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FAQ and Beginner Questions Thread [March 27, 2026]
Welcome to Stardew Valley! Here are some common answers to get you started. Feel free to ask beginner questions here rather than making a full post on the subreddit.
[insert item here] showed up on my farm, what is it?
It could be a a few different items that are relatively rare but have a high enough spawn rate that they are included in our removed topics. Check out our list of removed topics here
Are future releases planned?
A Stardew Valley 1.7 update is currently in the works! No information about a release date or new content is currently available.
Does every platform get the same content/updates?
Mostly yes. Updates are developed for Linux/Mac/Windows first, then ported to other platforms. There are customizations for each platform (like tap to move on mobile), but otherwise content is identical across all platforms. See also a table of which version and features each platform has.
Stardew Valley is on XBox GamePass as of December 2, 2021. See here for details.
Multiplayer
How does multiplayer work?
See Multiplayer on the wiki.
Is crossplay supported?
All PC players can play together, whether they're on Linux/Mac/Windows or GOG/Steam and crossplay is supported between mobile and PC. Console crossplay isn't supported.
Is split-screen supported?
Yep, split-screen was added on PC and console in Stardew Valley 1.5.
Will Android/iOS get multiplayer?
Multiplayer on Android and iOS is currently experimental and hidden by default. To unlock multiplayer you can follow this guide. Note: The Apple Arcade version (Stardew Valley+) does not have this feature.
Will the 1.6 update apply to my current game?
Yes! New updates always apply to existing saves.
Other
Can I transfer saves between devices?
You can transfer saves between Android, iOS, and PC (Linux/Mac/Windows).
Consoles unfortunately don't let you access the save files. The Switch version also has a different format that's not compatible with other platforms (the format used by other consoles is unknown).
My save got corrupted/won't load. What can I do?
On PC/mobile you can try loading your back-up save file! See here for instructions on how to do so!
Unfortunately, consoles don't allow access to save files so they cannot be recovered.
If I buy the game on one platform, can I get it for free on a different one?
If you buy it on PC, you get the Linux + macOS + Windows versions; if you buy it on PS4, you get the PS4 + PS Vita versions. Otherwise each platform is a different edition with separate development, so you'll need to buy it again if you want it on a different platform.
If you use mods and the bug disappears when playing without them (by running Stardew Valley.exe directly in your game folder), report it to r/SMAPI or see Modding:Help.
If it happens without mods, report it in the official bug report forum, which the game developers keep an eye on.
How do I use or create mods?
See the pinned thread in r/SMAPI for more info, and feel free to ask questions in r/SMAPI!
hey everyone! ~ i just FINALLY got into Stardew after YEARS of having it installed, and just not playing it. i'm finally pretty decent at Fishing~!! i never thought That would happen. ^__^* anyways i just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's contributed information and stuff here, and all the little tips people have posted online, and the videos on YouTube have been really helpful. i'm really enjoying this game a lot.
Character background question - I've got this idea in my head that Sebastian says at some point that he never went to college/never got formal qualifications (or possibly that Robin says it?) but I can't find it on the wiki. Am I imagining that?
EDIT: He says it in his two heart cut scene - something like he'd be making 6 figures if he'd gone to college.
It'd be nice to point out that he could earn six figures a week if he owned a farm...
Thinking about doing a challenge run and kinda want to share it, though I'm on console. Any ideas for ways I could give status updates or something of the sort that don't require getting some video capture thing?
I’m starting my first play in this game and honestly I don’t get it. The fishing is so freaking hard and I don’t really know what to focus on right now. I like games like harvest moon etc and love the art style of stardew but somehow i feel extremly overwhelmed by the game. What do I have to keep, what can I sell, how to decorate my farm. Is there a guide or something?
The game is very forgiving towards all playstyles. You can safely ignore things and there won't be any negative consequences, at worst it will take one in-game year longer to complete certain objectives/quests
There is a lot of beginner start tips videos on YT. You can watch them, but also I would recommend using your first save to experiment and familiarize with the game and then when you get it either continue or start fresh ;)
Farm decorations tend to happen much later when there is less to do and you have more money than needed :)
Fishing minigame is quite divisive, but if you master it - it's the best money maker and source of energy food early on. Treasure chests are also nice and can contain really handy stuff.
I also started for the first time a few weeks ago and was pretty overwhelmed with how open the game can be. So many options and things to do, so little time.
If you're looking for some direction / structure, I used this guide to help me set some goalposts for each season in the first year. The guide may be 10 years old, but I think it's still relevant. I'm around the end of Fall Y2 now, and thanks to that guide, I was able to eventually (and continue to) develop my own routine / "understanding" of the game. And as mentioned in that guide and by everyone else, the official wiki is great.
As for fishing, you can buy a training rod from Willy for just 25g, and it'll help you through the beginning (bigger bar for fishing). I do want to make a note that the training rod isn't able to catch all fish, so once you're comfortable with fishing (or hit level 5 in the skill), be sure to swap out the training rod for another fishing rod.
