Stardew Valley, everyone’s favorite farming/mining/fighting/romance simulator. It really has it all, including a great amount of quests for those players who feel more motivated and engaged when they have a specific objective or goal. It definitely helps that the rewards are bountiful.

Completing quests in Stardew Valley will usually unlock a whole new game mechanic or area of the game itself, if not a helpful item that can’t be obtained elsewhere. One such quest is “A Winter Mystery,” a small but vital quest that unlocks the ability to find Secret Notes containing plenty of helpful hints and lore.

How To Trigger The Quest

This particular quest is quite easy to activate, so much so that most players will trigger it going about their daily chores in the game. You won’t be able to unlock it until Winter of Year 1, but it’s quite easy to do. Just enter the Bus Stop area from your Farm during Winter from 6 am to 4 pm. You’ll see what the game describes as a “suspicious-looking figure” on the path (though it’s clearly our beloved Shadow Person, Krobus) and they will run off after being startled by your approach.

Where To Find The Mysterious Figure

The suspicious figure will run off after being spotted by you, so you’ll have to either give chase or put on your detective hat and track down clues. You might spot something different about the map, something that would only be present with a blanket of snow on the ground: footprints. Follow those bad boys as far as you can and they’ll lead you to a bush near the playground north of the town square. Interact with the bush to scare the figure out of hiding, and he’ll confess that “it looked so valuable, I couldn’t help myself!” You’ll get a new item: the Magnifying Glass.

The Magnifying Glass

The Magnifying Glass can be found as one of the special items in your wallet, alongside items such as the Rusty Key that unlocks the Sewers or the Skull Key that unlocks Skull Cavern. Once you have the Magnifying Glass, you will be able to find Secret Notes all across the Valley (and on Ginger Island). Secret Notes were introduced in Update 1.3 and detail helpful information about the game, such as loved gifts, the locations of hidden items, and lore about characters in the game. There are 25 Secret Notes in total and they can be found in a variety of ways:

  • Chopping weeds (0.9% each time) Defeating monsters (3.3% chance) Chopping trees (each Axe hit has a 0.5% chance) Fishing (8% chance that a Secret Note will replace trash) Artifact spot (11% chance) Mining for Stone (0.75% chance) Resource clump (Large Logs, Stumps, Meteorites, and Boulders have 5% chance) Giant crops have a 100% chance of bestowing a Secret Note.

There are plenty of ways to collect Secret Notes, so just going about your daily Stardew Valley life should result in some turning up. Happy hunting!