Monkey King
Cowpoke
Disclaimer
A quick note about reaching Perfection by Year 2: Stardew Valley can be a very easy or a very difficult game, depending almost entirely on fishing. Everyone you see achieving fast Perfection has one thing in common: they excel at fishing. You can hit Perfection as early as Spring of Year 2 (or even sooner, depending on your RNG) without being an expert in the Skull Cavern or selling iridium/radioactive bars, provided you are good at fishing. Fishing is the core foundation of a fast-tracked run. It really is that important in Stardew Valley.
Because of this, you will start our farm on the Riverland Farm. In terms of optimization for a fishing-focused run, this is by far the best option. If you have solid fishing skills, you’ve already won 99% of the run.
Note: You can start the game with multiple cabins, as each cabin comes with a Fish Smoker. By doing this, you will begin with several Fish Smokers right from Day 1. However, I didn’t use this method and started the farm with just the single default smoker. You will make even more gold than I did if you choose to start with multiple cabins.
Without further ado, let’s jump into Spring of Year 1!
On Day 1, make sure you buy 1 bean starter, 1 cauliflower seed, and 1 potato seed. The bean starter is a must because you cannot get it from mixed seeds. However, if you want to gamble with RNG, you don’t have to buy the cauliflower or potato seeds. Make sure you water all of them every single day without missing a day. This is because a cauliflower takes 12 days to grow. If you plant it on Day 1 and water it every day, it will be ready for harvest on Day 13 (Day 1 + 12 days). Then you can complete the Spring Crops Bundle by the end of Day 13 and receive 20x Speed-Gro, which you can use on the strawberry seeds bought from the Egg Festival dance. You can then get an extra harvest from 20 strawberry bushes.
Also, if you see a Help Wanted quest outside Pierre’s shop, make sure you always take it and complete it. It is very important that you don’t miss it. The 5th prize ticket machine gives a Stardrop Tea, and you need this before Summer 13th because it is Alex’s birthday. Giving him a loved gift and a Stardrop Tea on his birthday will get you between 6 to 8 hearts with him. In fact, on my farm, he was the first villager I maxed hearts with because I gave him a Complete Breakfast/Salmon Dinner and a Stardrop Tea.
Doing Help Wanted quests will also gain friendship points with the corresponding villager. Since maximizing hearts with all villagers is one of the achievements needed for Perfection, this comes in very handy.
Lastly, the 2nd prize ticket is either a peach sapling or an orange sapling. Both are useful fruit trees, as Robin loves peaches and Gus loves oranges. Both fruits are also needed for the Artisan Bundle. The sooner you get either sapling, the sooner you can plant it, making it much better for you overall. It isn't that hard to get because every 3 completed Help Wanted quests reward 1 prize ticket. In addition, behind the Bookseller’s hot air balloon, there is a hidden prize ticket for you to collect. You only need a Copper Axe to break the large stump blocking it.
Since we are already talking about tool upgrades, the order goes like this:
Copper Pickaxe → Copper Axe → Steel Pickaxe → Steel Axe → Gold Pickaxe → Gold Axe → Iridium Axe → Iridium Pickaxe.
The reason is simple: you need a better pickaxe to collect ores for tool upgrades, so you upgrade the pickaxe before the axe. However, the reason you choose to get an Iridium Axe before an Iridium Pickaxe is because you need the Iridium Axe for the Green Rain in Summer. Having an Iridium Axe helps you chop down trees faster, which gains foraging experience much quicker. An Iridium Pickaxe is good if you want to focus on the Skull Cavern, but since you can use bombs, the Iridium Pickaxe can wait until after the Iridium Axe. Remember, the main reason for getting an Iridium Axe is to gain foraging experience. If you just need wood, you can simply buy wood pieces from Robin; don't chop down trees just because you need wood. Therefore, it's a matter of getting the axe to iridium before the Green Rain, or never getting it at all.
Anyway, before you end Day 1, make sure you sell all the forageables you have picked, such as Wild Horseradish, Daffodil, Leek, and Dandelion. Don’t feel bad selling them. You still have a whole season to collect and harvest them. However, do not sell any Cockles, Mussels, Oysters, or Clams.
Make sure to plant and water all crop seeds and mixed seeds gathered throughout town today. (Note: The Cauliflower seeds must be watered every single day).
On Day 2, don’t bring anything with you and head straight to the beach. The best spot to fish is horizontally between the piers (stand right next to Willy’s shop and cast to the left). This allows you to catch iridium-quality fish while safely dropping items onto the pier without them sinking into the ocean. Fish until Willy closes his shop before 5:00 PM, then sell all the fish you caught. If you are good at fishing, you should be able to buy a Fiberglass Rod and spend the rest of your money on bait. The reason you don’t need to bring a chest is that fishing "horizontally" lets us simply drop extra loot on the ground without losing it to the water.
After 5:00 PM, head to the Mountain Lake to fish until passing out. Do not eat Seaweed or Green Algae; you need them for building Fish Ponds. Also, do not eat a Sea Jelly if you catch one (River Jelly is fine to eat).
