As I'm not an expert on any of these fields myself I'll be trying to back up most of my statements with other more trusted sources. Do forgive me if I get anything wrong, if I do just leave a comment and I'll iron out the kinks.

These are just meant to be primers as well as some links to a bunch of guides I found that I believe are helpful to people who are new to Rune Factory and wish to dive deeper into the game's mechanics.

I will try to explain the mechanics as simply as I can and mostly point out that they exist rather than fully explaining everything involved with said mechanic. I will also be linking to external resources such as GameFAQs and Reddit for more in-depth stuff that I clearly didn't find myself.

This guide is now finished but I will add more to it should I find anything else that is useful for beginners.

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Crafting tips may make the game way easier if you focus on creating super good gear early on so only craft super good gear if you think you're struggling with the game!

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30-7-2022:
New Sections: SEED Spell Mechanics, Festival Clarifications
"Making Grinding Easier" changed to "Grinding Tips" which contains tips for general grinding.
Roughly 70% done with compiling information for snaring boss monsters.

31-7-2022
New Section: Wanted Monster Clarifications
Updated Seal Section information about snaring and getting no items and nine-tailed fox vulnerability. Thanks Isaacorion!
Boss snaring info is finally 100% complete and tested! \O/
Added information about Gemsqueaks, Scrap Metal+ and power leveling status effects.

4-8-2022
New Section: "Finished the Game, What Do I Do Now?" Aimed to help people who don't know what to do after they've finished the story and postgame
Renamed "Clarifying Item Effects" Section to "Clarifying Item Passives and Upgrade Effects"
Moved upgrade item hidden effects to "Clarifying Item Passives and Upgrade Effects"

14-10-2022
Added information about villager return gifts in compilation section

Minor Update:
Thinking of changing the structure of the guide a bit since some sections are chonky but busy with life so don't have much time to work on this guide anymore, will work on it whenever I get the chance

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• Stats matter more than level, you can easily overpower enemies if you understand how to craft even marginally good equipment.
  
  
• Dual Swords and Fists DO NOT gain any stats from shields. 2 Handed weapons (see the idle animation) and magic rods gain only 50% stats but 100% elemental and status resistances from shields. 1 Handed sword gains full benefits.
  
  
• Rune Orbs on your farm will increase a random skill's level while Runeys (little creature looking things that you can pick up for RP) increase various stats by 1 based on type.
  
  
• If you wish for every item to go into your inventory when you have auto-pickup on: be sure to equip either a tool or a weapon as they will try to go into your empty hand slot otherwise.
  
  
• Heinz's rotating stock changes whenever you save and reload, this is good if you want to buy specific items. His shop can sell almost every item in the game with some exceptions. The most important ones are that he can sell endgame spells as well as lumber and material stone for those who are interested in playing the Heinz Gacha! Do note that if you have Lucas unlocked, only Heinz will sell his rotating stock.
  
  
• Almost every shop has a slight variation to what they sell. Most notably, the crystalabra's spell selection will change whenever you save and reload. Other shops may do this as well but I have no concrete notes on which ones do aside from the Crystalabra.
  
  
• Certain expansions to shops will cause certain NPCs working in that shop to do new things such as adding new shops. Expanding General Store causes Hina to sell fish, Bakery causes Yuki to sell clothes, Smithing causes Martin to sell ores, Crystalabra causes Lucas to upgrade your spells (refer to next tip for more info).
  
  
• After the 1st expansion of Crystalabra, you will be able to buy dragon crystals (fully formed not fragments) on top of being able to trade fragments for full crystals (default able to before expanding), they are a bit pricey though. After the 2nd expansion, Lucas can be given (like you're trying to gift him) spells and be paid to upgrade your spell (with the appropriate materials).
  
  
• Once you unlock Terry's Detective Agency you can turn in recurring requests (with ??? reward) at the request board in front of it for 5000G.
  
  
• Tandem Smithing/Coop Cooking/Tag Team Fishing roll once per day and you may not get anyone. This uses the day's attempt so save before you try it out or don't get who you want.
  
  
• You can mix and match weapon specific rune abilities: such as using the fists' double kick on longsword. Note: the animations may look clunky.
  
  
• NPCs gain affection from various things such as literally just talking to them, giving them gifts, keeping them in party (they gain affection every hour or so) and partner events such as Tag Tean Fishing. Greeting Spell also increases FP by a very slight bit.
  
