Japanese Rural Life Adventure Dagashi Guide: How to Unlock and Use Every Candy

If you have been exploring the village and stumbled across a little candy shop, you have found one of the most useful systems in the whole game. Dagashi are cheap Japanese candies, and here they double as secret weapons for collectors.

Here is the twist that catches everyone off guard. Unlike every other food item, dagashi do not restore any hearts or energy.

Instead, each piece of dagashi has a unique hidden effect. Eating one boosts your odds of encountering fish, bugs, or animals of a specific star rating.

In real life, dagashi are the penny candies Japanese kids buy with their pocket money. The game leans right into that nostalgic, old-school corner-shop charm.

If you have been ignoring the candy shop because the menu looked confusing, you are leaving a serious advantage on the table. Once you understand how dagashi works, it becomes one of the fastest ways to complete your collection.

How to Unlock the Dagashiya

The candy shop is called the Dagashiya, and it sits in the bottom right corner of the village. It is run by the Dagashiya Woman, who has been keeping the place going for fifty years.

You cannot buy anything the moment you arrive, though. The shop opens up as part of the Village Revitalization Program, the big questline where you fix up the community for the Village Head.

Specifically, you need to progress to the point where you have completed the school renovation. Once that milestone is done, the Dagashiya is back in business and the candy is yours to buy.

The shop also runs on a schedule, so plan around it. The Dagashiya is open from 6:00 to 18:00, and the Dagashiya Woman will not sell to you outside those hours.

How the Dagashi System Works

There are 30 different dagashi to collect in total. That is a lot of candy, and tracking it all is half the fun.

You will not see all of them at once, though. Only 19 dagashi are on sale on any given day, so the stock rotates.

Here is the part that trips a lot of players up. You cannot see the name or the effect of a dagashi in the purchase menu.

All the shop shows you is the price of each candy and the total number you have bought across your whole playthrough. Figuring out what each one does takes a bit of experimenting.

One more rule worth remembering. You can only carry 10 of each type of dagashi at a time, so you cannot hoard an endless stack before a big fishing trip.

Before and After the Summer Festival

The dagashi selection changes dramatically depending on how far you are in the game. The Summer Festival is the dividing line.

Before you complete the Summer Festival, the shop only stocks a fixed selection of 1-star and 2-star dagashi. It is handy for early collecting, but pretty limited.

After you finish the festival, everything opens up. The daily selection becomes random and refreshes every day, and the higher-tier dagashi finally start appearing.

This is one more reason not to sleep through seasonal content. If you want the rare candies, the festival is your gateway, so check our complete seasonal events guide to make sure you hit it on time.

How Star Ratings and Encounter Odds Work

Every fish, bug, and animal in the game has a star rating that reflects how rare it is. Common critters sit at 1 star, while the truly elusive ones climb much higher.

The higher the star rating, the lower your natural odds of running into that creature. That is exactly the problem dagashi solves.

Eat the right candy before you head out, and you shift your luck toward that star tier. Chasing a rare 4-star fish? Eat the dagashi tuned to that rating and your chances jump.

The effect applies across fish, bugs, and animals, so the same logic helps whether you are at the river, swinging a bug net, or photographing wildlife.

Every Dagashi and What It Boosts

Here is the full breakdown of all 30 dagashi, grouped by the star tier they help you encounter.

Each candy targets a specific creature type, so we have split them into fish, bugs, and animals to make filling out your Creature Encyclopedia easy.

The 1-star tier is where you will start your collection, and it has the most options.

For 1-star fish, eat Fun Size Chocolate, Mentaiko Umeibo, Corn Umeibo, Plum Daikon, or Cola Bubblegum.

For 1-star bugs, reach for Anzubo, Ankobo, Fruit Mochi, or Number 1 Chocolate.

And for 1-star animals, grab Fugashi, Cola Mochi, Number 7 Chocolate, or Number 2 Chocolate.

The 2-star tier steps your odds up a notch.

For 2-star fish, go with Sauce Umeibo or Sauce Senbei.

For 2-star bugs, the candies to grab are Ume Jam and Salami Umeibo.

For 2-star animals, eat Number 5 Chocolate or Ramune Bubblegum.

At the 3-star tier, the rarer creatures start to need real preparation.

For 3-star fish, use Number 4 Chocolate or Sakura Mochi.

For 3-star bugs, Cheese Umeibo is your pick.

And for 3-star animals, reach for Number 8 Chocolate.

The 4-star tier is where dagashi becomes essential rather than optional.

For 4-star fish, Wakkachoko is the one you want.

For 4-star bugs, eat Su Konbu or Number 3 Chocolate.

For 4-star animals, grab Number 6 Chocolate.

Finally, the 5-star tier covers the rarest creatures in the entire game.

For 5-star fish, save your Number 9 Chocolate for those almost-impossible catches.

For 5-star bugs, eat Salty Umeibo.

And for the elusive 5-star animals, reach for Coffee Cigarette.

That is the complete set of 30 dagashi, neatly split across fish, bugs, and animals at every star tier. Keep this list handy and you will always know exactly which candy to eat before a hunt.

How to Use Dagashi Effectively

The golden rule is simple. Eat your dagashi right before you start hunting, since the effect is what shifts your encounter odds.

Match the candy to your goal. If you are chasing a specific 4-star fish, there is no point eating a 1-star dagashi first.

Because the effect only lasts so long, time your visits well. Buy and eat your dagashi just before you reach the fishing spot or bug area rather than first thing in the morning.

Pair dagashi with the Creature Encyclopedia from the Shopkeeper. It tells you which seasons and times each creature appears, so you can line up the right candy with the right conditions.

Dagashi is especially powerful for landing rare fish like the elusive Ito, so our full fishing guide pairs perfectly with this system. Just budget a little, since buying 20 of all 30 types adds up fast.

Dagashi Master and Dagashi King Medals

Collectors have two shiny goals to chase here. Both are tied to how much candy you buy over your playthrough.

The Dagashi Master medal unlocks once you have purchased 5 of each of the 30 dagashi. It is a very reachable milestone if you shop regularly.

The Dagashi King medal is the serious commitment. You need to buy 20 of every single dagashi, which means a lot of repeat visits as the daily stock cycles.

Building Trust With the Dagashiya Woman

Buying candy is not just about catching creatures. It also slowly wins over the Dagashiya Woman herself.

Working your way to 100% dagashi purchases is a big chunk of her trust meter. Hit that goal and she rewards you with a Cute emblem as a thank-you gift.

She is one of the more endearing villagers, so the friendship is well worth pursuing. If you are working through everyone in town, our relationship guide is a great place to start.

Final Thoughts

Dagashi might look like a quirky little side system, but it is one of the most powerful tools in your countryside arsenal. The encounter boost turns slow, luck-based grinding into something you can actually control.

Whether you are completing the Creature Encyclopedia, hunting a stubborn rare fish, or just befriending the lovely Dagashiya Woman, stocking up on candy pays off.

Reopen that shop, keep some dagashi in your bag, and watch those rare catches finally start showing up.

Best of all, the whole system rewards the slow, relaxed pace the game is built around.

There is no rush, so swing by the shop, try a new candy each day, and enjoy filling out that collection one sweet at a time.

–

Screenshots in this article were captured by the author from the Steam version of the game and used under Fair Use.