Stardew Valley: 26 Things You Have To Do Your First Year

Highlights

• Upgrade tools early on for efficiency in Stardew Valley tasks and in the mines for more resources.
• Complete bulletin board requests for gold, friendship, and resources – scaling up in rewards as tasks get harder.
• Save up for the backpack upgrade and explore the mines on rainy days for maximum efficiency and resource gathering.

Players take on the role of the new farmer in town in Stardew Valley, renovating their late grandpa’s farm and making some friends along the way. In Pelican Town, there’s a lot to do to make the farm boom – but for players brand new to the farming simulator life, where should they start?

With crops to grow, events to attend, and mysteries to unravel, new players of Stardew Valley might feel a bit overwhelmed with choices in their first year of their time in the town. The game runs in a seasonal format – four seasons, each 28 days long – so getting rid of all the trees and rocks that have populated ol’ Grandpappy’s farm is just the first thing to check off a lengthy first-year to-do list.

Updated on July 17, 2024, by Ashely Claudino: As players first start exploring Pelican Town in Stardew Valley, they’ll quickly realize that there is plenty to do. While there are various things fans should absolutely do during the first year, it’s important to keep in mind that Stardew Valley is a game that should be all about relaxing and taking it easy. This article has been updated with more entries to help newcomers.

26 Upgrade The Backpack

More Space Means More Money

From hoes to pickaxes, Stardew Valley provides players with everything they need to make their farm thrive at the beginning of the game. Despite this, the farmer’s five main tools take up nearly half of the starting inventory, meaning players will have to make frequent trips to the farm to sell valuable items and make space for new resources.

As soon as possible, players should save up to 2,000g to buy the first backpack upgrade from Pierre. Not only does it give the farmer a total of 24 inventory slots, but it also makes fishing, mining, and foraging trips more efficient. Once players have the expanded inventory, a second upgrade will be available for 10,000g.

25 Accept Bulletin Board & Special Order Requests

Good Deeds Never Go Unrewarded

Next to Pierre’s General Store is a bulletin board where townsfolk leave daily requests they want the farmer to complete; these can be anything from catching a fish, slaying some slimes, or even bringing gemstones or Sea Cucumbers (for girls only, according to Haley’s requests). Completing these quests will award players with gold, friendship, and even resources for their efforts.

In the 1.5 update, a Special Orders board was added to the game, which gets built in front of Mayor Lewis’s house on Fall 2 of Year 1. These requests have longer deadlines to complete (a week or even a whole season), but require much larger amounts of goods. Of course, the rewards are scaled up with the requests – players that bring the needed items to the townsfolk are rewarded with a cut-scene for their efforts.

24 Dig In The Trash

One Man’s Trash Is Another Farmer’s Treasure

Digging in the trash may not seem like the most enjoyable activity in a cozy farming simulator, but players should consider the villagers’ trash their farmer’s treasure during the first year when money, food, and resources are tight.

In the garbage cans around town, players can find gems, food, and other valuables. Certain trash cans, such as the one near the saloon, even have the chance to drop unique items. Of course, players will occasionally find trash in the trash, but even that can be valuable if they save it until they have a Recycling Machine handy. No matter what players find, however, they’ll want to make sure no one else is around when they reach into the nearest garbage can, as getting caught can damage the farmer’s relationships with the townspeople.

Bundles Unlock More Useful Features

On a sunny day around the fifth of spring, Mayor Lewis unlocks the Pelican Town Community Center, just behind the main town square. This building will be up to the player to renovate: either restore the center themselves by donating goods to the various bundles, or join competing mega-corporation Joja Mart’s membership scheme, which makes Lewis sell the building to them for a new warehouse.

The bundles unlock super useful features around Pelican Town for players to utilize, from mine carts that allow fast-travel abilities to a greenhouse on the farm for year-round crops. To unlock the mine carts, the Boiler Room bundle must be completed; the greenhouse is unlocked by finishing the Pantry bundle.

22 Start Collecting Cooking Recipes

Tune Into The Queen of Sauce

Many recipes in Stardew Valley can only be obtained if the player tunes into The Queen of Sauce during a certain day of the year. During the first two years, players will be able to learn new recipes every Sunday. If they miss it, they can check back on Wednesday, as this is when there are reruns of the show.