  
• You can gift NPCs up to 3 times per day if you give them a Loved, Favored and Neutral Gift in one day.
  
  
• Having a party member (monster or villager) or the "Foresight SEED Crest" will cause a small chest icon to appear next to their icons on the top left of the screen. This means that there's a hidden item is nearby. Additionally, the "Foresight" Crest is able to show hidden (blue) chests that are normally completely invisible and unusable.
  
  
• NPCs will give return gifts after receiving a total of 5 handmade gifts (doesn't matter if they are disliked, neutral or liked). You can do this unlimited times per day to get items from the NPCs.
  
  • Priscilla and Randolph give you random oven cooked food
    
    
  • Lucy gives random fish
    
    
  • Scarlet gives foods cooked using the simple cooking table
    
    
  • Fūka (thanks steam censors) gives sashimis
    
    
  • Beatrice and Palmo gives you random crops
    
    
  • Ludmilla gives random flowers
    
    
  • Martin gives random minerals (including late game ores)
    
    
  • Cecil gives shells and bones
    
    
  • Murakumo gives claws (and iirc gifts you back on every gift instead of every 5)
    
    
  • Ryker and [spoilers]Radea[/spoilers] give random dragon scales (though Ryker tends to like giving you weeds instead)
    
    
  • Reinhard gives random seeds
    
    
  • Lucas and Misasagi gives you random food cooked using the pot(?)
    
    
  • Elsje gives you food that you can buy (mostly ingredients)
    
    
  • Heinz gives you random crystals
    
    
  • Yuki gives you food cooked using frying pan
    
    
  • Simone gives random medicines
    
    
  • Terry gives you random accessories (including high tier ones)
    
    
  • Livia gives you food cooked using steamer
    
    
  • Darroch gives you random hammers (including high tier ones)
    
    
  • Julian and Hina give you food cooked using mixer

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Blitz is a Dual Blade rune ability that increases your attack speed. Once you obtain this ability you can use it not only for combat, but to also swing your axes and hammers faster while clearing debris and mining!

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Your entire field is made up of a grid. Items that can be used on crops/soil will affect the soil specifically in a 2x2 square within said grid.

To grow giant crops you need a minimum of 1.5 size stat (check using magnifying glass) and a full 2x2 grid of the same seeds for valid giant crops.

Shipping higher leveled seeds or crops will replace both seeds and crops sold in stores to the equivalent levels. Furthermore, if you ship an item that isn't being sold in certain stores before you unlock the seeds, it will let you buy those as well (except for fruit?). Leveling seeds in the stores doesn't require you to have the seed unlocked prior to shipping and will cause the exact same level of crops to be sold even before unlocking them. Example: If you ship a level 10 Emery Flower before unlocking the seed through requests, the flower shop will then start selling level 10 Emery Flowers and Seeds!

Tillable items such as clovers, corn and withered grass don't need to be rooted in the field itself to be tilled to gain their benefits. You can pick them up and place them in a 2x2 soil area and till them that way. This is useful for increasing soil and crop HP of grown crops. Though be warned as you till entire stacks if you stack all of them in one stack when you place them.

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I recommend taming monsters that will cover the basic need for crafting materials early on for recipes that need non-specific categorical materials. Honey, Milk and Egg producing monsters are recommended for early game passive income as well. Do note that these are EARLY GAME monsters to look for to cover all bases for crafting so that you won't need to go and find these material types by grinding instead.

My list of recommended early game produce monsters are:

• Furs: Chipsqueak, Wooly (Pharos Woodlands)
  
  
• Cloths and Skins: Insect (Pharos Woodlands Bridge)
  
  
• Liquids: Ribitees (Pharos Woodlands Northwestern Area or River)
  
  
• Powders and Spores: Big Muck (Pharos Woodlands Northwestern Area)
  
  
• Sticks and Stems: Flower Blossom (Pharos Woodlands Northwestern Area Past Bridge)
  
  
• String: Spiders (Kelve Volcanic Region)
  
  
• Claws and Fangs: Silver Wolf (Lake Yumina)
  
  
• Feathers: Emperor Penguin (Lake Yumina Crystal Lake)
  
  
• Eggs: Cluckadoodles (Pharos Woodlands)
  
  
• Milk: Buffamoo (Pharos Woodlands)
  
  
• Honey: Hornet (Pharos Woodlands Bridge)

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Completely optional but definitely helps with bosses or monsters you're having trouble taming!

