Collector’s Cove: Beginner’s Guide and Tips

Collector’s Cove is a farming adventure game where you travel across the seas on your boat with your companion, on a quest to fill your Collector’s Compendium and earn the title of Named Collector. To do this, you’ll need to grow crops, go fishing, and gather resources to build equipment, upgrade your tools, and expand your boat.

As you progress further into the game, you may find managing all your crops and locating all the fish overwhelming. Not to mention growing or catching those elusive fabled species. We’ve compiled a list of tips to help you manage everything in your game of Collector’s Cove, including your crops, fish, resources, and keep on top of everything you need to do.

1. Grow Everything and Stock Up

In Collector’s Cove, you’ll be growing things. A lot. And a lot of different types of crops as well.

1.1. What Crops Are Used For

Crops are required for the following:

• Unlocking fertilizer recipes
• Discovering fabled conditions
• Feeding your companion
• Purchasing bait recipes, fertilizer recipes, fabled conditions, decorations, and accessories at the secret seller.
• Selling at the merchant, needed for buying seeds and boat upgrades.

Stocking up on harvested crops is an absolute must. Failure to do so can result in wasted time traveling back to previous regions to gather more crops for new recipes.

1.2. Buying Crops

• 6 crops are initially available to grow at each region. 3 of these regions add 4 more later after leveling up.
• At the merchant, buy multiple seeds for each plant. Note the number of harvestables needed to unlock the fertilizer or fabled condition.
• After fertilizer is unlocked, purchase the same number of seeds to earn the fabled condition.

Purchase as many new seeds as possible when visiting a new region.

1.3. Growing Crops

• Each crop must be harvested a certain number of times to unlock the fertilizer.
• Prioritize growing trees when starting a new region. These take much longer to grow than other crops.
• Before planting a crop, make sure you have the fertilizer ready. Use the compost bin to make fertilizer.
• Fertilizer is used once per harvest. If the crop reproduces harvestable, you need to add new fertilizer.
• Use fertilizer to produce extra seeds when harvested. Also creates excellent-quality crops, which sells for more money.
• Keep crops watered at all times. They won’t grow if the planter dries out.
• Keep watering can topped up at trough. Keep trough topped up with water using wood. Can also fill can at ponds.
• Once you unlock it through leveling up, build a butterfly house, or multiple. These speed up growing time for crops.

1.4. Stocking Up Crops

• Once arriving at a new region in an expedition, grow plenty of every crop.
• Once crop is harvested, store them away in chests. Aim for at least 10 of each crop.
• Crops may be used in other regions for their bait and fertilizer. Don’t waste time traveling back to previous regions to get a missing crop, so stock up while you can.

You’ll need crops and fish to produce fertilizer.

1.5. Leveling Up Farming Experience

Grow lots of crops to level up your farming experience. The more crops you farm, the faster you level up. Leveling up unlocks useful perks such as harvesting multiple crops.

1.6. Growing Fabled Crops

• When growing a crop to produce a fabled crop, don’t forget to add the fertilizer! Even if conditions are matched for fabled crop, it won’t be produced if fertilizer isn’t added.
• Fertilizer doesn’t need to be added at start of growing crop for fabled condition. It can be added later, even after becoming harvestable. The fabled crop can still appear if conditions are met.

1.7. Selling Crops

Crops sell for more money than fish, even at standard quality. Prioritize crop growing than fishing if looking to make serious cash for expensive seeds and boat upgrades.

Fertilizer is mandatory for growing fabled crops. It also increases a crop’s value when harvested.

2. Catch As Many Fish As Possible

Fishing is the other key activity in Collector’s Cove alongside farming.

2.1. What Fishing Is Used For

Fishing is important for the following:

• Unlocking bait recipes
• Discovering fabled conditions
• Making bait
• Fertilizer
• Purchasing from the secret seller
• Feeding companion for stamina
• Selling to the merchant for cash

Catch fish as soon as you arrive in a new region.

2.2. Catch Fish Often

• When you arrive at a new location, start fishing as soon as possible. Catch everything you can, day and night, as different fish appear at different times of day.
• The first time you catch a fish, it’s added to your Compendium. It will tell you the times of day the fish appears, the shadow size, and where to catch it.

2.3. Where to Catch Fish and Types of Fish

• Fish appear in two places: saltwater (the sea) and freshwater (ponds).
• The type of fish is noted in its entry in the Compendium, even before you catch it, to help you locate it.
• Catching saltwater fish is easier because you can get them from your boat.
• Freshwater can only be caught in ponds on islands.
• Prioritize freshwater fish first. There are less of these available and they’re only available at certain times of day.

