Main Walkthrough

Guide is a work in progress.

Shortly after unlocking the Restaurant in Yog-Sothoth's Yard you'll unlock another, related area: The forest. Yes, it shows up during the cut scenes a lot as well, but the forest is also a place you can actively explore... or at least your Shadow can. 

This guide will teach you the ins and outs of Forest Exploration in Yog-Sothoth's Yard. You'll absolutely want to dip into Forest Exploration at least a bit, as this becomes your primary source of Wood. If you want to upgrade just about anything in your hotel, you'll need Wood.

The Basics

Forest Exploration is fairly simple. Accessible via the top-left corner of the Yard, Forest Exploration sends a Shadow (a double of I) into the woods surrounding the hotel on a search for resources. Forest Exploration takes a few days, though you can cut down on the time via Oracles and Extra-Items, if you get lucky. It costs 1 AP to deploy your Shadow, and you can't do it again until the Shadow comes home.

The forest is divided into quadrants - north, south, east, and west - and your Shadow will find different items in each quadrant. The trick here is that you can't just choose which quadrant your Shadow explores, or at least not in the traditional sense. To choose your Shadow's destination you need to set a Main Meal, in the menu on the right. The meal you choose determines which quadrant the Shadow explores.

This, of course, means that you need to get cooking at the Restaurant. To work with you!

In truth, Forest Exploration is inextrcably tied to the Restaurant. While you start out with access to a few basic ingredients, most of the items you find in the woods will be ingredients. Once you've located a new ingredient in the forest you'll create a path straight to it for Hoshino, who will thereafter stock that ingredient in his shop. You can't run a successful Restaurant without some Forest Exploration.

There are a few more things to note about Forest Exploration:

  • You can Upgrade your Shadow to have more Stamina, allowing it to explore more of the forest and bring more resources back from its excursions. Upgrades require 1 AP. This will also unlock Extra Food, granting the Shadow yet more Stamina if you give it a meal to take on the journey. You'll unlock Extra Food slots at levels 2, 6, and 9.
  • You can only send your Shadow out at night. That said, you can Upgrade your Shadow any time you like.
  • While the Shadow is exploring it will send resources back early, and the next time you check the Forest Exploration menu you'll get a full breakdown of the items the Shadow found during its previous excursion.
  • If you hover your mouse cursor over one of the four quadrant names you'll see the resources available in that quadrant. This will allow you to strategically choose which quadrant you want to target.

Exploration Bonuses

As you get deeper and deeper into the forest - typically by focusing on the same quadrant over and over - you'll receive extra bonus items. These appear beside the quadrant names in the top-right corner of the screen, symbolized by a treasure chest. Click on the chest to receive an extra bonus. The deeper you get into the woods, the more of these you'll receive.

Two of the three items you'll receive are nothing special. The third, however, will be something special. The items you'll receive are as follows:
  • East Plains - Ants Climbing Cookbook, Cold Dish, Ancient Pheromone I, Ancient Pheromone II
  • West Woodland - Pickled Vegetables Cookbook, Preserved Vegetables Pork Cookbook, Ancient Pheremone III, Ancient Pheremone IV
  • South Blacklands - Mapo Tofu Cookbook, Gongbao Cookbook, Ancient Pheromone V, Ancient Pheromone VI
  • North Mountains - Octopus Balls Cookbook, Raw Pickling Cookbook, Ancient Pheromone VII, Ancient Pheromone VIII
Once you've fully explored a quadrant (100%) you'll receive an Achievement specific to that quadrant. You can continue to send your Shadow into that quadrant, but aside from the usual assortment of items you won't find anything new.

Quadrant Items

Below are lists of what you can find in the four quadrants of the woods. You are not guaranteed to get all of these items on any one excursion. (Though Upgrading your Shadow and outfitting it with Stamina-boosting items increases your chances.)

  • All quadrants: Wood, Ancient Wood, Cursed Wood, Pork, Chicken
  • East Plains: Pepper, Green Vegetable, Green Pepper, Salt
  • West Woodland: Strange Meat, Bamboo, Duck, Tofu
  • South Blacklands: Rice, Sichuan, Shrimp, Sugar
  • North Mountains: Fish, Snail, Crab