If you are new to Stardew Valley and looking for beginner-friendly tips and tricks to progress faster in the game, then this guide is for you.
Stardew Valley is a massive game packed into a tiny bundle that offers tons of activities to do, unlike many other simulation games from triple-A studios.
These tips will surely help you get a headstart in this immersive life sim. These are things that I have learned from playing this game and hope this guide will help you to survive.
1. Sleep Before 1 AM
The days in Stardew Valley last 20 hours of in-game time. That’s about 15 minutes in real-time. You will wake up at 6. A.M and at 12. A.M you will receive a notification that “It’s getting late to sleep”.
You should not stay up until 1. A.M otherwise you will faint. What you need to do is to start your day at 6. A.M and work as much as you can and sleep at least at 12. A.M.
2. Check The Calender in Pierre’s Shop Notice Board
If you need to be alert about the season festivals, birthdays, and quests, you can check the notice board which is on the outside of the Pierre’s shop.
3. Check The Fortune Teller Daily
Before you start your day, you need to check your TV for fortune tellers. It will say you if you have luck or not. If you have luck, you can decide whether you are going to do mining or fishing.
When you fish or mine on an unlucky day, you will face a tough time in mining and fishing. But if you can mine or fish during a lucky day, you will receive many items and at the end of the day a huge income also.
4. Cut Trees And Break Stones
When you first arrive at your farm, you will see that the entire farm is covered with stones, trees, and bushes.
You can cut trees using the axe, break stones using a pickaxe and cut bushes and grass using the scythe.
After cutting trees you can collect wood and seeds, breaking stones will provide you with stones, and bushes and grasses will provide you with hay and fiber.
5. Upgrade Your Tools
When you cut trees and break stones, you may have noticed that you can not break large stones and cut large trees using your tools. In order to cut and break them, you need to upgrade your tools.
You can simply upgrade your tools when you meet the blacksmith living below the Joja Mart.
To upgrade your axe to a copper axe, you need 5 copper bars and 2000g.
6. Mining
To get the copper for your upgrade process, you need to mine. During the spring of the first year, you will receive a letter about mining.
Mines are situated in the northern areas of the mountain. You will receive a rusty sword from Marlon to fight with monsters in the mines and you need to bring your pickaxe and food with you.
When you break stones and fight against monsters, your energy and health level will decrease. If you take food with you, you can eat it and survive.
If you haven’t energy or health or food with you, do not stay too much in the mines. If you ended up without health or energy, you will faint and will lose 2000g and the most valuable things that you have collected during the mining.
7. Build Furnace to Melt Bars
When you mine, you will get some minerals like copper, iron, etc. these raw iron ores or copper ores can not use to upgrade your tools. You need to melt them to get copper bars and iron bars.
To melt the ores, you need a furnace. To build a furnace, you need 20 copper bars and 25 stones.
8. Increase The Energy
When you do your daily tasks, your energy level will decrease. To gain energy, you need food.
You can make food if your cooking skills are leveled up. But if you are a beginner you can find some fruits from off-roads, purchase foods from the Stardrop saloon or consume what you harvest.
9. Collects Fruits And Flowers
When you leave your farm, you may have noticed that there are some flowers and fruits on the sides of the roads that you can easily pluck.
You can collect those fruits and flowers. Usually, flowers do not give energy and you can gift them to females on their birthdays. This will increase the relationship between you and others.
However, if you pluck fruits from the off-roads, keep them in a chest for mining because you can eat them to gain energy.
Also, the fruits and flowers such as grapes, walnuts, and daffodils are needed for the community center.
10. Cultivate Crops
One of the main tasks of Stardew Valley is to cultivate crops.
After you clean your garden area using an axe, pickaxe, and scythe, you can dig the garden using your hoe.
After digging, you can plant seeds.
11. Take Seeds From Pierre’s Store
After digging the garden you need to plant seeds. To plant seeds you should purchase them from Pierre’s shop.
Pierre’s shop is situated in the town square.
You can purchase seeds for that particular season from Pierre.
After purchasing, you can plant them in your garden and water them.
12. Seasons Last 28 Days
There are 4 different seasons in Stardew Valley, Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Each season will last after 28 days.
What you need to keep in mind is every vegetable, fruit, or flower plant that you planted in that season will die after 28 days.
But some plants can survive with some other seasons also. For example, corn can be planted during summer and fall.
13. Years Have 4 Seasons With Different Crops
As mentioned earlier, each year has 4 different seasons in Stardew Valley. These seasons have different crops to cultivate.
When you choose crops to cultivate, you need to consider the days that it produces a harvest. It will appear when you when to Pierre’s store to purchase seeds. When you click on the seeds it will appear the dates that want to give the harvest.
So, consider the time that the seed produces a harvest.
14. Water Your Plants Everyday
You need to water your plants every day otherwise they will not grow. If it is a rainy day then you should not water.
If you have big cultivation, you may have faced a problem with watering it because it will take almost the entire day to do it and your energy will be reduced. What you have to do is upgrade your watering can.
You want to gather copper bars and 2,000g and visit the blacksmith. After that, you can upgrade it.
A copper watering can help you to water 3 tiles at one time.
Also, you can craft water sprinkles to water your plants. You can create sprinkles using a copper bar and iron bar which you can water 4 adjacent tiles. Also if you can craft quality sprinkles or iridium sprinkles, you can use them to water 8 and 24 tiles.
15. Sell Items
You can sell the items you produced by putting them in the box near your cabin. Or you can directly sell them to Pierre as well.
Also, you can sell your fish at Willy’s shop as well. These are some of the quickest ways to make money in the game.
