TruePurple
Cowpoke
You didn't mention Maru, I suppose no opinion?
Do some spouses help out more than others?
Do some spouses help out more than others?
Best marriage candidate mechanically speaking.
- Thread starter TruePurple
- Start date
imnvs
Local Legend
I did not contradict myself.
If you drink something, drinking another makes the buff from the first disappear. (No drinks give the same stat buff.)
If you eat something granting a buff, and then you eat something else granting a buff, the buff from the first disappears. Whatever time on the first you had is lost completely and totally, no matter what. You now start the timer on the new food's buffs.
A drink and a food, these are two different things. You can have a food buff and a drink buff active at the same time. They use their own timers. If the buffs they grant apply to the same stat, they stack. (Ex: w/ pepper poppers and coffee, you have +2 to speed.)
Bananapaws
Sodbuster
I spent a lot of time in the various mines, so Shane's food gifts now and then are nice to receive. And since he's perfectly happy with peppers he's easy to gift. And when courting him, he's easy to find: he's either in JoJa during the day or at the bar at night. He's a decent choice if your end-goal is just to get married and have kids for Grandpa's evaluation.
imnvs
Local Legend
A Treatise on the Intricacies of Wooing the Women of Stardew Valley
-by Dr IMNVS, Professor of Psychology at Zuzu University
Preface: This is my analysis of the bachelorettes, after some reading and comparing/contrasting, and also using my real life wife's and my experience (between us we've married every one of the ladies or are in progress of wooing), organized by ease to find (because I had to organize by something). At the end I will include the final rankings.
- Leah, only easy to woo because she loves freaking driftwood, but she's sometimes a pain in the butt to find without checking the wiki for her schedule. Easily the most difficult to find, and the only thing that makes it worth trying to woo her at all is that she literally loves junk. Additionally, the painting you paint as part of her 14 heart event is just glorious, imho, though irrelevant to this analysis.
- Abigail's loves include a lot of cooking, which can be a pain in the butt. The others, especially those that can have a quality, are expensive as things of their type go. The only thing that's relatively cheap in its category is amethyst, and if you want to pursue her and are doing the CC, you will get a crystalarium you can put an amethyst into in order to have a steady supply of gifts for her until she is wooed. She's not super hard to find, but can sometimes stump you. Easier than Leah, though.
- Haley is a little easier to find than Abigail. Super early on she can be a pain to woo though because you have to wait for Summer to get a love of hers (sunflowers) that has a quality and is easy to get, but once you get access to the desert or the island, one of her loves with a quality can be found in abundance (though the most abundant finds will be those of regular quality) all year round. So, relatively early game she is easy to woo and only becomes easier to woo as time goes on. And sunflowers are also arguably the easiest flower to grow because they like to give you more seeds encouraging you to just keep going.
- Penny is about on par with Haley for how easy she is to find, maybe a little easier. The loves she has with quality aren't super cheap, again, much like Maru and Abigail. Still, you can easily grow a ton of poppies and give all the high quality ones to her and cook with the rest. You are in control of your supply of poppies.
- Maru is easier to find than anyone except Emily. She has a couple loves with quality, though cauliflower fairly expensive for its type and strawberries are easy enough to get but aren't easy to get in abundance early in the game as you have to wait until mid-spring to buy them and then have limited time in which to grow them. Both are spring crops, though, so you can get a jump start in that way. As you can grow them, though, you're in control of how many of them you have to gift to her. She has a few other loves which are not super easy to get early game, but they quickly become easier to get too.
- Emily, on the other hand, is just stupidly easy to find. One of her loves, wool, has a quality and is something you could quite easily be getting multiple of per day (4 sheep average 2 per day when you make friends with them). She is, imho, the easiest to woo all around.
So, now arranged by overall ease of wooing (including ease to find, ease of getting loved gifts, ease of getting cheap loved gifts), and again this is in my opinion but reached through careful analysis...
1 - Emily, and why should be quite evident from what you read above.
2 - Haley, that sunflowers are easier to grow in abundance year 1 than strawberries and cauliflower leapfrogs her to this position.
3 - Penny, that poppies are also summer crops can more easily be grown in abundance year 1 similarly allows her to pass up Maru.
4 - Maru, the spring gifts things keeps her from dropping further, but that you aren't so established when you can grow them hurts.
5 - Abigail, the amethyst thing just doesn't make up for how varied her travels are and how difficult it can be to find her.
6 - Leah, because loving trash just can't make up for the difficulty in finding her too.
-by Dr IMNVS, Professor of Psychology at Zuzu University
Preface: This is my analysis of the bachelorettes, after some reading and comparing/contrasting, and also using my real life wife's and my experience (between us we've married every one of the ladies or are in progress of wooing), organized by ease to find (because I had to organize by something). At the end I will include the final rankings.
- Leah, only easy to woo because she loves freaking driftwood, but she's sometimes a pain in the butt to find without checking the wiki for her schedule. Easily the most difficult to find, and the only thing that makes it worth trying to woo her at all is that she literally loves junk. Additionally, the painting you paint as part of her 14 heart event is just glorious, imho, though irrelevant to this analysis.
