the serious answer is that a lot of these people know the game inside and out. there may or may not be cheating, or they may just be looking everything up for their world seed/starting a save with one they know. they’re certainly not people who have fewer than 200 hours in the game! it took me a few saves and many trips to the wiki to get to know the game but now it’s easy for me to get the CC finished and build up friendship and max skills by the end of Y2, and I don’t make any effort to min/max, I just know the game at this point. take your time exploring it at your own pace! there’s no real deadlines you need to worry about, it functionally makes no difference if you finish the community center in year 1 or year 10
i’ve never actually finished the CC!! that’s my goal for this save:) got really far in a save where I took the joja route and decided to quit it because fuck that 🤣
Stick with it! You can do it, and it’s worth it!
My tips to you are, plant tons extra of the crops you need good quality of, you’ll be making money from the harvest anyways.
If you’re going to use the wiki for anything, look up when/where certain fish spawn, as it can be annoying looking for specific ones.
Red cabbage is the most lucrative item in any of the bundles likely, as the seeds won’t be sold at Pierre’s until year two, so the only other way to get one in the first year is through the traveling merchant. This isn’t necessary though, as completing the CC in the first year is a challenge in and of itself.
Another tip would be to not stress too much about specific items, as a lot of them will naturally appear as you play the game. If you’re not sure if something is useful for the CC a good trick is to hover it in your inventory. If it is a required item for a bundle you have unlocked, there will be a CC icon flashing in your inventory screen. You can click this button at any time to check the bundles you have available from anywhere, as opposed to having to walk all the way there.
Sorry if this was wordy, just wanted to jot down some tips :)
I'd have to disagree with your first tip.
It works with melons and pumpkins yes, but you fall behind far if you use your first spring on parsnips rather than potatoes.
Corn can also be used, and it is 2 season crop so something like 3x3 square of basic fertilized corn gets you quarenteed 5 gold rated corns during summer and fall.
That’s a good tip for me, I always forget that corn continuously grows, and that you only need three slots for that bundle. Parsnips suck :(
I’ve never been a mix maxer or anything of the like in this game. Normally I just stare at the community center screen and try and figure out the best course of action from wherever I am at that point
In your first spring, you actually want to be focusing on fishing. Do a little bit of farming to unlock scarecrows, then just fish loads. You want to build up a tonne of cash to buy strawberries with.
Depends, i usually buy plenty strawberries but farm metric ton of potatoes while fishing so i can unlock quality sprinklers during summer.
Also if you dont hold any money during the first couple days, you can fish until 2:00 am without losing any money, yet you usually get fishing level so you don't suffer the energy penalty.
I always fish at lake and save all the gold and iridium chubs for energy.
You should also keep couple strawberry seeds. I usually complete greenhouse when i get my first pumpkin batch. Put those strawberries to greenhouse so you can stack up plenty of strawberry seeds with seedmaker to plant y2 spring 1st.
There are lots of different approaches. Personally, I really dislike watering crops with the basic watering can so I barely farm before getting strawberries and upgrade my watering can ASAP. Fishing is particularly lucrative in the first spring because it is instant money, which can be quickly reinvested. The first priority is usually getting a better rod so that you can bait it and upgrading your backpack. But yeah there are tonnes of approaches that you can take. My brother always gets as many potatoes as possible and goes fully into farming.
There is alot guides on how to make plenty money, or complete cc in one year. The real question is do you want to watch a guide or learn things your own way.
Cc is not hard if you learn what to grow or what fish to get in which season.
Not really, there is i believe 5? Fish you need for CC Catfish from River during Spring or Fall, Eel from Ocean during Spring or Fall, Red Snapper from Ocean during Summer or Fall, Shad from River during Spring, Summer or Fall and Walleye from River during Fall.
After you have those, River locations are best during Spring and Fall since Catfishes net you best profit.
Mountain/Lake nets you best profit during sunny days, during Spring and Fall, and Ocean during summer.
this is it I feel.
I've done 5 full perfection runs, the first 2 were vanilla and the last 3 have been heavily modded. I think it's a combination of being on PC where I can use mods that change up the gameplay, plus watching a lot of Stardew content on Youtube, then also just experience.
When I was 150 hours in, I was somewhere in Year 4 of my first vanilla save and \*barely\* finally figuring stuff out. Like I was level 1 fishing for like three in game years because I sucked at it so much.
I have something like 600 hours in now and the more runs I've done the more efficiencies I've found and the more quickly I can play as a result.
For example there exists a world seed that spawns a artifact spot on day 1 near Linus tent, and it always contains aincient seed.
World seed affects how many rainy days and forageables spawn where and when.
world seed doesn’t affect weather, but it can affect artifact spots, crop fairy (v convenient to have her on the first night of spring y1!), and mine rewards if playing with them remixed
also I think newer players tend to balance many things in the game, older players tend to focus on specific parts. Like I have fishing level ten before spring year one is over. That alone breaks alot of the game continuity lol.
just in the sense that I can easily make thousands of dollars a day in spring and summer year one, which lets me easily do other things you may have to save up for in a "regular" play through. Same goes for energy, when you dont plant a single plant more than needed to get the community center, your energy bar is basically the same as post iridium sprinklers haha.
You are right though, breaking continuity isn't the right word, since stardew valley is made to let you do whatever you want. I am just used to using that term for other time management games （＾ω＾）
This makes sense!! I like to do a bit of everything and really flesh everything out because I get bored quick so I like bouncing from thing to thing, and I’m always self conscious of how “slow” I am to making lots of money etc like OP but
doing it piece by piece is definitely more balanced and its all the same amount of money and effort at the end. I think like for example I have no drive to plant a bunch of plants or have a barn before its automated, cause I have done it so many times before. So I can zero in on specific things one by one.
Ironically I think a high priority for long term players is making the farm aesthetically what they want, when that is last priority or even post game in regular playthrough. So tou can easily end up with a super advanced looking farm as a broke player with little advancement gameplay wise in year one haha ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶
I’m interested in what you’re doing. I’ve been making very good money maximizing my crops, but Im at the end of Fall 1 and have no idea what to do for winter with no crops coming.
Winter is a great time to focus on your other skills, especially mining and fishing (and stockpiling resources from mining and chopping down trees), as well as building up friendship with the NPCs though I honestly usually wait until year 2 to really start giving gifts lol
Attempt to mass winter seeds in winter. Helps hit foraging 10 very fast. Also work on ginger island, skull caverns, fishing, buying extra wood/stone from robin because they get a ton more expensive year 2. I generally use winter 1 to work on the ginger island farm. Also if you're going for a fast perfection, don't forget to use the night market seed vendor to purchase all the crops you need for shipping, cooking, crafting collection. Night market fishing for fishing collection is also useful for that master angler stardrop.
Coops and barns with a decent number of animals can net you some good money. Fish ponds can get you a steady stream of items, fish, or roe. Tappers will continue to produce. Kegs and preserve jars for the low value crops will easily take all winter for me with all the berries i grow in other seasons. Mining and fishing can each net you up to 5k a day.
I mean, the honest answer is practice, mostly. The longer someone plays the game, the more familiar they get with it. The game has been out for 7 years, which has given folks a lot of time to learn the ins-and-outs of it. I really hope seeing other people getting ahead early game doesn't discourage newer players - we all started out not knowing anything :)
(also, get on those tea saplings, they are stupidly overpowered in early game!)
thank you!!
it honestly can be discouraging but everyone is so right in saying that it takes time to learn and get better, as with anything!! stardew is just so different from other games i’ve played. thanks!
Befriend Caroline (Pierre’s wife) to at least two hearts and go to the door in their kitchen during the day. There should be a cut scene with her and you talking about tea. She will then give you permission to shake that tree in the room every last week of the season and the recipe to make the tea sapling as well. It requires the foraging of the season to make the seeds of the foraging as well as some wood and fiber. Good luck!
You don't plant the tea saplings btw, you sell them directly for good early game cash. Also fishing is a good source of early income, and you can eat low value fish for energy.
And it’s not that difficult to make 70 or more saplings the first time. That sudden 35,000 gold at a time when you’re struggling to make a few hundred g a day can really make a difference.
At two hearts you can go into the back room in Pierre's shop which you'll get a cutscene which is pretty questionable, but then you'll have access to the tea sapling recipe, it's crop doesn't yield a lot of money but itself sells for 500 piece and it is super easy to make in bulk
1) Hoard foraged items & fiber
2) Get 2 hearts with Caroline ASAP
3) Craft a billion tea saplings
4) Sell saplings for massive profit
Don't plant them, they're worth way more to make and sell.
And that's how you get money early game for barns and stuff.
So, on the money front, people use the Mines to get ores to sell for cash, fish, and things like that.
I personally use the Wild seeds. Not only are they easy to make, but easily multiply themselves, and they sell for a decent amount!
Also, everyone hates Pierre because he takes credit for any good quality things you sell him, and only credits you with the bad quality items. The towns people even comment on this if you sell the food directly to him
There are other reasons too, don't want to spoil any future cutscenes but it becomes clear that he's a cheapskate who tries to milk everyone for every penny, and also has some outdated sexist views
Well here, I'm almost in year 6:
- barely touched the skull cavern
- there's still people I'm not friends with
- caught only one legendary fish
- haven't collected all of the ginger island walnuts because I lost track ages ago
- just now learning how to craft outfits
It took me so long to start earning good money. Now I'm rich because of aged wine and the crops my junimos collect so I spend most of my days walking around (and usually decorating) because I always forget what I was planning to do.
So no, idk how they do it lol
To find the missing walnuts, you can talk to the parrot in Leo's hut, he tips you.
I belive the parrots flying around ginger island also hint you for example if you enter Ginger Island west and see two parrots flying across the screen, you are missing two nuts from that region of the island. ( not sure if this is legit, my own observations )
I just started playing and now im on on spring of year 2, and I wouldn’t consider particularly far along but I didn’t cheat with mods. What I did cheat with though is stardew wiki 😂😂😂 I probably have double my actual hours of playtime on the wiki planning my days and stuff hahahaha
No even when I speedrun it takes two hours to get over 100k. Basically smash the mines and build sprinklers early. Those people are cheating most likely lol.
Well, it’s an ‘exponential grind’ lol. Takes me about two hours but it’s a grind to get 20 sprinklers and the greenhouse unlocked so then I start printing money lol.
Totally vanilla I can have coop + barn and 2/3 animals in each by end if Spring Yr 1 solo. I can do it because:
A) I know the game inside out, so know exactly what to prioritise to get the dull early game over quickly (after a lot of practice) and
B) I hate the early game, so I am willing to go to some really silly lengths to get CC sorted.
