This article is part of a directory: Stardew Valley: A Complete Guide and Walkthrough
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There are a lot of ways to play and enjoy Stardew Valley. Players can focus on farming, crafting, exploring, or more likely a combination of all the above and more. There are a lot of things to do and see in this game.

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Perhaps because of this, players will often make mistakes that can inadvertently hinder their progress. Many players don’t pay attention to the little things that can become complicated nuisances later on. Here are some of the more common mistakes first-time players make and how to avoid them.

Updated on May 12, 2023 by Michael Christopher: There's no shortage of information thrown at the player in the early days of Stardew Valley. While the game is relatively simple once you've played it for a bit, it can be overwhelming at the start. We've decided to update this guide and add a few more things to avoid for those who are not (yet) experts at the game. Good luck out there farmers!

18 Ignoring Worms In The Ground (Artifact Spots)

Stardew Valley Artifact Spots On Beach

As the player walks around, they’ll come across these strange spots on the ground with worms wriggling in the center. Unbeknownst to many beginners, these are Artifact Spots. When dug out with a Hoe, these spots can contain valuable loot.

Lost Books, Artifacts, valuable crops, and Ore — among other things — can be found in these spots. They have a very small chance of spawning every day. These items are incredibly useful for progression, and finding even one can make the early game much easier.

17 Wasting Winter

Stardew Valley Winter Sculptures

Considering planting and harvesting crops typically takes place in the warmer periods, many players mistakenly assume Winter is a waste. They end up wandering around aimlessly and not taking advantage of this prime time.

Winter is a great quarter for making plans, gathering resources, speaking with locals, and other activities that are hard to pursue in the Fall or Spring. Winter is the season to strategize for the upcoming year, explore, become more social, catch some fish, go mining, and much more. Another great idea is to upgrade the Watering Can, since you most likely won't need it during this season.

16 Not Understanding The Save Mechanics

Stardew Valley Character Sleeping At Home

This issue isn’t one of willful self-sabotage, but more of a lack of knowledge about how the game’s mechanics work. The game saves whenever the player character sleeps. It does not save when the player closes the game and there are no autosave features or checkpoints.

Many beginners are unaware of this initially, or forget in the early stages of the game. As a result, they may check out during the day and lose some of their progress. Admittedly, it isn’t major; at most, a player will lose a day’s worth of work. But it can be frustrating, and losing that big catch from a lucky fishing trip is no fun.

15 Avoiding Garbage Cans

Stardew Valley Raiding Garbage Can

When starting out, the beginner’s biggest obstacle is a lack of resources. One activity that can be used early on to obtain helpful items is to dig through garbage cans. These have a chance to spawn a number of items. The most helpful include the Cave Carrot, Field Snack, and Largemouth Bass. Of course, there is also the possibility to obtain useless items like Trash or Soggy Newspaper.

This should never be done in front of any NPCs, as it harms the player's relationship with the character. The only exception to this is Linus, who will develop a camaraderie with the player digging through trash.

One particularly good spot to hit is the trash can pictured above, just to the right of the Stardrop Saloon. Gus, the owner, will often throw out uneaten dishes from the day before, so you can find decent meals here for restoring health and energy, or for powerful buffs.

14 Wasting Prismatic Shards On Gifting

Prismatic Shard SDV 1

Prismatic Shards are valuable items that have a number of uses in the game. One of the least useful purposes for these items is to give to fellow villagers to boost relationships, as every villager except Haley loves them. However, Prismatic Shards have so much potential that they should never be wasted on friendship, especially given how rare they are.

For instance, they can be used to get the Galaxy Sword, buy Magic Rock Candy, and enchant tools in the forge. There are plenty of other gifts give to the villagers that don’t require wasting Prismatic Shards.

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13 Not Planning Ahead

Stardew Valley Farm Layout

With so much to do each day, it’s common for players to get so distracted they forget to think ahead. It’s important to remember that this game is built around the idea that little actions each day lead to greater results in the long run.

