I think Lew says it all perfectly. But I will admit that I totally "cheated" in this manner on my first save (and the second one following). BUT, I usually tried to guess unless it's a birthday. So partially cheating? Is that a thing?IMO consulting the Wiki and any other info about NPCs/Gifts/etc. is not cheating at all as Stardew Valley is so flexible that everyone can play the same game a thousand different ways and all do their own thing. And that's even before adding in Mods.
The only way I could consider anything "cheating" is if you dip into the wiki too often on your first playthrough, then you are cheating yourself. IMO that's serious as this game is sooo wonderful and involving on that first playthrough that getting too many spoilers will ruin that amazing and pristine first experience and you can never get that back.
That's not cheating the game, it's cheating yourself.
Yes yes yes to all of this!I used the Wiki when figuring something out for myself would absolutely have decreased my game enjoyment... so, sparingly but with no particular feelings of guilt when I did.
I have opinions about where the line is in mods between quality of life and cheat, but they're not clean crisp lines. If a person HATES fishing then auto catch or generally "make it less frustrating " mods keep them going? Eh, it's their game. A person has a hand tremor and can't do fine control? Well absolutely mods that would be a total cheat for ME aren't a cheat for them. And if you're making mods, things that let you test out the details without having to play through another solid month each time make sense. I still prefer mods that bring in new characters or places or such over most quality of life mods, but that's all taste.
What I actually think is the closest to a real cheat is actually the "name your character, pet or farm animal something that spawns a huge pile of stuff" which is in the base game code, but I also watched the super crazy speed runs that use them, so...