Stardew Valley: Compilation Guide

10 min readAug 2, 2022

New Player Guide

I took the top 4 Google results for “Stardew Valley new player” (plus a Reddit post on fishing) and copy-pasted their tips here. All info has been sorted into their most relevant category. At the end of the each tip is its source in parentheses, links below.

Polygon, Reddit, Games Radar, PC Gamer, Reddit Fishing

Time and energy

Time is the most important resource and energy second. (Polygon)

Get energy by eating everything you find on the ground. Early on once you have some expendable cash on hand, you can buy salads from the bar for 220g a pop. Later on, you can turn fish into sashimi once you have the kitchen upgrade or turn milk into cheese when you have cows and goats. Gold star cheese (made from gold star milk) is arguably the best item in the game for recharging energy. Whatever you do, don’t go to bed early just because you’re low on energy and try to use up as much energy as possible before you go to bed. (Reddit, Games Radar)

Keep your eye on the clock. Each day has a definitive start (6 am) and a definitive end (2 am). After 1 am, you will recover less energy when you sleep. At 2 am, you automatically pass out. Unless you’re rich, don’t make a habit out of this as it sets you back 1000g. (Reddit)

Save time by using things to get around faster. Mine cart system can be repaired by completing the boiler room bundles with loot and ores from the mines. It will take you instantly to several key locations around town. Horses can be used after making a stable with 100 hardwood. Coffee increases your speed for about a minute and a half, including your horse’s speed. You can buy coffee for 300g at the Saloon, but growing it yourself is the better option. You can find coffee beans as a random selection at the traveling cart. Turn the beans into coffee by putting them in a keg and then sell whatever you don’t drink for profit. (PC Gamer)

NPC’s

Talking to characters frequently allows you to romance them. Birthdays are important. Gaining rep with the locals can be a slog until you have access to all the crops and popular gift items like mayonnaise and sashimi. Even if it’s just crap off the ground that the person in question won’t hate you for, give them something on their birthday. Buy a calendar for your house from Robin when you can afford it (or physically print one like I did). (Polygon, Reddit, PC Gamer)

Foraging and resources

Watch out for leeks, horseradishes, dandelions and daffodils growing wild. Dandelions and leeks restore energy and health, daffodils can be sold for 30g. Wild horseradishes are 50g each, and only restore a small amount of health and energy, so are better sold. Spring, visit daily the south-east corner of the map for spring onions. They restore a nice chunk of energy. (Reddit, Games Radar)

Another thing to keep an eye out for is worms in the ground. They can come with artifacts and books. (Polygon, PC Gamer)

All trees are fair game. There are no negative effects for chopping down trees outside of your farm. So if you have the energy to spare and your farm is cleaned up, kill it. Or better yet: put a tapper on it. There are quite a few maple and oak trees on the map south from your farm. You are going to be in need of MANY oak resin and maple syrup. (Reddit)

Stockpile wood, because it’s a key resource for unlocking new buildings and items on your farm. (Games Radar)

This game encourages hoarding. In the beginning while learning the ropes, only sell harvested crops while you’re still figuring out what each item does. Make chests. Also: save some stuff, there are a lot of crops that are excellent gifts. And you never know when somebody wants an item for a quest. Most slow growing veggies like cauliflower and pumpkins will be requested by someone mid-season. (Polygon, Reddit)

Farming

A 3x3 farm patch will be the perfect size for the sprinklers, and it will also be beneficial for one the first tool upgrades, the watering can. (Polygon, Games Radar)

Seasons are 28 days. If you haven’t harvested a crop before the seasons change, they’ll die. So before planting, be mindful of what day of the season it is and how long it’ll take to harvest. (Polygon)

After parsnips, invest in two or three Cauliflower seeds as the finished crop is worth much more. Also pick up some more parsnip seeds and some potatoes. Potatoes sell for 80g a piece, but there’s a chance they’ll yield another potato when you harvest them. Plus, they only take six days to grow, meaning if you pair them with the four day growers that are the parsnips, you’ll soon have enough dosh to invest in a serious cauliflower crop. (Games Radar)

