra gift as the journal does not always display hearts properly.
Gift Giving
You are able to give as many gifts as you want, with up to 100 Fondness per week. Weekly fondness is seen on the NPCs profile page under the social tab and resets every Monday. On birthdays, gifts are worth ?x more than they usually are, and are part extra fondness rather than the weekly fondness.
Citizens react differently depending on the present, which results in different levels of fondness. There are 4 classes of gifts: favorite, liked, neutral, and disliked. Each NPC has a favorite item as well as a category of items that they like, as indicated on their profile. Their favorite item will result in the most fondness. Fondness received from gifts is also affected by the gift's quality, so higher quality gifts will give slighter more fondness.
See NPC Gift Table for a quick overview of all gifts.
| Favorability | Normal | Silver | Gold | Darkgold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Favorite | +45 | +57 | +68 | +90 |
| Liked | +25 | +32 | +38 | +45 |
| Neutral | +10 | +13 | +15 | +20 |
| Dislike | -10 | -13 | -15 | -20 |
Disliked levels are not confirmed.
Romance
Specific NPCs are romanceable, which you can see under the social tab labeled as “single.” These citizens have a maximum of 12 hearts can be married after reaching 10 hearts with them. It's not certain at this point if same-sex marriages are allowed.
Currently in-game, marriage is not an available feature. It will be available in a future update.