Contained herein are tactics for unlocking Sprites in Harvest Moon DS. Some of them sound like insurmountable goals, but most of them can be done fairly quickly, often at the same time as other Sprites.

Red Team - Animal Harvesting

Sprite	To Unlock
Red Ribbon	Have 10 overall cows and sheep
Wooly	Ship at least 300 Milk, Eggs, and Wool between the three types
Laine	Ship at least 500 Milk, Eggs, and Wool between the three types
Essa	Ship at least 1000 Milk, Eggs, and Wool between the three types
Betty	Shear wool 100 times using the Touch Glove
Chamy	Shear wool 300 times using the Touch Glove
Ole	Shear wool 700 times using the Touch Glove
Sue	Milk cows 100 times using the Touch Glove
Magic	Milk cows 300 times using the Touch Glove
Bali	Milk cows 700 times using the Touch Glove
Mick	Have 10 overall chickens and ducks
Woohoo	Have 20 overall chickens and ducks

Unlocking Tricks

Red Ribbon - Unlock Mick and Woohoo first; after you have them, buy your third Animal Shed and purchase enough animals to get your cow and sheep combined count to 10.

Wooly, Laine, and Essa - These three will get unlocked quickly enough on their own; just be sure to keep at least 8 birds and 8 livestock of the ones you buy or breed for unlocking purposes, and care for them daily.

Betty, Chamy, and Ole - Use the sheep-shearing trick to get a lot of wool. First shear their head and tail, then shear their legs twice in a row and then their shoulder, in a constant cycle. Note that you have to be very precise in where you shear them to pull this off.

Sue, Magic, and Bali - As long as you have at least 6 cows around, it will only take about a game year to unlock all three.

Mick and Woohoo - Get 5 Bird Sheds; this will take a while, so hatch 7 chickens and 1 duck you plan to keep, as well as 7 additional ones you don't, and buy the remaining 5 birds (suggested 4 chickens 1 duck; buy 1 chicken and 1 duck as early as possible). When you have both, sell off the 12 unwanted birds and demolish a Bird Shed (or two).

Orange Team - Collecting

Sprite	To Unlock
Oran	Complete Mayor Thomas' winter request
Bran	Chop 100 sticks
Pierre	Chop 5 tree stumps
Tilus	Break 100 rocks
Stony	Break 250 rocks
Rosh	Break 500 rocks
Decoy	Chop 250 sticks
Woody	Chop 500 sticks
Alpen	Break 5 stones
Rocky	Break 15 stones
Valie	Upgrade axe to Mystrile and use it once
Fen	Get a Cursed Hammer and have it blessed

Unlocking Tricks

Oran - Just be sure to give Mayor Thomas what he asks for. This one is really easy to do.

Bran, Decoy, and Woody - Hire the team out to do work for you often. Occasionally chop a stick on your own to see if these ones are unlocked.

Tilus, Stony, and Rosh - Same as above, but for small rocks.

Pierre, Alpen, and Rocky - Try to unlock these three before the above six. It's not that hard to upgrade your tools enough to do so, or to get the Cursed tools and bless them (though that's expensive).

Valie and Fen - These two don't require any special effort. Upgrading tools and finding Cursed tools is easy to do.

Yellow Team - Animal Care

Sprite	To Unlock
Canary	Have 15 animal births on your farm
Kali	Brush/talk/pick up animals 50 times sans Touch Glove
Johnny	Brush/talk/pick up animals 350 times sans Touch Glove
Brushy	Brush/talk/pick up animals 900 times sans Touch Glove
Mouton	Rub animals 50 times with the Touch Glove
Boohoo	Rub animals 100 times with the Touch Glove
Canal	Rub animals 300 times with the Touch Glove
Meow	Rub animals 500 times with the Touch Glove
Beta	Wash animals 50 times with the Touch Glove
Aiylee	Wash animals 100 times with the Touch Glove
Pompom	Wash animals 300 times with the Touch Glove
Zoo	Wash animals 500 times with the Touch Glove

Unlocking Tricks

Canary - You will unlock Canary while unlocking Mick and Woohoo.

Kali, Johnny, and Brushy - Just be sure to pick up your dog, cat, and birds daily. You should have all 3 unlocked before a game year is up.

