Min-Max_Guide.md

Stardew Valley Min-Max Routing / Strategy

• This is a "min-max" guide for a Stardew Valley run created by BlackSight6 & Zamiel.
• This route / strategy is designed for experienced Stardew players; knowledge of many game mechanics is assumed. While the guide is fairly in-depth, obvious things will not be explained.
• We assume some reasonable restrictions/rules, which makes this different from other min-max guides out there (or min-max streamers like TheHaboo).
• Many guides out there are designed for older versions of the game. This guide is designed for version 1.6.0. (In this version, you have access to Ginger Island, Explosive Ammo is nerfed, the mushroom floor is nerfed, Joja Cola is buffed, and so forth.)

Older Guides

This guide is the synthesis of other guides that have come before. Guides are listed from newest to oldest.

Date	Guide	Author
April 30th, 2020	Seawolf's 40 Mil Y1 Guide	TheHaboo & Seawolf
December 31st, 2019	Min/Max Guide Part 1 NO MODS OR GLITCHES! 213k+ Gold First Day of Summer	Foxy Fern
February 11th, 2019	Min-maxing Spring Year 1: Meta-Analysis and Run-Through	maestoso_con_entropy
November 6th, 2018	Just Another Spring Min/Max Guide	BlackSight6 a.k.a. RedTouch8 a.k.a Jeremy#0136
August 29th, 2018	Stardew minmax - 315,000g~ first Spring [GLITCHLESS]	Xianji
July 23rd, 2018	Finally Completed Year 1 Spring, min/max run	Beetin
July 8th, 2018	Min/Maxing guide - Days 6-10 Spring	Beetin
December 2th, 2017	Min/Max Spring, the first 5 days	Beetin

Table of Contents

• Preface
  • Goal
  • Route Overview
  • Rules
  • Gold per Energy List (GPE)
  • Energy Recovery Mechanics
  • General Fishing Strategy
  • Weapons
  • General Mines Strategy
  • General Skull Cavern Strategy
  • Weather Modifications
  • Pet Mechanics
  • Ginger Island
  • NPC Friendship & Birthdays
  • Other Notes
• The Route

Spring	Summer	Fall	Winter
Spring 1	Summer 1	Fall 1	Winter 1 & Beyond
Spring 2	Summer 2	Fall 2 & Beyond
Spring 3	Summer 3
Spring 4	Summer 4
Spring 5	Summer 5 & Beyond
Spring 6	Summer 9
Spring 7	Summer 10
Spring 8	Summer 11
Spring 9	Summer 13 & Beyond
Spring 10	Summer 19
Spring 11	Summer 20
Spring 12	Summer 27
Spring 13	Summer 28
Spring 14
Spring 15
Spring 16
Spring 17 & Beyond
Spring 18
Spring 19
Spring 20
Spring 21
Spring 22
Spring 23
Spring 24
Spring 25
Spring 26
Spring 27
Spring 28

• Appendix A: Recommended Restrictions
• Appendix B: Mods
• Appendix C: Average Gold per Hour for Fishing
• Appendix D: Early Community Center
• Appendix E: Birthdays
• Appendix F: Elevator Void Farming
• Appendix G: Miscellaneous

Preface

Before we start with the route, let's first go over some high-level things that you need to know over the course of the run.

Goal

The general goal of this route is to maximize the total amount of money gained by the end of the first summer. (Depending on how well you do, you can probably make up to 5 million.) This leaves you in a good position to accomplish whatever other goals that you want, whether it be to continue to min-max money, get max friendship with every NPC, etc.

In that vein, the route is very detailed in spring, but starts to get less detailed in summer (while still listing some high-level objectives). From summer onwards, fill the rest of your time by accomplishing whatever objectives are the most important for your particular run.

In order to maximize money, this route completely ignores friendship with NPCs, filling the museum, and completing the community center (outside of what is explicitly required to open the Skull Cavern). All of that stuff can wait until much later on in the run when you have a huge economy going.

Route Overview

• This route starts off by doing a ton of fishing.
• We upgrade the pickaxe to gold as soon as possible.
• Then we unlock the Skull Cavern as soon as possible.
• Once the Skull Cavern is opened, you craft and sell Iridium Bars to make a lot of money.
  • Routes that involve fishing + Skull Cavern are much more profitable than the typical naive strategy of planting massive amounts of Strawberries or other crops.
• With the revenue from the Iridium Bars, we buy a lot of Starfruit + Deluxe Speed-Gro, with the goal to get three Starfruit harvests during summer (and with all of the crops being automatically watered by Quality Sprinklers).

Rules

The guide is generally designed for players who are playing on the latest version of the vanilla game (no mods), are not using Stardew Predictor, are not using the item spawning cheat, are not allowed to reset a day after a mistake is made, and so forth. Of course, you are welcome to play the game in any way you see fit, but the authors challenge you to try to do a run that uses as little grey-area strategies as possible in order to increase the difficulty as much as possible. For a full list of self-imposed restrictions that we recommend, see Appendix A.

