The problem is that the game is so open to different paths. Here’s a basic basic basic basic list:
Talk to everyone all the time; give people gifts (random fruit is fine mostly) twice a week
Buy seeds and plant them. Harvest and buy better seeds. Make sure to water them!
Be on the lookout for forage-able fruits and flowers. Chop down trees so you have wood to build. Learn where stuff is and where gates to future progress are. Mostly they’ll tell you what you need to proceed.
On rainy days when you don’t have to water, fight monsters in the mine.
Talking to folks gives you quests. Following the quests gives you stuff and teaches you the game.
Exploring the world and checking the achievement list teaches you, too.
The wiki is fantastic, but so are the game interface and menus.
Some alternate takes. As usual, everything will eventually work, just a question of how fast and how you feel like playing.
Talk to people if they're nearby, give the best birthday gifts you can for 8x effect (regular quality loved > high quality liked > regular quality liked, but even "neutral" gives some boost).
Scythe weeds, plant mixed seeds. You can wait for a scarecrow if you like, I prefer to just plant right away and get almost as much money a few days earlier.
On rainy days, fish (mainly early for early money). Or if mining, focus on downward progress and resources on good luck days, combat (but not getting knocked out) on bad luck days.
Get Caroline to 2 hearts, visit her tea room and get a cut scene, then the next day a recipe for tea bushes. Dump most of your spring seeds into those, then sell the bushes themselves for lots of early cash (you can plant a few for long-term).
Sprinklers = free watering. Regular = meh, quality = good, iridium = great but those take a while. You may prefer to spend early iridium on crystalariums for jade for staircases for more iridium.
Kegs/jars = free extra money in return for waiting a few more days. Hops + enough kegs = lots of money (literally almost 100x return on investment), but "enough kegs" takes some time to build up (plant and tap oak trees early).
The problem is that the game is so open to different paths. Here’s a basic basic basic basic list:
Some alternate takes. As usual, everything will eventually work, just a question of how fast and how you feel like playing.