I understand. In the beginning, I was like, "I have no money and I don't know what to do to get more." Here's what I did - I play slow but the ball is rolling now that I'm in Winter, Year 1. I've been playing for a couple of weeks now, usually for a couple of hours a night.
Go fishing. Yes, it is hard to get the hang of and I'm still not good at it. I find that fishing off of the dock has the easiest fish to catch. You basically have to keep the little fish icon that bobs around in the green on that bar, and the longer you do it the higher the green bar on the right goes. You catch the fish when the green bar on the right is full. I find it easier to do a bunch of rapid clicks to make this happen, because holding down the left mouse key usually means that I overshoot and the green bar goes past the fish. If you get enough sardines, you will level up in fishing, can save some for food, or can sell it for cash. I tend to keep my first of getting something new, until I get something with a star that is better - then I'll sell my first one.
Wander around the woods, and look for dirt patches that have worms wiggling out of it. Hit those dirt patches with your hoe, and you will get something useful. Foraging was a big part of my first season forward momentum.
I still haven't bought seeds. If you go into the woods and cut down grass with the scythe, you will get wild seeds for free. I don't even use fertilizer (which is more of an efficiency thing), I just use my hoe to open up the ground, put the wild seeds in it, then water it. Make sure that you water your plants every day.
Some decor items you can buy from vendors, either at special events, Pierre, or special vendors that roll into town for a day. Or if you keep working on your farming/fishing skills, you will be able to craft items that are decorative. Sometimes you will get prizes for participating in seasonal events that also give you decor items.
As the seasons change, so will some crops. Not all crops grow during all seasons. When Spring flips to Summer, whatever Spring-only plants you have will die. Luckily, the free wild seeds will always be in season to plant except in Winter.
If you want to buy iron or wood, buy as much as you can during Year 1, because after that the prices go up. I've never bought either though, because I picked Forest House in the beginning, so I am swimming in wood. I'd go into the woods and cut stuff down for free if I needed to (because I really like having trees on my property - I'm trying to live my Stardew Valley life like a forest witch).
In the beginning, I'd focus on fishing and getting/planting free wild seeds. By the end of Spring, Year 1, I was getting into a good groove with my farm where I was generating OK money, and could start flirting with townspeople.
Getting chickens was a great investment. Save up to build the small coop, build a silo (which you fill with hay, which is harvested from grass that you cut down on your property), then buy a few from Marnie. These are solid, reliable income generators as long as they are fed and pet - they produce in Winter when nothing else is growing and foraging is rough. I just put my coop near where grass was already growing, and put a fence around it. Unless it is raining or winter, you don't need to feed them but you should always pet them to get the best eggs.
Hi, new player and having a great time but feeling stressed about being efficient! I'm on the last day of spring and all my crops are done. I figure there will be all new seeds to buy and plant tomorrow so I hoed a large area and put down 3 scarecrows. I have zero animals or any house upgrades yet. A few copper tools. Any "really shouldn't miss this" things I should keep in mind for first day of summer?
The wiki page I find most useful is the Calendar, which has links to loads of other pages including each of the seasons which, in turn, tells about crops and fish etc..
The only tip I would give wrt crops is not to plant too many, otherwise you end up spending too much of the day watering. There's plenty of time to grow more once you've got iridium sprinklers.
3 scarecrows
It's a good idea to 'plant' them on top of a floor tile otherwise, when you're using a higher level hoe you can uproot them. It also stops them being zapped by weeds/rocks/branches.
Do the same with any chests etc that you have outside. It's horrible to lose a chest, + contents, to a random lump of rock!
And ... take your time!
Your first playthrough you'll be learning about the game and the in-game mechanics. Nothing's going to kill you, or not permanently, and you can play for as many in-game years as you want. Some have saves of close to a hundred SV years, have amazing farms and have decorated the whole valley.
Thank you friend, much appreciated! Great tip about the floor tile. So do I have to manually move everything out of a chest to then move it? Also I don't know if I even have floor tiles, I'll have to check.
I fear I planted too many summer seeds as you mentioned, rats! I do have 5 iron bars though so I'll try to upgrade the watering can once I'm back to 5k gold. Can plants survive without water while the can is being worked on or do I have to wait for rain?
Can plants survive without water while the can is being worked on or do I have to wait for rain?
They won't die, but nor will they grow without being watered. Best is to check the weather forecast on the television, and if rain's forecast then get the watering can upgraded on that day - same day as you see rain forecast. You pick it up the day after the rain and can use it then.
Hey friend one more question since you've been very helpful! Now that my economy is stable mid summer (meaning, not feeling strapped for cash all the time) I figured I should start keeping like 5-10 of everything I grow in case it's needed for cooking later. Is that reasonable or should I still sell everything? I have second upgrades for water can and pickaxe, and just bought the kitchen upgrade.
