I feel like there’s a fairly large Stardew Valley community on here. I don’t know if this thread has been made or not, but what are your tips for the game? What’s information you wish you knew before you started? I started a little bit of the game and then stopped for some reason, but I’m trying to get back into it. I think I’m almost done with my first year of Spring, if that’s any help.
Watching with interest as I am very much a newbie player as only started the game a few days ago. I am in winter at the moment and it is beautiful I have upgraded my house and enjoyed getting to know the characters. Some of the heart events are super cute
It is a very addictive game I find I need to find out the best way to make money and explore the game more. I am guilty at spending too long romancing a certain someone
This doesn’t help if you’ve already started your farm, but don’t pick the river farm layout. I chose the river farm for my first game, and there is so much less space to work with. I still play it (I’m in year 7) but I can’t add a lot of late game stuff to my farm because I have no room.
Also don’t chop the wild grass, the tall grass you can actually walk through. Save it for when you build a Silo. When you chop tall grass with your scythe while a Silo is on your property, it turns into hay, which is what you feed animals with. Don’t waste free animal food! I cut all mine down and then had to buy hay from Marnie which wasted a lot of money. Added to this, you should try to build a silo before building the coop and barn.
Watching with interest as I am very much a newbie player as only started the game a few days ago. I am in winter at the moment and it is beautiful I have upgraded my house and enjoyed getting to know the characters. Some of the heart events are super cute
It is a very addictive game I find I need to find out the best way to make money and explore the game more. I am guilty at spending too long romancing a certain someone
I’ve seen pictures of Winter and I can’t wait to get to it, as it looks beautiful! Yeah, I definitely need to figure out a consistent way to make money. I have crops, but I don’t know what to sell and what to save. Ooh, now I have to know who that special someone is.
This doesn’t help if you’ve already started your farm, but don’t pick the river farm layout. I chose the river farm for my first game, and there is so much less space to work with. I still play it (I’m in year 7) but I can’t add a lot of late game stuff to my farm because I have no room.
Also don’t chop the wild grass, the tall grass you can actually walk through. Save it for when you build a Silo. When you chop tall grass with your scythe while a Silo is on your property, it turns into hay, which is what you feed animals with. Don’t waste free animal food! I cut all mine down and then had to buy hay from Marnie which wasted a lot of money. Added to this, you should try to build a silo before building the coop and barn.
I don’t think I picked the River farm, so I’m good on that front. Oh ok, I didn’t know that about hay! I’ll make sure to save the wild grass until then.
Oh boy. I love this game and I always find myself coming back to it to start a new farm and layout whenever I get bored with other games. It's awesome that this game is still consistently getting free updates. The creator really caters to his fans and I love that!!
If you are a casual player and just want to go through farm life with knowing minimal info, my best 4 advice:
- Save all your resources. Everything. Never sell wood or ore for quick money, instead rely on foraging, crops, and fishing.
- Even if you hate it (as not everyone likes it), try to level your fishing skill ASAP. Fishing is a great source of money early game and imo the fish get harder each season.
- Watch the TV every day for the weather info, fortune, and cooking recipes. Weather will help you plan the next day (eg. if it's raining you can go to the mines) and your fortune can affect your luck in the mines or other factors like seed making.
- Always have the stardew wiki open while you're playing
Now, if you are like me who likes a certain level of speed running to a perfect farm, I always make it my personal goal to reach a 4-star "perfect farm" for my grandpa's evaluation by the beginning of Year 3. This is because I'm a big scaredy cat and I refuse to go to the skull caverns to farm iridium ore for the best upgrades, so the statue of perfection is well worth the grind to a 4-star farm and have an easy farm life after that! My favourite part of this game is just kicking back and landscaping and watching my crops grow with no worries, so I always get this part done as fast as I can so by year 3 you are just chillin lol. It’s actually surprisingly easy to get, so here are my tips on how to achieve it fast (putting it in spoilers because it's a bit lengthy with more advanced tips)
To complete the community centre you want to focus on these four things: Crops, Mining, Friendship, and Fishing. It's likely you'll end up buying a few of your items for bundles too off the traveling cart lady.
Take note of 10 townsfolk and know at least one thing that they like, especially your love interest, and know their birthdays. Eg. Stock up on Leek for George during spring instead of eating it for energy, hoard frozen tears for Sebastian instead of selling it, etc. An easy place to find most of them in one place for mass-gifting is at the saloon at night. I like to write these things down for reference but it’s also handy to check the stardew wiki which is a great source for info. I get lazy to gift things consistently so I always end up befriending everyone during winter year 1 when I have nothing to do.
