I do not have time for anything

Ereo

Helper
It feels like that in the beginning, but later you can upgrade and automate things and it'll be easier. once you upgrade the hoe and watering can, hold the button down to water more spots at once.

I usually try not to plant to many seeds at first, so that I finish everything on the farm by noon. After that, I pick one activity for the rest of the day - either go mining, OR go fishing, OR chase down villagers to talk, etc.
 

FilthyGorilla

Local Legend
The game is a lot about making small choices, what to do, how to go about your day, what to push to tomorrow or try to do it now as quickly as possible.

you truly have to learn to multitask and think about everything or just do one thing a day every day. Once you play for long enough you’ll get into a good rhythm.

If you still find the days too short there are also mods to slow them down to any sleep you’d want.
 

Villager

Cowpoke
I don't want to use mods yet, as I'm afraid of upsetting the game balance. Apparently, you are right, and I need to adapt to such a rhythm. Thank you!
 

Lew Zealand

Helper
Hi Villager and Welcome to the Forums!

Don't get too hung up on the daylength, there are some things in the game that make waiting a whole day or 3 seem like too long, like Tool upgrades or daily Gifts or naps. Just understand that there's always tomorrow and it you want to get particular things done that day (Gifts, Rainy-day specific Fishing) then prioritize those early in the day and leave the rest til tomorrow. Also don't try to Plant or do too much on the Farm early on, you don't have enough Energy and frequently time to do everything, take it slow. There's always a tomorrow in the game to get that thing done you put off 3 days ago and just remembered was only supposed to be put off for 2 days.

And don't worry: When you need something from Marnie on Monday or Pierre's store on Wednesday those days will seem agonizingly slow.
 
Time Management is probably one of the most important player skills to develop when playing Stardew Valley. In fact, I'd probably say that the two most critical things to manage are time and energy, with gold being a distant third. Doing things in a logical order and planning things out ahead of time are definitely things you can do to increase how much you can get done in a given day.

Most new players tend to have energy problems before they have time problems, so you're already ahead of the curve!
 

Sinmenon

Planter
For energy, if you have the money you can always get a salad at the Saloon for a quick refill. Or make it yourself once you get the kitchen upgrade or a cookout kit. They recover around 113 energy so if you get 5 of them you have enough to get going for a while (but it costs 220g).

Now, for time? Speed boosters are your friends. My farmers are fueled on coffee, spicy eels, and spite. Oh wait, no spite because everything is chill. There are also small tips as you walk faster on paths than on regular dirt/grass, get a horse, and use the minecarts to get around town.
 
It can be said that the rapid consumption of energy is one of the reasons that my working day is so short. But I go to bed early :)
In general, I read Wikipedia, I study. Thank you!
Ahh. In that case, there's some food items you can use to both accelerate your mine delving and keep your energy going. First off, Spring Onions show up south of your farm, on the other side of the river, and are nearly worthless to sell so you might as well just eat them. Those appear for the first couple of weeks. After the Spring Dance, Salmonberry season starts. Shaking berry bushes will net a berry, or two if you have a Foraging skill of 4 or greater. Foraging 8 seems extremely unlikely, but that's the break-point for 3 berries, and if you eat some stat food to raise your effective Foraging skill to 12, you net 4 per bush. They sell for very little so again you are free to use them to fuel your mine diving and general energy needs. On a good week, I can get a few hundred berries, which will last quite some time.

Once you are more established, I find Cheese, particularly gold-star Cheese from pressing Large Milk to be a particularly amazing health and energy restoring item. Given cows produce milk daily, and once at max hearts they produce large milk regularly, it's a really good way to have a consistent food source. Cheese also makes a generally decent gifting item for most townsfolk (with some notable exceptions) and sells pretty well too, so you have options on what to do with your cheese if you choose to own cows.

Once you obtain the recipe, you can also use Cheese to combine with Peppers in a kitchen (needs at least one house upgrade) to make Pepper Poppers, which grants a Speed bonus that stacks with Coffee's speed bonus.
 

MogBeoulve

Farmer
It can be said that the rapid consumption of energy is one of the reasons that my working day is so short. But I go to bed early :)
In general, I read Wikipedia, I study. Thank you!
If you're out of energy with a lot of time left in the day, I suggest running around to do things that don't require energy. Talk to everyone, even if you don't have gifts for them. You'll build friendship over time just by talking. Grab any forage and cut weeds for fiber. If you are able to fish, then start fishing when you're low but not completely out of energy. You can eat algae and lower quality fish in order to keep going. Plant some tree seeds and set up some tappers. Put down pathing and decorate your farm.

I'm sure I've missed even more things to do, but my point is, running out of energy does not mean the day has to end.
 

Tom

Rancher
Like @Ereo said, the first thing I had to learn to do was stop planting too many crops. Even though Parsnips have the best rate of return, they will drive you crazy because they don't deliver a lot of money per tile (or for the hoeing/watering energy you spend). So you step up to more expensive seeds to get more for your time and energy. And you take it easy so you can finish watering around noon.
 

Villager

Cowpoke
I understand correctly that only the left mouse button can be used for fishing? At least Wikipedia says so. Something doesn't work for me...
 
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MogBeoulve

Farmer
I understand correctly that only the left mouse button can be used for fishing? At least Wikipedia says so. Something doesn't work for me...
Fishing can be crazy hard. You do use the left mouse button, but you have to press/not press carefully, yet quickly. I strongly suggest the training rod.

Also, your experience is going to vary according to your video game hand-eye coordination skills, but if you keep having trouble, I suggest trying out a controller. I couldn't fish at all until I used one, but I'm also exceptionally bad at said hand-eye coordination.
 

Villager

Cowpoke
Somehow the levels are gaining very quickly: for the first spring, it is already the third level of farming, although I have grown quite a few vegetables and berries. And there are only 10 levels... and what will happen next?
 

Elenna101

Farmer
Somehow the levels are gaining very quickly: for the first spring, it is already the third level of farming, although I have grown quite a few vegetables and berries. And there are only 10 levels... and what will happen next?
The later levels take a lot more xp than the early ones.
 

Lew Zealand

Helper
I understand, thanks. But, given the duration of the game, it looks somehow ... not enough.
I can see that since if you want to focus on one aspect of the game (Farming, Mining, Fishing, etc.) you can max out all available 10 Levels within an in-game year or so but I also feel that is good game design. That way you can then take full advantage of all of that stat's advantages fairly quickly and design your playing around that. Or you can move on to experiencing the many other aspects of gameplay to broaden your in-game experience.

Put a different way: This game is not about artificially blocking your progress in order to lengthen gameplay (thus creating perceived "bigness" or a long game) solely by creating ever longer chores for you to accomplish. Some games do that and are rightfully castigated for doing so. Instead Stardew Valley gives you many options for gameplay style and focus so that you can go your own way and create your interpretation of how to play.

Have a look at some of the things @FilthyGorilla has done (and many others) going over the top in min/maxxing one aspect of the game to suit one playstyle. He is but one of thousands playing it their own way as all ways of playing are encouraged without excessive game rules interfering with your individual style.
 

FilthyGorilla

Local Legend
Yeah as Lew Zealand said, one of the best - if not the best - parts of this game is the amount of different choices you can make and options you have, you don’t have to do something if you don’t want to, you can only do one thing if you like it, you can do nothing if you really just want to relax.
 
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