You can certainly bring a chest with you if you prefer, but make sure you bring a pickaxe or an axe to pick it up and carry it to the Mountain Lake with you later.
On Day 4, bring 3 smoked gold-quality catfish (or however many are needed) directly to Pierre to sell, then buy the first backpack upgrade (24 slots). After that, fish at the Mountain Lake until 7:00 PM when Largemouth Bass stop appearing. From there, you can either continue fishing until passing out or go chop trees in Cindersap Forest to collect acorns and wood. We need 300 wood to repair the tide pool bridge at the beach. Also, the sooner you can craft a Bait Maker, the better.
From Day 5 (when the Mines finally open) onward to Day 13, you have a few key objectives to complete:
By doing so, when you return from the festival, you can simply plant your seeds. Once done, rush to the Community Center to finish the Spring Crops Bundle, which will reward you with 20x Speed-Gro. You can also complete the Vault so the Junimos repair the bus overnight, allowing you to visit the Calico Desert on Day 14.
1. The Chef: A chef at the festival can prepare Rumpled Fruit Skin, which provides a +1 Speed and +3 Luck buff. This helps you push much deeper into Skull Cavern, greatly increasing our chances of finding an early Prismatic Shard.
2. Galaxy Sword: Securing that early Prismatic Shard unlocks the Galaxy Sword, allowing you to breeze through the regular Mines all the way down to Floor 120.
3. Triple Shot Espresso: You can grab Triple Shot Espressos from Gil's Egg Rating. At this early stage of the game, any speed buff is extremely powerful.
4. Woodcutter's Weekly Books: You can buy as many Woodcutter's Weekly skill books as possible using Calico Eggs. This provides a massive burst of Foraging XP. Foraging or Combat is usually the last skill needed to hit Level 10, so boosting Foraging early helps us unlock the Mastery Cave much sooner.
5. Rain Totem Farming: This is the most important benefit: you can farm Rain Totems. You need at least 4 Rain Totems to water 1,500+ Parsnips, allowing you to hit Farming Level 10 without spending resources crafting sprinklers. Hence my tip: do not rush sprinklers. You don’t need them until Summer when we plant large fields of Starfruit. (Depending on your game seed, you might naturally get rain in the second half of the month and need fewer totems; you can check predictors for weather forecasts if you use them).
6. Villager Shops: We can buy high-value items from visiting villagers' shops. For example;
8. Sam: Sam loves Cactus Fruit, which can be picked up while visiting the Desert.
Sometime before Day 13, after reaching Fishing Level 10, picking the Angler profession, and selling off all saved fish. Your total earnings will cross 25,000 gold. Demetrius will visit the farm to offer a choice between the Fruit Bat Cave or the Mushroom Cave.
The correct choice is the Mushroom Cave. Here are the reasons:
1. The main reason people choose the Fruit Bat Cave is to complete the Artisan Bundle faster. While this works for casual runs, in a min-max setting, you can easily complete the Artisan Bundle without using bat fruit at all:
o Cloth: Drops easily from Mummies in Skull Cavern, which you will have unlocked by Day 14.
o Honey: Sandy sells it every Friday in her shop.
o Jelly: We already get an Orange or Peach Sapling from the prize ticket machine, which will be bearing fruit by Summer.
o Apples/Oranges: Provided by the free prize ticket sapling.
o Pomegranate: Pomegranates are a loved gift for Elliott, which means we must buy a Pomegranate Sapling and plant it by the end of Spring so it bears fruit starting Fall 1. You need this sapling anyway to reach 8–10 hearts with Elliott. While he also loves Duck Feathers, those are strictly reserved for Leo.
o Apples: Since you also need 3 Apples for the Fodder Bundle, we are obligated to buy an Apple Sapling regardless. It is extremely rare to get 4 total Apples from the Fruit Bat Cave by Fall 15 (the deadline to finish the Community Center by Fall 16).
Because you are already obligated to obtain these items through standard play, the Fruit Bat Cave becomes completely redundant.
2. While Mushroom Logs exist, relying on them early is too expensive. Crafting a single Mushroom Log requires 10 Hardwood and 10 Moss. Hardwood is in high demand for building the Stable, repairing Willy’s boat, and crafting Fish Smokers and Oil Makers. Harvesting it requires daily trips to the Secret Woods, making it a very time-expensive resource. Moss is equally critical and limited early on; you need large amounts of Moss to craft Treasure Totems (will be explained later why we need a lot of these) and the Statue of Blessings. You simply cannot afford to spend Hardwood and Moss on Mushroom Logs early in the game.
3. The Mushroom Cave provides a free Dehydrator, which significantly increases the value of your mushroom harvests. Every single gold piece matters in the early game. Furthermore, the purple and red mushrooms allow us to craft Life Elixirs for deeper Skull Cavern dives.
· Wild Horseradish: Loved by Krobus; liked by Caroline.
· Daffodil: Loved by Sandy; liked by Haley, Jas, Vincent, and Gus.
· Leek: Loved by George.
· Dandelion: Liked by Pierre. Pierre is one of the hardest villagers to befriend, so make sure to start gifting him Dandelions as early as Week 2 of Spring. Don’t forget to give him a Prismatic Shard on his birthday (Spring 26).
