Beating the game with one item

[Storm628]

If you want to beat Stardew by either completing the community center, jojamart of even perfection, but you are only allowed to sell, eat and gift one item, what item would you choose?

Personally, I think I would go for diamonds. They're available relatively early and setting up crystalariums can be a nice way to get more skull cavern practice in. Not being able to heal via food may be tricky.

 

[Yvi]

Only being able to sell, eat, and gift a single item would be such a challenge. I'd want something I could obtain in spring so I wouldn't have to wait season(s) before being able to sell or eat or gift anything. I think my top choices would be cauliflower or carrots. Both have a decent heal for a veggie and are widely liked as gifts. Carrots have the advantage of being free seeds, so no figuring out how to afford those first seeds. Cauliflower has the advantage of selling for a decent amount.

Common mushrooms would be a completely different option. If someone could make the requisite amount of money without selling much (through quests I think would be the only way?) then there would be a steady supply of mushrooms year round. The heal on those is do-able (I've used them as mine food before). Unfortunately they're not well liked as gifts.

Strawberries could be a nice challenge, as buying those first seeds would be very difficult. And then making enough money from those to buy the seeds to unlock the greenhouse to grow strawberries year-round.

Grapes and corn have the advantage of being get-able two seasons even without the cave or greenhouse, but neither are available until summer so it would be a long boring spring.

 

[Jooshimus]

I think Ancient fruit seems easy enough. This sounds a bit easier than the "never leave the farm" challenge and I saw someone kegging ancient fruit then too.

Diamonds would be a lot of grinding until you can afford afford to fix the bus to unlock iridium, but otherwise that would be decent.

Meadowland farm start + selling eggs. Go joja route. Fill the farm with coops (this sentence does a lot of heavy lifting). Spam sleep for dozens of years to afford all perfection waivers. It's better to do this with sheep but it's impractical to choose wool for this challenge.

 

[Yogurt_The_Cow]

Magic Rock Candyyyy! It's 5000 dollars every time you sell one, Universal love, and major health+energy!

 

[FilthyGorilla]

Magic Rock Candyyyy! It's 5000 dollars every time you sell one, Universal love, and major health+energy!

Very difficult to scale, though. At best you're getting 1 a week most weeks, a couple more at the desert festival, and maybe one or two a year from killing haunted skulls which is immensly boring. Not to mention the sheer amount you'd need for

I'd probably personally do some decently liked crop that's accessible early-ish, as you'll probably want early food while still having something that's mostly liked/loved (some villagers you can just use the luau/movie theater/etc. for).

Diamonds are a good choice too but it's definitely going to be awful diamond farming in the mines early on when you have no way to regenerate energy, just elevator resetting to optimize how many hits you can get in (as diamond nodes are also fairly 'hardy', especially with a basic pickaxe)

 

[Yogurt_The_Cow]

Very difficult to scale, though. At best you're getting 1 a week most weeks, a couple more at the desert festival, and maybe one or two a year from killing haunted skulls which is immensly boring. Not to mention the sheer amount you'd need for

I'd probably personally do some decently liked crop that's accessible early-ish, as you'll probably want early food while still having something that's mostly liked/loved (some villagers you can just use the luau/movie theater/etc. for).

Diamonds are a good choice too but it's definitely going to be awful diamond farming in the mines early on when you have no way to regenerate energy, just elevator resetting to optimize how many hits you can get in (as diamond nodes are also fairly 'hardy', especially with a basic pickaxe)

Ahem it's called [279]

 

[dragonflySky]

That's a tricky one. It would make the Joja route difficult so the Community Center is probably the viable route in such a challenge. I guess roe or jelly doesn't count as one item. So then probably maple syrup and beach farm. Cut down every tree except for maple trees. Harvest seeds and plant them everywhere. Grind early for the copper and wood for the tappers. It's a universal like apart from Maru and there's nothing you need from her. And you can eat it.

Mystic syrup would be a good one too but with a different strategy. Basically grind to get all your skills to 10 quickly to get the mystic seed. Harvest stumps and slimes in Secret Woods for the mahogony seeds and get a big stash of all other seeds to craft the mystic seeds. Take jobs to get enough for the 2 axe upgrades (7000G). It's neutral for everyone but Hayley who dislikes it. And it's great for food.

My third option would be cheese. You'd need to take jobs to get enough to build the barn and get a cow (7500G). But you can trade emeralds for cheese later at the Desert and you can get a jug of milk from Sandy every Saturday. And it's good food. There's only a few villagers that don't like it. Plus you can age it later. So there is a pathway to progress but it would take longer to get there than the maple syrup though.

I am almost tempted to try the maple syrup challenge.

 

[AverageVillager]

Wow, quite frankly i love to use as many items as possible, but if i have to picture myself using just one would be...Cheese i guess?, i just love cheese .

 

[Yvi]

Now I'm reconsidering towards mayo. Not season locked (like most crops before the greenhouse). Decent sell price, even against late game items (I'm saving for the golden clock right now and mayo is second only to wine as my main money maker - barn full of ostriches my beloved). Good heal. Widely liked as a gift. And with Meadowlands giving chickens to start, all I'd need to do is get the mayo machine recipe and I'm in business.

 

[Storm628]

Now I'm reconsidering towards mayo. Not season locked (like most crops before the greenhouse). Decent sell price, even against late game items (I'm saving for the golden clock right now and mayo is second only to wine as my main money maker - barn full of ostriches my beloved). Good heal. Widely liked as a gift. And with Meadowlands giving chickens to start, all I'd need to do is get the mayo machine recipe and I'm in business.

My question was partially inspired by the mayo challenge: https://www.reddit.com/r/StardewValley/comments/1bmx8im/new_challenge_run_mayonnaise_only/
The challenge has it's own quirks, and it does allow for the selling of all kinds of mayo.