Challenges for a new save

[Pangaearocks]

There are some threads on this already, but it's been a while since people posted in those I found, so here it goes...

Intend to start a new save with some "house rules" or challenges. Not too harsh, I think, but some changes to force my early game to be different. Like no farming, or very limited farming. No farming will make Community center impossible after all, I don't want to go the soulless Joja route. We have real life for that... Maybe planting those 15 parsnips can be okay, but not buying anything else, and then spend my early days fishing, foraging and eventually mining.

Would also like to pick different professions. So far my go-tos have been Pirate (fishing) and Defender (combat) and ofc Artisan (farming). Perhaps I could go into mass fruit trees eventually, so artisan could come in handy that way, but with more focus on fishing, I'd like to try out the skills that boost fish value (it doesn't combine to 75%, does it?), and for once remove the crutch of having extra HP. I don't much like the bother of having a lot of animals on the farm, it's a lot of work (almost) every day and quickly feels like a chore. So maybe go even harder into fish ponds instead? Have always gone for Prospector (mining) for more coal, it's so convenient, and I usually don't sell bars anyway (usually needed for various crafting), but maybe should try out the Blacksmith route anyway :-/ Botanist is so useful for inventory space purposes, so don't think I can bare to ditch that one. The others aren't so hot anyway.

To go with the theme of more mining and less farming, maybe ditch out on marriage too (I love Leah!) and try to cosy up to our underground friend.

Trying to gather my thoughts, maybe something like this?

• Very limited farming, alternatively until getting to Ginger Island (last time there were 500+ starfruits sat in the ground for 2+ seasons because I couldn't bother to replant them all! )
• Only fishing, foraging and mining in the early game (year 1?)
• CC may be impossible unless I allow some farming for bundle purposes
• Eventually fill the farm with fish ponds and fruit trees - maybe even put a lot of Ginger island fruit trees there?
  • Speaking of, no farming on Ginger Island either, but lots of fruit trees? Hmm...
• Possibly get Krobus as room-mate and ditch all the women (and guys for that matter)
• Pick different professions than usual. In my case: avoid Pirate, Prospector and Defender
• Perhaps eventually go with a barn full of ostriches and a coop full of blue chickens or something (is the latter even possible? never gotten one of those, only seen the heart event)
• Try to use a hammer for combat instead of the trusty sword?
• Still call my Roach

Hopefully this can make the game more relaxing and the end-game less like a chore, though it can come at the price of being more boring earlier due to less variance in stuff to do.

What interesting challenge ideas do you have, or how do you prefer to play saves like this, with self-restricting rules?

 

[nicodeux]

• Perhaps eventually go with a barn full of ostriches and a coop full of blue chickens or something (is the latter even possible? never gotten one of those, only seen the heart event)

Yes it is, once you've seen the heart event.

It is even quite easy to do: go to Marnie's Ranch and ask to buy a new chicken. You will be prompted to indicate in which coop you want to place your new Brown/White/Blue Chicken. If the colour is not blue, exit the menu and try back until you get the blue colour. You have 25% chance of picking the blue colour.
Rince and repeat until you coop is filled of blue chicks that would soon become blue chickens.

Aside from having seen the related Shane heart event, the main difficulty is to find Marnie in her ranch when you come to buy the chickens from her.

 

[Pangaearocks]

Haha, good point about finding Marnie

Have started a new save, and loving it so far! No farming of any kind. Sold the starting parsnips. Cleaned up some of the farm, got Foraging 1 on the first day, and have now spent my days fishing. Sadly messed up by buying trout soup and not looking at his options, so missed being able to buy the better rod on Spring 2. But at Spring 4, Fishing 5 has been reached, and it's really quite fun. Those starting levels with the bar super tiny makes it hard to get perfect catches, but it's doable. And with the few treasure chests you can find, those give very nice XP too.

I plotted out some stuff quickly in the planner, and think I'll be set for no farming and no coops or barns, but loads of fish ponds and eventually some fruit trees. Went for the Riverlands farm, which has much less room, so no farming shouldn't be so restrictive. If it becomes too one-sided, I can always look into getting animals later. Money won't be good with no farming, but we'll see how it goes. And will need luck with the pig lady to get anywhere with the CC.

Edit: But the big issue with no farming of any kind, is that there are no skills either, and therefore none of the associated recipes. May have to compromise on something. Hmm. Grr.

