Fun activities or goals late game

[Pangaearocks]

I'm into year 5 and have bought everything I can really, at least all the expensive stuff. This was the first save on 1.5 and feels like I've now experienced most of it, including a good portion of Qi quests. Haven't achieved Perfection yet, so that's the goal. Miss 13 walnuts, one legendary fish, and a bunch of crafting. However, I'm feeling a little jaded with the game now, like there isn't really much purpose to what I'm doing. Could try going to the Skull Cavern more, as that has been fun, although I don't need any of the resources there (except another auto-petter would be nice).

What are some of the things you like to do in the end game? Hopefully this thread can lead to inspirations for both myself and others.

 

[Hill Myna]

You might like this thread (long read).

TBH I don't think many people find late game in Stardew as fun as early game (feel free to disagree, of course!).

So if I where you, I'd finish the goals you already have set yourself, but then I'd suggest you start a new save! You can pick a different map, marry someone different, set some limitations for yourself. :)

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But, obviously, there's no pressure to keep playing Stardew if you don't have the inspiration to! I honestly haven't really played for about 6 months, I've moved onto other games.

Stardew will forever be on the list of things I'd bring to a desert island; the hundreds of hours I've played so far have all been 100% awesome. :D

But for me, gaming is primarily about having a common topic with other people. For almost two years, that was the case with Stardew (the highlight being when 1.5 came out and I played on a Beach Farm with my Mum, all the way through to Perfection).

If/when the next content update comes out, or if the mood strikes for whatever reason, that'll almost certainly get me back into the game, but for now, I'm just happy for Stardew to be a language that I share with all you lovely people here on the Forums!

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I'm sure you'll get some fantastic suggestions below, but I just wanted to give you another take (sorry if I got a little sidetracked ).

 

[Pangaearocks]

You might like this thread (long read).

TBH I don't think many people find late game in Stardew as fun as early game (feel free to disagree, of course!).

So if I where you, I'd finish the goals you already have set yourself, but then I'd suggest you start a new save! You can pick a different map, marry someone different, set some limitations for yourself. :)

Thanks for the link. I read it and it started off really well, but then kinda veered into min-max territory :-/ In year 2 I'm looking at getting some quality sprinklers, not having an army of kegs and closing in on Perfection

Ultimately you are probably correct about starting a new save. The early game is the most exciting and challenging, so with this thread I was looking for ways to get the end game more fun I suppose. And being so close to Perfection, I'd like to try for that before throwing in the towel. For that, though, I must be able to complete that damn singing stone thingy, which seems impossible for my puny brain :(

Interior design could be one way, as I've done nothing of that so far, because I'm kinda crap at stuff like that. Clothes likewise. I'm using the starting gear plus a hat. Going to the Skull Cavern is fun, but expensive in terms of resources, especially stairs if trying to go down 200+ floors right away. Must admit I hoped there would be more Qi quests when those first started cropping up. Have done the Qi beans twice (and failed once), and Qi grange twice, plus a host of others. The two Saloon games are impossible, so those are out. Especially the Karts. Tried it once or twice in the past, and thoroughly sucked at it. 50,000 points? :faints:

I'm grateful there is much more to do in the late game after the 1.5 patch, but it does kinda flow by quickly after all.

At last, I'm into year 5 now and have ~220 hours in that save alone. Bit nuts. But I do play every day to 11:30PM at least, so the RL hours fly by I suppose.

 

[PerfectionWhaleFarm]

I had like 1400 hours on my first save on Year 22 I think, and I feel you on some of these sentiments, but that's okay and part of gaming (after 1400 hours, I feel it's normal to feel jaded..) :)

Currently, I am trying to go for a true "Perfection" farm by collecting all possible items of all grades on a second save, so that's revitalized my interest again.
Some of the goals admittedly are not fun and very mundane (going on for about 10 hours on Living Hat right now restarting the day over and over again to farm the weeds before Fall is over...).

