Stardew Valley
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At the moment, these are my personal notes and FAQs regarding the Stardew Valley video game.
Resources
- Stardew CC Bundles Spreadsheet — Everything needed for (non-remixed) bundles. Right click on the top of each column to sort.
- Stardew Artisan Animal Productivity — A more detailed breakdown than what the wiki has. Raw values before skill bonuses.
Fish Ponds
These are the only fish worth ponding (IMO, of course). This is the approximate order in which I build/fill these ponds.
Always try to catch 10 each of the fish in question, so you can get to max capacity as quickly as possible. Every time you complete a "fish quest", you can immediately fill the pond up to its new capacity. This dramatically reduces the time it takes to get the best rewards out of your pond.
The two marked [Island] are most effective if you build them in advance of unlocking Ginger Island and then prioritize filling them up immediately. You can (and should!) bring back Blue Discus the day you unlock the Island, and bring back Stingray immediately after building the resort.
Most valuable Aged Roe (in order): Lava Eel, Blobfish, Sturgeon, Super Cucumber, Octopus.
- This list only includes the fish discussed here. There are other high-value ones (like the Ice Pip) that are pointless in a Fish Pond. Anyway, nothing sells as well as Aged Lava Eel Roe.
- You will never get rich on Aged Roe or Caviar, though it is a nice bit of additional income mid-game. The real benefits aren't monetary.
- Best early source of consistent Iridium Ore. Amethysts are nice too.
- Makes its water bluish-purple, which is nice aesthetically though a bit hard to notice.
- Caviar is a good early source of income and is needed for certain quests/bundles.
- Eventually, replace this with Lava Eel. Make sure you stash about 3-5 Caviar for future needs first.
- Omni-Geodes! They produce a ton of them consistently, and those are always useful.
- Spicy Eel, Gold Ore, and the best Aged Roe in the game make this a fish that deserves multiple ponds.
- Makes its water red. Consider staggering ponds for cool "checkerboard" aesthetics.
[Island] Blue Discus
- Fastest early source of Bananas. Also a nice early source of Golden Coconuts.
- Once you've got a mature Banana Sapling and have unlocked the Island Trader (for easy Golden Coconuts), replace this with Lava Eel.
[Island] Stingray
- Free Cinder Shards and Dragon's Teeth are incredibly helpful in your early Island days — so much so that you might want two ponds if you don't love Volcano runs.
- Also produces Magma Caps and Battery Packs, which means everything except its Roe is genuinely useful. So even after you have the Island Obelisk, it's arguably worth keeping around.
Optional
- Both Seafoam Pudding and Squid Ink Ravioli require Squid Ink, which means either building this pond or hunting Squid Kids.
- Midnight Squid are almost twice as productive as regular Squid, so it's worth catching these at the Night Market.
- Positive: There's a chance each day that you get a Prismatic Shard!
- Negative: Odds are you'll see one Shard pop up every 40 years in game. And if not, you only get their Roe which is garbage.
- That said, I like to do a single Rainbow Trout pond because checking it every day is like buying a lottery ticket. It's cheap, harmless, and if I "win" (which hasn't happened yet) it'll be super exciting.
A few other fish are worth ponding in very specific situations:
- Blobfish: If you can't get Honey and Hardwood for Farm Warp Totems, or need multiple Pearls for Friendship spamming. Note that while Blobfish Roe is valuable, they are not consistent producers.
- Lionfish: If you're getting into "slime farming" and want a decent source of Tiger Slime Eggs.
- Slimejack: If you're getting into "slime farming" but want a non-hutch source of Slime for some reason. Also they turn the water green, which is pretty cool.
- Void Salmon: If you like the aesthetic, they turn the water a very rich, beautiful purple.
Recipe Fish
Consider ponding any fish if it's something you need (usually for mass-cooking recipes) that's inconvenient to fish normally. Some good recipe examples, and the ponds you'll want, include:
- Dish O'the Sea: Sardine.
- Lucky Lunch: Sea Cucumber.
- Seafoam Pudding: Flounder, Midnight Carp, and Midnight Squid (for the ink).
Year 1 Crops by Season
Notes: Even if you only need one of something, grow five and save four. People will ask for it as a quest! If you want to try for Year 1 CC completion, turn on that Advanced Option and check the Traveling Cart every time for a Red Cabbage Seed.