Gold per Energy List (GPE)

In general, you should always eat items with the lowest gold per energy ratio. For this route, you can use the following simple rule:

• save everything with a ratio equal to or less than 2 for eating
• sell everything with a ratio above 2

Eventually, you will stop worrying about this and will only eat from a large stack of Cheese and/or Salad. (This will be around the time you run out of Iridium quality Chubs after starting to do the Skull Cavern a lot.)

Energy Recovery Mechanics

• On the day after a player has gained one or more skill level increases, they will always start with full energy, even if they passed out on the previous day. They will also still start with full energy even if they were below 0 energy and had the "exhausted" icon showing above the energy bar.
  • Note that with this route, players will gain one or more skill level increases on every single day until Spring 12.
• When a player passes out at 2 AM, 10% of their gold is taken (maxing out at 1000g). However, if the player has no gold in their inventory, they will incur no penalty. Or, if they have a very small amount of gold, the resulting gold loss will be completely trivial (e.g. losing 5g with a bank of 50g).
• When a player falls asleep at midnight or earlier, they will regenerate 100% of their energy. When a player falls asleep after 12 AM, they will regenerate a variable percentage of energy depending on how late it was. For example, at 1 AM, they will regenerate 75% of their energy, and at 2 AM, they will regenerate 50% of their energy.
• Thus, we can combine the above three mechanics to stay up to 2 AM on almost every single day with no meaningful consequences.

General Fishing Strategy

• When the fish is flying towards you at the end of the mini-game, you can hold down the mouse button in order to skip the graphic that displays what fish is caught and immediately re-cast. (This is optimal because time passes when this graphic is showing.)
• In spring, the best fishing spot for non-rainy days is the mountain lake.
  • Not only does it have the highest best gold per hour ratio, it also has the easiest difficulty fish. Perfect catches are the best way to level up the fishing skill.
• In spring, the best fishing spot for rainy days is the forest river.
  • This is because Catfish sell for a lot of gold. They are difficult to catch with low fishing skill, but you should still be able to catch around 50% of them.
• Prioritize eating Green Algae (1.15 GPE), then Joja Cola (1.92 GPE), then the highest-quality Chub.
• Prioritize capturing fishing chests over perfect fish. (The rewards can be extremely good.)
• Make sure that you keep 4 or 5 inventory slots free by occasionally moving fish from your inventory into your nearby chest. (This is because you can catch 1 new fish + get up to 4 items from a fishing chest.)
• When casting at 7 energy or below, you will correctly drop into the appropriate amount of negative energy, even though the energy meter will appear to be at 0. For example, when casting at 2 energy, you will go to -6 energy. And then, after eating a Green Algae to restore 13 energy, you will go back to positive 7 energy. Thus, it is mostly irrelevant whether or not you accidentally slip past 0 energy while fishing (at least as long as you get a level up before the next day to remove the exhaustion).
• Be on the lookout for bubbles. If you see them, is generally better to try to cast in them, even if you will not be doing maximum casts. (The increased catch-rate is more important than the slight increase in type of fish & quality of fish.)
• In summer, the most profitable spot to fish is at the ocean, regardless of the weather.

Weapons

Weapon Progression

• When you start doing the mines, you will likely be using the Rusty Sword. The exception is if you got a Neptune's Glaive or a Broken Trident from a fishing chest (during the massive amount of fishing that you will do from Spring 2 to Spring 11).
• After that, you will simply use the weapons found in the mines treasure chests. The exception is if you get a lucky weapon drop from a champion enemy. (You can tell champion slimes apart from normal slimes because of the gold star, but other champions are indistinguishable.)
• Your first trip into the Skull Cavern will use the Obsidian Edge from the chest on floor 90. Hopefully, your first trip will get you at least one Prismatic Shard, which you will then use to get the Galaxy Sword for your second and subsequent Skull Cavern runs.
• Once you have the Galaxy Sword, this is all you will need, since swords are considered better than hammers and daggers (with some caveats; see below).
• Ultimately, you will want to upgrade the Galaxy Sword into the Infinity Sword with 3x Ruby upgrades, but that is an end-game task that is outside of the scope of this guide.

Hammers & The Hammer Spam Bug

• There exists a bug in the game where if you press the "Use Tool" button while slamming a hammer, it will deal extra damage to surrounding enemies.
• The optimal way to exploit this bug is to alternate between pressing left-click and the c button as fast as possible while the hammer is in the slamming animation.
• Using this bug allows hammers to deal rediculous amounts of damage, which is why some people will claim that the Galaxy Hammer or the Dwarf Hammer are "better" than the Galaxy Sword.
• However, utilizing this bug makes combat too easy, and the authors of this guide recommend that you challenge yourself to not use any bugs or glitches in the game.