- Slime breeding (try to breed all different sorts of colors! It's actually surprisingly fun and relaxing, all you do is just watch them, there are guides to how to breed slimes outdoors as well)
- Catch legendary fish, and other hard to come by fish in different qualities
- Home / farm decoration (as suggested in previous post; not everyone's cup of tea but it is a fun alternative on a busy streak of killing monsters in Skull Cavern)
- Doing a "Nuzlocke" kinda challenge in a new save in Stardew style - with predefined rules and conditions to end runs. Some conditions could be to never die, never farm, etc.
- Doing a "Pacifist" kinda run - is that even possible?
- Are you on PC? Maybe modding could be something interesting to look into. There are some interesting mods for sure!
- Speed runs? Most optimized-day runs?
- Multiplayer farm with some people on this forum maybe? I've seen redditors seek out people just to play together online

Admittedly a lot of these things go into minmax territory, but that's usually how I enjoy the game. Maybe some non-minmax activities could be to decorate the town a la Animal Crossing style all over.

 

[Pangaearocks]

(going on for about 10 hours on Living Hat right now restarting the day over and over again to farm the weeds before Fall is over...).

Wow!! I have this one, and almost thrashed it. Got it early on the island somewhere. Looked it up on the wiki now and had no idea it was so super-rare.

1400 hours in one save? Respect :-o

 

[PerfectionWhaleFarm]

400 hours of it was just trying to get the Work Boots xD (It never worked out on that save)
I spent a good week irl trying to get the Living Hat - (Nice on your luck, yeah it's super rare! I am not that lucky on the second save either so I'm 'fraid I just gotta grind it out)
Spent like a month breeding slimes

With these three shenanigans out of the way, I think I played probably around 700 hours doing other stuff (mostly fishing and going to Skull Cavern and petting each and every one of my animals everyday and watch the duckies swim ).

 

[Elenna101]

Ultimately you are probably correct about starting a new save. The early game is the most exciting and challenging, so with this thread I was looking for ways to get the end game more fun I suppose. And being so close to Perfection, I'd like to try for that before throwing in the towel. For that, though, I must be able to complete that damn singing stone thingy, which seems impossible for my puny brain :(

Interior design could be one way, as I've done nothing of that so far, because I'm kinda crap at stuff like that. Clothes likewise. I'm using the starting gear plus a hat. Going to the Skull Cavern is fun, but expensive in terms of resources, especially stairs if trying to go down 200+ floors right away. Must admit I hoped there would be more Qi quests when those first started cropping up. Have done the Qi beans twice (and failed once), and Qi grange twice, plus a host of others. The two Saloon games are impossible, so those are out. Especially the Karts. Tried it once or twice in the past, and thoroughly sucked at it. 50,000 points? :faints:

The singing stone thing apparently becomes easier the more times you fail it. Or you can just record it on your phone and use that.

FWIW I think everyone sucks at Junimo Kart the first time they try it. I spent literal months making myself try it for at least 10-15 min every time I booted up Stardew (because that was as long as I could go without being frustrated) until I finally beat it. (Progress mode is probably better to practice on because you have extra lives and can try the same jump a few times). But obviously no reason to grind that out if you're not interested.

 

[PoppyForPenny]

Some ideas:
Do less not more. Get rid of everything that isn't your favorite. So maybe you only have dinosaurs and a pig, two iridium sprinklers worth of crops, or only recyclers & crabpots.
Fill all the places. Kegs, jars, crystalariums, or honey in the quarry, sewer, railyard, spring onion island, bus tunnel. If you check villager pathing maps you could fill even more places.
Decorate. Get both catalogs and fix up your house!
Collect spouses. Some spouses give unique items or change things around town. Do you have the boombox? The shrine in the backwoods?
Hoard. Collect, store, and organize all the things. Maybe make a shed and duplicate the entire museum collection. Get the golden pumpkin, pearls, all the crane game prizes, all the night market paintings.
Skull cavern- get crystalariums pumping out jade for stairs.

 

[Pangaearocks]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm sure there are many things that can be done. However, maybe I should consider this save "done"?

Lovely cutscene. Never seen that before

Looking good, children:

(The horse has a blue cowboy hat too)


Could definitely keep going, but with Perfection in the bag, I guess there isn't all that much else to play for. Tore down all the tapper trees and started to put kegs in the quarry, but just seems like more work for money I don't need.

 

[Hill Myna]

Congrats on Perfection! Did you like the song?