- Abigail's loves include a lot of cooking, which can be a pain in the butt. The others, especially those that can have a quality, are expensive as things of their type go. The only thing that's relatively cheap in its category is amethyst, and if you want to pursue her and are doing the CC, you will get a crystalarium you can put an amethyst into in order to have a steady supply of gifts for her until she is wooed. She's not super hard to find, but can sometimes stump you. Easier than Leah, though.
- Haley is a little easier to find than Abigail. Super early on she can be a pain to woo though because you have to wait for Summer to get a love of hers (sunflowers) that has a quality and is easy to get, but once you get access to the desert or the island, one of her loves with a quality can be found in abundance (though the most abundant finds will be those of regular quality) all year round. So, relatively early game she is easy to woo and only becomes easier to woo as time goes on. And sunflowers are also arguably the easiest flower to grow because they like to give you more seeds encouraging you to just keep going.
- Penny is about on par with Haley for how easy she is to find, maybe a little easier. The loves she has with quality aren't super cheap, again, much like Maru and Abigail. Still, you can easily grow a ton of poppies and give all the high quality ones to her and cook with the rest. You are in control of your supply of poppies.
- Maru is easier to find than anyone except Emily. She has a couple loves with quality, though cauliflower fairly expensive for its type and strawberries are easy enough to get but aren't easy to get in abundance early in the game as you have to wait until mid-spring to buy them and then have limited time in which to grow them. Both are spring crops, though, so you can get a jump start in that way. As you can grow them, though, you're in control of how many of them you have to gift to her. She has a few other loves which are not super easy to get early game, but they quickly become easier to get too.
- Emily, on the other hand, is just stupidly easy to find. One of her loves, wool, has a quality and is something you could quite easily be getting multiple of per day (4 sheep average 2 per day when you make friends with them). She is, imho, the easiest to woo all around.
So, now arranged by overall ease of wooing (including ease to find, ease of getting loved gifts, ease of getting cheap loved gifts), and again this is in my opinion but reached through careful analysis...
1 - Emily, and why should be quite evident from what you read above.
2 - Haley, that sunflowers are easier to grow in abundance year 1 than strawberries and cauliflower leapfrogs her to this position.
3 - Penny, that poppies are also summer crops can more easily be grown in abundance year 1 similarly allows her to pass up Maru.
4 - Maru, the spring gifts things keeps her from dropping further, but that you aren't so established when you can grow them hurts.
5 - Abigail, the amethyst thing just doesn't make up for how varied her travels are and how difficult it can be to find her.
6 - Leah, because loving trash just can't make up for the difficulty in finding her too.
alrhuff
Tiller
My favorite girl is Abigail, because she tends to help most around the farm, especially when she waters the crops, and you can usually marry her by summer or autumn of Year 2. And I like her spunk and like to think of her as the most adventurous. Also, I think she is probably the one girl who is "experienced" when the game starts."
Lew Zealand
Helper
Well, *mechanically* speaking it's plenty clear that Alex and Haley are the best. When looking at them mechanically. As a bundle of people parts.
They are both Yum.
However you can only be married to one of them at a time and clearly Concerned Ape decided that that was a nigh intractable problem. Rather than trash the entire core API of the game, mangle the gameplay, and risk the loss of any Pam-based functionality, CA instead did the only sensible thing:
added Ginger Island.
Eh, what now? Well with that option we now have the perfect mechanical marriage of Haley and Alex in:
Elliot wearing a bathing suit.
It is too good for you kind folk here, so I will not post a pic. Just rest assured that he will be my next spouse.
And maybe the one after that.
They are both Yum.
However you can only be married to one of them at a time and clearly Concerned Ape decided that that was a nigh intractable problem. Rather than trash the entire core API of the game, mangle the gameplay, and risk the loss of any Pam-based functionality, CA instead did the only sensible thing:
added Ginger Island.
Eh, what now? Well with that option we now have the perfect mechanical marriage of Haley and Alex in:
Elliot wearing a bathing suit.
It is too good for you kind folk here, so I will not post a pic. Just rest assured that he will be my next spouse.
And maybe the one after that.
Worblehat
Planter
I lack the experience to know for sure, but my impression is that coffee is preferred to bombs, so game mechanics favors Sebastian over Maru/Abigail. At least that's how I interpret the poll in the other recent marriage thread.
Regarding the analysis by imnvs above, Maru is really not difficult to woo; our wedding date is Fall 22 Year 1 of my first game, with a grand total of four strawberries used as gifts (one for her birthday, three in mid-Fall when I decided to make the push to marry in Y1 Fall rather than Y2 Spring). Not particularly arguing with the ordering of that list (though in my game I don't expect to be gathering any wool until mid-Winter, quite possibly until Spring, so Emily would be more difficult than Maru, Penny, or Haley for me - but if I were targeting Emily I'd probably have done things differently), just noting that reaching ten hearts is surprisingly quick and easy.
Just looked up Leah's 14-heart event ... wow. That's hilarious, but I'm not convinced one would actually want to have that painting.