Spring: Parsnips — 35g or more; Potatoes — 80g or more; Cauliflowers — 190g; Green Beans — 40g or more; Kale — 110g or more; Strawberries — 500g (Egg Festival on Spring 13)
Summer: Hops — 25g or more; Blueberries — 50g or more; Hot Peppers — 40g or more; Radishes — 90g or more; Wheat — 25g or more; Melons — 250g or more; Corn — 50g or more; Tomatoes — 60g or more
Autumn: Cranberries — 75g or more; Pumpkins — 320g or more; Grapes — 80g or more; Artichokes — 160g or more; Bok Choy — 80g or more; Eggplant — 60g or more; Yam — 160g or more; Amaranth — 150g or more; Rare Seeds — 3000g or more (Gypsy Wagon)

Scarecrows cover a range of 8x8 with their bodies in the center. So if you’re making your crops in 3x3 patterns, just place them in the middle and you’ll be fine. (Polygon)

Life tip for sprinklers: Put a floor tile under a sprinkler. You won’t knock it out of place when you use your hoe. (Reddit)

Mining

On Spring 5 year 1, you’ll get access to the mines northeast of the Carpenter’s Shop and just west of the Adventurer’s Guild. Mines are essential for critical resources: copper, iron and gold ore. 120 floors, elevator every five floors, bonus items every 10 floors. Use your hoe to dig in the dirt and pickaxe to smash rocks in order to find items but also the ladder to the next level. You’ll also be given a sword to fend off the beasts looking to drain your health. If running low on health or energy, you should head back, even if you’re close to an elevator floor. Heading back to the ladder you came from automatically makes you exit the cave. If you die in the mines or run out of energy, you’ll exit and lose some or all resources. For 100 stones, you’ll eventually get the ability to craft stairs at any time in the mine. Crafting stairs is the perfect way to get to an elevator floor in a pinch. (Polygon, Games Radar)

Progress and Upgrades

Upgrade watering can and pickaxe first. When you upgrade the watering can, do it on a day when the TV tells you rain is coming tomorrow. (Polygon, PC Gamer)

Community Center is key to true progression. Within is list of challenges to complete by bringing items to the Center. Each of these items exist in theme bundles, requiring certain types of items or seasonal resources. Completing a bundle will unlock a reward and new bundles to complete. Completing an entire area’s group of bundles will unlock changes in town, giving you access to new areas. (Polygon, Games Radar)

Upgrade bag as soon as you can. (Games Radar)

Animals

If you want to really streamline your money-making expeditions, you’ll want to ignore your desires to invest in livestock until you’ve got far more gold rattling in your pocket because when winter rolls around, the game doesn’t regenerate enough grass to feed your growing menagerie, meaning you have no choice but to buy hay from Marnie. (Games Radar)

Horse-proof your farm early on. Horses require a space two squares wide when moving up and down. Make sure as you build your farm to leave space for the north and south exits. (Reddit)

Crafting

Fix the bridge to the tide pools early. With 300 wood, repair the bridge to the left hand side of the beach to give you access to the Tidal Pools, which is where valuable items like coral, sea urchins and other shells will pop up daily. You can chuck these in your shipping box, or sell them directly to the fisherman, Willy, at his shop on the pier. (Games Radar, PC Gamer)

Build a silo before cutting grass to make hay. (PC Gamer)

Build the greenhouse before 1st winter. (PC Gamer)

Make chests. Chests cost 50 wood. Early on plant some near your house. As you expand, place chests near places where you deal with harvesting things like the coop/barn or greenhouse or whatever. (Polygon, Reddit)

Fishing

You’ll want that extra energy to put into time spent fishing. As soon as you can, you’ll want to buy the fiberglass rod from Willy too (available once you reach fishing level two), as it’ll allow you to add bait to your line. He also sells crab pots that you can buy once you reach fishing level three, which you can bait and leave. (Games Radar, PC Gamer)

Fishing can be difficult at first. The more you fish, the more XP you gain which helps you level up the skill (just like any other skills like foraging, mining, etc). Leveling up in fishing gives benefits of increasing minimum fish size (in/cm) and bobber bar height and decreasing the max amount of time before fish bite. Bobber bar height is the length of the green bar that you must keep the fish inside during the fishing mini-game. Thus, leveling up makes fishing easier. What if you want to level up but you’re bad at fishing? Other than pure practice, ways to make leveling up easier include:

Using the training rod: training rod has a bobber height equivalent to level 5. EXP gained from training rod is same as other rods, but only basic fish (non silver, gold, or iridum) can be caught so in the end EXP is limited
Find carp: carp are the easiest fish to catch. Carp spawn the most in the sewers, but can also be found in the lake near the mines
Crab pots: crab pots allow you to gain fishing EXP too
Fish at the sea and at the lonely stone near the beach: good quality fish for more money can be caught here, increasing amount of EXP gained from each fish
Trout soup: trout soup increases bobber height temporarily.

