Poll of the Day > Stardew Valley Players... Tips, please...

(+) Yeah! (+)

I was wondering if any of the veteran players had any tips for newbies...

Also, a couple questions:

-Other than for marriage, should I get my relationship high with characters?

-What are some things I should upgrade first?

-What are some of the best things to grow?

-Going through the mines is good, right?

Maybe more questions later...
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*tosses $2*
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Building a relationship with neighbors will unlock their cutscenes and give new dialogue to learn more about them. They'll also send you recipes. Not the biggest priority imo

Aim to build a silo so you can store hay for the winter. After that it's worth upgrading tools. I'd say the hatchet and pickaxe are high priority upgrades. Once you have more crops though it's worth investing in the watering can and hoe

For crops, the best ones depend on the season. Spring, I think it's strawberry, but you can't get those until the end of the month. Summer, I think it's blueberries. Fall, I think it's cranberries.

Mines is where you get ore to upgrade tools/build furniture, best days to visit are when it's raining since you won't need to spend time watering crops.
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I see. I was wondering because someone said your relationships get worse when you don't talk to them. But they are all over the place. It would take a whole day to talk to them all the time. Maybe I'll do a few at a time or something... I would like more recipes and cut scenes are fun...

I can get the silo from Robin, right? I think she builds all the structures. She built a chicken coop for me. Also, the animals are good to have, right? So far, I only have one very young chicken...

And I do have copper bars. I made a bunch for tool upgrading. I think that's what Clint the blacksmith said to do.

Yeah. The strawberries were good. But you can't get them until the egg festival, I believe. I do have blueberries, though. It's summer right now.
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Animals are great because they keep giving you stuff to sell or craft into artisan goods.

One priority I recommend working towards is getting the money/resources to upgrade your house so you can start cooking. Thatll help you by giving you a good source of health replenishment in the mines and some of the dishes you can make give you helpful buffs.

I dont think you have to talk to characters constantly to keep a good relationship going with them. I just make sure to give them a gift on their birthday and I talk to everyone on holidays. If theres someone you want to romance then you want to give them a couple gifts that they like each week. Youll eventually find notes that tell you what different characters like
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I do want to upgrade the house. But 10,000 is a lot. Like, I can get a lot on some days. But there's always stuff I need to buy. Like more seeds or other upgrades/buildings/etc... But I am trying to save up for at least the first house upgrade...
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Also, what's up with the random wild animals? Am I suppose to do something with them?
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look through the garbage cans when no one is around, unlock the bridge by the beach asap and ignore the quarry up north, it's stupid
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I haven't played it yet but I'm 100% certain sweet potatoes are the best produce to grow. I mean, they are in Harvest Moon Back to Nature so they have to be the best in this game!
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deadpigs101 posted...

look through the garbage cans when no one is around, unlock the bridge by the beach asap and ignore the quarry up north, it's stupid

I actually recently checked the trash cans. Haha. Found nothing, though. And I rebuilt the bridge already.

AllstarSniper32 posted...

I haven't played it yet but I'm 100% certain sweet potatoes are the best produce to grow. I mean, they are in Harvest Moon Back to Nature so they have to be the best in this game!

But I dont have any sweet potato seeds!
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Dont bother with Journey of the Prairie King unless youre a masochist.
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LinkPizza posted...

But I dont have any sweet potato seeds!

Spend all of your money on them!!!
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AllstarSniper32 posted...

LinkPizza posted...

But I dont have any sweet potato seeds!

Spend all of your money on them!!!

I see. Put all my eggs into one basket to maximize profits!
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LinkPizza posted...

AllstarSniper32 posted...

LinkPizza posted...

But I dont have any sweet potato seeds!

Spend all of your money on them!!!

I see. Put all my eggs into one basket to maximize profits!

That's the way of life!
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-Other than for marriage, should I get my relationship high with characters?

yes for the fluff and the cutscenes and all that. Not much outside

-What are some things I should upgrade first?

Backpack and your tools, all of them asap

-What are some of the best things to grow?

strawberries, tomatoes, blueberries, cranberries, starfruit

-Going through the mines is good, right?

yes only for the upgrade materials, if you're in it for the $$$, not all that worth it on a nice day. On a rainy day, sure
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I played this for a bit and it's pretty good but man that fishing system needs to go. Like the one aspect not copied from Harvest Moon and it's really frustrating trying to catch anything.
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Black_Crusher posted...

I played this for a bit and it's pretty good but man that fishing system needs to go. Like the one aspect not copied from Harvest Moon and it's really frustrating trying to catch anything.

