Learning The Farming Craft

Here are some of the tips and tricks I've learned through trial and error while playing Stardew Valley! I hope you find these helpful in your farming experience and don't make the same mistakes I did when I first started playing.

The Basics

Stardew Valley is an amazing open farming rpg with a unique and well-made story line. However, at times it can feel stressful knowing what to do with your limited time in the game and how to effectively create the most successful and beautiful farm you can. I'll start off by explaining my interpretation of the game's mechanics and what your goals should be as you experience this amazing game for yourself, hopefully after reading this guide!

The lore of Stardew Valley begins when you are given a beautiful lot of farmland from your recently deceased grandfather. You move away from your boring office job and begin your journey as a novice farmer on your grandfather's old farm. You are cheerfully greeted by some of your wonderful neighbors in the local town, Pelican Town, and meet the mayor of your new home-- Mayor Lewis.

This can all be very exciting at first, as you take in this game's amazing indie graphics and thoughtful narration. But for some, this quickly fades as you start your world and the clock begins on your first day in the valley. Each day in Stardew Valley, you are given a limited amount of time to work on the development of your farm and accomplish any number of tasks you so wish. Not only can it be difficult to decide what you would like to do with all this time, it can be hard to know what crops or livestock you should buy first. In order to delineate some of this anxiety for your guys, I'll go over what I feel is the best way to approach your first 28 days of Spring.

Please remember that this is not the only way to play this game, nor do I believe it is the best approach to being successful in Stardew Valley, this is how I prefer to play the game and you may take this guide as you'd like.

See the next section of this guide to start reading!

Biggest Mistakes

Starting off strong, here is a list of what not to do on your first couple days of Stardew Valley!

1. Do not sell the 15 parsnips from Mayor Lewis on your first day!

A lot of people believe you will get more value out of selling the parsnips for extra cash to spend on more valuable crops your first day on your farm. While it is fair to note parsnips are a very basic crop and do not offer much gold return when selling them after harvest, they are very useful in gathering some valuable experience points in your farming skill, which will allow you to obtain level one in farming after you harvest your first 15 parsnips. This will come handy in later stages of the game when you want to craft high quality goods that can only be obtained once you have reached level 8 & 9 in farming. Most importantly though, you can craft scarecrows and basic fertilizer at level one which will allow you to increase the quality of your crops and scare away crows that want to eat up your profits and set you back in producing your desired crops.











2. Don't sell valuable resources like wood, sap, and acorns!

We all know from experience that money can be tight in your first year of Stardew Valley, it can be tempting to want to sell all the wood, stone, and ferns you can find after you begin clearing out the mess of a farm you find when you first start playing. But as many have made the mistake of doing, including myself, it is a huge mistake to sell off all the resources you gather from clearing out your farm! Most of the time, items that are not very valuable (or so one might assume are not) like sap and acorns do not sell for very much gold and often take up space in your inventory and storage chests. However, these items are very useful for crafting valuable resources like basic fertilizer and tasty field snacks that make saving those invaluable items worth the while. There are several other items like stone, coal, geodes, artifacts and forageable goods that will have later uses you will want to take advantage in later seasons of the game. Think before you sell or trash items you do not think you'll need!

Tip: You can collect up to eight unique scarecrows to fit the theme of your farm! My personal favorite is the dwarf scarecrow :)

3. Do not clear out all of the grass on your farm!

While it can be annoying seeing a huge patch of grass covering your precious farm soil, do not be so quick to get rid of it with your scythe! Grass comes especially valuable in later stages of the game once you've built a barn to house your farm animals. Destroying grass before you built a silo will not collect hay and thus makes it more expensive for you in the long term when you have to buy hay from Marnie's Ranch to feed your starving animals. Grass stops growing back in the winter and your animals will not produce product if you can not keep up with the cost to take care of them.



4. Do not ignore the community center!

The community bundles are one of the most time consuming tasks to complete in Stardew Valley, even some of the most experienced farmers struggle to complete it on their first year. While you are not expected to try and complete the Community Center as quickly as possible, it can be rewarding to set aside items you will need to tackle the bundles later into the game during your first or second year. If you're not sure which items you will need for each bundle, I highly recommend checking out the Stardew wiki or click on the community bundles icon in your inventory (it looks like a little tree)

Stardew Valley Wiki [stardewvalleywiki.com]

Tip: You can also go for the Jojo Mart route instead of the community center, I personally don't recommend it but you can explore the wiki for what Jojo Co. has to offer!