Players should be doing things that feed into the larger plan. For example, wood should be gathered to build more storage chests to stockpile seeds that will be needed through Winter. A player should never just be gathering wood because they don’t know what else to do. Odds are, there's something you can be doing to help make tomorrow easier.

12 Cutting Down All the Grass

Stardew Valley Grass

Hay is expensive to purchase from Marnie and annoying to have to grow. So, instead of chopping it all down, let it spread around Barns and Coops, then leave the doors open. Animals will eat grass growing wild before they eat the Hay you provide for them, so it's wise to not completely clear it all the time.

If it's raining or Winter, animals will not come out to eat grass, but otherwise, it's a great way to save! You can even place a fence post over some grass tiles to prevent animals from eating those bits, and more grass will spread from those un-eatable tiles.

11 Building Silos Too Late

Barn and Silo Stardew Valley

Silos are cheap and easy to build, and they should absolutely be built before any animal buildings or the purchase of any actual animals. This is because grass that is cut with a Scythe will, a large percentage of the time, produce Hay that is automatically sent to the Silo. It'll be stored here until the player retrieves it or, if they have an auto-feeder, it will automatically fill the feed bench inside the Barns and Coops on their farm.

It's wise to build a Silo earlier rather than later, as all the grass that you cut down without a Silo is sort of a waste. It's also great to build up some Hay storage before Winter comes.

10 Putting Off Bundles

Stardew Valley Bundle

At first, Bundles may seem like a minor thing or perhaps even part of an achievement system. What most beginning players fail to realize is that Bundles are used to unlock later content. Even worse is that many of the Bundles are season specific.

Many new players will ignore the Fall Bundles only to realize their importance in Winter or Spring, and need to wait. Players shouldn’t break their backs trying to get these done, but dedicating some time every once in a while to check on the remaining items is worth it. You can even check the Bundles from your inventory screen, so you don't need to walk all the way to the Community Center for a quick check.

9 Ignoring NPCs

stardew valley maru gift

With all the farming, gathering, and crafting that needs to be done, talking to the locals seems like a waste of time and effort. Unfortunately, it takes time to build relationships with those NPCs, and that requires having conversations over and over again.

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The locals in Pelican Town will give the player important recipes, send them gifts in the mail, and much more. It's wise to begin having conversations with people when you see them, or else you'll be stuck grinding friendship points later when you realize you need a certain recipe from someone.

8 Accidentally Gifting Trash

Caroline Hated Gift Stardew Valley

When venturing out to talk to NPCs, it's vital to remember that, if you have something in your hand (visible by the farmer holding it over their head), you'll give it to someone when you speak to them. It's incredibly easy to forget and accidentally give someone something they hate. Bait is a particularly easy thing to forget is in your hands, since you pull it out to stock Crab Pots. Then, when you accidentally hand it to an NPC, they find it understandably gross. Make sure to cycle off giftable items to a tool or an empty inventory space before talking to your villagers!

7 Not Watching TV

Stardew Valley TV

In a farming game like Stardew Valley, it’s strange to think that watching TV would be an important part of the day. But, it turns out the TV is a great source of information that beginners might take way too long to find out about.

  • The weather channel lets players know what’s happening tomorrow, which can have a large impact on your day.
  • The Fortune Teller lets players know what their Daily Luck is, which can significantly alter the odds of finding treasure, delving into the mines successfully, or catching rare fish (and more).
  • Living Off The Land is a running series of tips and tricks.
  • Perhaps most important is the Queen of Sauce who teaches players recipes that will be helpful when they build a kitchen and start cooking later. In fact, it’s often the only source of these recipes and reruns are a year away.

6 Eating Raw Products

stardew cooking menu with spicy eel selected

Almost every raw ingredient in Stardew becomes much better if it's cooked into a meal. Rather than restoring a tiny bit of health and energy, they should be processed in a machine or cooked into a meal to restore more of those stats, as well as to (sometimes) offer powerful buffs.

