Everdream Valley: Contaminated Pond Quest Guide

If you’ve been playing Everdream Valley, you made have come across some quests that have left you scratching your head. These include the beaver dam quest, which we’ve covered in another guide, but there’s also another quest, which focuses on a contaminated pond. This quest in Everdream Valley is really quite straightforward, but there are some parts of it that have left some players a bit puzzled. This guide aims to clear up any questions with the Contaminated Pond quest in Everdream Valley.

Where Do I Find the Contaminated Pond?

Before you can even start this quest, you need to locate the pond in question. Finding the pond actually initiates this quest. There are a lot of ponds scattered around the valley in Everdream Valley. This pond is different though, as you’ll see when you get there.

The red line marked on the map shows the way from the farm to the pond.

In order to access the pond, you must first fix the bridge to the west of the farm. You must also make sure the small bridge is fixed if you want to get to the pond, but this is needed for the beaver dam quest and the horse quest.

The journey from the farm to the pond is quite lengthy, with the pond on the far west side of the map – and there’s no straight path. Even with a decent supply of stamina, will take you about an in-game hour. If you’ve unlocked the ability to ride on a horse, this is a bonus. With all the travelling to and from the farm and the pond and all the tasks you need to do, you’ll need your tent handy. You don’t want to be caught in the middle of the forest when it gets dark, which is when the wolves come out.

The Route to the Contaminated Pond

This is the general route to the pond, starting from the farm. Travel west from the farm and cross the bridge. Go past the area with the boar and head to the small bridge. Travel north until you can see the sea. From here, head in the left direction and keep following the path along. The sea should be to the right, with a stream on the left.

Eventually, you’ll come across a section where the path narrows. You’ll see a fallen tree on top of the cliff. Go through here – but watch out for two geese lurking around at the entrance. Once you emerge from this pathway, you’ll come across the horses. Go past the horses and go in a straight-ahead direction. Go around the giant rock, either left or right, it doesn’t matter.

On the other side of this rock, you should see a dirty pond. It’s brown in color and overgrown, basically not very attractive looking. This is the contaminated pond that is the focus of this quest. If it helps you, you can pinpoint its location on the map as a reminder.

As soon as you get close to the pond, your character will comment on the state of the place. This will officially spark the Contaminated Pond quest in Everdream Valley.

This contaminated pond has seen better days.

The Contaminated Pond Quest: A Step-By-Step Guide

You’ve successfully managed to locate the dirty messy pond after a lot of travelling. Now what? For this quest in Everdream Valley, you must clear up the pond. This involves getting rid of weeds and dead bushes, and planting some water flora around the pond to give it some new life. Here are all the steps you need to take to complete this quest.

You’ll notice that as soon as you trigger this quest, the pond area will be highlighted on the map.

Clean Up Trash and Weeds Around the Pond

First up, you have to clear the weeds that have sprouted around the pond. The game asks you to get rid of precisely 20 weeds, even though there are at least twice as many in this area. What weeds, and how exactly do you get rid of them?

Weeds normally sprout around crops, and these are normally gathered when you run through them. These weeds are different. You can’t just run through them to clear them. What you need to do is equip a shovel, approach any weed, and press the interact button to scoop it up. Once you dig up a weed, it’ll be noted on the counter.

Dig up the small shoots around the pond using a shovel.

You need to dig up 20 of these shoot-like plants altogether, and they’re all on the edge of the pond. There’s more than 20 weeds, so you can easily complete this task without missing one. Once you’ve got the 20th weed, this task will be marked as complete. However, you can dig up every single weed if you wish.

The weeds aren’t destroyed, but appear in your inventory when dug up. Do not throw weeds away. You can sell them at the merchant, but it’s better to hang onto them. Weeds are one of two ingredients used to craft animal medicine.

Use the weeds you dug up to make animal medicine.

Remove the Dry Bushes From Around the Pond

The second task you need to do when you first find the pond is to cut down any dead bushes you find there. These are very easy to distinguish from the alive bushes because they have no leaves. They’re just like the dead bushes you have back at the farm, or at least when you first started the game.

The game notes that there are 6 dry bushes around the pond. There are exactly 6 of these, unlike the weeds, but the dry bushes are easy to pick out. Getting rid of them is even easier. Have your wooden sword equipped, then just stand in front of the dry bush and swing at them. Keep doing this with all the dry bushes until this task is marked as completed.

Dry bushes are very easy to spot around the pond, like the one in this picture.

Find Out What to Plant Around the Pond

Now you’ve tidied up the pond, or the worst of it at least, with the weeds and dead flora gone. What’s next? The pond is still dirty, and the area in general needs sprucing up. Your character decides that the best course of action is to go and speak to Grandma.

The pond’s looking a bit better now all the weeds and dead plants are gone, but there’s still work to be done.

Sadly, there’s no fast travel in Everdream Valley (as far as I know), so run all the way back to the farm. Grandma is always at the farm, and she’ll be highlighted on your mini map. Find her and speak to her. You’ll discuss water plants, including water lilies and calamus. You can’t plant water lilies (which is a shame), but there are calamus seeds that you can plant. You may still have the calamus seeds that you were given earlier in the game. However, if you’ve lost the seeds, thrown them away, sold them, or used them, don’t worry. Grandma will give you a generous portion of 100 calamus seed bags, which is more than enough.

Speak to Grandma back at the farm and she will give you 100 calamus seeds.

Plant 100 Calamus Seeds Around the Pond

With the seeds in tow, you have to run ALL the way back to the contaminated pond. Once you return to the area, it’s now time to sow the seeds. The calamus must be planted around the pond. As long as you plant them within the yellow highlighted area on the map, it’ll count. The game will count up to 100 as you plant the calamus. If you want to make sure the seeds are planted properly and they are counted by the game, plant the calamus everywhere. You can run and hold the sow button, but this is a bit haphazard, and in my opinion tends to waste more seeds. Even though you’ve got plenty, you need to be sure the planted calamus is counted by the game. I personally prefer to sow at every step, making sure every inch is covered, trying not to waste any more seeds than necessary.

Make sure you have the calamus seeds on you when you go back to the pond.

Whichever way you choose to sow the calamus seeds, once the game has counted to 100, you’ll complete this task and ultimately the Contaminated Pond quest in Everdream Valley. 

Plant the calamus all around the pond.

After the Contaminated Pond Quest

Once you’ve sowed all the calamus seeds around the pond, you’ll notice that there’s a dream waiting for you. Either return to the farm house to sleep, or, if you have your tent on you, go to sleep in there. You’ll have a dream about a green frog (which isn’t actually green). They’ll thank you for your efforts.

After completing the quest, you’ll dream that you got a visit from a special frog with a special message.

Also, if you return to the pond after completing the quest, you’ll notice that the pond itself is now clean and healthy-looking.

The pond will look very different after it’s no longer contaminated.