The Van’s Favorite Exploit in SoS: FoMT (Complete Guide)

by Kal S.

The Van’s Favorite is a rare object used to unlock Van’s Secret Shop, where you can buy collectibles and expensive items. The Van’s Favorite item can also be sold to Huang for a whopping 48,000 G.

Ostensibly, you would just get a Van’s Favorite in your mailbox at random times. The item is sent to you along with a letter from the Harvest Goddess that congratulates you on winning a raffle.

The farmer receives a Van’s Favorite in the mail.

But there is actually a specific reason for why you get a Van’s Favorite in the mail. This happens when you do any of these things for a total of 10 counts in an in-game day:

Upgrade a tool at the Forge
Buy items at the General Store
Upgrade your home or farm at the Workshop
Selling animals

Note that you’d need to do these actions exactly at a count of ten. So if you open the shop menu 11 times to buy items at the General Store, even though that is at least 10, it’s not a multiple of 10 and therefore won’t get you a Van’s Favorite.

The Van’s Favorite Exploit, Explained

Each time you complete any of the above transactions, you add +1 to a special counter that the game keeps track of.

This counter is invisible and not readable anywhere in-game.

But this counter ID is checked when you go to sleep for the day, and if the counter ends on a multiple of 10, then you’ll get a Van’s Favorite in your mailbox.

When you go to sleep and the counter detects that the total transactions you’ve made throughout your save file are in multiples of 10 (like 30, 150, 180, etc), you receive the letter the next day.

This feature can be exploited to get as many Van’s Favorites as you want.

And selling all of them to Huang will let you earn a huge profit.

The farmer sells a Van’s Favorite.

The easiest way to manipulate the in-game counter is to buy things from the General Store.

But instead of buying all your things in one go, you should buy one item at a time and exit the shop menu after each purchase.

Then open the shop menu again to buy the next item, close the menu, and repeat until you’ve done this 10 times.

Note: It’s not enough to just buy 10 items and call it a day. Because you likely did some actions already in your save file to affect the in-game counter, which means you are likely already at a specific number of actions in your save file. This is where testing your current counter number is crucial.

How To Reset Your Purchases & Track the Counter

The farmer visits Jeff at the General Store.

It’s very likely that you don’t know the exact total of your transactions from previous days.

So in this case you’ll need to do some testing to see exactly where your counter is at. Here’s what you should do:

Save and start a new day.
Go to the General Store and buy 1 item.
Go back home and go to sleep but do not save.
Wake up and see if you have a Van’s Favorite – if yes, you’re good!
If you don’t have a Van’s Favorite in the mail, then reset your game and go back to the previous day.

You can repeat this process by purchasing +1 more items for each attempt.

So for example: if you bought 1 item at the General Store and didn’t get a Van’s Favorite after sleeping, then reset and buy 2 items on your next attempt (remember to open separate shop menus!).

If you still don’t get a Van’s Favorite, then reset and buy 3 items.

Repeat this resetting & sleeping process until you’ve tested buying 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 total items. One of these should bring your event counter to a multiple of ten and get you a Van’s Favorite.

Note: Make sure you open the shop menu, buy an item, then close the menu afterwards. Then open it again, buy a 2nd item, then close the menu. It’s better to count the number of times you open the shop menu vs. just how many items you actually buy per menu opening.

If you’ve done the exploit correctly by opening & closing the menu each time you buy an item, then just keep testing how many items you need to buy until you wake up the next morning with a fresh Van’s Favorite in the mailbox!

After that, all you have to do is count exactly how many actions you take that add to the counter each day.

If you always make sure to take those actions in multiples of 10 every day, then you should be able to get a new Van’s Favorite in your mailbox daily.