5. Do not go mining on days you have negative luck!

Each day in Stardew Valley, you can check how lucky your day will be through the fortune teller on your television. Some days you will be extremely lucky, which can greatly increase rare drops from foraging/searching trashcans. On other days, however, you will not be as lucky. There are 6 unique messages you can obtain from the fortune teller, each will have some impact on your rpg. It is advised on days you will not be as lucky to avoid exploring the cave, located on the top right corner of the map, it will be very slow mining and you will not find any valuable resources that day. Consider doing a different trade that day to earn money, like fishing or chopping down trees!

Tips & Tricks

Now that I've gone over some of the things you shouldn't do on your first couple days, how about some things you should be doing? Let's dive right into it!

1. Upgrade your watering can when you know a rainy day is coming!

In Stardew Valley, you can upgrade the efficiency of your tools through Clint the blacksmith (located on the lower right corner of the map, next to Guther's museum) however, it should be taken into consideration that upgrading your tools will not allow you to use them for 2 in game days, and you can not access any of Clint's other services like breaking open geodes. Only one tool can be upgraded at a time and you can not skip upgrades, so they must all be done in order. I recommend waiting to upgrade your watering can on a day you know it will rain the following day, after you have already watered your crops that day. This will allow you to get by the 2 days you will be without your tool without letting your crops die because you could not water them for a day. You can plan when you upgrade your watering can by checking the weather for the next day on your television. It will cost you 2000 gold and 5 copper bars to do this so make sure you set aside enough money in case you get the chance to upgrade!

Tip: If you don't get the chance to upgrade your tools in Spring, it will always storm on Day 13 and 26 during Summer every year!

2. Save at least one of each quality product or crop for later!

While often it can be more beneficial to sell high quality items for their extra gold return, you might find yourself in the near future needing that item for a quest or bundle you didn't expect you needed to complete. Try to do some research on the special uses each valuable item you may come across could possess, I know I've certainly made the mistake of selling something I could've used for later. Oh and one more thing as well, don't forget to save gold quality or better crops that can be used in Stardew's annual summer luau! This is a special event that features a potluck you can add ingredients to for the Governor to try :)

Tip: You can find an official list of what items will yield the best reaction from the Governor on the official wiki

Stardew Valley Wiki - Luau [stardewvalleywiki.com]

3. Don’t worry about animals till later

If you're looking to become filthy rich as quick as possible, you should avoid investing in livestock until later in the game. In the early stages of your farm, you won't have the resources or money to maintain animals on your farm and by winter you'll find yourself stuck as grass will be harder to obtain. Wait until you've got plenty of gold rattling around in your pockets!

Community Center vs JojoMart

This section of the guide was sourced from an article from thegamer.com written by Jacqueline Zalace, please give credit to the original author!

Stardew Valley: The Community Center Vs. JojaMart by Jacqueline Zalace[www.thegamer.com]



One of the largest features in Stardew Valley that has already been mentioned several times in this guide already is the community center. The Community Center is a big building just North of Pierre's General Store. The building remains locked until Spring 5. Entering the area on this day if it's not rainy (or any day afterward) will trigger a cutscene with mayor Lewis, who unlocks the building for you. This will begin the 'Rat Problem' quest. After completion, the Community Center will be available to you. Once the community center is available, players will be able to unlock different rooms that contain bundles. In total, there are six rooms. Additionally, each room has smaller bundles that provide individual rewards.


The main downside of working with the Junimos instead of letting JojaMart buy up the community centre is that you have to collect so many unique items by doing a variety of tasks. You can't just focus on one income source and optimize it until you're making money like it's nothing.

It's designed to force you to fish at different times of day and in different seasons, to raise different animals, and to try to grow high-quality crops (among many other things). This is purposeful, to get new players to experience everything that the game has to offer, but it can become tedious quickly for seasoned veterans.

Overall, there are a lot of rewards from the Community Center. What happens when you finish it, though?

After finishing the Community Center, there will be a reopening ceremony with all of the townspeople. With the building complete, JojaMart will go out of business, and the location will transform into an abandoned lot that you can turn into a movie theatre. You will be able to purchase tickets and invite people to watch a movie with you. To build the theater, you'll need to complete an additional bundle as well.



Instead of finishing the Community Center, you can also choose to pursue helping JojaMart. To begin the JojaMart story, all you have to do is visit JojaMart and talk to Morris. He will offer a membership to the store for 5,000g. Accepting this will convert the Community Center into a Joja warehouse.


Instead of donating different resources for bundles, you will pay for each reward. Below are the rewards and prices.


