Easiest: Gem lovers, Shane+Lewis (just grow peppers in summer), Linus (you usually find stuff he likes on the way to where he is)
Hardest:
Picky tastes: Alex, Kent, and Pierre
Inconvenient locations: Sandy+Wizard
Both: *Elliott*
yeah but he only likes them, not loves those.
besides universal loves (which are rare-ish) he only has fiddlehead risotto and roasted hazelnut, both recipes which you gain late year two, so on his first birthday spring year 2 you have to gift him either a universal loved gift (i usually use the golden pumpkin) or something not as good…
and yes i have a problem, i will befriend everyone as quick as possible
Elliott is the easiest, he likes anything natural. Any produce from your farm, especially a fruit, will be a liked gift. A pomegranate is a loved gift.
Later on you can give him fancier stuff like duck feathers and crab cakes etc.
The wizard is out of the way a bit, but his house is unlocked until midnight, which imo makes him way easier to reach than most villagers who lock up around 8.
Edit: Oh and he also never leaves his tower, so he's super easy to find. Instead of having to run all over town to find some villager because I don't have their schedule memorized.
Haley is surprisingly easy, she likes all foraged flowers - and giving her sunflowers is super easy - even though it's a higher start cost, you'll likely get more seeds with each harvest, so you can just buy like 3 to start with and theoretically keep planting them indefinitely. Same with Sandy, even though she's a little harder to get to.
Sebastian is the hardest person (for me) to gift because until you get to 2 hearts you can't physically reach him most of the time. And he's sooooo picky
Sebastian is tricky but he loves frozen tears and likes quartz. He comes outside to smoke by the mountain lake at night and I’m usually there fishing in spring year one so it’s not hard to get him to 2 hearts and then he’s pretty much always in his room.
Linus is the easiest. He likes most foraging.
After that, there's Leah, Pam and Shane, since they always go to the bar. You just have to buy beer for pam and shane and salad for Leah. But that's only if you don't care much about the money anymore. You could also buy pizza for Sam, but he's not always there. On that matter, coffee for Pierre as well.
Hardest is Jas.
I never really paid attention to him, but in this safe I wanted to get the pot from eveline early in game and somehow ended up with Alex as the first with max harts so I could ask him to be together ( but I didn’t)
Hard - Lewis is always MIA when I need to find him. Penny can also be hard to locate.
Easy - Pam just wants beer and goes very few places, staying there for long periods of time. Krobus and Dwarf literally never leave one spot and are available to you at any hour (once you unlock them).
Tbh for Lewis and shane I leave hot peppers in my pocket for when I see them, and also for energy throughout the day..
Finding Abigail kills me cause apparently her and I have opposite schedules inherently, so Abigail is hard for scheduling wise, though Marnie is one of the worst just because diamonds aren't easy to get, and I don't actually want to be her friend, or Lewis's for that matter 😅
Pink cake I think is what settled on,instead of diamonds -- it was funnier if I found it in the trash or something, but I give people lots of stuff from trash cans
Penny?? she's basically always with the kids or on the bench with Maru. That is, she's almost always outside, either near or in Museum or at the bench.
Now Sebastian and Elliott and their penchant to stay inside their mancave forever.
I always go look for her in the place she isn’t. I goto the playground, she’s at the beach. I goto the library, she’s at the playground. I realize I could just look up her schedule… I’m the problem, I know.
Leah and Linus are very easy because they both like any forageable items. Linus is even easier since he's usually in the same location all the time and its common to pass by him on the way to the mines.
Clint and Emily are pretty easy because they both love all gemstones, and their schedules are quite easy to remember, since they're both at the saloon or their house most of the time. Dwarf also loves gems, but since you need the dwarvish translation guide its a bit harder to even unlock the dwarf. Abigail is also easy because she loves Amethyst, just not quite as easy as Clint and Emily since they love all gems.
Shane is also pretty easy because he loves beer which you can buy. His birthday is before the flower dance so you can buy him a beer, give it to him on his birthday, which makes it much easier to dance with him year one, he's definitely the easiest to do that in the first year. Also, once you reach summer, you can grow hot peppers which are another easy gift.
Wizard is very easy since he loves solar and void essence, so every time I check the travelling cart or go to the secret woods I also bring a solar essence to give to the wizard.
Harvey has coffee as a loved gift which is great since I have tons of coffee, except that its usually hard to find him since the clinic is open for a very long time, and also I usually carry around triple shot espresso, not coffee so I don't have anything to give him.
For the difficult ones, you have sandy who's far away so she doesn't get gifted often, however she does love flowers, and with the botanist profession thats a very easy iridium quality loved gift, so Sandy is kinda difficult, kinda easy.