Spring
- Bundles: Need 1 Green Bean, 1 Potato, 1 Cauliflower (plus more, see note), and 1 Parsnip plus 5 Gold Parsnips
- Green beans give highest return at first and Parsnips are needed later to make Farmer's Lunch (best Farming buff)
- Save all money, buy Strawberry Seeds at Egg Festival
- Notes:
- Can get 20 Speed-Gro for Strawberries by completing the Spring Crops bundle, but this requires planting Cauliflower on Day 1, bringing it to CC after the Egg Festival, and then planting as quickly as possible at night
- Also want to save 1 Gold Cauliflower per player for the Luau, and another Cauliflower (any quality) per player for a fetch quest later
Summer
- Bundles: Need 10 Wheat*, 1 Poppy, 1 Sunflower, 1 Red Cabbage, 1 Tomato, 1 Hot Pepper, 1 Blueberry, 1 Melon plus 5 Gold Melon, and 5 Gold Corn
- Wheat can wait until Fall, but planting 25 or so is a good idea to also get Hay
- Profitability:
- Blueberries give highest short-term ROI, selling Gold (maybe Silver) and putting crap in Preserve Jar
- Melons give best pure profit in Kegs, good choice if only building a few Kegs
- Hops give highest long-term ROI in Kegs if plan is to build a ton of Kegs. A few hundred Hops saved ensures money through Winter, and Kegs can be transitioned to wine later. Or save some Hops for Seed Maker if you want a Pale Ale factory instead.
- Note: Make sure to buy a Rare Seed.
Fall
- Plant the Rare Seed, then give the Sweet Gem Berry to the Secret Woods statue
- Bundles: 1 Eggplant, 1 Yam, 1 Pumpkin (plus 5 Gold Pumpkins if you missed the 5 Gold Corn), any missing Corn or Wheat.
- Also: Want at least 1 Amaranth for later quests, and Beet Seeds (for 10 Beets) if the Traveling Cart has any or once the Desert is unlocked
- Cranberries and Eggplant produce continually, well worth it
- Pumpkins only produce twice, but are the best vegetable in the game IMO and should be focused on
- Stardew Valley Expanded:
- Sophia will eventually want 10 Fairy Dust (need 10 Fairy Rose) plus 50 Fairy Seeds. Quest available after unlocking Ginger Island and Birdie, and gives best sprinklers and nozzles.
The Forge
Forging: A weapon can be forged up to three times. Each time this costs one gem and 10/15/20 Cinder Shards depending on the forge level. The best options here are the simplest. Ruby adds (10% x level) to weapon damage and Topaz adds (level) to Defense.
Enchantment: This costs 1 Prismatic Shard and 20 Cinder Shards. Enchantments are random. "Rerolling" a new enchantment costs the same (1 Prismatic Shard, 20 Cinder Shards) and is guaranteed to produce a different enchantment than the last two this tool was given. It's possible to save-scum if you don't like the enchantment(s) you get at the Forge, but only if you reload and then enchant a different item first. If you reload and enchant the same items in the same order, you'll always get the same results. Alternatively, reload and wait a day.
Weapons
Weapons can be forged and can have one enchantment; see above. My preferred enchantment is Crusader, though Vampiric is acceptable.
Tools
A tool can have one enchantment; see above. Scythes can't be enchanted. My personal preferred enchantment for each item is:
- Axe: Shaving.
- Fishing Rod: Master.
- Hoe: Generous.
- Pickaxe: Swift.
- Watering Can: Bottomless.
Rings
For 20 Cinder Shards, two rings can be combined into one, allowing the player to effectively wear four rings. My preference:
- Iridium Band + Burglar's Ring (for killing 500 Dust Sprites)
- Iridium Band + Crabshell Ring (for killing 60 Rock Crabs)
Early Game Specific Guides
Early Game Tree Chopping
Axe and Pickaxe cost 2 - (0.1×Skill) energy per swing. With a basic Axe it takes 20-(Skill) energy to chop a tree, 10-(Skill/2) for the stump. A Copper Axe reduces energy (and time) by 20%, Steel by 40%.
A starting character (270 energy) on Day One can chop 13 trees (no stumps), leaving 14 energy and earning 156 XP (hitting Foraging 1 after tree #9).
Theoretically one could chop 14 trees by first foraging nine items from the ground (63 XP), chopping four trees (leaving 190 energy, 111 XP total) for Foraging 1, then chopping 10 more trees (leaving 0 energy, 231 XP total). On Day Two, they can easily chop 14 trees (hitting Foraging 2 after #13), leaving 5 energy and at 399 XP, though in practice they can do much more thanks to Field Snacks.
Fishing XP
The fastest way to level Fishing is to fish (shocker), but there are methods to speed this up in the early game. Paradoxically, Fishing is harder in the early game than the late game, due to the tiny size of your "fishing bar", but this can be fixed.
- Pick up a Training Rod from Willy for 25g and throw out the Bamboo Pole.
- This sets your "fishing bar" as if you had Fishing 5.
- It makes it impossible for fish with Difficulty 50+ to bite, which is actually helpful in the early game.
- All fish caught will be normal quality, so there's no need to cast far from shore.
- I use the Training Rod to reach Fishing 3, but if you struggle with Fishing you can keep it until you hit Fishing 4 or at most 5. Regardless, once you throw it out you want to replace it with the Fiberglass Rod (1,800g) which can use Bait.
- Focus on catching fish that grant high Fishing XP (see below for the easy fish which give 16-18 xp).
- Your highest priority is getting Perfect Catches (where the fish never leaves the bar). Your second priority is snagging any Treasure Chests that pop up (but do not give up a Perfect to get one).
