Stardew Valley is one of those games that is way, way larger and much more in-depth than it appears at first glance. When the player first inherits their grandfather's farm, they'll be expecting a quaint farming simulator. After a few in-game weeks, however, it becomes obvious that there is a lot more to this beautiful game than meets the eye.
The average player can spend hundreds of hours playing Stardew without ever finding all the items and secrets the game has to offer. From weird unexplained secrets to useful tools, here are some of the best items you can obtain that you might not have known about.
Updated on April 12, 2021 by Michael Christopher: Stardew Valley recently received the 1.5 update, which brought with it a ton of new content. Much of this content comes in the form of new items, many of which are really great, but a bit hidden. We've updated this list to include some of these items.
15 Statue of True Perfection
Spoilers ahead: If you manage to gain access to Qi's Walnut Room on Ginger Island, you'll notice a cat statue with a board that has some information on it. This is the perfection tracker, and it'll keep a record of a number of things you need to do for 100% completion.
Manage to complete all of the tasks listed on this board, and you'll be rewarded with the Statue of True Perfection when you interact with the board again. This statue produces a Prismastic Shard every single day.
14 Mini-Obelisk
On Fall 2 in your first year (or whenever, if you're already past that date before you update your game), you'll unlock access to the Special Orders board in town. Here, you'll find special requests from the citizens of Stardew Valley.
One of these, titled "A Curious Substance," tasks you with finding some Ectoplasm for the Wizard. Complete the quest and he'll give you the recipe for the Mini-Obelisk. By crafting two of these and placing them on your farm, you can warp between them. This makes traveling from one side of your farm to another (or from wherever you want to wherever else you want) a breeze.
13 Horse Flute
Another item you'll find inside Qi's Walnut Room is the Horse Flute, which can be purchased for 50 Qi Gems. This useful item will call your horse to wherever you are (within reason, of course).
It won't call your horse to anywhere indoors. However, you can use it to call your horse to the Desert or Ginger Island.
12 Ostrich Eggs
For the players who love raising animals, there's some good news. The most recent update added a new animal: Ostriches. However, it may be a while before you can manage to raise them on your farm.
First, you'll need an Ostrich Egg Incubator, which you can only make with a recipe given to you by Professor Snail after completing all of the fossil sets at the Island Field Office. Then, you'll need an Ostrich Egg, which is somewhat rare, but can be found with the help of Journal Scrap #10 or in the Volcano Dungeon as a monster drop.
Ostriches produce eggs every seven days. These eggs sell for anywhere from 600 to 1,440 gold, depending on their quality and your Farming profession choice. But, place them into a Mayonnaise Machine, and they'll produce ten Mayonnaise of the same quality, which is impressive.
11 Iridium Krobus
One of the newest items added to the game is very well-hidden, and you might not ever find it without someone telling you it exists. This item is the Iridium Krobus, which is a statue of everyone's favorite Sewer friend, but in Iridium form.
To find this statue, you need to fish in the water below the sewer grate at the south end of Cindersap Forest. But, you can only cast this far if your Fishing level is at 15. "But the skill levels only go up to 10!" you may be saying. That's true, but you can increase them with buffs.
To get a Fishing level of 15, you'll need to do one of two things: Your first option is to reach Level 10 in Fishing, then cook Seafoam Pudding with Qi Seasoning to make it gold quality. Then, max out your cast meter on an Iridium Rod. The second is to enchant your fishing rod at the Volcano Forge with the Master enchantment and consume regular-quality Seafoam Pudding.
Good luck!
10 Projectile Eggs
While exploring the mines, the player will come across various chests on certain floors that contain different items. On level 40 of the mines, the chest rewards the Slingshot, a weapon that normally allows Stone to be shot at enemies.
Shooting a piece of Stone at a villager will decrease the player's friendship with them, which is honestly hilarious. For those looking to make it a little less violent, there's a more humorous option. You can shoot eggs with the slingshot. It'll only deal a tiny bit of damage to enemies, but it's pretty funny to launch them at the villagers you don't like.
9 Junimo Plush
There are a variety of secret notes in Stardew, many of which can lead to treasure and other goodies. One of them, Secret Note #13, leads to a bush behind the community center playground. Here, the player will find a very cute and very cuddly Junimo plush toy.
