Indie darling Stardew Valley took the gaming world by storm when it was released in February 2016. Developed by a single man named Eric Barone, the game has managed to find its way onto several different consoles, including the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
At face value, it’s a simple farming game where your character has inherited their grandfather’s farm and must work to restore it to its original glory, with typical RPG elements like finding a romantic partner. But the gameplay is deeper than just planting seeds and waiting for them to grow — and this guide will help anyone find their footing in the Valley.
Updated February 17, 2022 by Marissa Lee: Stardew Valley can be played so many ways, and while this guide teaches you a lot about how to optimize your playthrough, it’s also cool to play the game however you want to play. Whether you’re focused on completing the Community Center, earning Gold, or just exploring Pelican Town for all it has to offer, we’ve made sure that this guide has tips for all kinds of new players.
11 Check The Traveling Cart
Every Friday and Sunday, a Traveling Merchant and her pig will appear in the Cindersap Forest west of the entrance to your farm. This Merchant sells a random assortment of items from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Here, you’ll find stuff you need for the Community Center that’s hard to come by, Rare Seeds that can be planted to grow Sweet Gem Berries, Coffee Beans, rare fish, cooked meals, furniture, and much more.
Most of the items carried in the Traveling Cart are things you can earn yourself eventually, but here are some things to definitely be on the look-out for
It’s a great idea to check the Traveling Cart every Friday and every Sunday — you never know what you’ll find.
10 Plant Your Crops In 3x3 Squares
Stardew Valley allows players to have near-complete control over the layout of their farms, so you can actually do whatever your heart desires. But, there are some advantages to planting your crops in certain formations.
When Cauliflower, Melon, and Pumpkin are planted in a 3x3 formation and allowed to reach a full-grown state, there’s a chance that the middle crop will combine with the eight adjacent ones to form a giant crop instead. Giant crops are harvested with an axe and provide double crops, so you’ll get a total of 18 pieces of produce!
Planting things this way looks neat and organized, plus it makes using proximity-based items (like Sprinklers, Scarecrows, and Bee Houses) a lot easier. It’s especially helpful for the first two levels of sprinklers. The basic Sprinkler waters four adjacent squares, while the Quality Sprinkler water the eight adjacent squares, meaning both operate within a 3x3 tile grid.
Additionally, upgrading your Watering Can and Hoe will allow them to operate in 3x3 grids,making this much more convenient. Copper Watering Cans and Hoes cover three squares per use, steel ones cover five, and gold ones cover nine (in a 3x3 grid) at one time.
9 Grow As Much Cauliflower As Possible
Cauliflower is a slow-growing crop that takes a total of 12 days to become full-grown, and its seeds are 80g each at Pierre’s, which is pretty pricey in comparison to other Spring crops. It is, however, worth it, because the payout is more than double most other crops.
Even without the Tiller profession (which makes crops worth 10% more Gold), a single Cauliflower at basic quality is worth 175g, while silver ones are 218g and gold ones are 262g. It can be even more profitable if you save some for when you’re able to get your hands on a Preserves Jar to make Pickled Cauliflower.
Be careful of crows, though; without a scarecrow, crows will eat your crops, which means you’ll lose any chance of profit. On one hand, might be a good idea to wait until you have a Scarecrow to plant Cauliflower, so you don’t risk losing it to crows. On the other, though, it won’t be ready to harvest until after the Egg Festival, so if you’re looking to buy Strawberries, be wary of sinking too much Gold into Cauliflower that won’t be ready until after the festival anyway.
Money-wise, it’s a good idea to grow Cauliflower in addition to other crops, particularly Kale and Strawberries, but focusing on acquiring as much as possible as early as possible is definitely recommended! If you manage to plant them within the first four days of Spring, you can have two separate harvests by the end of the season and rake in a considerable amount of gold. Just make sure you save one for the Community Center—and have at least one Green Bean, Potato, and Parsnip planted, too.
