Impossible Quests

[24k Ancient Fruit]

Don't you Ticket-hunters just LOVE when Pierre's Bulletin Board gives you these Impossible Quests? (Hint, hint: Version 1.7 suggestion, maybe?) Here are some of mine in my current 1.6 playthrough.

Spring 2, Year 1: Give Sophia a Quartz
Mines do not open until Day 5, and Quartz cannot be found in Geodes or Fishing Treasure Chests. Sophia is from Stardew Expanded, btw

Summer 1, Year 1: Give Penny a Radish
Radish normally takes 6 days to grow. With Speed-Gro, it takes 5 days to grow. With Deluxe Speed-Gro, it would take 4 days. I suppose that one might argue that it was not totally impossible if I had had the "gumption" to go the Joja Route, complete the Greenhouse Community Upgrade, buy any and all Summer Crop Seeds and Plants from the Traveling Merchant whenever possible during the spring and put them into a seed-maker that one could obtain by unlocking the Desert Bus in early Spring Year 1 and getting a very lucky Treasure Chest in Skull Caverns, then grow them all in Flower Pots inside my Farmhouse by Summer 1.

Feel free to post some of your Impossible Quests here.

 

[Draconifors]

Quartz can be found in trash cans at any time, so it's theoretically possible to complete that quest prior to the mines opening.

Yesterday, I kept getting quests from Willy and Demetrius requesting Catfish. It rained on neither day of at least one of the quests.
Catfish, like quartz, can be found in garbage cans, so there would have been a slim chance of getting one. Some of the quests asked for two, which would have been even more unlikely. Unlike with quartz, if a Friday or Sunday was a day of such a quest the traveling cart might have had a Catfish.
(This was spring of year 1 so I couldn't have just used a Rain Totem.)

It really doesn't matter to me whether a quest is (theoretically) possible, since there is likely to be a better quest the next day.

 

[Ereo]

It’s a bit annoying, but it also adds to the realism where they ask the whole town and not just the new farmer to give them something. Maybe Clint has a Quartz lying around or Abigail? Caroline might be growing radishes in her garden. Maybe Elliot knows how to get magic bait and could get the catfish if it wasn’t raining?

Maybe someone is going shopping in Zuzu City where they sell everything?

 

[HaleyRocks]

You must become a hoarder! Collect everything, in large quantities and put the stuff in BIG chests. Then, see what quest requires which item and choose accordingly. I myself use to skip some ticket-related quests, if the item in question is hard/impossible to come by, unless i already have enough supplies of it.

It is generally better to complete 1 big quest weekly (the "Special Orders" board), since this way, you get a ticket immediately. And they are less "impossible" or "random", than the Pierre's Shop board quests, anyway!

 

[Antsy]

I do the small quests primarily to advance friendship with NPCs. Now, since 1.6, also for tickets, since you can get a few more by doing them.

 

[Quirinea]

You must become a hoarder! Collect everything, in large quantities and put the stuff in BIG chests. Then, see what quest requires which item and choose accordingly. I myself use to skip some ticket-related quests, if the item in question is hard/impossible to come by, unless i already have enough supplies of it.

It is generally better to complete 1 big quest weekly (the "Special Orders" board), since this way, you get a ticket immediately. And they are less "impossible" or "random", than the Pierre's Shop board quests, anyway!

I am typically hoarding what is possible (type five of every normal fish, crop, forage item or basic mineral are saved), but that does not help when you get a quest either asking for something you could not have got (not counting huge IRL luck), like veggies during the first days of season the first year), or fishing quests requiring specific weather which does not appear. To say nothing about Willy asking you to fish sardine in summer. He should know better (I don't know if that's fixed in 1.6).
And such quests are a bummer especially in the early game when both the friendship and the coins received are important.
When you have 10 million Gil, everything hoarded and everybody at eight or ten hearts it wont matter much.

