Stardew Valley: A Spiritual 'Successor' to Harvest Moon

Don't worry about losing the sword. You get way better ones really quickly. Just buy from Adventurer's shop.

This game is a nightmare for anyone weak against siren song that is "just one more in-game day". I was up until 2am last night, and only turned it off because I had to work this morning.

I am in day 3 or 4 of Fall, year 2.

I finally unlocked the greenhouse, and have upgraded both my barn and coop to have autofeeders and allow rabbits (none yet), pigs (1!), and sheep(1!). The pomegranate, apple, peach, and orange trees have come in (I planted 1 of each last winter), and was careful to make sure the local foliage did not overrun them.

Hot tip: at the beginning of summer, splurge on creating lightning rods, if you can take the hit. Those battery packs you get from storms come in super handy. I ended up with more irridium sprinklers than I can handle, and it has been wonderful. I still have a couple dozen battery packs, too.

I did not know that you need to take special action to push past 8 hearts with a villager. That does make getting other people to like you a little easier, as I got maybe 6 or 7 to that level, and wondered why it would not go higher.

Right now, I'm juggling cutting up stumps for hardwood to get that next house upgrade. Probably headed back to the desert cave to get more iridium in the future. Using the greenhouse to grow some hops is going to pay off wonderfully for my Pale Ale desires, as well as the strawberries and other 'continues to grow' stuff I planted. Well, all of that, as well as romancing Leah.

I think the only part I've not enjoyed is having to actually purchase hay for my animals. I would really like to be able to grow that myself, instead of spending 50g apiece. That costs me 5k per 100, and 12k to fill a silo. I have 2 silos, so it isn't exactly cheap. I guess part of my plans for Spring in Year 3 is figuring out the best way to use the grass starter kit, and seeing how that grows, and what it nets for me.

As an aside, while I enjoy the music, I kind of wanted to mix it up a bit, so this spotify playlist has been pretty delightful to have on in the background.

Overall, I'm 70 hours in, and excited to dive back in later this week, when I actually have time.

trueheart78 wrote:

I think the only part I've not enjoyed is having to actually purchase hay for my animals. I would really like to be able to grow that myself, instead of spending 50g apiece. That costs me 5k per 100, and 12k to fill a silo. I have 2 silos, so it isn't exactly cheap. I guess part of my plans for Spring in Year 3 is figuring out the best way to use the grass starter kit, and seeing how that grows, and what it nets for me.

Spoiler:

Get a silo and chop grass to make hay. Sounds like you might need more than one silo but it also sounds like you can afford it!

I currently have four silos. After winter was over, I only had a small amount of grass in my animal pen, and it was spreading too slowly, so I went and bought something like 50 grass starters and spread them all over the pen area. The animals have been out every day since then and it's keeping up with their eating habits and looks like it should last until winter comes again. I've been cutting patches of grass in the other areas of my farm to fill up the silos again, but if you do that, you don't want to cut all of the grass. Just cut a few holes in it so that it keeps spreading from the remaining grass. I have never had to purchase hay. *knocks on hardwood*

Got the 1 million gold achievement today! And that's without having huge keg/beehive/preserve jar farms.

bekkilyn wrote:

Got the 1 million gold achievement today! And that's without having huge keg/beehive/preserve jar farms. :)

Spoiler:

make sure to revisit with Grandpa to get a re-review. you get points for 1m!

_Free_ wrote:
bekkilyn wrote:

Got the 1 million gold achievement today! And that's without having huge keg/beehive/preserve jar farms. :)

Spoiler:

make sure to revisit with Grandpa to get a re-review. you get points for 1m!

Spoiler:

I created a ritual where I summon Grandpa at the end of every winter. I should have that pomegranate by then too!

My SO is away at the moment so I've spent a lot of time with this over the past couple days. I'm up to 38 hours now. Spent the winter getting the farm arranged how I wanted it to and reaching the bottom of the mines, and I'm now almost 2 weeks into the second year. I'm even learning to love the fishing - even if I think it's a little unfair that you lose a bait even if you haul a piece of trash out of the water. Oh well. This is the only game I've played that was released in 2016 but I am struggling to imagine anything else presenting itself as a clearer candidate for GotY.

trueheart78 wrote:

This game is a nightmare for anyone weak against siren song that is "just one more in-game day". I was up until 2am last night, and only turned it off because I had to work this morning.

