Stardew Valley is a slow and magical experience where you can do a lot, but you don’t have to do anything. Still, there are plenty of things to discover, figure out, and experience. To help you get off to a good start, we’ve put together some essential Stardew Valley tips for beginners.
Table of Contents
1) Getting Started
A New Life
The popular indie farming sim basically depicts the typical path of life. You work in a sterile environment most of the time. One day, however, you remember a letter you received on your grandfather’s deathbed. This letter is about the deceased’s farm, which you have inherited.
Without further ado, you quit your job, get rid of everything that keeps you down, and set out to accept your inheritance. However, the farm may not be what you expected as you find overgrown land and a ramshackle but cozy cottage.
First Tasks in Stardew Valley
At the beginning, you’ll receive a small gift. It stands in the middle of the room and contains some parsnip seeds. However, your farm is overgrown with weeds. Wood and stones are lying around, and trees and grass have grown wild. How you want to start is entirely up to you. You can begin by getting to know the villagers or explore the colorful world. However, our Stardew Valley tips are all about laying a solid foundation.
In this regard, you should start by creating a place where you can plant and water your parsnips. The best way to do this is to make 10 more fields of potato plants, which you can buy later at Pierre’s General Store. But first, you should collect at least 50 pieces of wood to build a crate. You can store all the items in it.
Then, go to the village and buy potato seeds at Pierre’s general store for the 500 gold starting capital. The shop is always open from 9 to 5. Wednesday is the day of rest. You can find the store north of the town square.
Which Map to Choose?
When you create your character, you can choose from 7 farm types:
- Standard farm: Lots of farmland – Best for farming skill
- Riverbed farm: Mostly water – Best for fishing skill
- Forest farm: Lots of trees and foliage – Best for gathering skill
- Mountaintop farm: Large mining area – Best for mining skill
- Wilderness yard: Monsters appear at night – Best for fighting skill
- Corner farm: Consists of 4 parts of farmland – Best for multiplayer
- Beach yard: Lots of open space and water – Best for gathering and fishing skill
💡 Tip: Check out our Stardew Valley Fishing Guide!
2) General Stardew Valley Tips For Beginners
Farm Layout
In general, Stardew Valley gives you a free hand in designing your farm. However, especially in the beginning, you should keep the paths as short as possible. It is also helpful to build paths early on. Simple wooden or stone paths are ideal for this. They will allow you to travel much faster. Short distances will also be important for animal husbandry later on. Everything you need for processing – jar, oil press, loom, mayonnaise machine, cheese press, etc. – should not be too far apart.
The same goes for frequently visited buildings such as stables. Silos, on the other hand, can certainly be placed somewhere on the edge.In addition, once you have some money, you should plan your farmland carefully. This will allow you to manage the efficiency of your daily tasks better. After all, you must care for irrigation, harvesting, animals, etc.
Tip: When planning your fields, always include space for your scarecrows.
Pay Attention to the Season
Generally, when farming, you should always pay attention to the growing season of the seeds you buy. This is because each type of plant has a different harvest time. Since a season is limited to 28 days, you can quickly run out of crops if you lose track of the growing season.
Upgrade Your Tools
It is also essential to upgrade your tools as soon as possible. Standard tools only work on one square in front of you. Upgrading your watering can or hoe will increase their range and make your work more effective. For example, with the copper upgrade, you can water a row of three fields; with the iron upgrade, a row of five fields; with the gold upgrade, a row of three fields; and with the iridium upgrade, a row of three fields.
The pickaxe improvements allow you to work more efficiently and destroy the large stone blocks. With the axe upgrades, you’ll need fewer blows to cut down a tree, and you’ll be able to chop up the various-sized woods in the secret forest and your farm.
Note: If you give Clint a tool to upgrade, it will be unavailable for two days! So it makes sense to wait until the end of the month.
Process Products For More Profit
Of course, you can sell everything you harvest or get from animals immediately. However, you should follow our Stardew Valley tips, as it makes more sense to process goods – where possible. For example, you can make cheese from milk, mayonnaise from eggs, jelly from blueberries, oil from truffles, or make your own wine. This will add even more value.
In addition, when you reach the 5th and 10th level of a skill, you can choose specializations. For example, the Farming skill at level 5 allows you to choose between Cattle Breeding (20% more yield from animal products) or Crop Farming (10% more yield from crops).
At level 10, depending on what you chose at level 5, you can select between Stable Master (halves breeding time) and Shepherd (more wool from sheep), Craftsman (40% higher value for crafted items), or Farmer (plants grow 10% faster).
Make the Best Use of Your Time
At least as important as the above is making the most of the time you have. For example, rainy days are great for exploring the mine or catching all those fish that only come out of their holes when it rains.
💡 Tip: Check out our article on how to make money in Stardew Valley!
3) Build & Manage Efficiently
Which Buildings Do You Need in Stardew Valley?