 

[HaleyRocks]

I am typically hoarding what is possible (type five of every normal fish, crop, forage item or basic mineral are saved), but that does not help when you get a quest either asking for something you could not have got (not counting huge IRL luck), like veggies during the first days of season the first year), or fishing quests requiring specific weather which does not appear. To say nothing about Willy asking you to fish sardine in summer. He should know better (I don't know if that's fixed in 1.6).
And such quests are a bummer especially in the early game when both the friendship and the coins received are important.
When you have 10 million Gil, everything hoarded and everybody at eight or ten hearts it wont matter much.

True enough. Although, you can follow some basic guidelines, in order to maximize your chances. Like:
1 First day of new season, buy some from all available crops and immidiately plant them. You have a decent chance for them to be ready, once a quest requires some, even during the first days (unless it is a crop which needs many days in a row).

2 For out of season fish or the ones needing rain... You can always use Magic Bait (very late game) and/or Rain Totem (late crafting, or Skull Cavern treasure chest). As a secondary source, there is always the Merchant during Fridays/Sundays in the forest south of your farm, Krobus' shop (sometimes sells fish and rare ones, like Dorado), scavenge through trash-cans with high luck (i once found an OCTOPUS there!!!), etc.

3 Early game, you just prioritize and micromanage your resources. That's the ideal timespan to reject a number of those quests but at the same time, keep an eye open for the easier ones!

Last but not least, during some patch notes, post the big, main, 1.6 release, there was some fixing of what items in which season, those quests demand from the player. I do not know if they were fully fixed, but the most nagged for mispairings, were corrected (certain items won't be asked for, during a time that they are not available to the player).

Cheers!

 

[Cuusardo]

2 For out of season fish or the ones needing rain... You can always use Magic Bait (very late game) and/or Rain Totem (late crafting, or Skull Cavern treasure chest). As a secondary source, there is always the Merchant during Fridays/Sundays in the forest south of your farm, Krobus' shop (sometimes sells fish and rare ones, like Dorado), scavenge through trash-cans with high luck (i once found an OCTOPUS there!!!), etc.

I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when I checked a trash can and found an octopus.

 

[Lew Zealand]

And such quests are a bummer especially in the early game when both the friendship and the coins received are important.

I agree that can be frustrating. OK I've written the next sentence about 5 times now, let's see if I can get brain contents down this time. (Edit: oh look a million sentences, show of hands for who's surprised)

I wonder if there's a mental mixing of multiple types of games which leads someone playing an open-ended game like Stardew to feel like they enjoy parts of game progression less, because the tasks in SDV are not handed out in a more linear and therefore always completable fashion.

I'm playing through Control and Horizon Zero Dawn for the 2nd time each and both are notably linear in the story. HZD has more side quests to keep you entertained if you want to put off the main quest but Control is quite linear. Not a complaint, I love both these games which is why I'm playing them!

But both are far more linear than Stardew. Yes SDV has a Main Quest of sorts (CC, Theater, Ginger Walnuts?, Perfection) but it's pretty weak, much like Minecraft. There are sorta side quests (Marriage/Krobie, Museum collection, Help Wanted/Special Order/Qi Orders board) as well as the typical progression of equipment upgrades and cosmetics acquisition. But all of this is kinda lumped on the player at various times and the player needs to make some choices about which to follow.

Stardew gives you the option to take a Help Wanted board (or Special or Qi boards) side quest which sometimes you either cannot do (crop not planted yet, etc.) or is a worse tradeoff for other options (today is good luck day for Skull Cavern and tomorrow is a Festival Day). There's no penalty for missing any of these but some players are very annoyed by missed opportunity, especially in early game where some of the perks of completing the tasks are valuable, as Quirinea said.

I used to be pretty annoyed by those missed opportunities but I've come to the realization that as a supremely non-linear game, the point is to exist in the game world, not speedrun or even time-optimize it. I do practice effort-optimization but that is for the purpose of more time-squandering. More existence time. So a missed Board order is just more time to enjoy in the game. Yes I still run to get that Quartz which Demetrius wants to rub on his foot or the Green Bean Seb wants to hurl against the mountainside, but sometimes I forget and... no biggie. I'll get it next time.

For me it comes down to: You cannot do everything in an open-ended game. You certainly can in a linear progression game and you can feel like you're constantly on track. But not in Stardew. You will miss completing some things and that's OK. And I think taking the time to be OK with yourself and OK with the style of open-ended gameplay is important.