General Mines Strategy

• Starting on Spring 11, the goal is to go as deep in the mines as possible. As soon as you discover the staircase on a floor, immediately enter it. Do not go out of your way to explore the rest of the floor, do not kill any additional enemies, do not stop to mine any visible ore nodes, do not stop to mine any visible gem nodes, etc. (You will be able to easily farm ore later on.)
• Every time you get to a new elevator floor, return to the 0th floor and empty your inventory in the chest + restock furnaces, if any. If you are at level 2 mining or higher, remember to keep the stone on you (so that you can craft a Staircase on an infested floor).
• On the early floors, skip over mining the gray rocks in favor of the other color rocks. (This is because it takes two hits to destroy a gray rock and one hit to destroy the other ones.)
  • When you have a copper pickaxe or better, this strategy no longer applies, as gray rocks will be destroyed in 1 hit.
• If the floor is small, search it for an existing staircase before starting to kill enemies or mine rocks. (Do not bother to do this if the floor is medium/large, as it will be a huge waste of time.)
• If the floor is small and you can see that there are 3 or less total enemies, kill all the the enemies first. This will increase your chance of spawning a staircase from a rock by 4%.
• If there are 4 or more enemies on the floor, avoid all the enemies (if possible) and only mine rocks. The exception is if it is a "somewhat annoyed" or "very displeased" luck day; the 4% chance increase can help a lot in this case.
• If you have a good weapon (e.g. from a fishing chest or a monster drop), the above advice about ignoring enemies may not apply. Kill all the enemies on the floor if they are close and it will be fast.
• You should pause at the beginning of every floor to avoid wasting time to the fade animation. (The in-game time continues to pass when the screen is fading in, but the game will not accept movement inputs.)
• If you plan to pass out at the mines and you know that you know that you cannot reach the next elevator by 2 AM, then give up and farm copper/iron/gold until 2 AM (depending on what you need).
  • The best way to farm copper ore is by doing floor 21 over and over.
  • The best way to farm iron ore is by doing floor 41 over and over.
  • The best way to farm gold ore is by doing floor 81 over and over.
• When you get to floor 100, don't immediately take the Stardrop. Save it for when you are completely out of energy. (It restores all of your energy in addition to increasing the maximum amount of energy.)

General Skull Cavern Strategy

Initial Visit & Trading

• When you first go to the desert, you will need to use the bus. Pam exits her house at 8:40 AM. Stand in front of her door to block her and it will force her into a state where she will start running. Do the same trick again once Pam enters the Bus Stop screen. Combined, this makes Pam get to the bus at 9:36 AM instead of at 10:09 AM (saving 33 minutes).
• Trade all Jade to the Desert Trader for Staircases (only on Sunday). (See the next section for more information on jade.)
• Trade all Emeralds to the Desert Trader for Cheese (only on Friday). Cheese is almost the exact same GPE as Salad, but it is helpful to have because going out of your way to the Saloon can be a huge waste of time.
• Trade all Rubies to the Desert Trader for Spicy Eels. Use one immediately for the speed boost and keep it going for the whole day.
• Trade all Diamonds to the Desert Trader for Triple Shot Espressos. Use one immediately for the speed boost and keep it going for the whole day. (If you run out of coffee, then you should be using purchased Joja Cola instead. See the next section for more information on diamonds.)
• Trade all Omni Geodes to the Desert Trader for Warp Totem: Desert, at least initially. Use these to get to the desert on subsequent days. If you have 5-10 totems or more, then you can start to save the geodes for minerals.

General Tips

• In general, ignore all enemies and focus on breaking rocks. (This is the same general strategy as the mines.) It is hard to avoid Serpents though, so you will have to kill some of them.
• The same pausing trick that you do in the mines also applies to the Skull Cavern (e.g. you should pause at the beginning of every floor).
• On mini-floors with a chest, you should destroy every rock on the floor until you get either a staircase or a shaft. (This is an easy way to get a shaft.)
  • Once you get a ladder, you can stop looking for a shaft, because shafts stop spawning as long as there is there is a non-hard-coded ladder.
• The goal for the day should be to the deep floors as soon as possible, because deep floors will have tons of iridium nodes that you can efficiently break all at once with bombs. Thus, this means that you should ignore almost everything and take a ladder/shaft as soon as you see it. (Don't sidetrack for ore or anything else!)
• Smelt all Iridium Ore into Iridium Bars. Besides selling various gems, the bars will be the main source of revenue from the Skull Cavern. However, wait until you have the Blacksmith profession (from level 10 mining) before selling any Iridium Bars.
• For reference, the chances to get iridium nodes for each floor of the Skull Cavern can be found in BlaDe's spreadsheet.
• Craft 2x Glowstone Ring as soon as possible. (The recipe requires mining level 4.) These can be optionally be replaced later on with Iridium Bands, but this is not a priority, since you will hardly be attacking any monsters.

