Catching Legend Spring 10 Year 1

[Nari]

Theoretically you can catch Legend as early as Day 7 if it happens to be raining and you eat a Trout Soup to boost your effective Fishing level to 10. But catching it is such a pain even with Fishing 11. Therefore, I repeatedly refined my playthroughs of the first 10 days of the game until I managed to catch several Legends on day 10 with Fishing 13. This was my strategy:

Day 1 --- Initial Preparation
Mine enough rocks for 99 mining experience (74 rocks/5 coal or 69 rocks/6 coal).
Chop 4 trees and their stumps down for 52 foraging experience.
Build a chest and put everything else you have left over into it.
Forage 6 things (not spring onions) for 42 foraging experience.
Scythe and collect as many weeds as you can before bed time.
Throw everything that will sell into the shipping bin (no mixed seeds / trash).

Day 2 --- Basic Rod
Put everything in chest, check mail for letter from Willy.
Head to Fishing Shack, fish until 9AM.
Sell all fish, buy as many trout soup as you can from Willy. (should be 4-6)
Head to Mountain Lake (where Mines are), head to lower right by fence.
When fishing always prioritize experience (perfect > treasure > neither)
Eat trout soup and fish until 2AM (eat more when buff wears off, up to 3 total)
You should ding Fishing 3 (or very close)

Day 3 --- Fiberglass Rod
Throw everything that will sell into the shipping bin (no mixed seeds / trash).
Put everything in chest that is not Fishing Rod or trout soup or fish.
Head to Fishing Shack, fish until 9AM.
Sell just enough fish (standard quality first) to buy Fiberglass rod and 80+ bait.
Head to Mountain Lake (where Mines are), head to lower right by fence.
Eat trout soup and fish until 2AM. (eat more when buff wears off, up to 3 total)
Prioritize experience (perfect > treasure > neither)
You should ding Fishing 5. Pick Fisher specialization (important to reach this level)

Day 4 --- Potato Seeds
Put everything in chest that is not Fishing Rod or algae or fish.
Head to Fishing Shack, fish until 9AM.
Sell just enough fish (standard quality first) to have 240+ bait and have 800g left.
Go to Pierre's and buy 16 potato seeds.
Hoe/water/plant 16 potato seeds at your farm.
Head to Mountain Lake (path up behind your farm towards Linus' tent is fastest).
Fish until 2AM. If you need energy, eat (cola > algae > higher quality chub > chub)
You should ding Fishing 6 (important to reach this level)

Day 5 --- Only Fishing
Water potato plants.
Put everything in chest that is not Fishing Rod or algae.
Head to Mountain Lake (path up behind your farm towards Linus' tent is fastest).
Fish until 2AM. If you need energy, eat (cola > algae > higher quality chub > chub)
You should ding Fishing 7 (important to reach this level)

Day 6 --- Only Fishing
Water potato plants.
Put everything in chest that is not Fishing Rod or algae.
Throw everything that will sell into the shipping bin (no mixed seeds / trash).
Head to Mountain Lake (path up behind your farm towards Linus' tent is fastest).
Fish until 2AM. If you need energy, eat (cola > algae > higher quality chub > chub)
You should ding Fishing 8 (important to reach this level)

Day 7 --- Upgrade House
Water potato plants.
Put everything in chest that is not Fishing Rod or algae or fish.
Head to Fishing Shack, fish until 9AM.
Sell enough fish (standard quality first) to have 160+ bait and have 14500g left over.
Go to Robin's Carpenter Shop. Buy 450 Wood. Buy House Upgrade.
Head to Mountain Lake
Fish until 2AM. If you need energy, eat (cola > algae > higher quality chub > chub)
You should ding Fishing 9 (important to reach this level)

Day 8 --- Only Fishing
Throw everything that will sell into the shipping bin (no mixed seeds / trash).
Water potato plants.
Put everything in chest that is not Fishing Rod or algae.
Head to Mountain Lake, pick up a single forage item on the way to level Foraging to 1.
Fish until 2AM. If you need energy, eat (cola > algae > higher quality chub > chub)
You MAY ding Fishing 10 (unlikely)

Day 9 --- Final Preparation
If you want to farm Legend *specifically* on Day 10, you may have to replay Day 8.
(Until the Weather Forecast on Day 9 predicts rain.)
Save files are at: \AppData\Roaming\StardewValley\Saves\

Water potato plants.
Mine a single rock to level Mining to 1.
Put everything in chest that is not Fishing Rod or algae or fish.
Head to Fishing Shack, fish until 11AM. Hold onto sardines.
Sell enough fish for: iridium rod, 4 trap bobber, 160+ bait and have 1050g left over.
Buy 4 oil from Pierre's. Buy Hashbrown recipe from saloon.
Fish (without bobbers) in ocean until 2AM, important to get at least 8 sardines total.
You will (need to) ding Fishing 10.

Day 10 --- Farm Legend (assuming rainy day)
Harvest potatoes.
Cook 4 hashbrown in kitchen. Cook 4 Dish o' the Sea. Equip Trap Bobbers.
Head to Mountain Lake, eat Dish o' the Sea to temporarily get Fishing Level 13.
Fish for Legend until 2AM, eating more Dish o' the Sea when the buff wears off.