8 Buy Strawberry Seeds At The Egg Festival
On the 13th day of each Spring season, the Egg Festival takes place. The town is decorated with cutesy pastels and there’s an egg hunt where you can compete with your friends and villagers for an exclusive hat.
However, what’s truly important is the fact that the Egg festival is the only place where you can purchase Strawberry Seeds. Strawberries are a remarkably profitable crop (a basic quality Strawberry sells for 120g, silver for 150g, and gold for 180g) that needs eight days to mature, and has a chance of giving multiple Strawberries each time it’s harvested. After the first harvest, a plant will continue to produce Strawberries every four days.
Some players claim that you should put them in a chest and leave them for the next year, while others think that you should plant them ASAP.
With no boosts, planting the seeds the day of or after the Egg Festival will allow for two harvests, while planting them the next year will allow for five. It’s up to you! Just remember that with a Seed Maker, you can always turn Strawberries into Strawberry Seeds to use next spring.
Additionally, don’t forget you can use Deluxe Speed-Gro to make the plants grow faster, giving you a higher number of harvests per season, but that isn’t unlocked until you reach Level Eight of the farming skill. When planted the day after the Egg Festival with Deluxe Speed-Gro, you can squeeze in three Strawberry harvests. Regular Speed-Gro is unlocked at Level Three, but it still only allows for two harvests, though, so save it for something else.
7 Get Your Hands On Some Machines ASAP
There are a few different types of machines in the game. Seed Makers can turn produce into seeds, making it easier to access rarer crops, and Kegs can turn fruits and vegetables into Wine and Juice in seven days, making them worth 3x their base value.
Getting those tools is important, obviously — but not nearly as important as a Preserves Jar.
A Preserves Jar is unlocked at Framing Level Four, and it turns fruits and vegetables into jelly or pickles. It only needs between two and three days to do it, and it makes any crop worth 2x its base price + 50g. The quality of the crop doesn’t make a difference, so it’s a good way to squeeze some extra gold out of basic produce.
Preserves Jars are unlocked earlier than Kegs (which you can craft after reaching Farming Level Eight), so it’s a great way to make money during the early days. However, both tools are great; generally speaking, lower-value crops are better in Preserves Jars, and higher-value crops will net you more profit when placed in Kegs.
6 Repair The Beach Bridge Before Summer
At the beach, there’s a broken bridge that can be repaired using 300 pieces of wood. Across it, there are several tidal pools that contain an exclusive forageable: Sea Urchins. A basic quality Sea Urchin is worth 160g, and one can be used for the Dye Bundle at the Community Center.
Summer is also a great time to get extra forageables. After the Luau on Summer 11, the TV Channel Livin’ Off the Land will tell you that Crab Mating season has made the ocean green. During this time, more forageables will wash up on the beaches than usual. So, even if you don’t have the bridge by Summer 1, make sure you at least have it finished before the Luau.
Also, during rainy or stormy weather, the Old Mariner will appear at the edge of the tidal pools, and you can buy a Mermaid’s Necklace from him, which allows you to propose to any villager that you have a ten-heart relationship with.
Each of these reasons to repair the bridge are important, so be sure to use some wood to do it earlier on, rather than later.
5 Farming First, Foraging Second
Running out of energy leaves you unable to do anything and staggering along at a snail’s pace. Cutting down trees, smashing rocks, and cutting grass might seem tempting, especially when in the beginning stages of setting up, but it’s important to focus on what actually matters: farming.
4 Giving Out Random Gifts Might Make People Hate You
Going around passing out gifts indiscriminately will make winning the villagers’ friendship harder. Each villager has things that they love and things that they hate, and they have a significant impact on your relationships.
For example, Haley dislikes all fruit except for Coconuts, which are one of her favorite things. Taking the time to look into their gift preferences will make playing the social side of the game a lot easier.
It’s important to be careful about what you’re holding in your hand when you talk to a villager, since it will automatically be given to them as a gift!
Once you’ve given someone something as a gift, it’ll show up in the social tab with their preference for it. Use this to keep track of what people — and just as importantly, what they don’t. In the early game, though, it’s easier to experiment with gift giving since you don’t actually have any hearts to lose.