Don’t forget to complete the Construction Bundle. It is easy enough once we have a Copper Axe to collect hard wood.
A Charcoal Kiln is a very powerful machine in the early game, especially when paired with a Fish Smoker. While fishing for catfish and smoking them, you can simultaneously make coal using a Charcoal Kiln. You can also buy wood from Robin to process into coal, which works out cheaper than buying coal directly from Clint. Since we are fishing and smoking at the same time, converting wood into coal doesn't take any extra time.
Multitasking like this is a fundamental strategy. You can also smelt ores into metal bars while you fish, just as you would return to the elevator surface to smelt ores every 5 or 10 floors while diving in the Mines.
· A Crab can drop from enemies in the Mines.
· Cockles, Mussels, Oysters, and Clams are found foraging on the Beach.
Keep checking the beach. You may be able to complete the bundle by Day 9 and obtain a Snail in time for Day 10 (which is what happened in my playthrough).
Boiler Room & Geologist’s Bundle Try to finish the Boiler Room—specifically the Geologist's Bundle—before Spring 13. The reward for the Geologist's Bundle is 5x Omni Geodes. You can trade 3 Omni Geodes to the Desert Trader for a Desert Warp Totem. You can also trade Rubies for Spicy Eel and Jades for Staircases the day before the Desert Festival.
Using a Desert Warp Totem allows you to start your cavern run early on a high-luck day without waiting for Pam to drive the bus at 10:00 AM. Spicy Eel’s speed and luck buffs also stack with Rumpled Fruit Skin from the festival chef. Combined with a few Staircases, you will fly through Skull Cavern.
If you have been fishing extensively, you should have already pulled a Fire Quartz and at least 5 Gold Ores from fishing treasure chests:
· Smelt a Gold Bar for the Blacksmith's Bundle.
· You only need 1 Solar Essence and 10 Bat Wings to finish the Adventurer's Bundle.
Once you reach Floor 40 in the Mines, having those fishing chest drops allows you to wrap up the Boiler Room extremely fast. Repairing the Minecarts lets us fast-travel around town much more efficiently (I finished mine on Day 10).
· Stardrop Tea (5th Prize Ticket): The 5th prize ticket machine reward gives a Stardrop Tea. You need this before Summer 13 because it is Alex’s birthday. Giving him a loved gift (like a Complete Breakfast or Salmon Dinner) along with a Stardrop Tea on his birthday will immediately boost your friendship with him by 6 to 8 hearts. On my farm, Alex was the very first villager I maxed hearts with because of this strategy.
· Friendship Gains: Completing Help Wanted quests grants bonus friendship points with the requesting villager. Since maximizing hearts with all villagers is required for Perfection, this comes in very handy.
· Unlocking Mystery Boxes: After collecting the second Prize Ticket from the billboard, a cutscene with Mr. Qi triggers and a popup notifies you that Mystery Boxes can now be found. These boxes contain powerful items: Prismatic Shards, Treasure Chests, Skill Books, Triple Shot Espresso, Lobster Bisque, Crab Cakes, Dressed Spinners, Lucky Lunches, Deluxe Speed-Gro, Farm Totems, Fruit tree saplings, Artichoke Seeds, loved villager foods, mixed seeds, and more. Let me know if you need further explanations why these items are powerful.
· Emergency Gold Reserve: This is the most critical reason to do Help Wanted quests: completed quest rewards are stored safely in your Quest Journal until claimed. This allows you to keep your active pocket gold low enough so that passing out at 2:00 AM costs virtually nothing. Whenever you need emergency funds, simply open your journal and claim a reward like 500g for a bus ticket or 1,000g for a boat ticket to Ginger Island.
1. Check around Oak trees daily for fallen Acorns.
2. Observe the growth stages of the wild trees: if it is a Maple tree, chop it down immediately; if it is an Oak tree, apply Tree Fertilizer to speed up its growth.
3. Once fully mature, chop down the Oak tree to collect all its Acorns and replant them on your farm.
4. Do the same in southern Cindersap Forest during your weekly foraging runs (remember: forageables reset every Saturday night).
This exact method is how I crafted over 1,000 Kegs by the end of Year 1.
· Focus strictly on Quality Sprinklers.
· Craft at most 5 Basic Sprinklers as a safety net for your 20 Egg Festival Strawberry Seeds mixed with Speed-Gro. These specific 20 seeds require daily watering to yield 3 harvests in Spring.
Other Strawberries (without Speed-Gro) naturally produce 2 harvests. You can safely skip watering them up to 3 times without losing a harvest. Normally, their harvests arrive on Day 21 and Day 25, but you can let the second harvest land on Day 28. For example, if Day 16 turns out to be a Max-Luck day, you can skip watering those Strawberries and immediately use a Desert Warp Totem to start an early Skull Cavern dive.
This method is specifically designed for console/Switch players who cannot use external web predictors:
· While Geode drop contents are predetermined, you can alter the outcome sequence by opening different types of Geodes (Omni, Frozen, Magma, Regular) in different orders.
