Patch 1.20 is live as of September 28, 2026. To keep up with its animal changes and the game’s calendar, maintain three separate checklists: livestock and daily care, the four major festivals, and the seasonal Day 27 evaluation contests. The available guides do not establish a complete in-game tracker or a reliable spawn calendar for every wild animal.
What Patch 1.20 changed for tracking
The official Patch 1.20 announcement says the update became available September 28, 2026. Its animal-related changes add four livestock unlocks and change when Ghost Cow appears.
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- Silkie Chickens and Mallards: available to buy from Chinana’s stall after reaching Autumn of Year 1. The update says they lay eggs daily and occasionally leave feathers.
- Fluffy Cows and Spotted Goats: available at Chinana’s stall after you have bought at least one goat. The announcement says Fluffy Cows produce milk daily and Spotted Goats produce goat’s milk daily.
- Ghost Cow: the official notes say it “will no longer appear during weeks that have an evaluation event.” Account for this when recording sightings or planning around an evaluation week.
Patch 1.20 also lets you focus on a scarecrow to see how many active days remain. Crops in its range no longer wither on the day it breaks. This is useful farm-status information to add to a crop checklist, but it is not an animal or event tracker.
The Tool Desk
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#1 Best Overall
- Marketing: Village in the Shade is a one-of-a-kind cozy life simulation that blends the “Cozy life sim” with Japanese horror, folklore and yokai.
- A life simulation game set in a nostalgic and distinctly Japanese world, offering an experience unlike Western-style farming simulations.
- Beautiful hand-drawn visuals paired with charming anime-style characters that resonate with a wide audience.
- Deluxe Edition includes: Village in the Shade GAME, Digital Soundtrack (download code), Mini Art Book
Build an animal checklist that stays useful after patches
Use one row per animal or species and keep the information that helps you act: what unlocks it, where it lives, what care it needs, and when to check for products. Add a version field so a later update does not leave you relying on outdated availability or behavior.
| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Animal | Name or species |
| Shelter | Where it is housed |
| Unlock | Purchase condition and when it was met |
| Daily care | Last fed and last petted |
| Status | Affection and mood |
| Products | Expected product and whether it has been collected |
| Contest | Whether you are considering it for a Livestock evaluation entry |
| Version note | Patch number and date for a new unlock or changed rule |
Use a repeatable care routine
An independent livestock guide describes the general sequence as building the appropriate shelter, buying an animal from Chinana when it becomes available, feeding daily, petting regularly, monitoring mood, and collecting products. It reports that higher affection improves product quality.
Rank #2
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The same guide cautions that five visible hearts do not guarantee an S-rank result. Some of its explanations for fair outcomes and Ghost Cow are community-reported rather than official scoring formulas, so treat them as guidance, not guaranteed mechanics.
Track the new unlock conditions explicitly
For Patch 1.20, put “Autumn, Year 1” beside Silkie Chicken and Mallard availability. Put “at least one goat purchased” beside Fluffy Cow and Spotted Goat availability. These are separate conditions: reaching autumn does not replace the goat prerequisite, and buying a goat does not replace the autumn boundary for the birds.
Rank #3
- DUAL DRAFTING GAMEPLAY: Fortify your villages, then strategize to demolish them with creature cards & attack tiles in this thrilling & competitive tabletop game - perfect for halloween party games!
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Keep festivals separate from evaluation contests
Both event types use Village Plaza, but they have different dates and purposes. The festival dates and activities below come from an independent festival guide last updated August 27, 2026. Its English names are provisional because the official Western localization had not launched when it was updated.
| Season | Festival | In-game date and time | Activity | Availability noted by guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring | Cherry Blossom Viewing | Spring 12, 10:00–19:00 | Badminton | Year 2 or later |
| Summer | Summer Festival | Summer 15, 16:00–20:00 | Festival stalls | Listed as a major festival |
| Autumn | Harvest Festival | Autumn 23, 10:00–19:00 | Sweet potato roasting | Listed as a major festival |
| Winter | Year-End Festival | Winter 28, 20:00–23:00 | Mochi pounding | Listed as a major festival |
The guide says to go to Village Plaza and choose to enter when the festival’s in-game time arrives. Check names against the official localization once it is live; the game’s Steam listing currently marks English as unsupported.
Rank #4
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- BEAUTIFUL ART: French illustrator Vincent Dutrait (Jaipur, Lost Cities, Robinson Crusoe) brings the plants, animals, and trees to life
- LOVED CANOPY? Evergreen expands the Canopy system and is designed for higher player counts
- CARE FOR YOUR FOREST: Search for plants and animals that benefit your forest most, but watch out for natural threats of fire, disease, drought
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Evaluation contests are on Day 27
A separate independent evaluation contest guide lists a contest on Day 27 of each season, at Village Plaza from 10:00 to 16:00. You choose one division—Crop, Livestock, or Horse—and cannot enter all three on the same day.
For a Livestock entry, the livestock and contest guides recommend checking mood and affection ahead of time. Their rank advice is guide-reported system information, not a formula stated in the official Patch 1.20 announcement.
Best Value
- A dragon threatens to burn all the villages in the Kingdom! Can you bribe him with treasures from the battlefield, while cursing your opponents treasures to make sure your village is spared?
- Fantasy-Filled Fun: This enchanting game for 2 to 5 players features fantastic treasures and the dragon from the world of Castle Panic.
- Play treasure cards to make or increase the value of a bribe. Or buy cards at the Black Market to curse a treasure.
- Bribe the Best or Burn: When the deck of treasures runs out, you'll score points for your bribes and lose points for unplayable cards still in your hand. Only the player with the highest score has their village spared from the dragon!
- With easy-to-learn rules, Please Don't Burn My Village! can be played in about 20 minutes. This makes it accessible to players ages 10+ with different experience levels, while still providing strategic depth.
A simple seasonal tracking workflow
- Mark your season and year. Record the current in-game date, year, and active patch. This makes the Autumn of Year 1 bird unlock condition easy to distinguish from the recurring seasonal calendar.
- Check the animal list when a prerequisite is met. At Chinana’s stall, verify availability after reaching Autumn of Year 1 for Silkie Chickens and Mallards, or after buying at least one goat for Fluffy Cows and Spotted Goats.
- Log care and products daily. Record feeding, petting, mood, affection, and collected products so missed care or collection is visible in your own notes.
- Mark each Day 27 contest separately. Set a reminder for 10:00–16:00 at Village Plaza, then decide whether your entry is Crop, Livestock, or Horse.
- Add festival reminders from the calendar. Keep the four festival dates distinct from Day 27 evaluations and note the festival’s start time so you arrive during its listed window.
- Review update notes before relying on old observations. For Patch 1.20, account for Ghost Cow not appearing during weeks with an evaluation event and use the scarecrow focus interaction to check its remaining active days.
What the available tracking information does not establish
The official update and the independent guides cited here do not document a comprehensive in-game tracker for all animals or exact spawn times and locations for wild animals. Do not treat a personal sightings list as a confirmed spawn calendar. A manual log can help you remember what you have seen, but it cannot establish a schedule the sources do not provide.
The next free update is announced for October 27, 2026, alongside a planned English, French, and Spanish language patch. As of October 3, those items were announced, not live. The official announcement also lists paid DLC for Spring 2027; it is likewise a future plan, not current content.
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