Bus trip! The Calico Desert appears as a side area in the top-left corner of the map, and for a long time you’ll probably wonder how the devil you can get there. It will probably take at least a season to get that far - and you may want to spend the extra time, as a lot of the stuff you’ll find in the Desert require a relatively advanced farmer.
Unlocking Calico Desert
You can’t just walk to Calico Desert, unfortunately. In order to get there you need to repair the Bus, which sits at the Bus Stop one screen east of your farm. There are two ways to do this:
- Complete all four Vault Bundles at the Community Center. This requires a cumulative 42,500 gold investment to the Junimos. You’ll need to complete four Bundles from any category to gain access to the Vault golden scroll, as well.
- Purchase the Bus repair option (40,000 gold) from the Joja Community Development Form. This only becomes an option at Joja Mart if you buy a Membership for 5,000 gold.
Either way, repairing the bus will put Pam back to work. You’ll find her waiting by the Bus Stop from 10 am to 5 pm each day. A ticket to Calico Desert costs 500 gold.
Exploration
Calico Desert is as barren as the name implies. Just wandering around you’ll find lots of sand and palm trees. The main draw for looking around the desert are the Cactus Fruits and Coconuts littering the area, as they make good gifts and can be sold for nice amounts of gold back on your farm. The trees can also be felled with your Axe, if you’re desperate for Wood.
In addition to foraging, you can also fish at a small oasis to the northwest of the bus. This is the place to grab Sandfish, if you need any, and the chests you can farm while fishing contain above-average treasures.
Skull Cavern
Head northwest from the bus, past the oasis, and you’ll find a cave set into the surrounding cliffs. Inside you’ll find a door with a skull on it. This door leads to the Skull Cavern, an extension of the Mines which requires the Skull Key found at the bottom of the Mines to open. The monsters inside are quite a bit stronger than those found in the Mines, and it’s not a place for the faint of heart to enter.
Sandy’s Oasis
Head southwest from the bus stop and you’ll find a large, pink building. This is Sandy’s Oasis, a shop staffed by the one-and-only Sandy. Sandy has a variety of goods for sale, and you can give her gifts to get in her good graces. The Oasis is open from 9 am until 8 pm every day. Sandy sells the following:
- Rhubarb Seeds - 100 gold
- Starfruit Seeds - 400 gold
- Beet Seeds - 20 gold
- Coconut - 200 gold (Mondays only)
- Cactus Fruit - 150 gold (Tuesdays only)
- Omni Geode - 1,000 gold (Wednesdays only)
- Deluxe Speed-Gro - 80 gold (Thursdays only)
- Honey - 400 gold (Fridays only)
- Quality Retaining Soil - 10 gold (Saturdays only)
- Ice Cream - 240 gold (Sundays only)
Casino
In the back of Sandy’s Oasis you’ll see a man in black who won’t let you pass. This dude is blocking the entrance to the Casino, a secretive area where you can gamble for special prizes. The process for getting inside is a bit tricksy, and can take a while, but the rewards are worth the effort... if you really like to trick out your house, anyway.
Galaxy Sword
In the northeast of Calico Desert you'll find three golden pillars with no apparent purpose. Their function is hinted broadly at, however, if you check one of the graves in Pelican Town once you know Dwarfese, by collecting all four Dwarf Scrolls.
In order to trigger the pillars you need to find a Prismatic Shard. You can get it through very rare enemy drops against Void creatures, but you're more likely to get one from an Omni Geode, which drop from rocks in relative abundance in Skull Cavern (and rather rarely in the Mines). Take one of these Shards to the middle of the pillars to receive a Galaxy Sword, arguably the strongest weapon in the game.
Galaxy Sword
In the northeast of Calico Desert you'll find three golden pillars with no apparent purpose. Their function is hinted broadly at, however, if you check one of the graves in Pelican Town once you know Dwarfese, by collecting all four Dwarf Scrolls.
In order to trigger the pillars you need to find a Prismatic Shard. You can get it through very rare enemy drops against Void creatures, but you're more likely to get one from an Omni Geode, which drop from rocks in relative abundance in Skull Cavern (and rather rarely in the Mines). Take one of these Shards to the middle of the pillars to receive a Galaxy Sword, arguably the strongest weapon in the game.