'Stardew Valley' Beginners Guide

Stardew Valley Beginners Guide

Whether you're passing the time away on the Nintendo Switch or the PC, Stardew Valley is quite the meditative experience. While there may be no such thing as "winning" in Stardew Valley, there are plenty of ways to set yourself on the path of beautiful self-sufficiency. But it may be a little intimidating when you first set your plot down. This guide will help you get through the basics. So sit back, relax and let's get planting.

Planting in Spring Season

Among the best crops for the spring season, strawberry is a must-have crop. You can get the strawberry during the egg festival on 13th of spring. Plant it, and when you sell the strawberry, you'll get 500 gold profit per crop...aka you'll be rich.

Planting in the Summer Season

The blueberry is by far the best crop to plant during the summer season because they grant farmers quite a bit of gold. The profit per blueberry crop is a whopping 880 gold. You can purchase blueberry seeds from Pierre’s general store. 

Planting in the Fall Season

There are few really high paying crops you can plant during the fall season. First and foremost is the rare seed, which can only be purchased from the Gypsy Wagon. Plant it, and when you sell, you'll get a profit of 2,000 gold per crop. It’s simply incredible!

You'll also want to plant cranberries and pumpkins. They can earn farmers a profit of 1,101 gold and 440 gold, respectively.  

The Traveling Merchant Cart

The travelling cart is basically a portable shop occupied by a moving merchant. It is very useful in progressing the game, and you will definitely need it in virtually every level. But finding the traveling cart is confusing, especially for beginners. Here's where the cart's hiding: You can find the cart at the south of the farm in the Cindersap Forest that is near the pond. To get there, simply use the bottom entrance of your farm or use the path at the bottom left of the Pelican town, and you will easily reach the traveling merchant.

Stardew Multiplayer

Stardew Valley got an update about 2 months ago that allows you to invite friends into your game. This game is perfect for multiplayer as there is a lots of stuff to do, including activities for multiple people. The multiplayer mode is pretty seamless, but there are a few things that you need to do to invite people into your game. 

Every character in the game needs their cabin. Therefore, you need to make cabins for all the people you want to invite. There are two ways to make them. The first is the easiest, but it requires you start a new game. Once you have downloaded the Beta, you can choose to start the game in multiplayer mode. When you do that, the game will ask you how many additional cabins you want. After choosing the number, the game will take care of making the cabins and allocating the space accordingly. 

The second way to get cabins for your friends is to make them yourself. This you can do in an old save file or in a new one. All you need for another cabin is 100 pieces of gold and 10 stone, which is next to nothing, really. After you have these materials you can go to Robin and have her make the cabins, which takes about a day per cabin. 

Get Married

Stardew Valley gives you 12 people to chose from for a date. This is incredibly important as they all have their unique likes, dislikes, events and benefits. Your spouse can be either male or female; it does not matter which sex your character is. 

Marriage can be broken down into three steps: maxing out their hearts, dating and the mermaid pendant. To get the mermaid pendant, wait until it rains and head to the beach. There, you'll find the old Mariner, who will sell you a Mermaid Pendant for 5,000 gold. 

Grow Some Trees

Trees are often overlooked by players when it comes to Stardew Valley simply because of how expensive they are and how long it takes for them to bear fruit. That said, tree bearing fruit looks beautiful, and the pay off is often worth it in the long run. Keep in mind that saplings cost a lot of money; they can range from 2,000 to even 6,000 gold. If that price seems high to you, then we recommend advancing other parts of your farm because tree farming is very gold-intensive and has a slow return.

But if you can afford a couple of saplings, then you'll need to decide on a spot for them. Keep in mind that if you place an object within any of the 8 adjacent tiles, the tree will stop growing and bearing fruit. Also note that trees do not grow in the winter. The best way to circumvent this issue is to fix up your greenhouse and plant your trees in there. This way your trees will bear fruit year round and take up much less space. Also, the greenhouse has dedicated space for fruit trees, so it looks really pretty when stocked with various fruit trees. We also recommend making items from the fruit, such as jam, because those items sell for a lot more than the fruit.

Best Practices When Raising Chickens

A basic chicken coop can hold 4 chickens at once. After you buy your chickens from Marnie, make sure to feed them every day. Let the chickens out of the coop by opening the side door so they can eat grass in spring, summer and winter. This saves your hay and makes your chicken happy, as they like grass much more than hay.

Now that you have chickens and are feeding them regularly, they should provide you with eggs once they grow up. You can sell the eggs or you can put a little more effort into it and get much more money by making mayonnaise. To make mayo you will need a mayo machine, which you can craft yourself. Mayo sells for much more than just an egg, but it takes about half a day to make mayo.

Dinosaurs in Stardew?

Chickens are not the only things that you can have in the coop. You can also have ducks, rabbits and dinosaurs in the coop. All these different animals provide different materials. To unlock them, you need to upgrade your coop so that it houses more than 4 animals.

Big Business in Stardew

This one isn't necessarily a tip, but more an alternate way to play the game. 

Early in the game, players are introduced to the Joja mart and its selfish owner. There is an option to purchase the membership to Joja mart for 500 gold, but players usually avoid it as they don’t know the perks of that membership. Well, if you get the membership, the community center will be replaced with the Joja warehouse. You can purchase the community center bundles from the Joja warehouse for large sums of money if you are not interested in finding the items to complete them manually.