Forageables can be great gifts in early game, since you don’t have to spend any gold to gift them. Hayley also likes Daffodils—as do many of the villagers—which is great, since these will be all over Pelican Town during the Spring. Sweet Peas are also fairly popular, and equally abundant in the Summer.
3 Wait For A Greenhouse Before You Buy Fruit Trees
Fruit trees are incredibly expensive, so it’s not likely that you’ll be in any rush to sink thousands of gold into one, but even if you are, try to resist that urge! After either completing all of the Pantry bundles in the Community Center or purchasing it from the Joja Community Development Projects, you’ll have access to a Greenhouse.
Inside the Greenhouse, you can grow crops regardless of their season. That’s why it’s the best possible place to plant your fruit trees, but since it’s currently not possible to relocate trees without a mod, it’s a good idea to just wait it out.
Fruit trees will grow in the Greenhouse if you plant them on the tiles around the plot of land where you can grow crops, even though it doesn’t really look like it. They’ll grow and produce fruit regardless of season, so it’s the best place to get your money’s worth from them.
One thing worth noting is that multiple Community Center bundles use Apples and Pomegranates, so if you do choose the Mushroom cave, these two saplings will be worth buying.
2 Think Wisely Before Investing In A Coop
In the first handful of quests given by the game, you’ll be prompted to build a Coop. It seems like a decent starting point for a farm, and it is for some people, but make sure to think it through!
Every morning, chickens will lay eggs worth 50g each. Once they like you, they’ll lay large eggs worth 95g. A Mayonnaise Machine can make eggs worth 190g and large eggs worth 285g.
Building a Coop costs 4,000 gold, plus 300 wood and 100 stone. Each chicken will cost 800g and they need to be fed hay, which can be 50g a piece unless you’ve built a Silo. Simply put, it’s a huge investment, and it takes a while to make your gold back.
However, Mayo can be a great source of income early in the game, so it’s up to you. Eventually, you’ll be able to build a few Coops if you want, but early on, it’s quite the investment. Don’t feel pressured by the early quest to build a Coop — you have all the time in the world.
If you’re prioritizing the Community Centre, building a Barn is your better bet. This is because Barns house Cows, Goats, and Pigs, which produce Milk, Goat’s Milk, and Truffles, all of which you absolutely need to have to complete the Community Center. Fully upgrading your Barn will cost a total of 53,000g across all three buildings, plus a total of 19,500 for one of each animal. You also need to keep in mind that Pigs only produce Truffles when they are able to feed outside, and eat the grass growing on your farm. It takes 10 days for Pigs to grow up, which is when they’ll start finding you Truffles, so make sure that you buy a Pig at least 15 or so days before Fall ends.
1 Those Bundles Are Important (So Save Up For Them Immediately)
After the 5th day of your first Spring, the Community Center will be unlocked by entering Town from the Bus Stop, on any Sunny day between 8 am and 1 pm. With the Community Center is unlocked, so are the first few bundles. Assuming that you choose this path instead of selling out to Joja, those bundles are going to be an important part of your gameplay.
It’s a good idea to immediately start saving up at least one of each type of Spring forageable, so you can complete the Spring Foraging bundle as quickly as possible, which will get you a collection of 30 Spring Seeds as a reward and bring you one step closer to one of the powerful rewards.
Make sure to hold onto at least one Parsnip for the Spring Crops Bundle and look into planting cauliflower, potatoes, and green beans ASAP. One of the bundles requires five gold-quality Parsnips, so make sure you hang on to those to donate. If you choose the Remixed Bundles at the beginning of the game, stacks of five gold-quality Green Beans, Cauliflower, and/or Potatoes can also be requested.
Other things to keep an eye out for are Quartz in the mines, different types of Mushrooms in Pelican Town, the mountains, and Cindersap Forest, and a Sea Urchin on the beach (see above!). NEXT: Stardew Valley: Complete Guide And Walkthrough