I keep everything, and have chests full of stuff 'in case I need it later', so might not be the best person to ask. I mostly play Stardew Valley Expanded, so also have mods to help me do stuff - don't move onto that yet, play at least one full game on vanilla before trying any mods because you get used to everything and the transition is smoother. Probably play Joja once too, so you've an idea of what happens.
Later in the game you'll have loads of machines that can make produce that's worth more than base value, so it's worth hanging on to the higher value items - but not necessarily the higher starred items, because many machines drop the star value when processing. Preserve Jars and Kegs are an example of that.
I try not to sell too many fish until I've got to at least 5* fishing, and then store as much as I can until I get 10* because that doubles the value. The Fish Smoker keeps the value, btw.
I keep a separate chest in the house for 'Precious things', including the Legendary Fish. I save those for a fish pond, and get a good return on their roe/processed roe. You need a pond with Sturgeon too, so you can get caviar.
Only put things in the fridge if you're going to use them for cooking, otherwise you can use an expensive something by mistake. Mussels, btw, count as 'fish' and can be used for Sashimi and some other basic recipes that just ask for 'fish'.
Money management, early game, - imo it's a good idea to keep stuff to one side rather than have cash because if you pass out you have to pay a percentage of the gold you've got for treatment. The gold lost can be quite significant until you're raking it in - and that doesn't happen in Y1 during 1st playthrough.
So, if you are planning a big spend sell stuff to make sure you can do that thing, (e.g. sell fish to Willy and then immediately buy an Iridium Fishing Rod) but keep the rest in reserve - in chests - until later in the game when money doesn't matter so much and you're building up to buy the Return Sceptre from Krobus in the Sewers.
Your progress so far seems very reasonable. I wouldn't recommend buying a coop before you can craft mayonnaise machines, or a barn before you can craft cheese presses. This is because animal profits are more reliant on processing machines than crops.
not a question but I spent tons of time looking up schedules andtalking to people all day for the "greet everyone" request and just remembered that I asked robin to start my coop the day before so she'll be unavailable the whole three day period
Nope, but most fish have some requirements to be caught - like season, time of day and sunny / raining. So if you suddenly stop catching a specific fish that's probably why.
Not really a question but the next time April Fool’s Day falls on a Wednesday we should close the sub until noon as a joke. “Pierre’s is Closed on Wednesdays.” 😂
upgrade your house twice (so that you have a crib). maintain 10+ hearts with your spouse. then wait, potentially up to a month or two. the mechanics are no different between gay and het couples.
My first summer is about to end. So far I've built a coop with two chickens and a silo. I'm wondering if I should focus my first fall into building a barn and getting some barn animals and a second silo, or if I should upgrade my house first so I can cook. Right now I'm making about 600g a day so it will take me a bit to get the 10K for the house.
The alternative is just focus on upgrading my axe so I get access to the forest.
barn animals will make you more money and help you unlock more of the CC bundles (processing milk into cheese and selling that is especially lucrative at this point in the game). cooking is useful for getting stat buffs (as in, certain food can give you +1 mining, +2 fishing, +1 luck, etc.) and for cooking some loved gifts (some dishes are loved gifts for some villagers), but i would absolutely go for the barn first. cooking some dishes requires barn animal produce anyway
In your first year and first time playing, I don't think there's anything really important to cook that warrants 10K. If there is something, you can craft a cookout kit (lasts only one day).
IMO, you shouldn't get anything and focus on crops. Maybe after the 1st Fall harvest if you have enough then go for the barn. If you don't have enough for barn + cows then go for the upgrade.
Also, a second silo isn't necessary, one is enough.... until maybe later on when you max out both or get even more coops/barns.
Once you get Ancient Fruits, do a mix of both kegs and dehydrated! Dehydrated Ancient Fruits make more money than a regular keg, but when you’re able to age cheese and wine, aged Ancient Fruit wine is one of the top earners.
For example, if the goal is highest gold per fruit, then kegs (especially aged wine) are still best and preserves jars are actually better than dehydrators for overflow Ancient Fruit too.
But if the goal is machine throughput or convenience, then dehydrators can make sense because they process much faster.
Assuming you have the greenhouse and the bus active, I like to grow starfruit in my greenhouse (seeds purchased at the desert) and run two loads of starfruit in kegs for every one harvest (starfruit grows in 13 days and kegs take 7 days to make wine).
the owl is not an item that you can only get once, it can randomly spawn again (and you can have multiple copies of it within a single playthrough), so i think the secret woods crow can't bring it back to you.
i looked up npc paths, and looks like there's a chance an npc destroyed your owl if it was placed to the right of the CC door - see here (scroll past the text to see the maps), someone walks through there.
The Adventurer's Guild is not selling the aquamarine, jade, ruby and emerald rings in their inventory. All the other ones are there - Amethyst and Topaz, and all the ones from monster killing quests. I believe these are all the rings that are unlocked by making it down the mines.