To watch The Queen of Sauce in Stardew Valley, players must interact with the TV in their homes and choose The Queen of Sauce in the channel selection menu. Even if players don’t have a kitchen set up yet, there’s no harm down – it’s simply a great way to learn recipes for free.

21 Gather Seasonal Forageables

Those Flowers Are Worth A Pretty Penny

As players walk around town, they can find various fruits, vegetables, or other forageable items to pick up. However, while some, like shells on the beach, appear consistently throughout the year, many change with the seasons.

With leeks, dandelions, daffodils, wild horseradish, spring onions, and salmonberries, spring has the widest variety of plants for players to gather as they explore. Nonetheless, players should take advantage of every season’s forgeable items. Not only are they part of the community center if players choose to restore the building, but forageables can also be sold or used as food while enjoying other activities.

20 Spend Winter In The Mines

Hit The Jackpot With Much-Needed Resources

Winter brings a quiet period on the farm; crops don’t grow under snow, after all. For players twiddling their thumbs and waiting for spring to come, there’s a few different things to do after tending to animals – one of the most useful being the mines.

Visiting the mines each day in winter will allow players to hoard precious Wood and Stone for crafting, as well as find the necessary ore for upgrading their tools for the new year. For players who decided to renovate the Community Center without the help of Joja-Mart, plenty of the bundles need gemstones and ore that can be found in the mines as well.

19 Don’t Cut All Your Grass

Keep Some for Later

Grass can be turned into hay, but not unless the player has built a Silo on their farm. Since this requires some resources, it’s likely that gamers won’t have it until a little later into the year. If they cut down all their grass, it’ll take a lot longer for them to start storing hay in the silo, as they’ll have to wait for it to grow once again.

If fans get farm animals without a silo or hay, they’ll spend tons of money purchasing hay from Marnie or their animals will have to remain hungry and unhappy for quite a while.

Find Time to Save Time

Players should attempt to upgrade their tools to bronze in their first year in Stardew Valley. During their first year, they’ll start exploring the mines and gain access to coal and bronze ore. Unlock the bronze upgrade will make it much easier to complete day-to-day tasks both in their farm and in the mines.

Players take some time to plan their weekly activities when they get enough ore so they can schedule upgrades. Since each upgrade takes two days, check the TV and hand in the watering can whenever there’s a scheduled rainy day. Hand in the hoe once you’ve planted most of your crops. Give Clint the axe if you’re planning to spend a few days in the mines or the pickaxe if you’re not planning on heading down so soon.

17 Go To Every Festival

Prizes Await The More Competitive Players

Festivals in Stardew Valley happen around two to three times each season. They’re excellent opportunities to get to know the locals, participate in special competitions, and buy unique goods. The Egg Festival in Spring, for example, is the only source of Strawberry seeds. Meanwhile, elusive deep-sea fish can only be caught at the Night Market.

At first, it might seem like going to a festival is a waste of time that could be better spent fixing up the farm or collecting resources, but as long as players make sure to water their crops and feed their animals before leaving for the festivities, it’s quite the opposite.

16 Keep An Eye On The Calendar

Better Not Forget Someone’s Birthday!

Outside of Pierre’s General Store is a calendar that lists each season’s festivals and everyone’s birthday. Players can boost friendship by gifting townsfolk their favored gifts on their birthdays, which is an easy way to start off on the right foot with each citizen of Pelican Town.

The festivals provide fun events and even better prizes for players who attend each one, and it’s good to keep tabs on when each festival is… as the areas where the events take place shut down for the entire day to prepare for the party. Be ready for Pierre’s to be shut on the days where the town-wide events take place and prepare seeds accordingly!

15 Get Some Sprinklers

Reduce Time Needed to Water Crops

While gamers will unlock better quality sprinklers later on in the game, it’s not a bad idea to craft a few sprinklers so they can automatize some of their farm and save some time completing their daily chores.

Players will first get access to the standard sprinkler when they reach Level 2 Farming. This sprinkler water the four tiles on each of its sides, and it requires 1 Copper Bar and 1 Iron Bar, so if fans have any additional resources laying around, they should build a few of these.

14 Befriend Townsfolk

They’ll Repay Your Kindness Tenfold

Alongside the bachelors and bachelorettes of Pelican Town, there are a few different townsfolk that can be great friends – especially during the first year, when gold is pretty scarce. While some of the townsfolk provide cute cutscenes that dig a little deeper into their characters, some characters give pretty great gifts for early-game cash.