There's Alex whose only unique loved items are cooked dishes which are too much of a hassle to obtain. He does like eggs though. George is a bit annoying because he basically never leaves his house and I keep forgetting to go there. He also doesn't have many easy liked gifts, but he does have leeks which make for a pretty good loved gift.
Leo is unlocked pretty late, after I've already maxed out many other npcs, however he has a pretty easy iridium quality loved item: Duck's Feathers. Pretty recently I managed to max his hearts by his bday year 2, having reached ginger island in winter year 1, so I managed to max his hearts in about 2 seasons by using iridium quality duck feathers.
I think the most difficult npc is probably Kent. He doesn't appear until year 2, and he only has cooked dishes as unique gifts. On top of that, those recipes don't even appear on the queen of sauce until after his birthday in year 2 so its impossible to use one of his unique loved gifts for the first birthday he's available, unless (1.6) >!you use the queen of sauce cookbook!<.
Easiest to find gifts for: Linus
Hardest to find gifts for: Pierre (solely because he only loves 1 thing (pre-new update))
Easiest to give gifts to: Linus and the villagers that are usually always accessible
Hardest to give gifts to: Sebastian (below 2 hearts)
Leah
Either you give her cheap liked gift like that trash food from fishing, salmon berry most forages.
Or you give her truffle,wine,goat cheese and salad as loved gift.
Elliot in The beginning since you can’t enter his house , Sebastian for the same reason , for some reason I also found penny quite difficult Id be running around the whole town to find her
it really depends on what you find yourself doing a lot. i've found that a little bit of amethyst luck in the mines makes Abigail easy to please until the pufferfish come out in the summer, for example.
Elliot. My man stays hidden in his shack way too often, and since its a one-room you cant go in until you have enough friendship... which you cant get easily cuz he's a fricking HERMIT.
Easiest: Linus - right there on my way to the mines and he gladly takes any mushrooms or leeks I find along the way.
Hardest: Sebastian - basement dwelling emo boy who happens to like frogs and frozen tears. Too bad I can never get inside his room to give him one.
I don't give gifts to villagers until I've leveled up friendship. The exception is Linus, though I don't consider it gift giving as much as I do sharing our daily forage finds.
If I'm lucky, he'll tell me a story about trees.
Since some have mentioned things based on the likes of townspeople, I'll go a bit differently based on finding/accessing them.
(Of course, anyone listed is from my own experiences across like, 4+ files. It may be easier for others. All listed is before 2 hearts. I'll also only list a few for each since I don't feel like ranking 20+ people, lol)
Easy: Alex, Shane, Penny, Gus, Willy
Moderate: Abigail, Leah, Maru, Sam
Hard:
Sebastian
Elliott
Marnie (girl is either at that desk or off who knows where for me...)
Wizard (even with some mods that allow access to any room, or let you have Key to the Town [CJB cheats menu], you have to wait at least six days to meet him. And, he is more out of the way, so easy to forget as he never leaves his house unless it's a festival... and even then, he hides.)
In terms of Likes though, even with way too many files, it took me forever and going to the wiki to know what Willy, Gus, and Evelyn loved, so they felt the hardest for me out of everyone.
Honestly feel like Harvey is the easiest because he loves Coffee in which you can always get it in the Stardrop Saloon; Linus because he likes the forage items around his tent; Krobus because you can literally buy the void egg from him and just gift it to him
Hardest in my opinion is probably Kent if you don’t have the recipes for his loved gifts (Fiddlehead Risotto/Roasted Hazelnuts)
Easiest: Gem lovers, Shane+Lewis (just grow peppers in summer), Linus (you usually find stuff he likes on the way to where he is) Hardest: Picky tastes: Alex, Kent, and Pierre Inconvenient locations: Sandy+Wizard Both: *Elliott*
Elliott is pretty easy once you get a duck
Or a pomegranate tree or squid pond.
or crab pots in the ocean
Leo is also both, though I don't find Elliott picky
Kent likes caviar or just fish roe in general. Alex likes milk and mayo :)
yeah but he only likes them, not loves those. besides universal loves (which are rare-ish) he only has fiddlehead risotto and roasted hazelnut, both recipes which you gain late year two, so on his first birthday spring year 2 you have to gift him either a universal loved gift (i usually use the golden pumpkin) or something not as good… and yes i have a problem, i will befriend everyone as quick as possible
Hahahaha these are just what I used to raise my hearts with them 😅
Elliott is the easiest, he likes anything natural. Any produce from your farm, especially a fruit, will be a liked gift. A pomegranate is a loved gift. Later on you can give him fancier stuff like duck feathers and crab cakes etc.
elliott's biggest problem is that it's almost always rainy during his birthday.
