Friendships in Stardew

[LanternKnight]

So I'm a little bit confused on how friendships work. Some people can have more hearts than other due to them being able to be romanceable, that I got now. But I also read something on a lock on the hearts once you've reached a certain point (I believe it's 8 hearts?) where if you don't give them a gift daily their friendship level won't decrease.

I can't really find this explained either in the game or on the wiki, so is there someone who could enlighten me on this?

[Maya-Neko]

Non-marriagable character will have 10 hearts as a maximum all the time

Marriage candidates on the other hand initially have 8 hearts and once you've one of these characters at 8 hearts, Pierre will sell a unique item, which you can gift to any marriage candidates at 8 hearts to unlock the last 2 hearts.

Once you've married someone, you can go on up to 14 hearts with them.

And to stop natural friendship decay you've to max out their hearts, which is 10 hearts for non-marriage candidates and marriage candidates, which you've given a Bouquet or 8 hearts for marriage candidates, which didn't receive one. Your spouse will always loose friendship over time, which can't be stopped by reaching 14 hearts.

And make sure to use the big stardew valley wiki as that is a littleibt more detailed than the fandom-wiki (though some languages might not be uptodate, at least german is still missing some translations). It's the one with the brown chicken as their browser tab-symbol, not the white one.

[red255]

yeah, 8 hearts for single people 10 hearts for regular people or dating, 14 hearts for your spouse, when you are capped they stay at max hearts no decay,

except your spouse, can decay, not sure the actual criteria, she seems to go down in hearts when I give gifts to single people or during the winter, maybe I need to install a heater and auto petter in the house.

I generally just plant some peach trees in the greenhouse and pass out peaches, iridium star peaches are almost as good as a loved gift and everyone likes tree fruit.

[Snowy Sprout]

Also about friendship, you should know that gifting is very important, especially on birthdays or Christmas. Also the Luau impacts friendship with everyone there.

Stars matter on gifts you give, giving bonus percentages. The wiki will tell you each person's favorite gifts, or the stuff they hate, but you could also just play it blind and learn as you go. If you click on someone's portrait in the social tab you'll see lists of their feelings about every gift you've given them so you can remember for next time.

FWIW, tree fruits are the only gift I can think of that are 100% liked by everyone.

If you're still not at max hearts by then, taking folks to see a movie with you is a great way to increase their friendship very quickly.

[LanternKnight]

Thank you for the replies everyone! This info helps out a lot!

[red255]

math wise a liked gift is 45 + 50% for iridium quality
a loved gift is 80, +50% for iridium quality
score x5 and x8 for christmas and birthdays I think

250 is a heart

you get I think 200 points from filling a quest near pierres board. bunch of points from the luau event and the bulletin board in the community center.

but yeah 67.5 for an iridium star tree fruit vs 80 for a regular quality loved gift.