Tips and Tricks for Stardew Valley.

6–9 minutes

I had first made this cheat sheet for my sister back when she was wanting to get into Stardew and of course I share it with any of my friends that are first getting into the game. I think it’s super helpful for those that are just starting out; the ones who have never played the game before. Or the ones that might just need some sense of direction as Stardew doesn’t have a tutorial.

Please take this list with a massive grain of salt as I have never completed the game before – my longest farm is in the early days of year 5. My hope is that this will give you a sense of direction and where to focus your energy when first loading into the game.

The game just got updated to 1.6 and figured now would be the perfect time to share these tips with you. I figure there might be a few new players since the update – this post is for you! For those that want to check out the entire list of what the update entails, you can read about that here.

Early On (Year 1-2)

Don’t get rid of the grass on your farm. You can mine all the stone, wood and fiber you’d like, but just leave the grass. Only get rid of grass patches if you absolutely have to. It’s beneficial to your farm animals when you let them outside (they eat the grass and you won’t have to worry about hay during 3/4 seasons).
- *Save your earth crystals, wood, and stone.
Take advantage of the first three seasons (spring, summer and fall). Plant every crop available. After you’ve built a silo, focus on wheat once it comes available as well. Farming wheat with a silo on your farm gives you hay which you’ll need for winter – you can’t farm/plant anything during the winter so stock up while you’re able.
- There’s an enchant that you can use later on called Haymaker which increases the chance of weeds giving you hay.
Make lists of everything you’re working towards to remind yourself what to focus on. Make lists for things you need for certain bundles, materials for buildings, any gifts for the NPCs, etc. The Stardew Valley Wiki is available to you at any given time, however, I prefer to physically write my lists so that I can cross things off that I no longer need and I’m not having to keep track mentally.
Keep all of your foraged goods as it’ll be your easiest source of food, besides fish. However, if you’re choosing the Community Centre route, use these as a last resort as a food source. Use them for the bundles first, then you can eat them up if you must.
Fishing is the easiest way to make loads of money in the early days. Coming from someone who absolutely hates fishing in this game, it does get easier the more you practice and once you upgrade your rod. And upgrade as soon as you’re able to if you hate it as much as I do, trust me, you’ll thank me later.
Take advantage of chests and adopt an organization system. I make a new chest for every category of thing possible and throw them all over my farms. For example, I have a chest strictly for seeds and another strictly for food right outside my house, for easy access.
- Bonus tip: Put a chest in every area of your farm. Throw one near your animals, one in your house, a few outside, one near your preserves jars/kegs, etc.
Try to complete the Community Centre early on. You really benefit from the rewards as it’s easier to get around the map afterwards. You also get more hearts with every townie.
Get animals as early as possible. This one is now easier with the new update as choosing the Meadowlands Farm gives you two chickens from the get-go. You can make cheese with the milk from cows and omelets with the eggs from your chickens. Make loads of cheese presses, and mayo machines, as well.
* This is where you need your earth crystals
Make a shit ton of preserves jars. You can turn almost every crop into jam/jelly. You can then sell said jam/jelly and make a lot of money, very quickly. Bonus points if you a build a pond as you can age the fish roe in a preserves jar and make more money.
- Bonus tip: Put cheap crops (i.e. blueberries) into preserves jars and put the more valuable crops (specifically starfruit and ancient fruit) into the keg as wine typically sells for more if you’re going for max profit.
Strawberries are the most profitable crop in year 1 so plant lots of those and throw them into a keg to earn a lot in your first year.
Once you’ve unlocked the greenhouse, plant all of your reproducing crops in here so that you always have something to harvest – even during winter. Ancient fruit, strawberries, blueberries, corn, beans, pineapple, hops, peppers, tomatoes, cranberries, eggplant, and, grapes are the crops that reproduce. You can also plant your fruit trees around the outskirts of the greenhouse to maximize its capacity.
Sheds are super helpful if you want to further organize your farm. I use them like I use chests – one for each category of thing. One for my animal product production (i.e. mayo, cloth, cheese), one for my preserves jars, one for my kegs, and another for my furnaces.

Later In Game (Year 2+)

Once you have a barn, max out your cows first. I find cheese to be the most beneficial food in the game, as gold quality gives you 225 health, so I tend to make a lot of it. I also carry a lot of gold quality goat cheese too as it gives you the same benefits as gold quality cow cheese.
- I usually sell all my normal and silver quality cheeses, along with any overflow of my gold and iridium quality cheeses. You can age cheese using a Cask, which unlocks once you fully upgrade your house.
Piggybacking off the last tip, cheese is super useful when attempting the Skull Caves. I also like to bring spicy eel as well if I have any laying around, but cheese is usually my go-to because it’s quick and easy.
When the coop is fully upgraded, you can house ducks. They drop duck eggs which you can throw into a mayo machine, for duck mayo, which brings in even more money.
- You can have multiple coops on your farm. I like to separate my chickens and rabbits from my dinosaurs and ducks so I usually build two on my farms.
Don’t donate your first dinosaur egg to Gunther. Throw it into the incubator instead; once they’re mature enough, they’ll give you more eggs. This way you’re able to optimize your profit – you’re able to make dinosaur mayo (sells for 800 gold) AND donate to the museum.
Max out the upgrades available to your house. As mentioned earlier, you unlock both a kitchen, and the casks in the basement from a later upgrade. You can use your crops to make meals that you can choose to bring with you into the mines, or sell them for more gold.

These next few tips pertain to the Skull Caves.

Bring loads of bombs. Once you “kill” a mummy, they aren’t actually dead – they’ll respawn unless you blow them up.
Bombs are also useful for when there’s a ton of monsters and you can’t find a ladder. Use one to blow up an area with a bunch of stone and a ladder should appear.
Mega bombs usually reveal a hole in the floor. I prefer taking these over ladders as they get you deeper into the caves more quickly. I don’t recommend using these in tight areas, or if you’re low in health, as they deal 13-16 damage.
Remember when I told you to save your stones? This is where they become super handy. You can make stairs which you can use in the mine to create “ladders”. I love using these when I’m in a time crunch or I’m too lazy to break the stones around me.
If you’re more focused on reaching level 100, stock up on stairs and food. I’d also suggest bringing bombs as well, but focus your efforts more on stairs.

I’ll be updating this list with anything I find useful as I get further into my saves. This isn’t just a list for you, it’s also a list for me to refer back to as well! If you play Stardew, feel free to leave your favourite/most useful tip(s) in the comments.

I’ll see you in the valley :))

julzy