You may encounter a bug where pond fish stop spawning after a few catches, so make it count. If this happens, focus on the saltwater fish. You’ll need to move onto another island where more freshwater fish can be found in ponds.

Freshwater fish can only be found in ponds, located on islands.

2.4. Fish Behaviour

• When fishing, make a note of the fish’s behaviour. Each type of fish behave differently when caught.
• Some fish are harder to reel in than others. They may become angry and act erratically, pulling on the line.
• Be patient with fish and reel them in once they stop pulling. Try not to pull on fish that are swimming away, especially if they’re angry. You may snap the line and lose them! 

2.5. How to Catch Difficult Fish

• With fish who keep swimming away, try reeling them in when they’re not pulling.
• When they start pulling, use the strong pull action to force them in. This cancels their pulling behaviour and you should be able to reel them in.
• You may need to use the strong pull action again to get them in once they’re close enough.
• If a fish starts swimming away when being reeled in, try tapping the reel button to slow them down.
• Some fish are stronger than others, making it easier to snap the line. Be careful with these fish!

As you catch fish, the compendium fills up.

2.6. Stock Up on Fish

• Keep your fish stocked up on your boat so you can use them for fertilizer, bait, and purchasing from the secret seller.
• You can also sell fish for money and feed your companion for stamina.
• Catch as much fish as you can in a region as you may need plenty of it in a different region, saving you a return trip.

2.7. Using Fish Bait

• When using bait, use it sparingly. Use it for unlocking fabled conditions, catching excellent-quality fish, and catching fabled fish.
• Bait is only used on the matching fish you catch.
• If attempting to catch a fabled fish, make sure you have the bait ready, it’s the right time of day, and you’ve met the fabled conditions, or you’ll waste bait and only get excellent fish.

2.8. Gain Fishing Experience

Keep fishing as often as possible not only to stock up on fish, but also to level up your fishing experience. This unlocks useful perks such as catching multiple fish.

Rank up in fishing to gain new perks and abilities.

3. Gather Every Resource on Every Island

In Collector’s Cove, you’re not just collecting crops and fish. There are other resources to find and gather that are required for constructing items, tools, and upgrading your boat for extra space.

3.1. Types of Resources

Resources include:

• Wood (chopped from trees, includes simple wood, tropical, sakura, haunted, and galaxy)
• Rocks (mined at rocks)
• Ore (mined at ore rocks, includes copper, silver, gold, and galaxy)
• Fiber (digging dirt)
• Dirt (digging dirt)
• Sand (digging dirt)

Stock up on resources for big projects such as a future boat upgrade.

3.2. Stock Up on Resources 

• Resources can be found on all islands across the regions.
• Gather every available resource at every island you stop at, even the smaller ones.
• Bountiful islands are the best places for resources, but plenty can also be found at treasure islands and secret seller locations.
• Store gathered resources on your boat. Try to keep them all in one designated storage chest.

3.3. Extra Resources From Stray Sea Crates and Barrels

• During sea travels, stray barrels and crates float by. Reel these in with the plunger gun.
• Listen out for companion when traveling for crate/barrel alerts. Head to the plunger gun ASAP so you don’t miss them.

3.4. Trade Surplus Resources With Merchant

Trade resources at middle stall on merchant’s boat. The more surplus you have, the better. Be careful not to trade with something you need. Try trading lesser-used resources such as fiber and dirt.

Trade resources at the merchants.

4. Organize Your Storage and Your Space

As you play Collector’s Cove, you might notice soon on that you’re acquiring a vast amount of resources, such as wood, rocks, ore, fish, crops, seeds, bait, and fertilizer. Your inventory will quickly fill up and get full. Once it’s full, you cannot add anything else to it, and newly-acquired items will appear in a bag on the ground. 

4.1. Get Organized ASAP

• As soon as you possibly can, get your stuff organized.
• Build as many storage chests as you can, even small ones.
• Organize them by region and type of resource so you can stow them away and retrieve them for later use.
• It’s best to keep your things organized by type, so you don’t get things mixed up and can quickly retrieve or stow away items.
• Consider placing a themed decoration by the matching chest to help you identify them.

Try to keep everything organized by region and item type, to make managing resources easier.