A simple example is an Egg. When eaten, a standard Egg will provide 25 energy and 11 health. However, cook it into a Fried Egg (it's the only ingredient) and those numbers double to 50 energy and 22 health. An example of an artisan good that should be created instead of eating the raw product is Cheese. A standard jug of Milk will restore 38 energy and 17 health. When processed in a Cheese Press, it'll turn into Cheese, which restores 125 energy and 56 health.

A final example with a buff included is Bean Hotpot. It takes two Green Beans to make this dish, each of which provides 25 energy and 11 health at standard quality. However, Bean Hotpot provides 125 energy and 56 health, as well as granting +30 Max Energy and +32 Magnetism for seven minutes!

In the early game, before the Kitchen is constructed or before the player can stockpile many machines, eating raw products is sometimes a necessity. However, this should be done sparingly, as it's much better to process them into something better first.

5 Forgetting To Feed Animals

Petting a Pig Stardew Valley

For absent-minded players it's good news that animals will not die if the player forgets to feed them. The downside is those animals will stop producing valuable resources the player can use.

Adding to this is the fact that even if they start producing, the quality will be affected if they don’t receive enough food. Forgetting to feed chickens every now and then may not seem like a big deal if they continue producing, but remembering leads to bigger eggs and better quality.

4 Getting Tunnel Vision

Sell Screen Stardew Valley

It’s very easy for players to get into a rut of repeating the same steps over and over again without any real progress. Beginners will often grind out making money without really understanding what they want to spend it on. Additionally, it's easy to focus on one product to sell without diversifying your portfolio.

The other downside to this mistake is that players learn how to do something, and never realize there are better ways to doing it. It’s easy to fish the same spot over and over again, not realizing better bait increases the odds of better fish, or that different locations contain different fish.

3 Putting Off Sleep

Stardew Valley Bed

Like in real life, players need to ensure they’re getting enough sleep in the game. If the player puts off sleep too long, they risk not getting quality sleep which results in less energy for the next day.

It’s hard to balance the need to get everything done and get to bed early enough. However, it’s important to maintain peak efficiency over the long haul. In many cases, it’s often not worth finishing that one last project and it's more wise to put it off until tomorrow. Taking the time to do that activity can result in not having enough energy to do everything tomorrow and starting a vicious cycle.

If the player goes to bed before midnight, they'll wake up with full energy. However, anytime after midnight will result in a decreased amount of energy the next day. Every ten minutes after midnight, they'll see a decrease in 2.5% of their energy from its maximum threshold, with larger jumps of 12.5% at 1am and 2am. If the player goes to bed at 2am, they'll only have half of their energy the next day.

2 Forgetting To Be Efficient...

Scarecrow Range Size Stardew Valley

Players will often flit between activities not realizing there are ways to be more efficient. Lump activities together; for example, if the player is going into town for supplies, they should visit a few NPCs. If the player is getting wood, they should consider planting tree seeds to replace those they cut down, ensuring ease of wood gathering in days to come.

There are also more efficient practices when it comes to using the limited space on the farm. Consider carefully the range of a Scarecrow, for example. Instead of piling them in haphazardly, make some extra room for machines or crops by placing Scarecrows in a more efficient way. The Sprinkler and Scarecrow combination can be a tough one to figure out, but doing so will definitely help you make the most efficient use of your farming space.

Check out the "Sprinklers and Scarecrows" section of our beginner farming guide for full details on the space covered by these items.

1 ... But Choosing Efficiency Over Fun

Stardew Valley Cool Farm

However, while efficiency is important, perhaps the biggest and most common mistake players make with this game is forgetting that it’s a game. The point is to have fun. Players can get so lost in the literal weeds they get burned out and get sick of the grind.

It may not make the most sense to go to the Skull Cavern or go to the Fair with all the things to do, but sometimes taking that break to do something fun is important. People in real-life need the occasional break and doing activities in Stardew Valley is no different.

In the end, there's no "end" to Stardew and no time limit or firm objective, so if you want to just waste a day or take things slow, that's great! It's all about balance.

Next: Harvest Moon Vs. Stardew Valley: Which Is Better?