Stardew Valley - Ultimate Completion Guide

This guide includes personal tips but not basic controls and such this is for intermediate players who finish playing their first gameplay (this has spoilers).

Contents

Complete Walkthrough Guide

Complete Walkthrough Guide

All credit goes to Nine!

Intro

This guide will teach you everything in summarized, and help you get acknowledged by granpapi. This contains secrets for better gameplay. It’s better to use this guide for your second gameplay since this has spoilers.

Bonus:

Go to options and turn on tool hit locations(so you wont hit your animals or crops by accident).

Also in options make the 100% zoom, less maybe 80 or 90% whatever you prefer. since camera is too zoomed in and you wont see the enemies etc.

Always do things to save time especially on the skull cavern or the mines.

Habits and Routine

Make habits of:

Watching tv every morning, watch all channels.

Why it’s important

Fortune teller channel: important for mining, combat, fishing.
Living the land: Extra tips in case, i miss anything.

Being organized: you can select a color in a chest which helps you be more organized.
Do not throw out “useless trash” because you can use it for something, even trash can be recycled and can be useful.
Always check the calender to see whos bday is coming up or an event.
Forage.
Talking to npcs you ran into.
Watering your pet’s bowl and pet them.
Keep atleast 1 of everything for wanted quests, or journal quest or incase you need it.
Going to the secret woods to save up hardwood for upgrading and crafting.

Make your own routine to do for the rest of the month / year. This depends on what type of player you are. There are 5 things you can do in the game:

Mining.
Fishing.
Combat (at mines or at farm if you picked the monster type farm).
Farming (includes tending the animals).
Foraging.

Prioritize the things you want to do and like to do and make habit of it in order to not forget to do it.

Personally my routine is watering the crops, tending the animals, mining, foraging and fishing.

What to Do on Your First Year

First week and a half

Spend your 1 week and a half fishing in the mountains.
You will earn 2k in the first 3 days, and then buy the “Large Backpack” on pierres store.
Within a week and a half you will have the max inventory since this is top priority.

At 8th day you can fish more for extra money and plant more seeds.

And keep fishing till you get to level 10 (it’s possible).

Do this in general or at any month:

Upgrade your house.
Upgrade your tools.
Build a coop/barn.
Build a silo.

I have spare time, what should i do?

Mine, fish, forage, give gifts to npcs or hang out in the saloon.

Spring

Plant 15 of every seeds pierre sells, prioritize the seeds that can reproduce.
And plant more seeds if you have the extra money.
What to do on most days, this depends on what you like to prioritize, personally i prioritize Farming > Mining > Forage i fish sometimes, but this varies player to player.
By then you will have enough money to do more things and you will no longer be limited.

Summer

Do your usual routine.
You can now make the electric rod that can produce batteries during thunderstorms / rain collect the battery if you havent before the next thunderstorm.

Fall

Do your usual routine.
Before winter use the scythe on the grass and make sure you have a silo.
After using the scythe on the grass, do not water the crops because tmr will be the first day of winter.

Winter

Upgrade your tools.
Make friends with everyone.
Get hardwood from the secret woods, near the wizards tower every day/morning.
During winter focus on the skill that is low level, for example i dont fish that much and i maxed out foraging, mining, farming so i will spend winter leveling up my fishing skill.
You can plant mixed seeds or winter forage bundle seed to get winter forages.
If you havent, build a coop/silo/barn.
Do not buy an extra animal in order to save hay, do it at spring or if you put an egg at an incubator do it a week early before winter ends.
This is the perfect time to upgrade your watering can.
You can mine if you have extra time.
Give gifts with NPCS if you were too busy during the other 3 months since, you have more free time during winter.

Before second year you should have:

A silo / coop / barn depends on how many.
Upgraded iron/gold tools.
Finished the community center.
Married.
Sewer unlocked.
Reach level 5 of every skill.

At second year you should have:

Skull cavern.
Have kids.
1m in total earnings.
Lv 10 of every skill before year 3.

Skill Tree

Farmer

Level 5: Rancher (animal products worth 20% more) or Tiller (crops worth 10% more).

Pick Tiller, you dont have animals in early game, if you are at late game you can change it to rancher to earn more money from animals which is a lot since animals already do give you a lot.