4.2. Best Way to Organize Storage Chests

Ideally, you need a storage chest for each type of item:

• Resources such as wood, rocks, ore, fiber, dirt, sand, ingot, and glass.
• Treasure Trove fish, excellent fish, and bait.
• Treasure Trove crops, excellent crops, seeds, and fertilizer.
• Sakura Shores fish, excellent fish, and bait.
• Sakura Shores crops, excellent crops, seeds, and fertilizer.
• Haunted Harbors fish, excellent fish, and bait.
• Haunted Harbors crops, excellent crops, seeds, and fertilizer.
• Galaxy Glaciers fish, excellent fish, and bait.
• Galaxy Glaciers crops, excellent crops, seeds, and fertilizer.

You should be able to fit these into small storage chests. If not, build an extra one for each group.

In each chest, try to keep the same crops and fish together. For example, have the pineapple seeds, pineapple crop, excellent pineapple crop, and pineapple fertilizer in one row.

Try to keep your inventory clear or you won’t be able to collect new items.

5. Have All the Equipment You Need for Farming and Fishing

To unlock the fabled fish and crops in Collector’s Cove and generally do these activities on a daily basis, you need useful tools and equipment. You unlock these early on in the game.

5.1. Equipment You Must Get

As soon as they become available, have the following on your boat:

• Bait maker – creates bait for excellent fish and fabled fish
• Compost bin – creates fertilizer for excellent crops and fabled crops
• Workbench – upgrade tools
• Water trough – keeps watering can topped up with water using wood to produce water
• Smelter – for creating glass and ingot

A bait maker is needed to catch fabled fish.

5.2. Get Multiple Equipment

• You only need one water trough and workbench.
• If you can, have more than one bait maker, smelter, and compost bin. You can only create one bait/fertilizer/smelted item at a time per station.
• Fertilizer and smelted items are especially notorious for taking ages to produce. Also, only the bait maker receives a perk for faster production.

5.3. Tools Available in Collector’s Cove

In Collector’s Cove, you have a handful of tools to complete your tasks and gather resources. These include:

• Watering can – waters crops
• Axe – chops trees
• Pickaxe – mines rocks
• Shovel – digs up dirt, sand, and fiber
• Fishing rod – for fishing
• Satchel – for keeping resources

5.4. Upgrade Tools ASAP

• Out of these six tools, five of them can be upgraded (the shovel is excluded).
• As you level up and discover new areas, you’ll unlock new tool upgrades.
• You must upgrade your tools as soon as possible. Not doing so prevents you from gathering new resources requiring stronger tools. Stock up on all island resources.

Upgrade tools to at least level 3.

5.5. Highest Recommended Tool Upgrade

• Each tool has several levels of upgrade, growing in strength each time.
• The highest upgrade required to gather all available resources are the sakura/haunted tools. These are needed for gathering the resources at Galaxy Glaciers, the final region.

5.6. Final Tool Upgrade Optional

• The highest available tool upgrade requires galaxy resources.
• This is optional and not mandatory for completing the game.
• The main benefit for the final tool upgrade is faster and more efficient resource gathering.

6. Locate the Secret Seller ASAP at the Start of a New Expedition

As you play Collector’s Cove, you’ll frequently travel between regions to collect crops, fish, and other resources, as well as fill your Compendium. You’ll need to return to previous locations after unlocking new fabled fish and crops to find.

One thing to note is that although you can summon the merchant as soon as you arrive, one may not be available: the secret seller. That’s because you need to locate him on his island to unlock his stall.

Ideally, as soon as you embark on a new expedition, head to the secret seller’s location on your map. It may or may not be marked. As soon as you arrive, he becomes available again.

The secret seller can be found on a designated island. After that, he appears on the merchant’s boat.

6.1. What You Need the Secret Seller For

The secret seller is key to accessing important items, including the following:

• Bait recipes
• Fertilizer recipes
• Fabled conditions
• Companion accessories
• Boat decorations

Getting access to the secret seller is vital for meeting conditions for certain fabled species, as well as shortcuts to getting fabled species if growing and catching them is proving difficult. You should visit different islands, but make locating the secret seller a priority, otherwise his stall on the merchant’s boat is unavailable.

