Stardew Valley's "obscure secret(s)"

[llefty]

This thread is intended to be a successor to this thread. Obviously, this one's probably gonna have a lot of spoilers.

READ THROUGH THE GOOGLE DOCUMENT BEFORE POSTING!

Google Document link[docs.google.com]
In an interview soon after Stardew Valley's release in February 2016, ConcernedApe (the developer of Stardew) stated that there was a weird and obscure secret that nobody had yet found.

Here is the part of the interview where the secret was discussed:

PCG: Finally, are there any secrets in the game that you haven't seen anyone find yet?
EB: Yes.
PCG: Yes?
EB: Yes.
PCG: And you're not going to tell me what that is, probably?
EB: No, I won’t tell you. [Laughs] I haven't told anyone.
PCG: Is it significant?
EB: It's not super significant, but it's kind of just so weird and obscure that I don't know if anyone will ever do it.

We don't know for certain what secret CA was referring to in that interview, even after nearly an entire year of searching. However, there are quite a few secrets the community has discovered, and there are sure to be more to find. The goal of this thread is to provide a place for secret hunters to coordinate their search.


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ALL LEADS, DEAD ENDS, AND USEFUL LINKS HAVE BEEN MOVED TO A GOOGLE DOCUMENT! Please read it before posting so you have an idea of what's going on.

Google Document link[docs.google.com]

GOOGLE DOCUMENT UPDATED JAN 25 2017

If you have a suggestion for an edit/addition, please make a comment on the document's page. If you make a comment in this thread, all it does is clutter it up.
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Stardew Valley's Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/StardewValley/

February 14:
At the moment, it appears there are no more unfound secrets in Stardew Valley. DIG NameleSS1 asked ConcernedApe on Twitter, and that's basically the response he got. I'll update this with a link to that tweet when I can get it.

[Fluffyrox4]

Ok, so I went and checked out all of the heart events for the villagers, and I found a few things.

On Alex's four hearts evenot, you meet him by the dog house, and he the explains whyou he lives with his grandparents.

The wiki says, "He tells you that the reason he lives with his grandparents is because of his dad. His dad was an alcoholic and would verbally abuse Alex, calling him "worthless"."

Imagine if there was a way to meet his dad, or even if one of the villagers was secretly his dad. That would be interesting, and could lead to some really cool cutscenes.

I'll tell you if I find more.

[Manchen]

Has anyone seen the alien saucer fly buy on the days sold items review screen? It started to fly from the top right of the screen, right when I clicked OK.... I didn't get to try and click on it or anything.

[kathu]

Manchen님이 먼저 게시:

Has anyone seen the alien saucer fly buy on the days sold items review screen? It started to fly from the top right of the screen, right when I clicked OK.... I didn't get to try and click on it or anything.

I think it could be an easter egg, on Winter 24 you can see Santa. I do think Aliens will be more involved with this game however, the alien from the opening can be seen in Sam's room

[Eluketric]

Totaly just speculation here.
So we know of Yoba and the talk of a 11 day crop wich could be the gold pumpking and some talk about a Portal or something. What if its possible to grow a Tree in the town Square were the Circle is....it seems like a great place to put a tree...also some more speculation. What if its like james and the beanstalk as it talks about a place were the World is Visible?
To do something like this might envolve viewing certain scenes and reaching the end game and doing some unkown processes for Yoba...

Just putting it out their. Trying to figure this out is Killing me.

[Rythm]

ConcernedApe:

Possibly. The secrets that can be discovered by data-mining the decompiled code will all be found, I think. There are others that can't be found in that way, which is nice. But I wouldn't be surprised if people figured them all out eventually. Of course, new secrets could always find they way into the game in future updates...

was posted on reddit 21h ago

[Evanz111]

Rythm님이 먼저 게시:

ConcernedApe:

Possibly. The secrets that can be discovered by data-mining the decompiled code will all be found, I think. There are others that can't be found in that way, which is nice. But I wouldn't be surprised if people figured them all out eventually. Of course, new secrets could always find they way into the game in future updates...

was posted on reddit 21h ago

Evanz111님이 먼저 게시:

"Possibly. The secrets that can be discovered by data-mining the decompiled code will all be found, I think. There are others that can't be found in that way, which is nice. But I wouldn't be surprised if people figured them all out eventually. Of course, new secrets could always find they way into the game in future updates..." - from ConcernedApe in his Reddit AMA!

Good job at keeping up with the previous comments.

[hanehiko]

How the ♥♥♥♥ some secrets can not be found in decompiled code? What sort of secret is it then?

[frisky]

Hanehiko님이 먼저 게시:

How the ♥♥♥♥ some secrets can not be found in decompiled code? What sort of secret is it then?

Obfuscation is a powerful tool when one doesn't want to manually read & comprehend 10,000+ lines of possibly misleading code.