Mouton, Boohoo, Canal, and Meow - Given how many animals you'll be caring for to unlock the red team, these 4 should get unlocked in record time; just be sure to always do Touch Glove activities with your animals each day.

Beta, Aiylee, Pompom, and Zoo - As above, but it'll go slightly slower thanks to the fact that you'll only have 11 animals you can wash at the highest point. It will still only take 50 days at most, however.

Green Team - Harvesting

Sprite	To Unlock
Forest	Upgrade the Sickle to Mystrile and use it once
Fraw	Put 1000 items in the shipping bin; any will do
Ridge	Put 5000 items in the shipping bin
Ali	Put 10000 items in the shipping bin
Cady	Put 30000 items in the shipping bin
Paddy	Put 50000 items in the shipping bin
Veggie	Put an item in the Basket bought from the Supermarket
Kevin	Put an item in the horse's saddlebag
Kamar	Ship a Cabbage
Moor	Ship a Pineapple
Vail	Ship a Green Pepper
Matthew	Get a Cursed Sickle and have it blessed

Unlocking Tricks

Forest and Matthew - Nothing hard here; tool upgrading is easy to do.

Fraw, Ridge, Ali, Candy, and Paddy - Just keep shipping things. Anything will do. If you're doing crop leveling wia the Super Field, then these five will get unlocked very fast indeed.

Veggie and Kevin - Lumped together because they're both such easy goals that you don't really have to try to actually complete them.

Kamar, Moor, and Vali - It will cost a few casino medals, but these three are quite easy to unlock.

Indigo Team - Fishing

Sprite	To Unlock
Blue	Fish in the Circus Ground hot springs
Paige	Catch 50 items from fishing
Fry	Catch 500 items from fishing
Rod	Catch 1000 items from fishing
Gigi	Catch 5000 items from fishing
Pedro	Catch 10000 items from fishing
Tricky	Catch 50000 items from fishing
Sammy	Get a Cursed Fishing Pole and have it blessed
Fisher	Upgrade the Fishing Pole to Mystrile and use it once
Yacht	Fish in a duck pond; need Gotz to build one first
Riviera	Fish in the watering hole
Reese	Fish in the Goddess Pond hot springs

Unlocking Tricks

Blue and Reese - You'll need to unlock the hot springs for Violetto, Carey, and Sacci anyway, so these two will be easy to do as an afterthought.

Paige, Fry, Rod, Gigi, Pedro, and Tricky - Hire the fishing team constantly to fish for you, occasionally fishing yourself to see if you've unlocked another team member. This one takes a long time, but is a total no-effort one on your behalf.

Sammy and Fisher - Tool upgrades again. Both easy, so you should be able to get these two quickly.

Yacht and Riviera - Really really easy to do, these should be the easiest (and in Riviera's case, the first) fishing Sprites you unlock.

Purple Team - Stamina

Sprite	To Unlock
Violetto	Use hot springs near circus grounds for 200 hours
Nette	Use this team's healing service 100 times
Whitney	Use this team's healing service 200 times
Juna	Use this team's healing service 750 times
Sante	Use this team's healing service 1000 times
Anime	Eat 30 wild grasses
Powery	Eat 80 wild grasses
Koto	Eat 150 wild grasses
Spirity	Buy 1 drink from the bar
Souly	Buy 50 drinks from the bar
Carey	Use the Goddess Pond hot springs for 200 hours
Sacci	Use the Goddess Pond hot springs for 500 hours

Unlocking Tricks

Violetto - This team is tricky, as its leader's requirements suggest. The easiest way to get the first Hot Springs is to do Flora's blue heart event (or her 250FP event in the Girl version). Then just spend just over an hour at a time in the spring, jump out, and jump back in. Violetto takes a long time to unlock no matter what, and is best unlocked with the help of the Teleport Stone to get home at no later than 5:40AM; use the Hot Spring as much as you can before that every day.

Nette, Whitney, Juna, and Sante - Hire the team for 7-day stretches, having them work at your farm. Wear the Time Ring as much as you can. Once your daily chores are over, while wearing the Time Ring, talk to them every 15 game minutes and have the team heal you. This will take a long time, and is pretty time-intensive.