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Monsters that are at 3 LP or above will go out of the barn and start watering plants at 7am every day and harvest crops at 3pm every day.

Your monsters can start planting seeds starting from 8 LP. They start seeding at the same time as they start watering plants. They can only place seeds on land that you've tilled prior to them coming out of the barn to start their daily chores.

Monsters will eventually start losing HP the longer they work, but you can extend this by just using a heal spell such as Cure All to fully heal them and let them continue farm work!

If you want fast workers, I'd recommend taming fake crop monsters or bees as they are some of if not the fastest farm assistants!

Finally, if you're on the field when the monsters are harvesting, the monsters will spawn Rune Orbs and Runeys (this is useful if you're too lazy to harvest everything yourself but still want the free Skill Levels and Stats)

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Check your fodder bin to see your monsters' daily fodder consumption and keep up!

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There are two methods of monster training in this game. If you've played pokemon, the first method is basically the same as "EV" training. Defeating certain monster gives a point and each tamed monster can earn up to 510 total EVs. This is enough to max the EVs for 2 stats (255 each). Max VIT, STR and INT gives a 25% bonus to those stats for the monster while max HP will give them a 50% bonus to their HP. Additionally, brushing monsters will give them an addition point to a random stat. Refer to the "Monster Data" section of the RF5 Datamine Sheet by Kuroba and ZA MAWNEE for the EVs defeating certain monsters give (under defeatbonus). Please refer to the resources list for the link to the Datamine sheet You can check monster EVs at Professor Renamer's House.

The second method is gifting your monsters items. While this sheet isn't entirely accurate, the RF5 Master Sheet has a section for monster feeding stat bonuses should you be interested in making your monsters even stronger. Please refer to the resources list for the link to the Master Sheet

Before you confess SAVE. You have only one chance per affection level to confess to your love interest. Other than that, make sure the following aren't happening before you confess as these will cause it to fail:

• Certain story events. Should be fine when the event on your save says "To wherever you please"
  
  
• Any active romance event. These will be in the second box on your story section in the pause menu.

You can also date multiple people on one save, with each lover being more hesitant to accept the more people you date. There are no repercussions for doing this and your lover won't get jealous or acknowledge this (aside from feeling like you're cheating on your GF/BF) so go nuts, give everyone a try if you wish.

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The chances of being accepted are as follows depending on heart level:
7: 30%
8: 60%
9+: 100%

Additional lovers at heart level 9 will accept you at a rate based on how many lovers you're dating:
2nd: 50%
3rd: 40%
4th: 30%
5th: 20%
6th onwards: 10%

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The festivals are way easier to win on the very first time they are held.

1. Harvest Festival (28th of Each Season): You can submit any crop or flower and even things like Bamboo shoots. You gain votes to win this recurring festival through the following:
   
   
   • Submitting Giant Crops
     
     
   • Submitting Higher Crop Level
     
     
   • Submitting a crop that is in season (Crops that grow well in that season, refer to the seed's description)
     
     
   • You can further increase the votes you earn by answering the appeal questions correctly. You can find the answers here on the RF Wiki[therunefactory.fandom.com].
     
     Note: The answers are translated from JP so not the same as the EN release but they are ordered the exact same on the menu!
   
   
2. Flower Festival (Spring 19): You can ask someone to date you the day before (You must already be in a relationship for this)
   
   
3. Beach Day (Summer 1): Just a full on free day, excuse to wear the swimsuit and spend the day fishing on the beach if you wish, otherwise just usual daily routine for this day will work.
   
   
4. Buddy Battle (Summer 15): You can submit 2 monsters, if you have 3 you will have to choose to remove someone (Simone asks who will participate but the one chosen is removed from the team).
   
   SPOILER BUT IMPORTANT: if you have gotten the final resident to join Radea there is a chance that she will become the final opponent when normally she only participates in the postgame. Her monsters scale to the postgame so if you want to win it in your first year (without rushing through the story or holding yourself back to ensure you have the proper leveled monsters or prevent her from becoming the final opponent) make sure she isn't in town. I think you can reroll who your opponent is by restarting to the previous day and sleeping but that may not work (I can no longer test as I'm in the postgame)
   
   
5. Seaside Lights Festival (Summer 19): Starts at 6PM, talk to Simone at the proper time to be able to invite someone for a big FP boost.
   
   Note: they CAN decline so save beforehand.
   