No way, the fishing system is great and easy to do. You just suck at it and probably don't understand how it works. A lot of people seem to not get it.
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LinkPizza posted...

-Other than for marriage, should I get my relationship high with characters?

Relationships really only give you story scenes, and eventually recipes. Unless you're in 100% mode and trying to get EVERYTHING, you don't really have to worry about it at all until later. The only problem you'll really have is completing missions (if you have to deliver something to someone, and they hide in their room, you won't be able to get to them unless you have at least two hearts in relationship), but you can almost always find people somewhere at some point - no one stays in their room 100% of the time. The only major issue there is you should become friends with Marnie (2 hearts) for a later mission where you have to get into her bedroom.

Worth noting - at some point you'll be able to build Crystalariums. Build a shed and fill it with them (I usually make about 30). Throw a Diamond into one, then keep filling the others every time you get a new Diamond. In a short period of time, you'll be getting 30 Diamonds every week or so. As most people in town like (or even love) Diamonds, you can hand them out like candy and get everyone to love you pretty damned fast.

Also remember to keep an eye on the calendar, and make sure to gift people on their birthdays. Doing jobs for them on the bulletin board can also help, as can doing well at the Luau or finishing the one collection in the community center.

LinkPizza posted...

-What are some things I should upgrade first?

Generally, upgrading isn't all that useful compared to leveling skills (ie, watering plans at the start takes way more energy than it does later once you've improved your Farming skill). You generally want to upgrade your pickaxe the most (depending on where you are in the mines - the deeper you go the harder the rocks get, so the better your pickaxe should be), and you might want to level up your wood axe a level just to speed it up some (though you'll need to level it twice to take out all stumps and logs to get hardwood and clear obstacles). I'd say don't bother leveling your watering can or shovel until you're flush with money you have no other use for (though the first level up is relatively cheap and easy).

Personally, I almost never upgrade the watering can, because I rush my way to 2nd tier irrigation and automate everything.


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LinkPizza posted...

-What are some of the best things to grow?

Spring Year 1 - start with turnips, then after you harvest them, dump all your resulting money into potatoes. Potatoes generate multiple crops per seed when harvested and grow quick, so they get you cash fast.

Hold on to your cash until the Egg Festival. Spend everything you can on strawberry seeds. Then plant them and harvest multiple times until the end of the season.

My usual cycle is strawberries in spring, blueberries in summer, cranberries in fall. You can save some strawberries from your harvests and use a seed maker to make seeds so you can plant them day 1 in Spring of Year 2. These will be your main money generators if you plant enough.

Two other considerations - in Spring and Summer, you can visit the Trader on Fri and Sun, and he sells Rare Seeds for 1000 each. Buy as many as you can as often as you can, then plant them in Fall. You need one of them to get a Stardrop, but they also have the largest profit margin of any plant you can grow. You'll get a huge windfall towards the end of Fall if you plant as many as you can (depending on how lucky you are, and how much free cash you have, you might be able to plant as many as 25 in a given year).

You may also want to find some Ancient Seeds. They're hard to find and entirely RNG-based, but if you dig enough worm spots or fish enough you might find one. The seed maker can also generate some by accident (and if you run a few dozen strawberries through seed makers to get seeds, you'll have a good chance of getting one then). Once you have one, don't plant it until you have a working greenhouse. Once you do, plant them in there, and as soon as the plant produces a fruit (it takes about a month), immediately feed the fruit back into the seed maker (which will give you 1-4 new seeds). Plant those in the greenhouse. Keep repeating this until the greenhouse fills with Ancient Fruit plants - depending on how you irrigate, you can have about 100 or so. These are pretty much the most lucrative crop you can grow (and if you use Kegs to turn them into wine and casks to age the wine, you vastly increase that profit).

My usual strategy once I have a greenhouse is to start with berries, constantly growing and harvesting to maximize income, until I get an Ancient Seed, at which point I slowly start to replace the berry bushes with Ancient Fruit.

You'll also want to plant other things, though, for doing occasional bulletin board missions as well as filling out collections in the community center. You'll want gold-star turnips, melons, corn, and pumpkins (only 3 out of the 4, but you need 5 of each one), which you can get with fertilizer. Caroline asks for a pumpkin at one point, Marnie will eventually want amaranth, and other people will ask for other things randomly. If you plant a couple of each plant type on the side, you should have enough of whatever you need for important things.


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LinkPizza posted...

-Going through the mines is good, right?

Yes.