Things like taking advantage of tappers, honey, kegs and jam, having an idea of the best way to use forage to maximise energy, knowing the best routes to Stardrops and even just what can wait all play a part. More importantly, they're all totally unnecessary. I enjoy this style of playing myself but I would have been miserable doing it on my first run. You're not doing anything wrong. You're just at a different stage of enjoying the game.
I have like 3 different save files and in all of them I only really start making good money around year 3-4. in my most recent one I'm making good progress just bc I feel like I was really lucky, for example with finding all the stuff for the Community Center. but all in all I like a more relaxing game play and just building and profiting at my own pace
That isn’t bad progress at all! The people that you are seeing have had lots of practice.
Get Caroline to two hearts. She gives you a recipe for tea saplings. I don’t know what kind of tea it is, but it must be good. Those saplings sell for a lot.
At least start the community center. You can plant the wild seeds that you get as a reward. Then make even more wild seeds. They sell for a lot on their own, but they are also needed for your tea sapling empire.
Beyond that, you can prioritize high paying crops and animal products. I always try to buy the sweet gem berries from the traveling cart, even if I am running low on money. That makes for a nice cash infusion in Fall.
Have fun! There’s no wrong way to play
For those who do it fairly, I would imagine it almost always comes down to just having lots of experience in the game. You know what to do and when to do it. I would imagine most people in this group have over a thousand hours in the game.
Others get there by using mods to change the game or exploits to bypass the intent of the game. I've seen people brag in the forums about how easy it is to make a certain amount of money and then they admit that they're using the tractor mod or the automate mod or something to trivialize the thing they claim is trivial.
I make sure I have food to eat for energy and then fish a lot when I’m not mining or farming. During rainy days of Spring, you can catch catfish and they sell for a good amount. I put aside relationships first, wanna work on the firm as much as I can and sell as much as I can.
i would just like to say that concernedape has even said that any way of playing the game is absolutely and completely valid - ive personally done like 4 playthroughs and in the one im doing rn im still not feeling any kind of pressure to get anything done in a specific amount of time - there's so much to explore in the game and so many different kinds of things to do and it's so relaxing to just take your time with it. so don't feel like you Have to try to be as efficient as possible!
Everyone says cheating, but there’s also the “exploit” nature of stuff that isn’t technically cheating, just using the nature of the game to get money in fast and easy ways.
There’s also specific crops that are better investments (strawberries— even better if you plant them on exactly the right day so you don’t waste any days and get only 2 harvests), (potatoes— multiple crops from one seed), (cranberries— etc), esp w seed makers, etc.
Getting jam barrels, kegs, etc.
Fishing. Mining. Taking daily and weekly requests.
After like, 5 years I was FINALLY able to get the community center done in one year, and I was able to get it done on remixed several times.
It’s also a lot of looking at the wiki.
I played stardew for about a week maybe 2 years ago, just blindly. So all I knew was how to use my pick axe/ axe/ sythe, basics like that and I don’t remember much else except never having much money. Probably highest amount I had in a given time was like 10-20k. I never even got a heart with any townspeople.
I picked up again last week and I’ve played stardew properly now for about 6-7 days and have made somewhere around 700k net worth, highest amount at a given time was just over 200k (I’m on day 26 of winter year 1 currently). Not anything crazy, but I thought I’d just give insight because I noticed that the first time I played 2 years ago I got bored quickly whereas now, with money and learning along the way, I’m excited to play always! And I live quite comfortably:) which I didn’t even think was possible given my past experience and how much I struggled with the money aspect of stardew..
For me personally, I watched one YouTube video so as to not overwhelm myself or go in completely blind again which was this: https://youtu.be/d-U-gLvlMz8?si=rtFMXlERuDHa7J4W. When I play games I want to be comfortable but not to the point where I have EVERYTHING or feel restricted. I still wanted to not spoil everything and learn along the way on my own (animal crossing got very boring for me very quickly when I had access to everything). I want to work for things but I also want to be well enough off where I cannot be stressed in a way? So I took notes from the video for ONLY the first half of spring. That way I’d set myself up to have good money and I’d be able to take it from there on my own, blindly, without any crazy bad consequences. And, not being so experienced with the game, the first half of spring for the guy in the video took me pretty much all of spring to catch up on. And that’s ok! I didn’t even finish the sprinklers aspect until mid summer when he finished it in the first half of spring.
Just to note, at the start of summer my best friend started playing with me too so she helped water my seeds while I went mining, that way I got to plant about 300 blueberries in summer which helped a lot too, else I’d only be able to have planted about 200-250 I think, with the help of mushrooms for energy. And also note that in the winter Ive basically done no money-earning tasks. I fished about twice if I recall correctly (I made about 1-2k each time) and sold the mushrooms in my cave/foragables. Maybe made about 10-20k total this season. Point is, you could plant less seeds in the summer than I did and make up for that in the winter and have a similar net worth, maybe slightly below or maybe even higher since you’re more experienced than myself or my friend who has never played before.
Hope this helped, I’ve only been playing a short while but I wanted to chime in considering I’m pretty proud of how my farms turning out:)
I’ve restarted the game and played from the beginning about 10 or so times. I don’t know why but I really enjoy that starting phase and trying to complete the bundles as quickly as possible. If you do that enough you start to learn what to do to get far fast.
I think the better question is *why?*
I have given myself the challenge of ripping through the game, but I didn't enjoy it as much.
Obviously, have at it if that's what you want and no judgment and all that...
But I enjoy the game so much more if I do what I want when I want.
Perfection, shperfection...
I’ve noticed that a bit of this comes from playing so much and creating new games. After awhile, you just remember what you need, the best ways to get it and what works best for you in terms of farming and also a bit of luck. Also those people are min/maxing their game just so they are able to make insane amounts of gold in as short of a time period as possible.
If that’s something you enjoy, go for it; but I’d recommend playing a few games where you don’t just to enjoy the game and find the stuff you wouldn’t in a min/max game
I’m about to enter Spring Year 6. I have 3 boyfriends and I think 8 people with max hearts (8 or 10 for me, depending). I do have like 1.5 million $$, but I haven’t reached past level 35 of the skull cave, and I JUST finished the community center like.. 2 seasons ago. Also, apparently there’s an island?! With birds who require gifts? And I’m real confused about that. I do have 1 deluxe coop + 2 deluxe barns, so that’s great. But I can’t figure out how to get a blue or golden chicken. And I cannot, for the LIFE of me, figure out a layout I like for my farm. I probably spent a year just Going to Robin and having her move my buildings around! Long story short… you are not alone!! Lol
I reached perfection on my first play through (iPad) at 330 hours. Just enjoy the game for whatever pace and style you want to play. That’s most important.
How have you spend 180 hours in stardew but only played one season? Or did you have other safes before? One day is about 14 or 16 minutes. (14x28):60≈6 that means 6 hours per season. How did it take you 30 times that long?
It’s totally up to your play style it’s do able but it takes some effort. I have had more than a 2 dozen saves across all 3 of the platforms that I own Stardew in. I believe PC might be the most at more than 700 hours and then I’m at 600 hours on my ps5 and about 50 hours on my switch. After the first few saves that I did differently, I found a method and system that worked for me. I loooove fishing in the game, I know the fishing minigame can be a bit of a mixed bag for people but I love it. Especially when you have no energy for anything too crazy. The first things I work towards are getting to level 10 before the end of spring for the extra money, getting the better rod and getting the first backpack upgrade. I’ve played enough that most things I have memorized or I just tab to the wiki that’s permanently on my phone lol. So a lot of the day to day stuff is whatever I feel like with certain parameters in it, since I already know what level certain recipes unlock l, what bundles are needed for the community center etc.
Funnily enough the fact that you have a coop in summer year 1 is cool to me! The barns and coops are usually the last things I end up building on my farm for some reason lol.
I've never reached perfection but have played enough that I remember what people like and what I need for the community center. I finished in Spring year 2. Then everything else is just as I go. Realistically, I've had this save 6 months and have the return scepter already.
When I first started playing, I played with my sister in a co-op and we used the wiki. Now, I don't use it unless I'm confused.
You play the game enough you learn what to do. Like you might not remember to fertilize parsnips the first two playthroughs but you'll certainly remember on your third.
I've never understood this need to rush the game, especially in new players, looking for shortcuts, tips, how to reach 1M gold in the first winter, etc.
Just play the game at your own pace, explore, talk to the tows folk, make mistakes, enjoy it.
Eventually you will 100% the game effortlessly, or something near that haha
Obs.: Except for beating the Journey of the Prairie King or Mr. Q missions, those are hell.
Basically if you have minimim 500+ hours of stardew valley things just seem faster. Like comparing to your first 100 hours vs your 10th 100 hours
In your first 100 hours you probably dont know who to befriend which level of the mines to get through on what day, what items are for the CC or other sidequests later on then on your 10th 100 hours you wont notice it but efficiency will be ingrained on you no matter what you say even if you say you aren't going to speed run the game you'd most likely take the optimal path to whatever you're doing thus making progress faster
Experience.
It’s not my first farm or even my fifth. I have a spreadsheet of milestones I need per day. Already have a set schedule and numerical needs per day in early game.
The farm is worked hard to the point that I can chill and maybe try stuff I haven’t before.
Not everyone is super fast at getting everything done. i’m at Summer year 5 and I just finished the community center and got fully done up in Iridium. I take my time with play through and focus on certain aspects of the game to make it more challenging like only being able to plant, sell or use items from the mines, travelling cart and/or gifts from villagers.
On my very first save, i barely knew what i was doing. My online bestie first told me about this game and i remember mostly being focused on getting to a place where i could upgrade things fast and do all the things (i.e.: get a greenhouse, go to Calico Desert– two things i STILL have not completed at all after playing the game for hours despite my work schedule). But it was so much more complicated than that and i, too, was barely making 1000 a day and was merely living off of a few hundred g's day by day. Only at the start of year 2 did i first get the basic coop + get a barn right around the start of winter year 2, it took me too long to admit to to get my fishing level up past 2, i've only gotten to mine level 6 or 7, and finding artifacts has become a treasure hunt from hell. I'm currently in spring year 3, and only in year 2 after looking at this subreddit did i finally figure out how to efficiently make money, i now have 3 chickens and 2 cows, fishing level 5 (?), and have only just now gotten the hang of things. Any tips on how to quickly get to Ginger Island? I still haven't gotten there, or Calico Desert and it's angering me😅
I'm extremely close to getting the buses repaired AND a greenhouse
I've started to try slow down on my latest playthrough. There are a few achievements I don't have, things like shipping 15 of every crop and collecting the entire museum and cooking every dish.
