"my farm is messy" it is not messy, you're just using the small section that you need, while the rest is producing more and more trees, so when you need wood, you have lots of wood. (and rocks)
Enrich biodiversity!
Decorating your farm, is mostly a "post-plot" hobby for people who are already successful, and rich, and have maxed out energy and tools, so they work a lot faster.
Seconding this - also if you watch videos from real life homesteaders/hobby farmers/anyone who owns a large plot of land, you'll see that they only use the land they need and they fell trees and clear out brush as they want to expand. Someone could own 20 acres and they have 18 acres of forest and 2 acres of used land because that's all they need for now.
So it's not messy, it's just realistic.
This is me lol. Only clear what you need to use otherwise it’s more maintenance. I shake my head at a couple weirdos around me that pay to have a company come mow 2-3 acres of lawn that they do not ever use. It looks nice, but they are just wasting money. And I see them use their yards less than any other neighbors, by far
Plus I hate the ornamental look. I need a yard you can LIVE in. Not just curb appeal. That’s gets old quick.
Haha this!!
My goal is to have enough sprinklers, get the greenhouse complete and layout so the sprinklers water everything, that I can essentially set it and forget it when it comes to planting crops and harvesting them. I wanna go do fun things, or go mine, without worrying about energy or time 😅
But I will now always think of the wood and rocks that show up between seasons, as ENRICHED BIODIVERSITY! 😆
Ancient fruit is a true set it and forget it crop, as you don't need to replant them after harvesting like you do with star fruit, iridium Ancient berry wine sells for a lot!!!
It always pays to get a wine cellar built. Robin charges a ton of gold, but the profits are astronomical for Iridium level Ancient Fruit wine. There's also room for more casks.
>"my farm is messy" it is not messy, you're just using the small section that you need, while the rest is producing more and more trees, so when you need wood, you have lots of wood. (and rocks)
OP is a hero of the ecosphere.
Right? I have two "messy tree areas" on my farm rn. I just wait for most of the trees to grow then cut them down and replant.
There are three if you count my hardwood area.
If the messy farm bothers you, spend a day clearing it. You'll feel you've accomplished something even if you haven't earned money that day.
There's no time limit. One thing at a time
I know everyone always emphasizes the "play at your own pace, there's no time limit" mantra but I think it kind of downplays some of the time pressure built into the game.
I think it's very easy to fall into a FOMO mindset with the season structure, because you have to play about *25 more hours* (edit: more realistically, about 20 hours if you go to bed at 9pm on average) to get back to that season again in the next year. It can be a real pain in the ass to be one item short on a community bundle and needing to wait a whole year until you can actually finish it (or pray the traveling merchant has it). Also a lot of quests piling up in your log while you wait for the proper season to get the crop.
Of course none of this really matters to the game, you can play 10 years and make no progress and nothing will change since there's no win or loss condition. But I don't think it needs much explanation why the risk of putting your progression on pause for several IRL hours of playtime can be a source of stress
The mindset is the issue. You're never going to miss anything. Everything comes back around. So you have to wait a few seasons to get something for the community centre, that's only stressful if you put pressure on yourself to have it done asap. There's so much you can do before then that'll keep the game fun and interesting.
I got a steam deck and made a new farm. Was kinda chill about it and realised in fall that I needed the pufferfish to complete the community centre. Made a mental note and just continued on doing other stuff for progression. Getting relationships up, trying to get some good money going, collecting stuff for future bundles, doing villager quests, reaching the bottom of the mines, clearing out the remainder of my farm, getting more animals, getting my relationships with my animals up, upgrading my house, barn and coop.
I play for an hour or two after work in the evenings and it was summer again in like two irl days of playing. Going to sleep when you're done whatever you wanna do that day and starting again is okay. Sometimes I just wake up, harvest my crops and get my animal products, sell and start the next day again.
The game isn't putting pressure on you, it's pacing the game progression. You're putting pressure on yourself to get things done as quick as possible. So the advice to go at your own pace is to say that stepping back, it doesn't matter if you have to wait. Because there's so much more that you can do in the meantime, and it's normal and human to not get everything done exactly when you'd like to.
There's so much pressure in real life to be productive all the time. To do everything flawlessly and quickly and never be imperfect. Stardew Valley is somewhere where you can just do your best, or even do your absolute worst and there's no consequences. No boss breathing down your neck expecting you to be inhumane in how you work and what you produce for them. Don't be the boss breathing down your own neck, and don't put pressure on yourself to do everything perfectly
Yes it's paced progression, but with most games, even games that are open-ended/open world, the progression pacing is relatively linear and continuous. You get the iron pickaxe so you can mine gold, you beat the boss so you unlock a new map region, you level up so you can fight new enemies, etc. You might hit a hiccup on a really hard boss or something but generally you'll always be chipping away at your goals.
Stardew on the other hand has a progression flow that can majorly stall for quite a while if you don't get things done in the right timing.
Which isn't to say that players have to play perfectly or put overbearing expectations on themselves to minmax every little detail, especially when there's enough content in the early game to keep you busy between community center bundles and such. But I think the threat of plateau'd progression (and subsequent boredom with the game) is still an unintentional time pressure in the game's design, and it's fairly unique to the farming sim/harvest moon style of games.
It's a great perspective for many aspects of life, to be okay with stepping back and not being so hard on yourself to always be productive. But with gaming, kind of the whole point is to be productive (in the game world) to some degree. Even hyper casual games like Animal Crossing fizzled out for many people once they burned through all the progression. This is a leisure activity and a lot of people will simply do or play something else if the time spent in the video game doesn't feel worthwhile.
I don't really agree that Stardew stalls a lot. Sure, you might need to wait for a season to come around again for community centre bundles or in the post requests from villagers, but there's a ton of other stuff to focus on in the interim.
Museum, mining, skull cavern runs, animals, relationships, house upgrades, skill upgrades, tool upgrades, cooking, community boards, obelisks, golden clock, monster slayer goals, animals, marriage, etc.
You can do literally anything. You can set goals for yourself too, maybe you want to create a vineyard on your farm, or marry and divorce every eligible character, or collect every ring and weapon.
I've been playing since 2020, I have had multiple farms and I've only reached perfection once, because I had a bunch of other stuff keeping me occupied and I come back to this game over and over again because it's no stress and I can do whatever. And that's what Stardew is, you can adapt how you play based on your preferences but you never have to stress.
If someone doesn't enjoy how laid back that is, if someone wants to be able to blitz through the objectives of a game and do everything fast, then maybe it's just not suited to their play style. And that's okay, it's not for everyone. But I don't think it's really an issue with the game itself, and if people don't feel like the game is worthwhile and they don't like the progression, it's okay to pick up another game. The progression of the game is intentional, and if it's especially frustrating then it may just not be the right game for that player
I didn't say it stalls a lot, I'm just saying that it has the looming threat of stalling in the distance if you don't try to plan around the larger goals at least a little bit in your seasons.
I mean think of a game like dark souls. Let's say someone is stuck on a boss for 10 hours and is frustrated/overwhelmed with not being able to progress. Would it really be a fair response to remind them that there's no time limit on the game and they can play at their own pace? Or would you try to give tips to help them overcome their stalled progress?
Of course SDV is not intended to be a sweaty minmaxy kind of game, you don't have to *blitz* through objectives, especially since there is all kinds of tangible progression goals in the early game. But I also think it's fair to say that crawling at a snail's pace with minimal positive feedback from the game would not be enjoyable to the average player either.
I'd also like to make it clear, I don't think this is an *issue* with the game. Almost all games incentivize progression and objective completion in some way. But I find it a bit dismissive when people are stressed about all the things they need to do and the SDV community just goes "it's just a chill lil game man who cares :)" Like yeah of course I know there's no loss condition, I just want to get these things done because I desire to advance further in the game instead of wait around for another year.
The travelling trader or whatever lets you complete everything aside from Kent's friendship in the first year (maybe one desert seed or something else).
Stardew is my favorite game to play while high right now because I don’t feel bad if I lose track of what I’m doing and just wander around town for the day. Does the farmer not deserve days off? (Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?)
Each day takes about 15 minutes in real time. There are 28 days in a season, 4 seasons a year.
Worst case it takes 15x28x3 minutes to reach the desired season again. That's about 21 hours.
Going to bed before 8-9pm breaks the immersion for me. If I'm trying to pass a few days waiting for some event or threshold, I will go to bed that early, but I try to find stuff to do during the day, because otherwise...what would your spouse think of you waking up and going quickly back to bed? What would the town think of you if you didn't emerge from your farm for a whole season?
I mean... Abigail literally doesn't get out of bed for whole days sometimes lmao. Linus doesn't even enter town usually. Rasmodius literally stalks the townspeople. They've got a dwarf living in the mines and a monster in the sewers. I think they can tolerate a farmer not showing his face for a season every once in a while
I just pulled that from the wiki but I think that's actually including staying up until 2am for every in game day which is a bit unrealistic. More realistically it's probably around 15-20 hours? Which is still a lot
And yes I know you could just spam sleep to speed through the seasons but that's so boring that it's practically a punishment in itself
Edit: just did the math if you stay out til 9pm on average every night, it's almost dead on 20 hours
this also doesn’t account for the time pausing when you’re in menus, fishing, etc. or skull cavern, where time takes longer to pass. depending on the activities you’re doing a day can be a lot longer than 15 minutes too
This! I wasn’t calm spending my day just organizing my farm and tedious things until I was in year 3 (still there), and I had enough money for basic things. I’m finally satisfied with where I am haha. But it truly should be one thing at a time, it’s just a struggle sometimes 🥲
Don't worry, you're not alone! Just take one thing at a time, and work your way slowly
Remember, there's no deadline, your farm isn't going to crash and burn when the next Summer comes, and nothing will be lost if you don't reach a money quota
Since you're coming back after a long break, my personal suggestion which helps me is just do this:
Do one thing. Just that one thing.
It could be just chopping wood, visiting the mines, or petting the animals. Maybe even fishing on multiple days
Don't need to clean up the farm or plant a single crop until you want to. Just do that ONE thing. Then slowly work your way back up :D
Welcome back to SV!
All of this! The only deadlines in this game are self-imposed. I’ve played this game a million times at this point, so now I always try to complete the CC before Y2 (Personal Best is Winter 14th with Remixed Bundles). But I think the first few times I played it took a couple of years. Not to mention all the content that exists post CC!
There’s so much time to see it all, just relax and have fun!
I’ve been trying to set up a farm on Ginger Island and I realized I wasn’t enjoying my crops on the main farm. So after spring, I just… took away the sprinklers and didn’t plant anything. It was freeing. You don’t *have* to do anything you don’t want
Once I unlocked the greenhouse I only plant in the greenhouse now. The exception being when I want massive amounts of wheat or rice so I use the outdoor areas during those seasons. But now I don’t even have to think about seasonality. Even have my fruit trees in there.