Ayep, a big part of it is that you can't save until the start of the next day. The game has so little time pressure in it I don't think anyone would savescum much, but there were definitely points where I misclicked badly or forgot to do something very important that made me restart. A save anywhere feature would make it a lot easier to put down and pick up. That said we're still waiting for a quit to menu button.

It is now finally the first day of fall again and thanks to the wagon vendor not having a pomegranate for the nearly entire *year* I've been religiously checking, I'll be able to pluck one from a tree!

My goat immaculately conceived during the latter days of spring as well.

ConcernedApe is working on a new patch.

https://www.reddit.com/r/StardewVall...

Current changelog:

v1.07 changelog:
in-law dialogue... when you marry someone, their parents/relatives dialogues will change slightly to account for the change.
fruit trees can't be destroyed by lightning
fruit trees produce higher quality fruit as they age. (once per year, up to gold star)
fruit tree harvesting now involves shaking the tree to drop the fruit.
fixed grammar (e.g. "Eat a egg?") on eating dialogue.
hardware mouse cursor option
fixed sunflower seed price at joja.
NPC's at 10 hearts friendship will no longer decay
restored lost sprinkler effects
potential weed greenhouse bug fix
potential bug fix for an audio engine path problem that prevented the game from starting
Game now keeps a backup save file for your character (previous day)
Added another digit to the shipping menu money counters.
Minor changes/fixes to dialogue.

update at 6:16pm PST March 28th
Poppy properly consumed in poppyseed muffin recipe
Can no longer "use" trap bobbers (click to make them disappear with strange sound)
Spouse stands next to you at the Dance of the Moonlight Jellies
Tools left in chests within farm buildings won't count as "missing"
dying in mines is less harsh: money lost caps at 5000g, rate of item loss reduced slightly, can't lose rings or a certain very rare weapon.

Picked this game up for my kids last week because it looked cute and interesting. Had a boring weekend so I bought it for myself, too, and holy crap I can't put it down. There's a surprising amount of depth in here!

Bought this over the weekend. I am not sure whether/how much I like it. I am sure that I cannot put it down. I need to take notes or something, I get in such a flow state in this game of working towards one objective or another, but if something distracts me and breaks my trance, I'm left wondering what my goal was in the first place. I'm mid-way through the spring and just had the big dance party thing and no one would dance with me True to life, I have neglected a lot of social aspects of the world in favor of building stuff and growing things.

It wasn't until my 3rd year that someone would agree to dance with me.

Finally a pomegranate! (No thanks to the lady in the wagon carrying everything BUT....)

mrlogical wrote:

Bought this over the weekend. I am not sure whether/how much I like it. I am sure that I cannot put it down. I need to take notes or something, I get in such a flow state in this game of working towards one objective or another, but if something distracts me and breaks my trance, I'm left wondering what my goal was in the first place. I'm mid-way through the spring and just had the big dance party thing and no one would dance with me True to life, I have neglected a lot of social aspects of the world in favor of building stuff and growing things.

I know what you mean. You might try some of the spreadsheets available on the /stardewvalley Reddit, there are a few that are essentially checklists. It wouldn't help with other goals you'd made for yourself but it might help with tracking sets of things you're collecting and whatnot.

bekkilyn wrote:

ConcernedApe is working on a new patch.

https://www.reddit.com/r/StardewVall...

Lots of nice fixes there. AFAIK it's still not possible to get more than one bachelor(ette) to 10 stars because they cap at 8 stars unless you start dating. But technically you could 10star everyone if you became some kind of manwhore Persona 3 style and date everyone at once.