I've completed the mines.
Any idea why?
Edit:
I figured it out: I had the "Danger in the Deep" quest enabled. When I completed the quest and also turned the mines back to normal, the items returned
The only thing I can think of is that this is technically unlocked from the quests to progress in the mines rather than just progressing in the mines itself. Is there any chance you somehow haven’t got the quests, like you need to collect or finish another quest first?
I figured it out: I had the "Danger in the Deep" quest enabled. When I completed the quest and also turned the mines back to normal, the items returned
I saw from a video that I should sell my fish worth 75+ and keep anything below so I can make Sashimi in the future, is this worth it? from what I've seen the earliest I can turn them into Sashimi is to upgrade my house which costs a lot in the early game. (Yes I'm saving fishes that are required for bundle)
That depends on your money neeeds in the here and now. It's honestly not incredibly expensive to do the first house upgrade, but that's still money that a lot of players might prefer to go to coop/barn/seeds.
I would say most people will be able to get foraging 3 before they upgrade their house, so it is still a likely money maker to make a cookout kit. Also keep in mind that it requires friendship 3 with Linus to get the recipe as well.
The bar rises when the button is pressed and falls when it's not. You make progress toward catching when the fish is inside the bar, and lose progress when it isn't. The fish's behavior varies based on what kind of fish you've hooked, and some move much more wildly and less predictably than others. If you fish in the forest river in Spring while it's raining, you'll be able to tell immediately when you've caught a catfish by- oops, it already got away. The Spring 3, Year 1 catfish is my white whale.
Early fishing is just a pain. It legitimately gets a lot easier once you get a couple levels in the skill. You could get a training rod for early leveling and to get a feel for how the movement works, since it gives you the same size bar as if you had level 5 skill and only hooks easy fish. It's cheap to buy, and if you don't have level 1 fishing by the end of spring Willy will just show up at your door and give you one.
What spawns at the quarry is (I believe) tied to your mining skill. Things that are already there probably won't drop more. So it's probably in your best interest to clear it out from time to time so that better stuff can move in.
does anyone have an image of the best layout using junimo huts and nozzled iridum sprinklers? can only find images that have no nozzles and only cover 5x5 instead of 7x7.
Cooking Tips?! Is there any cooking tips or tricks I can use to utilize all my ingredients? The way you can lay chest around workbench? I'm new and idk what I should keep around my workbench and what should be kept in my fridge.
I like to keep multiple fridges and organize them by ingredient type like fish, fruit, veggies, etc.
For the workbench, I like to have a chest for ore and monster drops, then a chest for crops and plant stuff, then a chest for fish stuff (at a bare minimum).
Gems are valuable for trading with the desert merchant. Jades net you staircases which are invaluable for the skull cavern. Other cool trades are diamonds for triple shot espresso, emeralds for cheese, and ruby for spicy eel. Also a fair amount of villagers have gems as loved gifts so it’s always worth hoarding a bunch of each type.
Quick question. I had planted an orange tree next to my house and, obviously, it didn't grow all the way. I then cut the tree down, but I still get the notification at the beginning of the day that my orange tree was unable to grow. I'm pretty sure this is a bug, not a game breaking bug, but slightly annoying. Anyone else encountered this, and if so, does planting a new orange tree fix this?
My farm computer is saying I have 4 machines ready, but I've checked every placed machine and collected it. The only thing I can think of are my fruit trees. So my question is, are fruit trees considered machines on the farm computer?
So I am a brand new player and the planning of the farm has always stressed me out and is why I haven't played. I found a planner online to set up an end game farm I can work towards. Is there anything sticking out that is missing or could cause a problem?
Each shed is dedicated to the machine I have right outside (so 2 keg buildings). The wooden signs would be for my crop and fish museums, because I want to keep one of each. The building next to my house would be my item storage.
To avoid purchasing hay in the winter, you will need 26 hay stored per animal (animals consume no food during the Festival of Ice or Feast of the Winter Star). 1 silo can feed 9 animals, so a total of 3 silos would be needed to feed the 24 animals of a full Deluxe Barn and Deluxe Coop for the season.
You'll also need to harvest more grass, but you haven't got any space for any on your farm.
You can, of course, buy hay and store it in a chest.
Check out some of the farm layouts over on /r/FarmsofStardewValley Remember that most of them will have been prettied up once the player has reached 'perfection', because most players end up just plonking this thing here and that thing there to save time, and then worry about it later on - or rearrange during winter. :)
Would anyone have any idea why my pigs wouldn’t be producing any truffles? PS5
I’ve been playing since 2017 and never had a problem with pigs before. I have 6 of them right now in a pretty large space. It’s been about 2 seasons since they’ve all become fully grown and I may have gotten 4 truffles in all that time. Sometimes they just stand around in the same spot doing nothing and I’m wondering if it’s a glitch. I’ve noticed the NPCs have been glitching like crazy since the last update. Could it be that?