   
6. Valentine's Day and White Day (Autumn 12 & 25): Villagers will gift cookies to you and you can give them cookies back (their own or ones you crafted yourself) to gain an FP boost. Love Interests will ask you if you're serious about it (love them) or not when gifted cookies and will gain a large amount of FP if you answer yes. You can also invite someone to a date the day before (must be in a relationship).
   
   
7. New Year's Eve and New Year's Day (Winter 30 and Spring 1): A unique 2-day long holiday, shops will still be open but NPCs will have unique dialogue and spend majority of the day near the festival grounds during this day.

I've seen some people have issues with Wanted Monsters so I figured I'd also clarify these (Details on postgame Wanteds will be spoiler tagged):

• You may only have one Wanted Monster Quest at any time
  
  
• You can open your menu and refer to your requests sections in order to check the position of your current target
  
  
• To complete Wanted Monster Quests you MUST catch them using the CHARGED Spell Seal. If the monster dies you will need to retake the quest from Livia.
  
  
• All wanted monsters (aside from postgame Wanteds called Perfect Wanteds) always spawn in the exact same locations on the map. The neoseeker Guide has my preferred Wanted Monster maps[www.neoseeker.com]

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• Perfect Wanted Monsters are a set of 3 endgame Wanted Monsters that changes their spawn points every time you accept them and give random rewards every day.
  
  
• Managing to clear all 3 in a single day rewards you with 200 SEED points (bonus, unaffected by patrol crest) as well as a single golden scale and golden dragon claw. This is the only method to gain these 2 items.
  
  
• Perfect Wanted Monsters spawn in existing Wanted Monster Spawns, this means that you can refer to the Wanted Monster map and find the exact spawns of the Wanted Monsters rather easily.

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Simplest answer: you will get more SEED Crests as you finish these Wanted Monsters, so do whichever ones you can as soon as you can to reap the benefits! You will even unlock a 2nd Crest equip slot after capturing all 3* Wanted Monsters! The following is a list of SEED Crests and when you unlock them:

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For this you will need a Farm Dragon that you don't mind being cluttered with debris. All debris have a certain amount of HP (brown stone and damaged stumps have 3, grey stone and full stumps have 9). If you hit these debris until they have 1 HP left and enter/exit the dragon you can have infinite lumber/stone. This method is slower than the Heinz gacha method (place a lumber box in Heinz's shop and hope he sells lumber/stone) but is cheaper and won't require tons of save scumming to achieve.

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In short, bring 3 villagers with you. Gift them a weapon upgraded with a rare can, and a happy ring upgrade with a clover. Equip yourself with a weapon that has been upgraded with the same items.

Each villager gives a smaller amount of drop rate when given this setup but this will help increase some abysmal drop rates. If you wish to learn how this works in-depth, this PSA from Reddit should be useful

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At Cloudheim, there is an enemy known as a Gemsqueak (Chipsqueak holding a gem acorn). Gemsqueaks have 6 HP and will drop either a Double Steel or a Tenfold Steel every time they get hit.

As such the best way to farm for these 2 drops is to use a weapon upgraded with Scrap Metal+ to have increased drop rates and to do 1 single point of damage every hit against them in order to gain up to 6 item drops per gemsqueak. Note: you can use this same weapon as the base for the status skill farming setup as well to save mats.

Additionally, the gemsqueaks are not tied to any gates, as such equipping and unequipping a rosary (example below the map) is recommended as the rosary will essentially reroll its spawn infinitely while the happy ring with clover will further increase drop rates. Refer to the image below for the spawn area:

Hover over this >>>

Rosary Spam >>>

Mealy Apples are gotten from the Killer Griffin monster that spawns from 7pm to 5:59am during the Starfall weather. To get maximum mealy apples, you can either do the rosary spam (seen above) at the location where the Griffin spawns OR swap between the Thundering Wastes or Terra Dragon to reset the area. The basic idea is to throw your seal, get an item then reset the spawn (either by refreshing the area or using rosary) and repeating this till you get the desired amount of Mealy Apples (I personally recommend at least 20-30 as Starfall is rare). If you wish to tame it (I recommend it! He's strong!) then make sure it's the last thing you do and do it before 5:59 as it will despawn as soon as the next day starts (6am). You can find the location for Killer Griffin below:

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First of all, if you want to grind Skill EXP... EQUIP HEART PENDANT, it DOUBLES Skill EXP gain.

You can quickly get combat Skill EXP (Weapon and Element Combat Skills) by making a grid punching bags in a 3x3 arrangement (group them up as close as possible). This will basically be the equivalent of hitting 9 enemies at once in terms of Skill EXP gain.

