After a much-needed spring break, let’s begin with the usual.

The game of the week is…

“Stardew Valley”

I feel like I always say this in every post but I LOVE “Stardew Valley.”

I first started playing “Stardew Valley” in my second semester of college on my first gaming laptop. 

I started off playing by myself and then made a world with my boyfriend and then another world with my friends. 

Before I get into my worlds/farms, I’ll tell you a bit about “Stardew Valley.”

“Stardew Valley” is a farm-life simulator game. 

Before I start by describing the opening scene, if you would like to just watch a video about it, I’ll post the link below.

https://youtu.be/358KwkXv3qo?si=wdY_lKtX9UxFAOij

If you want to listen to it, then stay and enjoy.

At the start of the game, it opens with your grandfather lying on his bed with a letter in his hand. There’s a bunch of dialogue which if you haven’t played “Stardew Valley,” I’ll let you find out. Then it peers to your old boring office job at JojaMart (which we will get into why I HATE THEM). 

You go to open your desk drawer, which contains the letter your grandfather wrote for you.

In that letter, you find out you inherited your grandfather’s old plot in a place called Stardew Valley, near a town called Pelican Town.

Then it peers to a bus driving to Stardew Valley. Once the bus reaches Stardew Valley, a woman named Robin is there to greet you and show you where the plot of land your grandfather owned. From then on, it’s you starting the game, meeting people and having fun.

Your farm will look like this at first.

But once you learn how to play and build new things, your farm could look like this. (I would have supplied my own photo of one of my farms, but my gaming laptop has sadly passed away.)

In “Stardew Valley,” there are many different aspects to the game. 

The first aspect: different seasons. 

It follows the basic season pattern. So we start in spring, then summer, fall, and finally, winter (the worst season for this game, extremely boring). This continues throughout however long you play. Each time you get back to spring, it counts as one year.

The second aspect: farming. 

It’s funny because I hate having to wake up and water my crops every day. However, it is a farming game so I have no choice. Just like in real life, not all crops can grow in all seasons. 

So, a shop in town called Pierre’s General Store sells each crop for each season (only during that season of course). For example, in spring the shop offers parsnips, bean starters, cauliflower seeds, potato seeds, tulip bulbs, kale seeds, jazz seeds, garlic seeds, and rice shoots. A lot I know. 

You can only buy crops for 3 out of the 4 seasons. Since winter is completely cold, nothing can grow so in my opinion, the winter season is BORING. I do nothing.

This website (linked below) offers the best information for growing crops and buying things from Pierre’s General Store. 

https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Pierre%27s_General_Store#Fall_Stock

To plant these crops you have to make a hoe (not that kind of hoe). Using that hoe, you will till the soil. After doing so, you can then plant your crops. After planting your crops, you will need to water them. Every. Single. Day.

If you don’t water your crops, they won’t die. They will just not grow and you will be wasting your in-game money.

I get extremely lazy during this which is why when I can finally make sprinklers, I WILL MAKE A LOT OF SPRINKLERS. (if I’m playing with my boyfriend, I let him water them).

So basically the main things you need to know about taking care of your crops are: till your soil, plant your seeds, and get ready to water ALL of your crops (please don’t do hundreds like I have, it takes the whole day).

I would post a picture but considering there are SO MANY CROPS, y’all are just gonna have to take a look at this website. 

https://www.thegamer.com/stardew-valley-complete-crop-sell-price-guide/

Not only can you plant crops, you can also have animals on your farm! There’s cows, chickens, pigs, sheep, horses, goats and a lot more.

The third aspect: skills! 

I don’t have the strongest knowledge of skills in this game but I do know they are really important (they help you improve your gameplay).  There are 5 different skill areas in this game: mining, farming, fishing, combat, and foraging. My personal favorite is mining and foraging. 

The more you level up your skills, the more progress you can make in this game such as unlocking new areas, new recipes, and being able to choose different professions.

The fourth aspect: caves. 

The picture provided above is where one of the caves is located.

Now exploring the caves, at first, was TERRIFYING. I had no idea what was in them and I did die a lot. Over time though, you get used to it and figure it out.