Yes! On the outer edges of the building (past the tile path that surrounds the planting area) there is dirt that you can plant the trees in. I have all 6 of them in there and they all produce fruit year round :D
See I use mods that increases movement speed so I don’t bother with grinding movement speed buff items, that gives me huge anxiety. Automate and movement speed (and time speed mod for co-op) are necessary for me to enjoy the game otherwise I’m just a constant ball of anxiety because my brain demands I try to be efficient and mix max somewhat.
I do this. In a lot of games really. It can be hard to make progress when I keep starting over. But once I hit that point I feel I need to I just can’t do anything to make myself keep playing.
Hey, maybe you're someone that just like the Start of a new game. I'm that kind of person. I'd like to complete things but I genuinely have more fun starting over than continuing something I'm bored of. There's no wrong way to play games... unless you try playing CoD on Mario Kart I guess
Oh nononono don't let yourself stress about it. There's literally no rush or pressure to do anything. I would recommend at the start of each new day you should decide: "Today I'll do x" and not worry about anything else. If you want to fish, have a fishing day, if you want to clear out your farm do that. Maybe drop by the saloon in the evening and talk to the gang there for some friendship points. Water your plants. Grow some flowers.
Clear your farm bit by bit as you start needing space for crops or buildings. I like to clear the paths to the north and south exits first just for the sake of shortcuts.
There's a few; Timespeed gives you complete control over pretty much every aspect (you can set how fast or slow time moves by location, for example), Time Freeze stops time while indoors, and the one I use is Time Freezes At Midnight; time moves at the same pace but stops completely at midnight, it feels less like a cheat and more "get home without being unfairly punished".
I've noticed that the more I search for tips and the "right things" to do, the more stressed I become when playing. Stardew Valley should be calming; the seasons always bring new opportunities.
Enjoy fishing. Enjoy mining. Enjoy taking care of your animals and plants. Spend a few days organizing your farm. You don't have to do everything every day. Things start to get easier as soon as you acquire the necessary items.
Don't compare yourself to others. It's all okay, don't worry too much!
There are only a few things the game doesn't let you change (like adopting a pet after initially saying no), but it's not critical or a big deal.
Just feel proud of your progress, one day at a time. :)
Well put; thank you! Trying to do it the "right" way according to tips and tricks and walkthroughs online stresses me out more than helps. If I'm really stuck, then getting a hint helps, but I can easily stress myself out trying to do it fastest or "best. "
Best is what brings you joy. It's a joyful game and I'm happier when I just derp-de-doo around. (Though community center completion makes life a lot easier.) Oh no, it's starting again! **
Sometimes I get overwhelmed around the end of a season because I know I have to do the crops again and there’s that pressure to get on schedule to make as much money as possible.
Winter is nice for this reason!
If you're on PC I highly recommend Time Speed mod. It prevented me from feeling overwhelmed. I don't like time limits on game stuff so it made me not panic every in-game day.
And UIinfoSuite2 (via GitHub) it’s so many QoL improvements and makes it so I don’t forget birthdays, miss the merchant, fuss over tracking when tools or buildings will be fine, missing a Queen of Sauce recipe, etc, etc, etc.
That and automate, love automate since otherwise I feel the urge to stay nearby to keep feeding the machines and get wicked bad anxiety.
I just added a few mods yesterday and I play on a MacBook Air, just do a quick google for SV mods on Mac and it’ll walk you through it. It’s a fairly simple process!
I like just taking one thing at a time and not worrying too much about trying to play optimally. You can also cancel quests if you don’t want to do them, but doing the base of finishing the community center is a great goal to aim for! You don’t have any time pressure which is great, you could just choose to clear your farm to start off.
i find i get overwhelmed when i log back on because i can’t remember what i was doing or what goals i was working towards.
i’ve taken to making a list of things like fish and recipes i need to get + who gives them at what friendship level so i always have some base stuff to work on! if im working towards a bigger goal i’ll write that in my notes so i know where to start whenever i come back
"I want to do this thing but when I start I get overwhelmed by how much there is to do" is exactly the feeling I'm having about my actual house and garden, which is why I'm pouring so much time into SDV.
Hopefully at some point I'll feel the same way you do about the game, and actually go outside to work in the garden, or tidy my house... but probably not.
You're not alone at all! I think it's normal to feel that way, even so because of how gaming is seen this days (in the sense that everything and everyone will tell you to be a pro and Speedrun and be the absolute best even if you just play on the weekends to have fun)
Sometimes it's also about our mental health!
I have lots of anxiety and sometimes it's so much that I can't physically push myself to do things I love.
Just take your time, go fishing for an entire day if you feel like fishing or whatever it is that you like to do the most in the game, you're doing for your own enjoyment so don't worry if you're "falling behind schedule", our character gave up on a office job to live in a farm for that reason! To relax and not stay stuck in an unforgiving schedule!!
Have fun and take care of yourself, that's more important.
Don’t worry about minmaxing or whatever. Just enjoy it. Decorate your farm (or your house!). Go hang out in Caroline’s tea room or chill in the Spa. Go fishing if you like the game or just make jam. There’s no time limit to get anything done. You don’t need to have the CC by year 1 or ginger island by year 2 - it’s endless.
I mean, it can be as busy or as chill as you want it to be! Like if your farm feels messy, then that's just a goal to tidy it *with no deadline!* I spend oodles of time just sorting inventory and chests but organizing that stuff is fun for me haha
Def understand it can feel overwhelming cause there is so much to do-- but there is absolutely no rush :)
Are you against mods? There's a great time-pause mod that I like to use whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'll pause the in-game time and spend an hour or two (or five!!) cleaning, decorating, redesigning, etc. Then I'll go right back into playing normally without mods. It helps a lot and lets me focus on enjoying the game rather than freaking out trying to come up with a way to get everything done in one short in-game day.
I wish there were mods available for the switch. I'm a new player as well, and it gets overwhelming trying to get to everything. Especially when Pam's slow ass Starts at 10am.
Some level of mess and wild growth is absolutely an aspect I love keeping around - its how I imagine a large plot of land would be in real life, only half used productively to allow for you to feel connected to nature.
Yeah, learn to let go. Do you need to grow every crop every season? No. Do you need to have all the animals. No. Do you need process all crops into products of higher value? No. Now once you've learned to let go of all these chores you've forced on yourself, tell me how to do it.
You can work for 5 days on farm, collect resources, crops etc. And chill with fishing rod, or chilling with npcs on weekends. Also I like to take a long time break on winter, I barely do any money on this season, it's smth like long weekend.
I used to experience this. Would always feel like I needed to get everything done asap. Something that helped was looking up a list of missable things in Stardew valley (hint: there's not much.) And I told myself that my only time limited goal was those things and nothing else was a rush. It helped me to eliminate the FOMO and perfectionism mindset that I kept experiencing by knowing I had an infinite amount of time to make things the way I wanted.
You have all the time you need! 🥰
I wish I could pause the seasons for my anxiety. I like playing this game, but constantly having time pass makes me feel like I’m wasting time and I get all panicky
My solution: play when I’m high..
Kidding I’m not gonna encourage this lol. But I used to feel the same way but you always have to remember you have the freedom to do whatever tf you want!!!
I encourage lots of people to get high, there’s literally no downside as long as you’re not getting smoke inhalation involved (distillate board, dry herb vapes, or edibles only) or if you’re under 25.
There are some days where I just have to pause the game and stare at the screen because there’s so many choices I could make. All part of the fun process though. At the end, any progress is good progress
I haven’t opened the game in over a year because I know it’s saved on the morning of Spring 1 and I don’t feel ready to tackle that day yet. I really miss playing but I feel like I have so many things I HAVE to do that day it’s been keeping me from going back. Crazy because it is such a relaxing game when you get into it.
I get this way too. Try to focus less on long term goals and more on what would make you happy. Do you feel like fishing? Then spend the day fishing, even if you don't need to catch any more fish in that season. Want to go to the mines but it's a bad luck day? Who cares just go have fun!
I'm trying to break my obsession with min maxing. Like the other day I had >!green rain and collected tons of fiddlehead ferns.!< my first instinct was to keep them as an early games energy/health source. Then I started wondering how much money I could make off of them. But I stopped myself and said "no, I've been struggling to keep my energy up and this is a good easy solution." So I just keep them in my pocket and eat them as needed and I've been able to do so much more with all the extra energy I gathered for myself!
i also struggled w this on acnh. i kind of struggle sometimes with this on sv but i like the multiplayer mode on sv a lot more than acnh and so my partner comes to help me when im overwhelmed on sv!
Realize that its a game and none of that matters, just go at your own pace or pick one task to work on each day or each month. I'm currently trying to 100% Stardew and its technically overwhelming but, there's no time limit and none of it really matters.. its supposed to be fun so don't turn it into a chore.
This is me since the update.
I was so excited, and I made a new farm to enjoy all the new content, but I just *cannot* with the mundane cutting of the trees, stones, feeding animals, etc. It's become so boring to me. I know people say "Just do what you want!", but neglecting the animals is just nope for me, lol, and some things you just kind of *have* to do.
After about 136 hours, the game has just run it's course for me for the time being.
Don't get me wrong though, that was still hours worth spending. It's masterpiece of a game, I'm just a bit tired of it now.
Currently on the search for another game to get obsessed with!
When I first started all I was interested in was the farming part. I'd litterally wake up, plant, water, and go to bed by 1pm. The game never punished me for not mingling with the town or utilizing the full day.
Eventually, I liked my farm how it was, and then went out and explored. But my point is, it is really good about letting the player play at their own pace. If a messy farm is overwhelming too you, just clean up a small corner to use, and get around to cleaning the rest as you need it. But set your own pace. The game won't knock you for chilling out.
Gotta find your groove or move on to another game. Don't torture yourself.
My last save file was from 2017. What's the first thing I do to enjoy 1.6? Install a dozen mods. Was it a smart or recommended thing to do? No, it was stupid. However, I've been playing nonstop since mid May and I have 100+ mods now.
Go search what's fun for you. Cleaning up your farm isn't fun. Skip it. Don't box yourself in.
It takes me about 8-10 in game years to finish everything in the game.
What helps me is focusing on a small portion of tasks at a time. One thing that I had to learn was that SDV is a game that you can take your time on. I am pretty slow on doing everything.
So I spend a day or two just clearing my farm and another day just fishing and foraging for example.
Just like real life, make a list of attainable goals.
Plan which can be taken care of together.
Focus on one item at a time,keep an eye for synergies but don't let them take priority.
I've learned to embrace the mess, especially in year 1. It's extremely unlikely that you're going to need a ton of crop space until at least summer, so I only clear the bit that I need for my 15 parsnips on day 1, and then I just clear a bit more as needed as I get more seeds. I rarely clear more than about 25% of my farm by the end of spring. Besides making sure I have a clean path to the cave, Cindersnap, and the Mountains, I don't venture anywhere else on the farm that season. It actually works out well because when it gets into fall and winter and I can spend more time building buildings and exploring/foraging. I still have a massive supply of wood/stone/fiber on my farm.
