How do friendship and relationships work?
The places the release records relationship progression coming from, and the ones it does not.
STEAM FULL RELEASE · RELATIONSHIPS
Welcome to Elderfield Relationships Guide
Learn how character relationships progress in the Steam Full Release, how gifts fit into friendship, which characters have meaningful relationship content, and what may block a relationship route.
What are you trying to do?
Pick the sentence that sounds like your situation. Each one jumps to the answer further down.
How do I improve a relationship?
The recorded track and the recorded value, plus the habits the release does not confirm.
Which character should I work on?
Every character with recorded relationship content, and the tracks recorded for them.
Which gift should I give?
Why a recorded reaction is not a recorded gain, and every way into the gift record.
How do I unlock the school content?
The one friendship value the release closes, and the side path it opens.
Why isn’t this relationship progressing?
The checks in order, ending at the trigger the release does not record.
How Relationships Work
Relationship progression may come from more than one place, and gifts are only one of them. Each card below says what the release records — and what it does not.
Recorded
Interaction
Every character on this page has a recorded friendship value, so the release does record a relationship to raise. What a conversation, a visit or a greeting does to that value is not recorded, so no card here states a gain.
Not recorded
Gifts
The release records which items a character reacts to and how. It records no effect on a friendship value, so a preference is a preference and not a gain.
Not recorded
Tasks
A few of these characters are recorded against a task. That is the whole of the relation: no task is recorded as raising friendship or as a requirement of a relationship.
Not recorded
Events
There is no recorded relationship-event dataset. Nothing here presents a scene, a milestone or a moment as part of a relationship, because none is recorded.
Recorded
Progression
One friendship value has a recorded consequence: at 80, with an eligible townsperson, the release records that a school investigation invitation follows. That is the only friendship number this page prints.
The release records a friendship value for each of these characters and records no rule for how that value moves. Nothing on this page states an amount, a rate or a limit, because none of them is recorded.
Friendship Is Not the Same as Romance
A friendship is not a romance, and the release keeps the two apart.
Gifting, friendship and romance are three different things the release records separately for a character, and one does not imply another.
A friendship is not a romance, and a higher friendship value is not what a romance becomes. The release records no route from one to the other, and this page states none.
The school branch is friendship-driven. The release records no romance relation on it either, and this page states none.
A character who takes a gift is not automatically a character whose friendship you can raise, and a friendship is not a romance. The lists on this page say who reacts to an item and how — nothing here claims what a gift does to a relationship or how fast it moves.
How to Improve a Relationship
The release records one track to raise and one value where it matters. Everything else that reads like a method in other games is not recorded here, and this section says so.
Recorded
Raise a character’s friendship
Friendship is the one relationship track the release records a value for, and it records one thing at a value. How that value moves is not recorded: no amount per action, no sequence of steps and no rate.
Recorded
Reach the value the release records
The release records one friendship value with a consequence: at 80, with an eligible townsperson, a school investigation invitation follows. It is a value with an outcome rather than a named band, and the release records no band names to give it.
Not recorded
Gift reactions
The release records which items a character reacts to and how strongly, and the gift record owns that answer. It records no effect on a friendship value, so a reaction is not a gain and this page does not promise one.
No daily gift, no weekly gift allowance, no limit on how often a gift may be given, no gain from talking and no amount per gift is recorded anywhere in this release, so this page prints none of them.
Characters With Relationship Progression
The characters the release records relationship content for, and the tracks it records for each one. A character with no recorded relationship content is not listed.
Gift preferences recordedFriendship recorded
Gift preferences are recorded for this character. The gift record owns every reaction and the item behind it.
Gift preferences recordedFriendship recorded
Gift preferences are recorded for this character. The gift record owns every reaction and the item behind it.
Gift preferences recordedFriendship recorded
Gift preferences are recorded for this character. The gift record owns every reaction and the item behind it.
Gift preferences recordedFriendship recorded
Gift preferences are recorded for this character. The gift record owns every reaction and the item behind it.
Gift preferences recordedFriendship recorded
Gift preferences are recorded for this character. The gift record owns every reaction and the item behind it.
Gift preferences recordedFriendship recorded
Gift preferences are recorded for this character. The gift record owns every reaction and the item behind it.
Gift preferences recordedFriendship recorded
Gift preferences are recorded for this character. The gift record owns every reaction and the item behind it.
- Recorded task: Helping Molly
Gift preferences recordedFriendship recorded
Gift preferences are recorded for this character. The gift record owns every reaction and the item behind it.
- Recorded task: Childhood Fear
Gift preferences recordedFriendship recorded
Gift preferences are recorded for this character. The gift record owns every reaction and the item behind it.
- Recorded task: Lost Gameboy
Each card carries only what the release records for that character. A milestone, a relationship event and a romance track are not recorded here, so no card carries one.
Gifts & Relationships
A recorded reaction is not a recorded effect. This page prints no gift table: the gift record owns who reacts to what, and the doors below are the ways into it.
I know the character
Each character with recorded relationship content is listed above, and their card opens their own page, which owns their places, their tasks and their shop.
I know the item
The gift record answers who reacts to an item and how, from either direction.
I want the full preference vocabulary
The gift record explains the release’s own reactions and the layers behind an answer, including what an item nobody listed means.
