Work smart, not hard tracks earnings across one run, so the mistake is selling valuable leaves before their price is upgraded. Unlock bag tying, store almost every full bag, activate the Entrance, Basement, and Pool value rewards, then cash the stockpile. The official achievement target is $700, not $7,000 and not a requirement to hold $700 in the wallet at once.
This route is bounded to the classic v1.0.16 map as checked on August 24, 2026. Eternity has announced configurable starting money and income multipliers for Update 1.1, but Custom settings will normally disable achievements. The current $700 plan assumes a fresh standard run with default rules.
The $700 problem is a multiplier problem
The developer has identified exactly three areas that increase leaf value: Entrance, Basement, and Pool. Their reward tooltips appear on the left HUD and on the Journal map. These rewards apply to leaves sold after the upgrade is active, which is why a normal sell-as-you-go run can finish with every leaf gone and still miss the target.
A dedicated classic-map route models 102,400 leaves, a base value of $0.004, and a maximum value of $0.007 after all three increases. That arithmetic leaves little room if thousands of leaves were sold at the base rate. Treat those counts as a 1.0 planning model, not immutable official constants: read the live leaf-value reward and achievement progress before trusting an old decimal.
| State | What to sell | What to preserve |
|---|---|---|
| Before bag tying | Enough Porch leaves to fund essential hand and bag purchases | Nothing can be stored safely yet |
| Bag tying active, fewer than three value rewards | Only a small emergency bag if the route cannot buy a mandatory capacity upgrade | All other tied bags |
| Entrance + Basement + Pool rewards active | The entire staged stockpile, then every remaining leaf | A small unsold bag only if you still need a skill-shot achievement |
| $700 read back | Anything | No money-route restriction remains |
The achievement description says to earn $700. Player readbacks also show it can unlock when the current wallet is below $700 after purchases. Spending is therefore not the same event as losing previously earned credit, but do not turn that observation into permission to waste the margin. Delay expensive convenience tools until the final value reward unless the purchase is what keeps the route executable.
Porch converts loose leaves into inventory
Porch must come first because its 100% reward enables bag tying. Before that reward, full bags cannot become durable inventory. Sell enough Porch leaves to buy the medium bag and a compact hand setup, then finish the area and test the tie control on the final full bag.
A practical opening buys capacity and collection rate, not every low-price icon:
- Greedy Grasp: raises leaves per pickup and reduces hand passes.
- Dexterity: shortens the pickup cycle.
- Fluid Picker: removes repetitive clicking during long hand clears.
- Medium bag: makes staging possible without creating an unmanageable field of tiny bags.
When Porch reaches 100%, tie one bag and put it beside the front bin without throwing it in. That unsold bag is the functional proof that the route is ready. If the tie prompt does not appear, check Porch on the Journal; owning a better bag does not grant the ability.
Create staging depots instead of one giant pile
Tied bags preserve value only while they remain outside a bin or inlet. Do not stack the entire map in a physics heap. Use three depots that align with later travel:
- Front depot: beside the main bin for Porch, Frontyard or Court, Entrance, and Driveway bags.
- Rear-garage depot: near the Swings-side bin for Garage and Basement bags.
- Back-garden depot: on clear ground near the Grill/Pool route, away from doors and area boundaries.
Keep bags far enough from the bin that an accidental throw or rolling collision cannot sell them. Keep them off gates that will open later. Count staged bags by location and occasionally open the Journal: if lifetime earnings or the wallet jumps unexpectedly, one depot is too close to a sale trigger.
Choose Court certainty or Frontyard economy for garage access
After Porch, clear either Court or Frontyard into tied bags. Court grants sprint and makes the garage entry repeatable. Frontyard grants a movement increase and saves a more expensive clear, but the button-to-door run becomes much tighter. This money route has no timer, so Court is normally the better decision.
Do not sell these leaves. Move full bags to the front depot. When the chosen area completes, use the shed control and watch the monitor all the way to the door’s upper stop; only then release and run the direct line inside. If you chose Frontyard and fail twice, clean Court rather than risking the whole $700 run on a movement trick.
Garage leaves also go into bags. Its completion can provide a cash reward independent of leaf sales, which gives the route limited purchasing power without liquidating inventory. Verify the live reward instead of budgeting an exact old number.
Entrance is the first value checkpoint
Clear Entrance 100% into tied bags. The official developer answer says this area carries one of the value rewards. Require the left-side reward card or Journal tooltip before marking the checkpoint complete.
Do not confuse the reward with money entering the wallet. The value multiplier changes future sales; it does not automatically sell the leaves you just collected. Place the Entrance bags in the front depot and keep going.
If an upgrade purchase is unavoidable, sell the smallest staged bag after the Entrance reward, because its leaves now receive at least one increase. Record the sale as lost margin relative to the final rate and avoid making the same exception twice.
Basement supplies value two and the shed gate
Enter through Garage and clear Basement from the far shelves toward the stairs. Tie bags as they fill and stage them near the rear-garage bin without crossing its sale volume.
