Halcyon Days At Taoyuan – Walkthrough Part 3

Halcyon Days at Taoyuan takes you to an isolated village where life is simple, and the people here love to help each other. However, while everything appears simple in the beginning, this village is hiding some strange secrets that are just waiting to be discovered. For more information on the game, don’t forget to visit its official Steam page here.

In Part 3 of the walkthrough, you’ll be completing more quests, discovering what the Taoyuan Village is about, while also achieving different endings.

Upgrading Tools

After defeating the Earth Cave’s beast, Dankang, you’ll be able to craft a copper pickaxe. You’ll be able to mine tin and copper with it, allowing you to gather resources to upgrade other tools.

You’ll also need a ton of Contribution Vouchers, as well as other resources, to upgrade the tools. For example, the basket upgrade requires hay alongside copper ore and Contribution Vouchers. You’ll also have to wait a total of two in-game days for the upgraded tool to be delivered to you.

Once you’ve got the upgraded version of farm tools, you can keep them in your inventory or put them in the Contribution Chest for some Vouchers.

Furthermore, as your Contribution Level grows, you’ll be able to buy better stuff from the merchants, and that includes ore as well.

Upgrading The Fishing Rod

You can get the fishing rod upgraded from Yuanyi at the beach. His shop opens at 13:00, and you’ll need Contribution Vouchers and Hardwood for the upgrade.

It’s possible to get hardwood without the axe upgrade, as you can buy it directly from Lu Zhen in the forest area, after upgrading your Contribution Level.

Upgrading Gear

For the first two caves, the practice sword can get the job done. However, as you go deeper into the cave and unlock the metal cave, the practice sword becomes ineffective.

You’ll have to work towards getting a better sword. You can easily end the game with an iron sword, but getting it requires some effort.

For armor, you can defeat Lushu in the Wood Cave and use its underfur to craft armor. Lushu’s armor lets you survive in the cave until you unlock the Virtue’s Reward Robe from repairing shrines.

Your primary goal should be to get a bronze pickaxe as soon as possible, and then use it to mine the iron ore in the metal cave to craft an iron sword, if you’re planning to beat the cave early.

Hero’s Journal

In Part 2 of the walkthrough, we discussed how Li Jie’er asked you to collect fragments of the hero’s journal from the cave. You can acquire these by defeating the monsters in the cave or by interacting with the chests next to the statues.

Once you’ve gathered five fragments, return to Li Jie’er, and she’ll piece the village’s history together. However, she thinks that in the journals, it appears that there was a figure that was deliberately erased. Regardless, she’s extremely grateful to you for helping her out.

The Six Peach Pearls

After you enter the Wood Cave for the first time, there’s a chance for you to acquire a Peach Pearl while mining. I think you may encounter your first pearl through other methods as well, but I encountered it while mining in the cave for the first time.

Once you’ve obtained the first Peach Pearl, a Taoling-like figure will show up, asking you to gather six of them. You can obtain these pearls by multiple methods. Mining, fishing, and farming, everything you do in the village has a chance to drop these Peach Pearls.

I was unable to collect a total of six of them, but the figure asks you to meet with them on the Peach Blossom Pond once you’ve gathered 6 of these Peach Pearls.

Repairing The Remaining Shrines

You repaired the first two shrines in Part 2 of the walkthrough, but the remaining shrines are all repaired after defeating certain mythical beasts from the cave.

The first two shrines require items that are already in the village, such as the Thunder-Struck Wood or the Six-Colored Stone. However, all the remaining items are to be obtained from the cave.

Finding Ebony Root

For the third shrine, you’ll need to obtain an item called Ebony Root. This item can only be obtained from deep in the Wood Cave.

Furthermore, you’ll have to defeat Lushu for this item. Once you’ve defeated Lushu in the deepest part of the Wood Cave, you’ll have to bring the Ebony Root back to the ancestral hall, where Zhang Wenchang will promise to get the shrine repaired.

The Wood Cave isn’t necessarily challenging, especially after you’ve defeated Dankang. You’ll need a copper pickaxe to mine the tin ore deposits in this cave. You also don’t need any specific armor up till this point.