The note is not explicitly necessary, and the plush can be found regardless of whether the note has been obtained, but users might not have known where to look without it. Place this cute plush next to the protagonist's bed or in their kids' rooms for a friendly vibe in the room.
8 Void Ghost Pendant
A large and important part of life in Pelican Town is getting to know the locals, and if you're up for it, attempting to romance the eligible bachelors and bachelorettes. Play your cards right, and you could hear wedding bells in the town square.
But, maybe marriage and romance aren't for you. Maybe you prefer to have a close friend with a platonic bond that transcends romantic love. If this sounds ideal, go out and find a Void Ghost Pendant. This item can be used to "propose" to Krobus, and if he accepts, he'll become the player's new roommate.
7 Weird Statues
Have you taken a gander inside the Lost Books at the town museum? Were you confused by the seemingly-random list of words contained within one of them? If so, here's what's going on: These words are a list of items and locations. If the first letter of each word is taken, there will be some items listed with places next to them. Follow these instructions to be rewarded with some bizarre statues of unknown origin.
For example, DUCK MAYO SALOON advises placing a jar of Duck Mayonnaise in the box in the backroom of the saloon. Do this and the player will be rewarded with the "??Pinky Lemon??" statue. There are three of these statues to collect.
6 Arcade Games
There are some truly grueling achievements in Stardew Valley, including shipping every crop and reaching certain friendship levels with the villagers. Perhaps the most difficult of these, though, is completing the two arcade games in the Saloon: "Journey of the Prairie King" and "Junimo Kart."
If someone manages to complete these two seemingly-impossible tasks, they'll be rewarded with a rare pair of items for each. The player can receive their very own arcade systems for both games to place on their farm. Time to grab another beer from Gus and settle in, because this one's a grind.
5 Dino Mayo
Mayonnaise has long been a funny choice for farmers in Stardew Valley, as it is liked by almost every villager and very easy to produce. Many players joke about handing out mayonnaise daily to everyone in town. But, Stardew's developer took it one step further in a recent update.
As of this update, players can now turn those extra Dinosaur Eggs into mayonnaise, which is a nice sickly-green. According to its description in-game, it smells like grass and leather. It might not sound like the most appetizing condiment, but it's available for those who want to make a bit more money at the risk of making people potentially sick.
4 Movie Posters
Also in the most recent update was the addition of the movie theatre. This fun attraction will take over the former JojaMart if the Community Center is rebuilt, or the Joja Warehouse if the player sides with JojaCorp. Different movies will play based on the season, which you can take a friend to or see by yourself.
Inside the movie theatre is a crane game where visitors can win some fun prizes, including furniture. Furthermore, did you know you can collect posters for each of the films? It's a fun idea to collect them all but definitely takes some practice at the crane game.
3 Golden Scythe
As any good farmer knows, Stardew Valley lets tools be upgraded, making them more efficient and powerful. But, as the Pickaxe, Watering Can, Hoe, and Axe are upgraded to Iridium quality, the scythe remains at the lowest level. It's not fair!
Well, after the most recent update, players can now find the Golden Scythe. This new tool has a radius double that of the normal scythe, allows users to cut more hay from the grass on their farm, and inflicts a bit more damage if wielded as a weapon. Head to the Quarry Mine to find it.
2 Trashcan Lid Hat
Digging through people's trash is a staple mechanic of Stardew Valley. Players can find everything from bread to diamonds for free. The only downside is that some villagers will think you're weird for rooting through the bins outside the houses and businesses of Pelican Town and, if caught, could result in the loss of some friendship points with them.
But, if super lucky, trash diving might be worth it because there is a fantastic piece of apparel to find. The Trash Can Lid Hat has a very rare chance of popping out of one of these cans. This is the peak of fashion.
1 Prismatic Clothing
Once the player has created cloth by spinning wool on their farm, they may receive a visit from Emily. She'll provide access to the sewing machine in her house, which can be used to tailor new outfits and garments from various items.
Throwing together combinations of cloth and items will make a ton of different apparel with diverse styles and colors. But, for those who happen to have some Prismatic Shards lying around, take one to the sewing machine with some cloth. With these two ingredients, the machine can make Prismatic clothing, which changes colors on its own! There are five pieces of the outfit in total to collect.