Note 1: If you are shooting for a dancing partner for the first Flower Dance (like I was) then I recommend Haley, as her birthday is on the 14th (making a gift worth 8x) which means you can afford to ignore her until day 11. Make sure two of the forage items in week 1 are daffodils (if you can't find both on day 1, then it's fine to just forage 4 items on day 1 and pick up the other 2 daffodils during the next several days). You'll want to talk to her and then give her the daffodils at least two times by the 6th. I recommend Day 1 (since you're not giving up Fishing experience) and Day 4 (since you're burning time anyway planting seeds, and Haley doesn't leave her room until about 11AM)

Note 2: If you're shooting for Year 1 Community Center (like I was), remember to plant cauliflower/bean/parsnip before day 16. (Technically you can wait till 18 for bean and 24 for parsnip.) You technically don't need parsnips to complete the Quality Crops bundle so don't stress it if you can't get 5 gold quality ones.

Note 3: If you're shooting for Year 1 Master Fisherman (like I was), every fish available in Spring is also available throughout the rest of the year (except Legend) so don't stress it if you are too busy with spelunking/farming/socializing until midsummer.

[dalgo]

Wow. That is an impressive plan. I do intend to attempt to catch the Legend early in my next game myself, but in my case I will just be aiming for Year 1, not Day 10! I will certainly book mark this post and use it as a guide though.

What map are you using. I guess it doesn't matter as you are fishing in the Mountain lake but would the Riverland map be of any help?

What is the importance of the exact timing for Mining 1 and Foraging 1?

[Nari]

I was using the Forest Map because I find every other map to be counterproductive, as I don't ever find I have the need for more than 128 crop spaces before I get the greenhouse. Theoretically any map would work though.

(Hilltop and Riverlands do not have 13 x 13 spaces in front of your house for farming, and I usually like making four squares of 6x6 (for perfect symmetrical placement with a scarecrow in the exact middle, with 16 quality sprinklers which you can get relatively early in the game.)

Plus, I like having early access to Hardwood for the stable/horse, and extra seeds and forage items. Also, you can fish the Woodskip out of your pond (you usually need to access the secret woods to do so).

When you level up any skill, you regain all energy the next day, unless the only level-up you gained that day was a specialization level (so from 4 to 5 or 9 to 10). Usually this doesn't matter if you go to bed on time, but since you're passing out at 2am, you'd normally wake up with ~10% energy. But since you're gaining a level in fishing every day, you instead wake up with full energy. On day 8/9/10 however, you're not gaining any non-specialization levels, so instead you can level up foraging/mining/farming on those days with a minimal time investment. (Harvesting 8 potatoes dings you Farming 1.) Theoretically you could just eat 6-7 quality chubs and take the ~550g loss each time.

[carl8000]

"When you level up any skill, you regain all energy the next day, unless the only level-up you gained that day was a specialization level (so from 4 to 5 or 9 to 10)"

Interesting fact, had no idea

[dalgo]

Originally posted by carl8000:

"When you level up any skill, you regain all energy the next day, unless the only level-up you gained that day was a specialization level (so from 4 to 5 or 9 to 10)"

Interesting fact, had no idea

I didn't know that either

MetalFlower - You don't mention buying the upgraded backpack, so how do you manage your inventory. Fishing all day plus treasure chests must fill it up pretty quickly.

[Nari]

You get 12 slots total, and when I leave in the morning, I dump everything in the chest except for the fishing rod and algae, which leaves 10 slots. (Trout soup the first couple of days, but it's usually all gone by the time space becomes a problem.)

Since there's only 4 types of fish that can be caught, that will be at most going to be 8 slots occupied by fish (when it's a mix of two quality levels) and often times only 4 slots occupied (especially once you start catching gold reliably). Since Day 2 fishing is without bait, your bite rate is much lower and you probably won't find that many treasure items. Day 3 fishing with trout soup should boost your Fishing level to 4+, at which point you should almost never be catching normal quality fish anymore. (And you can prioritize eating these if you have like, one or two normal quality fish and you're only ever catching silver now.)

That leaves at least 2 slots (or 3 if I find something valuable enough to toss the algae for) minimum for loot. If it's garbage (glasses, CD, newspaper, trash, driftwood, cola) it gets highest priority for being thrown away (or drank). If it's something like wood or stone, that's secondary priority for being thrown away. If it's coal or ore, that's third priority. Bait just gets added onto the rod every time it appears.

I generally don't have to deal with THAT many chests though, because I'm always pushing super hard for a perfect (for bonus xp) instead of a chest (dinging Fishing every day is important).

On days I need to visit the Fishing Shack to offload some fish, I'll sell the ocean fish I caught that morning first, followed by the lowest quality of each type of fish next. Because it doesn't make a difference for inventory purposes if you are carrying around 1 gold-quality chub versus 67 gold-quality chub, if the rest of the day is going to consist of you catching the same type of fish.

Edit 1: You can totally buy the backpack upgrade if you have enough cash left over on day 9, which you probably will.