Obtaining Adamantine Sand

Adamantine Sand is found deep within the Metal Cave. Here, things get a bit more challenging as the beasts in this cave are a lot more powerful. Keep in mind that you don’t need an upgraded pickaxe to go deeper into the cave; you can reach the final cave without any upgraded pickaxe.

You should get an armor and a better weapon before you head into this cave. You’ll find Zheng in the deepest part of the cave. Once you’ve defeated Zheng, you’ll obtain the Adamantine Sand and will be able to repair the fourth shrine.

Acquiring The Spirit Fox Pearl

The Spirit Fox Pearl is also obtained inside the cave, but you’ll have to go to the deepest part of the Water Cave and defeat the fox mythical beast there to obtain this item.

However, Zheng Wenchang requests you to spare this spirit’s life, to pay his debt to it. Once you head into the cave and fight against the fox, it will surrender after losing all of its HP.

The fox, Jiuweihu, will speak to you clearly. It tells you that if you’re able to defeat the firebird, everything will be fine then. The fox also seems to remember the villagers, and departs after giving you the Spirit Fox Pearl.

Return to Zheng Wenchang, he’ll be delighted and will repair the shrine. You’ll receive the Virtue’s Reward Robe in your inventory the next day after repairing the fifth shrine.

The Decision For Huang’s Plume

For the last shrine, you’ll need Huang’s Plume. After repairing the fifth shrine, when you go to bed, you’ll see Huang in a dream.

Huang reveals the secret behind the village. Huang will then tell you to come to the Fire Cave and defeat it. Because if you’re successful, you’ll be able to clear the trial of the system. You will then be able to choose to reset the village and leave.

Shortly after your conversation with Huang, you’ll meet Taoling, who will reveal his true form. Taoling further expands on the reveal by Huang. They tell you that the villagers were usually reset after every seven years to keep them from developing any harmful emotions, such as greed and envy.

However, the last reset hasn’t occured since ages, and this has caused the villagers to develop their own consciousness. Due to no resets in a long time, the village is fading away, but you can choose to stop it by resetting it.

You can then head to the Fire Cave and face off against Huang in the deepest part of the cave. Once you’ve defeated Huang, you’ll get a decision to end the trial. If you choose to end it, you’ll get one of the endings, but if you decide not to end it, Huang will give you its plume, alongside some other items, and you’ll be able to repair the last shrine.

Keep in mind that choosing an ending doesn’t end the game. It will create a duplicate save file, and you’ll be able to resume play normally.

Bring the Plume to Zheng Wenchang, and he’ll be extremely grateful to you. After thanking you tremendously, Zheng will finally repair the last shrine. You’ll get a high-rarity decoration piece for your interior the next day in the mail as a reward.

Go Back Home

After you’ve decided not to end the trial and given the final item to Zheng Wenchang to repair the last shrine, Taoling will appear in a dream. They’ll ask you to meet with them in seven days at the Peach Blossom Pond, and they’ll do what they can to help you.

If you go to the pond after seven days, you’ll have to interact with the tree there. This will cause Taoling to show up. Taoling will then ask if you want to return home or if you want to stay in the village. I chose the option to stay in the village here, and this led to the Everlasting Dream ending.

After you’ve made the decision to stay, Taoling will be overjoyed. They’ll also say that since you’ve decided to stay, they too can stay with the villagers, which brings them immense joy. Taoling will also reveal that they’re now able to sustain the village indefinitely with your help, and the fading of the village is no longer a threat.

You can then continue to help out the villagers and live your life in the Taoyuan Village to the fullest.

This concludes the walkthrough for Halcyon Days at Taoyuan. For more guides and walkthroughs for the game, visit its main hub here.

Fahad Suleman

Fahad Suleman is an avid fan of fighting games who spends most of his time writing walkthroughs and reviews for cozy indie titles or mashing around in Tekken. If he’s not writing or playing any games, you’ll often find him watching historical videos on YouTube for hours.