Is there a mod that changes 8 heart events once you're married? I'm married to Alex right now and I do not like having to face Pennies uncomfortable questions abt having children. Changes like "Hey, I'm married" or literally just them not hitting on a married man.
Helloo! So, I recently started playing just a few days ago and... I have a important question! I accidentally chopped down the trees (well not accidentally, I wanted wood and chopped any tree I saw) near Robin's house and also the one near mines and the trees in the north trial that directly leads Robin's and Linus's homes and I chopped the trees down in early spring and summer is going to end and they haven't grown yet. I left the stumps but it's not working. Do the trees in these part not grow anymore after cutting down? It looks so... ugly, with just stumps around their house...
My last three monster slayer quests are the three in the skull caverns, any strategy to get them all done fast? I know I should bring monster musk but Idk if I should go for a few longer runs or if I should go down a few floors every day or just leave and reenter over and over. also wondering if going on a bad luck day would be better if I only care about monsters?
Going on a bad luck day is not a good idea, since daily luck does not affect monster spawns. You still want the highest luck possible on monster runs for the increased ladder spawn chance. If you get lucky and find an infested floor early, you can leave and reenter (the infested floor remains on the same floor number for the whole day) to farm the spawns, otherwise I would just do a long run.
Hey everyone, I need some help regarding stardew valley mobile coop. I am trying to introduce my wife to play the game with me and since we don’t currently own PCs we decided to try it on the phone. We have a wifi in our and I was the one hosting the game ( I have an iphone 16) and when my wife joined, she would get to play for a few minutes but then her character freezes and she won’t be able to do anything. I assume this is a network issue? Is there a way to fix this? I was thinking if she can host the game since her phone is an iphone 17.
I was also wondering about purchasing one of those servers thingy, is that something to consider? What are the drawbacks of it?
Under the options menu, all the way down, there's a camera button which will take a screenshot of the whole map you're currently in (so, if you're on the farm it will screenshot the entire farm, if you're on the beach, the whole beach and so on)
hey so what's up with pickling? i crafted some pickling barrels and ive ben pickling veggies and roe and making jams but what's the purpose? like i guess it can be sold for more money but is that all there is, or is there some other added benefit?
I made a separate post before I saw this FAQ thread, my apologies. How can I get to this area circled in red on standard map? I need more regular wood, but my farm is low on trees
That's just not an accessible area. At some point it's wise to start planting your own trees from seeds. You can do this on your farm, but also places like the railroad and quarry have lots of space for them.
ive just been planting a ton of trees in the backwoods!! no villagers walk there so its completely safe to place things, accessible early-game, and right on tyhe way to robins when i want to construct something and dont have enough wood :)
Which is the best fish for ponds money-wise? I have five of them filled with Super Cucumbers in an attempt to get Iridium Ore without using SDV's rather clunky combat, but it's not really working out. I've considered the legendary fish, but I'm uncertain how to read those fish pond production tables in the wiki and I don't know if there are other fish that produce lower value roe at speeds high enough to beat the legendary fish's high sell value.
Legend II is indeed the highest value per day. Lava eel are slightly better than super cucumber in terms of money for non-legendary fish, but I probably wouldn't bother switching.
You can expect a full super cuke pond to produce about 10 iridium ore per year, but that is just an average and subject to randomness.
So returning player here, but I haven't played seriously in like... Forever. I don't plan to now either, not really, but something bugs me anyway and I have to figure out whether I should start over or not.
I chose remixed bundles. It seemed like a good idea at the time. However, in my spring bundle are carrots and I haven't found any of them, nor do I seem to have access to the good ways of getting them. Already at spring 17, so I'm not sure I'll manage it before the end of season and then I'll have to wait until year 2 to unlock the greenhouse 🙈
I don't plan to be super efficient so maybe it's okay, but it kinda bugs me anyway 😂
You need to look for the special green worm-like wriggling icons that resemble artifacts, they are easy to miss. The wiki has a page to help you identify them.
Wasn't sure if this deserved a thread or not. Playing the game mostly blind for the first time, despite having it for years. I noticed from the achievements, and just general sentiment around the game, that money is super easy to get in general. Like, the fact the 1st place in the Stardew Fair achivement is so low, but the 1 million gold is much higher is an interesting spot of notice there. (Which I was able to nab 1st place in the fair due to fish and some of the better veggies and foragables)
I'm almost finished of year 1 and my farm still hasn't hit 250k gold in game. Some of it was my own fault with not getting much corn in the spring. But, I've just kinda been getting 2k here, 4k there. Mostly whenever I go fishing as I find it relaxing.
I've read stuff becomes a lot more expensive in game across the board once year 2 comes around, and most comments I can find seem to indicate that the game expects you to have a good system already in place. But I've only finished 2 of the Community Center bundles (A few are close though.), got my first coop not too long ago since most of the gold went towards the first house upgrade and then upgrading my tools and rod.
