Direct answer: Heart events are easiest to trigger when you raise friendship, clear earlier scenes, enter normal candidate locations outside festivals, and keep route choices consistent. The current game includes Romantic and Best Friend routes plus ten-heart progression.
Requirements
- Enough hearts for the next event
- Earlier events completed
- The candidate’s normal location accessible
- No festival or story override blocking the scene
Step-by-step
- Check the Social menu for the current heart total
- Confirm the prior scene was viewed
- Try the candidate’s work and home locations in ordinary daytime hours
- Read new mail and finish visible character quests
- Keep a short log of time, weather, and route choice
Common reasons it does not work
- Check: Trying on a festival day
- Check: Skipping the previous scene
- Check: Using an old heart threshold
- Check: Mixing best-friend and romance instructions
Related items and places
Choose a candidate in the character hub, open that character’s exact heart table, then use the Engagement Ring guide only after the Social menu shows Dating and ten hearts.
Current-update notes
Shared troubleshooting is reviewed against the current build; exact event windows remain on each character page after observation.
FAQ
Why am I at eight hearts but not Dating?
Eight hearts unlocks the route-choice event; it does not set Dating automatically. View the candidate’s event and choose the Romantic answer. The alternative sets Best Friend status.
Do festival dates replace heart events?
No. Shooting Star and Harvest Festival scenes add relationship moments, but the numbered character chain still has to be completed in order.
Can I date more than one candidate?
Yes, but engagement can change other Dating relationships to Best Friend depending on the relationship option presented before confirmation.
Relationship route map
Candidates have heart events at even-heart milestones. Earlier scenes must be viewed in order; reaching a later heart total does not skip a missing prerequisite. At the eight-heart event, the game presents the Romantic and Best Friend paths. Choosing Romance unlocks dating.
Once dating, you may ask that character on a date on Saturday or Sunday. Each person can go on one date per week, and dating more than one person can allow separate weekend dates. Date Inspiration items unlock additional date types, and the first visit to a new type awards a Photo Card.
Missing-event checklist
- Confirm the required heart level in the Journal.
- Read new mail and complete earlier heart quests.
- Visit the location named by the letter or quest.
- Try a normal non-festival day and remove weather or story overrides.
- Leave and re-enter the map if another cutscene fired first.
Warning: open route and late-heart consequences
The ten-heart event is the proposal event for a character you are dating. It can be triggered with the Engagement Ring and revisited until you choose to propose. Engagement normally changes other Dating relationships to Best Friend status; the engagement tutorial exposes settings that can alter how those status changes are handled.
Plan date photos
Weather, time, and outfit can affect the photo. Because a first-date Photo Card is not something to treat as infinitely retakeable, save before a visually important date and choose the day deliberately.