In general, you should always build what suits your gameplay. Since each animal eats hay once a day in winter, you can store the grass that grows on your land in the silos. But this will only happen if you build them beforehand. On the other hand, if your focus is on agriculture, completing the quests in the community center for the greenhouse would be more important. This will allow you to grow fruits and vegetables even during the winter.
If you are more interested in having a family and getting married as soon as possible, you should focus on upgrading your hut. This is a prerequisite for you to plan anything beyond a romantic liaison with one of the bachelors and bachelorettes.
What Is The Most Efficient Layout in Stardew Valley?
As mentioned before, the layout should be as short as possible. This is especially important for the stables in combination with the production tools. But also between the farmland and the pond to quickly fill your watering can. So everything you need for harvesting, gathering, or trading should be well planned together.
But the beauty of Stardew Valley is that you don’t have to. If you’d rather walk all over the farm to ride your horse to the river for a fishing trip, there’s no downside other than a little lost playtime.
4) Farming Tips and Tricks
Get Sprinklers
Your farming in Stardew Valley will be perfected with sprinklers. There are three different types of sprinklers:
- Sprinkler (production: 1 x copper ingot + 1 x iron ingot) – 4 fields (top, bottom, right, left)
- Quality sprinkler (production: 1 x iron ingot + 1 x gold ingot + 1 refined quartz) – 8 squares (around the sprinkler)
- Iridium sprinkler (manufacture: 1 x gold ingot + 1 x iridium ingot + 1 x battery) – 24 squares (2 squares around the sprinkler each).
These will be used for automatic watering in the morning. You can also use fertilizer to speed up plant growth. You have 10 variations to choose from, which you can also make yourself with the appropriate ingredients.
More Tips
Strawberries are the most lucrative crop in Stardew Valley. You can buy them for 100 gold each at the Egg Festival. It takes 8 days for a strawberry seed to be ready for harvest. After that, you can harvest strawberries every 4 days. The basic price is 120 gold. You also have a slight chance of getting 2 strawberries.
Recommendation: Save your money for strawberries in the second year and focus on finishing the greenhouse via the quests in the village center in the first year. Strawberries only bloom in the spring. So you would have to keep buying them. It makes more sense to grow them in the greenhouse. Don’t forget the sprinklers! This way, you can harvest, process, and sell them all year round without any real effort.
5) Friendships, Village, and Community
There are 6 bachelors and 6 bachelorettes in Pelican City. You can date, fall in love, get married, and start a family with any of them, regardless of their gender. You can also start a friendship with any villager.
Stardew Valley Friendship, Love, and Gifts
Your social bond with the people of Stardew Valley is shown on a heart meter that you can view in the in-game menu. Hearts are filled as you talk to people, complete quests, give them gifts or make decisions in Heart Events. At certain heart levels, special unique events are unlocked with that person. To conquer one of the bachelors or bachelorettes, you must fill the heart scale to 8 hearts.
You can then give them a bouquet, which you can buy from Pierre. This will unlock another two hearts. Once you have 10 hearts, you can buy a Mermaid Amulet on the beach right of Elliot’s house over the bridge, which is destroyed at the beginning. When given to your beloved, it will lead to a marriage proposal. After the wedding, two more hearts can be filled, and a 13th heart holds a special surprise.
What Can You Do at the Stardew Valley Community Center?
The Community Center is connected to a quest line, and you must complete each bundle. These include finding things, growing things, collecting things, or catching certain fish. The bundles also require you to bring some items to the community center for some villagers.
You’ll receive rewards for completing each community center bundle. For example, you can build a greenhouse on your farm or repair the bus stop. This is how you’ll get to the desert later on. Therefore, you should think about what you need for each bundle early on so that you don’t end up selling something you need.
6) Television and calendars
The calendar is a great way to stay up to date. Not only can you enter festivals or optimize your harvesting times, but it also shows you the birthdays of all the villagers. This is important for friendships. Each heart is worth 250 friendship points. If you give a person something they love, you get +80 friendship points. If you do it on their birthday, you’ll get +640 friendship points. In addition, the points increase with the quality of the gift.
For example, if you gave Hayle an iridium-quality sunflower on her birthday, you would receive 640 Friendship Points, plus another 320 based on the quality (normal +0%, silver +10%, gold +25%, iridium +50%). On TV, it’s worth watching every program once a day. They usually give you the weather forecast to help you plan your day better. There are also tips and tricks and a cooking show to learn new recipes.
Improve your Stardew Valley gaming experience with PLITCH!
If you don’t have enough time to play or just want to customize the game to your liking, you can always use PLITCH’s Stardew Valley cheats. The same applies if you’ve already played Stardew Valley and simply want to skip the beginning phase. Just download PLITCH, install the client, and enjoy!
To learn more about PLITCH, check out this blog and our YouTube channel!
Happy Gaming!
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