Lv 10: Tiller – Artisan (Artisan goods Tars, cheese and mayo) worth 40% more) or Agriculturalist.
Artisan: More money from cloth, mayo, Honey, wine (coffee and truffle oil are excluded).
Agriculturalist: Faster growing crops, even faster if you use deluxe fertilizer.

Choose what you prefer but artisan is recommended.

Lv 10: Rancher – Coopmaster Or shephard.
Coopmaster: befriend coop animals quicker, egg incubation 50% faster.
Shepard: befriend barn animals quicker, faster wool production.

Depends if you need to incubate more coop animals choose coopmaster.
But shephard is recommended if you do not need to incubate more coop animals.
And you can befriend pigs quicker, and will produce better truffle at early game and truffle oil is more expensive than dino mayo.

Miner

Level 5: Miner (+1 ore per vein) Or Geologist (50% chance for gems to appear in pairs).
Miner is recommended if you want to mine more ore which is better because double iridium.
But if you want to choose geologist its better for early game than miner (you can switch if preferable).

Lv 10 Miner – Blacksmith (metal bars worth 50% more) vs Prospector (chance to find coal doubled).
Choose blacksmith if you are the type to sell metal bars, choose prospecter otherwise for better crafting resources since coal is required for that.

Lv 10 Geologist – Excavator (chance to find geodes doubled) or Gemologist (gems worth 30% more).
Pick excavator if you need more ore / artifacts to fill in the museum otherwise choose gemologist if you often sell gems.

Foraging

Level 5: Forester (wood worth 50% more) vs Gatherer (20% chance for double harvest of foraged items).
Gatherer is recommended since wood is valueable raw material, dont sell that shiz.

Lv10 Gatherer – Botanist (high quality forages) or Tracker (Location of forageable items revealed).

Botanist is recommended and tracker is just meh since its not that hard to find.

Lv10 Forester – Lumberjack (more hardwood) vs Tapper (syrups worth 25% more).
Forester is better because syrups are used for crafting and its not worth it to sell.

Fishing

Level 5: Fisher (Fish worth 25% more) or Trapper (less materials to craft w/ crab pot).
Fisher is the better option, since late game trapper is easier to craft with.

Level 10:

Fisher – Angler (Fish worth 50% more) vs Pirate (chance to find treasure doubled).
Choose angler if you want more money, choose pirate if you need more artifacts and early op weaponry, although pirate is a good option its better to choose that and at late game switch to Angler.

Trapper – Mariner (no trash at crab pots) vs Luremaster (crab pots no longer require bait).
Mariner is pretty much better than luremaster since worm bin exists.
You can catch more rare fish w/ mariner because you can no longer catch trash.
Although if you want trash to recycle choose luremaster.

Combat

Level 5: Fighter (All attacks deal 10% more damage.(+15 HP) vs Scout (Critical strike chance increased by 50%).

Fighter is better if you want to save time, i have tried scout before and wow you are better off with fighter i took too much time fighting enemies.

Lv10 Brute (Deal 15% more dmg) or Defender (+25 HP).
Brute is recommended, saves more time, deals more dmg.

Scout – Acrobat (Cooldown on special moves cut in half) vs Desperado (increases crit damage by +18x weapon damage).

Pick acrobat if your choice of weapon is a dagger or a hammer, otherwise pick desperado.

Fishing Guide

Fishing Spots and Secret Fishes

Pond at the secret woods = Wood skip.
The river at the south of the farm.
Lake at the mountains = lake fish.
Lake at the cindersap forest = lake fish.
LV 100 at the mines = Lava eel, ghost fish.
LV 60 at the mines = Ice pip, ghost fish.
Pond near skull cavern entrance at the desert: scorpion carp, sandfish.
River near the Joja mart & River below sam’s house = Common river fish.
The ocean.

Fishing Tips

There are three types of fishes:

Dart: This moves up and down.
Sinker: Moves faster when it moves down, Keep clicking and let go if it sinks click/hold a littile if the green bar reaches the bottom so it will not bounce.
Floater: Moves faster when moving up, you should click and keep clicking and only HOLD if it moves up this method will be faster.
Mixed: the easy version of dart.
Smooth: fishes that are easy to catch.

The often recommended fishing tackle is Trap bobberr even with legendary fishes.
Barbed hook is recommended for dart fishes.
If you want to get more artifacts or ore use Treasure hunter.
if you are planning to fish more, use spinner or dressed spinner for more fish to bite.
Lead bobber is recommended for sinker type of fishes.