 

[kuhtopf]

I agree that can be frustrating. OK I've written the next sentence about 5 times now, let's see if I can get brain contents down this time. (Edit: oh look a million sentences, show of hands for who's surprised)

I wonder if there's a mental mixing of multiple types of games which leads someone playing an open-ended game like Stardew to feel like they enjoy parts of game progression less because the tasks in SDV are not handed out in a more linear and therefore always completable fashion.

I'm playing through Control and Horizon Zero Dawn for the 2nd time each and both are notably linear in the story. HZD has more side quests to keep you entertained if you want to put off the main quest but Control is quite linear. Not a complaint, I love both these games which is why I'm playing them!

But both are far more linear than Stardew. Yes SDV has a Main Quest of sorts (CC, Theater, Ginger Walnuts?, Perfection) but it's pretty weak, much like Minecraft. There are sorta side quests (Marriage/Krobie, Museum collection, Help Wanted/Special Order/Qi Orders board) as well as the typical progression of equipment upgrades and cosmetics acquisition. But all of this is kinda lumped on the player at various times and the player needs to make some choices about which to follow.

Stardew gives you the option to take a Help Wanted board (or Special or Qi boards) side quest which sometimes you either cannot do (crop not planted yet, etc.) or is a worse tradeoff for other options (today is good luck day for Skull Cavern and tomorrow is a Festival Day). There's no penalty for missing any of these but some players are very annoyed by missed opportunity, especially in early game where some of the perks of completing the tasks are valuable, as Quirinea said.

I used pretty annoyed by those missed opportunities but I've come to the realization that as a supremely non-linear game, the point is to exist in the game world, not speedrun or even time-optimize it. I do practice effort-optimization but that is for the purpose of more time-squandering. More existence time. So a missed Board order is just more time to enjoy in the game. Yes I still run to get that Quartz which Demetrius wants to rub on his foot or the Green Bean Seb wants to hurl against the mountainside, but sometimes I forget and... no biggie. I'll get it next time.

For me it comes down to: You cannot do everything in an open-ended game. You certainly can in a linear progression game and you can feel like you're constantly on track. But not in Stardew. You will miss completing some things and that's OK. And I think taking the time to be OK with yourself and OK with the style of open-ended gameplay is important.

I wholeheartedly agree. For me, the fact that you can’t always do everything in the absolutely best and most efficient way possible is a great tool to deal with perfectionism. It shows you that the world doesn’t end, even when not everything is perfect.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

Don't you Ticket-hunters just LOVE when Pierre's Bulletin Board gives you these Impossible Quests? (Hint, hint: Version 1.7 suggestion, maybe?) Here are some of mine in my current 1.6 playthrough.

Spring 2, Year 1: Give Sophia a Quartz
Mines do not open until Day 5, and Quartz cannot be found in Geodes or Fishing Treasure Chests. Sophia is from Stardew Expanded, btw

Summer 1, Year 1: Give Penny a Radish
Radish normally takes 6 days to grow. With Speed-Gro, it takes 5 days to grow. With Deluxe Speed-Gro, it would take 4 days. I suppose that one might argue that it was not totally impossible if I had had the "gumption" to go the Joja Route, complete the Greenhouse Community Upgrade, buy any and all Summer Crop Seeds and Plants from the Traveling Merchant whenever possible during the spring and put them into a seed-maker that one could obtain by unlocking the Desert Bus in early Spring Year 1 and getting a very lucky Treasure Chest in Skull Caverns, then grow them all in Flower Pots inside my Farmhouse by Summer 1.

Feel free to post some of your Impossible Quests here.

As said before there are usually some alternate methods of obtaining the things from quests.

These quests aren’t tailored to the way you’re playing either, they’re for all practical purposes random, rewarding a mixed playstyle where to gather lots of random stuff or already have something growing. While it can be a little unfair it makes sense from a game perspective, the random villagers requests shouldn’t all be tailored for one person to do, sometimes they need something that just can’t be gotten by you, I like to think someone else handles it for us.