I do not know what to give
The gift finder takes a character and works through what to hand over, over the same resolved answers the gift record shows rather than a second copy of them.
The reactions the record uses
LovesLikesNeutralHatesSpecial gift
This character’s own list · The shared list every character falls back to · This character’s default reaction
Neither the character’s own lists nor the shared lists name this item, so the release’s own fallback reaction applies. This page shows no strength for it and does not call it Neutral.
A character who takes a gift is not automatically a character whose friendship you can raise, and a friendship is not a romance. The lists on this page say who reacts to an item and how — nothing here claims what a gift does to a relationship or how fast it moves.
Nothing here ranks a gift by how easy it is to get, and nothing here puts a number on a reaction. The release records reactions, not their effect and not their cost.
How Relationships Connect to School
The school branch is the one place a friendship value is recorded opening something, and the release files it beside the main route rather than on it.
The recorded requirement
80
friendship
Raise friendship to 80 with an eligible townsperson to receive a school investigation invitation.
Have you reached 80 friendship with anyone in town yet?
This opens through friendship rather than through the main route, and nothing is blocked while it is closed.
The release records the branch as opening from friendship rather than from a story step, and it files the branch beside the main route rather than on it. Both of its own records say the same thing, and this page quotes them instead of paraphrasing.
The one value with a recorded consequence is 80. Reaching it with an eligible townsperson is recorded as producing a school investigation invitation, and that is the whole of what the release records about how the branch begins.
The release records no names for bands of friendship, so this page prints the value and not a level. It also records no effect from a gift on that value, so nothing here turns a recorded reaction into progress toward the branch.
The release records that the invitation needs an eligible townsperson and does not record which characters are eligible, so no card on this page marks one as eligible.
Why Isn’t This Relationship Progressing?
Four things to check, in order, and then the one the release does not answer.
Check 1
Is this a character with recorded relationship content?
Every character with one is listed above. A character who is not listed has no recorded relationship content in this release, and that is a gap in the record rather than something on this page to unlock.
Check 2
Have you reached 80 friendship with anyone in town?
That is the one friendship value the release records with a consequence. If the branch you are waiting on is the school one, this is the value that is recorded against it.
Check 3
Are the recorded conditions met?
The recorded requirement is “Raise friendship to 80 with an eligible townsperson to receive a school investigation invitation.” — and it is a sentence rather than a list of values, so there is nothing further to itemise here.
Check 4
Is the place itself open yet?
The school opens through friendship rather than through the main route, and the release records that nothing else is blocked while it is closed.
Check 5
Is the exact trigger recorded?
Not itemised. The release records the value and the invitation that follows it, and records no rule for what produces the invitation beyond that value. If everything above is true and nothing has happened, that unrecorded part is the honest answer rather than a step this page is holding back.
Nothing on this list promises that a gift moves a value, that a conversation counts, or that a character becomes available on a schedule. None of those rules is recorded.
Relationship Tasks & Events
The tasks the release records against a relationship character, and what that relation actually is.
Helping Molly
The release records this task against Molly. That is the whole of the relation.
Childhood Fear
The release records this task against Sam. That is the whole of the relation.
Lost Gameboy
The release records this task against Tanner. That is the whole of the relation.
A recorded task is not a relationship requirement. No task here is recorded as raising friendship, as a prerequisite of one, or as unlocking anything about a relationship — the relation is who the task is recorded against, and that is all.
The release records no relationship-event dataset, so no card here describes a scene, a milestone or a moment beside a task.
Where Relationships Fit in Progression
One parallel branch, read from the progression guide’s own entry rather than described from memory.
Parallel track
Elderfield High
“A relationship-driven side path, unlocked through friendship.”
The progression guide, filed under its parallel tracks.
The school branch is filed as a parallel track beside the main route rather than as a step on it. The progression guide records that itself, and this page quotes its entry rather than restating it.
Nothing in the release makes a relationship a main-route requirement, and nothing makes the main route wait on one. Both directions are absent, and this page claims neither.
The rest of the route lives on the progression page. This page names the one branch a relationship opens and does not restate what follows it.
Relationship Questions
The questions this page gets asked most.
- How do relationships progress?
- The release records a friendship value for each of the characters on this page, and records no rule for how that value moves. It also records one value with a consequence, and that is the school invitation.
- What does a gift do to a friendship?
- The release records which items a character reacts to and how. It records no effect on a friendship value, so this page does not claim a gift raises one.
- How often can I give a gift?
- Not recorded. No interval, no allowance and no limit is recorded anywhere in this release, so this page states none rather than assuming a cycle the release never wrote down.
- How do I unlock the school?
- The release records one friendship value against it: at 80, with an eligible townsperson, a school investigation invitation follows. The branch then runs alongside the main route.
- Do I need relationships for the main story?
- No. The branch a relationship opens is filed as a parallel side path beside the main route, and the release records nothing else that makes a relationship a requirement of it.
- Why isn’t a relationship progressing?
- Four things can be checked: whether the character has recorded relationship content, whether the recorded value is reached, whether the recorded conditions are met and whether the place is open. Past those, the exact trigger is not itemised in the release, which is where the trail ends.
Playing the Original Demo?
The Demo is a different release
The Demo and the Steam Full Release record different systems, and the archive keeps its own pages rather than mixing into this one. This door opens the archive itself.
Enter the Demo →