Legendary Fishes and Location

You better have Lv 10 fishing for this and for easier catch even with easy legendary fishes.

Crimson fish Lv 5, Summer, Sunny, Mixed

Angler Lv 3 , Fall, Sunny, Smooth

Mutant carp , Any, Sunny, Dart

Legend Lv 10, Spring, Rain, Mixed

Glacier Lv 6, Winter, Sunny,

Catch them before 10 pm. If you are catching the Legend cast your rod near the Log.

Mining Guide

The mines

Bring food that gives health + energy (i recommend goat cheese).
Only bring your weapon, pickaxe, hoe.
You can hoe up the dirt/sand/snow at the mines you can get either artifacts or cave carrot.
Prioritize finding ladders than fighting enemies especially at 12 am so you can reach the next checkpoint faster.
When it reaches 11:40 drop what you are doing and go straight home, and you can make it to bed before 2 AM.
If you have already unlocked the minecart from the community center, you can mine some more until 1:30 AM, use the cart and you can make it to bed before 1:50 AM.
Only go to the mines during Lucky days, when the fortune teller shows a Pyramid or a Star.
Kill these Larvaes before they become a bee, they are really annoying.
Put a chest next to the elevator, store your tools, food etc.
When a level becomes infected (when your screen is covered with colored fog).
Go to the nearest ladder and go down if not go to the exit ladder and fight off the bats/bees if you are about to die, you can exit since the ladder is in front of you.
Mushroom floor on (levels 81-119) wont appear if level is infested with monsters sometimes it wont appear for days or weeks, it doesnt appear on elevator floors, if it reaches lv 81 or the season ends it starts again from lv 119, mushroom floors are the best since u can get roughly 50k G from that, you will know its a mushroom floor if you see a green lantern.

Skull Cavern Guide

Intro

Use a warp desert totem if you have one or craft one put it in your hot bar and sleep by the morning at 6 am, use the totem.
add a chest near the skull cavern to store and take items.
Prepare a day early if you are using the warp totem method, for ie store items you need in the chest and take it if you are going in the cavern, store your unneeded items in the chest.
If you dont have the desert totem, get to the bus stop at 9:50 AM wait for pam and be in front of the ticket machine thing.
You should bring, Coffee, Goat cheese, Mega bomb/ Bomb, a staircase, extra rocks so you can craft a staircase, a food that grants you luck eat that before going into a shaft or a ladder or a food that gives you speed.
In a monster level, use the staircase because ♥♥♥ monsters.
Only use the bomb on areas w/ many rocks.
Kill the mummies and then use the bomb to finish them off, it does work the other way.
Craft more bombs w/ the resource you get in the mines.
If the time is 1:20 or 1:30 AM drop what youre doing and straight to the ladder and leave the desert.
Park your horse near the bus so you can save extra ten minutes.
By 1:40 AM you can reach your bed and sleep.
If you have a return scepter, use it at 1:40 AM.
Don’t bring anything else except your food, pickaxe, weapon, return scepter.
Only go at Lucky days, the fortune teller shows Pyramid or a Star.

Gifts for NPCS (Cheap Way)

Before first year you should pick an easy bachelor/bachelorettes by that i mean give then an easily accesible loved gift.
For the other npcs, its easier to befriend them mid/late game since most things they like are easier to gift.
All of the things i put here are automatically loved gift, ill put a Like: tho.

Bachelors

Alex: loves complete breakfast, literally likes any egg except void egg and dino egg.
Elliott: Duck feather.
Harvey: Pickles.
Sam: Likes,Joja cola.
Sebastian: sashimi, frozen tear, void egg.
Shane: bEEr, hot pepper.

Bachelorettes

Abigail: Amethyst, Quartz.
Emily: Ruby, Emerald, Cloth.
Haley: Sunflower, Coconut, Pink cake.
Leah: Goat cheese, wine.
Maru: Strawberry.
Penny: Poppy, Emerald, Melon.