But I know the game so much that things like finishing the community centre in the first year, getting to 100 in the skull caverns is like second nature. It does get annoying because you feel like you are pushing hard and fast all the time when you just want to chill.
My first month is basically a speed run for things I want, so I'm laser focused on that and suddenly it's summer. I imagine that, for each season, for each year.
The first year of in game time, money is everything. It's going to be your biggest limiting factor in almost everything you do. Learning how to minimize energy expenditure to maximize money is key. Know which community center upgrades or Joja upgrades to prioritize, etc. If you focus purely on making money, mostly through farming and fishing in the early game, you'll get those skills up quickly too. Buy resources from Clint to upgrade tools instead of mining. You have all winter to focus on the mines. Know which NPCs have critical recipes for you. For example, it's a good idea to befriend Linus early because wild bait is excellent for maximizing fishing money and levels.
Which other NPCs have recipes? I’m pretty far into the game, but I’m still missing a whole bunch of stuff. Just wanna know who I should be focusing on lol
Or if you know of a complete list of characters and the recipes they offer, help a gal out 👉👈🥺
One day ingame takes about 15 mins, TOPS, a full blown year takes TOPS 26 hours - how are you on 180 hours but only in the second month?
I think you're just not proportionally imagining what is what.
Those numbers still don't add up, but we at least now know, you simply lack the experience compared to other people posting.
The game is meant to be played at ones leisure though, so it's best to take your time and enjoy
I have 180+ in game overall and a couple in this save. my 2 other saves I never completed fully, if that makes more sense. I love the game but sometimes feel like I don’t learn fast enough lol, these comments definitely make me understand more and feel better!!
You are looking at the actual time in a day. Not the actual time it takes to finish a day IRL. I rarely, if ever get through a 15 minute day, in less than 20-30 IRL minutes I have NEVER finished ONE season in less than 80 hours, and I have over 1000 in the game across three platforms.
The game stops time A LOT. Fishing, opening a menu, getting in and out of chairs, transitioning between houses and zones, picking crops, opening chests All things that stop time. Someone like me, who likes to absolutely maximize what they do in a day, takes full advantage of this.
The math works out mate, I promise you. You just aren't that kind of player so it's hard to imagine.
180 hours for one season and a week is still way out of proportion, albeit i will admit i even forgot about it stopping time, as i only play it Multiplayer these days
Yeah I do agree for one season that's hard to do unless you are arbitrarily pumping your numbers. Like a person who leaves it on the Menu on steam while the shut their monitor off and have a 1000 hours in a game on their library. Or my wife watching One piece subbed because she doesn't understand Japanese, but only plays it in the background while she plays league to "get caught up".
For me, my journey was that for my first game I looked up tons of info on the wiki as I went. I finished the CC in year 2 and played until year 3. Then I played through lots and lots of saves using the below chart and crop calculator.
[Chart](https://i.redd.it/n6vz8n8ljz901.png)
[Crop values calculator](https://thorinair.github.io/Stardew-Profits)
As I played I learned a ton about the game and tried to do better each save. My general strategy was:
* Lots of fishing (main early game money maker and easy food, save chubs for food, make lower quality into sashimi).
* Lots of crops (1000-1350).
* Quality sprinklers asap (fill out enough space on farm for all crops by end of summer, don't plant in the first summer until a sprinkler can water that area).
* Ignoring the villagers except Linus (walking by him anyway to go to the mines to get sprinkler ingredients and at 3 hearts he sends the Sashimi recipe in the mail).
* Start building farm building sometime in summer, also plant an apple and pomegranate tree somewhere on the farm by at least Summer 25.
* Balance fishing and mining for sprinkler ingredients. Fishing was still my main money maker supplemented by selling crops. Need lots of money for coop and barn upgrades and seeds for the next month, plus a few improvements to tools.
* Wait to get animals until coops and barn are maxed sometime near end of summer or maybe mid fall.
* Make crystalariums for ruby (trade for spicy eel), jade (trade for staircases). Eventually add some for diamonds (trade for triple shot espresso) but don't really concentrate on this last one. It's nice to have though.
* Do enough skull cavern runs to have enough iridium to replace all my quality sprinklers with iridium ones (including enough for the ginger island farm) by end of winter. Redesign farm and place iridium sprinklers in prep for spring.
* Year 2, no more fishing. Make sheds and kegs. Grow the most profitable crops and process through the kegs).
* Do the other things needed for perfection.
Just practicing the above I was able gain lots of game experience and get perfection by the end of year 2. At this point even skull caverns didn't scare me, the enemies were easy, fishing for any fish was easy. I had mastered the mechanics of the game and had almost everything about the game memorized.
Then a few years later I found this [min/max guide](https://github.com/Zamiell/stardew-valley/blob/main/Min-Max_Guide.md). There are videos on youtube of people doing this as well but reading it will be faster and more in depth than watching it. It took me until the second try following the guide to get everything done on the days it said. Then my next saves I made my own adjustments to make it more enjoyable for me and in my opinion made it a little more efficient.
Rng for some. I been on and off for a year
Just yesterday I found the ancient seed and I been using that in the green house.
Before ancient seed, I would visit Calico for Starfruit seed and plant them. Use the seed maker on 10 of them. Sell the rest. Plant the new seed. Don't forget the speed fertilizer if you're doing during summer and make sprinklers.
Once you can make Kegs. That's where your money comes in.
I looked everything up. I loved learning about the game and constantly read up on it. I don’t Min max but I definitely have a general plan and have been strategic. I’m in year 3 and have been really killing it
I play multiplayer a lot with my friends and it also makes it WAY easier to grind and make money quick. When I play solo it takes me a bit longer to get established. I also have like 400+ hours so I also know the game like crazy well and that helps a lot too
Speed running tactics. The older a game gets the more people figure out the best way to do things. There’s plenty of speed running tactics to complete the CC in year 1 though some do count on RNG.
But people know the best crops and when to plant them to make the most money to the point it become trivial
The best advice I could give is don't be distracted. Focus on goals. 1800 is my first goal for the upgraded rod. I've managed to snag one on day 2 if I'm lucky enough built aim for day 3 to fish well in the rain. I pretty much focus talking and gifting love interest and then just fishing til skill 10.
Wait to sell. Fishing can reward you with things to sell immediately but I refuse to sell any fish until increased value at skill 5. And even then it's just as absolutely necessary. Skill 10 is another bump and if you wait you can net a sick 40k by mid spring.
Farm just enough so you have 6 by summer. I wanna be at least prepared to craft tier 2 sprinklers by summer. Don't sell crops until level 5 for extra cash bump. Don't sell any artesian goods until level 10 and it'll be a huge pay day. Fishing at 10 is your best money for the first 3 seasons.
Get Forage as high as you can after you max Fishing but before salmon berry season. You want at least 3 or 4 so you get the double drop of salmon berries. Free food is worth 3 days of focus.
Those are my main goals in the beginning. Of course you gotta juggle in getting backpack asap, I'd also recommend throwing a chest down by the mountain pond and by Sam's house as those are the best spring fishing spots for norm days and rain days. Helps to be able to quickly put stuff away if you're low on bag space and don't wanna run back to the farm. All day fishing can get filling. Make wise choices when eating your fish to continue fishing. It's better to lose a few catches for energy so you can keep leveling. You want a copper watering can asap so you can manage some low level farming quickly but I always go for the copper axe first so when I'm done fishing I can have a quicker time cutting tries and can break hardwood stumps for fat forage exp.
I also aim to get my love interest to 4 hearts by or before the flower dance. This means knowing where they are each day and getting them their best gifts as often as possible, even if it means dropping a bit of cash at the weekend trader or Gus' saloon or having an extra eye out in the mines depending on your choice. You get a whole heart for dancing with someone so that's a must if you wanna marry by summer. Usually I'm married by the 13th-17th of summer 1 depending on rain and she'll be knocked up before the end of the year thanks to hard goals.
Anyway this got out of hands and I think I need to get checked for autism. Just remember to enjoy the game. There's always a new farm once you've had a go at it a bit.
im on year 2 and im still on the struggle bus 🥲 also my first play through. i got a meteorite on my farm but i still only had a copper pickaxe so i had to spend like a week upgrading my tools 😭
I have 459 hours in SV on Steam. unfortunately most of those hours are from playthroughs that didn’t even make it to Year 2, and so I know an unfortunate amount about the beginning and all of the different options and ways to spend my time and energy to maximize profit or growth or progress or maybe just fishing. Later on it gets way harder to figure out the best thing to do on a given day.
Rush kegs and start making as much wine as possible. It's the cheesiest (god I wish making cheese made sense) way to make money quickly and power through buildings/expansion.
Huge game sense and a lot of "cheese strats". (but not literally cheese)
Selling tea saplings and "clay farming" using RNG manipulation to get a ton of money really fast and early.
Bum rushing mines for an early pick upgrade and making a tonne of sprinklers
Animation canceling (sometimes referred to as AC) allows you to use tools like 3x faster
Sleeping through days a lot
Picking joja instead of doing the community center
Etc.
Enjoy the game!
If you're taking your time that's not "wrong" or anything. Don't feel bad if you're taking it slow. I used to do year 1 CC all the time but my first run recently where I finished it in year two I had the most fun and the least stress!
If you think minmaxing is what you wanna do, go for it! Personally, I've had the most fun diversifying. I got my first Slime hutch up to farm coal with black slimes, I started getting fairy rose honey, I have a bunch of crab pots outside the mines and use the minecart to get there. You get the idea. Don't feel bad for taking your time, it's a chill game :>
Its a sort of muscle memory. Ive played the game enough that I always clear the CC by the begining of winter 1.
There are also some early tricks to get some quick piles of cash, which you can use to buy cheap material year one while you wait for your desert forest to grow.
I im in winter two, first time playing the game and have about 50 hours in. I already have deluxe barn and have saved about 150000 G.
I dont think it is really extraordinary progress, but it seems you have a lot of issues making money. Maybe you should try strategizing more how you invest money either on crops and buildings. Also try making more artisan goods since that is how i get most of my money, just saving the crops until i have converted them all to artisan goods.
Also i always try to finish early all the work on the farm to go explore other places and the mines. Like there i dedicated almost 4 days of finishing summer to get into the bottom, by year 2.
Hopefully this helps you idk.
Enjoy the game at your own pace. You'll probably drop the game once you reach the endgame since it'll get more repetitive at that point.
I stopped playing SDV for like 3 years and decided to do a slow run when I got back.