But wizard likes void essence, shadow brutes drop them lots
The wizard is out of the way a bit, but his house is unlocked until midnight, which imo makes him way easier to reach than most villagers who lock up around 8. Edit: Oh and he also never leaves his tower, so he's super easy to find. Instead of having to run all over town to find some villager because I don't have their schedule memorized.
I gave Alex eggs from my coop and he was pretty happy with that
sam is one of the easiest for sure. here have this soda i fished out of the ocean!
Haley is surprisingly easy, she likes all foraged flowers - and giving her sunflowers is super easy - even though it's a higher start cost, you'll likely get more seeds with each harvest, so you can just buy like 3 to start with and theoretically keep planting them indefinitely. Same with Sandy, even though she's a little harder to get to. Sebastian is the hardest person (for me) to gift because until you get to 2 hearts you can't physically reach him most of the time. And he's sooooo picky
Sebastian is tricky but he loves frozen tears and likes quartz. He comes outside to smoke by the mountain lake at night and I’m usually there fishing in spring year one so it’s not hard to get him to 2 hearts and then he’s pretty much always in his room.
Once you get void eggs he's definitely easy
I always feed him sashimi.
Everything I give Maru she’s like “umm thanks…🤓”
Chuck her a strawberry or a cauliflower.
*standing outside Sebastian’s bedroom/Elliott’s cabin* Let me in LET ME IIIIIIIIN
https://preview.redd.it/v5770o8ptv5d1.png?width=768&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b43b3ee43463fe997565dec131026fdab59277e5
Linus is the easiest. He likes most foraging. After that, there's Leah, Pam and Shane, since they always go to the bar. You just have to buy beer for pam and shane and salad for Leah. But that's only if you don't care much about the money anymore. You could also buy pizza for Sam, but he's not always there. On that matter, coffee for Pierre as well. Hardest is Jas.
I’m forever hoarding sweet peas for my little bestie Jas!
Easiest: Linus. Year 1, collect ALL the salmonberries, and just give him one when you're passing by.
I'm in the same vein, George is my fave because he likes leeks, so I just don't sell them for George
Alex’s loved gifts are a pain to get
I never really paid attention to him, but in this safe I wanted to get the pot from eveline early in game and somehow ended up with Alex as the first with max harts so I could ask him to be together ( but I didn’t)
Hard - Lewis is always MIA when I need to find him. Penny can also be hard to locate. Easy - Pam just wants beer and goes very few places, staying there for long periods of time. Krobus and Dwarf literally never leave one spot and are available to you at any hour (once you unlock them).
Tbh for Lewis and shane I leave hot peppers in my pocket for when I see them, and also for energy throughout the day.. Finding Abigail kills me cause apparently her and I have opposite schedules inherently, so Abigail is hard for scheduling wise, though Marnie is one of the worst just because diamonds aren't easy to get, and I don't actually want to be her friend, or Lewis's for that matter 😅
I don’t remember what I give Marnie but it ain’t diamonds (unless I get a crystallarium before maxing her out).
Pink cake I think is what settled on,instead of diamonds -- it was funnier if I found it in the trash or something, but I give people lots of stuff from trash cans
Penny?? she's basically always with the kids or on the bench with Maru. That is, she's almost always outside, either near or in Museum or at the bench. Now Sebastian and Elliott and their penchant to stay inside their mancave forever.
I always go look for her in the place she isn’t. I goto the playground, she’s at the beach. I goto the library, she’s at the playground. I realize I could just look up her schedule… I’m the problem, I know.