Completing the major community projects this way will not provide the smaller rewards that are given from the Community Center. In total, you will have to spend 135,000g to purchase all of the bundles. Only one bundle can be purchased at a time. However, once purchased, it will be completed the next day.

After the bundles are paid for, you will receive your own soda machine, which gives one Joja Cola a day. Additionally, you will be able to purchase the Auto-Petter, which prevents animals from losing friendship.

Looking at these two options side by side, they seem to give similar rewards. The Community Center gives more small rewards, but each main reward is the same. Additionally, the movie theatre is available through both.

How do they play into the story?

The Community Center also offers a rich story that values friendship and happiness. The bundles are also meant to bring you closer together with the people of Pelican Town. After finishing all six bundles, the town gathers in the Community Center to kick Joja out of town.

Choosing the JojaMart route seems like falling back into your old ways. Remember the opening scene of the game? You used to be a mindless worker for Joja, before moving to Pelican Town for a fresh start. Choosing to complete tasks for JojaMart may result in a story that doesn't feel as 'full'. You will not experience the town coming together.











How do they impact the gameplay?

The Community Center offers specific goals for a player to follow. When a bundle asks for something that can only be found in one season if there is rain, that becomes a goal. In total, you will need to gather dozens of items. These bundles create goals, allowing you to explore different items in the game.

With JojaMart though, you don't have to focus on different items. Instead, you could just mass produce a high-selling item. The goals are less structured with the JojaMart route. Instead of planning different times to fish or forage, the goal is just 'make money.'

Which one should you choose?

It is a good idea to choose the Community Center for your first game. If you are just now diving into Stardew Valley, the Community Center will provide you with an experience to learn more about the game.

If you have been playing Stardew Valley for a while and don't really care about the story anymore then go for JojaMart! Choosing JojaMart is great for those who want to focus on making the best, most high-profit farm. Although choosing JojaMart may not be as satisfying, it is still content in the game that should be experienced at least once.

Regardless of which route you choose, there is still tons of additional content in Stardew Valley. Don't forget to check out guides for the post-game, including the fantastic Ginger Island.

Building Friendships & Marriage

One of the more exciting features of Stardew Valley you can explore is building relationships with your fellow neighbors in Pelican Town. In order to build relationships with the townsfolk you have to earn friendship points with them in various interactions.



You can earn points with the following types of interactions

• Giving a villager a gift they like or on special occasions (like their birthday!)
  
• Participating in community events through the seasons like the Luau and the Flower Dance!
  
• Completing item delivery quests

You can also lose points with the following types of interactions

• Hitting a villager with a slingshot
  
• Digging through trash cans in front of a village
  
• Giving them a gift they strongly dislike or hate

Gift Likability

Every villager has a list of gifts they like, with different levels of affection for each gift. There are five reactions a villager may have to the gift you give them and each reaction grants (or deplents) a certain amount of friendship points. See chart below for the reactions a villager can have when receiving a gift. You can tell what kind of reaction they have based on the dialogue they give once they have received the gift!











Gifts also receive a small bonus based on the quality of the item!












Finding out what gifts villagers like

Thankfully all the gifts each villager likes can be found on the wiki so you don't have to worry about figuring it out on your own. If you're going for marriage, I suggest picking one villager you really like and focusing on giving them the best quality gifts you can obtain to earn as many hearts as possible so you can get married. You need to reach 10 hearts in total to get married with a villager in the game.

Stardew Valley Wiki - Universal Gifts[stardewcommunitywiki.com]

Traveling Cart

One of the most important and useful shops in Stardew Valley has to be the Traveling Cart. This is a special shop you can purchase rare or out of season items from at an expensive premium every Friday or Sunday towards the south of The Farm in Cindersap Forest.

I highly recommend taking advantage of this feature in the game as it can help you complete the community center faster or allow you to invest in some valuable rare seeds! Here is some information about the Traveling Cart I'd like to share with you.


Traveling Cart

• Open Hours: 6am-8pm on Fridays and Sundays only!
  
• Address: South of the Farm, next to the secret forest
  
• Occupants: Traveling Merchant

The Traveling Cart sells a variety of random goods that change with each unique appearance and are the prices are typically very inflated. You can buy goods from other seasons and locations (such as the Desert), even if you have not unlocked them yet. Items sold from the Traveling Cart will always be of normal quality.










Some of the most valuable items you can purchase (in my opinion) from the Traveling Cart are as follows:

• Rare Seeds
  
• Coffee Beans
  
• Wedding Ring Recipe
  
• Pink Cake (because who doesn't enjoy cake?)

