How do you play this game?

[N o d l]

Feels weird to ask but never actually sat down and just played this type of game properly before, I've played it in the past for maybe n hour or 2 at most each time but no idea what I'm suppose to do or anything but this is also more animal crossing type of game aka opposite of what I play.

Feels weird asking but hope that makes sense, Thanks :)

[Raraldor]

So this game is highly advertised as a "farming sim" and while it's not entirely wrong, it's more of a time management game in disguise.

Basically you manage your time each day, but what you do both matters and doesn't matter at the same time. You can sleep for 10 years and you'll be in the exact same spot as when you started. At the same time there are certain things, like fishing, where weather conditions, seasons, or time of day effect what you are able to accomplish. You can min-max this game to hell and back, or you can just check out the calendar and give birthday gifts, fish for the community center, and have a tiny farm that gets the job done.

Personally I have a mental checklist of things that should be done when the exact conditions are met. However, if I'm already trying to grind for a different goal I couldn't care less if I let this chance slip by. If you try and achieve things like a first year community center completion on your first playthrough you are doing yourself a disservice in my opinion.

While I hate the term "cozy" being applied to these types of games, it's definitely a relaxing ride that you take at your own pace.

[BirbNotBird]

Those types of games like Stardew Valley are really challenging to be fair. Planning and stuff cost a lot.

This game I think it's similar to Factorio. You slowly figure out the gameplay with each time passing by.

There is no punishment by missing tbf, beside well, you take a long time to get something.

Well my advice is actively explore the layout of the map, try to grasp the direction you want to play.

[N o d l]

Originally posted by Raraldor:

So this game is highly advertised as a "farming sim" and while it's not entirely wrong, it's more of a time management game in disguise.

Basically you manage your time each day, but what you do both matters and doesn't matter at the same time. You can sleep for 10 years and you'll be in the exact same spot as when you started. At the same time there are certain things, like fishing, where weather conditions, seasons, or time of day effect what you are able to accomplish. You can min-max this game to hell and back, or you can just check out the calendar and give birthday gifts, fish for the community center, and have a tiny farm that gets the job done.

Personally I have a mental checklist of things that should be done when the exact conditions are met. However, if I'm already trying to grind for a different goal I couldn't care less if I let this chance slip by. If you try and achieve things like a first year community center completion on your first playthrough you are doing yourself a disservice in my opinion.

While I hate the term "cozy" being applied to these types of games, it's definitely a relaxing ride that you take at your own pace.

I'm interested in a cozy game to turn your brain off and relax after life got very difficult.

Sorry to be a bother with asking more questions and such after such a great answer but do you basically farm or do you walk around ect ect.

There is so much to do yet so hard to know what to do or what you can do ect. Thanks :)

[Raraldor]

Originally posted by Nodl:

I'm interested in a cozy game to turn your brain off and relax after life got very difficult.

Sorry to be a bother with asking more questions and such after such a great answer but do you basically farm or do you walk around ect ect.

There is so much to do yet so hard to know what to do or what you can do ect. Thanks :)

It's hard to really give an example as to what I do day by day, but in general I like to keep my farm at a manageable state where I can water or hoe everything without using my entire energy bar. Then I either go to the mines, fish, or take care of errands like processing geodes, upgrading tools, or checking out the board in front of Pierre's. Things like the weather and season dictate my priorities (for instance, if it's raining today I may put fishing over mining because there may be a fish that only appears when it's raining).

I check the calendar pretty often, and always save 5 of whatever crop I grow just in case the townsfolk need it for a quest. Helping them out is a fun little distraction and you do actually get rewarded for it if you keep up with it.

Edit: as for "what to do or what you can do", I recommend paying attention to your crafting list, I remember clicking through my level ups on my first playthrough without really knowing what I just unlocked, but there is some good stuff in there that you can utilize. For instance you eventually get the ability to collect tree sap, make mayonnaise and cheese, among other things that I basically ignored because I tunnel visioned and focused solely on crops.

[Maya-Neko]

I just wake up in the morning, water my crops and caring for my animals and then i decide on the fly, what i want to do on that day. There's not really that much more to it.

It's mostly a sandbox game, so there aren't really any long term penalties for not doing something.

