Stardew Valley is a large game, to put it lightly. It's one of those games that keeps unfolding and expanding as the hours draw on. The variety in gameplay can be daunting, especially for new players. There are so many townsfolk to meet and events to look forward to.
The first year in particular can feel like a flood of options. You're given a hoe, a handful of parsnip seeds, and told "go!" Setting these goals will help make that first year a bit less intimidating, and perhaps a bit more organized.
10 Plot Out Your Farm
The farm will be heavily disorganized when you first inherit it. After you've settled in, you may want to spend a day just exploring and clearing land. The honeymoon period will end, though, and you'll realize you're actually limited by your space quite a lot. Especially depending on what farm type you chose.
Start planning early on where you can set aside space for crops, animals, and warehouses. You will always be able to move things around later, but start with a solid foundation. Having a clean and organized farm will make your life easier than you can understand.
9 Learn The Best Seasonal Crops
Along with an organized farm, you may also want to have an optimized farm, so it's worth learning your money-makers. There are best and worst crops. Even the laziest farmer may as well plant one of the best crop each season.
In Spring, you can save your early game money to buy as many strawberries as possible at the Egg Festival and save them for year 2, or plant them on the same day you purchase them, otherwise, it's all about potatoes. In Summer, focus on blueberries or starfruit if you have the desert unlocked. In the fall you can plant cranberries, and any Rare Seeds should be planted on the very first day if you have them.
8 Complete The Community Center
Clearing the Community Center in your first year is difficult, but possible. There are three major tips to help in the process: the first is that you can check the Community Bundles at any time in the inventory screen via an icon in the top right. Second, if you hover over something in your inventory that can fit in a bundle, that same icon will start glowing. Finally, pay close attention to seasonal items.
For your efforts, you'll be given a host of invaluable rewards such as the greenhouse for year-round farming, the desert for resources, and Ginger Island; a whole other can of worms.
7 Explore The Mines: Both If Possible
You should steadily work towards the mines throughout the year. It's 120 floors with every 10 levels offering a new weapon or armor upgrade. Some of the final rewards include a permanent stamina upgrade and the skeleton key. The stamina upgrade on floor 100 will be particularly useful.
The skeleton key can be used in the desert to access the Skull Cavern. This area has a lot of crafting resources, but after you find Secret Note #10, reaching floor 100 will also provide you with a permanent health upgrade.
6 Find All The Secret Notes
The Secret Notes won't be obtainable until late into the first year, but they can be amassed quickly once unlocked. In the winter, travel to the bus stop between 6am and 4pm to witness a cutscene. Then, follow footprints to the Community Center and interact with the bush to get the magnifying glass.
This unlocks the ability to find Secret Notes, with each offering a hint towards a secret of some kind. The easiest ways to find them are by mining resource clumps at a five percent chance, fishing for trash at eight percent, or by digging up artifact spots for 11 percent.
5 Upgrade Tools
Upgrading tools goes without saying, but it might sound especially appealing once you learn what some of the upgrades do. Upgrading the hoe and watering can allows you to hold the button to hoe or water a larger area at once for the same energy cost. The pickaxe and axe will be able to break through tougher resources, which will rapidly become necessary.
There is another great tip for upgrading the watering can — watch the news and wait for it to say there will be rain tomorrow. Water your crops that day, then take the watering can to the blacksmith. The next day when it's being worked on, the rain will water your crops without them wilting.
4 Unlock The Horse And Mine Cart
Player speed isn't exactly brisk in Stardew. Because of that, it's worth investing in a horse. A horse stable can be purchased from Robin for 100 hardwood, five iron bars, and 10,000 gold. The horse is adorable, but more importantly it's much faster than you, and it will always be at it's stable at the start of the day if you leave them behind. Pathways on your farm also increase movement speed, and this applies to the horse as well.
The mine cart is another amazing quality-of-life improvement. It can be unlocked via the boiler room Bundle in the Community Center for various mining resources. The mine cart will allow you to fast travel around key locations in the valley, such as the bus stop, mines, and the blacksmith.
3 Win At The Stardew Valley Fair
There are many festivals to participate in that yield items or relationship points, but an important one to look forward to is the Stardew Valley Fair in the fall. The fair has a special currency, of which 2,000 will buy you another permanent stamina upgrade. To get enough points, you'll want to win the Grange Display Contest, and participate in games.
The wheel-game is actually weighted to favor green, so you can rack up points by continuously betting on it. This can also help get you the unique scarecrow needed for the Rarecrow event.
2 Get Married
Starting a relationship with another villager will take time, so you'll want to start early. The biggest barrier is that you can only give a villager two gifts per week, and everyone has gifts they like or dislike. This can make some villagers hard to romance, as their favorite gifts aren't exactly easy to come by.
To make things easier, festivals and events can raise affection without gifts, and giving a gift on someone's birthday raises their affection eight times more than usual. Having a spouse will also count towards the ranking system much later on in year three.
1 Acquire Galaxy Weapons
Prismatic shards are a rare and valuable resource. They are a universally loved gift, they can be crafted into prismatic clothing, and they can be traded for rock candy at the Desert Trader. However, there is a much better use for your first prismatic shard.
Take your shard to the desert, and hold it in between the three pillars in the top right of the map. You'll receive the Galaxy Sword, one of the strongest weapons in the game, as well as the option to buy the Galaxy Hammer or Dagger from the Adventuring Guild.