I made a somewhat lengthy post in one of the theory submissions on the subreddit....it was a longass post with SDB-incompatible markdown, so it's probably a lot easier to link it for readability:

https://www.reddit.com/r/StardewValley/comments/4atcqc/megathread_secret_hunting_spoilers_within/d147pw8

The tl;dr:

- HMTGF. Harvest Moon came to mind. I googled Harvest Moon T.G.F. T.G.F. could stand for The Gracious Few, a band that put out a song called Tredecim ... Tredecim means "13" in Roman Latin. Following points:

- /u/DubbleBro7 mentions an orange glow on the 13th of Winter

- Abigail has the closest birthday to the Harvest Moon at Fall 13th. Alex has the only other 13 bday: Summer 13th. Coincidentally they're both marriage candidates. What we have is a rumoured effect on Winter 13, birthdays in Fall and Summer...so that leaves Spring 13. Spring 13th, at 4:44, use the TV? Or Winter 13th in the Secret forest, with Duck Feathers? No! Professor Plum, in the Library with the Candlestick! If this works I'm buying everybody gold.

- /u/wedgie1 notes that clicking Ape's face on the splash screen makes the sound of a duck quacking. Duck Mayo is a secret item. We should investigate other clickable sounds (like the island or whatever on the minimap). These audio clues may be hints for other secret items; much like clicking the Lonely Stone on the minimap.

- There's an easter egg in the old Harvest Moon games; https://youtu.be/uX_i5-uB_HY?t=5m1s In HM:MFoMT, using the TV at 4:44pm causes flavour text to appear in the Japanese version and indefinitely reopens the text box in the US version. If Ape is privy to the Harvest Moon series, 4:44 may be an important time to do something with a TV, if he's chosen to directly pay homage. For what it's worth, Duck Feathers are ItemID 444. ItemID 440 (the closest gametime id) is Wool.

Note: ConcernedApe is a big fan of Harvest Moon. There may be an homage secret, relevant to 4:44 above, or any Harvest Moon easter egg for that matter.

[hanehiko]

frisky님이 먼저 게시:

lengthy stuff

While some points were informative and new for me, this does not answer my question =)

[Vargali]

Bixxewoschd님이 먼저 게시:

It could be a running gag, you know? Like "Removed Herobrine" in all the Minecraft patchnotes. Or the whole "What's in the box?" thingy from Five Night At Freddys.

waits for minecraft to actually add Herobrine ust to troll the gag......

Murasaki님이 먼저 게시:

I commented before that Yoba backwards is A Boy, and someone said "Perhaps Vincent is involved in some way... or it is a reference to some secret life that Grandpa had when he was a boy.... hmmm. Good observation." and I just noticed that if you hover over the house he lives it only says "Home of Jodi, Kent & Sam" (Even tho I'm in year 2, I don't know if it changes after Kent returning )

i think its more likely that Yoba is a play on Yoda.....just a thought mind you...

[frisky]

Hanehiko님이 먼저 게시:

frisky님이 먼저 게시:

lengthy stuff

While some points were informative and new for me, this does not answer my question =)

I answered your question first.

Obfuscation is a powerful tool when one doesn't want to manually read & comprehend 10,000+ lines of possibly misleading code.

*edit* re-word, sounded douchey.

*edit2* To elaborate: I am born on July 1st - search "July" bam, there's my birthday. In SV, the first two (technically #3 & 4) secrets were found this way, doStarpoint() method indicated exactly which items you needed and that they were to be used on a specific object...the object wasn't specifically referenced, but the combined efforts of the community took no time at all to find the boxes they required, reducing the angles of attack to find the secret from 1000's to 12~.

Obfuscated: I am born in the 2nd half of the year. The month of my birth is equal to the total months of the year minus the number of fingers on your hand. The day of my birth is equal to <half the number of months in the year> minus <all fingers & toes divided by the number of weeks in a month>. One could go even farther and intentionally obfuscate with redundant code: if it's a leap year, add an extra day to February (misleading the reader into thinking February, and that leap year is relevant) and allow "get.myBday" on that day. Or adding a method "myBday = getBirthDayAndMonth(29, 2)" that isn't used - again strictly for the purpose of misleading the reader.

Reading that in code form would be an insanely massive headache and can't be found simply by searching "1" or "July"; even if you knew beforehand what my birthday was, you would have to know exactly how the code is written to find it.

Add on the knowledge that decompiled code isn't a copy of the original, it's prone to redundancies and inaccuracies itself, obfuscation becomes even more powerful. If the objects or items aren't directly referenced with known possibilities, it's impossible to simply search the code, one must instead manually look for clues.

[CallmeM]

I dont know if this is a secret but there is a dino skeleton in the desert. When you click on it, a text pops up saying something like it is very thirsty. I have tried to give it beer or wine but nothing seems to work lol

[Thanatossa]

Emira님이 먼저 게시:

I dont know if this is a secret but there is a dino skeleton in the desert. When you click on it, a text pops up saying something like it is very thirsty. I have tried to give it beer or wine but nothing seems to work lol

It has nothing to do with the secret. Its connected to a well known questline... again.

[Sharchon]

Honestly, I'd prefer the OP be more detailed about what we know ISN'T it.

Kinda tired seeing new posts every day about the Galaxy Sword, or Mr. Qi's questline, or the sewers. It's all not relevant.

[hanehiko]

frisky님이 먼저 게시:

//pretty descriptive examples

Add on the knowledge that decompiled code isn't a copy of the original, it's prone to redundancies and inaccuracies itself, obfuscation becomes even more powerful. If the objects or items aren't directly referenced with known possibilities, it's impossible to simply search the code, one must instead manually look for clues.

But still, you can actually solve the task, but you'll spend a "bit" more time on it.

This doesn't mean you have no chance finding solution, which is opposite to "There are others that can't be found in that way, which is nice.".