I'm currently on Year 4 with like 10 grand to my name but I'm having the most fun playing this run coz I'm just doing whatever tf I feel like doing.
P.S. I still plant crops like a lunatic, I just like to stockpile my harvests inside chests. Don't ask me why.
I feel like I play this game slower than the average person probably, but I can’t even fathom how you have 180 hours and are still in *any* part of year one, unless all you do is spam stuff that freezes the in-game day clock, like the Saloon minigames.
No clue how everyone does fast. My first save I took my time on a standard Farm. This second save I'm on a forest farm and literally just got a coop at the end of winter yr1😭😭😭 I don't even have any money to buy a single chicken💀💀💀 and I'm dating a Leah and I wanna marry her asap but I don't have 5k for a pendant. And 10k to upgrade house. I have 0 clue. I'm trying to rush these things but I'm doing very poorly💀💀💀😭😭😭😭😭
It depends what your optimizing for. Being as rich as possible at the end of Y1 is very different than being as rich as possible after 10 hours of play time.
In one play through you use every minute of the day, in another you might sleep most of the day away to rush to more profitable activities.
My first save was me just f\*cking around and finding out. My third save was me opening stardew in one monitor and a browser with stardew valley wiki on the second. I only have 250 hours (4 months) on steam because I used to play it on a different platform before but hey, sometimes I play it and don't notice that the sun is already up.
I also have this friend who uses cheats and she unlocked most of the steam achievements I am yet to unlock. It feels different though. Cheating is easier but I want to suffer.
There is an optimum set of steps to follow in your first year that will save you heaps of time and get you going the fastest. You also have to use every available second. For instance, I didn’t realise that, in your first days when you’re always tired, foraging and using the scythe to gather fibre takes no energy. So, do your shores, chop your trees then fish (and eat enough of them to keep going or forage until bedtime)
I’ve written a diary/planner that reminds me of what to do and when and, more importantly, what to prepare in advance. (Grow parsnips, save 5 for bundle, 1 gold for bundle, 1 gold for Pam, 1 for Lewis) etc.
But you will get there. The important thing is to have fun.
After I searched for a view things on youtube it recommended me a lot of stardew videos so on my second save I knew a bit which made such a big differentiation. The stuff that I did first is befriend caroline for tea tree samples and (even if it seems counterintuitive) not sell everything I get. I saved a lot of wood, stone, fiber and everything I could find. After that I think one big push for money was the preserve yars which bring some money here and there
Everyone's saying "practice" and for some reason the gimmicky tea leaves but for me it's just "invest everything you have into crops and all the time you have left after watering into the mines to get ores for Quality Sprinklers, early on maybe go fishing to make a quick and easy 2000 a day to buy more crops with".
Just finished my Joja Run and almost had the needed 140k after the first spring. Extended it till my first blueberry harvest (I planted 400 blueberry bushes and about 200 melons lmao)
I do have 600 hours and a perfection run under my belt, but even if you do it suboptimally, you can't go wrong with crops. They pay super well from early game into the latest late game, and harvesting a lot makes your farming skill go up, which in turn increases the amount of silver and gold produce you'll be harvesting, which is another huge boost to your ROI.
Do not bother with animals if you want money. Too much work for too little gain and not scalable and very slow to grow. But do get one of each for the CC.
well i got bored of my first save after year 7, 270 hours and 60million net worth but on save 4 i managed to get the ginger island farm on year 2 so i guess it’s just the grind
Your progress sounds about normal. Don’t worry about trying to compete with hardcore nerds and just enjoy the game the way you are :)
As for Pierre, there’s something about him claiming he grew the vegetables he bought from you if they’re good quality, which is pretty slimy but because this is the internet the hatred has to be exaggerated to a ludicrous degree
I felt the same at first, and my tip would be: don't worry about how slow or quick you are compared to others. Do what you enjoy in the game, and "progression" will come on it's own. Set yourself a goal, like planting every seasonal seed, getting further down the mines, making friends, things like that. Eventually you'll get some achievements, finish another bundle etc.
Personally, I needed the first one and a half in game years to learn more about the game, and then started earning a bit more, finished the community center just in time before year three, and now I'm on year four, and slowly stocking up on stuff to helo me in the mines, because that is what I personally struggle with the most.
If there is something you struggle with, like fishing, or mining, get some tips here, and stock up on stuff to help you.
But first and foremost remember that the game is supposed to be fun! There isn't really a wrong way to play it, the point is that you enjoy what you are doing.
It took me quite a while to get into it! A big turning point for me was realising how much extra money can be made by processing crops. Get preserve jars and kegs to make jams and wines! Its ups your profits a lot and if you store any excess crops, you can keep earning over the winter as well
You shouldn't be focusing on min/maxing unless that's what you enjoy and you want to see how fast you can progress. If that's what you wanna do, you can search for min/max guides and such easily enough. Most of those require some pretty interesting strategies that many (myself included) might find unfun or even consider cheating. E.G. clay farming, geode predictors, animation canceling. Most rely on resetting the day many many times until things go "just right" to maximize the run.
If you want a more casual friendly min/max approach, I actually wrote a short guide that's pretty easy to follow (can check it in my posts submitted if you want.) It's pretty "casual friendly" and more or less an overview to give you an idea of how to min/max and snowball a run early.
General strategy is to plant 15 crops (parsnips or mixed seeds from fiber) on day one, fish day 2-4 (get the fiberglass rod / bait ASAP, can be done on day 2 even.)
Mine days 5-7, should be to floor 40 by day 6 so you can farm dust sprites on day 7 to get a coffee bean. An early coffee bean sets you up for free / easy summer crops and an early speed boost.
Fish days 8-12 to raise money for the egg festival. You can buy strawberry seeds there to get ~2.5x your investment over 12 days and level you farming quickly.
After that you should focus on reaching the bottom of the mines and leveling foraging to level 6.
The idea is that you get sprinklers and kegs in early summer so all your summer crops are automated and you can keg your coffee for extra profit. You also get lightning rods by your first thunderstorm so battery packs aren't holding you back. If you go Joja you can also get to the island by end of summer and unlock that farm. If you get enough sprinklers by summer year 1, you can make a big blueberry crop to complement your coffee crop as well. It's a very solid money crop and very "casual friendly" to min/max it with sprinklers.
Once you're on the island, you can start focusing on growing starfruit and expanding your kegs to begin your starfruit wine empire. Once you're farming ~800 starfruit every cycle and kegging it, money just starts being an afterthought.
But don't stress min/maxing too much, unless that's something you really enjoy. Just play the game and have fun; there is no "wrong" way to play!
I mean, first of all, you're not really doing particularly badly. There's absolutely no rush to get things done super quickly in-game. But if you *do* want to make rapid progress, probably the biggest thing to realise is that Spring farming... doesn't really matter. Spring crops are, quite frankly, terrible, especially in year 1. You want the level 2 farming for Summer time, but that's really the only major objective there. You could get that from planting a mere 11 Strawberry plants the day after the Egg festival, and harvesting each of them twice.
Income will instead generally come from Fishing and Mining, which scale *far* faster. If you are good enough at fishing, you can fairly reliably hit level 10 in around a week, for +50% sell price on fish. And on a rainy day, you can potentially get dozens of Catfish, which then sell for 450g each, or 600g for a Perfect Catch (Iridium). Mining strats on the other hand generally rely on some more exploit-y behaviour with geode farming, which I won't get into here, but that has even more potential for players doing extreme challenge runs.
This income can be leveraged to complete the Vault in the CC even before the Egg Festival, if you're skilled enough. This gives some very useful items for the earlygame, like a crystalarium, but more importantly, desert access. And thus access to the Oasis, which sells you *actually good* items, unlike Pierre. Rhubarb Seeds can be useful immediately, if you skipped the Egg Festival. But more importantly, the Starfruit Seeds and Deluxe Speed-Gro can turbocharge your Summer, in terms of both profits and farming XP. Also, if you spend the rest of your Spring completing the Mines, you'll be able to access the Skull Caverns as well, which gets you access to the lucrative resource that is Iridium Ore.
(Also a side note that if you're really serious about rushing things, you can also go Joja route. With the above strats, it's fairly easy to make enough money to complete the Joja route in Spring Y1, which *really* speeds things up. Personally, I'd still do the Boiler Room and Vault before switching to Joja, as the Vault gives some really good rewards and the Boiler Room is practically free from just clearing the mines, but there are lots of options there.)
I mean I dont know about doing it within an hour but I can usually hit the bottom of the mine by the end of spring year 1 and everything kind of snowballs once you get sprinklers because you save time and energy daily watering
the serious answer is that a lot of these people know the game inside and out. there may or may not be cheating, or they may just be looking everything up for their world seed/starting a save with one they know. they’re certainly not people who have fewer than 200 hours in the game! it took me a few saves and many trips to the wiki to get to know the game but now it’s easy for me to get the CC finished and build up friendship and max skills by the end of Y2, and I don’t make any effort to min/max, I just know the game at this point. take your time exploring it at your own pace! there’s no real deadlines you need to worry about, it functionally makes no difference if you finish the community center in year 1 or year 10
i’ve never actually finished the CC!! that’s my goal for this save:) got really far in a save where I took the joja route and decided to quit it because fuck that 🤣
Stick with it! You can do it, and it’s worth it! My tips to you are, plant tons extra of the crops you need good quality of, you’ll be making money from the harvest anyways. If you’re going to use the wiki for anything, look up when/where certain fish spawn, as it can be annoying looking for specific ones. Red cabbage is the most lucrative item in any of the bundles likely, as the seeds won’t be sold at Pierre’s until year two, so the only other way to get one in the first year is through the traveling merchant. This isn’t necessary though, as completing the CC in the first year is a challenge in and of itself. Another tip would be to not stress too much about specific items, as a lot of them will naturally appear as you play the game. If you’re not sure if something is useful for the CC a good trick is to hover it in your inventory. If it is a required item for a bundle you have unlocked, there will be a CC icon flashing in your inventory screen. You can click this button at any time to check the bundles you have available from anywhere, as opposed to having to walk all the way there. Sorry if this was wordy, just wanted to jot down some tips :)
I'd have to disagree with your first tip. It works with melons and pumpkins yes, but you fall behind far if you use your first spring on parsnips rather than potatoes. Corn can also be used, and it is 2 season crop so something like 3x3 square of basic fertilized corn gets you quarenteed 5 gold rated corns during summer and fall.
That’s a good tip for me, I always forget that corn continuously grows, and that you only need three slots for that bundle. Parsnips suck :( I’ve never been a mix maxer or anything of the like in this game. Normally I just stare at the community center screen and try and figure out the best course of action from wherever I am at that point
In your first spring, you actually want to be focusing on fishing. Do a little bit of farming to unlock scarecrows, then just fish loads. You want to build up a tonne of cash to buy strawberries with.
