LogFAQs > #932546427

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Desert Merchant

A new NPC who admittedly doesn't have much in the way of dialogue but I wouldn't say that matters TOO much to me. The desert merchant is a very useful merchant, and I'm pretty sure also the person who shows up and gives you free coffee every day during the night market. Which is... really nice, and really cool. However, the really big thing, is the desert market stall itself. Man, I think it might be one of the best merchants in the game.

It is a little clunky because you have to 'trade' items for wares, but the Desert Merchant does carry a few very specific useful things that you'll always be coming back for. Such as trading those stacks of hundreds of quartz you've collected into Bombs.

Definitely don't sleep on the fact that you can trade a Ruby for a Spicy Eel -- a meal that gives +1 Speed and +1 Luck. Those are two bonuses you want to have in Skull Cavern. Although I think the Pumpkin Soup is arguably better, there's really no denying that for the value of a ruby (something I'd almost throw in the trash without caring) you can get bonus speed and luck instead. And Pumpkin Soup requires raising cows and growing pumpkins just for the sake of turning them into food, which can feel exhaustive and wasteful.

You can also get an Artifact Trove by trading in Omni Geodes. So instead of turning your Omni Geoge into stone and worthless minerals that you already have millions of copies of, you can get extra attempts to produce the more rare artifacts that you're likely struggling to find. I consider the normal Traveling Merchant to be one of the most useful NPCs in the base game. And I think ConcernedApe has done a really good job by making this new Desert Merchant probably one of the most useful NPCs in the post game.

You can also buy a special variant of the Mermaid Pendant that lets you marry Krobus. Hell yeah.

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Submarine Dude

Another new NPC who I guess I'm really just using as a stand in to talk about the Night Market. So there's a festival in fall now where several unique merchants show up at night for three days in a row and there's lots of cool stuff you can get there. In addition to a Mermaid show where you can get a Pearl for free, there's also the famous painter Lupini who sells unique art pieces for your house, as well as furniture and decoration vendors. The Traveling Merchant shows up for three days in a row with her cart on a raft, which is super convenient, and lastly is the Submarine.

The Submarine Dude will offer to take you to the ocean floor for only 500 gold, and you can fish down there for a while before needing to return back to the surface. You can cut it pretty close, especially since there's also a guy on the docks who will teleport you home, just be careful. Now you might be asking if 500 gold is really worth it just to fish for a few hours? Well... short answer is, yes. I've only done the Night Market once so far, and it was with a character who didn't even have max level fishing and I didn't even go prepared. Heck, I didn't even stay down there for the maximum amount of time. I still came back with around 2500 gold on my first trip! So you absolutely will make a profit as long as you're willing to spend 5 or 10 real life minutes fishing. Or however long it takes. I don't even know how Stardew Valley time converts to real time. In addition to the fact that all of the fish down there are profitable, many of the available ones are unique, and you have a small chance of catching another Pearl.

We're really at the point where I'm simply highly rating the NPCs that I think provide good utility and have cool designs, even if you can't actually go through the process of leveling up their friendship and viewing heart events.

- 21 -


Gunther

And continuing with that, we have Gunther who works at the Museum! The sad thing about Gunther is that he does have a little bit of dialogue, will send the player a few letters, and even has a couple of cutscenes... but for some reason he's one of the few characters who seems to live in Stardew Valley that you can't really get close to, and doesn't go to any festivals. Thinking about it that way makes it seem like Gunther is a bit standoffish but maybe he's just an introvert or something. He doesn't come across like he's super rude or elitist or anything like that so it's too hard to speculate beyond ... the effort to give him more dialogue and scenes simply wasn't put into the game.

Many of the artifacts and minerals you find are barely worth selling, if at all, but if you hand this literal garbage over to Gunther he'll display it in his collection. Bring him enough trash and he'll even give you decorations, seeds, and other things with actual value! Not much else to say beyond how obviously useful that is. He also eventually fulfills his dream of making the Stardew Valley Museum a recognized place, and comes to tell the player about the reward they received as well as thanking you for helping him make it possible.

You will also get a special key from him that allows you to meet Krobus. More about him later!


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now I only see your dull imposter
https://imgur.com/BYYr6fn