Edit 2: Now that I've got this down I am not sure what challenge to attempt from here. Maybe Desert Access + 16 quality sprinklers and 384 starfruit seeds and 384 delux-gro by Summer 1? (128 plots x 3 harvests = 384 starfruit; Delux-Gro lets you harvest 3 starfruit from a single plot in a single summer). I'd probably need to catch 4 legends on 2 days to make that happen... I could try and coincide this with Farming 10 by Fall 1... it'd be nice to unlock the millionaire achievement by Fall though...

[dalgo]

I'd just like to say thank you for this excellent thread. In my latest game I followed your schedule as closely as I could and enjoyed it immensely. I wasn't quite as proficient in gaining fishing experience and lost a day on the way through but still achieved level 10 on day 11. So I could have tried for the Legend that day if it had been raining. In fact the next rainy day was the 14th and I caught the Legend on my first attempt (must have been all that practise).

[Nari]

You're quite welcome! I'm currently working a plan that uses this as a springboard to have a greenhouse full of mature ancient fruit plants by the last day of Year 1

[childcrone]

Wowee MetalFlower, this represents so much dedicated play and work! Beautiful, and thank you.

And dalgo, well done!

[Kazuli]

If this is a guide, why put it in the discussion tab and not the guides tab on steam? considering its in front of the steam overlay when you first pop it up, this should really go there instead.

[Too lazy to choose a name]

Originally posted by MetalFlower:

Theoretically you can catch Legend as early as Day 7 if it happens to be raining and you eat a Trout Soup to boost your effective Fishing level to 10. But catching it is such a pain even with Fishing 11. Therefore, I repeatedly refined my playthroughs of the first 10 days of the game until I managed to catch several Legends on day 10 with Fishing 13. This was my strategy:

Find out this when search on google.
Thanks a lot.
This is really a nice and detail program.
However, I want to catch Legend earlier for those experience.
Maybe I can plant 4 or 8 potatoes when day 1 ?

[Dragonliche]

You can probably still abuse the quest log, which pauses time while fishing continues and when you hear the bite sound you close quest log and catch it.

[dalgo]

Originally posted by red255:

I'm not sure the goal of catching legend Spring Year 1.

the guide is lacking fishing needed per day to make your goals. you need 5000 fishing XP to get from 9 to 10.

we are starting day 10 with fishing 10, which means we got 15000 fishing XP in 8 days. which is close to 2000 fishing XP per day.

how many fish are you catching per day? what fish are you catching per day? glancing its 15-25 XP per fish no? so 75 fish per day, is not something you can just guide gloss over.

if you spend an hour walking to the fishing spot and fish for 19 hours catching a fish every 20 minutes worth 25 XP thats 1425 XP. and we are shooting for 2000 a day?

don't just gloss over that.

From my notes, when I reached fishing 10 in 11 days I caught about 450 fish in total. My best day was day 10 when I fished the beach for 50 fish, all but 4 either 'perfect' or with a treasure chest. That was without reloading the day. The key is to get the experience boost from those 'perfect' catches.

[Too lazy to choose a name]

Perfect catch: 2.4
Treasure chest: 2.2
Legendary fish: 5

And these multiplications stack !!!

Which means, catching a gold star Carp earn you 13 XP,
catching a perfect Carp(gold star) with treasure chest would earn you
13 * 2.2 = 28.6 (truncated to 28) XP, then 28 * 2.4 = 67.2 (truncated to 67) XP.
(All from the Stardew Valley Wiki)

======================================
Day 1 profram, not finished:
(1)Foraging lv1, chop down at least 8~12 trees, plant 4 potatoes.
It depends on much energy left, If I got many onion, I can chop more than 12 trees.

(2)Clear one way to the north side, and another way to the south side.

(3)Pick up every foraging stuff I can get.

Go to bed before 2:00 AM, 1:50 AM is ok.
(Because I want more wood to craft one more chest,
I need become foraging lv2 when day 8-10, which means 380 XP for foraging.
chop down 32 trees, or pick up 55foraging stuff)
======================================
Day 2, need become fishing level 2, earn as much money as possible,
(need 1800 to buy the glass fiber rod and 200+ to buy some bait when day 3)
Go to bed before 2:00 AM so I can sold something

[Too lazy to choose a name]

Dish of The Sea provides +3 fishing skill buff.
So, if you are fishing level 9 when day 10.
Eat Dish of The Sea and become fishing level 9+3.
Now you can catch the Legend.
And one gold star Legend provide 1000+ XP....
So, you can catch the Legend when day 10, (maybe need some load to practice)
and you have chance to become fishing level 10 when day 10.
Sorry for my terrible English.

[JC]

that is some crazy power gaming strat.. Cool job figuring it out.. Personally i like to farm, and my goal in my current game was to gather enough money for 100 strawberries for the next spring. The rest of my summer is collecting some easy cash through farming and digging deep into the mines so i can set up sprinklers for my spring strawberries!

(though with patch 1.4 coming i might just wait for that and start over, It is a busy early spring to get enough cash for all those berries :)