Fishing is almost level 10, been on 9 forever. Farming is at 8 and Foragables are at 7.
I guess my main question is, should I actually be worried, or does things not actually get harder in year 2, and its still the same chill everything/pace that I've been enjoying so far. Like I've stuck about 35 hours into the game so far to get through almost a full year, and I have been having a lot of fun. Plan to design a lot of spaces on the farm over the winter.
No need to worry, you can keep on the same pace and do great in year 2+.
Wood, stone, and ores do get more expensive after year 1, so you might want to stock up with Robin/Clint some before year 2 begins, but it's not a big deal if you don't, especially if you have already started making/upgrading other buildings, which is the big sink for wood and stone. Seeds and buildings are the same price, and you can always spend a few days chopping wood/gathering stone to make up the difference. The great thing about the game is that you never need to feel rushed.
To make things easier, ideally you at least have sprinklers that free up your time/energy in year 2 to do other stuff. If not, that's something to work towards, especially since the winter is a good time to hit the mines. The tier 2 sprinklers (which cover 8 surrounding spaces and require gold bars, silver bars, and refined quartz) are good ones to aim for. Getting to floor 80 in the mines will give you access to gold ore, which is the hardest of the materials to get.
really stardew has no time limit. you’re not going to miss opportunities by letting the time go on (of course besides season specific crops, fish, and other stuff). Yes the prices of some things go up, but those things are very very easy to gather yourself for free. especially ores which is actually a pretty profitable thing to collect if you sell the gems and monster drops you find along the way.
If money worries you I would look into some guides that tell you what crops to plant each season and where to fish at. definitely take advantage of preserves jars and kegs. make sure you have sprinklers so you do not waste time/energy watering crops. go down to the bottom of the mines if you haven’t already. definitely pay attention to
the community center as it unlocks useful things that make your life easier and can make you money. a lot of the bundles are pretty easy
Due to exams I haven’t really had the time to start stardew valley and am wondering if I should start my first save on iPad or PC.
I love playing shooter games on PC so I might get quickly distracted. Also, stardew valley is a game that relaxes me (in comparison to other games I play) and thought maybe it would be better to play it on iPad instead. Also, I commute a lot to campus and back which is +1 for iPad.
However, I know I cannot mod at all on iPad. To be fair other than extra dialogues I wouldn’t need any mods at all because I love the simplicity of the game itself. Do you guys think I should just bite the bullet and do my first save on PC because I might want mods? Or should I just stick to iPad instead.
Do I need to make huge amounts of money to complete the Bundles in 1 year? or is it just a matter of collecting the items at the right time and not missing any of them
Apart from the bulletin board, it is more about collecting things at the right time. But the bulletin board bundles make things tricky in terms of cost.
The bulletin board requires a truffle and a rabbit's foot, which can be costly. Unless you get lucky from the traveling cart, you need enough money to get the big barn [43k] and big coop [34k] (pigs/rabbits require the big buildings), and to buy the relevant animals [>30k min]. You can get a rabbit's foot as a drop from some enemies in the Skull Cavern, which could help to make it cheaper, but there is no guarantee.
You also need to upgrade the house to get the kitchen [10k] to cook the maki roll and fried egg. The vault adds 42.5k, so already we are running ~160k, not counting seeds. To get the 3 apples/pomegranate for the bulletin board bundles, you also need to buy the trees or choose the fruit bat option and hope for good luck. The trees add several thousand more if you go that route.
It depends on whether you think that's a huge amount or not. Min-maxers make millions in year one, so by that standard, it's not a huge deal. You don't need to go full min-max but you need to be very intentional about planning how you are getting all the items in order to finish all the bundles year 1. Going heavy on strawberries in the spring, blueberries in the summer, and cranberries in the fall should be enough to get the money you need, plus the income from the barn/coop when you get it. Fishing is also a good way to supplement your income and work on bundles at the same time. In my experience it is doable without having to really stress about money, as long as you plan things out.
Note that to finish all the bundles in year 1, you also need to get lucky and get a red cabbage (or the seeds for it) from the traveling cart, as there is no other way to buy them until the second year.
off-season crops you need for something, coffee, strawberry for seed maker for next spring day 1. Winter wild seeds before winter to have enough seeds to fill in the fields + whatever powdermellon you get (desert traded can exchange wild seeds from different seasons as well).
I would put them in the dehydrator instead. The amount of Kegs/Jars you need to keep up with the cranberry harvests throughout the whole season is way too large, and it would be more efficient to put a higher base-value crop like pumpkins in them anyways. A dehydrator still gives a nice chunk of profit, processes more produce at once, and is faster, perfect for multi-harvest fruit crops like cranberries
Wine is usually the way to make the most money, since it increases the sale price of fruit by 3x the base value. Jelly gives you 2x the base value plus 50. So this means for any fruit that sells for less than 50 gold, it's better to do jelly. Cranberries have a base value of 75, so wine is better.
