Getting Started

Stardew Valley is an open-ended game, allowing the player to achieve goals non-linearly.
There are various ways to earn income and many activities to choose from including farming, fishing, foraging, mining, combat (fighting enemies), crafting, cooking, gift giving, completing quests, and restoring the Community Center.

Character creation

The Character Creation screen allows options for character name, gender, appearance, farm name, and preferred pet.

• There are 24 skin tones, 32 hair styles, 112 shirts and 20 accessories to choose from.
• The sliders next to eye color, hair color, and pants color represent hue, saturation, and lightness.
• The pet chosen here determines which pet will arrive on the farm later.
• Gender does not affect ingame marriage.
• The "favorite thing" will be referenced ingame when the player eats a Stardrop. If the player chooses ConcernedApe as their favorite thing, the following message will apear when you eat a Stardrop:

Players can later change their appearance for data-sort-value="500">500g, in the Wizard's tower, after reaching 4 Hearts of friendship with him.

Controls

All hotkeys can be reassigned by opening the menu and choosing the Options tab

Key	Description
W A S D	W moves the character up, A moves left, S moves down, D moves right
Left Click, C	Use tool
Right Click, X	Check/Do Action
Escape, E	Open Menu
F	Open Journal
M	Open Map window
Left Shift	Run
1 - 0,  - ,  +	Inventory hotkeys
F4	Screenshot mode
Mouse Selection	Click on any item position with your mouse, even empty ones (which cannot be done with the mouse wheel or even the hotkeys)

Preparing Your First Harvest

• Use your axe, pickaxe, and scythe on the logs, stones, grass and bushes on your farm to clear about 15 tiles.
• Use your hoe to till the soil and plant the 15 Parsnip Seeds provided by Mayor Lewis.
• Use your watering can to water your seeds and soil.
• Continue watering your crops every day until they grow in to harvestable crops. Your parsnips will be ready to harvest in 4 days.

Watering Can

Crops needs to be watered daily in order to grow. The starting watering can can only water one tile at a time and can be refilled using either of the ponds located on your farm.

Your crops can stay one day without watering. This means you can water them every 2 days if you want to, but this causes the crops to grow slower.

The best time to upgrade the watering can is the day before it is supposed to rain, so that the rain will water the crops, or the second to last day of the season. The Blacksmith will need 2 days to upgrade any tools, including watering can.

Another way to water crops is to use Sprinklers. They will automatically water the surrounding tiles daily. There are 3 types of sprinklers that can water surrounding tiles, starting with 4 tiles (adjacent to the sprinkler), 8 tiles (surrounding 3x3 area), and 24 tiles (surrounding 5x5 area).

Energy

Energy limits productivity. One of the main ways to overcome this is by eating food. Most crops and many foraged items can be eaten in order to regain energy.

On the third day of summer, an earthquake will remove the rocks that block the path leading to the Spa (north of the Carpenter's Shop). The Spa will fully restore energy over a short period of time.

Skills

To level up skills, the player must complete certain actions related to that skill. Farming XP is earned by fully growing a crop. Foraging XP is earned by foraging or chopping down trees. Mining XP is earned by breaking rocks and ore deposits. Fishing and using crab traps will increase fishing XP. As the skill level increases, the player will earn crafting recipes (every level except level 5 and 10) or professions (on level 5 and 10).

Professions (level 5 and 10) can give the player a boost on yielding products, including more products gained, additional selling price, using less inventories and others. The players choice of a level 5 profession will determine which profession choices are available at level 10.

Villagers & Friendship

Giving gifts to villagers will increase their friendship rating. As friendship is earned villagers will send cooking recipes or food through the mail, give you access to their bedrooms, and treat you differently in dialogue. Unique cutscenes and interactions can also occur as friendship is earned. The player must also earn a high level of friendship in order to date, and eventually marry, an eligible villager.

See also: List of Best Gifts by Villager, Marriage, and Social

Television

The television provides useful information, such as weather forecasts, fortune telling, free cooking recipes, and other general tips.