16. Fishing
Fishing is another task of Stardew Valley. You can simply go fishing with a fishing rod.
On the second day of spring in the first year, you will receive a letter from Willy to meet him at the beach and when you meet him, you will receive a bamboo pole. This can be used for fishing.
When you level up your fishing skills, you can purchase better fishing rods from Willy’s shop.
17. Fishing In Different Places
There are many lakes, canals, and beaches in the game where you can fish. What you need to know is, you can catch different types of fish in different areas and at different times.
For example, you can catch eel only in the sea at night. You can catch carp fish from the mountain lake. But you can not catch an eel from the mountain lake. Also, you can catch squids from the sea only during the winter season nights.
There are some famous fishing spots like the fishing spots near Lia’s cabin, north of Joja Mart, east of Willy’s shop, etc.
You should fish in all those spots to catch fish. Because there is a special bundle in the community center that you have to fill from the fish from different places and times.
18. Collect Forageable On The Beach
The beach area in Stardew Valley is rich in many foraging items. Collect those items.
Some of those items such as clams, mussels, cockles, and sea urchins are needed for the community center.
The rest of the things you can sell for an income.
19. Adore Your Animals
If you can build a barn or coop, then you can buy animals from Marnie.
When you have animals, you need to care for them and adore them. Feeding them daily, and providing a heater (which can purchase by Marnie) during winter, can boost the friendship with your animals.
This will help you to get quality animal products.
20. Collect More Hay For Winter
You need hay if you maintain barns or coops. Your animals need food. And you need 10 hay for the community center also.
The simplest way to collect hay is to cut the grass in your garden using a scythe. Or you can take hay from cultivating wheat seeds purchased by Pierre’s store. Marnie also has hay if you want to purchase it.
What I want to say is to gather hay as much as you can before the winter and tore them in your silo. You will not be able to cultivate wheat during the winter season and the only hay that you collected before the winter is the only way to survive your animals.
21. Create Chests
When you produce vegetables, fruits, or animal products, you need to sell them and keep a few of them with you. Also, you need to store your tools as well.
In order to keep them, you can build chests and customize them using different colors. To craft a chest you only need 50 woods with you.
After crafting a chest, you can store anything that you need.
Also, you can place a chest in mines to store foods to use in mining.
22. Be Friends With Villagers
There are many villagers living in Stardew valley. You need to talk with them, give them a gift on their birthdays, complete the quests they gave to you, etc.
You can give flowers to the females on their birthday. Also, different types of people have different types of liked gifts. You can give them one of those gifts to increase their hearts. But keep in mind, you can only give 1 gift to one person in a week.
Increasing the relationship will help to complete certain types of quests. For example, during the spring of the second year, you will receive a letter from Pierre to provide him with sashimi. To get the recipe for sashimi, you need to friend Linus who lives near the mines. You need to give him his favorite gifts such as winter roots, common mushrooms, hazelnuts, daffodils, etc.
After friending with him, you will receive the recipe and at the end of the day, you can complete Pierre’s quest.
Also, by increasing your relationship with others, you can find a person to marry. But keep in mind, you can marry people only if they are single and after you win 10 hearts of them. Their status will appear in the social tab.
23. Dig Up Worms
You may have seen that there are 3 wiggy worms popping up from the ground. You can dig that area using your hoe.
You will receive lose books, mixed seeds, snow yams, clay, stone, or any other random things by digging those wiggy worms.
24. Save Everything For Community Center
The community center is situated behind Pierre’s store. If you go to the community center for the first time, you should meet the wizard and gain the power to read the weird language in the community center.
After that, each and every room of the community center has a small box that contains bundles. You need to fill those bundles using the varieties that you have collected from mining, fishing, gardening, etc.
After filling the bundles you will receive rewards and when you complete the full box, the entire room will unlock.
So, collect sample items from your harvest, animal products, mining items, fishing items, and collected items from the offroad.
Bonus: Quick Tips To Have A Great Start In Stardew Valley
Follow these quick tips to get a head start in your new playthrough.
1. Clear Your Farm Gradually
Don’t rush to clear all debris from your farm right away. Clear only as much as you need to start your first crops. This approach saves energy and resources.
2. Focus on Crops That Regrow
Plant crops like strawberries, blueberries, and cranberries, which can be harvested multiple times throughout the season, maximizing your profits from a single planting effort.
3. Upgrade Your Tools
Prioritize upgrading your watering can and hoe early in the game. These upgrades will save you time and energy, which are crucial in the early stages.
4. Make Friends with the Villagers
Socializing with the villagers can open up quests, gifts, and even help you learn recipes. Pay special attention to birthdays and gift villagers items they love to quickly boost your relationship.
5. Fish When It Rains
Rainy days are perfect for fishing since you won’t need to water your crops. Fishing is a great source of early game income and resources.
6. Explore the Mines on Lucky Days
Check your TV for the fortune teller’s report. On days with high luck, you have a better chance of finding valuable gems and ores in the mines.
7. Keep an Eye on the Calendar
Don’t miss the seasonal festivals and contests. They are opportunities to earn unique rewards and increase your rapport with the townspeople.
8. Save Some of Everything
It’s tempting to sell all your produce, but saving some crops, fish, and foraged items is important for completing Community Center bundles, quests, and cooking recipes.
9. Forage Widely
Foraging is a great way to find free food, seeds, and other valuable items. It also helps you increase your foraging skill, which can improve the quality of gathered items.
10. Plan Your Layout
Think about how you want to organize your farm early on. Consider space for crops, trees, animals, and buildings. Efficient space use can lead to a more productive farm.