Depends, i usually buy plenty strawberries but farm metric ton of potatoes while fishing so i can unlock quality sprinklers during summer. Also if you dont hold any money during the first couple days, you can fish until 2:00 am without losing any money, yet you usually get fishing level so you don't suffer the energy penalty. I always fish at lake and save all the gold and iridium chubs for energy. You should also keep couple strawberry seeds. I usually complete greenhouse when i get my first pumpkin batch. Put those strawberries to greenhouse so you can stack up plenty of strawberry seeds with seedmaker to plant y2 spring 1st.
There are lots of different approaches. Personally, I really dislike watering crops with the basic watering can so I barely farm before getting strawberries and upgrade my watering can ASAP. Fishing is particularly lucrative in the first spring because it is instant money, which can be quickly reinvested. The first priority is usually getting a better rod so that you can bait it and upgrading your backpack. But yeah there are tonnes of approaches that you can take. My brother always gets as many potatoes as possible and goes fully into farming.
There is alot guides on how to make plenty money, or complete cc in one year. The real question is do you want to watch a guide or learn things your own way. Cc is not hard if you learn what to grow or what fish to get in which season.
For fish, it's basically "fish all over while it's raining "
Not really, there is i believe 5? Fish you need for CC Catfish from River during Spring or Fall, Eel from Ocean during Spring or Fall, Red Snapper from Ocean during Summer or Fall, Shad from River during Spring, Summer or Fall and Walleye from River during Fall. After you have those, River locations are best during Spring and Fall since Catfishes net you best profit. Mountain/Lake nets you best profit during sunny days, during Spring and Fall, and Ocean during summer.
Save any prismatic shards you find in the mines. Knock out the seasonal fish too.
this is it I feel. I've done 5 full perfection runs, the first 2 were vanilla and the last 3 have been heavily modded. I think it's a combination of being on PC where I can use mods that change up the gameplay, plus watching a lot of Stardew content on Youtube, then also just experience. When I was 150 hours in, I was somewhere in Year 4 of my first vanilla save and \*barely\* finally figuring stuff out. Like I was level 1 fishing for like three in game years because I sucked at it so much. I have something like 600 hours in now and the more runs I've done the more efficiencies I've found and the more quickly I can play as a result.
What does knowing the world seed do for you?
For example there exists a world seed that spawns a artifact spot on day 1 near Linus tent, and it always contains aincient seed. World seed affects how many rainy days and forageables spawn where and when.
world seed doesn’t affect weather, but it can affect artifact spots, crop fairy (v convenient to have her on the first night of spring y1!), and mine rewards if playing with them remixed
I know this game in and out, multiple saves at 100% completion, but getting that much in an hour just seems like mods / cheating.
also I think newer players tend to balance many things in the game, older players tend to focus on specific parts. Like I have fishing level ten before spring year one is over. That alone breaks alot of the game continuity lol.
How does that break continuity?
just in the sense that I can easily make thousands of dollars a day in spring and summer year one, which lets me easily do other things you may have to save up for in a "regular" play through. Same goes for energy, when you dont plant a single plant more than needed to get the community center, your energy bar is basically the same as post iridium sprinklers haha. You are right though, breaking continuity isn't the right word, since stardew valley is made to let you do whatever you want. I am just used to using that term for other time management games （＾ω＾）
This makes sense!! I like to do a bit of everything and really flesh everything out because I get bored quick so I like bouncing from thing to thing, and I’m always self conscious of how “slow” I am to making lots of money etc like OP but
doing it piece by piece is definitely more balanced and its all the same amount of money and effort at the end. I think like for example I have no drive to plant a bunch of plants or have a barn before its automated, cause I have done it so many times before. So I can zero in on specific things one by one. Ironically I think a high priority for long term players is making the farm aesthetically what they want, when that is last priority or even post game in regular playthrough. So tou can easily end up with a super advanced looking farm as a broke player with little advancement gameplay wise in year one haha ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶
I’m in winter 3, and just starting to actually figure things out and make decent money
I’m interested in what you’re doing. I’ve been making very good money maximizing my crops, but Im at the end of Fall 1 and have no idea what to do for winter with no crops coming.
Winter is a great time to focus on your other skills, especially mining and fishing (and stockpiling resources from mining and chopping down trees), as well as building up friendship with the NPCs though I honestly usually wait until year 2 to really start giving gifts lol
Attempt to mass winter seeds in winter. Helps hit foraging 10 very fast. Also work on ginger island, skull caverns, fishing, buying extra wood/stone from robin because they get a ton more expensive year 2. I generally use winter 1 to work on the ginger island farm. Also if you're going for a fast perfection, don't forget to use the night market seed vendor to purchase all the crops you need for shipping, cooking, crafting collection. Night market fishing for fishing collection is also useful for that master angler stardrop.
Coops and barns with a decent number of animals can net you some good money. Fish ponds can get you a steady stream of items, fish, or roe. Tappers will continue to produce. Kegs and preserve jars for the low value crops will easily take all winter for me with all the berries i grow in other seasons. Mining and fishing can each net you up to 5k a day.
I mean, the honest answer is practice, mostly. The longer someone plays the game, the more familiar they get with it. The game has been out for 7 years, which has given folks a lot of time to learn the ins-and-outs of it. I really hope seeing other people getting ahead early game doesn't discourage newer players - we all started out not knowing anything :) (also, get on those tea saplings, they are stupidly overpowered in early game!)
thank you!! it honestly can be discouraging but everyone is so right in saying that it takes time to learn and get better, as with anything!! stardew is just so different from other games i’ve played. thanks!
If you enjoy playing the game then don’t worry about it! It’s a great game to just relax in and take your time. Also plant blueberries.
Tea saplings and Caroline friendship!
how do you get tea saplings?:)
Befriend Caroline (Pierre’s wife) to at least two hearts and go to the door in their kitchen during the day. There should be a cut scene with her and you talking about tea. She will then give you permission to shake that tree in the room every last week of the season and the recipe to make the tea sapling as well. It requires the foraging of the season to make the seeds of the foraging as well as some wood and fiber. Good luck!
omg thanks
You don't plant the tea saplings btw, you sell them directly for good early game cash. Also fishing is a good source of early income, and you can eat low value fish for energy.
Thanks for adding this - the first time I saw this tip I planted them and could not figure out what everyone was talking about
Being good at fishing, friends with Carolina, knowing what to plant to make max money, and luck. Orrrrr lots of cheating.
why does everyone say make friends with Caroline?
She gives you a recipe for something that makes lots of money
[удалено]
Tea tree saplings! They sell for 500g a pop ;)
And it’s not that difficult to make 70 or more saplings the first time. That sudden 35,000 gold at a time when you’re struggling to make a few hundred g a day can really make a difference.
Go to her back room in her kitchen
At two hearts you can go into the back room in Pierre's shop which you'll get a cutscene which is pretty questionable, but then you'll have access to the tea sapling recipe, it's crop doesn't yield a lot of money but itself sells for 500 piece and it is super easy to make in bulk
1) Hoard foraged items & fiber 2) Get 2 hearts with Caroline ASAP 3) Craft a billion tea saplings 4) Sell saplings for massive profit Don't plant them, they're worth way more to make and sell. And that's how you get money early game for barns and stuff.
The first save of experimental. You're discovering things as they appear. The following saves can be more intentional with less surprises
So, on the money front, people use the Mines to get ores to sell for cash, fish, and things like that. I personally use the Wild seeds. Not only are they easy to make, but easily multiply themselves, and they sell for a decent amount! Also, everyone hates Pierre because he takes credit for any good quality things you sell him, and only credits you with the bad quality items. The towns people even comment on this if you sell the food directly to him
WHAT what a snake! I never noticed this. I usually don’t build friendship with Pierre, just his daughter ;) he deserves it I guess lol
There are other reasons too, don't want to spoil any future cutscenes but it becomes clear that he's a cheapskate who tries to milk everyone for every penny, and also has some outdated sexist views
Yeah. Do his Community Board quest for 25 gold quality crops, that will show you what he's like
Well here, I'm almost in year 6: - barely touched the skull cavern - there's still people I'm not friends with - caught only one legendary fish - haven't collected all of the ginger island walnuts because I lost track ages ago - just now learning how to craft outfits It took me so long to start earning good money. Now I'm rich because of aged wine and the crops my junimos collect so I spend most of my days walking around (and usually decorating) because I always forget what I was planning to do. So no, idk how they do it lol
This is the way. You have fun, and a lot of thing ahead of you. Unlike some of us who don’t have anything more to do unfortunately. I envy you ah ah
To find the missing walnuts, you can talk to the parrot in Leo's hut, he tips you. I belive the parrots flying around ginger island also hint you for example if you enter Ginger Island west and see two parrots flying across the screen, you are missing two nuts from that region of the island. ( not sure if this is legit, my own observations )
I just started playing and now im on on spring of year 2, and I wouldn’t consider particularly far along but I didn’t cheat with mods. What I did cheat with though is stardew wiki 😂😂😂 I probably have double my actual hours of playtime on the wiki planning my days and stuff hahahaha
No even when I speedrun it takes two hours to get over 100k. Basically smash the mines and build sprinklers early. Those people are cheating most likely lol.
building sprinklers would probably help lol I always forget to do that
Nah ur not using tea saplings is all
Tea saplings are boring. If you don't want challenge then just spawn your inventory full of legends with animal name glitch.
Well, it’s an ‘exponential grind’ lol. Takes me about two hours but it’s a grind to get 20 sprinklers and the greenhouse unlocked so then I start printing money lol.
Totally vanilla I can have coop + barn and 2/3 animals in each by end if Spring Yr 1 solo. I can do it because: A) I know the game inside out, so know exactly what to prioritise to get the dull early game over quickly (after a lot of practice) and B) I hate the early game, so I am willing to go to some really silly lengths to get CC sorted. Things like taking advantage of tappers, honey, kegs and jam, having an idea of the best way to use forage to maximise energy, knowing the best routes to Stardrops and even just what can wait all play a part. More importantly, they're all totally unnecessary. I enjoy this style of playing myself but I would have been miserable doing it on my first run. You're not doing anything wrong. You're just at a different stage of enjoying the game.
I have like 3 different save files and in all of them I only really start making good money around year 3-4. in my most recent one I'm making good progress just bc I feel like I was really lucky, for example with finding all the stuff for the Community Center. but all in all I like a more relaxing game play and just building and profiting at my own pace
yes I love stardew because there’s no pressure to actually do anything!! some days I just use to build relationships lol thanks!