At the end of the day, the best way to get better at fishing is fish! A lot! Not only does it actually help your fishing in the game, but it also trains your coordination and skills to get better at the mini-game. (Reddit Fishing)

Time-stop method (not sure if this works anymore): throw out the fishing line and click into the journal (don’t press J, need to click). Make sure your volume is on and when you hear the signal that something has been caught, click out and reel it in (press Y?). Basically, this method allows you to pause time with the journal while waiting for fish. (Reddit Fishing)

Miscellaneous

Watch TV everyday. Look for rainy days. They’ll automatically water all of your crops, saving a ton of energy for that day. You’ll want to use coming rain days to plan when to upgrade tools. Rain in Y1 is basically a license to have some fun. Do some fishing or some mining — you’ve got time. Survival channel will give you handy tips and foraging advice, while the cooking channel will teach you recipes that increase your health and energy. Fortune teller channel will tell you what your luck is going to be like. On high luck days, go to the mines and fish more. (Polygon, Reddit, Games Radar, PC Gamer)

Activate “Always Show Tool Hit Location” immediately. (PC Gamer)

Every Friday and Sunday, a travelling merchant in the northwest of Cindersap Forest, south of farm. If she has anything off-season, it’s worth grabbing. (Polygon)

Stuff put in the shipping box next to house is sold overnight. (Games Radar)

General Guide

Professions

Farming: tiller → artisan
Fishing: subjective, but leaning towards fisher. Either pirate or angler seem good. If you prefer crab pots, choose trapper → mariner. Fisher seems like a good source of income, but a comment mentioned the money potential of trapper and the wilderness farm pond.
Mining: miner → blacksmith or geologist → excavator
Foraging: subjective, but leaning towards lumberjack. Lumberjack is a good source of hardwood. Botanist seems less useful in the long term. Either way, don’t choose tapper or tracker.
Combat: fighter → brute

(Steam, Carl’s Guide)

Crops

Spring: strawberries, grow in 8 days and regrow every 4 days. Buy on the 14th and save until next Spring.
Summer: blueberries, regrow up to 4 times if planted on the first day.
Fall: cranberries, there’s some ratio explanation in the article above.

(Fanbyte)

Farm Planning

Planning the layout of your farm from the start and deliberately choosing where each building, decoration and road goes is good for both efficient organization and aesthetics.

Know what buildings, equipment, plants, etc you want on your farm. Early on, it may be hard to anticipate what stuff to include, so it’s good to read up on what things you’ll NEED (silos, farmland, etc) and what you are INTERESTED in having. Make a list of everything you want on your farm. It doesn’t have to be specific. For example, you can just list “crops” or “fruit trees” and keep a space for those things to be planted.

Look at existing farm layouts online:

This article has good tips and example layouts.
Google images for “Stardew Valley farm layouts”.
Stardew Valley Reddit often has users posting their layouts.
Some of my favorites: a, b, c, d, image below:

Use this Interactive Farm Planner to plan your farm. Here’s the one I designed for my own farm. Try different things. Be creative!

More Resources

Personal Inventory

Grass: 1029, Stone floor: 910, Crops: 320, Weathered floor: 188, Stepping Stones: 106, Flowers: 63, Wood path: 47
Iron fence: 196, Fence: 123, Gate: 2, Iron lamp-post: 16, Torch: 8, Campfire: 1, Stone sign: 1
Bee-hive: 25
Non-fruit trees: ~43, Fruit tree: 12
Irid. sprinker: 14, Q. sprinkler: 7, Lightning Rod: 6, Deluxe Scarecrow: 1
Fish pond: 4, Shed: 4, Silo: 4, Barn: 2, Coop: 2, Mill: 1, Stable: 1, Slime-hutch: 1
Earth obelisk: 1, Gold clock: 1, Water obelisk: 1
Greenhouse: 1, House: 1
Plank cabin: 1, Stone cabin: 1, Well: 1