 

[Benhimself]

A few of the casual challenges I've semirecently done on new saves:

The Blackjack run: Try to get all possible 21 points on Grandpa's Evaluation by the dawn of your third year.
The Pool Party run: Get the (good) all-bachelors-at-ten-points cut scene, without checking the wiki for either liked gifts or schedules.
The Help or Die run: Check town for a help wanted quest every day, delete the farm if you fail to do one (easy mode is giving yourself a pass if they ask for a crop that you couldn't possibly have grown yet, or a rainy-day-only fish on a pair of days where it doesn't rain and it hasn't rained yet that season, etc). Likewise for Special Orders once they open up.
The Traveling Muse: Start with a random appearance. By the end of spring, decorate your house in line with that appearance. On Spring 28, visit the traveling cart, buy whatever furniture or decoration she's selling, and you have the next season to upgrade your house and decorate the new room according to THAT as your theme. Repeat each season. Hard mode: No Catalogue or Furniture Catalogue. Bonus Challenge: Visit the traveling trader every day of the night market, and design a room with all three decorations she sells that festival.

 

[PerfectionWhaleFarm]

No farm until Ginger Island sounds interesting!

I have not tried Hammer like ever, but that could be interesting too. I've seen people main the hammer but it's just too slow and inflexible for me...

Maybe Luremaster for a mixed fishing + crab pot run?
Brute with Hammer sounds scary too.

What about a Stardrop-less or minimal stardrop run?

I think Benhimself's suggestion of Help or Die sounds interesting too. Sounds tough though - I'm like a no help to the town and only talk to them if needed kinda player D:

 

[Skeeziks]

Still call my Roach

Geralt would approve! Lol! I don’t have a horse in Stardew, but I did name my horse in My Time at Portia Roach!

 

[nicodeux]

The Help or Die run: Check town for a help wanted quest every day, delete the farm if you fail to do one...

I think that the Help Wanted board is updated every two days.

 

[Pangaearocks]

Been following "Help or Die" so far, doing everything, but won't quit the game if I fail one of them. For example, on day 4, before the Mines were open, Clint asked for 15 copper ores. Did manage that on the final day, and found him in the bar, but that was just lucky. Two catfish without rain? No dice. But I did go into the mines to kill 6 green slimes despite Clint having the pickaxe. Just needed to use the elevators a bit and only go for slimes that weren't obstructed by rocks.

Been a lot of fun so far, but then I do love fishing, and it's actually a big money maker early on. XP goes up fast too. It's Spring 12 only, but I'm a hair from Fishing 9.

The big challenge with a "no farming" save like this, however, are all the recipes you miss out on. Wanted to get into fruit trees and honey, and processing those, but with 0 XP in farming, we also miss out on some crucial recipes:
-fertiliser, sprinklers, bee houses, preserve jars, kegs, cheese press, loom, mayonnaise, seed maker.
Some of those won't be an issue, but it would have been nice to get access to bee houses and kegs. Suppose I can allow myself to start farming once reaching Ginger Island - as a compromise :-/

 

[Elenna101]

I think that the Help Wanted board is updated every two days.

It's technically updated every day, but because of how the RNG in this game is calculated, most of the time it only produces a quest every other day.
More details in this video by BlaDe, the billboard-specific stuff starts at 3:50.

 

[nicodeux]

Thank you for this explanation and the link. I was genuily thinking that there was a two-days periodicity which would have make sense since these quests last two days.

 

[Pangaearocks]

Try to use a hammer for combat instead of the trusty sword?

Tried to upgrade from the 4-8 damage Steel Smallsword from level 20 in the mines to a Wood Mallet that dropped from a random enemy (I think?). But it proved to be very difficult to use. Despite luckily fishing up an Iridium Band and finding an Emerald ring somewhere, the mallet was still painfully slow to use. And I kinda mean that literally, because enemies would just waltze straight through and damage me over and over again. I've no idea how people are able to use these things effectively...

Once I was able to struggle down to level 90 and got the Obsidian Edge, I felt there was little option but to start using it. Now combat is much easier again, because I can actually kill stuff without getting eaten to shreds first.

Other than that, this game has been fun, and obviously very different. Basically I can't make any money apart from Fishing. Two straight days with rain and getting 20+ catfish was a godsend!

Must also say it feels very strange to not buy rare seeds from the traveling cart, and sell all the seeds we get given for free. 2-3 coffee beans have also dropped from enemies in the mine, and it certainly feels strange to sell for 15g a pop, when I know they cost 2500g from the pig lady. But that is my life now, and it's a very different kind of challenge. 0 XP in farming, but think I'll allow to start farming once I get to Ginger Island (it's possible, I think?), if for nothing else than to complete the CC.

 

[Pangaearocks]

This save is mid-way through winter year 1. It has been fun, but also challenging, and money has been tight throughout. Most skills are at 10 now (missing foraging), but 0 XP in farming.