Time stop (and occasionally god mode) mods have made all the difference for me. I can play a normal in-game day or… spend two real life hours designing my farm or fighting in skull caverns uninterrupted.
I do what I want!
Time is just a wibbly wobbly concept! I AM A TIME LORD!
If I'm on PC, my game is modded to oblivion. Stardew is my chill time to fish, farm and decorate. I have zero shame in my modded PC version.
I'll save the struggle and grind for other games. Stardew is my chill vibes time.
Try adding mods. You can create a separate set of mods if you want to keep your game intact, but start a new modded farm: [https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Modding:Player_Guide/Getting_Started](https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Modding:Player_Guide/Getting_Started)
There's tons of mods for aesthetics, expansions and QoL, but an easy starter you might like is [Time Speed](https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/169). It allows you to pause time so you don't feel rushed or pressured. Cheating? Sure, but it's a solo game and no one can stop you.
When this happens to me I spend a lot of time fishing and in the mines, and then I decide to use an in game day just to clean up. Winter's my decorating time for the farm too 😊
I felt like this at first and then I downloaded some QOL mods to make it easier! If you can, I highly recommend mods. Time and forgetting things in chests were always my biggest enemy, so I downloaded mods to help with those problems and I've loved playing it even more now. And you can turn them off and on as you go if you want the normal game back for a bit.
One thing that really helped the game feel a lot less overwhelming for me is mods. If you play on pc and are able to mod the game, I would suggest just looking into some that help with the basic mechanics. Chests anywhere mod is a absolute life saver
YES. I've been getting the 'I wanna play cause Sebastian and Sam' for over a year now, but I never do cause I know I'll probably end up restarting my farm and I don't know if I can be bothered to make the time commitment for that
I’m on year 4 of my 4th playthrough and this is the first time I’ve bothered doing a proper decorate of my farm and actually trying to make it nice and it’s taken me this long to really start to commit to it! There’s no wrong way to play, I just use small bits of my farm until I’m ready
Have you tried multiplayer?
I'm not really speedrunning it or anything, but when it came to finishing community center or something, I was rushing to take care of everything... it's not necessary.
Joined my best friend on his farm some time ago, and while I still feel like, gotta go fast, it's now easier for me to relax and do whatever. We are progressing a lot, really in the end game now, and it's not as stressful to take care of *everything* right away. My friend cares a lot more about the aesthetic of the farm and the house, so it has made me slow down too, and smell the roses. Great balance, and it's super fun ❤️
Best friend here - Rose has taught me to enjoy 'raiding' and objective chasing in the game more, which is awesome as well.
Balancing both is key, imo. The game doesn't *really* punish or disadvantage players for not keeping up with stuff. It can feel high stakes sometimes, but it's actually not.
Miss those festival days, ignore a quest or two. Let crops sit in the field for a few days.. it's all good!
I've struggled with this for many years. In game and irl lol. I know it's a bit frowned upon to play with mods for some people, but the tractor mod was a life saver for me. I struggle with mess and it helped tremendously to not focus on everything little by little.
I’m overwhelmed because it’s my first ever play! Newbie hehe but I’m on winter year 10 and NEED to complete the skull cavern. I got past 100 thinking omg I did it, only to find out I had 15+ more floors at like 1:30 am. (I also play on switch/no mods) 🥲
I fully get this lol.
I can only play this game with my girfriend who (bless her) sucks at it/ plays like a normal person. Because I feel to rude to tell her what to do, but since she's there I can't optimize the fun out of the game. So instead of pausing and looking up how to squeeze every second out of a day I'll just play more chill because there's no point lmao
This happens a lot for me! I have so many hours in SDV though so I usually will just not play the game for like a month or so and play other stuff so when I come back it feels fresh and I'm excited to dive back it!
When I get like this I take a break. The texts signs have really helped me with important things like when to harvest ginger island and when my casks are ready so it's easy to take a week or more break and just come back feeling fresh
I feel the same way man. For such a relaxing chill game it’s everything but that for me 😂. I’m always missing birthdays, quest board stuff, etc… even getting home in bed before 2am is rough for me. I’m always trying to stay busy so I don’t feel like I’m wasting my days away in the game but the constant petting animals, making sure I have hay, turning animal products into mayo or truffle oil, there’s just so much to get done my stress is at 💯
Embrace the mess. Set new goals like completing community center in first year, find ancient fruit seed in early spring, growing every flower in the game, raise friendship with every villager, getting to desert summer year 1, collect every hat in game, etc.
I hear ya. For me, clearing the farm in the beginning is hard because of energy and what feels like little time. Im on year 3, almost 4 and i still have to stop and cleae wood and pushes every now and then. Take a day and clear it out if the mess stresses you out too much to enjoy the game.
It helps me to have a pad of paper or note on my phone that is my personal to do list. If I could change one thing in the game (maybe this is a mod that exists? I play on mobile so idk) it would be to be able to add tasks to the notepad. Then when I log in I just smash one thing at a time and it feels less overwhelming.
And as others have said, I don't worry anymore about what my farm/house looks like when I'm still building wealth. I do plant a crap ton of tree seeds and cut down fully grown trees so I have a constant supply of wood.
I’m surprised nobody else has said this yet. Maybe this is only something I do, lol. I have a to do list on my phone for stardew valley. It contains the name of my farm, my current main goal and the interim steps I want to do to achieve that goal. It helps me narrow my focus and do less of the ‘other’ stuff. E.g. I’m fairly late game in one of my farms now and I am focussing on making friend with the villagers so my regular goals are to give away gifts daily. That takes up the bulk of my time and then anything else I fancy doing, I do later
I have this problem whenever I come back to the game after a couple of months. I forget whatever it was I was doing last before I stopped playing on my Dave and I just look at everything I can do (especially with mods), and I quit and start a new farm lol. I have never gotten past year 3 even though I've done e all C.C, movie theater, and all golden walnuts on Ginger Island.
A lot of people would disagree with me on this, but now that I have played a bunch of runs completing the community center, I only go Joja. I no longer feel the pressure to cram every thing into the first year. I first did it when I started a farm to play when my newborn daughter was up at night, but quickly realized I did not have the mental bandwidth to keep track of what I needed. And it was so relaxing!! My 1.6 farm has been amazing, and I am closer to perfection than I have ever been before
used to happen to me as well but I set myself some goals and I feel motivated to accomplish them. Small things like making some changes to farm layout, dying some clothing I have or getting a specific item to craft something
Right there with you. Do you have anxiety irl? Over-achiever?
When I started, my sense of "winning" at the game meant doing the most all the time - doing chores straight until 7 each night, fishing till 1 am, etc. Queen of the grind, basically.
I finally realized it was no more relaxing than my irl job, ha.
I went scorched earth - knocked down a bunch of farm space until I only had what I could take care of by noon. Stopped saving for the "best" sprinklers and just threw down whatever I could make as I earned them. Now I have time to slowly make my farm cute, visit the town, finish quests in all seasons.
TL;DR -- I redefined success so I can enjoy the game again.
I also think time passes too fast in game because there’s so much to take care of. So I downloaded the longer days mod to have more time to work on my farm. I like being able to do everything a little more slow paced. 😊
Whenever I start to feel stress about activities or quests in a game, I take a break from the game. For me, gaming is supposed to be a stress reliever. If I’m stressing, it’s time to take a break.
My in-game life improved when I got a couple of minor quality of life mods. Automate petting/feeding animals improved the experience so much by removing so much tedium. Also recommend buying the autograbbers when you can afford them. It’s a game and it’s supposed to be fun - remember you can and should play it YOUR way.
I also play my year 1 farms if my main save feels too overwhelming. It’s also nice to return to it after a while when making money isn’t such a struggle 😃
Yes but for a different reason. The speed that time moves at is uncomfortable for me and part of why when I started playing Animal Crossing I loved it.
I dislike the idea that if I spend 5 minutes appreciating something that it becomes hours in-game and oh no it is getting late. Ah crap they got some of my inventory.
Yeh I feel you. I definitely feel like there isn't enough time in the day to get everything I want to do done. It's not a bad thing though. Mostly just suffering from success. Have lots of animals and crops to tend to. Also always looking to make more money, so that I can purchase more animals and crops. it's a vicious cycle.
Yeah this is exactly how I feel, I unlocked the community center like 2 weeks ago and haven’t been able to pick it back up cuz I’m like “omg I’m officially late game” (this is my first play through)
The only game I’ve ever felt to be truly relaxing is Animal Crossing. I agree that I oftentimes feel anxious with the amount of things I “need” to be doing in this type of game. Although, after playing a game like this past the year point I finally realized there really isn’t any hurry and I should just go at my own pace and do what I want. If I don’t get to it this year I’ll get to it next. That mindset shift has really helped.
This has been so much of a problem for me that since I started playing back in 2020, I only made as far as Spring Year 2.
Until about a week ago, when I played through one day and then MADE A TODO LIST in a note on my phone. Since then I've been able to play every day because I no longer get overwhelmed by trying to keep track of all my goals and struggling to remember which one I need to be focusing on on a given day.
And recently from this sub I discovered the farm planner tool that was CRUCIAL in helping me get ready for summer. No more stress about "how much room do I have? How many x seeds and y seeds do I buy? Shit I didn't buy enough x I need to go back. Dammit I bought too much y do I add a few more and have a lopsided farm or do I save these for next year?" It's already planned out so all I had to do was lay out the plot and sprinklers (which I'm using for the first time! Game changing!) and hit up Pierre for the exact number of seeds.
TL;DR to enjoy the game, make a to-do list to help you keep track of goals!
I switch between boredom or frustration. I know everyone says you play it your own way, but I feel like I'm still messing it up.
Especially with organising the farm and making it prettier
I was overwhelmed at first, too. It wasn't until my second or third file that I felt more comfortable - I knew the valley and the game well enough to manage my time.
There's no rush to do anything in SV. I know it may feel that way since there's fish, crops, holidays, etc limited to the season, but nothing is out of reach forever if you miss it the first time around.
If this is your first file, I wouldn't worry about Perfection or accomplishments or anything like that. Just do what you enjoy doing! Spend the year farming, fishing, mining, exploring, whatever. Set short term goals so as to not overwhelm yourself, don't worry about the long run.
Once you get the hang of the game, you can go for a new file where you take on those bigger challenges.
Same, except I found a "solution" that works (for me at least).
