Stardew Valley: Easiest Villagers To Befriend

Key Takeaways

• Giving loved gifts to villagers is key for friendship in Stardew Valley.
• Villagers like Pam, Vincent, and Haley have easy-to-acquire loved items.
• Focus on early birthdays, easily renewable gifts, and convenient gift locations.

Befriending villagers is an integral part of Stardew Valley, but it tends to be neglected in the early stages of the game. Universally loved gifts are difficult to find, and villagers’ schedules can be hard to remember, making achieving friendship quite hard.

However, some villagers are easier to befriend than others. The following villagers are a good place to start when climbing Pelican Town’s social ladder, as some of their liked and loved gifts are available early in the game.

10 Penny

The Villager With The Most Loved Items

• Easiest Loved Item(s) To Acquire: All Books, Melon
• Lives: Trailer
• Birthday: Fall 2

Stardew Valley‘s 1.6 update introduced 26 readable books to the game, entailing special powers and skill upgrades. All of these books are loved gifts for Penny.

Book powers can only be received once. If a player acquires a duplicate of a previously read book, reading it will do nothing. When finding spare books, the best option is to give them to Penny for easy friendship points.

9 Vincent

Has A Loved Item Available Across Two Seasons

• Easiest Loved Item(s) To Acquire: Grape
• Lives: 1 Willow Lane
• Birthday: Spring 10

Vincent has quite an early birthday, which means that it is easier to earn friendship points with him sooner. He likes Daffodil, which is a spring forageable and can be easily acquired right from day one of spring. Giving a Daffodil to Vincent for his birthday will gain players 360 friendship points with him.

One of Vincent’s loved items is Grape, which can be collected over two seasons, as it is a crop in fall and a forageable item in summer. It is also available to grow through Summer Seeds, making it easy to stockpile throughout the seasons as gifts for Vincent.

8 Haley

Has An Easily Renewable Loved Item

• Easiest Loved Item(s) To Acquire: Sunflower
• Lives: 2 Willow Lane
• Birthday: Spring 14

As with Vincent, Haley likes Daffodil and also has an early birthday, so players can earn 360 friendship points minimum within the first season by giving her a birthday gift.

One of Haley’s loved gifts is Sunflower, which is a Summer crop that can renew itself. When harvesting Sunflowers, players can get up to 2 Sunflower Seeds back, making them an easily accessible and renewable gift for Haley.

7 Willy

A Loved Item From The Trash Can

One of Willy‘s loved items is Catfish, which has the chance of appearing in Garbage Cans throughout spring and fall. Catfish are also available to catch in these seasons on rainy days, but at a difficulty level of 75, a higher fishing level may be required to catch them (depending on the player’s fishing ability).

Gold Ore is available via several means. In the early game, it can be bought from the Blacksmith, dropped from breaking barrels or boxes in the mines, in beachfront artifact spots, or bought from the Traveling Cart. Smelting 5 ores with 1 coal in a furnace for 5 in-game hours creates a Gold Bar, which is one of Willy’s loved items.

6 Linus

Likes Almost All Forageables

Linus has a very easy schedule to follow, rarely leaving The Mountain area, making him easier to track and gift to. One of his loved gifts is Yam, which can be grown in fall or dropped from Duggies in levels 6-29 of The Mines at a 3% drop rate.

Linus is very easy to build friendship with as he likes almost all forageable items, including the four Spring forageables: Leek, Wild Horseradish, Dandelion, and Daffodil.

5 Maru

Loves A Spring Crop And An Easy-To-Cook Item

• Easiest Loved Item(s) To Acquire: Cauliflower, Omelet
• Lives: 24 Mountain Road
• Birthday: Summer 10

Maru loves Cauliflower,a spring crop that can be grown in 12 days from Cauliflower Seeds. These seeds can be found at Pierre’s shop for 80g.

Maru is particularly easy to build a friendship with due to the simplicity of some of her loved items – including Omelet, which is made using 1 milk and 1 egg.

At level 3 foraging, players are given a recipe for a

Cookout Kit

, which unlocks cooking before having to acquire a kitchen. Using cookout kits
saves a lot of gold and resources
that would be spent on upgrading the farmhouse early in the game.

4 George

Loves A Spring Forageable And Has An Easy Schedule

• Easiest Loved Item(s) To Acquire: Leek
• Lives: 1 River Road
• Birthday: Fall 24

As mentioned previously, Leek is a Spring forageable item – making it super easy to acquire early in the game. George, famously, loves Leek. There is even a quest from Evelyn centered entirely around George’s love for Leeks.

George’s schedule is perhaps one of the simplest to remember, as he rarely leaves his home in Pelican Town – only for regular visits to Harvey’s clinic and the statue of Yoba in Pierre’s store. Overall, George is very easy to build friendship with due to the convenience of his loved items and his simple schedule.

3 Clint

Convenient Gifting At His Shop

• Easiest Loved Item(s) To Acquire: Amethyst, Ruby, Omni Geode, Gold Bar
• Lives: Blacksmith – Pelican Town
• Birthday: Winter 26

Clintis close to the top of this list simply for convenient gifting. In the Blacksmith shop, Clint sells various items, including Copper Ore, Iron Ore, Gold Ore, and Coal, all of which can be smelted when placed in a Furnace. The shop’s inventory is highly convenient for early players, as his liked items include Copper Bar and Iron Bar, and he loves Gold Bar.

Moreover, when going to Clint’s to open Omni Geode, players can easily keep one aside for him, as he loves those, too.

2 Shane

Purchase His Loved Gifts From The Saloon

• Easiest Loved Item(s) To Acquire: Beer, Pizza, Hot Pepper
• Lives: Marnie’s Ranch
• Birthday: Spring 20

Half of Shane‘s four loved gifts are available for purchase in the Saloon, making gifting to him easy and convenient in the early stages of Stardew Valley. However, at the Saloon, Beer costs 400g and Pizza costs 600g, which can be quite expensive for new players. But given Shane’s birthday is late in spring, players can purchase Beer or Pizza as a one-off birthday present to earn 640 friendship points.

Furthermore, Shane also loves Hot Pepper, which is a renewable and fairly cheap summer crop to grow. With his availability for early morning conversations on his way to the Joja Mart, Shane is definitely an easy villager to befriend early on (despite his reluctance).

1 Pam

Loves The Easiest Gift Item For New Farmers

• Easiest Loved Item(s) To Acquire: Beer, Parsnip
• Lives: Trailer
• Birthday: Spring 18

As with Shane, players can purchase Beer for Pam at the Saloon as one of her loved gifts. However, there is an even easier item to gift to Pam for maximum friendship points: Parsnip.

On the first in-game day of all farms apart from Meadowlands Farm, Lewis gives the player 15 Parsnip Seeds for free. These can be planted and grown in just 4 days. If 8 out of the 15 Parsnips are given to Pam throughout the first Spring (2 per week, including one on her birthday on Spring 18), players can earn 1,200 friendship points/almost 5 hearts with Pam without even speaking to her. This makes Pam the easiest villager to befriend in Stardew Valley, as the player can repeat this gifting process each spring or even every season if they acquire enough Parsnips.