Managing Explosions

• Using a pickaxe to kill every single rock is too slow - we would not be able to make it to the deep floors with lots of Iridium nodes, which means the whole day would be a waste of time due to only getting a tiny bit of income. Thus, even though it wastes precious resources to use explosions, we need to spend money to make money. But this is a delicate balance!
• First, an overview of the bomb types:
  • Cherry Bomb - Crafted with Copper Ore. However, we need copper ore early on for crafting lots of Furnaces. Later on, we also need lots of copper ore for crafting lots of Kegs.
  • Bomb / Explosive Ammo - Crafted with Iron Ore. However, we need iron ore early on for crafting lots of Quality Sprinklers. Later on, we also need lots of iron ore for crafting lots of Kegs.
  • Mega Bombs - Crafted with Gold Ore / Void Essence / Solar Essence. However, we need the gold ore for crafting lots of Quality Sprinklers and Crystalariums. Additionally, you might want to build up to 100 Void Essence and Solar Essence to craft two Iridium Bands.
• On your first couple Skull Cavern runs, the idea will be to use the pickaxe for most things and to only use bombs for big clumps of rocks. Once you get mining level 10 and start to sell Iridium Bars, you will transition to more liberal use of bombs.
• Mega Bombs are nice early on in that you can save on precious coal. While Mega Bombs should be generally preferred, you should still use the other options, depending on the explosive size needed. This helps balance your ore expenditure.
• Explosive Ammo is more efficient to craft than Bombs (since you get 5 explosive ammo per 5 iron ore + 2 coal versus 1 bomb per 4 iron ore + 1 coal). You want to transition to using Explosive Ammo fairly quickly, with the strategy of killing iridium nodes that are close to walls. It is worth it to spend 1 Explosive Ammo for 1 iridium node (since you save 4+ pickaxe swings).
• Between spending coal directly on explosives and using coal to craft bars, you will quickly run out of coal. The profits from Iridium Bars should be spent on more coal as needed.
• In the end-game, you will be buying coal en-mass and copper ore en-mass. Gold ore stops being useful once you have crafted all of the Quality Sprinklers and Crystalariums that you will need. But iron ore is always in short supply, because you can always have more kegs. Thus, you might want to choose to craft Cherry Bombs early on (to save the other ore) and then start buying Bombs (1000g each) & Explosive Ammo (300g each) from the Dwarf once you start to have spare money.

Other

• You will be tempted to get an Iridium Pickaxe as soon as possible, but you should hold off until summer. This is because you will be fishing on the day that Clint works on the pickaxe, and fishing in summer is much more profitable than fishing in spring.
• When you start doing the Skull Cavern, you will only have the first backpack upgrade. You will want to buy the 2nd backpack upgrade (10,000g) as soon as possible. (On average, you should be able to afford it after the first two Skull Cavern runs.)
• After using your first Prismatic Shard on the Galaxy Sword, the remaining Prismatic Shards should be turned in to the Desert Trader on Thursdays for Magic Rock Candy.
  • This is worth it because overall, the extra +4 luck should help you get more than 6,000g in Iridium Ore.
  • The worse the daily luck is, the more beneficial Magic Rock Candy is. On the worst possible luck (skull) days, you probably don't want to go to the Skull Cavern at all and instead take care of other miscellaneous tasks. Thus, it is optimal to save and use the Magic Rock Candies on slightly unlucky days (e.g. bat on the TV).
  • It is optimal to use Magic Rock Candies immediately (on floor 1) as opposed to saving them for deeper floors. This is because you want to get out of the early floors as fast as possible.
• Use a staircase when:
  • You get the long spiral floor. (This is the worst floor.)
  • You get the long vertical floor. (This is the 2nd worst floor.)
  • You hit a big dead end with no rocks left to kill in the immediate area.
• Once you have built up a lot of staircases, you can start to be more liberal with your staircase usage and staircase past any floor that does not have any big open spaces that are easily bomb-able.
• You should kill nearby crates until you get 2x Lucky Rings. Most of the time, you should be wearing your Lucky Rings, but you should also carry two Iridium Bands in your inventory and swap them out after an explosion. (When the game is paused, you can equip both Iridium Bands, wait for the magnetism to pull all of the items into your inventory, and then equip the Lucky Rings again, all without wasting any in-game time.) You can also swap in the Iridium Bands if you decide to kill an enemy (for the extra 20% damage boost).
  • It is most important to equip the Lucky Rings before destroying any rocks/ore, since it affects the chances of ladders/shafts appearing. (Note that luck also increases the chances of ore and coal dropping from stone, but the buff is only 0.03% per luck, so this is next-to-useless.)
  • Additionally, Lucky Rings should be equiped before entering a new floor, because it affects the chances of it having a treasure chest.
  • Equipping Lucky Rings before killing monsters will not do anything. (Luck does not affect the chances of monster drops.)