By exploring these caves, you can collect materials such as coal, iron, gold, diamonds, and lots of other minerals and rocks. The cave in Stardew Valley has 100 levels and on each level is a ladder going down to the next level. Sometimes these ladders are covered by rocks so using your pickaxe, you can break the rocks and look for that ladder.

There is one more cave however that is in the desert and you don’t have access to that until you fix the bus (which was driven by an alcoholic so that’s fun).

Here’s a clip from my own gameplay of me in the skull caverns (which is located in the dessert).

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The fifth aspect: is fishing.

At first, I loved fishing. I thought it was so cool and fun. That was until I tried to catch my first legendary fish and was focused for 5 minutes trying to catch a fish THAT WOULD NOT LET ME CATCH THEM!

Here’s a clip my boyfriend took of him trying to catch a legendary fish. WARNING: Explicit language.

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There are tons of different fishes for you to catch in the river, ocean, ponds, etc. You need a fishing rod but you can also use nets to your advantage.

The sixth aspect: is the community.

I love everyone in the town (except Clint, the local blacksmith).

“Stardew Valley” offers bachelors, bachelorettes, and just regular ol people you can’t marry.

The bachelors are: 

Alex, who loves sports. 

Elliot is a man who loves to write poetry. 

Harvey, the doctor in town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shane, an alcoholic who works at the JojaMart in town.

Sam, who’s passionate about music.

Sebastian is an emo kid who loves his motorcycle and smoking.

I personally love Elliot, but that’s just me. 

Now for the bachelorettes:

Abigail is adventurous and a little rebellious.

Emily loves fashion and works part-time in the town’s saloon, Stardrop Saloon.

Haley is just a girl who loves to take photos with her camera.

Leah is an artist who lives alone in her cabin.

Maru is a very talented young scientist.

Penny, who teaches the two youngest children in the village.

If I had to choose one of these LOVELY LADIES, I have no answer. They are all amazing.

These are not the only characters in “Stardew Valley” but they’re the only characters you can date and marry.

For information about the rest of the villagers, click the link below!

https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Villagers

Once you get into the game, you can befriend the villagers and at some point get a significant other. Each villager has a total of 10 hearts and once you reach 10 hearts with someone, you can marry them.

If you are playing with other people, you can marry them at any point as long as you have a mermaid’s pendant.

Here’s a clip of my boyfriend proposing to me in “Stardew Valley.”

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But Abby; How do you befriend a villager? Well everyone hates and loves different things. In “Stardew Valley,” it’s important to remember who likes and loves what. 

This is why the link below provides a chart showing what each villager dislikes, doesn’t mind, likes, and loves!

https://stardewvalleywiki.com/List_of_All_Gifts

In this game, you have the opportunity to help the town come back to what it used to be before JojaMart came. JojaMart is a company that the player (you) used to work for. It’s clean, pristine, and plain. I hate JojaMart. It’s too plain, has no flavor, and all in all, the dude looks like a creep.

You can restore the Community Center for the town. It’s not an easy task however so it may take you a while! (I won’t show you what it looks like when it’s finished)

Over the time of your gameplay, you will be able to unlock new areas, build new things, and have more fun the longer you play. Everything mentioned in this article is not even everything that “Stardew Valley” has to offer. If you are interested in knowing more about “Stardew Valley,” read the article linked below!

https://www.thegamer.com/stardew-valley-guide-walkthrough/

To wrap up this article, let’s start with my opinions on this game. “Stardew Valley” is an insanely fun game and if you are interested in taking up games for the first time, “Stardew Valley” would be a great game to get into first.

“Stardew Valley” is available on almost all platforms, such as Steam, Xbox 1, PS4, Nintendo Switch and a lot more.

If there was one criticism I would have to give about this game would be how quickly the days go by when you are playing with other people. In my opinion, I never have enough time to do what I need or want to do like the time I have when I play by myself.

However, the one critic does not change my thoughts about this game. Again, if you are interested in cozy and peaceful games, “Stardew Valley” is a great option.

As always, the rating for “Stardew Valley” on Crystal’s 5 gold star rating system is 5 golden stars!