Thanks for those suggestions, danopian, I looked at a few of the items linked to on the reddit, and a couple of other general tips stuff for some guidance. I just had a frustrating evening of play, in which I realized I needed to grow more crops, and wanted to make sure I grew certain spring crops before the end of the spring. I'd had green beans available for ages, but the item text says it grows on a trellis, so I was waiting until I found how to build a trellis. I don't know why it only occurred to me last night to try just growing them on soil like everything else, and sure enough a trellis just appears there. Anyway, it was frustrating because, after putting a little more thought and care into things, I had a much larger and more diversified garden going, and I had a good plan to make sure I kept at least a few of each type of spring plant. And then suddenly it was summer and all of those crops were dead. I'd had no idea when the changeover was supposed to take place, so that was a frustrating surprise.

I'm tempted to just start a new game now that I understand how some of the mechanics work a bit better, but I am going to try to just power through the save that I'm on. I do not want this to turn into an experience where I have 5 guides open and I'm just following a step-by-step list of the optimally efficient things to do every day. I really like reading general tips about priorities and things to watch out for and explanations for things that might be unreasonably opaque, but I want to try to avoid becoming determined to do everything in the "best" way. I have to say though, despite my frustrations and the time suck-iness of this game, I am dying to get to the weekend when I can play til 2AM and build the megafarm of my dreams. This game's hooks are in me.

mrlogical wrote:

I'm tempted to just start a new game now that I understand how some of the mechanics work a bit better, but I am going to try to just power through the save that I'm on. I do not want this to turn into an experience where I have 5 guides open and I'm just following a step-by-step list of the optimally efficient things to do every day. I really like reading general tips about priorities and things to watch out for and explanations for things that might be unreasonably opaque, but I want to try to avoid becoming determined to do everything in the "best" way. I have to say though, despite my frustrations and the time suck-iness of this game, I am dying to get to the weekend when I can play til 2AM and build the megafarm of my dreams. This game's hooks are in me.

One thing that's really nice is that there is no time limit, so if you mess up something one season, you can just try it again when that season comes back around. If you're not one of those people who feel obligated to do everything perfectly as fast as possible, then I'd say not to worry too much and just enjoy the game as it comes. A lot of times, the weird screw-ups and surprises are the best part.

I think the only guide I've used is to find out watering can and scarecrow distances, and have done my best to avoid practically everything else. It's taken me a lot longer to do various things in the game than many others who are either using the guides or trying to be optimal, but I'm not missing out on anything and still am able to look forward to new and exciting things even though I'm in fall of year 4 of my first character.

A lot of people get taken by surprise by that changeover, but you could see it as something that might happen in real life to a brand new farmer whose only past experience has been Joja corp. Then a couple years from now chatting to Gus and Pam in the tavern, you can all laugh about how much of a mess you were back then, and remember how you lost all those crops?

Hah, yeah, except I think if I were a real farm I would be like "hm it's late May, perhaps it will be summer soon" rather than "surprise, spring is only 30 days and all of your plants are now dead!" Although I guess given that here in Vermont the temperature was in the 40s late last week, in the 60s this weekend, and then snowing yesterday, so I suppose you're right that surprising weather changes might happen to real farmers too. I look forward to laughing about it with the townsfolk one day if they will ever give me more than a single heart

bekkilyn wrote:

A lot of people get taken by surprise by that changeover, but you could see it as something that might happen in real life to a brand new farmer whose only past experience has been Joja corp. Then a couple years from now chatting to Gus and Pam in the tavern, you can all laugh about how much of a mess you were back then, and remember how you lost all those crops? :)

That is freakin' adorable.

I was 5 seasons in before I realized the watering can is able to target an area. I felt stupid and nearly went back to Joja's...
I also just realized the Wagon with random goods exists. Surely could have been helpful for the bundles.

It surely is a game were it could be interesting to start over one day and use all the stuff you have learned. Should be able dominate everything. Might be the one and only thing it has in common with Dark Souls.

I considered starting over at one point, but I'm playing to have fun, not so much min/max. I've seen some streamers doing the min/max stuff, and it just doesn't keep with the spirit of the game (for me).

I didn't know about the wagon until a season or two in, and I didn't even know I could chop down trees outside of my farm until I tried it once and was surprised. Now I've got a couple syrup taps on trees just outside of my farm because I chopped down the ones I needed at one point and these have been helping me out a bunch.