· By hoarding a massive stock of Geodes and resetting your day, you can brute force the remaining minerals needed to complete the entire Museum collection without third-party tools. (If playing on PC, using a save-predictor is recommended to save real-world time).
Great on reading until the end. That's pretty much for Spring year 1. If you enjoyed and found this helpful and want me to write guides for Summer, Fall, and Winter. Give a vote up and let me know you're interested. Otherwise, I will leave it only Spring year 1 guide. I am sure I've missed some Spring tips and tricks.
- English is not my first language.
- This guide is strictly for anyone who enjoys fishing and/or is good at fishing. It is designed for players ranging from beginner to pro who want to take their Stardew Valley gameplay to the next level. If you are horrible at fishing, consider using a fishing mod.
- This guide will do exactly as the title says: it will help push you to reach Perfection, aiming for Spring of Year 2 or sooner depending on your RNG. Once you finish reading this guide, you won't view Stardew Valley the same way again. You will become like me, an "experienced noob", someone who is relatively new to the game but has already achieved Perfection.
- This guide will teach you every minor trick and tip, focusing heavily on micromanagement. Some of them you probably have never heard of.
- This guide will offer perspectives that might not align with the mainstream opinions of the Stardew Valley community.
- This guide does not involve any exploits, mods, predictors, or glitches; it is a 100% vanilla guide. You do not need to use animation cancelling or clay farming. Vanilla players can follow this guide. However, feel free to use mods or predictors if you prefer.
- Treat this as a flexible guideline, as everyone’s RNG is different. The structure will be a mix of day-by-day breakdowns and general strategy explanations, since daily luck and weather vary for every player.
A quick note about reaching Perfection by Year 2: Stardew Valley can be a very easy or a very difficult game, depending almost entirely on fishing. Everyone you see achieving fast Perfection has one thing in common: they excel at fishing. You can hit Perfection as early as Spring of Year 2 (or even sooner, depending on your RNG) without being an expert in the Skull Cavern or selling iridium/radioactive bars, provided you are good at fishing. Fishing is the core foundation of a fast-tracked run. It really is that important in Stardew Valley.
Because of this, you will start our farm on the Riverland Farm. In terms of optimization for a fishing-focused run, this is by far the best option. If you have solid fishing skills, you’ve already won 99% of the run.
Note: You can start the game with multiple cabins, as each cabin comes with a Fish Smoker. By doing this, you will begin with several Fish Smokers right from Day 1. However, I didn’t use this method and started the farm with just the single default smoker. You will make even more gold than I did if you choose to start with multiple cabins.
Without further ado, let’s jump into Spring of Year 1!
Spring Year 1
Stardew Valley is all about "wealth snowballing." This means 100 gold today is usually better than 100 + X gold next week. Therefore, Spring Year 1 is the most important season in the game.On Day 1, make sure you buy 1 bean starter, 1 cauliflower seed, and 1 potato seed. The bean starter is a must because you cannot get it from mixed seeds. However, if you want to gamble with RNG, you don’t have to buy the cauliflower or potato seeds. Make sure you water all of them every single day without missing a day. This is because a cauliflower takes 12 days to grow. If you plant it on Day 1 and water it every day, it will be ready for harvest on Day 13 (Day 1 + 12 days). Then you can complete the Spring Crops Bundle by the end of Day 13 and receive 20x Speed-Gro, which you can use on the strawberry seeds bought from the Egg Festival dance. You can then get an extra harvest from 20 strawberry bushes.
Also, if you see a Help Wanted quest outside Pierre’s shop, make sure you always take it and complete it. It is very important that you don’t miss it. The 5th prize ticket machine gives a Stardrop Tea, and you need this before Summer 13th because it is Alex’s birthday. Giving him a loved gift and a Stardrop Tea on his birthday will get you between 6 to 8 hearts with him. In fact, on my farm, he was the first villager I maxed hearts with because I gave him a Complete Breakfast/Salmon Dinner and a Stardrop Tea.
Doing Help Wanted quests will also gain friendship points with the corresponding villager. Since maximizing hearts with all villagers is one of the achievements needed for Perfection, this comes in very handy.
Lastly, the 2nd prize ticket is either a peach sapling or an orange sapling. Both are useful fruit trees, as Robin loves peaches and Gus loves oranges. Both fruits are also needed for the Artisan Bundle. The sooner you get either sapling, the sooner you can plant it, making it much better for you overall. It isn't that hard to get because every 3 completed Help Wanted quests reward 1 prize ticket. In addition, behind the Bookseller’s hot air balloon, there is a hidden prize ticket for you to collect. You only need a Copper Axe to break the large stump blocking it.
Since we are already talking about tool upgrades, the order goes like this:
Copper Pickaxe → Copper Axe → Steel Pickaxe → Steel Axe → Gold Pickaxe → Gold Axe → Iridium Axe → Iridium Pickaxe.