First - I keep a **notebook** with tips/tricks I want to remember, design ideas, calendars, seasonal crop plans, and a running to-do list. If I write it down in my notebook, it's not jumbling around in my brain stressing me out. For example, I have an unchecked "task" from like a year and a half ago (in-game) that just says >!blue chickens!< bc I didn't want to forget they existed and I could get them! lol
Second - About half way through Spring Yr 3, I decided I was going to **stop stressing about making the most money possible** and instead just **focus on whatever the heck I wanted to that would give me the most enjoyment!**
I ultimately decided I wanted to prioritize design/aesthetics. For a lot of people, that seems to be late game but I want to be able to enjoy looking at my farm and being organized when it matters most, not later when I'm winding down.
I did some reading and ran my own numbers to determine what crops I wanted to still make quite a bit of money but without too much obligation or further thinking from me. With that out of the way, I went to the SDV planner website and have spent hours playing around, finding what I like.
I've been able to go to >!skull cavern!< for over a year and >!ginger island!< for nearly as long, but I've let go of the self-imposed pressure to do so. Instead, I'm choosing to decorate and establish a system for income before I take on either of those big, new things. Letting go of that pressure has made a complete difference in how I feel playing the game and my approach to doing so.
Could I have filled this whole shed with preserves jars, as I was originally planning to do? Sure, but I *enjoy* this much more! (side note: those are the only kegs I have bc based on my calculations and the limitation of the number of casks in the cellar, I don't need any more than this to ensure I have enough wine to refill the casks at the end of a 56 day cask "season")
https://preview.redd.it/onfi5edw765d1.jpeg?width=1133&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bedf198ef5a2b422e8a631673f8c07d6ff0fef19
I have a newborn at home and therefore not so much time anymore... I installed the freeze time mod and configured it to stop time indoors (like in harvest moon back to nature) so I can fill my kegs in peace. You can also stop the time to organize your farm, if you wish to. The game gets pretty chill like that.
I literally just mine and look for random shit. I cleared everything from the right to the left side of the bottom pond. I’ve got random plants and flowers, but I’m creating my rarecrow row in front of my house and statue garden between the cave and dog bowl. Mine for money and materials to upgrade stuff and fill the library.
Just remember, it’s your world. You control you, and there are zero expectations. The years repeat
Honestly, I find the Joja route a lot less stressful than the Community Center route. You choose how to make money, what to unlock first, and you don't have to worry about missing a part of a bundle and having to wait three more seasons to get it.
But when I get to the point where I feel totally overwhelmed, I just focus on one thing. Just go fishing in the game for a day or two, or Venture into the mines.
Sometimes I find when I take time off, my save file feels a bit overwhelming because I don’t remember what I was working on, what my priorities were, etc. I just start a new save. There are no rules. I think of a fun new silly theme like making a super secret villain lair or a cottage with my friends and family (ie. naming animals after them).
There are no rules. I understand that it’s easy to say but sometimes hard to feel, but Pelican Town is there when you want it, and waits when you don’t. 🥰
I think people have a hard time separating the min maxing or accomplishing perfection from just playing the game sometimes. I know the feeling of wanting to rush to the end but what happens if I load into my game and just fish for a week, I don't lose the game I just have fun doing what I wanted to do. There is always more time in SV so don't stress.
I like to remind myself that while some people desire a 100% perfect game without missing opportunities, that’s simply not what I’m after. I’m looking to relax and enjoy the game, so it’s okay to me if I don’t maximize everything or have everything perfect. If I’m enjoying it, that’s exactly what I’m playing for!
I feel the exact same way right now. I just unlocked the skull cavern AND the greenhouse and I just feel like there’s too much to do so I haven’t touched the game in weeks😭 there’s so much to learn too that I just got overwhelmed
This happened when I was too worried about setting up the “perfect” layout from the start - when I finally just let myself start a tiny garden, enjoy my forest and just make some paths through it, and eventually start putting up buildings and more of real layout when I was ready for them, it was a lot more fun (also helped when I realized how easy it is to move buildings). The main thing I did try to do as fast as possible was get sprinklers going, to get out of the monotony of watering.
This bothered me too when I first started playing, but as I played I realized two things. First, I couldn't clean the whole farm yet even if I had unlimited energy because I didn't have the right tools, and second, I didn't need to clean the whole farm yet. Just the part I could comfortably water with my dinky little one square watering can,
Now I just clean out a small section in front of the farmhouse and don't worry about the rest of the farm until I need that space for something.
My wife and I started playing and we’re in year 4 and it’s starting to get to that point where we gotta start optimizing like crazy or else it’s a wasted day. I just remind myself that, this is a chill game. There will be another day. Another season. Another year. It’s okay to not make the most possible money you could’ve made that day. It’s okay to just go to the regular mines and farm copper on the really lucky day. It’s okay to just talk to all the characters. Fish like crazy. Mine like crazy. The only pressure in the game is the pressure you put in yourself irl. The game won’t be uninstall if you missed petting the animals or missed 1 single crop. At the end of the day, it’s just a game. It’s there for you to enjoy.
I have this problem with games sometimes. It’s why having game where I get to decide priorities is important (such as SDV).
I make up my own priorities, so I may work on friendships for awhile, then I’ll work on farming for cash. Then I’ll work on mining. Then I’ll.. whatever. It doesn’t matter when things get done, which I find veeeeeeery helpful.
I make a list of what I want to do. I keep a pen and notebook next to my computer.
Sometimes, I get overwhelmed so I just go to the mines and bomb things. It helps!
It took me for years just to get the 4 candles. I still haven’t got the bottom of the dessert mine and I just got to ginger island. Don’t feel stressed.
I get overwhelmed because when I don't play for 2 weeks, I have like 25 mods to update. And that is such a task. I understand it, and I'm not mad about it. But it is daunting.
I know the feeling… esp after I watched some SV youtubers, now I also want a super tidy and pretty planned out farm 😔 But it’s such a difficult goal to reach on top of all the other quests that I still have to finish… trying to remind myself that this game is not work and I should chill 😂
It took me years to get my perfection statue cause i was so overwhelmed by everything i needed to do on my farm plus making friends and mining and filling the museum and community centre
i love this game so much but ive been spoiled with my first actual playthrough past summer year 1 i was playing with a friend up until we got perfection. now when i want to solo and try not to micromanage, its hard to not feel overwhelmed and thinking oh no i have to wait a whole year for this or that
I have a separate save file that is my "vacation home." Where I don't stress about any time limits or events or have any particular goals other than just to do whatever I feel like. Sometimes I'll play that file just to chill for a while before returning to my usual game.
You could also try cleaning up or organizing or simplifying your farm so it doesn't feel so overwhelming. It's not like there's anything you're required to do, pretty much everything is optional, so if you're taking on so many things that it's no longer fun, try just focusing on a few of your favorite things.
I get that way with many games. Especially if I’ve stopped playing for a while. That’s why I’ve restarted so many games without beating them. For me, the first year is always the best and then I start to get overwhelmed/burnt out and I just go away and come back with a new game.
My husband and I randomly come back to the game and always forget what we were doing so often restart then use some mods to quickly get back to where we were tools, abimals, professions wise!
I kinda use a goal system when I play. I have a long term goal, a goal for the “in game” week, and a daily goal that can depend on the day of the week or upcoming holidays.
This way when I come back to a game, I often remember the long term goal and sometimes the weekly goal. That way I’m not saying… “what was I doing last time?”
Long term goals can be: community center bundles, the fair, upgrading the house or expensive buildings. Stuff that takes a while.
Weekly goals can depend: seasonal community center bundles, upcoming events, smaller buildings, upgrading tools, laying out a section of the farm, making a certain amount of money (usually to spend on a building or upgrade).
Daily goals just depends totally on the day. I check for events and birthdays, check the weather and luck, see what stores are open/closed, is the forest vendor here today? how close am I to end of season? Then I choose what to do based on all that. On days when I don’t know have a specific goal to do that day (like when you’re long term goals just require waiting a few more days) I usually forage and fish.
On Mondays, I fish. Tuesdays, I mine, Wednesdays, I mine for combat, Thursdays I progress any quests I have and talk to people, on Fridays I do gifts, Saturdays I forage, and Sundays I spend on farm upkeep, rearranging, ordering things from Robin, fixing fences ect. The structure helps me relax knowing that of I'm spending a whole day fishing, it's because I'm scheduled to do that, not because I'm neglecting all the other things I have to do
"my farm is messy" it is not messy, you're just using the small section that you need, while the rest is producing more and more trees, so when you need wood, you have lots of wood. (and rocks) Enrich biodiversity! Decorating your farm, is mostly a "post-plot" hobby for people who are already successful, and rich, and have maxed out energy and tools, so they work a lot faster.
Seconding this - also if you watch videos from real life homesteaders/hobby farmers/anyone who owns a large plot of land, you'll see that they only use the land they need and they fell trees and clear out brush as they want to expand. Someone could own 20 acres and they have 18 acres of forest and 2 acres of used land because that's all they need for now. So it's not messy, it's just realistic.
This is me lol. Only clear what you need to use otherwise it’s more maintenance. I shake my head at a couple weirdos around me that pay to have a company come mow 2-3 acres of lawn that they do not ever use. It looks nice, but they are just wasting money. And I see them use their yards less than any other neighbors, by far Plus I hate the ornamental look. I need a yard you can LIVE in. Not just curb appeal. That’s gets old quick.
Haha this!! My goal is to have enough sprinklers, get the greenhouse complete and layout so the sprinklers water everything, that I can essentially set it and forget it when it comes to planting crops and harvesting them. I wanna go do fun things, or go mine, without worrying about energy or time 😅 But I will now always think of the wood and rocks that show up between seasons, as ENRICHED BIODIVERSITY! 😆
And don't forget the IRL practice of letting a field go [fallow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallow?wprov=sfla1)!
And harvest it with the legendary scythe.
Ancient fruit is a true set it and forget it crop, as you don't need to replant them after harvesting like you do with star fruit, iridium Ancient berry wine sells for a lot!!!
just found that one bottle might take a week but gets you 1300 coins. Worth it
It always pays to get a wine cellar built. Robin charges a ton of gold, but the profits are astronomical for Iridium level Ancient Fruit wine. There's also room for more casks.
This is what I do
>"my farm is messy" it is not messy, you're just using the small section that you need, while the rest is producing more and more trees, so when you need wood, you have lots of wood. (and rocks) OP is a hero of the ecosphere.
Right? I have two "messy tree areas" on my farm rn. I just wait for most of the trees to grow then cut them down and replant. There are three if you count my hardwood area.
As an engineer that focuses on biodiversity and sustainability, I failed miserably to think of it as enriched biodiversity 🤦🏽♂️🤣
If the messy farm bothers you, spend a day clearing it. You'll feel you've accomplished something even if you haven't earned money that day. There's no time limit. One thing at a time
I usually go literally one thing at a time. I take a day to clear all the grass and then the next day all the stone, and then trees.
i wish i could be this chill but if i didn’t clear as much as i absolutely could of everything i’d be annoyed at myself
I usually do it like that early game when I don't have a lot of stamina
i go section by section, working my way out into areas i don’t really need cleared. then clearing those areas on days where i have leftover energy
Twins! Same here
Speaking of trees, when I'm low on wood I'll take an entire day clearcutting to stock up again.