Diamond & Jade Farming (for Skull Cavern)

• Moving as quickly as possible in the Skull Cavern is essential, so you need to always have the Triple Shot Espresso or the Joja Cola buff activated.
• Triple Shot Espresso comes from trading diamonds to the Desert Trader. All of your diamonds should be going towards this purpose. During your first week or two of Skull Cavern runs, you will not have enough diamonds to keep Triple Shot Espresso going constantly. Thus, you should route in buying some Joja Cola from either JojaMart (during the day) or the Saloon (at night).
  • However, money is also extremely tight during your first two weeks of Skull Cavern runs, so you could also forgo using Joja Cola until you have your first summer Starfruit crop planted.
• Due to the speed buff being so useful, diamonds should be put into the first 5-10 Crystalariums that you get.
• Ultimately though, in order to optimize Skull Cavern farming, you need a ton of Jade, so Jade should be put in any subsequent Crystalariums.
• Battery Packs will drop on your Skull Cavern runs (from Iridium Bats). Focus on using your batteries to craft more Crystalariums.
• Crystalariums are expensive to craft, especially in the early game, when you are trying to balance buying Starfruit, getting tool upgrades, and buying buildings from Robin. However, you should prioritize Crystalariums, because in the long-run, they will pay for themselves ten times over: copious use of Staircases will double your Iridium Ore rate per day.
• In order to get as many batteries as you can, make sure you craft and place as many Lightning Rods as you can before the first summer storm. (On some runs, you may not have the foraging experience to be able to craft Lightning Rods before the first storm comes, which is not a big deal.)

Weather Modifications

• Rain will occur randomly on different days, depending on the RNG seed of your particular save file.
• Starting on Spring 4, you should be checking the TV every morning to see what the weather will be on the next day. This is because you will need to change the route on the fly depending on the weather. (And you need to know ahead of time in order to shuffle chest contents & furnaces.)
• On a rainy day, you should disregard everything that the guide says and spend as much as possible fishing at the forest river. This is because Catfish sell for so much money that everything else becomes less important.
• Getting money is important because the main goal of the route is to finish the vault as soon as possible (42,500g).
  • If it is raining and you have already completed the vault, then it is usually better to do Skull Cavern runs than to fish. (The exception is if you want to buy the 2nd upgraded backpack.)
• For reference, you can get about 10,000g per day when fishing at the forest river when it rains (at level 10).

Pet Mechanics (Dog/Cat)

• If you are not doing a Grandpa-points-related challenge, then it is optimal to not have a dog/cat at all, as they get in your way and make you lose time.
• If you are doing a Grandpa-points-related challenge, then you may need to get the dog/cat for the Grandpa point. (Having the pet at 1000 points of friendship gets you 1 point, which is the maximum amount.) In this case, it is optimal to choose a cat over a dog, since they get in your way less.
• Note that it only takes 83 pets (+12 per pet) in order to maximize the friendship value of the dog/cat. Thus, since dog/cat friendship does not decay, you may be able to defer wasting any time petting the pet until summer of year 2. (It is optimal to wait as long as possible since "spare time" is extremely limited at the beginning of the game.)
• Subsequently, because of the petting mechanic, you should never have to fill up the pet's bowl. (Unless for whatever reason you deferred petting for too long and need to get extra friendship before the deadline. Filling the bowl gives +6 points.)

Ginger Island

Completing the Community Center unlocks Ginger Island, which contains various end-game content. For most challenge runs, you will probably want to get access to Ginger Island as soon as possible, whether that be for the crop profits from the Island Farm, or for easier access to artifacts such as the Prehistoric Scapula, or for the weapon upgrades, etc.

In a typical min-max run, by Winter 1 you will have completed most of the bundles, with just the Snow Yam, Crocus, and the Nautilus Shell remaining. Depending on your foraging luck, you can get them anywhere between Winter 1 and Winter 7. After completing the CC, you can unlock the boat on the subsequent day.

For certain challenge runs, you might want to gain access to Ginger Island before Winter. See Appendix D for how to do this.

NPC Friendship & Birthdays

• In a min-max run concerned only with gold accumulation, then it is optimal to ignore all of the NPCs.
• If you need friendship with NPCs to meet the conditions for your run goal, then it is generally optimal to defer giving gifts for as long as possible. For example, if the goal is the run is to have maximum friendship with all NPCs by the end of year 2, then you would want to defer giving any gifts until summer of year 2. (It is optimal to wait as long as possible since "spare time" is extremely limited at the beginning of the game.)
  • Note that in order to get Spring Onion Mastery, you need to have 8 hearts with both Jas and Vincent, as well as trigger the cutscene in spring. Thus, if you need to get Spring Onion Mastery by the end of year 2, then you cannot defer friendship with Jas and Vincent until summer of year 2; you must instead start befriending them in winter of year 1.
• For more in-depth information on the birthdays for each NPC, see Appendix E.