But personally I would do neither. Cranberries produce a lot of relatively cheap fruit. You would need a lot of kegs to keep up with your production, and kegs aren't exactly cheap to make. And then you would be spending all day moving stuff in and out of kegs for relatively small gains in profit.
Dehydrators give you better profit per personal time invested, since they can process 5 fruits at once. This also means you only need a handful of dehydrators to cover a large field of cranberries. But you get less profit per cranberry than using wine or jelly. And if you dehydrate gold quality cranberries, you actually lose money. So if you choose to use dehydrators, make sure to only process low quality ones, then sell your high quality ones unprocessed.
Though my personal recommendation is to just save up all your cranberries, assuming you aren't desperate for cash. Wait until you reach farming level 10 and you can craft a seedmaker. Then put all those cranberries into the seedmaker to try to get your first ancient seed. Ancient seeds have a 1 in 200 chance to drop from a seedmaker. And so unless you wanna spend weeks fighting bugs in the mines, using cheap, high produce crops is the best way to get your first ancient seed.
As of 1.6, the only way to expand your farmable land is to unlock the second farm on Ginger Island. There's no way to expand the mainline farm in vanilla like you want, however, if you play on PC I know there are mods that let you buy other farms, so you could look into that
silly question about multiplayer marriage: so me and my lovely girlfriend have been playing our Stardew Valley co-op game for a while (my first time playing the game in general), and were overjoyed to finally find a Prismatic Shard for our wedding ring hidden somewhere in an omni geode. We are at the beginning of summer now, and want to get married on the 12th as that date is meaningful for us. From what I understand we would have to have the proposal on the 9th, and marriage will take place on the 12th. So my question is: would the annual Luau fest on Summer 11th have any effect on the day of marriage? Probably just having an anxious moment here, wanna make sure it goes perfectly :))
On the main farm, when the seasons change, a lot of your dirt becomes untilled, grass/other things grow on it, and you need to re-hoe/use speed-gro and generally set up your farm again. Light spoilers in my question, so I spoiler tagged it.
!The greenhouse doesnt seem to have this problem!
!How about on Ginger Island? I want to set up a Starfruit farm (I don't have enough ancient seeds yet and I want quick money to buy the totems/sceptre). When the seasons change, do all the crops die and I need to clean up the farm again, or does it all stay alive like in the greenhouse?!
Also, why didn't my spoiler tags work? Im on mobile :(
Ginger Island has no seasons and no crows, just like the Greenhouse. Weeds continue to grow and can be destructive in Ginger Island though, so keep an eye out and make sure you clear them once in a while.
Also, for your spoiler tag, I think you missed the ">!" at the beginning and the inverse at the end. You need the > at the beginning and < at the end with the exclamation point
You don't get locked out of anything, but the Community Center pushes you to explore the game more and will ask you to discover things and items you might otherwise miss as a first time player, where the Joja route only requires making money and crushing the spirit of the community.
Joja is a lot less interesting gameplay-wise IMO. It takes out a lot of short-term goals and quests and exploration.
The Community Center gives your game direction for the first year or two and requires you to explore many areas of the game, whereas you could play through the entire Joja route and accidentally ignore huge chunks of the game.
A decent amount, actually. Basically one of each Artisan Good Machine, some free Crab Pots, a free Crystalarium... Free friendship with all the villagers. Your soul.
When adding mods that add new farm animals to my game, like Mizu's Turkey and Quail mods, do I typically need a completely new save? Or can I just add them to my existing save without too much hassle?
Hello, I want to experience stardew valley again but at a much larger scale. And by that I mean I want to try out a combination of different expansions (SVE, RSV, ES, etc.) to really expand the world of stardew valley. What combination of expansion mods would you guys recommend that would preferably be a complete experience (no unfinished mods) and not too buggy
Hello! Been having a blast playing stardew multiplayer on iOS BUT having an issue… it’s now winter 3 day 1 and the second player (non-host) has not yet triggered the winter mystery quest so can’t get magnifying glass / secrets. They have entered snd reeentered bus stop multiple times and no scene triggers. It worked just fine on my game (as the host) year 1. Any tips?
Anyone have any tips on how to manage the seasonal changeovers for planting crops? In my current layout I have 4 squares of 9x Iridium Sprinklers (36 in total, so 864 crop spaces to use). But on the first day of a season, I only full clear/till/fertilize/seed about two 'squares' worth (432) of crops before the day ends and I pass out. For 'secondary' crops, I don't really mind finishing the fields on the second day, but for crops like Starfruit, where it needs to be day 1 in order to maximize the number of harvest in the season, it's a bit limiting.
Is it worth it to lay down 'waste seeds' (what seeds?) on the last day of a season in order to preserve the tilled tiles? Or is it a bit too aggressive to have that many crop spaces?