Basement presents two separate gates:
- The partial-progress reward increases leaf value.
- The 100% reward opens the route to the Shed area.
Seeing the value card means checkpoint two is active, but the story chain still needs Basement 100%. Finish it, then use the small fence beside the shed. If the map reads 99.x%, switch to hands around shelf feet, stair edges, and the vent wall. Patch v1.0.16 improved basement colliders, but the live count is still the finish signal.
Shed unlocks Pool without spending the inventory
Clear Shed to 100% and keep its leaves bagged. Work the roof before the ground so bags thrown down do not re-contaminate a finished surface. The large wooden gate between shed and house opens the Grill route after the reward.
Do not buy the leaf blower merely because the shop is beside you. A blower does not create money; it makes it easier to accidentally sell leaves through an inlet. Hands and a modest rake are sufficient for the controlled storage phase. If hand strain or performance makes the route impractical, buy a rake and a few focused upgrades, but preserve a cash buffer and continue using tied bags.
Pool 50% is the sale switch
Reach Pool through the Grill area. Do not repair its inlet while you are still deferring sales; an open inlet turns a valuable storage zone into an automatic cash-out zone. Rake or hand-collect Pool leaves into bags until the area crosses its value-reward threshold.
The dedicated route estimates that the reward appears around the first half of Pool, approximately 9,000 leaves in that classic-map model. The live HUD is the authority. Stop when the third value card appears, open the Journal, and verify that Entrance, Basement, and Pool all show their leaf-value rewards.
Only then begin liquidation:
- Sell the Pool bags first and verify the higher per-bag return.
- Walk the back-garden depot into its nearest bin.
- Carry the rear-garage depot to the Swings-side bin.
- Finish at the front depot and sell every stored Entrance, Court/Frontyard, Porch remainder, and Garage bag.
- Check achievement progress before buying the blower or a full upgrade tree.
A sale that pays less than expected means one value reward did not persist or the bag contains fewer leaves than assumed. Stop selling and inspect the Journal. Do not empty all three depots while the state is ambiguous.
Turn the unlocked cash into completion speed
After the stockpile is sold at maximum value, the route changes. Buy the blower, improve width and power, repair inlets unless you are combining Craftsman, and clear the remaining zones. Every later leaf can be sold immediately because the maximum known value state is active.
Garage and Grill completion rewards provide additional margin. Finish all remaining named areas if the achievement has not appeared; Leaf No Leaf Behind is a useful audit because it proves the map is not hiding unsold leaves. The official $700 description counts earnings in one run, while the exact popup timing can occur before the wallet itself reaches $700 if earlier purchases were credited.
Do not enter the Secret Room before the $700 achievement reads back. Multiple readable guides warn that post-ending cleanup may not continue the same earnings total for this challenge. Greenhouse and Swings can be cleaned for access, but stop at the rear basement vent until Steam and the Journal confirm success.
Combine Craftsman only if you can tolerate manual logistics
Craftsman forbids repairing leaf inlets. It does not forbid bag upgrades, the rake, the blower, or ordinary purchases. A combined run is possible because the money route already prefers tied bags before the third value reward.
The tradeoff is time and stability. Without inlets, every remaining leaf must reach a bin after liquidation, and a blower can scatter valuable leaves across area boundaries. Use the rake to form bags, keep depots separated, and finish Work smart, not hard before crawling to the ending. If the goal is low risk rather than minimum playthrough count, do Craftsman on a separate story run.
Diagnose a shortfall before starting over
| Observed state | Likely cause | Recovery |
|---|---|---|
| Pool reward active, wallet still small | This is expected before the depots are sold. | Verify all three value rewards, then liquidate in stages. |
| Most bags sold, achievement progress barely moves | One value reward was skipped or bags contained fewer leaves than planned. | Stop, inspect the Journal rewards, and finish unsold map areas at the live maximum. |
| Current wallet below $700 after many upgrades | Wallet and lifetime earnings are different values. | Read the Steam achievement and Journal objective; continue earning instead of rebuying the same upgrade path. |
| Map clean, total just below target | Too many early leaves were sold at base value or a completion reward is missing. | Check Garage and Grill 100%, every area count, and the ending boundary. A true exhausted-map shortfall requires a new run. |
| A staged bag disappears or sells itself | The depot is inside a bin/inlet trigger or unstable geometry. | Move the remaining depot to flat open ground and reduce stack height. |
The classic-map walkthrough explains the access gates without the sale restriction. The Need for Sweep plan is intentionally incompatible with this slow inventory strategy. Collect the eight Mysterious Photos during travel only if picking them up does not disturb a bag depot.
Current-version evidence boundary
The official Steam product page for AppID 3981100 fixes the game identity and developer. Steam’s achievement page supplies the exact $700 requirement, Eternity’s developer response supplies the Entrance/Basement/Pool reward identity, and readable classic-map routes supply the storage math and sequencing. The article does not promise that a future 1.1 Custom run, altered income multiplier, or imported save will award the achievement.