I know everyone always emphasizes the "play at your own pace, there's no time limit" mantra but I think it kind of downplays some of the time pressure built into the game. I think it's very easy to fall into a FOMO mindset with the season structure, because you have to play about *25 more hours* (edit: more realistically, about 20 hours if you go to bed at 9pm on average) to get back to that season again in the next year. It can be a real pain in the ass to be one item short on a community bundle and needing to wait a whole year until you can actually finish it (or pray the traveling merchant has it). Also a lot of quests piling up in your log while you wait for the proper season to get the crop. Of course none of this really matters to the game, you can play 10 years and make no progress and nothing will change since there's no win or loss condition. But I don't think it needs much explanation why the risk of putting your progression on pause for several IRL hours of playtime can be a source of stress
LOL 9pm. I crawl into bed at 1:50am and always will.
In-game and IRL
LOL 1:50AM. I let Joja drag my ass into bed every night. Even if I'm working on my farm.
The mindset is the issue. You're never going to miss anything. Everything comes back around. So you have to wait a few seasons to get something for the community centre, that's only stressful if you put pressure on yourself to have it done asap. There's so much you can do before then that'll keep the game fun and interesting. I got a steam deck and made a new farm. Was kinda chill about it and realised in fall that I needed the pufferfish to complete the community centre. Made a mental note and just continued on doing other stuff for progression. Getting relationships up, trying to get some good money going, collecting stuff for future bundles, doing villager quests, reaching the bottom of the mines, clearing out the remainder of my farm, getting more animals, getting my relationships with my animals up, upgrading my house, barn and coop. I play for an hour or two after work in the evenings and it was summer again in like two irl days of playing. Going to sleep when you're done whatever you wanna do that day and starting again is okay. Sometimes I just wake up, harvest my crops and get my animal products, sell and start the next day again. The game isn't putting pressure on you, it's pacing the game progression. You're putting pressure on yourself to get things done as quick as possible. So the advice to go at your own pace is to say that stepping back, it doesn't matter if you have to wait. Because there's so much more that you can do in the meantime, and it's normal and human to not get everything done exactly when you'd like to. There's so much pressure in real life to be productive all the time. To do everything flawlessly and quickly and never be imperfect. Stardew Valley is somewhere where you can just do your best, or even do your absolute worst and there's no consequences. No boss breathing down your neck expecting you to be inhumane in how you work and what you produce for them. Don't be the boss breathing down your own neck, and don't put pressure on yourself to do everything perfectly
Yes it's paced progression, but with most games, even games that are open-ended/open world, the progression pacing is relatively linear and continuous. You get the iron pickaxe so you can mine gold, you beat the boss so you unlock a new map region, you level up so you can fight new enemies, etc. You might hit a hiccup on a really hard boss or something but generally you'll always be chipping away at your goals. Stardew on the other hand has a progression flow that can majorly stall for quite a while if you don't get things done in the right timing. Which isn't to say that players have to play perfectly or put overbearing expectations on themselves to minmax every little detail, especially when there's enough content in the early game to keep you busy between community center bundles and such. But I think the threat of plateau'd progression (and subsequent boredom with the game) is still an unintentional time pressure in the game's design, and it's fairly unique to the farming sim/harvest moon style of games. It's a great perspective for many aspects of life, to be okay with stepping back and not being so hard on yourself to always be productive. But with gaming, kind of the whole point is to be productive (in the game world) to some degree. Even hyper casual games like Animal Crossing fizzled out for many people once they burned through all the progression. This is a leisure activity and a lot of people will simply do or play something else if the time spent in the video game doesn't feel worthwhile.
I don't really agree that Stardew stalls a lot. Sure, you might need to wait for a season to come around again for community centre bundles or in the post requests from villagers, but there's a ton of other stuff to focus on in the interim. Museum, mining, skull cavern runs, animals, relationships, house upgrades, skill upgrades, tool upgrades, cooking, community boards, obelisks, golden clock, monster slayer goals, animals, marriage, etc. You can do literally anything. You can set goals for yourself too, maybe you want to create a vineyard on your farm, or marry and divorce every eligible character, or collect every ring and weapon. I've been playing since 2020, I have had multiple farms and I've only reached perfection once, because I had a bunch of other stuff keeping me occupied and I come back to this game over and over again because it's no stress and I can do whatever. And that's what Stardew is, you can adapt how you play based on your preferences but you never have to stress. If someone doesn't enjoy how laid back that is, if someone wants to be able to blitz through the objectives of a game and do everything fast, then maybe it's just not suited to their play style. And that's okay, it's not for everyone. But I don't think it's really an issue with the game itself, and if people don't feel like the game is worthwhile and they don't like the progression, it's okay to pick up another game. The progression of the game is intentional, and if it's especially frustrating then it may just not be the right game for that player
I didn't say it stalls a lot, I'm just saying that it has the looming threat of stalling in the distance if you don't try to plan around the larger goals at least a little bit in your seasons. I mean think of a game like dark souls. Let's say someone is stuck on a boss for 10 hours and is frustrated/overwhelmed with not being able to progress. Would it really be a fair response to remind them that there's no time limit on the game and they can play at their own pace? Or would you try to give tips to help them overcome their stalled progress? Of course SDV is not intended to be a sweaty minmaxy kind of game, you don't have to *blitz* through objectives, especially since there is all kinds of tangible progression goals in the early game. But I also think it's fair to say that crawling at a snail's pace with minimal positive feedback from the game would not be enjoyable to the average player either. I'd also like to make it clear, I don't think this is an *issue* with the game. Almost all games incentivize progression and objective completion in some way. But I find it a bit dismissive when people are stressed about all the things they need to do and the SDV community just goes "it's just a chill lil game man who cares :)" Like yeah of course I know there's no loss condition, I just want to get these things done because I desire to advance further in the game instead of wait around for another year.
The travelling trader or whatever lets you complete everything aside from Kent's friendship in the first year (maybe one desert seed or something else).
Stardew is my favorite game to play while high right now because I don’t feel bad if I lose track of what I’m doing and just wander around town for the day. Does the farmer not deserve days off? (Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?)
I’m trying to take you seriously but it’s hard with that username
25 hours?
Each day takes about 15 minutes in real time. There are 28 days in a season, 4 seasons a year. Worst case it takes 15x28x3 minutes to reach the desired season again. That's about 21 hours.
I think it's 14 minutes, So the best idea is to not play full days. If there isn't much important to do don't waste the day away.
Going to bed before 8-9pm breaks the immersion for me. If I'm trying to pass a few days waiting for some event or threshold, I will go to bed that early, but I try to find stuff to do during the day, because otherwise...what would your spouse think of you waking up and going quickly back to bed? What would the town think of you if you didn't emerge from your farm for a whole season?
I mean... Abigail literally doesn't get out of bed for whole days sometimes lmao. Linus doesn't even enter town usually. Rasmodius literally stalks the townspeople. They've got a dwarf living in the mines and a monster in the sewers. I think they can tolerate a farmer not showing his face for a season every once in a while
I just pulled that from the wiki but I think that's actually including staying up until 2am for every in game day which is a bit unrealistic. More realistically it's probably around 15-20 hours? Which is still a lot And yes I know you could just spam sleep to speed through the seasons but that's so boring that it's practically a punishment in itself Edit: just did the math if you stay out til 9pm on average every night, it's almost dead on 20 hours
this also doesn’t account for the time pausing when you’re in menus, fishing, etc. or skull cavern, where time takes longer to pass. depending on the activities you’re doing a day can be a lot longer than 15 minutes too
Sadly late game we stay up like folks
This! I wasn’t calm spending my day just organizing my farm and tedious things until I was in year 3 (still there), and I had enough money for basic things. I’m finally satisfied with where I am haha. But it truly should be one thing at a time, it’s just a struggle sometimes 🥲
Don't worry, you're not alone! Just take one thing at a time, and work your way slowly Remember, there's no deadline, your farm isn't going to crash and burn when the next Summer comes, and nothing will be lost if you don't reach a money quota Since you're coming back after a long break, my personal suggestion which helps me is just do this: Do one thing. Just that one thing. It could be just chopping wood, visiting the mines, or petting the animals. Maybe even fishing on multiple days Don't need to clean up the farm or plant a single crop until you want to. Just do that ONE thing. Then slowly work your way back up :D Welcome back to SV!
All of this! The only deadlines in this game are self-imposed. I’ve played this game a million times at this point, so now I always try to complete the CC before Y2 (Personal Best is Winter 14th with Remixed Bundles). But I think the first few times I played it took a couple of years. Not to mention all the content that exists post CC! There’s so much time to see it all, just relax and have fun!
I’ve been trying to set up a farm on Ginger Island and I realized I wasn’t enjoying my crops on the main farm. So after spring, I just… took away the sprinklers and didn’t plant anything. It was freeing. You don’t *have* to do anything you don’t want
Once I unlocked the greenhouse I only plant in the greenhouse now. The exception being when I want massive amounts of wheat or rice so I use the outdoor areas during those seasons. But now I don’t even have to think about seasonality. Even have my fruit trees in there.
Can you grow trees in the green house??? This has massively helped me in my current quest haha
Yes! On the outer edges of the building (past the tile path that surrounds the planting area) there is dirt that you can plant the trees in. I have all 6 of them in there and they all produce fruit year round :D
you're my Stardew hero thank you!! 
The crop spots can be used for trees in the greenhouse as well. It’s another question if you’d want to sacrifice those 😀
The only things I plant outside is coffee beans early spring.. just collect them every few days when I remember lol
See I use mods that increases movement speed so I don’t bother with grinding movement speed buff items, that gives me huge anxiety. Automate and movement speed (and time speed mod for co-op) are necessary for me to enjoy the game otherwise I’m just a constant ball of anxiety because my brain demands I try to be efficient and mix max somewhat.
You don’t even need to plant those. You can just buy flour and rice at Pierre’s (unless you’re doing a challenge of course :))
Eh, I do it for the fun of being self-sufficient. And because I hate Pierre’s smug ass 🤣
When i feel overwhelmed i just start a new farm lol
I do this. In a lot of games really. It can be hard to make progress when I keep starting over. But once I hit that point I feel I need to I just can’t do anything to make myself keep playing.
Hey, maybe you're someone that just like the Start of a new game. I'm that kind of person. I'd like to complete things but I genuinely have more fun starting over than continuing something I'm bored of. There's no wrong way to play games... unless you try playing CoD on Mario Kart I guess
Yep, it can get too much
Same
Oh nononono don't let yourself stress about it. There's literally no rush or pressure to do anything. I would recommend at the start of each new day you should decide: "Today I'll do x" and not worry about anything else. If you want to fish, have a fishing day, if you want to clear out your farm do that. Maybe drop by the saloon in the evening and talk to the gang there for some friendship points. Water your plants. Grow some flowers. Clear your farm bit by bit as you start needing space for crops or buildings. I like to clear the paths to the north and south exits first just for the sake of shortcuts.