The reason is simple: you need a better pickaxe to collect ores for tool upgrades, so you upgrade the pickaxe before the axe. However, the reason you choose to get an Iridium Axe before an Iridium Pickaxe is because you need the Iridium Axe for the Green Rain in Summer. Having an Iridium Axe helps you chop down trees faster, which gains foraging experience much quicker. An Iridium Pickaxe is good if you want to focus on the Skull Cavern, but since you can use bombs, the Iridium Pickaxe can wait until after the Iridium Axe. Remember, the main reason for getting an Iridium Axe is to gain foraging experience. If you just need wood, you can simply buy wood pieces from Robin; don't chop down trees just because you need wood. Therefore, it's a matter of getting the axe to iridium before the Green Rain, or never getting it at all.
Anyway, before you end Day 1, make sure you sell all the forageables you have picked, such as Wild Horseradish, Daffodil, Leek, and Dandelion. Don’t feel bad selling them. You still have a whole season to collect and harvest them. However, do not sell any Cockles, Mussels, Oysters, or Clams.
Make sure to plant and water all crop seeds and mixed seeds gathered throughout town today. (Note: The Cauliflower seeds must be watered every single day).
On Day 2, don’t bring anything with you and head straight to the beach. The best spot to fish is horizontally between the piers (stand right next to Willy’s shop and cast to the left). This allows you to catch iridium-quality fish while safely dropping items onto the pier without them sinking into the ocean. Fish until Willy closes his shop before 5:00 PM, then sell all the fish you caught. If you are good at fishing, you should be able to buy a Fiberglass Rod and spend the rest of your money on bait. The reason you don’t need to bring a chest is that fishing "horizontally" lets us simply drop extra loot on the ground without losing it to the water.
After 5:00 PM, head to the Mountain Lake to fish until passing out. Do not eat Seaweed or Green Algae; you need them for building Fish Ponds. Also, do not eat a Sea Jelly if you catch one (River Jelly is fine to eat).
You can certainly bring a chest with you if you prefer, but make sure you bring a pickaxe or an axe to pick it up and carry it to the Mountain Lake with you later.
Days 3 to 12 Strategy
On Day 3, with the Fiberglass Rod and bait ready, you fish for catfish immediately right inside your farm. Since it rains, you don’t have to water crops or do any farm work. You just fish and hope for the best. While fishing, you also smoke catfish if you happen to get coal from fishing treasure chests. By the end of the day, you should reach Fishing Level 5 and pick the Fisher profession.On Day 4, bring 3 smoked gold-quality catfish (or however many are needed) directly to Pierre to sell, then buy the first backpack upgrade (24 slots). After that, fish at the Mountain Lake until 7:00 PM when Largemouth Bass stop appearing. From there, you can either continue fishing until passing out or go chop trees in Cindersap Forest to collect acorns and wood. We need 300 wood to repair the tide pool bridge at the beach. Also, the sooner you can craft a Bait Maker, the better.
From Day 5 (when the Mines finally open) onward to Day 13, you have a few key objectives to complete:
- Earn at least 42,500 gold to complete the Vault Bundle. This unlocks the Desert so you can buy or find a Coconut for Haley before her birthday on Day 14, guaranteeing you can ask her to dance at the Flower Festival on Day 24. Focus on fishing: if it rains, fish for Catfish on your farm; otherwise, fish at the Mountain Lake.
- Mining on Day 5 is optional if your daily luck is bad. You can choose to fish at the Mountain Lake for extra experience instead. Reaching Fishing Level 10 as soon as possible is crucial so you can sell all stored fish at the highest possible price point.
- Reaching Mining Level 6 is recommended to unlock the Miner profession and the ability to craft bombs. This makes diving through Skull Cavern during the 3-day Desert Festival significantly more efficient.
- Reaching Fishing Level 10 is a must in order to choose the Angler profession. Do not sell your stored fish (that you have been fishing since day 2) until you reach Fishing Level 10. Only sell fish as needed for immediate expenses, such as upgrading tools or buying salads.
Days 13 Strategy
Day 13 is a very important day because it is the Flower Dance, which means you get to buy Strawberry Seeds. Spend the first hours of the morning preparing at least 20 tiles and watering them. Place down some torches to mark 5 basic sprinklers and to provide light when you return home from the festival. You can prepare and water as many crop tiles as you plan to buy Strawberry Seeds for.By doing so, when you return from the festival, you can simply plant your seeds. Once done, rush to the Community Center to finish the Spring Crops Bundle, which will reward you with 20x Speed-Gro. You can also complete the Vault so the Junimos repair the bus overnight, allowing you to visit the Calico Desert on Day 14.
Why do we need to attend the Year 1 Desert Festival?
Besides getting a Coconut for Haley's birthday, there are several major benefits:1. The Chef: A chef at the festival can prepare Rumpled Fruit Skin, which provides a +1 Speed and +3 Luck buff. This helps you push much deeper into Skull Cavern, greatly increasing our chances of finding an early Prismatic Shard.
2. Galaxy Sword: Securing that early Prismatic Shard unlocks the Galaxy Sword, allowing you to breeze through the regular Mines all the way down to Floor 120.
3. Triple Shot Espresso: You can grab Triple Shot Espressos from Gil's Egg Rating. At this early stage of the game, any speed buff is extremely powerful.
