I'm not quite sure if I'm normal cuz I have a save file of almost 4 hours all quest completed that I could do (ep. 5) and I have 250+ shells.
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I know but it took me from waking up in the jungle to that point almost 4 hours and I had to grind at least 150+ Schell's for the quests. My grindpath was help Tara, help Mary and go fishing after that was night and I repeated that way untill I had enough. I also sold the emerald I found in the ruins.