7. Make Use of Sea Time

In Collector’s Cove, you do a lot of traveling across the sea to reach different islands. Time at sea can be as little as 8 hours, or as long as a whole day. In the meantime, make the most of being stuck on your boat by doing the following:

• Growing and tending to crops, keeping them watered. Crops take hours and even days to grow.
• Fishing over the side of the boat. You’ll be able to fish for saltwater fish here, giving you a head start on your Compendium.
• Use excess fish to feed your companion to keep their stamina up, especially for longer trips, so they don’t fall asleep, which wastes time.
• Creating fertilizer, fish bait, and smelting. These individually take time, so it’s a good use of time to do this now.
• Catching floating crates and barrels with the plunger gun to earn extra resources.
• Building new decorations, planters, or equipment for your boat.
• Sleeping in a bed to pass time. Don’t let plants dry out or your companion’s stamina drop too low. Make sure plants are watered and your companion’s stamina is high before sleeping.

Pass the time at sea by looking after your crops and fishing. Don’t waste it!

8. Visit Treasure Islands for Free Resources

Treasure islands are a type of island you can visit in Collector’s Cove. In each region, one or two of these are available. Treasure islands contain a special treasure chest that can be unlocked by completing a specific series of tasks, usually 3. Each treasure island only contains one unlockable treasure chest and can only be done once per expedition.

8.1. How to Open Treasure Chests

To open the chests, you may need to do the following, depending on the region:

• Hit a marked rock with a pickaxe. 
• Rotate a frog into the correct position (Sakura Shores). Pick up the frog and then rotate and place it so the lines match up.
• Guide a ghost back to its grave (Haunted Harbors). Locate a colored ghost and lead it back to the grave matching its color. 
• Complete a light sequence with glowing orbs (Galaxy Glaciers). Copy the sequence of glowing orbs correctly three times.

Unlock the treasure chests by completing tasks around the island.

8.2. What’s Inside the Treasure Chests

Once all the tasks have been done, the treasure chest on the island opens and you can access these contents. You can find the following:

• Seeds
• Fish
• Crops
• Bait recipe
• Fertilizer recipe
• Fabled condition

8.3. Visiting Treasure Islands for Fabled Conditions

Some fabled conditions also require completing one of the above tasks. If the mentioned task is not available to meet the condition, travel to another treasure island. If not, start a new expedition in that region to respawn the islands and try again. This may take multiple tries.

With the pear, for example, you need to return a ghost to its grave to get the fabled crop.

9. Smelt Lots of Ore to Create a Stock of Ingot

One type of resource in Collector’s Cove are ore, which makes ingot, which is used in many recipes.

9.1. Where to Get Ore

Ore can be found:

• Mining ore rocks
• Randomly obtained from floating barrels and crates at sea
• Traded at the merchant

9.2. What Is Ore Used For

Ore can be smelted to produce ingot, which is used in lots of items such as:

• Tool upgrades
• Boat upgrades
• Objects
• Decorations

Ingot is used in several recipes.

9.3. Types of Ore

There are four types of ore available, each found in the four regions:

• Copper (Tropical Trove)
• Silver (Sakura Shores)
• Gold (Haunted Harbors)
• Galaxy (Galaxy Glaciers)

You should mine as much ore as possible across the four regions, and then put these through the smelter to create ingot. It takes time to smelt ore into ingot, so consider having more than one smelter on your boat. 

Without the right tool upgrades, mining for ore is out of the question.

10. Expand Your Boat for Extra Space

As you grow more crops and place storage chests, equipment, and decorations, you might find that space is getting a little squeezed on your boat. You’ll need more room, which means expanding your boat’s space. Collector’s Cove offers just two boat upgrades; the first is required for game completion, the other is not.

10.1. First Boat Upgrade Is Mandatory

• Once you level up to a certain point as a Collector, you access your first boat upgrade, which can be done at the same merchant who trades resources.
• Upgrading your boat is expensive and requires a ton of resources. It’s also required for completing a main task. When this upgrade appears, make it a priority.
• The first boat upgrade adds an extra level on your roof, as well as another room inside your boat.
• Use this new space to grow more crops, add more equipment, and place more decorations and storage.

10.2. Second Boat Upgrade Is Optional

• After further leveling up as a Collector, the second boat expansion becomes available.
• The second expansion adds extra room at the back of the boat, as well as an extra room inside.
• This upgrade is optional and you can complete the game without it.
• Consider this upgrade for more space. Also required for Steam/PlayStation achievement/trophy.

A boat upgrade gives you much more space for your items.

Collector’s Cove Beginner’s Guide Conclusion

That concludes all the tips we have for Collector’s Cove. It’s best to take these tips on board as soon as you begin your game, as it’s very easy to get overwhelmed, especially as you unlock more crops, fish, and gather more resources. These tips should help you to stay organized and be efficient with your tasks and quest to become Named Collector.