New player with some questions about the villagers

[Nathan]

So I just started playing stardew today, went through the first in game week which led me to notice most of the villagers (if thats what people call them), slowly started disliking me. The first 2 times I talked to someone they would say something along the lines of "Oh hey, youre that new kid, welcome to town"
But throughout the week and the more I talked to them everyone seemed to go from happy to see me to "What are you looking at?" and "What do you want from me?"

Is that normal? And how do I get people to like me more?

[Vitamin C]

some of them just sound grumpy, you can gift them items to increase friendship levels.

Here's a link to what they like, i guess it can be kinda spoilery if u want to guess what each one prefers yourself

https://stardewcommunitywiki.com/Friendship#Universal_Likes

*only 1 gift per day and a huge multiplier on their birthday which u can see on pierres (guy that sells seeds)shop calendar

[Nathan]

Publicado originalmente por Vitamin C:

some of them just sound grumpy, you can gift them items to increase friendship levels.

Here's a link to what they like, i guess it can be kinda spoilery if u want to guess what each one prefers yourself

https://stardewcommunitywiki.com/Friendship#Universal_Likes

Yeah I did notice its mainly the male characters who just ignore you, I assume thats something with their personality. For those gifts, does it ruin your "reputation" if you give them a gift they dont like? I'd prefer not to spoil myself with the gift list you linked but if me giving them some bad gifts makes them dislike me forever that would suck too

[funewchie]

Talking to them increases your friendship with them.

But you also get bigger boosts by giving them gifts (though you're limited to 2 gifts a week for each person).
Everyone has different things they love, but a lot of them have universal likes.

Also doing quests on the board at Pierre's gives a boost to friendship as well.

[funewchie]

Publicado originalmente por Nathan:

Publicado originalmente por Vitamin C:

some of them just sound grumpy, you can gift them items to increase friendship levels.

Here's a link to what they like, i guess it can be kinda spoilery if u want to guess what each one prefers yourself

Yeah I did notice its mainly the male characters who just ignore you, I assume thats something with their personality. For those gifts, does it ruin your "reputation" if you give them a gift they dont like? I'd prefer not to spoil myself with the gift list you linked but if me giving them some bad gifts makes them dislike me forever that would suck too

Um, Vitamin, you didn't need to give a spoiler-y list like that.
If he'd asked for one, then sure.
------

And yes, giving gifts they don't like reduces their friendship. I mean, it's not forever, you just lose friendship points with that person.

[Vitamin C]

Publicado originalmente por Nathan:

Publicado originalmente por Vitamin C:

some of them just sound grumpy, you can gift them items to increase friendship levels.

Here's a link to what they like, i guess it can be kinda spoilery if u want to guess what each one prefers yourself

https://stardewcommunitywiki.com/Friendship#Universal_Likes

Yeah I did notice its mainly the male characters who just ignore you, I assume thats something with their personality. For those gifts, does it ruin your "reputation" if you give them a gift they dont like? I'd prefer not to spoil myself with the gift list you linked but if me giving them some bad gifts makes them dislike me forever that would suck too

haha yh theres a few items they dont like or hate but its easy to raise back up like it wont ruin your friend level

[funewchie]

Oh, I should mention, as of 1.4, the game now tracks your knowledge of each person's likes, loves, and dislikes.
(On the main menu, in the friendship section (the heart), clicking on a person reveals what you know about them).
Which makes it a lot easier for you to recall what each one wants.

[Nathan]

Publicado originalmente por funewchie:

Talking to them increases your friendship with them.

But you also get bigger boosts by giving them gifts (though you're limited to 2 gifts a week for each person).
Everyone has different things they love, but a lot of them have universal likes.

Also doing quests on the board at Pierre's gives a boost to friendship as well.

Couple more questions:
- Talking to them increases friendship, is that also the case when they just say "What do you want from me?" or if someone is ignoring you?
- The 2 gifts can be seen at the social menu right? The one where it also displays the hearts
- What does it mean that some people on that board have 2 less hearts? (Some have 2 grey ones)

[I Kinda Fail]

Well, most people are polite to new people. After that, they're pretty neutral. Most of them aren't downright rude, but a few like Shane start out pretty rude.

I don't know the exact values, but the friendship in this game has a point system. So talking to someone gives +20 points, and giving a gift they like gives +80 points. Every 200 points or so, you go up 1 heart. Every 2 hearts, their dialogue typically changes. For example, Haley will go from "Ew. Your shoes are dirty." to "Hmm... What should I do today?" Shane will go from "Why are you talking to me?" to complaining about his job, or expressing surprise you're still trying to befriend him.

If you want to ease into it, then a few more friendly villagers are... Robin the carpenter, Evelyn the grandma, Emily the barmaid, Leah the artist, Sam the skater kid, Maru the science whiz, Linus the homeless man... They're all pretty friendly at the start.

Once you befriend someone, sometimes when you talk to them, they'll offer advice about befriending others. Evelyn will say "Did you know my husband George loves 'Leeks'? He thinks they're great!" Then if you give George a leek, it's a loved item, so he'll get roughly half a heart from that 1 gift. So every 2-3 leeks, he'll like you more and more.

If you want to do it the easy way... Just watch for their birthdays on the calendar near the general store, and give them something you think they'll like; birthday presents give 3x the point value. Most people like food, gems and flowers, as long as there's nothing wrong with them... Like poppies are poisonous flowers, so most people hate them. Bread is bland, so nobody's thrilled to get it, but some people might be extremely happy if you bring them some pizza or a fresh salad.

You CAN just talk to people, no gifting required. But it'll take roughly 1 season of talking to reach the next friendship level. The best way to do this is to wait for people to congregate. Every Friday, about half the town goes to the Saloon. Every Tuesday, a handful of the town's ladies exercise in Pierre's shop. On holidays, the entire town is in the same area, so you can chat everyone up easily.