Watch the TV every day for the weather and your fortune. Go to the mines on rainy days during the spring (preferably on lucky days) and try to clear each floor as quickly as possible: don’t waste time collecting resources on each floor at first. Find the ladder and descend immediately so you can reach the end of the mine ASAP. Clearing the mines and getting items to donate to the Boiler room bundle in the community centre gives you access to fast travel using mine carts, which IMMENSELY helps before you can afford a horse. The last items you will likely donate for this room is fire quartz and gold bar, which can be found in the very last levels. This is always the first room I work to complete. It's a big win for you if you are able to find your first coffee beans or ancient seed relic while mining early on as well.
Always go for quality crops as you’ll need them each season for bundles. Making fertilizer is simple because sap is so easy to come by.
In the first year have everything you need close by your house and don’t use far corners of your farm. I usually never get a coop/barn until year 2 but if you do, place it next to your house so you never forget to feed your animals hay. You don't need to get this straight away so don't let that quest exclamation mark tempt you lol.
Buy hard-to-acquire community centre bundle items from the traveling cart on Fridays and Sundays. Even if it’s a bit pricey, if you know you won’t have access to them early on, just buy it at the traveling cart to complete bundles quickly (eg. Sand fish and certain things for the bulletin board bundles)
If you have excess money saved don’t be scared to use it to buy your resources instead of wasting time gathering them, especially if you plan to do other things. If you are buying them to craft things like preserve jars, kegs, etc. these will always make your money back fairly quickly.
Make quality sprinkles as soon as you can. It’s possible to have your summer crops in year 1 and onwards all be reliant on sprinklers. If you have excess money, invest on buying a few iridium sprinklers from Krobus in the sewers (only after obtaining rusty key) until you can craft them yourself.
If you have a coop, try to buy your first void egg from Korbus in the sewers ASAP and keep incubating the eggs to get more void chickens. Void mayonaise is really good easy money and chickens produce eggs consistently every day unlike ducks or goats with their goat milk.
This is also up to the player but usually I always go the artisan route because it’s the easiest money making strategy. You can always change this later on. If you go the artisan route, you’ll have more than enough money to steadily earn 500k + within first year and second year, especially if you keg your Hops and preserve your multi-harvest crops. From doing some of the stuff above you’ll very likely reach these milestones that will contribute to your evaluation score by year three and get a perfect farm!:
10 friends with 8 or more hearts
At least 30 levels in skills
Hopefully married with a house upgrade
Community centre completed and ceremony held (the last things you will complete is likely the bulletin board and vault)
Rusty key obtained from all your mining adventures and hoeing the worms on the ground (40 things donated to the museum)
Skull key obtained from reaching the end of the mines
Oh boy. I love this game and I always find myself coming back to it to start a new farm and layout whenever I get bored with other games. It's awesome that this game is still consistently getting free updates. The creator really caters to his fans and I love that!!
If you are a casual player and just want to go through farm life with knowing minimal info, my best 4 advice:
- Save all your resources. Everything. Never sell wood or ore for quick money, instead rely on foraging, crops, and fishing.
- Even if you hate it (as not everyone likes it), try to level your fishing skill ASAP. Fishing is a great source of money early game and imo the fish get harder each season.
- Watch the TV every day for the weather info, fortune, and cooking recipes. Weather will help you plan the next day (eg. if it's raining you can go to the mines) and your fortune can affect your luck in the mines or other factors like seed making.
- Always have the stardew wiki open while you're playing
Now, if you are like me who likes a certain level of speed running to a perfect farm, I always make it my personal goal to reach a 4-star "perfect farm" for my grandpa's evaluation by the beginning of Year 3. This is because I'm a big scaredy cat and I refuse to go to the skull caverns to farm iridium ore for the best upgrades, so the statue of perfection is well worth the grind to a 4-star farm and have an easy farm life after that! My favourite part of this game is just kicking back and landscaping and watching my crops grow with no worries, so I always get this part done as fast as I can so by year 3 you are just chillin lol. It’s actually surprisingly easy to get, so here are my tips on how to achieve it fast (putting it in spoilers because it's a bit lengthy with more advanced tips)
To complete the community centre you want to focus on these four things: Crops, Mining, Friendship, and Fishing. It's likely you'll end up buying a few of your items for bundles too off the traveling cart lady.
Take note of 10 townsfolk and know at least one thing that they like, especially your love interest, and know their birthdays. Eg. Stock up on Leek for George during spring instead of eating it for energy, hoard frozen tears for Sebastian instead of selling it, etc. An easy place to find most of them in one place for mass-gifting is at the saloon at night. I like to write these things down for reference but it’s also handy to check the stardew wiki which is a great source for info. I get lazy to gift things consistently so I always end up befriending everyone during winter year 1 when I have nothing to do.