Anime, Powery, and Koto - At least these ones are easy. Grasses grow constantly in the valley, and Black Grass from the mines also counts towards them, so you should get them unlocked fast if you do much mining.

Spirity and Souly - You can unlock these two quite fast by constantly ordering the cheapest drinks at the bar (not Water; that doesn't count towards unlocking them).

Carey and Sacci - You'll inevitably unlock the second Hot Springs by the time you get Violetto, allowing you to get these two. It's the same process as for Violetto, but it takes even longer to get Sacci. No fast way out of this one.

Blue Team - Watering

Sprite	To Unlock
Ceruleano	Water a secret crop square
Chorori	Water tilled earth 1000 times
Walter	Water tilled earth 5000 times
Rainy	Water tilled earth 10000 times
Joro	Water tilled earth 30000 times
Patty	Water tilled earth 50000 times
Misty	Fill the watering can 10 times
Roli	Upgrade the Watering Can to Mystrile and use it once
Maddie	Find a Cursed Watering Can and have it blessed
Karaf	Examine the watering hole
Eviran	Water a secret crop square
Owen	Water a secret crop square

Unlocking Tricks

Ceruleano, Eviran, and Owen - There's two fast ways to get these three. The first is to save, dig up all of the lots in a community area, and water them one by one. If you find a Sprite, load and go to that square, till it, and water it; it will always be that square. Method #2 is the brute force method: till up the whole area with the Mythic Hoe, then water the whole area with the Mythic Watering Can. Either way, you can get these three pretty easily.

Chorori, Walter, Rainy, Joro, and Patty - Though you'll unlock them eventually no matter what, an easy way to get them is to constantly till the Super Field area, water it, and re-till it. This is best done with Mythic tools.

Misty and Karaf - These two should give no problems at all.

Roli and Maddie - Tool upgrades again. Again, there's nothing difficult being asked here.

Sprite Tree Team

Sprite	To Unlock
Guts	Automatic
Roller	On Spring 8 or later, cross the bridge at Vesta's farm
Hops	Check the well near the bar
Tep	Check the stove near the inn
Jum	Check the fountain in front of Romana's
Jet	Check Van's orange crate in the inn
Jackie	Attempt to exit the valley
Baby	Rescue 60 Harvest Sprites, then check the jar in the Sprite Tree

Unlocking Tricks

Guts and Roller - You don't have to put effort into these two at all.

Hops, Tep, Jump, Jet, and Jackie - Easy unlocks. Just do as it says, and there you have it.

Baby - You will unlock this Sprite just by unlocking the other Sprites, so it's not like you have to try very hard to do it.

TV Station Sprites

Sprite	To Unlock
Mercury	Automatic
Venus	Buy items from Karen's store for 10 days overall
Earth	Save 20 Harvest Sprites
Mars	Ship 300 of one produced item (ie. crops)
Jupiter	Buy 5 records
Saturn	Participate in 5 festivals
Uranus	Get 100 or more friendship with a villager
Neptune	Automatic
Pluto	Ship 100,000 of one produced item (ie. crops)

Unlocking Tricks

Mercury and Neptune - You don't have to do anything, obviously.

Venus - Just as it says, buy stuff daily from the Supermarket. You'll want to be sure to do this, as Venus' station is very useful.

Earth - Like the Baby Sprite, you should get this one no problem since you're unlocking Sprites as it is.

Mars - Again, you'll get this Sprite just from unlocking other Sprites.

Jupiter - Just buy them from the Sprite Tree or Van (or both). Easy.

Saturn - Unless you're a shut-in, this one will be done before Fall is out. But don't force yourself to participate in the Cooking Festival if you have nothing worthy to enter; a bug makes it so whatever you enter on some versions of the game remains what you enter for all time!

Uranus - Show your dog or cat to any given villager repeatedly. If they like your pet (and you can tell if they do by their reaction), then just do it about 100 times. This is best done indoors.

Pluto - The hardest Sprite to unlock, hands down. If you have the patience, level the Milker up to 99; your cows will produce enough milk to unlock him in a reasonable time frame (but don't convert their milk into cheese or yogurt; only non-processed items count, though you are allowed to can them).