It’s one of the few games I’ve played where I haven’t felt pressure to win, just to have fun. I’ve definitely done some things in ignorance that have delayed progress, but I’ve enjoyed the playtime so I don’t consider it a waste. Do the things you like, find ways around the rest, and have fun.
The exception to this, IMO, is to be sure to interact with the community at least some. A large part of the game’s charm comes from the community, and I think you’d miss out if you didn’t interact with anyone.
I agree with most of what's been said. I'll add that v1.6 is being released on March 19; I'm not sure if that includes PS5, but it's worth checking for.
Fishing can be hard. I'm not sure how much of this transfers from the PC to the PS5, but: fishing closer to shore generally gets you easier fish. You can buy fish stew from Willy, which increases your fishing level for a couple hours, which can be useful if you're struggling. Similarly, the daily special from the bar sometimes has fishing buffs. [When you have money to spend on extravagances, you can buy a phone from Robin, which is part of my wakeup routine: check all the tv channels, and call Gus to find the daily specials.] If you zoom in, the fishing bar becomes bigger and you need less fine detail in maneveuring the bar. Stuff you pull in from crab pots (available from level 2 fishing) counts toward increasing your fishing level. Probably other fishing stuff, that's what occurs offhand.
You can stash chests around the valley to store things in, but try to put them in out of the way places like in bushes, etc; if the NPCs walk through them, your chest is destroyed. But its really nice to have a spare chest at the beach or at the top of the dungeon elevators; some people stash them near people's houses and dump presents for the occupants in them, so they don't have to carry them around.
Plant some of every crop and keep some of every produce you make. People always want a melon at weird times and everything is a cooking ingredient.
There is no shame in looking up what people like as gifts.
Don’t be scared to upgrade your tools as soon as you can because you might need them. The savings in energy and time will be worth it very very quickly.
Build a silo or two early and stock up on hay. Yes you can buy it in winter if you have to, but being prepared feels good ^^
Fishing becomes a lot easier once you get the better poles. Investing here early can be worth it. And if you hate fishing, crab pots are your friend.
I personally recommend going with the flow and enjoy first of all. Once you start on the community building do a bunch until you want to stop playing and then look at guides.
Just do you. The game isn’t going to punish you if you “choose wrong stuff to do.” I don’t think the game even has a “fail condition”/“game over”. Plant seeds, talk to people, bop some bats, and enjoy the ride.
My latest playthrough is on a multiplayer farm, where my kids and my partner drop in a few times a week. We just chill and do whatever we want. This is one of the best good vibes only games out there.
e: If you wanna POWER GAME to being rich, here’s your crops:
SpY1: Turnips until the Egg Festival (ensure the last harvestable day is before that date). Buy as many strawberry seeds as you can. Plant them, sell the high quality ones, and save as many of the normal ones as you think you’ll need to grind into seeds for your projected field size next Spring. Go make a spreadsheet from data on the Wiki if you’re really hardcore.
But that’s not really what the game is about. You make friends with a couple dozen very cool folks, build a farm that looks cool as hell, reject capitalism, explore several dungeons, aid in some critical archeology, facilitate a violent revolution of the (1) proletarian against an invasion by outside powers, and FALL IN LOVE! 😍
You want to make as many artisan goods as you can, that’s where the late game money comes from. Try to unlock the greenhouse as early as possible and then plant fruit trees around the rim of the farmable soil inside.
Random list of things new players are sometimes confused about:
Restoring the community center and buying the Joja membership is mutually exclusive. If you want to experience both, you need two save files. You can start with the community center bundles and later decide to go with Joja, but not the other way around.
After you unlock the community center, there will be a little tree icon added to the inventory view. You can click (or tap? whatever controller users call that) it for looking at the bundles without having to walk to the community center building in town. The icon pulsates when you hover over an item in your inventory or a chest that is needed for the bundles.
Speaking of chests, craft chests to store things. You can store extra crops, fish etc. in case you need them later, and you don’t have to carry all your tools around all day. You can put chests anywhere on the map, but be vary of villagers’ walking paths and the resetting mine floors (top floor of the mine is fine, though).
You can buy backpack upgrades from Pierre. After you do, you get an additional row of inventory space. You can switch your toolbar to the next row with (https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Controls) L1/R1 on a PS4 controller or the tab key on a keyboard.
Crops die at the end of the season. If you plant something on Spring 20th that takes 8 days to grow, fine, you get your last harvest on Spring 28th. If you plant the same crop later, you will only find a dead crop on Summer 1st. There are multi-season crops that last for the two or three seasons that they can be planted in, but even those die in winter.
Farm animals usually feed on the grass on your farm. But they don’t go outside in winter or on rainy days. So you need to feed them. Robin can build a silo that stores the grass that you cut with a scythe as hay for your animals. Then, you have to manually get the hay out of the dispenser in the coop/barn and place it in the feeder (except after you upgraded your coop/barn twice, then it’s automated). Alternatively, you can buy hay at Marnie’s.
A lot has been said and it’s absolutely true. Just take your time. Even if the games starts to feel like you should rush you don’t have to, there is no time limit.
Just 2 things I want to add:
if the fishing mini game feels to hard, go to Willy (the fishing shop where you get your first fishing rod) and buy the training rod, it costs 25G and makes the first steps so much easier. Just remember to throw it away after the first 3 or so fishing levels, cause you can only catch the basic fish with it no matter your skill level.
Use the wiki: even though the last updates made it easier to figure stuff like loved presents for each NPC, it’s still a pain in the a**. And after so many updates (or more free add ons), there is a lot of stuff you can do and sometimes have to know otherwise it can be frustrating.
There’s practically* nothing in this game that is missable. No matter what it is, if you’re late, you can just get it later, one way or another.
*Singular, micro-lore exception, is the 3-friendship heart event of Sam. If you live in fear-of-missing-out like I do, get 3 hearts with him before winter of year 1 (plenty of time, no rush), and then go to the beach on a sunny day, for a little view of family time. Absolutely nothing lost if you don’t.
But if you do that, you can feel absolute comfort that there is nothing you can miss any more in this game 😄
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