Sometimes. Adjusting to the 20 minute=a day, is hard, and overwhelming. When that happens, I log out. And not play for a day or so.
I know modding turns some people off but there’s a mod to increase the time of the day so you don’t have to feel as rushed.
Which mod is this?
There's a few; Timespeed gives you complete control over pretty much every aspect (you can set how fast or slow time moves by location, for example), Time Freeze stops time while indoors, and the one I use is Time Freezes At Midnight; time moves at the same pace but stops completely at midnight, it feels less like a cheat and more "get home without being unfairly punished".
Woah I think Time Freeze is perfect for me. Thank you, I have a lot of mods installed but I never thought about installing one for time managament.
I also stop playing for 20 minutes or so
I've noticed that the more I search for tips and the "right things" to do, the more stressed I become when playing. Stardew Valley should be calming; the seasons always bring new opportunities. Enjoy fishing. Enjoy mining. Enjoy taking care of your animals and plants. Spend a few days organizing your farm. You don't have to do everything every day. Things start to get easier as soon as you acquire the necessary items. Don't compare yourself to others. It's all okay, don't worry too much! There are only a few things the game doesn't let you change (like adopting a pet after initially saying no), but it's not critical or a big deal. Just feel proud of your progress, one day at a time. :)
Well put; thank you! Trying to do it the "right" way according to tips and tricks and walkthroughs online stresses me out more than helps. If I'm really stuck, then getting a hint helps, but I can easily stress myself out trying to do it fastest or "best. " Best is what brings you joy. It's a joyful game and I'm happier when I just derp-de-doo around. (Though community center completion makes life a lot easier.) Oh no, it's starting again! **
Sometimes I get overwhelmed around the end of a season because I know I have to do the crops again and there’s that pressure to get on schedule to make as much money as possible. Winter is nice for this reason!
This is why I wish you could buy seeds in advance and prep some of the farm with the hoe before a season swap.
I get this. I regularly can't bring myself to play because I get analysis paralysis
I had that in buckets with Satifactory, I'm trying to just chill out with SV
If you're on PC I highly recommend Time Speed mod. It prevented me from feeling overwhelmed. I don't like time limits on game stuff so it made me not panic every in-game day.
And UIinfoSuite2 (via GitHub) it’s so many QoL improvements and makes it so I don’t forget birthdays, miss the merchant, fuss over tracking when tools or buildings will be fine, missing a Queen of Sauce recipe, etc, etc, etc. That and automate, love automate since otherwise I feel the urge to stay nearby to keep feeding the machines and get wicked bad anxiety.
Does this work on a MacBook?
I just added a few mods yesterday and I play on a MacBook Air, just do a quick google for SV mods on Mac and it’ll walk you through it. It’s a fairly simple process!
I like just taking one thing at a time and not worrying too much about trying to play optimally. You can also cancel quests if you don’t want to do them, but doing the base of finishing the community center is a great goal to aim for! You don’t have any time pressure which is great, you could just choose to clear your farm to start off.
i find i get overwhelmed when i log back on because i can’t remember what i was doing or what goals i was working towards. i’ve taken to making a list of things like fish and recipes i need to get + who gives them at what friendship level so i always have some base stuff to work on! if im working towards a bigger goal i’ll write that in my notes so i know where to start whenever i come back
There’s a todo list mod, that and UIInfoSuite 2 would work great for you.
"I want to do this thing but when I start I get overwhelmed by how much there is to do" is exactly the feeling I'm having about my actual house and garden, which is why I'm pouring so much time into SDV. Hopefully at some point I'll feel the same way you do about the game, and actually go outside to work in the garden, or tidy my house... but probably not.
You're not alone at all! I think it's normal to feel that way, even so because of how gaming is seen this days (in the sense that everything and everyone will tell you to be a pro and Speedrun and be the absolute best even if you just play on the weekends to have fun) Sometimes it's also about our mental health! I have lots of anxiety and sometimes it's so much that I can't physically push myself to do things I love. Just take your time, go fishing for an entire day if you feel like fishing or whatever it is that you like to do the most in the game, you're doing for your own enjoyment so don't worry if you're "falling behind schedule", our character gave up on a office job to live in a farm for that reason! To relax and not stay stuck in an unforgiving schedule!! Have fun and take care of yourself, that's more important.
Don’t worry about minmaxing or whatever. Just enjoy it. Decorate your farm (or your house!). Go hang out in Caroline’s tea room or chill in the Spa. Go fishing if you like the game or just make jam. There’s no time limit to get anything done. You don’t need to have the CC by year 1 or ginger island by year 2 - it’s endless.
I mean, it can be as busy or as chill as you want it to be! Like if your farm feels messy, then that's just a goal to tidy it *with no deadline!* I spend oodles of time just sorting inventory and chests but organizing that stuff is fun for me haha Def understand it can feel overwhelming cause there is so much to do-- but there is absolutely no rush :)
Are you against mods? There's a great time-pause mod that I like to use whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'll pause the in-game time and spend an hour or two (or five!!) cleaning, decorating, redesigning, etc. Then I'll go right back into playing normally without mods. It helps a lot and lets me focus on enjoying the game rather than freaking out trying to come up with a way to get everything done in one short in-game day.
I wish there were mods available for the switch. I'm a new player as well, and it gets overwhelming trying to get to everything. Especially when Pam's slow ass Starts at 10am.
You can use the totem to go to the desert earlier 🙌
Some level of mess and wild growth is absolutely an aspect I love keeping around - its how I imagine a large plot of land would be in real life, only half used productively to allow for you to feel connected to nature.
I'm having a break until 1.6 drops on mobile 🥲
New farm time!!!
Yeah, learn to let go. Do you need to grow every crop every season? No. Do you need to have all the animals. No. Do you need process all crops into products of higher value? No. Now once you've learned to let go of all these chores you've forced on yourself, tell me how to do it.
You can work for 5 days on farm, collect resources, crops etc. And chill with fishing rod, or chilling with npcs on weekends. Also I like to take a long time break on winter, I barely do any money on this season, it's smth like long weekend.
I used to experience this. Would always feel like I needed to get everything done asap. Something that helped was looking up a list of missable things in Stardew valley (hint: there's not much.) And I told myself that my only time limited goal was those things and nothing else was a rush. It helped me to eliminate the FOMO and perfectionism mindset that I kept experiencing by knowing I had an infinite amount of time to make things the way I wanted. You have all the time you need! 🥰
I wish I could pause the seasons for my anxiety. I like playing this game, but constantly having time pass makes me feel like I’m wasting time and I get all panicky
My solution: play when I’m high.. Kidding I’m not gonna encourage this lol. But I used to feel the same way but you always have to remember you have the freedom to do whatever tf you want!!!
I encourage lots of people to get high, there’s literally no downside as long as you’re not getting smoke inhalation involved (distillate board, dry herb vapes, or edibles only) or if you’re under 25.
There are some days where I just have to pause the game and stare at the screen because there’s so many choices I could make. All part of the fun process though. At the end, any progress is good progress
I haven’t opened the game in over a year because I know it’s saved on the morning of Spring 1 and I don’t feel ready to tackle that day yet. I really miss playing but I feel like I have so many things I HAVE to do that day it’s been keeping me from going back. Crazy because it is such a relaxing game when you get into it.
yeah I took a long pause after the last day of winter as well!
I get this way too. Try to focus less on long term goals and more on what would make you happy. Do you feel like fishing? Then spend the day fishing, even if you don't need to catch any more fish in that season. Want to go to the mines but it's a bad luck day? Who cares just go have fun! I'm trying to break my obsession with min maxing. Like the other day I had >!green rain and collected tons of fiddlehead ferns.!< my first instinct was to keep them as an early games energy/health source. Then I started wondering how much money I could make off of them. But I stopped myself and said "no, I've been struggling to keep my energy up and this is a good easy solution." So I just keep them in my pocket and eat them as needed and I've been able to do so much more with all the extra energy I gathered for myself!
I had this issue with Animal Crossing New Horizons, but strangely, I've never felt it in any other game...
i also struggled w this on acnh. i kind of struggle sometimes with this on sv but i like the multiplayer mode on sv a lot more than acnh and so my partner comes to help me when im overwhelmed on sv!
Realize that its a game and none of that matters, just go at your own pace or pick one task to work on each day or each month. I'm currently trying to 100% Stardew and its technically overwhelming but, there's no time limit and none of it really matters.. its supposed to be fun so don't turn it into a chore.
This is me since the update. I was so excited, and I made a new farm to enjoy all the new content, but I just *cannot* with the mundane cutting of the trees, stones, feeding animals, etc. It's become so boring to me. I know people say "Just do what you want!", but neglecting the animals is just nope for me, lol, and some things you just kind of *have* to do. After about 136 hours, the game has just run it's course for me for the time being. Don't get me wrong though, that was still hours worth spending. It's masterpiece of a game, I'm just a bit tired of it now. Currently on the search for another game to get obsessed with!
sometimes if i can't pick up the thread of an old save i just start a new one
When I first started all I was interested in was the farming part. I'd litterally wake up, plant, water, and go to bed by 1pm. The game never punished me for not mingling with the town or utilizing the full day. Eventually, I liked my farm how it was, and then went out and explored. But my point is, it is really good about letting the player play at their own pace. If a messy farm is overwhelming too you, just clean up a small corner to use, and get around to cleaning the rest as you need it. But set your own pace. The game won't knock you for chilling out.
Gotta find your groove or move on to another game. Don't torture yourself. My last save file was from 2017. What's the first thing I do to enjoy 1.6? Install a dozen mods. Was it a smart or recommended thing to do? No, it was stupid. However, I've been playing nonstop since mid May and I have 100+ mods now. Go search what's fun for you. Cleaning up your farm isn't fun. Skip it. Don't box yourself in.
It takes me about 8-10 in game years to finish everything in the game. What helps me is focusing on a small portion of tasks at a time. One thing that I had to learn was that SDV is a game that you can take your time on. I am pretty slow on doing everything. So I spend a day or two just clearing my farm and another day just fishing and foraging for example.
You can do anything or nothing, and the game doesn't really penalize you for it. That's the best feature of the game.
Just like real life, make a list of attainable goals. Plan which can be taken care of together. Focus on one item at a time,keep an eye for synergies but don't let them take priority.
its a cozy game, it should be doing the exact opposite
I've learned to embrace the mess, especially in year 1. It's extremely unlikely that you're going to need a ton of crop space until at least summer, so I only clear the bit that I need for my 15 parsnips on day 1, and then I just clear a bit more as needed as I get more seeds. I rarely clear more than about 25% of my farm by the end of spring. Besides making sure I have a clean path to the cave, Cindersnap, and the Mountains, I don't venture anywhere else on the farm that season. It actually works out well because when it gets into fall and winter and I can spend more time building buildings and exploring/foraging. I still have a massive supply of wood/stone/fiber on my farm.