Watch the TV every day for the weather and your fortune. Go to the mines on rainy days during the spring (preferably on lucky days) and try to clear each floor as quickly as possible: don’t waste time collecting resources on each floor at first. Find the ladder and descend immediately so you can reach the end of the mine ASAP. Clearing the mines and getting items to donate to the Boiler room bundle in the community centre gives you access to fast travel using mine carts, which IMMENSELY helps before you can afford a horse. The last items you will likely donate for this room is fire quartz and gold bar, which can be found in the very last levels. This is always the first room I work to complete. It's a big win for you if you are able to find your first coffee beans or ancient seed relic while mining early on as well.
Always go for quality crops as you’ll need them each season for bundles. Making fertilizer is simple because sap is so easy to come by.
In the first year have everything you need close by your house and don’t use far corners of your farm. I usually never get a coop/barn until year 2 but if you do, place it next to your house so you never forget to feed your animals hay. You don't need to get this straight away so don't let that quest exclamation mark tempt you lol.
Buy hard-to-acquire community centre bundle items from the traveling cart on Fridays and Sundays. Even if it’s a bit pricey, if you know you won’t have access to them early on, just buy it at the traveling cart to complete bundles quickly (eg. Sand fish and certain things for the bulletin board bundles)
If you have excess money saved don’t be scared to use it to buy your resources instead of wasting time gathering them, especially if you plan to do other things. If you are buying them to craft things like preserve jars, kegs, etc. these will always make your money back fairly quickly.
Make quality sprinkles as soon as you can. It’s possible to have your summer crops in year 1 and onwards all be reliant on sprinklers. If you have excess money, invest on buying a few iridium sprinklers from Krobus in the sewers (only after obtaining rusty key) until you can craft them yourself.
If you have a coop, try to buy your first void egg from Korbus in the sewers ASAP and keep incubating the eggs to get more void chickens. Void mayonaise is really good easy money and chickens produce eggs consistently every day unlike ducks or goats with their goat milk.
This is also up to the player but usually I always go the artisan route because it’s the easiest money making strategy. You can always change this later on. If you go the artisan route, you’ll have more than enough money to steadily earn 500k + within first year and second year, especially if you keg your Hops and preserve your multi-harvest crops. From doing some of the stuff above you’ll very likely reach these milestones that will contribute to your evaluation score by year three and get a perfect farm!:
10 friends with 8 or more hearts
At least 30 levels in skills
Hopefully married with a house upgrade
Community centre completed and ceremony held (the last things you will complete is likely the bulletin board and vault)
Rusty key obtained from all your mining adventures and hoeing the worms on the ground (40 things donated to the museum)
Skull key obtained from reaching the end of the mines
Thank you for all the tips! Do you have a daily routine or something? Sometimes I find it hard to get everything done before the late late hours of the day (where if I remember correctly, you pass out. )
This doesn’t help if you’ve already started your farm, but don’t pick the river farm layout. I chose the river farm for my first game, and there is so much less space to work with. I still play it (I’m in year 7) but I can’t add a lot of late game stuff to my farm because I have no room.
Also don’t chop the wild grass, the tall grass you can actually walk through. Save it for when you build a Silo. When you chop tall grass with your scythe while a Silo is on your property, it turns into hay, which is what you feed animals with. Don’t waste free animal food! I cut all mine down and then had to buy hay from Marnie which wasted a lot of money. Added to this, you should try to build a silo before building the coop and barn.
my first farm (raindrop) was the river map and now im on my second farm with the normal map and i was STUNNED with how large it is!!!! i was like "wow, i can actually do things here" lmao
and i second building a silo early on and gathering hay, on my first farm i also cut mine down way before getting a silo
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i wish i could give more help but even though im on the end of year 4 on my first farm im only a casual player lol i try to not spoil anything for myself so i keep from looking things up
everything dizzy bone has said is 100% facts, i learned the hard way how things work but now on my second farm i am completing things much faster
i wish i could give more help but even though im on the end of year 4 on my first farm im only a casual player lol i try to not spoil anything for myself so i keep from looking things up
everything dizzy bone has said is 100% facts, i learned the hard way how things work but now on my second farm i am completing things much faster
I always check up on my animals first on a regular day then I run around and see what stuff to harvest and refill from my kegs and such. If there's a lot of things to do during a season sometimes I don't leave the farm all day (eg. spring has a lot of crops that are not multi-harvest so you might have to replant a lot of things). The last thing I do is process some of my stuff that takes time and could be completed overnight like gold bars and truffle oil.
