How to Get, Use, and Upgrade the Fae Farm Critter Conch

Once you get to the Coasts of Croakia Archi-Pal-Igo Park in the Fae Farm DLC, you immediately get a Critter Conch you can use and upgrade. Here’s how it works.

How do I get a Critter Conch in Fae Farm?

This one is easy. After getting to the new Archi-Pal-Igo Park area via Grenu’s mouth in the Coasts of Croakia DLC, you’ll go to the new area for the first time. Directly to the south of Grenu is a person named Lem. A quest marker will be above the character’s head. Talk to the person, and Lem will immediately give you the Critter Conch. The game will also let you know you can immediately switch to it using the triggers, just like any other tool.

How do I use the Critter Conch in Fae Farm?

After getting the Critter Conch from Lem, you’ll get the quest “Live, Laugh, Lem.” This is the tutorial for learning how to use the new tool. Swap to the item, then either look around Lem or head back around the pond where Grenu is sitting. You need to befriend a critter that speaks “Croaker,” which is the frog language. There should be a variant of frog around here. In my case, there was an Aurora Frog hopping right near Lem’s station. Making friends with it in my game revealed it was Mittens the Aurora Frog.

To use the Critter Conch, you need to hold down the A (or action) button. A small field will appear ahead of you. You must keep the critter you are trying to befriend in that highlighted area until the empty music note completely fills up. Once it does, you’ll successfully “befriend” that critter. Once done, you can talk to them and ask them to follow you or dismiss them. You can also chat with the new pet or pet them. If you befriended a critter of a species you already have, you get a Critter Riff crafting material instead.

Finishing this lets you return to Lem to get the Buddy Binder, a new catalog of critters you’ve found. When there, you can equip a trinket to them, change their name, tell them to stop following you, or back out. Trinkets tend to need Critter Riffs, polished gemstones, and ore, and these provide players buffs when equipped to a pet. You get these from Lem. The Buddy Binder also lets you swap to a different critter by going to their page and selecting “follow me.” 

Rainbow Frogs are also in this area too and speak Croaker! They look pink, compared to the blue Aurora Frog.

How do I upgrade the Critter Conch in Fae Farm?

There’s a quest for that too! After you catch your first frog pet with the Critter Conch in Fae Farm and return to Lem, the “Allow Me to Upgrade You” quest begins. This means getting three Critter Riffs by befriending more Aurora Frogs, then returning to Lem’s shop. The first upgrade to an Amateur Critter Conch costs 500 Gold Florins, three Critter Riffs, and the Novice Critter Conch. Only Lem can upgrade this tool for you, and each tier means new species of critters can be befriended.

Here are the Critter Conch upgrade tiers:

• Amateur Critter Conch: 500 Gold Florins, 3 Critter Riffs, Novice Critter Conch
• Advanced Critter Conch: 2,000 Gold Florins, 5 Critter Riffs, 3 Shell Bits, Amateur Critter Conch
• Proficient Critter Conch: 4,000 Gold Florins, 8 Critter Riffs, 4 Blob Gobs, Advanced Critter Conch
• Master Critter Conch: 8,000 Gold Florins, 12 Critter Riffs, 3 Snowflakes, 3 Cinders, Proficient Critter Conch

Note that once you get past the amateur rank, the conches will require you to use your net to catch certain critters or your conservatories on your farm to get the items they produce. 

Fae Farm and the Coasts of Croakia DLC are available now on the Switch and PC.