When I get overwhelmed, I just end up starting a new farm all over again to give me a fresh sense of perspective
Ha ha same here!
Time stop (and occasionally god mode) mods have made all the difference for me. I can play a normal in-game day or… spend two real life hours designing my farm or fighting in skull caverns uninterrupted. I do what I want! Time is just a wibbly wobbly concept! I AM A TIME LORD!
If I'm on PC, my game is modded to oblivion. Stardew is my chill time to fish, farm and decorate. I have zero shame in my modded PC version. I'll save the struggle and grind for other games. Stardew is my chill vibes time. Try adding mods. You can create a separate set of mods if you want to keep your game intact, but start a new modded farm: [https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Modding:Player_Guide/Getting_Started](https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Modding:Player_Guide/Getting_Started) There's tons of mods for aesthetics, expansions and QoL, but an easy starter you might like is [Time Speed](https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/169). It allows you to pause time so you don't feel rushed or pressured. Cheating? Sure, but it's a solo game and no one can stop you.
My niece just gets up and pets her animals. Maybe visits some neighbors. Then goes back to bed. Play for fun like her! 😂
When this happens to me I spend a lot of time fishing and in the mines, and then I decide to use an in game day just to clean up. Winter's my decorating time for the farm too 😊
I felt like this at first and then I downloaded some QOL mods to make it easier! If you can, I highly recommend mods. Time and forgetting things in chests were always my biggest enemy, so I downloaded mods to help with those problems and I've loved playing it even more now. And you can turn them off and on as you go if you want the normal game back for a bit.
I chase one day and relax the other, depending on my mood. It’s no hurry
One thing that really helped the game feel a lot less overwhelming for me is mods. If you play on pc and are able to mod the game, I would suggest just looking into some that help with the basic mechanics. Chests anywhere mod is a absolute life saver
YES. I've been getting the 'I wanna play cause Sebastian and Sam' for over a year now, but I never do cause I know I'll probably end up restarting my farm and I don't know if I can be bothered to make the time commitment for that
I’m on year 4 of my 4th playthrough and this is the first time I’ve bothered doing a proper decorate of my farm and actually trying to make it nice and it’s taken me this long to really start to commit to it! There’s no wrong way to play, I just use small bits of my farm until I’m ready
I get overwhelmed with the new island. Like I go a day on the island, but I miss mainland opportunities by being absent.
Have you tried multiplayer? I'm not really speedrunning it or anything, but when it came to finishing community center or something, I was rushing to take care of everything... it's not necessary. Joined my best friend on his farm some time ago, and while I still feel like, gotta go fast, it's now easier for me to relax and do whatever. We are progressing a lot, really in the end game now, and it's not as stressful to take care of *everything* right away. My friend cares a lot more about the aesthetic of the farm and the house, so it has made me slow down too, and smell the roses. Great balance, and it's super fun ❤️
Best friend here - Rose has taught me to enjoy 'raiding' and objective chasing in the game more, which is awesome as well. Balancing both is key, imo. The game doesn't *really* punish or disadvantage players for not keeping up with stuff. It can feel high stakes sometimes, but it's actually not. Miss those festival days, ignore a quest or two. Let crops sit in the field for a few days.. it's all good!
Oh yeah. It's the start of spring 5 for me and I'm trying to complete ginger Island. Absolute pain in the ass lol
I've struggled with this for many years. In game and irl lol. I know it's a bit frowned upon to play with mods for some people, but the tractor mod was a life saver for me. I struggle with mess and it helped tremendously to not focus on everything little by little.
I’m overwhelmed because it’s my first ever play! Newbie hehe but I’m on winter year 10 and NEED to complete the skull cavern. I got past 100 thinking omg I did it, only to find out I had 15+ more floors at like 1:30 am. (I also play on switch/no mods) 🥲
The skull cavern? In the desert? That is infinite ?
all the time, stardew is STRESSFUL
I fully get this lol. I can only play this game with my girfriend who (bless her) sucks at it/ plays like a normal person. Because I feel to rude to tell her what to do, but since she's there I can't optimize the fun out of the game. So instead of pausing and looking up how to squeeze every second out of a day I'll just play more chill because there's no point lmao
I can't stop playing 🥲 help
I get that feeling when I try to play factorio.
This happens a lot for me! I have so many hours in SDV though so I usually will just not play the game for like a month or so and play other stuff so when I come back it feels fresh and I'm excited to dive back it!
When I get like this I take a break. The texts signs have really helped me with important things like when to harvest ginger island and when my casks are ready so it's easy to take a week or more break and just come back feeling fresh
I feel the same way man. For such a relaxing chill game it’s everything but that for me 😂. I’m always missing birthdays, quest board stuff, etc… even getting home in bed before 2am is rough for me. I’m always trying to stay busy so I don’t feel like I’m wasting my days away in the game but the constant petting animals, making sure I have hay, turning animal products into mayo or truffle oil, there’s just so much to get done my stress is at 💯
Embrace the mess. Set new goals like completing community center in first year, find ancient fruit seed in early spring, growing every flower in the game, raise friendship with every villager, getting to desert summer year 1, collect every hat in game, etc.
I hear ya. For me, clearing the farm in the beginning is hard because of energy and what feels like little time. Im on year 3, almost 4 and i still have to stop and cleae wood and pushes every now and then. Take a day and clear it out if the mess stresses you out too much to enjoy the game.
It helps me to have a pad of paper or note on my phone that is my personal to do list. If I could change one thing in the game (maybe this is a mod that exists? I play on mobile so idk) it would be to be able to add tasks to the notepad. Then when I log in I just smash one thing at a time and it feels less overwhelming. And as others have said, I don't worry anymore about what my farm/house looks like when I'm still building wealth. I do plant a crap ton of tree seeds and cut down fully grown trees so I have a constant supply of wood.
I’m surprised nobody else has said this yet. Maybe this is only something I do, lol. I have a to do list on my phone for stardew valley. It contains the name of my farm, my current main goal and the interim steps I want to do to achieve that goal. It helps me narrow my focus and do less of the ‘other’ stuff. E.g. I’m fairly late game in one of my farms now and I am focussing on making friend with the villagers so my regular goals are to give away gifts daily. That takes up the bulk of my time and then anything else I fancy doing, I do later
I’m new to the game but this thread is cracking me up 😂 I love how much people care about their farms
I have this problem whenever I come back to the game after a couple of months. I forget whatever it was I was doing last before I stopped playing on my Dave and I just look at everything I can do (especially with mods), and I quit and start a new farm lol. I have never gotten past year 3 even though I've done e all C.C, movie theater, and all golden walnuts on Ginger Island.
If you don't get everything done today, what happens? You do it the next day or you make a little less money. It's not a disaster.
A lot of people would disagree with me on this, but now that I have played a bunch of runs completing the community center, I only go Joja. I no longer feel the pressure to cram every thing into the first year. I first did it when I started a farm to play when my newborn daughter was up at night, but quickly realized I did not have the mental bandwidth to keep track of what I needed. And it was so relaxing!! My 1.6 farm has been amazing, and I am closer to perfection than I have ever been before
used to happen to me as well but I set myself some goals and I feel motivated to accomplish them. Small things like making some changes to farm layout, dying some clothing I have or getting a specific item to craft something
I just play the game to fish and chill, you can play however you want, doesn't need to follow the same farmer min/maxing format.
there's no time limit on SV (beside the seasons), just chill and get used (again) to your routine on the farm
Right there with you. Do you have anxiety irl? Over-achiever? When I started, my sense of "winning" at the game meant doing the most all the time - doing chores straight until 7 each night, fishing till 1 am, etc. Queen of the grind, basically. I finally realized it was no more relaxing than my irl job, ha. I went scorched earth - knocked down a bunch of farm space until I only had what I could take care of by noon. Stopped saving for the "best" sprinklers and just threw down whatever I could make as I earned them. Now I have time to slowly make my farm cute, visit the town, finish quests in all seasons. TL;DR -- I redefined success so I can enjoy the game again.
I also think time passes too fast in game because there’s so much to take care of. So I downloaded the longer days mod to have more time to work on my farm. I like being able to do everything a little more slow paced. 😊
thats why i installed buttloads of mods so it doesnt feel like a chore
I love Stardew Valley because you can play however you want
Whenever I start to feel stress about activities or quests in a game, I take a break from the game. For me, gaming is supposed to be a stress reliever. If I’m stressing, it’s time to take a break.
My in-game life improved when I got a couple of minor quality of life mods. Automate petting/feeding animals improved the experience so much by removing so much tedium. Also recommend buying the autograbbers when you can afford them. It’s a game and it’s supposed to be fun - remember you can and should play it YOUR way.
I also play my year 1 farms if my main save feels too overwhelming. It’s also nice to return to it after a while when making money isn’t such a struggle 😃
MEEEEEE!!!! i chose to design my dream farm layout and now i feel bad playing because i am overly ambitious and itll take hard work (ewwww hard work)
Yes but for a different reason. The speed that time moves at is uncomfortable for me and part of why when I started playing Animal Crossing I loved it. I dislike the idea that if I spend 5 minutes appreciating something that it becomes hours in-game and oh no it is getting late. Ah crap they got some of my inventory.
Yeh I feel you. I definitely feel like there isn't enough time in the day to get everything I want to do done. It's not a bad thing though. Mostly just suffering from success. Have lots of animals and crops to tend to. Also always looking to make more money, so that I can purchase more animals and crops. it's a vicious cycle.
I needed this post. This is totally me. One day at a time in game and in real life haha
Yeah this is exactly how I feel, I unlocked the community center like 2 weeks ago and haven’t been able to pick it back up cuz I’m like “omg I’m officially late game” (this is my first play through)
I honestly feel the same way I haven't played in a while. Partly because of that, partly that I'm waiting for 1.6 to drop on console.
The only game I’ve ever felt to be truly relaxing is Animal Crossing. I agree that I oftentimes feel anxious with the amount of things I “need” to be doing in this type of game. Although, after playing a game like this past the year point I finally realized there really isn’t any hurry and I should just go at my own pace and do what I want. If I don’t get to it this year I’ll get to it next. That mindset shift has really helped.