4. Woodcutter's Weekly Books: You can buy as many Woodcutter's Weekly skill books as possible using Calico Eggs. This provides a massive burst of Foraging XP. Foraging or Combat is usually the last skill needed to hit Level 10, so boosting Foraging early helps us unlock the Mastery Cave much sooner.
5. Rain Totem Farming: This is the most important benefit: you can farm Rain Totems. You need at least 4 Rain Totems to water 1,500+ Parsnips, allowing you to hit Farming Level 10 without spending resources crafting sprinklers. Hence my tip: do not rush sprinklers. You don’t need them until Summer when we plant large fields of Starfruit. (Depending on your game seed, you might naturally get rain in the second half of the month and need fewer totems; you can check predictors for weather forecasts if you use them).
6. Villager Shops: We can buy high-value items from visiting villagers' shops. For example;
- Alex sells Pancakes.
- Demetrius sells Nautilus Shells.
- Evelyn and Jodi sell Mixed Seeds.
- Gus sells Lobster Bisque and Eggplant Parmesan.
- Jas sells a Rabbit's Foot and an Ancient Doll.
- Vincent sells a Skeletal Hand, a Chipped Amphora, and Fiber.
8. Sam: Sam loves Cactus Fruit, which can be picked up while visiting the Desert.
Sometime before Day 13, after reaching Fishing Level 10, picking the Angler profession, and selling off all saved fish. Your total earnings will cross 25,000 gold. Demetrius will visit the farm to offer a choice between the Fruit Bat Cave or the Mushroom Cave.
The correct choice is the Mushroom Cave. Here are the reasons:
1. The main reason people choose the Fruit Bat Cave is to complete the Artisan Bundle faster. While this works for casual runs, in a min-max setting, you can easily complete the Artisan Bundle without using bat fruit at all:
o Cloth: Drops easily from Mummies in Skull Cavern, which you will have unlocked by Day 14.
o Honey: Sandy sells it every Friday in her shop.
o Jelly: We already get an Orange or Peach Sapling from the prize ticket machine, which will be bearing fruit by Summer.
o Apples/Oranges: Provided by the free prize ticket sapling.
o Pomegranate: Pomegranates are a loved gift for Elliott, which means we must buy a Pomegranate Sapling and plant it by the end of Spring so it bears fruit starting Fall 1. You need this sapling anyway to reach 8–10 hearts with Elliott. While he also loves Duck Feathers, those are strictly reserved for Leo.
o Apples: Since you also need 3 Apples for the Fodder Bundle, we are obligated to buy an Apple Sapling regardless. It is extremely rare to get 4 total Apples from the Fruit Bat Cave by Fall 15 (the deadline to finish the Community Center by Fall 16).
Because you are already obligated to obtain these items through standard play, the Fruit Bat Cave becomes completely redundant.
2. While Mushroom Logs exist, relying on them early is too expensive. Crafting a single Mushroom Log requires 10 Hardwood and 10 Moss. Hardwood is in high demand for building the Stable, repairing Willy’s boat, and crafting Fish Smokers and Oil Makers. Harvesting it requires daily trips to the Secret Woods, making it a very time-expensive resource. Moss is equally critical and limited early on; you need large amounts of Moss to craft Treasure Totems (will be explained later why we need a lot of these) and the Statue of Blessings. You simply cannot afford to spend Hardwood and Moss on Mushroom Logs early in the game.
3. The Mushroom Cave provides a free Dehydrator, which significantly increases the value of your mushroom harvests. Every single gold piece matters in the early game. Furthermore, the purple and red mushrooms allow us to craft Life Elixirs for deeper Skull Cavern dives.
Spring Foraging & Gifting
Sometime early in the season, you will complete the Spring Foraging Bundle and receive 30x Spring Seeds. Make sure to apply Basic Fertilizer before planting them. Higher-quality forageables provide a bonus multiplier to villager friendship points:· Wild Horseradish: Loved by Krobus; liked by Caroline.
· Daffodil: Loved by Sandy; liked by Haley, Jas, Vincent, and Gus.
· Leek: Loved by George.
· Dandelion: Liked by Pierre. Pierre is one of the hardest villagers to befriend, so make sure to start gifting him Dandelions as early as Week 2 of Spring. Don’t forget to give him a Prismatic Shard on his birthday (Spring 26).
Don’t forget to complete the Construction Bundle. It is easy enough once we have a Copper Axe to collect hard wood.
A Charcoal Kiln is a very powerful machine in the early game, especially when paired with a Fish Smoker. While fishing for catfish and smoking them, you can simultaneously make coal using a Charcoal Kiln. You can also buy wood from Robin to process into coal, which works out cheaper than buying coal directly from Clint. Since we are fishing and smoking at the same time, converting wood into coal doesn't take any extra time.
Multitasking like this is a fundamental strategy. You can also smelt ores into metal bars while you fish, just as you would return to the elevator surface to smelt ores every 5 or 10 floors while diving in the Mines.
Key Bundles & Milestones
Crab Pot Bundle Finish the Crab Pot Bundle as soon as possible. This involves some RNG, so it's understandable if you can't finish it right away by Spring 5. Why aim early? Vincent’s birthday is Spring 10. If you get lucky, you can give him a Snail for his birthday.· A Crab can drop from enemies in the Mines.
