Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is full of secret content that players can stumble across if they explore the game to the fullest or pursue certain relationships, including secret mini-games, characters, mounts, and more. There are a number of secret locations that you can discover, and one of these is the Ancient Lake.
The Ancient Lake is a great place to fish and obtain various treasures and valuable items, not to mention that you get to see your character ride a giant eagle to get there on the first occasion. Here's everything you need to do to unlock this awesome area.
Prerequisite Tasks
Unlock the Third Farm Area
Before you can work on unlocking the Ancient Lake, you first need to expand your farm into the third area.
To do this, you need to repair the dilapidated bridge to the southeast area of your farm to expand into area two, and then remove the rubble to the northeast of the second area to open up area three. These repairs/removals can be done using crafting materials or money, and all of them take a day to complete.
Obtain the Suction Pump
You'll also need to have the Suction Pump recipe, which is unlocked by reaching Draining Skill Level 5.
You can increase your Draining Skill by scooping out puddles with your bucket tool. Once you've unlocked the crafting recipe, you will need the following materials in order to create a Suction Pump:
- 10x Brick
- 5x Silver Ingot
You will also need Refined Coal to power the Suction Pump. Coal lumps can be found in mines, and these can then be crafted into Refined Coal to use as fuel.
Unlocking the Ancient Lake Secret Area
You want to head to the lake in the third area, as shown above, and then set up at least one Suction Pump on the lakeside to begin draining it.
One lump of refined coal will only power a Suction Pump for a single day, and you can only stack five lumps into the Pump at any one time. As it will take longer than five days, be sure to return and top up your coal as needed. The more Suction Pumps you use on the lake, the less time it will take to drain.
You can check in on the lake regularly to see the water level slowly draining, and eventually, the lake will be completely empty and it will reveal a treasure chest at the bottom. Claim your treasure (Timeworn and Heavy objects for appraisal) and then make sure you remove the Suction Pump.
Now, you have to simply wait for the lake to refill with freshwater, which is visibly a lot cleaner than what it was before. This will take roughly a week to do, after which, you will witness a new cutscene where you receive a visit from Navi-sprite.
Navi-sprite is overjoyed to see the lake has been cleaned and offers to take you to somewhere else that you will enjoy with the help of his eagle friend — the Ancient Lake. As you arrive in this secret location, a prompt will appear challenging you to drain the water to discover the secrets hidden within.
Once again, grab your trusty Suction Pump and get ready for a long wait. Of course, the more Suction Pumps you use, the quicker this whole process will be.
The Ancient Lake is a great place to discover Shining Objects for appraisal, as well as finding Heavy Objects too, both of which can contain rare items or treasures. This is also a great place to do some fishing.
You can return to the Ancient Lake at any time by speaking to Navi-sprite outside of your farmhouse. Once drained, the Ancient Lake will need to be refilled by removing all Suction Pumps if you wish to repeat the process to discover more treasure.