Townsfolk like Marnie, Caroline, and even Willy can provide useful recipes, resources, and ways to get rich quick, especially thanks to Caroline’s Tea Leaves that she teaches players to make.

13 Plan The Farm

Preparing For The Future Never Hurts

As players progress through year one, they’re likely to start thinking about their future plans for the farm. In later years, for instance, most players will likely end up building a stable to get a horse, helping them get around the farm and Pelican Town faster. When first starting to construct different buildings and structures around the farm, do a little planning first to ensure that the layout works and that a horse will be able to get through the gaps between buildings, as they require a bit more room to move around than the player does.

Particularly motivated players can even find a screencap of their preferred farm’s layout and map out where to put everything, finding the perfect place for coops, barns, silos, and ponds with the right spacing.

12 Visit The Merchant

She Provides Weird & Wonderful Goods

Should the player choose to complete the community center instead of getting a Joja membership, they will need to gather several rare and difficult-to-find items for the bundles. At times, these items may not even be introduced during the first year, making the community center even more challenging to complete quickly.

Luckily every Friday and Sunday, a traveling merchant parks her storefront in the forest south of the farm. She sells a variety of valuable and elusive items, including the rare Red Cabbage that players need for the community center bundles but can’t otherwise get during the first year.

11 Make Tappers

Stock Up On Sap & Syrups

After reaching the third level of Foraging, players can craft tappers using 40 pieces of wood and two copper bars. Once made, tappers can be placed on trees to provide the player with oak resin, maple syrup, and pine tar. While players can sell these as artisan goods, they’re also used to craft a variety of items and machines in the game.

As soon as the recipe is available, make some tappers and place them on all different types of trees around the forest and farm to stock up on essentials.

10 Plant Fruit Tree Saplings

Fruit Can Be Used For Building Bundles Or Building A Fortune

Some of the more expensive items that players can buy from Pierre’s General Store are the various fruit saplings, worth 2,000 Gold apiece. While these cost a pretty penny, they’re definitely an investment that players will want to cash in on in the first year of their time in Pelican Town.

Fruit of various kinds – apricots, cherries, oranges, peaches, apples, and pomegranates – are needed for Community Center bundles, gifts, and recipes, but the trees take an entire season to grow. After unlocking Ginger Island, banana and mango saplings are available for purchase. Plan accordingly and grow fruit trees in time for their various seasons!

9 Build A Silo

Hoard That Hay

All kinds of stray grass grow around the farm, and although it may be tempting for players to whip out their scythe and cut it all down right away, they should resist the urge until they’ve requested and received a silo from Robin. Using the scythe on that grass will deposit hay into the silo, which can be used to feed animals later on.

Even if players don’t think they’ll be ready to get a barn or coop during the first year, it’s still important to place a silo somewhere on the farm to collect hay in the meantime. Otherwise, plan to make a lot of trips to Marnie to purchase it, especially during Winter.

8 Get Animals

They’re A Worthy Investment

Animals provide valuable products for selling, cooking, and bundle completing, so players should save up gold and resources to build coops and barns as soon as possible. Robin can build the homes for the farmer’s friends within two days of giving her enough gold to do so.

For players looking for some variety in their chicken coops, try befriending Shane, Marnie’s nephew. He’s not only an eligible bachelor, but after his eight-heart friendship event, he unlocks the ability to buy blue chickens from Marnie’s shop.

7 Donate Artifacts

A Full Museum Is A Happy Museum

During their time in Pelican Town, players will likely see little lines wiggling back and forth on the ground. These lines might look like worms, stems, or twigs, but they’re called artifact spots. If players hit them with their hoe, resources, lost books, or artifacts will pop out. While certain artifacts, like gems, can also be found while breaking geodes, hitting artifact spots is a great way to find location-specific items to donate to the library’s museum.

Most artifacts aren’t worth much money on their own, so donating items is often the best use for them whenever they turn up. As an extra incentive, once the museum receives more and more donations, Gunther starts giving out valuable rewards. Any artifacts the player has yet to contribute to the town’s collection will have the description text, “Gunther can tell you more if you donate this to the museum.”