if i got anything wrong, do tell me!! i only have 21 hours on this game lmao

notes:
you can have kittens with both npcs! sometimes i wonder how.

The forest guardian loves some difficult-to-get items. The following items are ones that are pretty easy to get: Snakes, Adders, Honeycomb.

If you cant get any of the above, there are some alternatives such as Quartz, Topaz, Lizards.
A full list of loved and liked items can be found at this guide

Since The Forest Guardian doesn't show friendship stars, I'll be talking about them in days.
It should take 4 days straight of gifting loved gifts and chatting to raise up a star. So, 12 days for 4 stars. Repeat the process for the dating hearts.

During one of your gifting cycles, you might want to venture out to "The Old Farm" and grab a Red Rose from there. It's at the top left corner of the map. Buy a Shiny trinket at Autumn 5, since Ember will start selling them at that time.

If you aren't using days to keep track of friendship, you can use dialog instead! When you hit a certain level, the dialog will change.

4 stars dialog: "Greetings, [player name], well-favored among the stars. What wisdom do you seek?"

4 hearts dialog: "I was deep in the counsel of my thoughts when you arrived. Now my ideas are scattered! Strange are the forces that can do such a thing to one such as I."

If you are doing this since Spring 1, by the time you get to 4 hearts it should be around Autumn 4. And if you have enough mews, you should be able to marry the lioness immediately after. Success!

Your goals are: Get 200 mews and have 24 snakes or adders combined.

You might want to hunt in "Caldera" (bottom right corner of the map), snakes and adders do spawn there pretty commonly. You can also hunt the other prey, such as voles or lizards. They sell for quite a bit, with 8 for lizards and 10 for voles.

Once you have 200 mews and the snakes and adders, you can start sleeping and gifting daily until Autumn 4. Sleep for another day and buy a Shiny trinket.

But if you don't have enough mews or snakes, you can keep hunting until you do. Just make sure you have at least one every day, to keep on the pace.

- The skill "Kindly Purr" can be used to raise friendship a tiny bit. This can make the process go faster!

- You can use hunter's gamble to one-shot a snake or adder, assuming you can time your pounces. You will also get two snakes instead of one.

- Time doesn't pass indoors, do whatever with this information. :) ( See tip #1 )

- You can use dodge (default key is ctrl) to jump over 1 tile of lava. This is very useful when hunting at the caldera area.

( You can read some tips in the comment section. A person left some there. Thank you! )

In case you didn't know, the Wildwood Champion is unlocked after finishing the story and choosing to spare them. The earliest possible day you can unlock them is day 3, as you have to wait for the dream before you can do all of the dark ruins.

I haven't tested how long does it take to increase 1 star, but it'll take approximately 4-5 days, as their friendship difficulty modifier is slightly higher than the Forest Guardian's

The Wildwood Champion loves the following:
Cardinal, Bluejay, Starling, Turtle, Barbel, Foxglove [Poor], Foxglove [Fair], Foxglove [Good], Catnip [Good], Northern Emerald, Blue Ladybug, Tiger Butterfly, Lunar Butterfly, Black Firefly, Rosy Moth, Ghost Beetle, Honeycomb, Queen of the Night, Bright Insignia, Alexandrite, Brightstone, Battle Potion, Conch, Gift Box, Supply Trove

...ooh yikes. there isn't an extremely common item here. Although, you can buy tiger butterflies from ember's shop for 25 mews! This should make befriending them extremely easy! You can hunt and sell to gather mews quickly.

A place I recommend for hunting is at blossoming field. It can spawn two of the liked legendaries (turtle, cardinal) and a lot of the other "high-value" prey.

If you get this dialog:
"A bond forged in the fires of adversity is made stronger by its past. I am very fortunate to call you my friend."

This means you're at 4 stars! Start dating them! Repeat the gifting until you get this dialog:
"We have both grown much as individuals through the mystery of our shared love."

You now have 4 hearts and can marry them. Success!