Stardew Valley: 10 Things You Have To Do Your First Year
Stardew Valley is an indie game in which the player controls a character that recently inherited a farm from their late grandfather. The farm is run down and located just outside of a small town called Pelican Town. Throughout the course of the game, the player gets to know the people in Pelican Town as they run the farm and bring it back to its former glory.
The game runs on a seasonal format. Just like in the real world, each year has spring, summer, fall, and winter. Each season is 28 days long and has its own special events, crops that only grow during that season, and other perks and challenges. There's a lot to do in this indie game and the first year is definitely the most important one to nail so that you can have a good time in the subsequent years.
To see ten things you have to do in your first year in Stardew Valley, keep reading!
10 Keep An Eye On The Calendar
There are a number of NPCs that live in Pelican Town. Some of them are eligible for the player to marry while others are just there to befriend. Reaching different relationship milestones with them gives the player special cutscenes with these characters that help the player get to know them. Each character has special items they like, feel neutral about, or dislike, so you should either research your favorite characters or get a mod that will list them in-game.
Outside of Pierre's store, there's a calendar that shows all the special events of the season and the birthdays. You get extra relationship points for giving NPCs a good gift on their birthday, so start your relationship with the townspeople off right by giving them good gifts on their special days!
9 Plan Your Farm
In later years, you'll likely end up building a stable to get a horse to help you get around your farm and Pelican Town faster. When you're first starting to construct different buildings and structures around your farm, do a little planning first to ensure that you like the layout and that your horse will be able to get through all the gaps between the buildings.
If you're really feeling motivated, find a screencap of the full layout of the farm style you chose and map out where you're going to put everything. Find a place for coops and barns, silos, and ponds and make sure that you like the look of the farm. Otherwise, just make sure that everything is spaced well when you place it.
8 Don't Neglect The Merchant
If you choose not to help Joja out by completing the community center instead of joining the big corporation, there are a lot of items needed for the bundles that can be hard to get. Some of them you likely won't have during your first year because they're either not introduced until later in the game or are just plain hard to get so fast.
But, every Friday and Sunday, a traveling merchant parks her storefront in the forest to the south of your farm. Just go left from Marnie's ranch and you'll see the merchant. She sells a variety of different things, some of which are needed for the bundles in the community center.
7 Make Tappers
Tappers can be placed on trees and will give you oak resin, maple syrup, and pine tar. These can be sold, but they're also used to craft a variety of different items and machines in the game.
You're able to craft tappers after you reach Foraging level 3 and they use 40 pieces of wood and 2 copper bars. As soon as you're able to, make sure that you make some tappers and start placing them on the different types of trees. You can either put them on the trees around your farm or on the trees in the forest.
6 Build A Silo
As soon as you've got the means, create a silo. You'll have all kinds of stray grass growing around your farm and although it may be tempting to whip your scythe out and chop it down, resist the urge! Once you've got a silo, using your scythe on that grass will give you hay which is used to feed your animals.
Even if you don't think you'll be ready to get a barn or coop during your first year, you'll still want to place a silo somewhere on your farm so you can collect hay. Otherwise, you're going to be making a lot of trips to Marnie to purchase it.
5 Get Animals
This is likely something you'll be doing later in your first year, but it's something you're going to want to do as soon as possible for a variety of reasons. Many recipes use animal products, they can be sold, and they make great gifts for the NPCs in Pelican Town.
As soon as you've got enough gold and resources, pay a visit to Robin. Talk to her about building a coop or barn and put one on your farm. Even if you can't get animals just yet, having them there will have you ready for when you can get them and they'll start producing animal products.
4 Donate Artifacts
If you see flowers on the ground, get your hoe out and dig them up. When you do, you'll often find interesting artifacts. These can also be found in geodes and when you hover over them, it'll tell you to take it to Gunther to learn more.
Whenever you find them, go to the library and donate them to Pelican Town's museum. They're not worth that much money to sell, so don't worry about the monetary loss. As you donate things, Gunther will reward you!
3 Save For Strawberries
All the crops only grow during certain seasons - until you have a greenhouse. You'll learn pretty quickly that some of them are more valuable than others. Strawberries are definitely on the valuable side!
This crop is available for sale at the Egg Festival on the 13th day of spring. Make sure that you save some money from selling your other crops to be able to buy yourself some strawberry seeds when you go to the Egg Festival because they're worth a lot of money and so are artisan goods made with them. Strawberries can then be put in the seed maker to create even more strawberry seeds!
2 Mine When It Rains
When it rains on your farm, you're basically free to do anything you want. During your first year, you probably won't find that you have a lot of free time otherwise. You'll always be watering plants, talking to NPCs, or chopping wood.
But when it rains, you won't have to water your crops. This means that you'll have a big chunk of free time that you can use to do anything you want. After the mine is available to you, head up there and start making progress in getting to the bottom and gathering resources from its depths.
1 Check The Fish
Fishing is another big part of Stardew Valley. Fish can be used in recipes or sold and some of them are even used in bundles in the community center.
Like crops, there are certain fish that are only available during certain types of weather, certain times of the day, specific bodies of water, or even during specific seasons. Make sure that you check the bundles and see where and when each fish is available so you can catch and donate as many of them in your first year as possible.
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