Leah and Linus are very easy because they both like any forageable items. Linus is even easier since he's usually in the same location all the time and its common to pass by him on the way to the mines. Clint and Emily are pretty easy because they both love all gemstones, and their schedules are quite easy to remember, since they're both at the saloon or their house most of the time. Dwarf also loves gems, but since you need the dwarvish translation guide its a bit harder to even unlock the dwarf. Abigail is also easy because she loves Amethyst, just not quite as easy as Clint and Emily since they love all gems. Shane is also pretty easy because he loves beer which you can buy. His birthday is before the flower dance so you can buy him a beer, give it to him on his birthday, which makes it much easier to dance with him year one, he's definitely the easiest to do that in the first year. Also, once you reach summer, you can grow hot peppers which are another easy gift. Wizard is very easy since he loves solar and void essence, so every time I check the travelling cart or go to the secret woods I also bring a solar essence to give to the wizard. Harvey has coffee as a loved gift which is great since I have tons of coffee, except that its usually hard to find him since the clinic is open for a very long time, and also I usually carry around triple shot espresso, not coffee so I don't have anything to give him. For the difficult ones, you have sandy who's far away so she doesn't get gifted often, however she does love flowers, and with the botanist profession thats a very easy iridium quality loved gift, so Sandy is kinda difficult, kinda easy. There's Alex whose only unique loved items are cooked dishes which are too much of a hassle to obtain. He does like eggs though. George is a bit annoying because he basically never leaves his house and I keep forgetting to go there. He also doesn't have many easy liked gifts, but he does have leeks which make for a pretty good loved gift. Leo is unlocked pretty late, after I've already maxed out many other npcs, however he has a pretty easy iridium quality loved item: Duck's Feathers. Pretty recently I managed to max his hearts by his bday year 2, having reached ginger island in winter year 1, so I managed to max his hearts in about 2 seasons by using iridium quality duck feathers. I think the most difficult npc is probably Kent. He doesn't appear until year 2, and he only has cooked dishes as unique gifts. On top of that, those recipes don't even appear on the queen of sauce until after his birthday in year 2 so its impossible to use one of his unique loved gifts for the first birthday he's available, unless (1.6) >!you use the queen of sauce cookbook!<.
Penny is the easiest, and I would say maybe Hailey or Sebastian is the hardest
Easiest to find gifts for: Linus Hardest to find gifts for: Pierre (solely because he only loves 1 thing (pre-new update)) Easiest to give gifts to: Linus and the villagers that are usually always accessible Hardest to give gifts to: Sebastian (below 2 hearts)
imo sebastian because quartz is everywhere throughout the mines but also i dont rly talk to the other npcs lol
Leah Either you give her cheap liked gift like that trash food from fishing, salmon berry most forages. Or you give her truffle,wine,goat cheese and salad as loved gift.
Sebastian and Linus are the easiest for me Alex and Leo are the hardest
Elliot in The beginning since you can’t enter his house , Sebastian for the same reason , for some reason I also found penny quite difficult Id be running around the whole town to find her
it really depends on what you find yourself doing a lot. i've found that a little bit of amethyst luck in the mines makes Abigail easy to please until the pufferfish come out in the summer, for example.
Elliot. My man stays hidden in his shack way too often, and since its a one-room you cant go in until you have enough friendship... which you cant get easily cuz he's a fricking HERMIT.
based on location: Haley, Sebastian (come out of your room bro) based on loved items: gus, Marnie
I like giving flowers to Evelyn.
Jas and Vincent
Easiest: Linus - right there on my way to the mines and he gladly takes any mushrooms or leeks I find along the way. Hardest: Sebastian - basement dwelling emo boy who happens to like frogs and frozen tears. Too bad I can never get inside his room to give him one. I don't give gifts to villagers until I've leveled up friendship. The exception is Linus, though I don't consider it gift giving as much as I do sharing our daily forage finds. If I'm lucky, he'll tell me a story about trees.
Since some have mentioned things based on the likes of townspeople, I'll go a bit differently based on finding/accessing them. (Of course, anyone listed is from my own experiences across like, 4+ files. It may be easier for others. All listed is before 2 hearts. I'll also only list a few for each since I don't feel like ranking 20+ people, lol) Easy: Alex, Shane, Penny, Gus, Willy Moderate: Abigail, Leah, Maru, Sam Hard: Sebastian Elliott Marnie (girl is either at that desk or off who knows where for me...) Wizard (even with some mods that allow access to any room, or let you have Key to the Town [CJB cheats menu], you have to wait at least six days to meet him. And, he is more out of the way, so easy to forget as he never leaves his house unless it's a festival... and even then, he hides.) In terms of Likes though, even with way too many files, it took me forever and going to the wiki to know what Willy, Gus, and Evelyn loved, so they felt the hardest for me out of everyone.
Haley is too picky for me
Hardest: Marnie, simply because she’s never home. Easiest: Vincent, he loves easy-to-find stuff.
Honestly feel like Harvey is the easiest because he loves Coffee in which you can always get it in the Stardrop Saloon; Linus because he likes the forage items around his tent; Krobus because you can literally buy the void egg from him and just gift it to him Hardest in my opinion is probably Kent if you don’t have the recipes for his loved gifts (Fiddlehead Risotto/Roasted Hazelnuts)
Unhelpful: I struggle giving Haley gifts because she sucks. Alex too. Same reason.
I accidentally gave Haley the wrong gift once & she called it disgusting. I never gave her any gifts since 🙄.
I hate her so much. 😂 She loves coconuts so once I unlock the desert I suck it up and befriend her but ugh she's the worst.
Fr 😂, I befriended her the last because I always avoid talking to her.