You can't really power level status resistance skills till the endgame but, I recommend crafting a weapon (I recommend dual blades due to their insane attack speed) with 1 melody bottle as an extra material (outside of the weapon recipe), these are rarely dropped by Sirens. Sirens can be found early on occasionally on the northern part of Lake Yumina from the gate in front of the frozen waterfall. Upgrade the weapon with another melody bottle followed by a Tenfold Steel and finally a Scrap Metal+. You now have a 1 damage weapon that inflicts almost all debuffs at 100% (10% faint). Find a good spot with tons of enemies and go to town for a bit and you should be able to level most of your resistances insanely quickly. Optionally: you can also add a Glitta Augite followed by Double Steel to increase your range as well. This weapon set can be used to farm Gemsqueaks as well.

For Crafting, Forging, Cooking and Chemistry you can quickly grind Skill EXP by purposefully failing:

1. Start by failing a bunch of recipes using materials you don't want and getting the failure material (Scrap Metal, Object X, Failed/Disastrous Dish)
   
   
2. After accumulating a good amount of failure items you can then craft the highest level recipe you own using the failure materials (remove everything and add a single failure material). This will be able to recur indefinitely as you will craft a failure item using a failure item.
   
   
3. Repeat step 2 until you're satisfied, should check for new recipes using recipe bread every few levels.

In the late game Rune Orbs will be your best bet to level super high level skills faster as they are rather common while harvesting and are guaranteed to increase the level of a random skill in your entire list. Easiest way to maximize Rune Orb gain (if you're into that) is to fill an entire field with pineapples and harvest them yourself!

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• STR and INT affect your ATK and M.ATK. VIT affects your defense (roughly 0.5 DEF and M.DEF per point).
  
  
• Ayngondaia Lawn: This item is basically an auto revive. It sacrifices itself in order to revive you in the same spot you died in with some of your HP back.
  
  
• Handknit Scarf/Fluffy Scarf: Halves/Cuts the RP usage of most actions. This does NOT include: Healing Spells, Crafting and Charged Farm Tool Uses (varies per tool).
  
  
• Magic Charm: Will buff either ATK or M.ATK based on which one is lower. If you have higher ATK it'll buff your M.ATK to match the ATK stat.
  
  
• Rosary: Despawns and stops normal monsters and gates from spawning. Unequipping it will trigger gates and monsters to appear in their proper locations.
  
  
• Diamond Brooch: Due to a localization error, the item doesn't state that it gives 100% resistance to every single status ailment... The more you know!

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You can upgrade with the same mat (with diminishing returns)

Some items in the game have hidden effects when used for upgrading, these include:

• Double and Tenfold Steel add the effect of the previous upgrade item by 2x and 8x respectively and can only be used once each per weapon.
  
  
• Weapons that inherit the effects of other categories using Light Ore will also inherit their abilities to make use of shield stats. Dual Blades and Fists gain 0 benefits, 2 Handed Weapons and Rods only gain 50% of the benefits of the shield's stats but 100% of the status and elemental resistances. 1 handed sword gains the full benefit of shields.
  
  
• Broken Hilt and Broken Box will give all their status resistances (except for weapons?) when used to upgrade equipment. The status aren't shown due to a weird localization error (that other random things have been hit with)
  
  
• Upgrading any equipment (minus weapons) with all 4 colored cores will increase non-elemental resistances by 10%
  
  
• All scales (other than Mermaid, Hard and Wet) allow you to retain 50% of the effects of your equipped shield upon being used to upgrade a shield (applies only to dual blades and fists). This effect can stack up to 100% (through Double/Tenfold Steel or adding other Scales that you haven't used).
  
  
• Scrap Metal+ causes weapons to do 1 damage when used as upgrade material. Useful for getting Double and Tenfold Steel as Gemsqueaks drop one of these items per hit and have single digit HP.
  
  
• Magnifying Glass can be used as an upgrade material on tools to give them the same effect as it or you can upgrade a wearable with it and make all equips have the same effect.
  
  
• Object X, when used as an upgrade material, will reverse the effects of every material used after it. This means that negative effects such as -10 STR become +10 STR and so on.
  
  
• Shade Stones has a hidden effect when used to upgrade weapons. When this weapon is equipped, it halves enemy resistances so you should definitely not overlook this item.
  
  
• Big Crystal can be used as a crafting or upgrade material to remove elements from a weapon.
  