· Cockles, Mussels, Oysters, and Clams are found foraging on the Beach.
Keep checking the beach. You may be able to complete the bundle by Day 9 and obtain a Snail in time for Day 10 (which is what happened in my playthrough).
Boiler Room & Geologist’s Bundle Try to finish the Boiler Room—specifically the Geologist's Bundle—before Spring 13. The reward for the Geologist's Bundle is 5x Omni Geodes. You can trade 3 Omni Geodes to the Desert Trader for a Desert Warp Totem. You can also trade Rubies for Spicy Eel and Jades for Staircases the day before the Desert Festival.
Using a Desert Warp Totem allows you to start your cavern run early on a high-luck day without waiting for Pam to drive the bus at 10:00 AM. Spicy Eel’s speed and luck buffs also stack with Rumpled Fruit Skin from the festival chef. Combined with a few Staircases, you will fly through Skull Cavern.
If you have been fishing extensively, you should have already pulled a Fire Quartz and at least 5 Gold Ores from fishing treasure chests:
· Smelt a Gold Bar for the Blacksmith's Bundle.
· You only need 1 Solar Essence and 10 Bat Wings to finish the Adventurer's Bundle.
Once you reach Floor 40 in the Mines, having those fishing chest drops allows you to wrap up the Boiler Room extremely fast. Repairing the Minecarts lets us fast-travel around town much more efficiently (I finished mine on Day 10).
General Spring Tips
- Carrot & Summer Squash: Carrots are one of the most useful early crops because they restore a lot of energy, while free Summer Squash seeds yield high energy as well. Between these two, you will never run into energy problems starting in Summer.
- Tree Seeds: Never leave tree seeds (especially Acorns) sitting idle in your chests. Always plant them immediately, as they take time to grow.
- Tulips: Make sure to plant some Tulips, as they are a loved gift for Evelyn. You can calculate the exact number of Tulips needed based on friendship math, though regular gifting works fine too.
- Salmonberries (Spring 15-18): Since we will be busy doing Skull cavern between Spring 15 to Spring 17, Spring 18 is the last day to harvest Salmonberries. Make sure you dont forget to harvest them. Shipping at least one Salmonberry is required for the Shipping Collection, and extra berries can serve as red items for Mr. Qi’s Prismatic Grange quest later on.
- 5,000g Vault Bundle Reward: Completing the 5,000g Vault Bundle rewards 30× Quality Fertilizer. Be sure to place these on your Parsnip crops. This ensures you get 5× Gold-quality Parsnips for the Quality Crops Bundle while also providing high-quality Parsnips for Pam (who loves them).
- Tool Upgrade Timing: Whenever it is going to rain tomorrow, take the opportunity to upgrade a tool of your choice; a Pickaxe, Axe, or Watering Can, since you will be busy fishing throughout the rainy day anyway. Additionally, it is recommended to have at least a Steel Watering Can by Summer, as you must water every single Deluxe Speed-Gro Starfruit seed on Summer 1 to get 3 harvests during the season. You can also upgrade your Watering Can on Spring 27 regardless of the weather, as you will not need to water your crops on Spring 28.
Spring Year 1 Checklist
By the end of Spring Year 1, you should aim to have:- Gold Reserves: Accumulated as much gold as possible to buy as many Starfruit seeds as you can for Summer.
- Sprinkler Materials: Stockpiled as many Iron Bars, Gold Bars, and Refined Quartz as possible to craft Quality Sprinklers. (Note: Processing 1 Quartz in a Furnace yields 1 Refined Quartz, while 1 Fire Quartz yields 3 Refined Quartz).
- Legendary Fish: Caught the Legend and placed it inside a Fish Pond.
- Tool Upgrades: Upgraded to at least a Gold Pickaxe and a Gold or Steel Axe.
- Fruit Trees: Planted a Pomegranate Sapling and an Apple Sapling so they are fully grown and ready to bear fruit by Fall 1.
- Deluxe Speed-Gro: Purchased Deluxe Speed-Gro from Sandy for 80g each by Spring 25 at the latest. (Note: She sells it every Thursday).
- Oak Resin: Started tapping any Oak Trees on your farm to begin accumulating Oak Resin for Kegs.
