Stardew Valley is one of those games that offers something new every time you play. Players have played for hundreds of hours and still discovered new mechanics, items, features, or secrets. It’s a super-complex game with a ton to offer.
If you’re looking to truly unlock Stardew’s secrets and make your farm the best it can be, you’ll need to learn the basics. Once you do that, it’s time to move into mastering the game. Here are just a few tips that can help you become a master of Stardew, both on your farm and around the valley.
10 Tool Hit Location
Nothing is worse than accidentally chopping down that Ancient Fruit plant because you can’t see where you’re swinging your tools. It’s sometimes hard to judge which tile will be axed or tilled when you’re working on your farm.
Luckily, a quick little settings change will make a short life of this problem. Head to the gameplay options and turn on “Always Show Tool Hit Location.” Now, a small red box will show up around whichever tile you’re about to strike with a tool, ensuring you always know where you’re aiming.
9 Indicator Kegs
Some of the best ways to make money include processing crops into wine or using other machinery to upgrade animal products and crops into artisan goods. Kegs, Oil Makers, Mayonnaise and Cheese machines, Preserve Jars, and other machinery all take up considerable space. Many people decide to build sheds or other buildings to house all this machinery while it does its work.
However, running in and out of a building to check if the goods are done processing is tedious. Protip: leave one of the kegs (or other machines) outside of the shed, so you can see when the ones inside are done.
8 Chests in Town
There are a couple dozen villagers to befriend (or date, in some cases) in the valley. It’s extremely hard to remember what everyone loves and dislikes when gifting things to them in order to win their affection. If you’re looking to woo a specific bachelor or bachelorette, it becomes even more important that you choose the right gift.
A handy trick is to place chests near villagers’ houses with the items they like inside. This way, you can grab the item out of the chest and gift it to them, and you rarely have to remember their list of likes and dislikes. Just make sure not to place it in anyone’s path, or they’ll destroy it.
7 Return Scepter
There are a few big-ticket items that will cost a small fortune in Stardew Valley. The teleporting obelisks, the Gold Clock, and the Statue of Endless Fortune are just some of the things that you’ll have to fork over several million gold to obtain.
One item that is probably the most universally useful to drop some hard cash on is the Return Scepter. This handy item will teleport you back to your farm anytime, from anywhere. It saves countless hours of walking home, prevents close calls in the mines, and more. Buy it from Krobus in the sewers for 2,000,000 gold. It’s worth it.
6 Keep One of Everything
There are so many different items you can have in Stardew that it’s often hard to keep track. From fish to gems to crops and more, there’s just too much to manage. But, you’ll never know when you need that one thing, whether it’s a random Dwarf Scroll III for a Lava Eel Pond or a Pufferfish for the litter cleanup bear.
Pro players try to hang on to one (or even five) of every item. You don’t want to get stuck needing something that can only be obtained a certain time of year or that’s locked behind some other barrier. Just hang on to one of each thing, and you won’t find yourself in that situation.
5 Silo First
Early in the game, players may have a tough time trying to earn money. There isn’t much you can do to speed up the process, and the only real cash crop (literally) available is planting stuff to harvest. A chicken coop looks very enticing, especially since there’s a very early quest that tasks you with building one.
However, don’t be fooled by this temptress of a quest. If you run into winter (or run out of grass), you won’t be able to feed your chickens without purchasing hay or planting wheat. Save yourself the trouble and build a silo before you build any barns or coops. That way, you can be sure your animals will be fed once you buy them.
4 Machines Off the Farm
If you’re really trying to pull in that sweet cash, you’re probably building kegs or Crystalariums around your farm wherever there’s room. However, did you know you can also place many machines outside the farm and around the valley?
Make sure you don’t place them in the paths of villagers, because they’ll be destroyed. Many resources online have maps of the villagers’ paths so you can utilize the other, unvisited spaces. Popular places to shove some extra machinery include the quarry, the bus stop, and parts of the forest and beach.
3 Traveling Cart
Every Friday and Saturday, a traveling merchant will haul her cart into the valley with some rare and hard-to-find goods. She and her purple pig can be found selling their merchandise near the Secret Woods in Cindersnap Forest, just west of Marnie’s house and the entrance to the players’ farm.
This merchant has some great items that can help you finish the Community Center faster, and some products for other uses. But, the Rare Seed is perhaps the most coveted item. This seed costs 600 to 1,000 gold, depending on the day, and will grow into a Sweet Gem Berry, which sells for a hefty profit.
2 Catalogs
There are hundreds of pieces of furniture in Stardew with which you can decorate your sheds and home. There is also a ton of choices for wallpaper and flooring. Instead of hoping Pierre, Robin, or the traveling cart have the exact piece you’re looking for, consider investing in the catalogs.
There are two of these items. The first is purchased from Pierre for 30,000 gold and gives unlimited access to all wallpaper and flooring for free. Robin’s Furniture Catalogue costs a hefty 200,000 gold and gives unlimited free access to almost all furniture in the game. If you’re looking to redecorate regularly, these are essential.
1 Incubate Your First Dinosaur Egg
The dinosaur egg is a mysterious and valuable item in the world of Stardew. The game considers it an artifact, and it can be donated to the museum as one, too. However, it can also be turned into the very profitable Dinosaur Mayonnaise, implying that it’s still edible.
When you find your first dino egg, you might be tempted to donate it to the museum. But, pro players will say to incubate the first one you find. This is because you’ll hatch a new dinosaur, which will then lay its own eggs that can be donated instead. You never know when you’ll find another if you donate it, so incubate your first one.
NEXT: Stardew Valley: The 5 Best Quests (& The 5 Worst)