Briefly:

• No farming allowed
• No animals allowed (except cat and horse)
• No barns or coops
• No buying seeds allowed, nor planting wild seeds or free seeds from bundles
• Not bought anything from Pierre, except one rice for the Maki roll, and the backpack upgrades
  • Have had to sell to him sometimes, because some (free bundle) seeds aren't allowed in the shipping bin
• Buying from the traveling cart is allowed, but not seeds
• Foraging, fishing and mining is allowed, so most money has come from fishing
• Have built some fish ponds, but can't process the roe, so income is marginal at best, but they look nice :)
• Idea was to allow buying fruit trees, but haven't bought nor planted anyone yet (got a free orange tree from a treasure room)
• Had forgotten about this, but we can get a free keg from a bundle, so I'm able to make the odd juice or wine

Lately I have started to build crystalariums, in an attempt to increase income, so I can maybe afford the second house upgrade, and bulk buy a lot of stone from Robin before the year is up. That seems to be the main bottleneck, since I want to build some 20 fish ponds and will need more crystalariums. Also feel the strong pinch of gold, so am spending time hacking up those nodes in the Skull Cavern. Have around 30 crystalariums now, with about half producing jade and the other half diamonds. Have started to sell some diamonds just to make a bit of dosh, as painful as that was to the hoarder :-|

For better or worse, Willy is a hair short of 10 , which is probably what opens up Ginger Island. Previously said farming there would be allowed, but I'm not sure now... Do I really want to fill out that whole place with star fruit or whatever? One option is to completely ban farming, which means the Community Centre and Greenhouse can never be completed, nor all the golden walnuts found (frog guy at least, maybe more?). Another option is to allow planting seeds there that I find naturally, such as pineapple seeds and taro roots. What would people suggest?

Small side goal has been to buy Magic rock candy if I have the spare prismatic shards. Have three for now. Not been to the Cavern nearly enough, especially deep, as I just keep going naturally with almost no stairs or bombs. It's a fun challenge, although the top 50 floors are kinda crap. No easy access to good food either, and healing with plain blackberries take forever.

As per usual, the farm looks like crap in year 1, and fish ponds were merely placed where it was possible. Some random trees are tapped, but nothing systematic, and with 0 farming XP, can't build either kegs nor bee houses.

Sadly the super cucumbers want pickle. Thought I bought it from the traveling lady, but it was jelly...

Don't know what income I've usually had after year 1, but so far have made 440,000g in this save, and have managed to accumulate a little over 100,000g now. Am thinking a good bit should be spent on stone before the 500% price hike...

Will gladly take suggestions and advice

 

[Elenna101]

Ginger Island is unlocked when you finish either the community center or Joja, so if you want to go there under these restrictions you have to do Joja.

 

[Pangaearocks]

Ginger Island is unlocked when you finish either the community center or Joja, so if you want to go there under these restrictions you have to do Joja.

Aaah okay. Then it is unlikely to even be an option, unless I start farming. Because I've been doing the regular bundles, and don't want to go down the path of eeeeeeeeeevil.

Shame about the quality crops, because otherwise it could actually be done (I think..), given enough time. Have never tried remixed bundles, but would it be possible if that option had been chosen, or are there quality crops there too, or something similarly impossible without farming?

 

[Elenna101]

Aaah okay. Then it is unlikely to even be an option, unless I start farming. Because I've been doing the regular bundles, and don't want to go down the path of eeeeeeeeeevil.

Shame about the quality crops, because otherwise it could actually be done (I think..), given enough time. Have never tried remixed bundles, but would it be possible if that option had been chosen, or are there quality crops there too, or something similarly impossible without farming?

Yes, it's still impossible with remixed. The quality crops bundle has a chance of being replaced with the rare crops bundle, but that requires either a sweet gem berry or an ancient fruit, neither which is possible without farming.

(Random trivia: This is also the only thing preventing the CC from being completable without getting any xp in any skill at all.)

 

[Pangaearocks]

Thanks for the info. Shame about that. Would have been nice if we got some farming XP from fruit trees, but we get nothing I think. That way it could have been possible to complete the CC without traditional farming at least (or animals). That said, getting 10 wheat from the traveling cart would be a mighty tall order anyway, and 10 beats for the Qi quest.

However, since this save has no farming so far, I'll keep going with that mantra. Will have to rely on unprocessed roe and (eventually) tree fruits. Sad about no Ginger Island, because that was a fun change of pace, but now I know that it is 100% impossible without farming, unless you go down the Joja route. Perhaps in the next attempt, I can allow planting those random seeds we get from weeds and 'worms'. Or even wild seeds..?