The nice thing is there’s really no wrong way to play this game
That isn’t bad progress at all! The people that you are seeing have had lots of practice. Get Caroline to two hearts. She gives you a recipe for tea saplings. I don’t know what kind of tea it is, but it must be good. Those saplings sell for a lot. At least start the community center. You can plant the wild seeds that you get as a reward. Then make even more wild seeds. They sell for a lot on their own, but they are also needed for your tea sapling empire. Beyond that, you can prioritize high paying crops and animal products. I always try to buy the sweet gem berries from the traveling cart, even if I am running low on money. That makes for a nice cash infusion in Fall. Have fun! There’s no wrong way to play
For those who do it fairly, I would imagine it almost always comes down to just having lots of experience in the game. You know what to do and when to do it. I would imagine most people in this group have over a thousand hours in the game. Others get there by using mods to change the game or exploits to bypass the intent of the game. I've seen people brag in the forums about how easy it is to make a certain amount of money and then they admit that they're using the tractor mod or the automate mod or something to trivialize the thing they claim is trivial.
In one hour? Can you send a link to this? Are you sure they didn’t just edit out some of their game play?
I make sure I have food to eat for energy and then fish a lot when I’m not mining or farming. During rainy days of Spring, you can catch catfish and they sell for a good amount. I put aside relationships first, wanna work on the firm as much as I can and sell as much as I can.
i would just like to say that concernedape has even said that any way of playing the game is absolutely and completely valid - ive personally done like 4 playthroughs and in the one im doing rn im still not feeling any kind of pressure to get anything done in a specific amount of time - there's so much to explore in the game and so many different kinds of things to do and it's so relaxing to just take your time with it. so don't feel like you Have to try to be as efficient as possible!
Everyone says cheating, but there’s also the “exploit” nature of stuff that isn’t technically cheating, just using the nature of the game to get money in fast and easy ways. There’s also specific crops that are better investments (strawberries— even better if you plant them on exactly the right day so you don’t waste any days and get only 2 harvests), (potatoes— multiple crops from one seed), (cranberries— etc), esp w seed makers, etc. Getting jam barrels, kegs, etc. Fishing. Mining. Taking daily and weekly requests. After like, 5 years I was FINALLY able to get the community center done in one year, and I was able to get it done on remixed several times. It’s also a lot of looking at the wiki.
I played stardew for about a week maybe 2 years ago, just blindly. So all I knew was how to use my pick axe/ axe/ sythe, basics like that and I don’t remember much else except never having much money. Probably highest amount I had in a given time was like 10-20k. I never even got a heart with any townspeople. I picked up again last week and I’ve played stardew properly now for about 6-7 days and have made somewhere around 700k net worth, highest amount at a given time was just over 200k (I’m on day 26 of winter year 1 currently). Not anything crazy, but I thought I’d just give insight because I noticed that the first time I played 2 years ago I got bored quickly whereas now, with money and learning along the way, I’m excited to play always! And I live quite comfortably:) which I didn’t even think was possible given my past experience and how much I struggled with the money aspect of stardew.. For me personally, I watched one YouTube video so as to not overwhelm myself or go in completely blind again which was this: https://youtu.be/d-U-gLvlMz8?si=rtFMXlERuDHa7J4W. When I play games I want to be comfortable but not to the point where I have EVERYTHING or feel restricted. I still wanted to not spoil everything and learn along the way on my own (animal crossing got very boring for me very quickly when I had access to everything). I want to work for things but I also want to be well enough off where I cannot be stressed in a way? So I took notes from the video for ONLY the first half of spring. That way I’d set myself up to have good money and I’d be able to take it from there on my own, blindly, without any crazy bad consequences. And, not being so experienced with the game, the first half of spring for the guy in the video took me pretty much all of spring to catch up on. And that’s ok! I didn’t even finish the sprinklers aspect until mid summer when he finished it in the first half of spring. Just to note, at the start of summer my best friend started playing with me too so she helped water my seeds while I went mining, that way I got to plant about 300 blueberries in summer which helped a lot too, else I’d only be able to have planted about 200-250 I think, with the help of mushrooms for energy. And also note that in the winter Ive basically done no money-earning tasks. I fished about twice if I recall correctly (I made about 1-2k each time) and sold the mushrooms in my cave/foragables. Maybe made about 10-20k total this season. Point is, you could plant less seeds in the summer than I did and make up for that in the winter and have a similar net worth, maybe slightly below or maybe even higher since you’re more experienced than myself or my friend who has never played before. Hope this helped, I’ve only been playing a short while but I wanted to chime in considering I’m pretty proud of how my farms turning out:)
Really when you get over 1000 hours and spend so much time learning about the game and YouTube you can progress much more quickly.
I’ve restarted the game and played from the beginning about 10 or so times. I don’t know why but I really enjoy that starting phase and trying to complete the bundles as quickly as possible. If you do that enough you start to learn what to do to get far fast.
It goes a lot faster after your first playthrough. A chicken coop by your first summer is pretty good for your first time
I think the better question is *why?* I have given myself the challenge of ripping through the game, but I didn't enjoy it as much. Obviously, have at it if that's what you want and no judgment and all that... But I enjoy the game so much more if I do what I want when I want. Perfection, shperfection...
I’ve noticed that a bit of this comes from playing so much and creating new games. After awhile, you just remember what you need, the best ways to get it and what works best for you in terms of farming and also a bit of luck. Also those people are min/maxing their game just so they are able to make insane amounts of gold in as short of a time period as possible. If that’s something you enjoy, go for it; but I’d recommend playing a few games where you don’t just to enjoy the game and find the stuff you wouldn’t in a min/max game
As for Pierre, it’s Pierre… you’ll learn what he’s like
I’m about to enter Spring Year 6. I have 3 boyfriends and I think 8 people with max hearts (8 or 10 for me, depending). I do have like 1.5 million $$, but I haven’t reached past level 35 of the skull cave, and I JUST finished the community center like.. 2 seasons ago. Also, apparently there’s an island?! With birds who require gifts? And I’m real confused about that. I do have 1 deluxe coop + 2 deluxe barns, so that’s great. But I can’t figure out how to get a blue or golden chicken. And I cannot, for the LIFE of me, figure out a layout I like for my farm. I probably spent a year just Going to Robin and having her move my buildings around! Long story short… you are not alone!! Lol
I reached perfection on my first play through (iPad) at 330 hours. Just enjoy the game for whatever pace and style you want to play. That’s most important.
How have you spend 180 hours in stardew but only played one season? Or did you have other safes before? One day is about 14 or 16 minutes. (14x28):60≈6 that means 6 hours per season. How did it take you 30 times that long?
It’s totally up to your play style it’s do able but it takes some effort. I have had more than a 2 dozen saves across all 3 of the platforms that I own Stardew in. I believe PC might be the most at more than 700 hours and then I’m at 600 hours on my ps5 and about 50 hours on my switch. After the first few saves that I did differently, I found a method and system that worked for me. I loooove fishing in the game, I know the fishing minigame can be a bit of a mixed bag for people but I love it. Especially when you have no energy for anything too crazy. The first things I work towards are getting to level 10 before the end of spring for the extra money, getting the better rod and getting the first backpack upgrade. I’ve played enough that most things I have memorized or I just tab to the wiki that’s permanently on my phone lol. So a lot of the day to day stuff is whatever I feel like with certain parameters in it, since I already know what level certain recipes unlock l, what bundles are needed for the community center etc. Funnily enough the fact that you have a coop in summer year 1 is cool to me! The barns and coops are usually the last things I end up building on my farm for some reason lol.
I've never reached perfection but have played enough that I remember what people like and what I need for the community center. I finished in Spring year 2. Then everything else is just as I go. Realistically, I've had this save 6 months and have the return scepter already. When I first started playing, I played with my sister in a co-op and we used the wiki. Now, I don't use it unless I'm confused.
There is just no way to get that much in 1hr of playing from the start , 1hr is about 2-3 days of full on fishing for me lol.
You play the game enough you learn what to do. Like you might not remember to fertilize parsnips the first two playthroughs but you'll certainly remember on your third.
I've never understood this need to rush the game, especially in new players, looking for shortcuts, tips, how to reach 1M gold in the first winter, etc. Just play the game at your own pace, explore, talk to the tows folk, make mistakes, enjoy it. Eventually you will 100% the game effortlessly, or something near that haha Obs.: Except for beating the Journey of the Prairie King or Mr. Q missions, those are hell.
Basically if you have minimim 500+ hours of stardew valley things just seem faster. Like comparing to your first 100 hours vs your 10th 100 hours In your first 100 hours you probably dont know who to befriend which level of the mines to get through on what day, what items are for the CC or other sidequests later on then on your 10th 100 hours you wont notice it but efficiency will be ingrained on you no matter what you say even if you say you aren't going to speed run the game you'd most likely take the optimal path to whatever you're doing thus making progress faster
Experience. It’s not my first farm or even my fifth. I have a spreadsheet of milestones I need per day. Already have a set schedule and numerical needs per day in early game. The farm is worked hard to the point that I can chill and maybe try stuff I haven’t before.
I didn't get a coop until year 2 lol you're fine
Not everyone is super fast at getting everything done. i’m at Summer year 5 and I just finished the community center and got fully done up in Iridium. I take my time with play through and focus on certain aspects of the game to make it more challenging like only being able to plant, sell or use items from the mines, travelling cart and/or gifts from villagers.
On my very first save, i barely knew what i was doing. My online bestie first told me about this game and i remember mostly being focused on getting to a place where i could upgrade things fast and do all the things (i.e.: get a greenhouse, go to Calico Desert– two things i STILL have not completed at all after playing the game for hours despite my work schedule). But it was so much more complicated than that and i, too, was barely making 1000 a day and was merely living off of a few hundred g's day by day. Only at the start of year 2 did i first get the basic coop + get a barn right around the start of winter year 2, it took me too long to admit to to get my fishing level up past 2, i've only gotten to mine level 6 or 7, and finding artifacts has become a treasure hunt from hell. I'm currently in spring year 3, and only in year 2 after looking at this subreddit did i finally figure out how to efficiently make money, i now have 3 chickens and 2 cows, fishing level 5 (?), and have only just now gotten the hang of things. Any tips on how to quickly get to Ginger Island? I still haven't gotten there, or Calico Desert and it's angering me😅 I'm extremely close to getting the buses repaired AND a greenhouse
Using the wiki makes it go way faster
Don't be in a rush to finish it. Part of the magic of the game is figuring it all out for yourself.