  
• Rare Cans can be used to increase drop rates on weapons.
  
  
• Clovers (only one) can be used to increase drop rates when used as an upgrade material on equipment.
  
  
• 4 Glitta Augites is the maximum amount that can be used to reach max attack range. Alternatively GA + Art of Attack can cap it as well.
  
  
• Using fish to upgrade a fishing rod will increase the chances of catching said fish whenever you're fishing (Supposedly)

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Rune Factory 5, just like 4S, still keeps the Level bonus and rarity bonus mechanics. While these aren't required for making endgame viable builds, they're very good to keep in mind however as they are useful even in the early game.

NOTE: THESE BONUSES ONLY APPLY AFTER THE APPROPRIATE CRAFTING SKILL IS 50 AND ABOVE

Example: If you craft a short sword, the short sword has 1 required material and 6 open slots. If you want to get the highest stat boost you will need to fill all 6 slots with a level 10 material and fill upgrade slots with level 10 materials.
NOTE: this INCLUDES weapons. So if you used a weapon inside your recipe to gain the mot out of it the weapon should be level 10 as well (what you upgrade with on that weapon doesn't matter as long as it's level 10)

What does this mean? KEEP YOUR HIGH LEVELED MATERIALS. You can use it whenever you want but you should be keeping any high leveled material you have for extra stats!

Total Level Used (TLU) Thresholds for Weapons | Crafting
Tier 1 (30 TLU): 10 ATK, 5 MM.ATK | 6 DEF, 5 M.DEF
Tier 2 (60 TLU): 25 ATK, 10 M.ATK | 15 DEF, 12 M.DEF
Tier 3 (90 TLU): 70 ATK, 40 M.ATK | 36 DEF, 28 M.DEF
Tier 4 (120 TLU): 200 ATK, 180 M.ATK | 180 DEF, 170 M.DEF
Tier 5 (150 TLU): 700 ATK, 650 M.ATK | 350 DEF, 350 M.DEF

The other mechanic is rarity boost, this one's also a simple one it basically is a stat boost based on the rarity of the materials used. For the most parts the rarities coincide with that of RF4S and thus you can use this table by Anketam for the most part[gamefaqs.gamespot.com].

Rarity Point (RP) Thresholds for Weapons | Crafting
Tier 1 (25RP): 10 ATK, 5 M.ATK (Staves Only) | 3 DEF
Tier 2 (50RP): 40 ATK, 15 M.ATK (Staves Only) | 10 DEF
Tier 3 (70RP): 80 ATK, 35 M.ATK (Staves Only) | 20 DEF
Tier 4 (100RP): 150 ATK, 100 M.ATK (Staves Only) | 50 DEF
Tier 5 (125RP): 300 ATK, 160 M.ATK (Staves Only) | 90 DEF
Tier 6 (150RP): 500 ATK, 400 M.ATK (Staves Only) | 150 DEF
Tier 7 (175RP): 1000 ATK, 950 M.ATK (Staves Only) | 400 DEF
Tier 8 (200RP): 2000 ATK, 1800 M.ATK (Staves Only) | 800 DEF

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When crafting a weapon, you can add any weapon of the same type into the recipe in the empty slots of the recipe. The first weapon's stats will then be passed onto the weapon you're currently crafting.

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I'm not sure if there are any EN sources but here's a link to a Japanese site[wikiwiki.jp] that has the unique buffs each villager gives. If anyone has any better resources for this feel free to comment about it

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The method I'm promoting is cheaper than the one on Ruebenbrei's guide[gamefaqs.gamespot.com] but will be easier to understand overall. If you wish to pass the effects onto a weapon with more than 2 items in the recipe please refer to the last set.

Ruebenbrei's crafting examples[gamefaqs.gamespot.com] shows how to craft endgame gear by crafting the final gear of choice twice. This is more material intensive but allows you to redo every step after 4 to reset your upgrade materials so that you can maximize on level and rarity bonuses.
Note: From what I've noticed the order does matter for object x followed by 2 mealy apples when you craft the first fodder armor.

1. Craft all 4 shoes/accessories that you want to have the effects of and save (this is important)
   
   
2. Find a recipe with 2 or less materials as part of the recipes (4 free slots) and place all 4 accessories into those slots and craft the shoes/accessory.
   