Other Notes

• If your character's gender does not matter to you, then it is optimal to choose a female, as they get 500g in the mail instead of a Cookie.
• If you are playing without mods, set the game options to zoom out as far as possible (e.g. 75%). This makes you waste less time while foraging & mining.
  • However, it is recommended to play with the Zoom Level mod so that you do not have to deal with this vanilla restriction. Counterintuitively, doing this is not considered cheating.
• For reference, it is possible to get up to 22 Spring Onions on Spring 1. (It is not required to get any Spring Onions on Spring 1, but it certainly helps.)
• Save all Acorns for summer. (We will use them to make an Oak Tree forest.)
• Do not read any of your mail unless explicitly told to by the guide.
  • This is because at many points in the run, you need to stay at 0 gold for the purposes of staying out late. Since some letters contain gold, you want to only check the mail at specific points.
• Choose Mushrooms over Bats for the Cave. This is for several reasons:
  • The cave restocks faster, granting more total items.
  • On average, mushrooms sell for more than fruit.
  • Common Mushrooms are a good energy food. They have high GPE and you can build up a large stack of them.
• You will find some Rice Shoots during the first half of spring (from fishing chests and killing Grubs). While not mentioned explicitly in the route, all Rice Shoots should be planted next to water no later than Spring 21.
  • Spending the time to hoe and plant them is worth it because each Rice Shoot grants 7 farming XP. This in turn allows you to save gold & time via buying less Kale on Spring 11 and Spring 21.
• Once you have the minecarts unlocked:
  • It takes 33 in-game minutes to run from the farmhouse through the backwoods to the Carpenter's Shop.
  • It takes 34 in-game minutes to run from the farmhouse to the Bus Stop, take the minecart to the mines, and run through the mountain to the Carpenter's Shop.
• It takes 45 in-game minutes to run from the forest river fishing spot to the Fish Shop.

The Route

Spring 1

The plan for the day is to meet everybody in the town and save money for tomorrow so that we can buy the Fiberglass Rod for 1,800g as soon as possible. (We want to meet everybody so that we can complete the "Introductions" quest in order to unlock the "How to Win Friends" for an extra 100g on Spring 2.)

An alternate strategy for Spring 1 would be to ignore all of the NPCs and focus on killing every weed on the map + every weed on the farm, which has the advantage of getting a few more mixed seeds planted on the first day. However, in the "meet everybody" route, you still kill plenty of weeds, making the overall number of mixed seeds very similar. Thus, the marginal number of mixed seeds gathered in the alternate route is not worth more than the early 100g.

Another alternative is to exploit RNG to farm clay, but this is illegal in our ruleset (since it is unintended by the developer).