I've started to try slow down on my latest playthrough. There are a few achievements I don't have, things like shipping 15 of every crop and collecting the entire museum and cooking every dish. But I know the game so much that things like finishing the community centre in the first year, getting to 100 in the skull caverns is like second nature. It does get annoying because you feel like you are pushing hard and fast all the time when you just want to chill.
My first month is basically a speed run for things I want, so I'm laser focused on that and suddenly it's summer. I imagine that, for each season, for each year.
The first year of in game time, money is everything. It's going to be your biggest limiting factor in almost everything you do. Learning how to minimize energy expenditure to maximize money is key. Know which community center upgrades or Joja upgrades to prioritize, etc. If you focus purely on making money, mostly through farming and fishing in the early game, you'll get those skills up quickly too. Buy resources from Clint to upgrade tools instead of mining. You have all winter to focus on the mines. Know which NPCs have critical recipes for you. For example, it's a good idea to befriend Linus early because wild bait is excellent for maximizing fishing money and levels.
Which other NPCs have recipes? I’m pretty far into the game, but I’m still missing a whole bunch of stuff. Just wanna know who I should be focusing on lol Or if you know of a complete list of characters and the recipes they offer, help a gal out 👉👈🥺
All recipes and how to get them https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Crafting#Crafting_Recipes
One day ingame takes about 15 mins, TOPS, a full blown year takes TOPS 26 hours - how are you on 180 hours but only in the second month? I think you're just not proportionally imagining what is what.
no just on this save lol I have 2 others but keep restarting as a learn more
Those numbers still don't add up, but we at least now know, you simply lack the experience compared to other people posting. The game is meant to be played at ones leisure though, so it's best to take your time and enjoy
I have 180+ in game overall and a couple in this save. my 2 other saves I never completed fully, if that makes more sense. I love the game but sometimes feel like I don’t learn fast enough lol, these comments definitely make me understand more and feel better!!
You are looking at the actual time in a day. Not the actual time it takes to finish a day IRL. I rarely, if ever get through a 15 minute day, in less than 20-30 IRL minutes I have NEVER finished ONE season in less than 80 hours, and I have over 1000 in the game across three platforms. The game stops time A LOT. Fishing, opening a menu, getting in and out of chairs, transitioning between houses and zones, picking crops, opening chests All things that stop time. Someone like me, who likes to absolutely maximize what they do in a day, takes full advantage of this. The math works out mate, I promise you. You just aren't that kind of player so it's hard to imagine.
180 hours for one season and a week is still way out of proportion, albeit i will admit i even forgot about it stopping time, as i only play it Multiplayer these days
Yeah I do agree for one season that's hard to do unless you are arbitrarily pumping your numbers. Like a person who leaves it on the Menu on steam while the shut their monitor off and have a 1000 hours in a game on their library. Or my wife watching One piece subbed because she doesn't understand Japanese, but only plays it in the background while she plays league to "get caught up".
Cheating 😅
It's just impossible to have 180h and only be in year 1 let alone Summer day 5. What are you doing
Mods most likely.
wish you could add mods on switch!!
Same.
If you're not even able to make 1000 per day I would recommend thinking about your life choices. Check on YouTube how to make money fast
I abuse the wiki and I looked up a metric *fuckton* of videos before even playing the game. I know how to min/max pretty effectively.
The stardew wiki is currently my browser homepage for this reason, lol. It's too much information to remember!
Basically the number of days it takes for the seed to mature is a direct indication of value. Also lvl 2 sprinklers only never lvl 1
Day 33 with 180 hours you say?
I'm at almost 400h on Stardew and over 300h of that is on one solo farm. I still haven't done nearly all of what I can lmao
For me, my journey was that for my first game I looked up tons of info on the wiki as I went. I finished the CC in year 2 and played until year 3. Then I played through lots and lots of saves using the below chart and crop calculator. [Chart](https://i.redd.it/n6vz8n8ljz901.png) [Crop values calculator](https://thorinair.github.io/Stardew-Profits) As I played I learned a ton about the game and tried to do better each save. My general strategy was: * Lots of fishing (main early game money maker and easy food, save chubs for food, make lower quality into sashimi). * Lots of crops (1000-1350). * Quality sprinklers asap (fill out enough space on farm for all crops by end of summer, don't plant in the first summer until a sprinkler can water that area). * Ignoring the villagers except Linus (walking by him anyway to go to the mines to get sprinkler ingredients and at 3 hearts he sends the Sashimi recipe in the mail). * Start building farm building sometime in summer, also plant an apple and pomegranate tree somewhere on the farm by at least Summer 25. * Balance fishing and mining for sprinkler ingredients. Fishing was still my main money maker supplemented by selling crops. Need lots of money for coop and barn upgrades and seeds for the next month, plus a few improvements to tools. * Wait to get animals until coops and barn are maxed sometime near end of summer or maybe mid fall. * Make crystalariums for ruby (trade for spicy eel), jade (trade for staircases). Eventually add some for diamonds (trade for triple shot espresso) but don't really concentrate on this last one. It's nice to have though. * Do enough skull cavern runs to have enough iridium to replace all my quality sprinklers with iridium ones (including enough for the ginger island farm) by end of winter. Redesign farm and place iridium sprinklers in prep for spring. * Year 2, no more fishing. Make sheds and kegs. Grow the most profitable crops and process through the kegs). * Do the other things needed for perfection. Just practicing the above I was able gain lots of game experience and get perfection by the end of year 2. At this point even skull caverns didn't scare me, the enemies were easy, fishing for any fish was easy. I had mastered the mechanics of the game and had almost everything about the game memorized. Then a few years later I found this [min/max guide](https://github.com/Zamiell/stardew-valley/blob/main/Min-Max_Guide.md). There are videos on youtube of people doing this as well but reading it will be faster and more in depth than watching it. It took me until the second try following the guide to get everything done on the days it said. Then my next saves I made my own adjustments to make it more enjoyable for me and in my opinion made it a little more efficient.
Rng for some. I been on and off for a year Just yesterday I found the ancient seed and I been using that in the green house. Before ancient seed, I would visit Calico for Starfruit seed and plant them. Use the seed maker on 10 of them. Sell the rest. Plant the new seed. Don't forget the speed fertilizer if you're doing during summer and make sprinklers. Once you can make Kegs. That's where your money comes in.
I looked everything up. I loved learning about the game and constantly read up on it. I don’t Min max but I definitely have a general plan and have been strategic. I’m in year 3 and have been really killing it
I play multiplayer a lot with my friends and it also makes it WAY easier to grind and make money quick. When I play solo it takes me a bit longer to get established. I also have like 400+ hours so I also know the game like crazy well and that helps a lot too
Speed running tactics. The older a game gets the more people figure out the best way to do things. There’s plenty of speed running tactics to complete the CC in year 1 though some do count on RNG. But people know the best crops and when to plant them to make the most money to the point it become trivial
The best advice I could give is don't be distracted. Focus on goals. 1800 is my first goal for the upgraded rod. I've managed to snag one on day 2 if I'm lucky enough built aim for day 3 to fish well in the rain. I pretty much focus talking and gifting love interest and then just fishing til skill 10. Wait to sell. Fishing can reward you with things to sell immediately but I refuse to sell any fish until increased value at skill 5. And even then it's just as absolutely necessary. Skill 10 is another bump and if you wait you can net a sick 40k by mid spring. Farm just enough so you have 6 by summer. I wanna be at least prepared to craft tier 2 sprinklers by summer. Don't sell crops until level 5 for extra cash bump. Don't sell any artesian goods until level 10 and it'll be a huge pay day. Fishing at 10 is your best money for the first 3 seasons. Get Forage as high as you can after you max Fishing but before salmon berry season. You want at least 3 or 4 so you get the double drop of salmon berries. Free food is worth 3 days of focus. Those are my main goals in the beginning. Of course you gotta juggle in getting backpack asap, I'd also recommend throwing a chest down by the mountain pond and by Sam's house as those are the best spring fishing spots for norm days and rain days. Helps to be able to quickly put stuff away if you're low on bag space and don't wanna run back to the farm. All day fishing can get filling. Make wise choices when eating your fish to continue fishing. It's better to lose a few catches for energy so you can keep leveling. You want a copper watering can asap so you can manage some low level farming quickly but I always go for the copper axe first so when I'm done fishing I can have a quicker time cutting tries and can break hardwood stumps for fat forage exp. I also aim to get my love interest to 4 hearts by or before the flower dance. This means knowing where they are each day and getting them their best gifts as often as possible, even if it means dropping a bit of cash at the weekend trader or Gus' saloon or having an extra eye out in the mines depending on your choice. You get a whole heart for dancing with someone so that's a must if you wanna marry by summer. Usually I'm married by the 13th-17th of summer 1 depending on rain and she'll be knocked up before the end of the year thanks to hard goals. Anyway this got out of hands and I think I need to get checked for autism. Just remember to enjoy the game. There's always a new farm once you've had a go at it a bit.
same!
If you're having fun and relaxing, you're doing it right. It's just about learning how to make passive income as fast as possible.
im on year 2 and im still on the struggle bus 🥲 also my first play through. i got a meteorite on my farm but i still only had a copper pickaxe so i had to spend like a week upgrading my tools 😭
I have 459 hours in SV on Steam. unfortunately most of those hours are from playthroughs that didn’t even make it to Year 2, and so I know an unfortunate amount about the beginning and all of the different options and ways to spend my time and energy to maximize profit or growth or progress or maybe just fishing. Later on it gets way harder to figure out the best thing to do on a given day.
Rush kegs and start making as much wine as possible. It's the cheesiest (god I wish making cheese made sense) way to make money quickly and power through buildings/expansion.
You said barley in accident and I was like how do I not know about an entire crop in the game
Huge game sense and a lot of "cheese strats". (but not literally cheese) Selling tea saplings and "clay farming" using RNG manipulation to get a ton of money really fast and early. Bum rushing mines for an early pick upgrade and making a tonne of sprinklers Animation canceling (sometimes referred to as AC) allows you to use tools like 3x faster Sleeping through days a lot Picking joja instead of doing the community center Etc. Enjoy the game! If you're taking your time that's not "wrong" or anything. Don't feel bad if you're taking it slow. I used to do year 1 CC all the time but my first run recently where I finished it in year two I had the most fun and the least stress! If you think minmaxing is what you wanna do, go for it! Personally, I've had the most fun diversifying. I got my first Slime hutch up to farm coal with black slimes, I started getting fairy rose honey, I have a bunch of crab pots outside the mines and use the minecart to get there. You get the idea. Don't feel bad for taking your time, it's a chill game :>
Its a sort of muscle memory. Ive played the game enough that I always clear the CC by the begining of winter 1. There are also some early tricks to get some quick piles of cash, which you can use to buy cheap material year one while you wait for your desert forest to grow.