Some people get the greenhouse year 1. I think I got it mid year 2, and didn't feel the burn because of that. Right now, I've learned what my cash crops are (it's fall and dang those pumpkins sell for bank). The greenhouse for me is where I can make some extra cash, sure, but I can also grow stuff in their offseasons so that my hops, peppers, and such don't run out.

I don't even think I was "good" at fishing until Summer of year 2. Was mainly 4-5 skill until then. It hurt a bit when it came to the community center, but the other areas picked up that slack. Some of the bundle items were sent to me in the mail as gifts from other villagers, some were lucky purchases from the wagon, and the others... I tried not to be too worried about.

Coming up on Winter in year 2 soon, and I'm about ready to cross that million-dollars made mark. I have more crops than I know what to do with, and am still learning stuff. Some systems were fun while they lasted (combat), but I'm glad that those aren't a focal point for me anymore.

Now, I'm trying to unlock more recipes. Those always have requirements tied into other systems, which I find works quite well. I'll need to keep fishing and raising animals and growing crops to make new meals.

The character cutscenes are also pretty enjoyable. I've gotten some that have surprised me, because they decide to throw a minigame or two into the mix.

Then there is the whole 'getting married' part that I'm still working towards, and all the stuff that might happen after that...

I was nearly wiped out by my first season transition. I figured that you just wouldn't be able to plant new seeds, but that the old ones would still come up, so I put a bunch of money into seeds the day before the season flipped, thinking I was sneaking in under the wire.

I started Summer with a hundred and fifty bucks, and a chicken.

The only point where I would consider restarting makes sense is at the end of the first spring if you think you've made a huge mess of things and you clearly didnt get the systems... after that it's just a matter of getting into your groove. It;'s not like you'll move through the days quicker if you restart, you're just likely to have more gold and gold is such a non-issue eventually that it hardly matters.

OK, you guys keep talking about "the wagon".

In Spring of Year 2, I have no idea what you're talking about.

On Fridays and Sundays, if you go down out of your south exit, and then go left, a traveling merchant appears with a random selection of goods.

nvm.

Jonman wrote:

OK, you guys keep talking about "the wagon".

In Spring of Year 2, I have no idea what you're talking about.

The wagon appears south of your farm on Fridays and Sundays. It sells random stuff, sometimes really valuable things! It's great for completing bundles or getting gifts.

Edit: Just posted this the same time as a bunch of other people haha

Huh. That does ring a tiny bell. I think I stumbled into it very early, when the game is throwing a bunch of concepts at you hard and fast, then totally forgot about it, and I rarely head out of the south of the farm. Must've just missed it, or been busy with other things every damn Friday and Sunday.

Thanks for the clarification

Speaking of being busy -I've been so busy whenever I play that I've never taken the time to just follow people around. I don't even know where Penny is half the time, and she's the one I visit every day. Watching other people's streams, I've realized there's a lot of interesting stuff going on around town when I'm not looking - anybody find anything really good and have recommendations for places to be at a certain time?

bekkilyn wrote:

A lot of people get taken by surprise by that changeover, but you could see it as something that might happen in real life to a brand new farmer whose only past experience has been Joja corp. Then a couple years from now chatting to Gus and Pam in the tavern, you can all laugh about how much of a mess you were back then, and remember how you lost all those crops? :)

I love this paragraph so much, bekkilyn

Also,

Malor wrote:

I started Summer with a hundred and fifty bucks, and a chicken.

That sounds terrible, but I love the fact that it isn't game-ending. Like, springing back from that is gonna take some work (foraging, fishing, spelunking), but it won't doom you.

Jonman wrote:

Huh. That does ring a tiny bell. I think I stumbled into it very early, when the game is throwing a bunch of concepts at you hard and fast, then totally forgot about it, and I rarely head out of the south of the farm. Must've just missed it, or been busy with other things every damn Friday and Sunday.

Thanks for the clarification :)

The wagon pulled by the pig wearing sunglasses and a fez? That didn't leave an impression?