• Take the Parsnip Seeds.
• Immediately chop down 9 trees until foraging level 1 (8 1/3 trees needed). We want to get level 1 before we leave to go foraging so that we have a chance to get silver-quality Spring Onions. (Focus on only chopping down trees, and begin in the direction of your path to the forest so that some of the weeds you clear are helpful for that.)
  • Only chop down Maple Trees and Pine Trees, not the egg-shaped Oak Trees. (We won't get any Acorns for felling an Oak Tree until Spring 2, and acorns are precious.)
  • For the same reason, do not axe/hoe any seeds in the ground until Spring 2, or they will be destroyed.
  • Do not chop the stumps; only chop a tree until it falls, limiting to 10 strikes, then move on to the next one. (It yields more wood and more foraging XP to do it this way.)
  • As soon as a tree starts to fall, walk towards where the wood will spawn and immediately pause the game. This prevents in-game time from passing, but the tree falling animation will still complete. Additionally, all of the wood will automatically be collected by the player while the game is still paused. (You should use this strategy whenever you are chopping trees and not bothering to kill the stumps.)
  • If you lose tree count, check the skills tab for a foraging level increase. This will also be useful tomorrow while fishing.
• Once foraging level 1, craft a chest, place it next to the house, and empty all inventory except for scythe + axe + pickaxe + hoe.
• Exit south to the forest. (The time should be around 9:20 AM.)
• Use a screenshot and/or zoom to check the Cindersap Forest for foragables so that you can plan your route.
  • Pick up all forgeable items along the way.
  • If it would not waste the energy gain, you can immediately eat the Spring Onions upon pickup to free up the inventory space.
  • Kill as many weeds as possible, but do not go too far for just one weed (since you need to make it to Marnie by 12:50 PM).
• Meet Jas as she walks from her house to her jump rope spot between 11:20 AM and 12:00 noon.
• Meet Haley as she walks west and south towards her photography spot between 11:40 and 12:10. This is a good time to kill extra weeds if you are ahead of schedule.
• Go to town.
• Check the two garbage cans next to Jodi's house + Haley's house and clear the weeds between them if you have time.
  • It is optimal to pause immediately after checking a garbage can. This avoids wasting time on backtracking when they can drop an item, and it flies in the opposite direction. (This is similar to the strategy where pausing when a tree is falling down is optimal.)
  • Checking garbage cans is a massive waste of time, so the route only does this on the first two days.
• Meet Marnie walking to her ranch from Pierre's General Store. (For reference, she travels past Emily's house at 12:50 PM.)
• Go to the beach.
• Hoe any artifact spots to try and get your first artifact. However, leave any beach foraging items on the ground. (We do not have the inventory space right now and can collect them on Spring 2.)
• Meet Elliott standing south of his cabin near the fire ring between noon and 1:30 PM.
• Go to town.
• If you got an artifact, donate it to the museum and claim the reward (250g).
• Check the garbage cans next to the museum + blacksmith.
• Meet Clint inside of the blacksmith. (When leaving the blacksmith, go east.)
• Check the garbage can next to JojaMart.
• Meet Pam + Sam + Shane inside of JojaMart. (Even though Sam & Shane are working, it still counts as meeting them.)
• Clear the weeds behind/north of JojaMart.
• Meet Abigail on the bridge.
• If you see Maru walking south and she is close, talk to her now. Otherwise, meet Maru when she is sitting on the bench later on. (She arrives at the benches at 3:20 PM.)
• Check the garbage can next to Lewis' house.
• Meet Evelyn (at the flowers), Caroline + Jodi (at the square), and Vincent + Harvey (above Jodi's house).
• Kill the weeds along the west side of the map by Harvey.
• Meet Leah + Pierre inside Pierre's General Store.
  • You have to go behind the counter to talk to Pierre.
  • You will buy Spring Crops on Spring 5 or 6, so wait to buy from Pierre today.
• It should now be close to 4:00 PM, and we can meet everybody else near the Saloon:
  • At 4:00 PM, Alex finishes his workout and leaves his room. Check the garbage can next to their house, then enter and meet George and Alex. (If you are fast, you might need to wait for Alex to leave his room.)
  • At 4:00 PM, Emily arrives at the Saloon. Check the garbage can next to the Saloon, then enter and meet Gus and Emily. (You have to go behind the counter to talk to Gus.)
  • At 4:20 PM, Penny passes Lewis's fence, and Alex leaves his house.
  • At 4:40 PM, Penny reaches the bench with Maru. You can meet them there if we still need to meet them.
  • Check your quest journal to confirm that you register meeting 24 people of the maximum 27 for today.
• Go back to the farm. (Leave all forgeable items at the Bus Stop on the ground for now.)
• Empty your inventory. Keep the tools.
• Clear weeds on the farm until around 6:00 PM.
• Exit to the Backwoods around 6:10 PM.
• Meet Linus outside of his tent.
• Meet Demetrius south and to the east of his house. (You do not need to talk to Robin because you have already met her.)
• Meet Sebastian as he leaves his house. (If you arrive before 7:00 PM, you must idle until he leaves his room at 6:40 PM. This is wasted time that you could have used to kill more weeds before leaving your farm.)
• Go south to the community center.
• Kill the weeds to the west of the community center.
• Kill the weeds to the west of the fountain.
• Go home. (Get any foragable items at the Bus Stop you missed earlier.)
• Hoe + plant + water Parsnip Seeds + Mixed Seeds.
  • Crows can eat one or more crops every day by planting additional crops beyond the 15 initial Parsnip Seeds. However, planting the Mixed Seeds makes this worth the extra value. (Having random Cauliflower and Potato from Mixed Seeds allows you to skip buying them for the Spring Crops bundle later.)
• Chop wood until around 4-6 energy left.
• Kill weeds + grass until around 1:00 AM to 1:30 AM, depending on how many Mixed Seeds you have. (You want to hoe, plant, and water all the Mixed Seeds before 2 AM.)
• Head back to your house and ship everything except:
  • Stone
  • Wood
  • Coal
  • 20 Fiber
• Note that:
  • You should sell all foraging items (except for Spring Onions). Worry about the Community Center quest later because we need as much money as possible tomorrow.
  • Normally, we eat Leeks, Dandelions, and food from garbage cans instead of selling them since they have a low GPE. However, today is an exception since we need money badly.
• Hoe + plant + water any remaining Mixed Seeds.
  • Note that you can work past 0 energy and become exhausted with no penalty carrying over to Spring 2 (because you will level up foraging).
  • If one of the mixed seeds is not a Cauliflower (check with a mod or the wiki), you'll need to delay handing in the initial bundles and shipping any additional gold for the vault originally scheduled for Spring 15 until Spring 17.
  • This adds a bit of time pressure to clearing the mine due to the lack of Minecarts you'd otherwise have for 2 days, but this is very unlikely and doesn't change the route.
• Be inside your house a few minutes before 2:00 AM. (We do not want to incur the gold penalty.)
• Destroy the bed. (This is to force you to spawn immediately next to the door at the beginning of every day, which saves time. Alternatively, you can remove it from the house and stick it in a chest for safe-keeping.)
• Move the TV next to the door (so you can immediately check it upon waking up).
• At the end of the day, you should get:
  • Foraging 0 --> 1

