Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley

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Stardew Valley FAQs
By DEETS and 1 collaborators
Lately, I've been sitting in the Stardew Valley community chat, and I've been hearing a bunch of the same questions. Here's a quick guide to cover those FAQs.
   
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"How do I use _____" FAQs
Q: How do I use crab pots?
A: To use a crab pot, place it in the water (or really on the edge of the water), then add bait after.

Q: How do I use bait with my fishing rod?
A: To use bait with your fishing rod, you must first have a fiberglass rod or better. To attach the bait to your rod, open up your inventory, pick up the bait, then right click on your fishing rod with the bait.

Q: How do I use tree taps?
A: With tree taps, it's set and forget. Generally speaking, it'll take 3-5 days (and it's never a constant number) to get anything out of them, so if you're wanting sap in bulk, place multiple tree taps.
"Where is _____" FAQs
Q: Where are Mayor Lewis's Shorts?
A: Marnie's bedroom. Scandelous.

Q: Where is Robin's Axe?
A: Her axe is in the woods to the south of your farm. Keep heading south until you hit water -- there's only one path near there that goes across the water, take it. The axe will be around there (along with the sewers, and the hat vendor)

Q: Where is Linus's basket?
A: To get to linus's basket, go to the bus (the area directly right of your farm), and go in front of the bus. From here, go left, and you'll enter a new area. His basket will be in the top left.

Q: Where is the mermaid's pendant (required to get married)?
A: On a rainy (snow won't work) day, go to the beach, and cross the plank that requires 300 wood to repair. An NPC standing towards the top right of this area will sell you a mermaid pendent once several conditions are met.
Other FAQs
Q: What are the two check boxes next to the names in the relationships screen?
A: You can only give two gifts to a person per week -- these are there to show how many gifts you've given this week (indicated by a green 'x').

Q: Can I move buildings?
A: Unfortunately, you cannot move buildings; there is an option to demolish them though. Talk to the carpenter about buildings, and in the bottom right, there will be a demolish button.

Q: What are those strange stautes (with a gem embedded in them) for?
A: Eventually, you are able to make warp totems. These are one-time use items, which teleport you to a given location. These statues are the location you are teleported to.

Q: There's a boulder blocking the mines in the north east. How do I get there?
A: On day 5, the path becomes unblocked. Just play the waiting game on this one and do other things until day 5.

Q: I had an earthquake at night. What did it do?
A: The area for the train (to the north, near the cave and Linus's tent) has been opened. It doesn't really do anything significant, but the train drops ores and junk randomly when it passes through.

Q: I had an explosion at night. What did it do?
A: Check your farm for a meteor -- with a gold pick, you can break it and get iridium.

Q: How many floors does the mountain cave have?
A: 120

Q: What does the skull key do?
A: The skull key enables the use of the second arcade machine in the saloon, and also allows access to the desert cave (more on this below).

Q: How do I get to the desert cave?
A: You have to fix the vault in the community center (which fixes the bus). If you don't have the option to fix it yet, try completing a few bundles, and it'll unlock. Afterwards, you have to pay 500 gold to take the bus to the desert, and the cave will be up and to the left.

Q: Where do I get iridium?
A: There's four ways to obtain iridium. You can mine it (rarely) in the desert cave, obtain it as a drop from some of the enemies in the desert cave, obtain it through cracking open omni geodes, or by fixing the crafting room (which opens the bridge near the mountain mines), which unlocks the quarry.

Q: How do I get hardwood?
A: You can get hard wood by upgrading your axe, and chopping the large stumps and dead logs on your farm. Alternately, you can (rarely) get hardwood from breaking boxes/barrels/lootables in either of the mines. To find more stumps to chop for hard wood, go to the secret forest, where they spawn daily (more on how to get there below).

Q: How do I get to the secret forest?
A: To get to the secret forest, go to the forest south of your farm, the go to the north west corner of the map. With a steel or better axe, you can remove the fallen log blocking the way.

Q: What's the latest I can stay out/what happens if I stay out too late?
A: The latest you can stay out varies somewhere between the range of 2:00 AM and 2:30 AM. If you pass this limit, your character passes out, and is brought back home, however, you lose some of your gold.

Q: What happens if I lose all my HP?
A: If you lose all of your HP, you'll be brought to the top of the mines (or the doctor if outside of the mines), lose some gold, items, and some of your progress in the mines (if in the mines).

Q: What happens if I lose all my energy?
A: When you lose all your energy, you gain the exhausted debuff. This debuff prevents you from recovering all your energy by sleeping, but can be removed by the doctor.

Q: How do I get Stardrop Fruits?
A: These fruits (which permanently increase your maximum energy) are easily confused with the starfruits due to the name. You can only obtain these by achieving something major, like marrying someone, getting to floor 100 of the dungeon, giving a sweet gem berry to the statue in the hidden forest, spending 2000 star tokens at the Stardew Valley fair in the fall, or buying one from Krobus in the sewers. I'm almost certain there's more, but those are all that I'm aware of at this time.

Q: Do I need to feed my dog or cat/what does it do?
A: Your dog or cat does not need to be fed (but can be given water, there's a water bowl near the north exit), and ultimately does nothing.