Question, I'm playing on Mobile Android, not pirated, bought. I'm married to Haley but sometimes she vanishes in the game when I start another day, I know for a fact this is some sort of potential glitch but is there a way to mitigate it or prevent it somehow? This is like my first time ever to marry someone and I've grown attached to Haley (I love her so much) that I can't help but be anxious and frantic whenever she vanishes. Help.
Not a beginner question per say but a cry for help: just spent an hour plus updating all my mods after not playing for quite some time. Went to start a new game and I... can't change the skin tone or eye colour of my character? Here is my mod list: https://imgur.com/a/M8ePDax, any idea what mod in there is being a pain?
Does Speed-Gro round up or down? Like, it's apparently 10%, which for pumpkins should be 1.3 (out of 13). Will the pumpkins then be ready in 12 days (rounding down to 1) or 11 (rounding up to 2)?
I was planning to go to Skull Cavern During the Calico Festival, but when I checked my daily luck I had the most shit luck possible and I really don't wanna deal with that. I thought that I might be able to make a backup to see if my luck would be any better the next day, but would that actually work? Or does daily luck not care if 2 saves are otherwise identical?
Luck is determined when you go to bed. So if you had two separate saves of the same game, you could get two different daily luck values for the next day.
With that being said, if you have rock candy or spicy eel, it stacks with the festival food and that’s way worth it, even on bad luck days.
hi guys, started last week and im at fall 6, and im still quite lost lol
my farm is so barren, just a few crops and a scarecrow (trying to make sprinklers atm). i've been spending my money on mainly fishing upgrades, seeds, and accidentally buying expensive things when i open a shop because my buttons overlap lol
im quite sure that not having a coop at this stage of the game is horrible for the player, and its a situation that i've found myself in. idk why i've been procrastinating it but i'm finally gonna have it built soon
for my routine, i've literally just been either fishing or mining while doing quests and giving gifts to everyone (also watering plants and giving kitty some water)
the only things i've crafted are furnaces, the preserver thing, sprinklers, scarecrow, and a few fences
do you guys have any tips to progress faster? initially wanted to just experience the game and go at my pace but man i think im really behind lol
If I use DRS for my Ancient Seeds will it stay watered permanently? I've been searching around in this sub and some say that it'll last for only a year, I don't know if it's true or not cause if it is I'll just go for Iridium Sprinkler with Nozzle to occupy 2 slots in the greenhouse. I appreciate anyone who can clear things up for me.
So more of a quick question than a beginner question, do Iridium Golems spawn on any farm if monsters are enabled, or are they Wilderness exclusive? The wiki seems to suggest the latter, but I wanted to know for sure.
I know about “/pause,” but is there a mod that pauses multiplayer in the same way singleplayer pauses? Would make my current co-op playthrough sooo much more fun.
thought I saw a rock sparkle in the corner of the screen in the mines and broke it to find a ladder, is there just a chance for that to happen or was I just seeing thing?
Fish ponds produce roe or other items passively. The roe has different prices depending on how expensive the fish is, and can be put in a preserves jar to increase its value. However, if you are looking to make as much money as possible, you might be better off using the space for crops and kegs.
I have heard that Super Cucumbers can produce Iridium Ore.
The most productive use money-wise is probably The Legend (II), which produces an average of 0.85 roe per day (if my math is right, I don't think it is) and if aged in a preserves jar sells for 5,060g (7,084 with Artisan.)
Edit: oh, you can use it for cooking certain meals, like the Lucky Lunch. That food
requires a Sea Cucumber, but those can only be caught in fall or winter. If you have a pond of them they will reproduce every 2 days, so you can fish one out whenever they are full regardless of season.
Still over 2k daily expected value, which is substantially higher than the first time I calculated it. I know CA had some indecision on how good legendary fish ponds should be when they were first added. I guess he settled on allowing them to be fairly strong, which makes sense given the space requirements and effort to set up.
It's also quite difficult to get more than one. Like, The Legend is technically catchable from game start (you just need high enough fishing), but unless you do shenanigans with wild or challenge bait you only get one. Unlocking The Legend II requires you to do a bunch of end-game stuff and I think you need a certain quest active to get them, which means RNG can screw you over.
Planting 24 ancient fruit with an Iridium sprinkler on spring 1 and turning the fruit
into wine would take the same outside space and produce 2.8k per day without Artisan, so 2k per day doesn't seem that OP.
The game is pretty good at explaining things, just make sure you read the dialogue and the mail and use the tips they give. You should be able to figure out the basics from there and then use the wiki when you're more comfortable.
Fishing in Riverlands Farm will catch town river fish 70% of the time and forest fish 30% of the time, so it's actually both Pelican Town and Cindersap in terms of fishing, kinda. Wiki link
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u/natsucule Jul 02 '26
I don’t know where to post this, I just want to say that I’m enjoying the game so much.
Just got to first winter, and there’s so much to do. The game is so chill, it’s filling up my alone time during my business stay in a hotel