Regarding the analysis by imnvs above, Maru is really not difficult to woo; our wedding date is Fall 22 Year 1 of my first game, with a grand total of four strawberries used as gifts (one for her birthday, three in mid-Fall when I decided to make the push to marry in Y1 Fall rather than Y2 Spring). Not particularly arguing with the ordering of that list (though in my game I don't expect to be gathering any wool until mid-Winter, quite possibly until Spring, so Emily would be more difficult than Maru, Penny, or Haley for me - but if I were targeting Emily I'd probably have done things differently), just noting that reaching ten hearts is surprisingly quick and easy.
Just looked up Leah's 14-heart event ... wow. That's hilarious, but I'm not convinced one would actually want to have that painting.
imnvs
Local Legend
Fair, what you said about Maru. I just find that people with easier to get (in bulk) items as loved gifts that have a quality helps. It's not super easy to get a lot of strawberries year 1, that's all.Regarding the analysis by imnvs above, Maru is really not difficult to woo; our wedding date is Fall 22 Year 1 of my first game, with a grand total of four strawberries used as gifts (one for her birthday, three in mid-Fall when I decided to make the push to marry in Y1 Fall rather than Y2 Spring). Not particularly arguing with the ordering of that list (though in my game I don't expect to be gathering any wool until mid-Winter, quite possibly until Spring, so Emily would be more difficult than Maru, Penny, or Haley for me - but if I were targeting Emily I'd probably have done things differently), just noting that reaching ten hearts is surprisingly quick and easy.
Just looked up Leah's 14-heart event ... wow. That's hilarious, but I'm not convinced one would actually want to have that painting.
And that painting? That is my pride and joy in the save where I married Leah.
Almost as awesome as punching out Kel. 
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Lew Zealand
Helper
Remember that Maru has a secret weapon as she also loves Cauliflower, which is a quality item available in bulk in that first Spring if you choose to grind Fishing for g to pay for the seeds. I focus this for Maru and usually ignore Strawberries until Year 2 or the Greenhouse.
And it's Maru which is glasses FTW.
imnvs
Local Legend
See, while this is true, cauli is a cooking ingredient, and I start stockpiling cooking ingredients from day 1. If I'm gifting cauli? I must be desperate to woo Maru.
Getting a stardrop ASAP.
Worblehat
Planter
It wasn't a priority as such. But by mid-Fall I realized that continued Coop/Barn upgrades wouldn't finish CC bundles any faster (need apricot/cherry Spring Y2, red cabbage Summer Y2, and apples Fall Y2, so it doesn't really matter how soon I get a goat, rabbit, and pig). Thus spending 15k on the house upgrade and Mermaid's pendant would get me an extra ~50 days of being married. No need to go visit Maru every day during Winter, and there should be a fair number of spousal gifts during that time.
I was able to get 24 strawberry seeds, and like I said this is my first game. I'm sure a player who actually knows what they're doing could also get the Speed-Gro from the CC bundle and get three harvests.
imnvs
Local Legend
That is exactly what I'm talking about. Yes, you could get the speed-gro, but you have to really work for it, and the cash to afford that many seeds too. It's not easy, but it is possible. That you have to really work for it is why I rated her as I did.I was able to get 24 strawberry seeds, and like I said this is my first game. I'm sure a player who actually knows what they're doing could also get the Speed-Gro from the CC bundle and get three harvests.
To be clear, these are just my opinions, based on my somewhat ambitious but also somewhat lazy (@Lew Zealand would be proud, I think) playstyle.
Tinkerer2011
Greenhorn
Haley sometimes helps with watering crops and feeding animals
imnvs
Local Legend
To be fair, every spouse does that.
ArtifactSpot
Guest
Ok, I know it’s a game…but why bother using people for what they give. See who you get along with best, that’s what the dating is for. Read the wiki to see what they will be like and what they will say after marriage. Then think who is best as a potential spouse, in game life partner, and parent to your future in game children. If you want a best friend and roommate, but no kids then Krobus is a great choice too.
Milemperio
Greenhorn
Haha Yes but I see the opposite. Exactly, it's a game! So I don't mind "using" them. And unlike in RL, it matters to me in Stardew what kind of gifts the spouse gives/what gifts I need to give to them...
And your point of getting along with them? To be fair most Characters are not really sympathic at the Beginning, and it's only when you get to know them (heart events) they get nicer.. ^^
But yes, If I don't like them or what they say, I wouldn't want them in my farmhouse all the time, of course.
Then my answer to the original question.. For me it really depends on the game and Playstyle.
For example on the beach farm I find it helpful to have my Spouse water plants as the sprinkler space is so restricted. So I'd go for someone you can marry fast, f.e. Haley/Maru/Shane. As a plus Shane's Peppers Poppers are nice to have. And Shane and Emily are the only romanceable characters that mail stuff, so marrying them and befriending the others means more gifts in total
On one file I've got Sebastian, who gives me Coffee quiet often, which is nice, but Ive got thousands of beans laying around XD Would have been nice on a file where I just couldnt get any coffee beans till super late XD