Sometimes games become so popular and thoroughly played that gamers begin making up challenges to keep them interesting. Twitch streamer The Happy Hob is known for doing insane no-hit runs of not only the Dark Souls games, but also Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro as well. Likewise, some choose to play Skyrim without killing any enemies, or perhaps without dying at all themselves. The hit farming sim Stardew Valley is no different.
Players have creatively come up with many challenges to spice up the Stardew Valley experience. For example, some will try and only sell a certain product type or crop, like wine, beer, and other alcohol products. There's also the Joja Challenge or Evil Run of Stardew Valley, which requires siding with and finishing all Joja-related tasks in the game instead of going the normal, more wholesome route. A newer Stardew Valley player challenge comes from Redditors and has become popular within the player community, so here's the rundown of how others can participate in the No Bin Stardew Valley Challenge.
The No Bin Stardew Valley Challenge
Here, the word "bin" doesn't refer to a trash can but rather the shipping bin used to sell items on a daily basis. The main premise of the challenge dictates that players cannot use the shipping bin for the entire first year in Stardew Valley until the final day, Winter 28, when they would sell everything they've collected thus far and see what the end results would be. This means that players would still grow crops, raise farm animals, and fish, but they can only be saved until the final day and can't be sold before then. Items cannot be sold at shops around town, either. Additionally, in the end, players would sell everything that can be sold through the bin, including things they'd normally want to save like sprinklers and leftover seeds for the highest turnover.
The caveat here, which is also the primary form of income, is doing quests posting in Pelican Town is allowed. Unfortunately, the quests posted outside of Pierre's General Store typically pay less than 1,000 gold, so players would still need to be exceptionally frugal to make it through this Stardew Valley challenge. Additionally, the farmers will sometimes get money in the mail, which is also allowed because it doesn't involve selling anything. Interestingly, though, at least according to the Redditor that did the challenge, it's fine to sell excess weapons and boots that can be found in the mine.
It's presumably quite the difficult challenge because the player cannot sell anything until the final day, which is obviously the primary money-maker. At the beginning of a Stardew Valley save file, players start off with a little bit of money, which is probably best spent on potato seeds, which are the most profitable Spring crop when taking into account the fact that their plants yield a harvest every six days and they sell for considerable more than beans.
While they go overlooked most of the time, Stardew Valley players participating in the No Bin Challenge would want to utilize Wild Seeds, which can be crafted using the seasonal forage, and Mixed Seeds, which can be found several ways including by tilling dirt or finding them in treasure chests when fishing.
In the end, the goal is to have the most profitable first Stardew Valley year possible. In this way, it's important to max out the farming skill to level 10, if possible, which can be done through farming crops and tending to livestock. Doing so can lead to the Artisan skill, which comes after tiller. Selling artisan products like dinosaur mayonnaise, truffle oil, and some aged wines are some of the most profitable farming items in Stardew Valley, and the Artisan skill increases those sales by a whopping 40 percent.
Because this Stardew Valley challenge has been popular recently, it would be exciting to see more players posting their Winter 28 profits as a form of high scores to compare amongst the community.
Stardew Valley is out now for Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.