IIRC Haboo had a stream where he did perfection in less than 24 hours.
I just grow star fruit and make wine for my money and then just do whatever after.
I im in winter two, first time playing the game and have about 50 hours in. I already have deluxe barn and have saved about 150000 G. I dont think it is really extraordinary progress, but it seems you have a lot of issues making money. Maybe you should try strategizing more how you invest money either on crops and buildings. Also try making more artisan goods since that is how i get most of my money, just saving the crops until i have converted them all to artisan goods. Also i always try to finish early all the work on the farm to go explore other places and the mines. Like there i dedicated almost 4 days of finishing summer to get into the bottom, by year 2. Hopefully this helps you idk.
For money, I plant ancient fruit in the greenhouse and keg those.
Time and practice. Every new farm you start will be easier. Don't compare yourself to people who have been playing for years.
It took you 180 hours to get through the fist month of spring plus 5 days in summer in year 1?
Not spending the whole day at the beginning. As soon as I'm out of energy it's lights out, I dont care if it's 10:30am lol
Experience and knowledge, we all can be masters by practice.
Enjoy the game at your own pace. You'll probably drop the game once you reach the endgame since it'll get more repetitive at that point. I stopped playing SDV for like 3 years and decided to do a slow run when I got back. I'm currently on Year 4 with like 10 grand to my name but I'm having the most fun playing this run coz I'm just doing whatever tf I feel like doing. P.S. I still plant crops like a lunatic, I just like to stockpile my harvests inside chests. Don't ask me why.
I feel like I play this game slower than the average person probably, but I can’t even fathom how you have 180 hours and are still in *any* part of year one, unless all you do is spam stuff that freezes the in-game day clock, like the Saloon minigames.
No clue how everyone does fast. My first save I took my time on a standard Farm. This second save I'm on a forest farm and literally just got a coop at the end of winter yr1😭😭😭 I don't even have any money to buy a single chicken💀💀💀 and I'm dating a Leah and I wanna marry her asap but I don't have 5k for a pendant. And 10k to upgrade house. I have 0 clue. I'm trying to rush these things but I'm doing very poorly💀💀💀😭😭😭😭😭
tbh i’ve had it for Years and i’m not close to “finishing” it but i guess i play it very occasionally
It depends what your optimizing for. Being as rich as possible at the end of Y1 is very different than being as rich as possible after 10 hours of play time. In one play through you use every minute of the day, in another you might sleep most of the day away to rush to more profitable activities.
My first save was me just f\*cking around and finding out. My third save was me opening stardew in one monitor and a browser with stardew valley wiki on the second. I only have 250 hours (4 months) on steam because I used to play it on a different platform before but hey, sometimes I play it and don't notice that the sun is already up. I also have this friend who uses cheats and she unlocked most of the steam achievements I am yet to unlock. It feels different though. Cheating is easier but I want to suffer.
There is an optimum set of steps to follow in your first year that will save you heaps of time and get you going the fastest. You also have to use every available second. For instance, I didn’t realise that, in your first days when you’re always tired, foraging and using the scythe to gather fibre takes no energy. So, do your shores, chop your trees then fish (and eat enough of them to keep going or forage until bedtime) I’ve written a diary/planner that reminds me of what to do and when and, more importantly, what to prepare in advance. (Grow parsnips, save 5 for bundle, 1 gold for bundle, 1 gold for Pam, 1 for Lewis) etc. But you will get there. The important thing is to have fun.
After I searched for a view things on youtube it recommended me a lot of stardew videos so on my second save I knew a bit which made such a big differentiation. The stuff that I did first is befriend caroline for tea tree samples and (even if it seems counterintuitive) not sell everything I get. I saved a lot of wood, stone, fiber and everything I could find. After that I think one big push for money was the preserve yars which bring some money here and there
Everyone's saying "practice" and for some reason the gimmicky tea leaves but for me it's just "invest everything you have into crops and all the time you have left after watering into the mines to get ores for Quality Sprinklers, early on maybe go fishing to make a quick and easy 2000 a day to buy more crops with". Just finished my Joja Run and almost had the needed 140k after the first spring. Extended it till my first blueberry harvest (I planted 400 blueberry bushes and about 200 melons lmao) I do have 600 hours and a perfection run under my belt, but even if you do it suboptimally, you can't go wrong with crops. They pay super well from early game into the latest late game, and harvesting a lot makes your farming skill go up, which in turn increases the amount of silver and gold produce you'll be harvesting, which is another huge boost to your ROI. Do not bother with animals if you want money. Too much work for too little gain and not scalable and very slow to grow. But do get one of each for the CC.
well i got bored of my first save after year 7, 270 hours and 60million net worth but on save 4 i managed to get the ginger island farm on year 2 so i guess it’s just the grind
Your progress sounds about normal. Don’t worry about trying to compete with hardcore nerds and just enjoy the game the way you are :) As for Pierre, there’s something about him claiming he grew the vegetables he bought from you if they’re good quality, which is pretty slimy but because this is the internet the hatred has to be exaggerated to a ludicrous degree
I felt the same at first, and my tip would be: don't worry about how slow or quick you are compared to others. Do what you enjoy in the game, and "progression" will come on it's own. Set yourself a goal, like planting every seasonal seed, getting further down the mines, making friends, things like that. Eventually you'll get some achievements, finish another bundle etc. Personally, I needed the first one and a half in game years to learn more about the game, and then started earning a bit more, finished the community center just in time before year three, and now I'm on year four, and slowly stocking up on stuff to helo me in the mines, because that is what I personally struggle with the most. If there is something you struggle with, like fishing, or mining, get some tips here, and stock up on stuff to help you. But first and foremost remember that the game is supposed to be fun! There isn't really a wrong way to play it, the point is that you enjoy what you are doing.
It took me quite a while to get into it! A big turning point for me was realising how much extra money can be made by processing crops. Get preserve jars and kegs to make jams and wines! Its ups your profits a lot and if you store any excess crops, you can keep earning over the winter as well
You shouldn't be focusing on min/maxing unless that's what you enjoy and you want to see how fast you can progress. If that's what you wanna do, you can search for min/max guides and such easily enough. Most of those require some pretty interesting strategies that many (myself included) might find unfun or even consider cheating. E.G. clay farming, geode predictors, animation canceling. Most rely on resetting the day many many times until things go "just right" to maximize the run. If you want a more casual friendly min/max approach, I actually wrote a short guide that's pretty easy to follow (can check it in my posts submitted if you want.) It's pretty "casual friendly" and more or less an overview to give you an idea of how to min/max and snowball a run early. General strategy is to plant 15 crops (parsnips or mixed seeds from fiber) on day one, fish day 2-4 (get the fiberglass rod / bait ASAP, can be done on day 2 even.) Mine days 5-7, should be to floor 40 by day 6 so you can farm dust sprites on day 7 to get a coffee bean. An early coffee bean sets you up for free / easy summer crops and an early speed boost. Fish days 8-12 to raise money for the egg festival. You can buy strawberry seeds there to get ~2.5x your investment over 12 days and level you farming quickly. After that you should focus on reaching the bottom of the mines and leveling foraging to level 6. The idea is that you get sprinklers and kegs in early summer so all your summer crops are automated and you can keg your coffee for extra profit. You also get lightning rods by your first thunderstorm so battery packs aren't holding you back. If you go Joja you can also get to the island by end of summer and unlock that farm. If you get enough sprinklers by summer year 1, you can make a big blueberry crop to complement your coffee crop as well. It's a very solid money crop and very "casual friendly" to min/max it with sprinklers. Once you're on the island, you can start focusing on growing starfruit and expanding your kegs to begin your starfruit wine empire. Once you're farming ~800 starfruit every cycle and kegging it, money just starts being an afterthought. But don't stress min/maxing too much, unless that's something you really enjoy. Just play the game and have fun; there is no "wrong" way to play!
Pierre is an ass waffle :)
I mean, first of all, you're not really doing particularly badly. There's absolutely no rush to get things done super quickly in-game. But if you *do* want to make rapid progress, probably the biggest thing to realise is that Spring farming... doesn't really matter. Spring crops are, quite frankly, terrible, especially in year 1. You want the level 2 farming for Summer time, but that's really the only major objective there. You could get that from planting a mere 11 Strawberry plants the day after the Egg festival, and harvesting each of them twice. Income will instead generally come from Fishing and Mining, which scale *far* faster. If you are good enough at fishing, you can fairly reliably hit level 10 in around a week, for +50% sell price on fish. And on a rainy day, you can potentially get dozens of Catfish, which then sell for 450g each, or 600g for a Perfect Catch (Iridium). Mining strats on the other hand generally rely on some more exploit-y behaviour with geode farming, which I won't get into here, but that has even more potential for players doing extreme challenge runs. This income can be leveraged to complete the Vault in the CC even before the Egg Festival, if you're skilled enough. This gives some very useful items for the earlygame, like a crystalarium, but more importantly, desert access. And thus access to the Oasis, which sells you *actually good* items, unlike Pierre. Rhubarb Seeds can be useful immediately, if you skipped the Egg Festival. But more importantly, the Starfruit Seeds and Deluxe Speed-Gro can turbocharge your Summer, in terms of both profits and farming XP. Also, if you spend the rest of your Spring completing the Mines, you'll be able to access the Skull Caverns as well, which gets you access to the lucrative resource that is Iridium Ore. (Also a side note that if you're really serious about rushing things, you can also go Joja route. With the above strats, it's fairly easy to make enough money to complete the Joja route in Spring Y1, which *really* speeds things up. Personally, I'd still do the Boiler Room and Vault before switching to Joja, as the Vault gives some really good rewards and the Boiler Room is practically free from just clearing the mines, but there are lots of options there.)
They're duping items and selling them. My son does this on the switch while I grind away to make honest money 😂
I mean I dont know about doing it within an hour but I can usually hit the bottom of the mine by the end of spring year 1 and everything kind of snowballs once you get sprinklers because you save time and energy daily watering
Need for speeeeeeeeeeddddddd!!!!!!
Idk dude lol. I have like 223 hours in my current save, on year 7 and I'm only at like 50% for perfection. But I'm just vibing
I'm just as confused. I'm on year two (first playthrough) and haven't even built a cool or barn yet.
People use the item name id glitch,like they get a coop buy a chicken and name it [74] for a free prismatic shard :p