Setting up your first port right in Harborhaven

Harborhaven is forgiving, but a messy first hour will haunt you. The economy is all about chains — fishery feeds market, market draws tourists, tourists fund expansion — and if you build those out of order you spend ages waiting on money that never quite arrives.

Build the fishery first, always. It's your baseline income and it unlocks the market's best goods. I wasted my first playthrough leaning on ferries too early, and the whole town stayed broke for it.

Leave room around your docks. It's tempting to pack buildings in tight, but later expansions want space, and demolishing to make room refunds only part of the cost. A little planning saves a lot of coins.

Don't chase every resident request straight away. Some of them ask for buildings you're not ready to support, and half-built infrastructure just drains upkeep. Prioritise the ones that feed your existing chains.

After that it's pure cozy autopilot. Set it up right and Harborhaven becomes the kind of game you leave open all evening, tweaking and expanding between other things.