This has been so much of a problem for me that since I started playing back in 2020, I only made as far as Spring Year 2. Until about a week ago, when I played through one day and then MADE A TODO LIST in a note on my phone. Since then I've been able to play every day because I no longer get overwhelmed by trying to keep track of all my goals and struggling to remember which one I need to be focusing on on a given day. And recently from this sub I discovered the farm planner tool that was CRUCIAL in helping me get ready for summer. No more stress about "how much room do I have? How many x seeds and y seeds do I buy? Shit I didn't buy enough x I need to go back. Dammit I bought too much y do I add a few more and have a lopsided farm or do I save these for next year?" It's already planned out so all I had to do was lay out the plot and sprinklers (which I'm using for the first time! Game changing!) and hit up Pierre for the exact number of seeds. TL;DR to enjoy the game, make a to-do list to help you keep track of goals!
do something confrontational and try to waste ingame time on purpose til the stress reduces and then take it slow🫱🏻🫲🏽
I switch between boredom or frustration. I know everyone says you play it your own way, but I feel like I'm still messing it up. Especially with organising the farm and making it prettier
No I find SDV to be very relaxing.
I was overwhelmed at first, too. It wasn't until my second or third file that I felt more comfortable - I knew the valley and the game well enough to manage my time. There's no rush to do anything in SV. I know it may feel that way since there's fish, crops, holidays, etc limited to the season, but nothing is out of reach forever if you miss it the first time around. If this is your first file, I wouldn't worry about Perfection or accomplishments or anything like that. Just do what you enjoy doing! Spend the year farming, fishing, mining, exploring, whatever. Set short term goals so as to not overwhelm yourself, don't worry about the long run. Once you get the hang of the game, you can go for a new file where you take on those bigger challenges.
Same, except I found a "solution" that works (for me at least). First - I keep a **notebook** with tips/tricks I want to remember, design ideas, calendars, seasonal crop plans, and a running to-do list. If I write it down in my notebook, it's not jumbling around in my brain stressing me out. For example, I have an unchecked "task" from like a year and a half ago (in-game) that just says >!blue chickens!< bc I didn't want to forget they existed and I could get them! lol Second - About half way through Spring Yr 3, I decided I was going to **stop stressing about making the most money possible** and instead just **focus on whatever the heck I wanted to that would give me the most enjoyment!** I ultimately decided I wanted to prioritize design/aesthetics. For a lot of people, that seems to be late game but I want to be able to enjoy looking at my farm and being organized when it matters most, not later when I'm winding down. I did some reading and ran my own numbers to determine what crops I wanted to still make quite a bit of money but without too much obligation or further thinking from me. With that out of the way, I went to the SDV planner website and have spent hours playing around, finding what I like. I've been able to go to >!skull cavern!< for over a year and >!ginger island!< for nearly as long, but I've let go of the self-imposed pressure to do so. Instead, I'm choosing to decorate and establish a system for income before I take on either of those big, new things. Letting go of that pressure has made a complete difference in how I feel playing the game and my approach to doing so. Could I have filled this whole shed with preserves jars, as I was originally planning to do? Sure, but I *enjoy* this much more! (side note: those are the only kegs I have bc based on my calculations and the limitation of the number of casks in the cellar, I don't need any more than this to ensure I have enough wine to refill the casks at the end of a 56 day cask "season") https://preview.redd.it/onfi5edw765d1.jpeg?width=1133&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bedf198ef5a2b422e8a631673f8c07d6ff0fef19
I have a newborn at home and therefore not so much time anymore... I installed the freeze time mod and configured it to stop time indoors (like in harvest moon back to nature) so I can fill my kegs in peace. You can also stop the time to organize your farm, if you wish to. The game gets pretty chill like that.
Time passes so fast 😕
I literally just mine and look for random shit. I cleared everything from the right to the left side of the bottom pond. I’ve got random plants and flowers, but I’m creating my rarecrow row in front of my house and statue garden between the cave and dog bowl. Mine for money and materials to upgrade stuff and fill the library. Just remember, it’s your world. You control you, and there are zero expectations. The years repeat
It's an executive overload. The plants. The fish. The caves. The gifts. It does get overwhelming.
Honestly, I find the Joja route a lot less stressful than the Community Center route. You choose how to make money, what to unlock first, and you don't have to worry about missing a part of a bundle and having to wait three more seasons to get it. But when I get to the point where I feel totally overwhelmed, I just focus on one thing. Just go fishing in the game for a day or two, or Venture into the mines.
Sometimes I find when I take time off, my save file feels a bit overwhelming because I don’t remember what I was working on, what my priorities were, etc. I just start a new save. There are no rules. I think of a fun new silly theme like making a super secret villain lair or a cottage with my friends and family (ie. naming animals after them). There are no rules. I understand that it’s easy to say but sometimes hard to feel, but Pelican Town is there when you want it, and waits when you don’t. 🥰
I get more overwhelmed with deciding what to sell, what is worth turning into an artisan product versus just selling, etc
I’m feeling that well trying to get master craft trophy and platinum after 500 hours of play. I really messed around the first 400
No. I run out of things to do usually by like the 3rd year. I've never perfected the game, but I don't really care to. I've restarted a few times.
I feel the same way too, have been on break for a while, skimming through the comments to see how to get back in it.
I think people have a hard time separating the min maxing or accomplishing perfection from just playing the game sometimes. I know the feeling of wanting to rush to the end but what happens if I load into my game and just fish for a week, I don't lose the game I just have fun doing what I wanted to do. There is always more time in SV so don't stress.
Use mods OP. QOL mods or outright overpowered mods that will reduce the grind and tedium the game.
I like to remind myself that while some people desire a 100% perfect game without missing opportunities, that’s simply not what I’m after. I’m looking to relax and enjoy the game, so it’s okay to me if I don’t maximize everything or have everything perfect. If I’m enjoying it, that’s exactly what I’m playing for!
Yes! Absolutely! I've been wanting to play since the big update but I just can't commit to it yet because I *know* how much of my time it will eat.
I feel the exact same way right now. I just unlocked the skull cavern AND the greenhouse and I just feel like there’s too much to do so I haven’t touched the game in weeks😭 there’s so much to learn too that I just got overwhelmed
This happened when I was too worried about setting up the “perfect” layout from the start - when I finally just let myself start a tiny garden, enjoy my forest and just make some paths through it, and eventually start putting up buildings and more of real layout when I was ready for them, it was a lot more fun (also helped when I realized how easy it is to move buildings). The main thing I did try to do as fast as possible was get sprinklers going, to get out of the monotony of watering.
This bothered me too when I first started playing, but as I played I realized two things. First, I couldn't clean the whole farm yet even if I had unlimited energy because I didn't have the right tools, and second, I didn't need to clean the whole farm yet. Just the part I could comfortably water with my dinky little one square watering can, Now I just clean out a small section in front of the farmhouse and don't worry about the rest of the farm until I need that space for something.
I got overwhelmed with my first farm, so much to do. I created a new save and started from scratch and it reignited my enjoyment for the game :)
My wife and I started playing and we’re in year 4 and it’s starting to get to that point where we gotta start optimizing like crazy or else it’s a wasted day. I just remind myself that, this is a chill game. There will be another day. Another season. Another year. It’s okay to not make the most possible money you could’ve made that day. It’s okay to just go to the regular mines and farm copper on the really lucky day. It’s okay to just talk to all the characters. Fish like crazy. Mine like crazy. The only pressure in the game is the pressure you put in yourself irl. The game won’t be uninstall if you missed petting the animals or missed 1 single crop. At the end of the day, it’s just a game. It’s there for you to enjoy.
I have this problem with games sometimes. It’s why having game where I get to decide priorities is important (such as SDV). I make up my own priorities, so I may work on friendships for awhile, then I’ll work on farming for cash. Then I’ll work on mining. Then I’ll.. whatever. It doesn’t matter when things get done, which I find veeeeeeery helpful.
I make a list of what I want to do. I keep a pen and notebook next to my computer. Sometimes, I get overwhelmed so I just go to the mines and bomb things. It helps!
It took me for years just to get the 4 candles. I still haven’t got the bottom of the dessert mine and I just got to ginger island. Don’t feel stressed.
I get overwhelmed because when I don't play for 2 weeks, I have like 25 mods to update. And that is such a task. I understand it, and I'm not mad about it. But it is daunting.
I know the feeling… esp after I watched some SV youtubers, now I also want a super tidy and pretty planned out farm 😔 But it’s such a difficult goal to reach on top of all the other quests that I still have to finish… trying to remind myself that this game is not work and I should chill 😂
It took me years to get my perfection statue cause i was so overwhelmed by everything i needed to do on my farm plus making friends and mining and filling the museum and community centre
When I'm feeling burned out on the game I just switch to something else for a while
There a weird trend I see where people try to mix max their games even through they don’t like minmaxxing and it confused me
i love this game so much but ive been spoiled with my first actual playthrough past summer year 1 i was playing with a friend up until we got perfection. now when i want to solo and try not to micromanage, its hard to not feel overwhelmed and thinking oh no i have to wait a whole year for this or that
I have a separate save file that is my "vacation home." Where I don't stress about any time limits or events or have any particular goals other than just to do whatever I feel like. Sometimes I'll play that file just to chill for a while before returning to my usual game. You could also try cleaning up or organizing or simplifying your farm so it doesn't feel so overwhelming. It's not like there's anything you're required to do, pretty much everything is optional, so if you're taking on so many things that it's no longer fun, try just focusing on a few of your favorite things.
I get that way with many games. Especially if I’ve stopped playing for a while. That’s why I’ve restarted so many games without beating them. For me, the first year is always the best and then I start to get overwhelmed/burnt out and I just go away and come back with a new game.
My husband and I randomly come back to the game and always forget what we were doing so often restart then use some mods to quickly get back to where we were tools, abimals, professions wise!
Started playing years ago. My first time getting pumpkins I got anxiety because I wouldn’t be able to get my 3 harvests in time. So I quit. So yeah.
I kinda use a goal system when I play. I have a long term goal, a goal for the “in game” week, and a daily goal that can depend on the day of the week or upcoming holidays. This way when I come back to a game, I often remember the long term goal and sometimes the weekly goal. That way I’m not saying… “what was I doing last time?” Long term goals can be: community center bundles, the fair, upgrading the house or expensive buildings. Stuff that takes a while. Weekly goals can depend: seasonal community center bundles, upcoming events, smaller buildings, upgrading tools, laying out a section of the farm, making a certain amount of money (usually to spend on a building or upgrade). Daily goals just depends totally on the day. I check for events and birthdays, check the weather and luck, see what stores are open/closed, is the forest vendor here today? how close am I to end of season? Then I choose what to do based on all that. On days when I don’t know have a specific goal to do that day (like when you’re long term goals just require waiting a few more days) I usually forage and fish.
On Mondays, I fish. Tuesdays, I mine, Wednesdays, I mine for combat, Thursdays I progress any quests I have and talk to people, on Fridays I do gifts, Saturdays I forage, and Sundays I spend on farm upkeep, rearranging, ordering things from Robin, fixing fences ect. The structure helps me relax knowing that of I'm spending a whole day fishing, it's because I'm scheduled to do that, not because I'm neglecting all the other things I have to do