   NOTE: Only the FIRST shoe's/accessory's stats will be inherited so make sure it has the stat boosts you want (important mainly for shoes to pass on defense stats)
   
   
3. Talk to Darroch or Martin and check your accessory (must be equipped). They should now list 3 shoe/accessories followed by saying that it's "X with the abilities of Y". If shoe/accessory X or Y is in the first list of 3 that either of them states reload and try again from step 2.
   
   
4. There you have it, an accessory with the abilities of 4 accessories!

1. Craft 3 shoes/accessories that you want to have the effects of and save (this is important)
   
   
2. Find a cheap recipe (I recommend Work Gloves/Cheap Bracelet for accessories and Leather Boots for shoes) and stuff all 3 accessories into the empty slots.
   
   
3. Talk to Darroch or Martin and check your accessory (must be equipped). They should now list 3 shoes/accessories that you want the effects of. If they do, save and continue, otherwise reload and repeat step 2.
   
   
4. Find the recipe for the shoes/accessory you want to use for the stats and feed this new item into it.
   
   
5. Repeat step 4.
   
   
6. Now feed that item into the item that you want the apperance of,
   
   
7. Repeat step 4.
   
   
8. Now you have the combined accesory skinned as something else!

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For advanced and endgame crafting I highly recommend this guide made by Ruebenbrei[gamefaqs.gamespot.com].

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The game mentions this in the request to upgrade request but doesn't have anything in game to show what charged attack each item gives, the crafting guide by Ruebenbrei has a staff section that is mostly accurate[gamefaqs.gamespot.com] if you're interested in making staves with unique charge attacks.

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The spell seal has a few mechanics that I've seen many people don't understand so I figured I'd change this section a bit.

• The SEED Spell seems to have an effective range? The farther you are the harder it is to snare an enemy
  
  
• Uncharged spell seals can be used to snare enemies and cause them to freeze for a short time. Additionally, this will also steal a single item from an enemy. If you get nothing from snaring you can keep trying and get an item though whether it's worth snaring multiple times will depend on the situation.
  
  Note: this will only work once per monster (need to check if you can try till you get anything if you get nothing but generally you don't)
  
  
• Charged spell seals will temporarily tame monsters for a day before they leave. You will need to weaken monsters before this works.
  
  
• Charged spell seals will have a crosshair if you aren't locked on. This is useful for picking up items that are out of reach. One of these spots is the bridge near the outpost (underneath it is a one time spawn crystal) but there are other spots that respawn.

Most bosses have a "vulnerability" state where they are able to be restrained by the SEED seal. When the boss is "vulnerable" the lock symbol on the lock on target will drop.

Why this is important: you can teleport out of a boss room at any time, this means that for most bosses you can seal them, get their valuable drop and then re-enter the boss room to retry the boss for more than 1 attempt for the item per day (outside of resetting every time you don't get the drop you want).

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Images and names of endgame variants are spoilered in case :)

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DISCLAIMER: Some bosses have high spell seal resistance and may take multiple seals to land before being snared. Furthermore, all bosses will return to their lock after being snared with few exceptions. Hover over black boxes to reveal pictures.

Phase: 1 = start, 2 = when it gains a blue aura

A lot of things really, but after you've completed the postgame dungeon Rigbarth Maze and its 20 floors you have mostly small chores and long term goals to do.

For starters, I recommend playing the game at your own pace. If you feel like there's not enough to keep your attention then that's fine! This game is by far less structured and postgame heavy than Rune Factory 4 Special. In fact, it's far more similar to Harvest Moon/SoS where the postgame becomes lots of long term relaxing farming and life simulation rather than tons of combat and things to swamp you.

Much like Harvest Moon/SoS, you can do tons of things like just casually tending to your farm, growing crops to match aesthetics, get richer and see how far you can get, many small things that are really only limited by your imagination. If you're struggling to find out what to do first however... well, I've got ya covered!

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1. Get into crafting and craft OP gear!
   
   
   • The game has tons of in-depth crafting mechanics (this guide has some simplified knowledge to get you into it), get into it and start experimenting with the game's crafting system!
     
     
   • The goal is to eventually get as tanky as possible (100%+ elemental resistances and status resistances)
     
     
   • A lot of endgame gear require rare materials! So be sure to use the datamine sheet to find out what drops what and maximize your drop rates when possible! Remember, you can reload autosaves/manual saves near/in boss rooms if you don't get the drop you want to continuously try bosses for drops you want.
   