Most of the gear you find there is only really useful FOR the mine, so you don't necessarily NEED to go there, but you're eventually going to reach a point where you want to build things for your farm that require metals, and buying them from Clint is a massive waste. So you're going to want to have access to the various levels where you can mine copper, iron, and gold. Plus Clint will often give you quests to bring him ore, and Lewis will give you quests to kill slimes, which are pretty good for income early on.

There's also a point where you'll find a stardrop, which gives you more energy, which can help you work longer.

Once the mines are open, you should pretty much go there any day when it's raining and you don't have to water crops. Even on "unlucky" days, you can still clear a few more floors and get deeper, which is useful because the elevator lets you keep your progress. I usually try to sprint directly to floor 90 or so (so I can get gold) as quickly as possible, which in turn allows me to build the irrigation I need, at which point I automate the farm (thus allowing me to do other things, like mining, fishing, and raising animals).



Black_Crusher posted...

I played this for a bit and it's pretty good but man that fishing system needs to go. Like the one aspect not copied from Harvest Moon and it's really frustrating trying to catch anything.

In my experience, it's super-difficult and really sucks when you first start, but as you slowly level up your Fishing skill, and get better fishing poles, it gets easier. The constant practice also helps.

By the end, I only really had a problem with the legendary fish and a couple other things, and even those were mostly covered by just tossing the lure in the pole that lets slows down the decay rate. It definitely seems more daunting than it really is, especially at first.


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there is no need to rush anything in this game.

nothing has a time limit.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

The only major issue there is you should become friends with Marnie (2 hearts) for a later mission where you have to get into her bedroom.

Yeah. Im actually getting her friendship up because I saw what was in her bedroom. I got lucky. I went there to buy some stuff and saw them. Because the letter didnt really give any hints or anything...
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Eventually you'll find a mineral in the mine called a Prismatic Shard, save the 1st one for when you fix the bus, donate the 2nd one to the museum
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What's the better choice between forester and gatherer?
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LinkPizza posted...

What's the better choice between forester and gatherer?

I think gatherer is better imo. No use in selling wood since you'll be using it for everything
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Bulbasaur posted...

there is no need to rush anything in this game.

nothing has a time limit.

Technically, there is - you're supposed to reach full "success" for your farm by the end of Year 2. Which requires a lot of points scored in a number of different ways, so it can require a bit of planning and time-management to get.

That being said, people were annoyed by that and the game was patched to allow you to redo the evaluation whenever you want, so now if it takes you until Year 7 to get everything done, you're still good. But some people might still want to try and beat the two-year time limit just for their own personal satisfaction.

Personally I usually try to get all of the crop-related collections done in the first year, along with most of the necessary farm buildings and irrigation, so year two winds up mostly being dedicated to animals and fruit trees (and finishing off the collections in the community center). I usually don't worry about relationships, cooking recipes, or fishing until Year 3 or later (if I bother with them at all).

But you're right, if someone wanted to literally just fish for two years before planting a single crop or ever going to the mines, you can do that too. The game is as casual or complicated as the player wants it to be.



LinkPizza posted...

Yeah. Im actually getting her friendship up because I saw what was in her bedroom. I got lucky. I went there to buy some stuff and saw them. Because the letter didnt really give any hints or anything...

The hint is mostly paying attention to conversations.

It's blatantly obvious Lewis and Marnie are "dating". So when he basically loses his boxer shorts, there's only so many places they could be. And once you're in her place they're really visible because they're bright purple. It's actually slightly more intuitive than finding Linus' basket or Robin's axe.

For funsies, if you get the boxer shorts you can put them in your grange display during the fair or drop them in the soup at the Luau if you want to cause shenanigans (but you won't get full benefits from those events you could get otherwise if you do).


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joemodda posted...

LinkPizza posted...

What's the better choice between forester and gatherer?

I think gatherer is better imo. No use in selling wood since you'll be using it for everything

I figured that, too. But I heard with forester, you can get a skill for more hardwood or something later. Like to get more. Which is useful... But I was thinking the same thing about how I wouldn't be selling wood...
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

LinkPizza posted...

Yeah. Im actually getting her friendship up because I saw what was in her bedroom. I got lucky. I went there to buy some stuff and saw them. Because the letter didnt really give any hints or anything...

The hint is mostly paying attention to conversations.

It's blatantly obvious Lewis and Marnie are "dating". So when he basically loses his boxer shorts, there's only so many places they could be. And once you're in her place they're really visible because they're bright purple. It's actually slightly more intuitive than finding Linus' basket or Robin's axe.

For funsies, if you get the boxer shorts you can put them in your grange display during the fair or drop them in the soup at the Luau if you want to cause shenanigans (but you won't get full benefits from those events you could get otherwise if you do).