Finally... The game tracks gifts you've tried. Check your "Social" tab to view presents you've gifted and how that NPC reacted. Or you can wait for Winter, where a special event happens that will indirectly tell you everyone's favorite gifts. (You'll find grocery lists, diary pages and such.) Finally, part of repairing the Community Center (which takes a long time!) gives you like... +2 or +3 hearts with everyone in town.

So... to make things easy on yourself, try just talking to anyone you see as you walk around. Always gift on their birthday. Early game, cheap gifts might be something like a potato, an amethyst, or a daffodil. People will be upset if you give them random garbage like broken glasses or raw fish or clay. Visit Pierre's on Tuesday, and the Saloon on Friday night, if you want to give out generic gifts to a large crowd. But there's no real rush. You get -2 points per day if you ignore an NPC, so as long as you talk to them once every 2 weeks, there'll be no change to your friendship... and it'll take like, a year of ignoring them to even lose 1 heart. Don't rush it!

[I Kinda Fail]

Publicado originalmente por Nathan:

Publicado originalmente por funewchie:

Talking to them increases your friendship with them.

But you also get bigger boosts by giving them gifts (though you're limited to 2 gifts a week for each person).
Everyone has different things they love, but a lot of them have universal likes.

Also doing quests on the board at Pierre's gives a boost to friendship as well.

Couple more questions:
- Talking to them increases friendship, is that also the case when they just say "What do you want from me?" or if someone is ignoring you?
- The 2 gifts can be seen at the social menu right? The one where it also displays the hearts
- What does it mean that some people on that board have 2 less hearts? (Some have 2 grey ones)

1. Talking to them normally gives +20 friendship. During an event, or when they're busy ("Haley is ignoring you." or "Haley is using her camera.") will give +10 friendship.
2. Yes. If you give 2 gifts in a week, then it's their birthday, you can even give them a 3rd gift. But otherwise, 2 per week tops.
3. Those are bachelors. They'll have "Single" next to their name. Every 2 hearts, you get a cutscene with them, expanding your relationship. At 8 hearts, you're considered best friends. If you give them a bouquet, the last 2 hearts will unlock, as you're now dating them. The 10 heart cutscene for bachelors is exclusively romantic, so don't be handing out bouquets to anyone you don't want kissing you.

Side note: Getting an NPC to 10 hearts means their friendship will never decay. (The -2 points per day.) For bachelors, this maxes out at 8 hearts. (Because some people insist on dating everyone, because they think otherwise the friendship will decay I guess?)

[funewchie]

Publicado originalmente por Nathan:

Publicado originalmente por funewchie:

Talking to them increases your friendship with them.

But you also get bigger boosts by giving them gifts (though you're limited to 2 gifts a week for each person).
Everyone has different things they love, but a lot of them have universal likes.

Also doing quests on the board at Pierre's gives a boost to friendship as well.

Couple more questions:
- Talking to them increases friendship, is that also the case when they just say "What do you want from me?" or if someone is ignoring you?
- The 2 gifts can be seen at the social menu right? The one where it also displays the hearts
- What does it mean that some people on that board have 2 less hearts? (Some have 2 grey ones)

Yes, talking to them will boost your friendship, even if they're saying "what do you want?". Some villagers are just a bit abrasive (like Shane).
As of 1.4 (or maybe 1.5), the social menu now gives a check mark if you've spoken with the person that day.

And yes, that's what the social menu is showing for the 2 gifts. If you try to give them more gifts that week, the game will stop you ("You've given them enough gifts for now"), with the exception of if it's their birthday.

The 2 gray hearts is strictly for the bachelors and bachelorettes (the ones marked "single").
Once you have enough friendship points with them, you can eventually give them an item to enter a romantic relationship with them (which unlocks the last two hearts for you to fill).
Filling those allows the opportunity to marry that person.

[Nathan]

Thanks everyone for the great help :D

[Shamanalah]

Publicado originalmente por Nathan:

Thanks everyone for the great help :D

What's great about building friendship with them is that they give you recipe that can't be unlocked elsewhere on top of sending you mail with free stuff.

I spent my first few files without talking to anyone because I usually dislike dialogue (I still do) but talking to them is really useful overall.

[milljd]

To piggyback on this, what does the speech bubble icon on the friendship menu actually mean? And what is the significance of the two check boxes under the gift box? Is this something to do with the season you're in? I've spoken to everyone in town over the course of my time playing but only some boxes are checked.

[Nathan]

Publicado originalmente por milljd:

To piggyback on this, what does the speech bubble icon on the friendship menu actually mean? And what is the significance of the two check boxes under the gift box? Is this something to do with the season you're in? I've spoken to everyone in town over the course of my time playing but only some boxes are checked.

FYI this is a year old thread, not sure how you found this, but the chat bubble indicates who you've talked to during that specific day, the gift icons show who you've gifted a gift that week (you can only gift a villager 2 gifts a week, hence the 2 boxes)

[NBOX21]

Publicado originalmente por milljd:

To piggyback on this, what does the speech bubble icon on the friendship menu actually mean?

That indicates whether you've talked to that character at least once on the current day or not. A green X indicates that you've spoken to them for the day already, which is actually a good indicator that you're slowly but surely building up your relationship with that NPC.

And what is the significance of the two check boxes under the gift box?

Those indicate whether you've given gifts to those characters for the current week or not. You can only give one gift to an NPC per day, and up to 2 per week. If both boxes are marked with an X, you've already given them 2 gifts. These boxes reset every Sunday.

The only exception to this is your spouse, who you can give as many gifts per week as you want though you're still limited to one per day.