What these guides cover
Each guide answers one question — the kind people actually type into a search box — and answers it in the first box on the page. Steps and edge cases come after, for anyone who is still stuck. Every number here is from version 1.0, and anything that could not be confirmed was left out rather than guessed at.
Guides and lookup tools do different jobs. The guide explains the mechanic and the order to do things in; a specific sell price or a villager's taste is faster to find in the item database or the gift finder.
Which one to read first
Three things stall almost every first year: not knowing which tool to upgrade first, a letter that stops arriving, and a pile of essence you are afraid to spend. The list is ordered roughly the way players hit those walls.
Read the hay guide before you buy animals — it settles grass and feed before they become a chore. Hearts and production figures themselves live on the ranch animals page, and season-by-season crop profit on the crops page.
How this ties into progress
Most of the game opens through town restoration and your renown rank rather than through time passing. The mines, shop stock and building upgrades all hang off that thread, so when you are stuck, checking your renown and your active quest usually beats mining more material.
Which floor each mine biome starts on, and what ore drops there, is on the mines page; festival and birthday dates are on the calendar.