Q: Can you change appearences after starting?
A: You can change your appearance by getting better relations with the wizard. He has a shrine in his basement which allows it.

Q: How do I make copper bars/refined quartz?
A: You'll need a furnace (which you get the recipe from Clint, more on this below), 5 of the ore you want to smelt (or one quartz), and one coal. Plop it in by right clicking, and give it some time.

Q: How do I get a furnace?
A: Clint provides you with the recipe to make furnaces in an event. This event is triggered the day after obtaining any smeltable ore from the mines.

Q: How do I get my stuff back after I die?
A: When you die, the items you've lost are permanently lost. The only way to retrieve these items is to quit without saving (which some may consider cheating), and start the day over again.

Q: How do I get into the sewers?
A: After donating 60 unique items to the museum, you will be given the key to the sewers.

Q: How do I get truffles?
A: After you have fully grown pigs, let them out during the day -- they will randomly dig up truffles.
General Game/Game Features FAQs
Q: Is Multiplayer out yet?
A: Multiplayer isn't out yet, and we haven't been given a timeline on it yet. That said, it is a confirmed feature.

Q: Are there relationships?
A: Simply put, yes. You can marry any of the 10 people available, regardless of the gender you pick.

Q: I found a bug! Where can I submit it?
A: Check the KNOWN ISSUES thread first to see if your issue is there first. It may have a solution or workaround. If it isn't there, click the link provided in that thread to submit your bug.

Q: How long does the game last?
A: Technically, the game lasts as long as you'd like it to (though there's an event that happens on year three that you might want to be finished for). Take things at your own pace, and if you screw up something, keep this in mind (so you know you aren't being forced to restart).
Unanswered Questions
Below are some pretty good questions which I can't currently answer, and seemingly have little/no information to answer them with. If you know the answer to any of these, please comment!

None!
Missing Questions/Ask Your Question
See a question that's missing or needs answering? Feel free to ask it in the comments below! I'll answer it to the best of my ability!
199 Comments
kstormgemini 25 Feb, 2023 @ 1:40pm 
@DEETS hey, no problem. even if it is an older version, it's still useful for stuff like the basics.
that's one of the great things about this game... no matter what version one's on, the core remains the same. nobody has to deal with a huge learning curve every time the devs work on it again. ^_^
DEETS  [author] 25 Feb, 2023 @ 1:24pm 
Ah yeah, I just haven't updated this guide in a while due to life stuff and not playing for a minute or two. I still keep active with the comments though, and I'm glad that even though it's outdated it's still able to help some people out! Thanks for the heads up!
kstormgemini 25 Feb, 2023 @ 1:14pm 
oh and a heads up... we can move buildings now (as well as paint them if they're fully developed) by either going to Robin (the carpenter).
or if you've gotten the wizard on your side, to the "book of summoning" in his tower. you'll have had to complete his main quests first though. once you've gotten his "magic ink" back from his ex (the witch above the train station) he'll have a book opened on a pedestal in the main room of his tower. you can also use this book to build warp pillars on your farm so you don't have to keep paying out to go places. along with some neat little extras if you have the gold and supplies for them. :coolstar2022:
hope this helps. ~:ds_cat::gk_energy::espresso::coffeebreaktime::ds_cookies:
DEETS  [author] 24 Feb, 2023 @ 3:34pm 
It activates after you complete the vault bundles (community center) or the bus repair (joja). The bus takes you to the desert whenever Pam is standing by the ticket machine for it
Mamaw 23 Feb, 2023 @ 10:43am 
How can I get to the desert? How do I get the bus to run?
kstormgemini 25 Dec, 2021 @ 2:43pm 
any plans to add to this now that 1.5 is out?
i'm always on the look-out for quick guides that i can skim during a play-through with out reading a novel. (& still not coming up with the answers.)
currently working on stuff to do with the new Ginger Island. am having a tough time nailing things down with out bouncing out of the game to dig through wiki.
auraneas 26 Jan, 2021 @ 9:23pm 
Wow, that was a quick answer! Thanks a lot (and of course people are looking at it; it's hella useful!):epiwink:
DEETS  [author] 26 Jan, 2021 @ 9:13pm 
@auraneas There's not really a point to it currently. You can get some of the drops from slimes, but honestly it's not really profitable. I'd only say it's worth doing it for fun.

As a side note, wow I'm surprised people are still looking at this! I'll push an update to the guide sometime in February then for this update!
auraneas 26 Jan, 2021 @ 9:05pm 
Why would I want to breed slimes? Slime balls aren't useful for anything except the Adventurer's bundle, are they? Or have I missed some late-game content there?
DEETS  [author] 19 Mar, 2020 @ 5:25pm 
@Spryte sorry for the delayed response! The store in town sells bag upgrades. I can't say if Joja does or not (I've never really played that route), but Pierre's has bag upgrades available on the counter (not through his store itself). They're pretty pricey starting out, so a cheaper route is to go to your farm and craft/place chests to store your less-often-used items.

Welcome to the SV community! It's always nice to see new faces!