Usually for the first day of the season I rush to fix up my tilled crop plots and then go buy seeds at 9 if I don't have them ready. I always have a lot of areas to water so I cut it very close and sometimes end up sleeping near the death hour lmao.
Another very helpful tip is using flooring to "surround" your potential tilled areas. If it's still winter and spring approaching I always prepare this during the last day of winter. Your hoe will not dig up flooring tiles or items on top of tiles (like sprinklers) so you can use this to till away large chunks of land into perfect shapes Afterwards you can pick up your tiles if you don't like how they look!
I always check up on my animals first on a regular day then I run around and see what stuff to harvest and refill from my kegs and such. If there's a lot of things to do during a season sometimes I don't leave the farm all day (eg. spring has a lot of crops that are not multi-harvest so you might have to replant a lot of things). The last thing I do is process some of my stuff that takes time and could be completed overnight like gold bars and truffle oil.
Usually for the first day of the season I rush to fix up my tilled crop plots and then go buy seeds at 9 if I don't have them ready. I always have a lot of areas to water so I cut it very close and sometimes end up sleeping near the death hour lmao.
Another very helpful tip is using flooring to "surround" your potential tilled areas. If it's still winter and spring approaching I always prepare this during the last day of winter. Your hoe will not dig up flooring tiles or items on top of tiles (like sprinklers) so you can use this to till away large chunks of land into perfect shapes Afterwards you can pick up your tiles if you don't like how they look!
You buy the building from Robin at the Carpentor's shop at any point in time! So you can do it as early as Spring. It's just a bit pricey to keep up with animals early in the game so I don't recommend rushing to get it until you are more financially stable. You buy the animals at Marnie's ranch! And even if you have just one sheep for example, they can produce a baby too on their own (which is totally weird haha).
*aggressively taking notes* I may have made it to summer year 2 of my first farm but I'm still totally just figuring things out as I go. I definitely recommend having the wikipedia open as you go - the amount of things I look up in any one session is insane! dizzy covered basically everything I know (and way, way beyond) so good luck! I also found watching people play on yt helped me a little bit haha
You buy the building from Robin at the Carpentor's shop at any point in time! So you can do it as early as Spring. It's just a bit pricey to keep up with animals early in the game so I don't recommend rushing to get it until you are more financially stable. You buy the animals at Marnie's ranch! And even if you have just one sheep for example, they can produce a baby too on their own (which is totally weird haha).
Wow such fab tips I just checked and mine is Lakeside Farm? Didn’t know you could choose
I haven’t got any animals yet, well apart from my gorgeous little kitty miso
One question please if I am allowed? Twice I have been told that weeds have caused damage to the farm? I have cleared and chopped down trees but what counts as weeds?
Thanks for the thread @Bk1234 my special someone is a little unconventional but I find adorable
My biggest tip is to buy the seeds you want at the start of each season. That way you can have them start producing crops early on.
Edit: This will make you broke early on in the game, but the profits are worthwhile.
dont rush yourself through the game, take your time to enjoy it. Also if you are into the romancing system, definitely give it a go cos there are heaps of great people to choose from. i am about to start a new play through myself, as i haven't experienced any of the new update stuff and i want to romance someone new. My main tip is a simple one - have fun! if you don't put pressure on yourself to complete the community centre and just take your time with things, its honestly a wonderful game that you can put hours and hours into.
I think I’m almost done with my first year of Spring, if that’s any help. 
I have upgraded my house and enjoyed getting to know the characters. Some of the heart events are super cute 
I need to find out the best way to make money and explore the game more. I am guilty at spending too long romancing a certain someone 
Yeah, I definitely need to figure out a consistent way to make money. I have crops, but I don’t know what to sell and what to save. 
Ooh, now I have to know who that special someone is. 
I’ll make sure to save the wild grass until then.
Do you have a daily routine or something? Sometimes I find it hard to get everything done before the late late hours of the day (where if I remember correctly, you pass out. 
)
then I run around and see what stuff to harvest and refill from my kegs and such. If there's a lot of things to do during a season sometimes I don't leave the farm all day (eg. spring has a lot of crops that are not multi-harvest so you might have to replant a lot of things). The last thing I do is process some of my stuff that takes time and could be completed overnight like gold bars and truffle oil.
my special someone is a little unconventional but I find adorable 
I’m going to guess Shane (probably wrong though lol) as he’s not the most popular marriage candidate (at least on here.)