Secrets and Dark Lore

This section of the guide was sourced from an article from thegamer.com written by Leyla Resuli, please give credit to them as they are the original author of the information in this chapter!


Dark Secrets of Stardew Valley by Leyla Resuli[www.thegamer.com]



Well Stardew Valley may seem like a quaint cute farming game, there are some dark secrets of Stardew Valley that are worth researching if you like learning about the lore behind the games you play.

===================================================================

Kent has a dark history of PTSD

Kent is one of the many villagers in Pelican Town and sadly, he has a rather depressing secret that is never fully discussed in the game. Kent definitely suffers from PTSD, it is heavily alluded to due to some of his actions.

For instance, he has talked about a prison camp in the past and he is easily startled by the popcorn made during his three heart event. He also dislikes open fields and has talked about the fact he has difficulty falling asleep. All of these are common symptoms of PTSD.










The Strange Dolls

You'll find that there are a number of Strange Dolls in the game. They come in a variety of colors and can be found by digging them up from the ground. They're called Artifacts and you can donate them to the museum.

Many players have noted how eerie the dolls are, especially because we never receive a real explanation as to what they are or where they came from. For people who have a genuine fear of dolls, they may find the dolls an even more unnerving part of the game.










Dwarves Were Wiped Out By The Ravages Of War

One disturbing element in Stardew Valley is the secret war between the dwarves and the shadow people. It is something you will learn more about in passing and by putting two-and-two together.

You can also interact with a dwarf who will be suspicious, believing you to be a possible spy from the shadow people. It's rather sad to learn that the existence of the dwarven race was made extinct by this secret war. Even the shadow people live in squalor down in the sewers. It reveals a dark underbelly to life in Stardew Valley.










Shane Is Severely Depressed

When players first talk to Shane, they might dismiss him as rude and standoffish. I know I did. But if you persevere, his walls begin to crumble, revealing the reason behind his behavior.

In his first heart event he opens up, saying he feels "stuck in some miserable abyss" and he "can’t even see the light of day." It goes deeper at four hearts; the player finds him passed out in a mess of empty beer cans, where he even references suicide. While it’s never explicitly stated that he suffers from depression, it’s pretty clear this is the case. Don’t worry, though, in later cutscenes he agrees to get help – but what a harsh dose of reality.











Pam Is An Alcoholic (Who Never Recovers)

Pam can be found in the Stardrop Saloon every single night, sometimes saying little, and sometimes nothing at all (because she’s that drunk). She makes a mess of the trailer she shares with Penny, leaving her to clean it up herself. Her drinking problem got so bad that she stopped paying her tab, and poor Gus, struggling financially, felt unable to confront her about it.

Not only that, but beer, mead, and pale ale are beloved gifts by Pam, so any unknowing player would gift her these items to gain friendship points, only to realize they’re enabling her destructive behavior. Yikes.











Alex Has A Tragic Past

Alex may seem like a typical arrogant jock, but underneath all that muscle is a deeply insecure boy with a horribly sad past. During his four-heart event, Alex tells the player the real reason he lives with his grandparents. His dad was abusive, spending half the time absent, and the other half drinking and calling Alex "worthless." Then his mom got sick and passed away, leaving him alone with his grandparents.

The worst part? Alex is still affected by his dad’s cruel words. In his five-heart event, he explicitly calls himself "worthless." It’s heartbreaking.











The Wizard Cheated On His Ex… And Had A Daughter

Everyone seems amicable in Pelican Town, but the Wizard is at the core of some serious family drama. In the Dark Talisman quest, he asks you to retrieve magic ink from the dwelling of his ex-wife who just happens to be the Witch. He says he made a "mistake" that made her so angry, she turned green and flew over the town leaving curses everywhere.

But here’s the real kicker: in random dialogue, he may tell you that he suspects someone in the town is his daughter… Oh! I think we know what this "mistake" was now! But who is his daughter?











Abigail Could Be The Wizard’s Lost Daughter

Okay, there’s a lot to unpack here. Caroline tells the player in casual dialogue that she used to visit the Wizard, and asks not to tell Pierre because he’ll be jealous. I’m seeing a red flag here. What’s worse is that Pierre himself says he suspects Abigail isn’t his!

If you marry Abigail, she may reference her hair, saying she hasn’t dyed it in ages, yet it’s stayed purple. Could this be some magic that also made the Wizard’s hair purple? Or is it simply a joke about unchanging character appearances? Some fans think it’s a red herring.