- Spring:
- Mountain Lake: Bullhead
- River: Shad (raining after 9am)
- Summer:
- Mountain Lake: Bullhead, Rainbow Trout (before 7pm)
- River: Rainbow Trout (before 7pm), Shad (raining after 9am)
- Cindersap Pond: Red Snapper (raining before 7pm)
- Fall:
- Mountain Lake: Bullhead, Walleye (raining after 12pm)
- River: Angler (see below), Shad (raining after 9am), Walleye (raining after 12pm)
- Cindersap Pond: Walleye (raining after 12pm)
- Ocean: Red Snapper (raining before 7pm), Sea Cucumber (before 7pm)
- Winter:
- Ocean: Sea Cucumber (before 7pm)
Angler: For some reason, the Training Rod lets you catch Legendaries. Most are too difficult if you have low skill, but the Angler is fairly easy and gives a whopping 155 Fishing xp! You must be in Town, above JojaMart, at the very north of the river.
Tea Saplings
Never sell seasonal forage directly. Turning it into Tea Saplings produces between 333g-449g profit per sapling (depends on season and forage quality).
- Recipe from friendship with Caroline.
- She loves Fish Taco, Green Tea, Summer Spangle.
- She likes Daffodil, Maple Syrup, Frozen Tea, gems, Sweet Pea, vegetables (Green Bean, Parsnip, etc.) and most cooking and crops.
- Using early-game Daffodils on her is fine, as you can buy up to 10 (for 50g each) at the Spring 24 Flower Dance. (Dandelions, too.)
- On sunny Wednesdays, she heads to the fountain at noon. On rainy Wednesdays, you can't reach her.
- If you talk to her regularly and give two Liked gifts per week, you should have two hearts by the fifth gift.
- At two hearts, enter her greenhouse on a sunny day between 9am-5pm for the recipe.
- A set of all four foragables (three in summer) produces 10 Wild Seeds, plus 25 Fiber & Wood equals five Tea Saplings (2,500g).
- Fiber can be farmed on mine floors 25-29, 105-109, and the Mutant Bug Lair. Prioritize Linus' "Community Cleanup" special order for Fiber Seeds.
Quests, Special Orders, Etc.
Community Cleanup
Getting trash consistently can be tricky.
- On most farms, but not all, you can get a ton of trash from the farm pond.
- Level 100 of the Mines produces almost entirely trash.
Mr. Qi's Kindness (Give 50 Loved Gifts)
Here's a list of easy gifts that multiple people love. A * means the villager appears twice on this list. Try to hit 13 villagers per day for 4 days and you'll beat this. If you have spare Rabbit's Feet, use them on anyone besides Penny (or most SVE characters) to knock this out faster.
- Amethyst/Aquamarine/Emerald: Clint, Dwarf, Emily, Penny* (Emerald only)
- Beer: Andy (SVE), Pam*, Shane
- Cactus Fruit: Linus, Pam*, Sam
- Diamond: Evelyn, Gus, Jodi, Krobus*, Marnie, Maru, Penny*, Willy*
- Duck Feather: Elliott, Leo, Victor (SVE)
- Pumpkin: Abigail, Krobus*, Willy*
Mr. Qi Prismatic Grange Quest
These items can be purchased or are abundantly available.
- Red: Spaghetti (buy from Gus). You may also have lots of Apple, Cherry, or Salmonberry.
- Orange: Copper Ore (buy from Clint). You may also have lots of Orange or Spice Berry.
- Yellow: Sap (you have a ton) or Hay (buy from Marnie).
- Green: Fiber (you have a ton) or Salad (buy from Gus).
- Blue: JoJa Cola (buy from Stardrop Saloon machine). You may also have lots of Ancient Fruit, Battery, Blackberry, Broken CD, or Broken Glasses.
- Purple: Nothing you can just buy. The easiest to get are Bug Meat, Crocus, Grape, Iridium Ore, Pomegranate, Purple Mushroom, Refined Quartz, Sweet Pea, and Wild Plum.
Wizard Special Orders (Ectoplasm and Prismatic Slime)
While the former is active, any Ghost has a chance of dropping Ectoplasm, while the latter gives any Slime that spawns a chance of being Prismatic. So the best way to farm these is to keep reloading the same Mines floor until the needed monster spawns.
- Always zoom out fully (in Settings) to see as much of the floor at once.
- To reload a floor in single player, simply exit the Mines. In multiplayer, everyone has to exit the Mines and then wait a full 10 in-game minutes. Then you can take an elevator back to the floor you want.
- Prismatic Slime: Keep reloading Floor 5 until you see a Prismatic Slime. Be careful; they're tough!
- Ectoplasm: Keep reloading Floor 75, killing any Ghosts that spawn. In multiplayer, due to the required delay, it's easier to check Floors 55, 65, 75 and then reload. If you've already done the Wizard's Prismatic Jelly special order, be sure to wear Monster Musk!
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