Highlights

• Plant crops strategically to avoid withering at season's end.
• Hunt worms for hidden artifacts and key rewards in the game.
• Upgrade storage space to avoid selling items you may need later on.

Stardew Valley has been out for almost a decade now, and those who have been playing it from the beginning fancy themselves veterans. But if you’re a newcomer to this beloved indie farming sim, it can be imposing to dive in. With so much to learn, what if you do something wrong?

There’s technically no right or wrong way to play Stardew Valley, but if you’re looking to avoid a few common beginner’s mistakes when you first get going in a new game, we’ve got a list of things to avoid doing that help set you up for success later.

Updated on April 6, 2024 by Gabrielle Castania: Now that the Version 1.6 update has been live for the PC version of Stardew Valley for a bit, we’re updating our list of beginner’s mistakes to avoid to keep it current with the newest version of the game.

11 Planting New Crops Too Close To The End Of A Season

Most Will Rot The First Day Of A New Season

With 28 days in a season and so much to do to maximize your time in each one, it can be easy to get a little overzealous with the planting without looking at the calendar. If you plant a seed that only grows in one season too close to the switch to a new one, you’ll wake up on Day One of the new season to find dried roots in the yard.

That said, some plants do grow across seasons, and these will stay planted as the new season begins. Items like Corn that grow in both Summer and Fall will stay alive and thriving as you transition into the autumn season.

10 Ignoring Worms

Get Those Relics!

In the game, there are dirt tiles that will sometimes have worms sticking out of them. Most players may assume this is just a cosmetic element of the game, given how many cute touches there are, but in reality, it’s a rewarding treasure hunt for players.

When a player digs up the worm tile with their gardening hoe, they can uncover things like artifacts for the Museum, which yield some sweet rewards when you give them to Gunther. This can dramatically help the player progress and minimizes the grind of the game, so it’s important to take advantage of these as soon as you see them.

9 Ignoring Grass In The Fall

Hey, Don't Waste That Hay

This is a costly mistake many players make in the first year of Stardew Valley as they get used to raising animals. Grass seems like a pain in the beginning, but it's a great source of free hay for most of the year, except during Winter. Most players will ignore the abundance of grass around their farm, thinking it’ll be available year-round just to lose it all in Winter.

To avoid this problem and having to rely on Marnie’s Ranch for hay, which costs 50g each, it’s important to run around and gather all the grass using the scythe no later than the 28th day of Fall. This way, you’ll have a good storage of hay to last through Winter.

8 Not Upgrading Storage Space

Buy A Better Backpack, Build A Better Chest

As you begin gathering items in the game, you’ll find that you quickly start running out of room to store items in your inventory and will be tempted to either trash or sell things you might genuinely need later on. To avoid this problem, it’s smart to build chests to hold all your stuff at home.

But even more important than chests is making sure to upgrade your backpack as soon as funds allow. 12 slots run out quickly when you're early on and gathering everything, so upgrading to the Large and Deluxe backpacks which contain 24 and 36 slots, respectively, is vital to keeping all the things you find.

7 Thinking The Game Saves On Exiting

It Only Saves At Bedtime

Perhaps the most painful lesson new players learn in Stardew Valley is realizing that the game doesn’t automatically save when you close it. There are no checkpoints or autosave features that kick in periodically throughout the day - the only way to save in this game is to go to bed.

There are worse penalties for not saving your game than losing a day's progress, but considering how tedious some of your early-game work will be before you're able to begin automating the farm, losing an entire day can be a huge frustration. You can go to bed at any time, so crawl between the sheets before closing the game.

6 Not Feeding Your Animals

They Won't Die, But They'll Be Really Sad

Stardew Valley was designed to prevent you from the heartbreaking realization that your beloved cow has starved to death, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid feeding your animals just because! A common mistake new players make is not only not feeding their pets, but failing to realize feeders can do this automatically in upgraded barns.

Stick a stack of Hay into the feeders in your barn every day to ensure your animals are in good shape. Animals that are neglected will stop producing valuable animal products, but loved animals will merrily churn out the Milk, Eggs, and more that you need.

5 Ignoring The Community Center

Help Those Little Dudes For Some Helpful Rewards

Bundles are special quests in the game that requires the player to amass a variety of items for the Junimos that've taken up residence in the Community Center. Initially, many players may ignore this thinking the effort is too tedious or they can get it later, but this is a mistake.

The bundles offer valuable rewards that can speed your farm’s progress dramatically. Completing the Construction Bundle, for instance, yields a Charcoal Kiln, needed for bigger building projects. Another reason it’s bad to ignore these bundles is because they’re often season-specific and require items only found in particular seasons. Don't wait until next year to wrap it up!

4 Not Socializing Enough

So Many NPCs, So Little Time

There are a variety of NPCs in the game that provide a different splash of life to the game, and interacting with them can be a welcome break from the grind of farm life. While it’s not exactly essential to socialize, there are some pretty major benefits, so it’s important to have conversations.

You can give only two gifts to every townsperson each week, but you can talk to them every day for a smaller, consistent boost. Should you choose to get married, having a spouse around can ease the burden on your character, as your spouse will occasionally help with the farmwork.

3 Ignoring Exhaustion

It's Okay To Go To Sleep

It’s pretty easy to do if you’re in the swing of things with your farmwork, but you’d be wise not to ignore the warnings that your farmer is getting exhausted. Not only will you become too sluggish to move any faster than a fraction of your normal walking speed, but you run the risk of passing out.

Should you pass out, the day ends the second you do, and what happens depends on where you pass out. You’ll often get some of your items back (maybe not all), and you’ll be charged a fee of up to ten percent of your current gold.

2 Going To Bed Too Late

Manual Labor Requires So Much Energy

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That famous adage, "Early to bed, early to rise" is true in Stardew Valley, and many players are slow to learn that 6AM is coming no matter what time they go to bed. If your character goes to bed before midnight, they receive full energy restoration overnight, allowing them to get a lot done the next day.

But if your character goes to sleep after midnight, they will reduce the amount of energy they get back the later it gets. The energy reduction grows more and more severe until the player passes out from exhaustion at 2AM. Farmwork is exhausting business, so be sure to get your beauty sleep!