Getting Started
Welcome to Stardew Valley! This guide should help familiarize you with the game's mechanics and interface, and aid you as you adjust to life on the farm.
Character Creation
At the Character Creation screen you can choose your name, gender, the name of your farm, your preferred pet and your appearance. Later on, if you're unhappy with your basic appearance (skin tone, shirt, pants, cannot change gender), or just want a new shirt, try giving gifts to the Wizard. He has a secret room below his tower that can transform your look for 500g.
- 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 you choose here determines which pet you have on your farm.
- The gender you choose does not affect which villagers you can marry.
- Your favorite thing is sometimes referenced in-game. Example - Using the word "Butts" can lead to funny conversations with townsfolk, but you might want something less comical like "Discovery" or "Pizza".
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) |
Watch TV and Have Fun
When you wake up on the first day be sure to check your television to the left before leaving home. It has useful information such as weather forecasts for the current and next day, fortune telling, general game tips (random times), and free cooking recipes (random times). Try checking it again before bed to make sure you get a good amount of viewing.
Stardew Valley's gameplay is open ended, allowing the player to perform whatever tasks they want and achieve the game's goals non-linearly. You're encouraged to be productive, and there are more ways to earn income than simply farming. You can also fish, forage, mine, fight monsters (in the mines), raise livestock, make artisan goods, give gifts to neighbors (to improve friendship), explore, upgrade your house, complete quests, and restore the Community Center to unlock new areas and features in the game.
Tilling the Soil
Mayor Lewis has left a little housewarming gift to help you get settled into your new life — 15 pouches of parsnip seeds!
Use the hoe on soil to allow seed planting.
Tips and Tricks
Love a Rainy Night
The best times to upgrade the watering can is when the following day doesn't require its use. Such as the day before rain is expected, or the second to last day of the season. Water your plants that day and turn it in for an upgrade. Let the rain take care watering your plants the next morning, or forget about them if it's the end of the season. Pick it up from the Blacksmith on the 3rd day and lose no watering time.
An alternative to the watering can is watering via Sprinklers. These will automatically water adjecent tiles every morning and are unlocked fairly early on as well. They can render early watering can upgrades unnecessary, but requires a different set of resources. Both methods, and anything in between, are viable play styles with varying desirability depending on the situation.
Keep on Working!
One may have notice how energy limits productivity, and circumventing this limit will naturally allow the players to do more within the same in-game time frame. The most common way to achieve this is via eating, thus it pays dividend to save a stockpile of selected foodstock to facilitate just that. Also, on the third day of summer of the first year, the Spa opens up. Relaxing in there will restore energy fully, and only at the cost of time.
Moonlight Sonata
Owning a farm shouldn't stop anyone from getting additional income sources. Once the farm is to tended to and your energy is resplenished, try mining, foraging, and/or fishing to round the day out, not just for the money, but also for the resources as well. Many of which will be used in future upgrades and crafts.