Stardew Valley madness continues this week, entirely unabated here at the iDigitalTimes office, stealing every spare moment of time away from our daily lives as fans around the globe continue to pursue their dreams of building the world’s greatest digital farmstead.
Previously, we’ve put together an outline for your first year on the farm, rounded up all the information needed to become an expert fisherman and walked you through the process of finding a spouse. Now, we’ve rounded up another batch of tips and tricks for anyone looking to get the most out of their time with Stardew Valley. We’ll be drawing inspiration from all aspects of the game this time around, from fishing to spelunking, and there’s no particular order to the advice that follows. We’d also love to hear from fellow Stardew Valley players. So, if you’ve got advice of your own to share, be sure to leave it in the comments section.
Without further adieu, here are more tips and tricks for Stardew Valley!
You Can Shoot Villagers With The Slingshot
We’re not sure this one technically qualifies as a tip, since shooting your fellow Pelican Town residents will actually make them less fond of the player. But anyone looking to get some actual usage out of the slingshot might enjoy knowing they can run around the town performing their best Dennis the Menace impression if they so choose. We might recommend keeping a few gifts on-hand for the villagers you upset, though.
Wood/Stone Repairs Fences
If you’ve been building fences in Stardew Valley, chances are you’ve already come to the horrifying realization that the barricades break down faster than some players might have expected. Thankfully, repairing your fences is as simple as approaching faulty sections, with wood or stone (depending on the fence type) as your currently selected inventory item, and use your resource stack to repair the fence. It’s much faster than breaking down your fences and replacing them with fresh posts.
Build A Stable
As you’ve probably noticed, running to/from every destination in Stardew Valley can be rather time-consuming. Thankfully, players have the option of purchasing a horse to expedite their travels. All you need to do is build a stable on your property. Then stop by Marnie’s Ranch during normal business hours (9-5), pray that she’s actually behind the counter for once, and buy a horse. Suddenly, Pelican Town isn’t going to seem quite as big anymore.
Lock Up Your Animals At Night
Letting your animals out to explore and feed on fresh grass is vital for any farmer hoping to make big money on milk and egg products in Stardew Valley. But it’s just as important to close the doors on your coop and barn each night. Failing to do puts the player at risk of losing one or more animals – numerous people, including yours truly, have seen chickens disappear overnight – and also leaves your livestock noticeably grumpier than they were the day before.
Talk To Livestock
Keeping your animals safe and warm at night isn’t the only way to keep them happy. Daily conversations with the chickens, cows, goats and other animals on the farm will improve the moods of your livestock. Happy animals produce more milk and eggs, occasionally even providing large versions of each, and that means more money for your farmer.
Don’t Place Items Near Water
This one is pretty straightforward. Items that fall into the water can’t be recovered by the player, no matter how valuable they may be, so you’ll want to give a wide berth to two small ponds situated on your farm land. If it’ll help, put fences up around each, that way the squares directly next to the water have already been filled by other (less-valuable) objects.
Use A Separate Chest For Explosives
This tip comes courtesy of reddit user OS_RS. We’re not sure of the specifics on the situation; however, it seems at least two players have accidentally blown up their entire item collection when interacting with their bomb stash. To avoid the problem entirely, use a separate chest for the various explosives you build or collect during your time with Stardew Valley.
Recipes Aren’t Required
For whatever reason, ConcernedApe doesn’t actually force players to collect specific recipes before cooking the dish in question. All you need to do is put the necessary ingredients on the stove and select “?????” from the menu to get started on your next culinary masterpiece. We’ve even tracked down a complete list of recipes in Stardew Valley to make the process easier for you.
Skip The First Tier Sprinkler
Iridium and Quality Sprinklers are some of the most useful items in Stardew Valley, drastically reducing the amount of time and energy your farmer has to spend on his/her crops each morning. But the basic sprinkler might be one of the biggest waste of resources in the game. Basic sprinklers only water four tiles, leaving another four tiles for you water by hand if you're using the standard 9x9 planting pattern. Even if you're planting in columns, you'd need a sprinkler for every row of the line. Save your ore (and/or the cash you'd use to acquire it) and don't worry about building sprinklers until you have everything needed to start building Quality Sprinklers,
Fruit Trees Can Be Planted Outside Your Farm
There appear to be some pretty rigid rules for planting new maple, oak and pine trees in Stardew Valley. But, for whatever reason, those rules don’t seem to apply to fruit trees. Without those restrictions in place, there’s nothing stopping the player from planting the latter around Pelican Town. Obviously, it’s going to take longer to retrieve that produce,
Mine Levels Can Be Reset
The next time you find yourself on a mine level flush with metal ore, and/or whatever other resources you need, it’ll be helpful to know that you can reset the level in question by taking an elevator to the top of the mine and then heading back down. Once you return, everything will be as you found it upon your first arrival, including the various enemies and ore deposits throughout the level. Now you don’t have to spend your hard-earned cash on gold or iron at Clint’s shop.
Perks Can Be Changed
If you’re having regrets about the professions you chose, it might be helpful to know that players can edit their save files to alter those decisions. It’s not a particularly difficult process, involving little more than opening your save file in notepad and making a few number changes, but you’ll definitely want to make a copy of your save file before attempting to make alterations. Those interested in changing their profession choices can find a complete guide over on reddit, courtesy of Froghat_Vendor.
Paths Block Overgrowth
If you’ve spent more than a couple of hours with Stardew Valley, chances are you’ve already learned the frustration of planting a massive crop only to discover that sticks, stones and/or weeds have destroyed one or more of the resulting plants. To keep the clutter at bay, build paths around your crops. Not only will this slightly decrease the amount of time it takes to water your plants, and/or collect produce on harvest day, the paths apparently block the debris spawned on your farmland each night.
Skip The Slime Farm
The slime farm is one of several largely useless buildings that can be added to your farm in Stardew Valley. So, unless you’re just absolutely flush with cash, there’s really not much reason to build it. Only a small handful of items call for slime when being assembled, which significantly reduces any perceived value of a home-based farm. All you can do is raise slimes, collect slime and then use that slime to get more slimes. If there’s an end goal to that rotation, the Stardew Valley community has yet to find it.
Dig When You See Worms
At one point or another, you’ve probably noticed small groups of worms sticking up out of the dirt when wandering around Pelican Town. What you may not have realized is that the worms are visual indicators of buried items. Next time you spot some of the little guys wriggling out of the ground, pull out your hoe and give the earth a quick smack. You might just find something valuable to sell or gift to a villager.
Mod Your Game
The first round of Stardew Valley mods are already starting to roll off the line. If you’ve got a bit of down time this week, we recommend perusing the official Stardew Valley modding forum for a few add-ons to improve your next play session. After all, who hasn’t wished they could spend their days toiling away on a farm that’s also home to a Ponyta?
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Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for additional Stardew Valley coverage throughout 2016 and for however long ConcernedApe supports Stardew Valley after launch.