[Útost Alronbem]

All goals are reachable.
Aside of VERY few mutually exclusive choices (notably, starting farm type and giving in / not giving in to Joja) and legendary fish (damn, I hate fishing in vidoegames so damn much!), everything is doable and have reasonable requirements.
Especially in v1.6 update where you can FINALLY skip consulting with third party sites on topic of finding these blasted remaining walnuts. Which was probably the only 100% annoying thing pre update. #thanksdevelopers #ididntknewineeditbutineedit

There is no wrong way to play Stardew Valley, for real this time.
On my first playthrough I chose to reach maximum prosperity, got family bonds with strongest family in town (j/k, all families are strong, for different reasons) and called it a happy ending :) I don't need Perfection if I have cash, house and hottest wife in town :)
And the game is OK with that :)

For this playthrough, I'm aiming for drowning the country with most affordable potato broth ever... and then probably a Perfection. Mr Qi would probably not approve this - but as a whole the game is OK with that too :)

All aspects of the game are carefully intertwined with each other, so even if you hyperfocus on something, or completely disregard something for some time, you're still progressing somewhere in other areas.
And some v1.6 update features have capitalized on this. Droprate of books which boost Fishing skill from non-Fishing sources is good so by time I'd finally decide to participate in this, I will be skilled enough anyway :)

[Endora]

If you're bad at fishing you can try the practice rod that gives you some fishing levels in echange for not catching high-quality fishes - who needs high-quality at the begining anyway?

But yes, as well said above, you do what you want to do.
Want to complete the Comunity Center? That's the most chalenging option but it's fun to do it.
Whant to side with Joja and only spend money? That's ok too.
Don't want to do any of them and just be a farmer or a fisher or a miner? Go for it.
You can be be most loved person in town, or just ignore all of them except the ones that gives you the recipe you want.
The game won't punnish you in any of your choices, just something will be a bit longer to reach.
Just don't do like me... when I have so many animals/crops/machines that can't even go out the farm on harvest days... It tooks all the fun away, so I usually abandon the save and start again.

[Cheato1]

To give an idea of some of the insanity that min maxing in this game can bring id recommend checking out some youtube videos, some like all hats year 1, community center in year 1, perfection in 1 year starting year 2 etc. Those can show you some of the goals that the game has to reach. Either that or the main 3 goals: 1. Community Center, 2. Willy's not so Side Quest, 3. Perfection.

[Včelí medvídek]

The major suggestion I can give for beginning is to keep watch on time you spend on care/watering your crop 9and animals eventually) and dont overdo planting new crop or getting new animals. Probably "optimal' is to set some time till when you want have all crops watered/stuff on farm cared of (eg 10-12 am) so you have rest of day for other activities.. if you will spend every day to 3 pm by watering becuase you planted too much, you may find it unbearable and frustrating to catch up with other things.

[Psycho]

the further you get along in the game the more things start to open up one after another

[Útost Alronbem]

Originally posted by Endora:

who needs high-quality at the begining anyway?

Training Rod's wording is ambiguous af.
Wiki sez it's useless for players with effective skill level 5 and above.
Also wiki sez that using it would deny player from obtaining fish with catch difficulty above some treshold (and that's alot of species). So it's twice as useless for people who didn't sided with Joja.

Originally posted by Endora:

If you're bad at fishing

What to do if fishing itself is badly implemented?
I don't like Cult of the Lamb for variety of reasons and their latest updates are mostly ♥♥♥♥♥ - but the recently implemented option to cut the ♥♥♥♥ out of fishing minigame is the right thing they did, I respect that.
Maybe I'll gather my wits and make a mod which will do so for SV. I genuinely hate minigames which break the pacing of main game while being mandatory for intended progression...

[Kayette]

The beauty of Stardew Valley is that you can chose what you spend your time and money on. Yes, there are specific quests and things to do to progress but you can do them at your own pace, mostly. You learn as you go; with many surprises or discoveries to make (if you don't read up all about everything that is!)

[Crater]

I play min max style since 1.4.

I just got to the desert in time for the desert festival so I'm pretty hyped with this run right now.

[Call Sign: Raven]

Just play at your own pace.

[pisceschick]

Originally posted by Nodl:

I'm interested in a cozy game to turn your brain off and relax after life got very difficult.

Sorry to be a bother with asking more questions and such after such a great answer but do you basically farm or do you walk around ect ect.

There is so much to do yet so hard to know what to do or what you can do ect. Thanks :)

Hi! I want to gently disagree with the other poster in that I think this is absolutely a cozy game. For myself, it meets the requirements of what you're wanting, but a lot of us have played the game enough that we remember the ins and outs of how things work from prior playthroughs.

I wouldn't recommend watching a lot of YouTubers play, because a lot of them are speed runners and min/maxers which seriously stresses me out. Pay close attention to video descriptions, I guess. This isn't to say that there aren't a lot of fantastic YouTubers! There absolutely are, but that's what my experience has been.

When I started playing again last fall, I came across a YouTuber doing their first playthrough with the rule that they don't look anything up in the game's wiki. You could watch some of theirs to see early game play and maybe that would help you decide if it's for you?

Stardew Valley but I've never played before - Part 1

Good luck and please don't feel like you are bugging anybody. We were all new, once. If you use Reddit there's a great SDV subreddit, and I haven't used it yet myself but there's also a Discord.

P.S. Another cozy game that you might enjoy is called Cozy Grove, and there's also Terraria (I think that's how it's spelled) which is made by someone who has been friendly with Concerned Ape and has an item in this game with the recent update.