Community Center Bundles and Items to Be Completed by the End of Spring
1. Crafts Room
- Spring Foraging Bundle: All
- Fall Foraging Bundle: Common Mushroom
- Winter Foraging Bundle: Crystal Fruit and Snow Yam
- Construction Bundle: All
- Exotic Foraging Bundle: Coconut, Cactus Fruit, Cave Carrot, Red Mushroom, Purple Mushroom, or Morel
2. Pantry
- Spring Crops Bundle: All
- Quality Crops Bundle: 5× Gold-quality Parsnips
3. Fish Tank
- River Fish Bundle: Sunfish, Catfish, and Shad
- Lake Fish Bundle: Largemouth Bass, Carp, and Bullhead
- Ocean Fish Bundle: Sardine
- Night Fishing Bundle: Bream and Eel
- Crab Pot Bundle: All
- Specialty Fish Bundle: Ghostfish
4. Boiler Room
(Completed)5. Bulletin Board
- Dye Bundle: Sea Urchin
- Field Research Bundle: Purple Mushroom, Chub, and Frozen Geode
6. Vault
(Completed)Overall 'uncommon' Tips & Tricks
(Will be updated if I decide to write guides for Summer, Fall, and Winter. There are tons more)
1. Help Wanted Quests & Prize Tickets
If you see a Help Wanted quest outside Pierre’s shop, make sure you always take and complete it. It is very important not to miss these:· Stardrop Tea (5th Prize Ticket): The 5th prize ticket machine reward gives a Stardrop Tea. You need this before Summer 13 because it is Alex’s birthday. Giving him a loved gift (like a Complete Breakfast or Salmon Dinner) along with a Stardrop Tea on his birthday will immediately boost your friendship with him by 6 to 8 hearts. On my farm, Alex was the very first villager I maxed hearts with because of this strategy.
· Friendship Gains: Completing Help Wanted quests grants bonus friendship points with the requesting villager. Since maximizing hearts with all villagers is required for Perfection, this comes in very handy.
· Unlocking Mystery Boxes: After collecting the second Prize Ticket from the billboard, a cutscene with Mr. Qi triggers and a popup notifies you that Mystery Boxes can now be found. These boxes contain powerful items: Prismatic Shards, Treasure Chests, Skill Books, Triple Shot Espresso, Lobster Bisque, Crab Cakes, Dressed Spinners, Lucky Lunches, Deluxe Speed-Gro, Farm Totems, Fruit tree saplings, Artichoke Seeds, loved villager foods, mixed seeds, and more. Let me know if you need further explanations why these items are powerful.
· Emergency Gold Reserve: This is the most critical reason to do Help Wanted quests: completed quest rewards are stored safely in your Quest Journal until claimed. This allows you to keep your active pocket gold low enough so that passing out at 2:00 AM costs virtually nothing. Whenever you need emergency funds, simply open your journal and claim a reward like 500g for a bus ticket or 1,000g for a boat ticket to Ginger Island.
2. Fish Horizontally Early On
Always fish horizontally (east/west), especially during the first few days of Spring before you have a backpack upgrade. Casting horizontally allows extra loot to drop safely onto the pier or land without bouncing into the water.3. Mass-Acorn Farming for Keg Production
Never place tappers on trees at the Bus Stop. The Bus Stop and southern Cindersap Forest are the two best locations to actively farm Acorns to bring back and plant on your farm:1. Check around Oak trees daily for fallen Acorns.
2. Observe the growth stages of the wild trees: if it is a Maple tree, chop it down immediately; if it is an Oak tree, apply Tree Fertilizer to speed up its growth.
3. Once fully mature, chop down the Oak tree to collect all its Acorns and replant them on your farm.
4. Do the same in southern Cindersap Forest during your weekly foraging runs (remember: forageables reset every Saturday night).
This exact method is how I crafted over 1,000 Kegs by the end of Year 1.
4. Capitalize on the Green Rain
The Green Rain event in Summer dramatically accelerates tree growth stages (refer to the Stardew Valley Wiki for full mechanics). Make sure you plant all saved tree seeds before the Green Rain hits. Equipped with an Iridium Axe, you can clear fully grown trees during the event to gain massive amounts of Foraging XP.5. Do Not Rush Sprinklers
Only plant as many crops as you are willing to water manually. If you really want to craft sprinklers early:· Focus strictly on Quality Sprinklers.
· Craft at most 5 Basic Sprinklers as a safety net for your 20 Egg Festival Strawberry Seeds mixed with Speed-Gro. These specific 20 seeds require daily watering to yield 3 harvests in Spring.
Other Strawberries (without Speed-Gro) naturally produce 2 harvests. You can safely skip watering them up to 3 times without losing a harvest. Normally, their harvests arrive on Day 21 and Day 25, but you can let the second harvest land on Day 28. For example, if Day 16 turns out to be a Max-Luck day, you can skip watering those Strawberries and immediately use a Desert Warp Totem to start an early Skull Cavern dive.
6. Geode Hoarding for Nintendo Switch (Predictor Free Museum Completion)
You will collect a vast number of Geodes from fishing chests early on. Do not crack open any Geodes yet. Keep hoarding them in chests until around the end of Year 1. Crack enough to just donate 60 pieces to unlock the Sewers to meet Krobus.This method is specifically designed for console/Switch players who cannot use external web predictors:
· While Geode drop contents are predetermined, you can alter the outcome sequence by opening different types of Geodes (Omni, Frozen, Magma, Regular) in different orders.
· By hoarding a massive stock of Geodes and resetting your day, you can brute force the remaining minerals needed to complete the entire Museum collection without third-party tools. (If playing on PC, using a save-predictor is recommended to save real-world time).
Great on reading until the end. That's pretty much for Spring year 1. If you enjoyed and found this helpful and want me to write guides for Summer, Fall, and Winter. Give a vote up and let me know you're interested. Otherwise, I will leave it only Spring year 1 guide. I am sure I've missed some Spring tips and tricks.
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