Jas is another contender due to her purple hair, and even Caroline herself has been suspected. We may never know!











George Had A Terrible Accident

George is yet another resident with more struggles behind the scenes. Initially shown as a grumpy old codger in a wheelchair, he only seems to have sour things to say. After getting to know him a little better, you’ll find out why: he’ll tell you that he had an accident working in a coal mine 30 years ago. He slipped when setting off dynamite, and was never able to walk again. On top of that, his daughter is dead, and now he’s looking after his grandson. Does this game ever let up with the sad backstories?

Grandpa's Approval

It's been a couple of days since I've added a new section to this guide, but I wanted to share some of my thoughts on your late-game goals and how to position yourself for receiving grandpa's approval. This section may contain some spoilers so please be aware!







In the far Northwest corner of The Farm, you can find Grandpa's shrine which will leave a letter for you noting he will return the Spring of your third year. Grandpa's evaluation is directly related to the number of candles that light up around Grandpa's Shrine (there are 4 candles) at the beginning of year three. This is determined by a point system based on various milestones that were reached in the first two years. There are a total of 21 available points.

The player can be re-evaluated at any time by placing a Diamond into Grandpa's Shrine (Grandpa will show up on the following day, after a game load or the first day of the following season in some cases). This means that the opportunity to obtain all four candles is extended beyond the initial two year evaluation.






















Scoring
Only 12 points is required to lit all four candles on Grandpa's Shrine, completing this will reward you with the Statue of Perfection which will grant 1-2 Iridium Ore per day. You receive the Statue you have to manually interact with the shrine, it will not be given automatically.

Totaling Earnings









Player Level




Achievements





Friendship




Other








How to obtain at least 12 points by your third year:

For me, I recommend going for some of the easier achievements evaluated by Grandpa if you want to lit all four candles on your first evaluation. Some of these goals line up with your main gameplay anyways so you won't have to go too far out of your way to receive Grandpa's approval like most of us had to trying to complete the community center.

The easiest goals to complete for Grandpa's Evaluation and still get the Statue of Perfection are as follows:

• Earn at least 500,000 total gold
  
• Have a total of at least 30 skills
  
• Get married with at least two house upgrades
  
• Complete the community center and attend the completion ceremony
  
• Obtain the Skull Key and the Rusty Key

Overall, completing these 5 goals by your third year will guarantee you the 12 points needed for Grandpa's evaluation. These are the achievements that I personally went for to lit all of the four candles, but you can always take another route and try to beat some of the other goals evaluated by Grandpa if you wish, good luck!

Customizing your Character

Have you ever seen someone's farmer on YouTube with really cool hair and colorful clothes but wasn't sure how to make your character look like them too? Well after reading this quick portion of this guide, now you will!














Changing your character's appearance after world creation

While you have to option to customize your character however you wish before creating a new farm, you can also do so as many times as you want afterwards once you've reached enough friendship hearts with the wizard! To do this, head to the wizard's tower and pay 500 coins to the Shrine of Illusions in the Wizard's basement. This will allow you to open the customize character screen again and you can change your hair, gender, eye color, and more for only 500 gold coins! Unfortunately the only caveat to this is you have to have at least four hearts with the Wizard before you go access his basement.









How to create better clothes for your character

Another way to really spice up your character's appearance is by crafting cute clothes through the art of Tailoring. Tailoring is the process of using a sewing machine using cloth and one customizable item to create any piece of decorative clothing you could ever want. There's a variety of different shirts, pants, or hats! Boots are the only piece of clothing that can not be customized, but the stats from a pair of boots can be transferred to a more colorful and pleasing piece of footwear. Tailoring and Dyeing are unlocked in a cutscene the day after the player acquires at least 1 Cloth. Emily will appear in front of the player's house and tell them that they can tailor clothes using the sewing machine at her house.

[Livcx]

thanks for taking your time to write this up! was very helpful and informative and i'm sure it'll be great help with others in the future.

[MiloCoolGuy06]

Best guide for beginners, no doubt. it included everything I also would include as someone who's played 400+ hours across multiple platforms :D:brownchicken:

[craftylaracroft]

I enjoyed this information very much. It seems like a lot to do for a game like this. Too bad they don't let you get this information from Stardew Valley site.

[looping4satan]

FOR GIRLS ONLY? pssst I need an octopus...

[Ceru]

No problem guys, glad this guide has helped you!

[conrad.kite]

wow! thx so much i have about 100 hrs on switch and idrk here and it helps alot

[acejoker415]

NICE JOB