You know, I did see them talking a lot. Like outside in town. I see it often. It did seem like something was going on. So that does make a lot more sense now...
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LinkPizza posted...

You know, I did see them talking a lot. Like outside in town. I see it often. It did seem like something was going on. So that does make a lot more sense now...

Marnie also has a line like "Lewis sure does have a big house, it's a shame he lives there all alone", and when the two of them are in the pub at night, they always sit together and the game says something like "They're too preoccupied to pay attention to you" when you try to speak to them.

I don't remember if they ever actually SAY why they feel like they need to keep their relationship secret (I think maybe Lewis says something at one point about how a mayor has to be impartial, maybe?), but there are definitely a few hints that they're hooking up.


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ParanoidObsessive posted...

LinkPizza posted...

You know, I did see them talking a lot. Like outside in town. I see it often. It did seem like something was going on. So that does make a lot more sense now...

Marnie also has a line like "Lewis sure does have a big house, it's a shame he lives there all alone", and when the two of them are in the pub at night, they always sit together and the game says something like "They're too preoccupied to pay attention to you" when you try to speak to them.

I don't remember if they ever actually SAY why they feel like they need to keep their relationship secret (I think maybe Lewis says something at one point about how a mayor has to be impartial, maybe?), but there are definitely a few hints that they're hooking up.

Just found a note in the Mayors room. Signed M... Also, hes apparently spending the night. The same day I gotnhe shorts. I could have left them there for him...
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What do you do with stuff like Jamborite and stuff that you cant use for recipes or anything after youve already given one to the museum?
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sell
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LinkPizza posted...

What do you do with stuff like Jamborite and stuff that you cant use for recipes or anything after youve already given one to the museum?

Save for gifts or sell. You'll occasionally need a few gems (like Topaz) for quests, so you might want to save some in a chest somewhere. And stuff like Earth Gems and Quartz can be used to build things, so you might want to save a few of those as well. I usually save about a dozen of each in a chest in my workshop area, then sell any excess.

(And if you're trying to date Abigail, give her your extra Amethysts.)

But nearly every non-gem mineral has almost no mechanical value (not even as gifts, for the most part), so just throw it in your sell box for a little extra cash. Or sell it directly to Clint if you need same-day money.


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ParanoidObsessive posted...

LinkPizza posted...

What do you do with stuff like Jamborite and stuff that you cant use for recipes or anything after youve already given one to the museum?

Save for gifts or sell. You'll occasionally need a few gems (like Topaz) for quests, so you might want to save some in a chest somewhere. And stuff like Earth Gems and Quartz can be used to build things, so you might want to save a few of those as well. I usually save about a dozen of each in a chest in my workshop area, then sell any excess.

(And if you're trying to date Abigail, give her your extra Amethysts.)

But nearly every non-gem mineral has almost no mechanical value (not even as gifts, for the most part), so just throw it in your sell box for a little extra cash. Or sell it directly to Clint if you need same-day money.

Yeah. I was keeping gems. I guess I meant more like Jamborite, Petrified Slime, chewing stick, etc... But I guess I can put them in my sell box.

Also, is it better to sell things directly. Like selling foods to Pierre, or gems to Clint. I like to sell the foods to Pierre directly because I wasnt sure if there was a sell difference. Plus, I can buy them back if absolutely necessary...
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LinkPizza posted...

Yeah. I was keeping gems. I guess I meant more like Jamborite, Petrified Slime, chewing stick, etc... But I guess I can put them in my sell box.

Yeah, I understood. I just wanted to clarify in case I said "Just sell all your minerals" and you misunderstood and thought that meant all minerals, and started selling off gems as well even though they can have some use.

But yeah, stuff like Jamborite is pretty much useless after you've given one to the museum. Marble does have use for one recipe if you want to build a brazier, but I think that's the only one.

I occasionally keep some artifacts and minerals for souvenirs if I get them, but there's no real reason to do so other than for aesthetic reasons.



LinkPizza posted...

Also, is it better to sell things directly. Like selling foods to Pierre, or gems to Clint. I like to sell the foods to Pierre directly because I wasnt sure if there was a sell difference. Plus, I can buy them back if absolutely necessary...

Selling to a store or putting stuff in your box gives you the exact same amount of money, so there's no real difference. It's mostly just deciding whether it's more convenient to sell to a store for instant cash or if it's just easier to throw everything in your box and get the money tomorrow.

Stores only have set hours, and each store only buys certain items, so the box might be the most convenient option - but there have definitely been times when I sell things to the shops instead because I absolutely need money that day (like selling crops to Pierre so you can buy more seeds to plant).


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