   
2. Increase enemy levels to increase game's difficulty! Not for everyone but certainly makes the game a bit more interesting once you've made really good gear
   
   
3. Get married! The game can be finished way before you even get close to getting married so explore your love interests and find your spouse to be!
   
   
4. Town Events! For some reason Romance Events have a much higher priority overall during the story, once you start to clear them and get to the postgame there are more town events that you can see if you missed them during the story!
   
   
5. Get a vacation home! Similar to RF4S you can get a vacation home. It's use is limited (no save point or warp point) but they can be very nice additions and long term goals to own for bragging rights!
   
   
6. Get all crops and flower seeds level 10
   
   
7. Get 100% shipping log!
   
   
8. Get all stamps (in game achievements). Some of these are tricky and will take a lot of patience to get but can be really nice and fulfilling.
   
   
9. You can even get one of every monster if you want to! (Note that you will only be able to really have one of each if you want every single monster).

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I recommend joining the Rune Factory Discord Server (I'm not affiliated with them but they're very helpful): https://discord.gg/zz5DjPQ

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• Fishing Guide by Ruebenbrei: useful if you want all fishing stamps
  https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/switch/258613-rune-factory-5/faqs/79886/about-fishing
  
  
• RF5 Master Sheet: mostly good for the monster feeding data for stat bonuses
  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1P0qX1C--l6DJJqFi-ULH1ddrWFngwSIT1y_LiXdjkCU/edit?usp=sharing=0
  
  
• PSA on Reddit about how item drop rates and drop rate bonuses works: useful to make endgame grinding easier
  https://www.reddit.com/r/runefactory/comments/udkerb/psa_drop_rates_rare_drops_clovers_happy_rings_and/
  
  
• Endgame Crafting Guide by Ruebenbrei: also useful for newbies as it explains basics as well.
  https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/switch/258613-rune-factory-5/faqs/79879/a-quick-guide-on-crafting
  
  
• [RF5 "What the game doesn't tell you" on Reddit: an old post with various smaller information (mostly accurate). Useful if you want more basic information.
  https://www.reddit.com/r/runefactory/comments/u79cog/rf5_what_does_the_game_not_tell_you/?sort=new
  
  
• Monster Section of Spreadsheet by Whazzits: good for checking what monsters can drop when in barn (doesn't contain % to drop per day).
  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ehLLKgedqESCFMgXORKLlAezP1OevZ4M98jMMZvVJ3I/edit?usp=sharing
  Use in combination with u/pplovesk's imgur albums on Reddit for full information
  https://www.reddit.com/r/runefactory/comments/ntobd4/completedhopefully_including_monsters_from_the
  
  
• Game8 Wiki: Not all of its information is the best but I recommend the item section (though it's not 100% accurate. Light Ore for example is just a random drop from Sapphire mining rocks and drop when you have a gold or better hammer). It also has some FAQs that are also good to refer to.
  https://game8.co/games/Rune-Factory-5/archives/373299
  Though if you want to learn about soil leveling then I'd recommend Anketam's Soil Leveling Guide:
  https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/switch/258613-rune-factory-5/faqs/79942]
  
  
• For general walkthrough purposes, I'd recommend the neoseeker Guide as it has the most thorough walkthrough with good maps for dungeons and Wanted Monsters as well. It also has the most complete romance event segment (under Main Character Events) though it's not 100% complete.
  https://www.neoseeker.com/rune-factory-5/walkthrough
  
  You can combine this with the Game8 Wiki's sections about Bachelor/Bachelorettes (above) to have the most complete list that I know for romance events as Game8's missing the 2nd unnamed events that are required and Neoseeker is missing some of the final events of some of the love interests.
  
  
• RF5 Datamining Sheet by Kuroba and ZA MAWNEE: Very useful for various things, making this it's own list of points for readability
  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LFkOEVQuJ-x1Lkn64Lt8Z7NvbVyUgqHP794Ehw3wbts/edit#gid=972801891
  
  
  • : The NPC gift data segment is probably the most accurate for gifting NPCs as these are datamined.
    
    
  • Fishing rates are also useful when you need to find certain types of fish and want to know how rare it is.
    
    
  • The DropCalc portion is also useful as you can save the sheet and use it to calculate rough drop rate estimates.
    
    
  • The monster data tells you the defeat bonuses and favorite items for faster friendship gain. The MonsterDropItemData is also useful to see the item drop rates.
    
    NOTE: to get the drop % take the number given and divide it by 1000. The number shown is the max number needed to roll out of 1000 to get the item to drop.

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