Other NPCS

Caroline: Summer spangle, Tea.
Clint: Any ore, Any gem and pickles.
Demetrius: strawberry, likes most foreageable.
Dwarf: ores, gems.
Evelyn: likes most foreageables.
George: Leek.
Gus: diamond, orange.
Jas: pink cake, plum pudding. fairy rose.
Jodi: diamond chocolate cake, crispy bass, pancakes.
Kent: pickles, daffodils, roasted hazelnuts.
Krobus: void egg.
Lewis: hot pepper, glazed yams.
Linus: yam, likes most foreageables.
Marnie: diamond, farmer’s lunch likes eggs.
Pam: bEEr, pale ale like most foreageables.
Pierre: fried calamari, likes eggs, daffodil, dandelion.
Robin: goat cheese, spaghetti.
Sandy: lmao give her coconut or cactus fruit.
Vincent: Grapes, snails.
Willy: pumpkin, sea cucumber.
Wizard: Void essence, solar essence.

If you run into an npc try talking to them (because friendship decays meaning you will lose hearts with them if you dont talk to them, this doesnt apply in events btw).

Choose the right answer for the heart events to get higher heart points

Extra Notes and Tips in General

Early Game Tips

Calculate the remaining days if you can still plant a crop or not, if you hover to a seed you can see its growth time, make sure you have enough days left.

Use hoe on this “artifact spot” on the ground.

Never hit your animals on purpose or by accident.
Always let them out and close the tiny door after 5 pm (be careful or you might trap your animals outside).
Hold right click and run towards your animals while pointing your cursor towards the animals you want to “pet” this is a fast way to do so.
Collect all the mayo or cheese in the presser first and then run and hold right click while your holding the raw product.
Use the wanted quest to earn extra money.
Always forage and fish.
Hoe up the dirt and you can plant trees around the map.
You can literally build anything in the village aslong as it doesnt block an npc’s path.
You can put tappers in Trees around the entire map.
You need to save as much as.
Little time and most players dont know this.

Late Game

Before year 2 at the end of winter you should have atleast 5 or 10 villagers with 8 hearts.
If you have nothing else to do, catch the legendary fishes.
It’s best to get 4/4 rating from granpapi because you can get a machine that makes iridium 4-8 every morning.
If you have a prismatic shard hold it in the three pillars at the desert.
Get more crystallarium cuz yes!
You can put kegs / preserver jars or anything at the quarry, literally the quarry is labeled as useless.
You can plant saplings in the green house btw.

Events

Spa unlocked on 3rd of summer.
The mines unlocked on 5th day of spring.
You will unlock the sewer if you donated enough artifacts at the museum.
Forage at the beach at summer(12-14).
Salmon berry season spring (15-18).
Black berry season fall(8-11).
Community center completion event.

You can unlock the sewer by donating artifacts at the museum.

Don’t

Hit your animals (with slingshot or tool).
Give people disliked gifts or neutral gifts, your better of giving it to someone who loves it or use it for crafting etc.
Hit npcs (with slingshot or tool).
Do not use the animal pregnancy feature, it takes time and the animal will be unable to produce the product, you’re better off buying animals from marnie.

Tips

At your first year you have low energy once the spa is unlocked, often use it.
Always hoe out artifact spots.
Always use your horse & the minecarts to travel around the map.
You will memorize the map after playing for 1-3 months in game and shortcuts by foot, but those shortcuts wont work on the horse.
Use the map and to see which places/stores close down or opens at a specific timetime.
Marnie has an irregular sched at work but she is often tending the shop during Wed/Fri/Sat/Sun.
Most people plant Ancient fruit or fruits that keep reproducing at the green house.
Put Diamond on the crystallarium or a gem that you need ps you can also put quartz and give gifts that npcs loves on their bday.
Sell raw gold/iridium wool they cost more than cloth.
Put wine in casks.
Always use the wiki for help and for the NPC’s schedule.
Put wild wine in kegs, dont put flavoured ones.
You can put Fruit in preserver jar it turns to jam if vergtable it becomes pickles.
If you put fruit on keg it becomes Wine if its vegtable it becomes juice.
If you need to upgrade your watering can the best is summer, because it rains often.
Make 2 rain totems, wait for tmr that has a weather of raining upgrade your tool tmr will rain, and if its not gonna rain the day after you upgraded your watering can then use the totem again.

Foraging Spots

Cindersap forest.
The island below leah’s house.
And south of the cindersap forest.
At the bus stop and at the right of the bus stop near the tunnel.
North of the farm.
The mountains.
The beach.
The desert.
The low tide reef near the beach.

Stardew Valley – Ultimate Completion Guide