Spring 2

• Read all of the mail. (We need to read Willy's letter in order to be given the Bamboo Pole.)
• Water.
• Craft a chest and take it with you.
  • If you got 0 to 3 Spring Onions on Spring 1 (and did not get any food from garbage cans), then you may not have had enough energy to chop 50 wood on Spring 1. Chop 50 wood now and continue following the route; note that you will be a little bit behind on everything.
• Empty all inventory in the chest. Retrieve the hoe + crafted chest + 1 rock.
• Check the garbage cans next to the George's house + next to the Saloon + next to Lewis' house.
  • If you are seen by a villager, it does not matter, since you friendship with each NPC is still at 0 points.)
  • This is the last time that you should devitate from your path in any way to check a garbage can, since they are a huge waste of time. From this point on, only check garbage if doing so would waste no additional time.
• Go to the beach and get the Bamboo Pole.
• Give the rock to Willy and claim the reward for the "How To Win Friends" quest (100g).
• Place the chest on the bottom-right hand corner of the pier.
• Fish facing east from the pier. Use maximum casts.
• At 8:40 AM, destroy the Bamboo Pole and check the rest of the beach for any foragable items + artifact spots.
  • If you get an artifact now and did not get one on Spring 1, then immediately go turn it in and claim the reward (250g).
• Go to Willy's shop. Sell all beach foragable items + fish. Buy the Training Rod from Willy for 25g.
  • The Training Rod will allow more perfect catches. (Leveling up the fishing skill with perfect catches is more important than getting higher-quality fish.)
• With the Training Rod, use minimum casts directly south outside Willy's door. Fish until you have enough fish to sell to get up to 1,800g.
  • Minimum casts gives a greater probability to catch easier fish and also saves time on casting/reeling animations.
  • Also see General Fishing Strategy.
• If out of Seaweed (1.54 GPE) and Joja Cola (1.92 GPE), eat the highest quality Anchovy (1.82 GPE) or Herring (1.82 GPE).
• When you have enough fish to sell to get up to 1800g and are fishing level 2, destroy the Training Rod, sell all the fish, and buy the Fiberglass Rod from Willy. Also, buy as much Bait as possible (5g each) and equip it on the new rod.
  • Even though we will have less perfect catches, the Fiberglass Rod will allow us to gain experience faster because of the bait.
• Fish using max casts at the same spot as before.
• At 4:30 PM, if you do not have at least 35 bait on the rod, go to Willy and buy more. (You need enough bait to last for the rest of the day + tomorrow morning.)
• Fish until 2 AM. Before passing out, leave all of the fish in the chest. (We will sell them to Willy tomorrow.)
• At the end of the day, you should get:
  • Fishing 0 --> 4

Spring 3

The main goal for this day is to catch as many Catfish as possible. (This is also the goal for almost any rainy day in Spring, really.)

• It always rains on Spring 3.
• Empty all inventory in the chest. Retrieve the Fiberglass Rod.
• If you have 80+ bait and you got copper ore from a fishing chest on Spring 2, craft a chest and take it with you, then go directly to the forest river to fish. Remember to divert from the guide and buy more bait from Willy tomorrow before going to the mountain lake.
• Otherwise:
  • Retrieve the hoe from the chest.
  • Fish south of Leah's house until 8:30 AM or you run out of bait, whichever comes first.
  • Check the garbage cans south of Jodi's house and Emily's house.
  • Check the beach for foragable items + artifact spots.
  • At Willy's shop, sell all fish + any extra beach foraging items. (However, you can save a Sardine for the Ocean Fish Bundle if you want.)
  • Buy bait until you only have 75g left. (However, if you already found a copper ore from a fishing chest, you can spend all money on bait.)
    • The amount of bait you can buy at this point will depend on how well your run is going, but it can be anywhere between 500 to 700. However, no matter how much you buy, it will be guaranteed to be used up by the end of Spring.
    • Technically, we could defer selling some fish until we have the Fisher profession. However, this has three problems. First, it is only worth it if you would gain more money than around an hour of fishing at the mountain lake. Second, you can only bring so many fish back with you when you pass out at the end of Spring 3. Third, the next convenient place to buy bait is on Spring 5 after turning in the pickaxe, and there is almost no spare time on this day. Thus, it is overall simpler and much less risky to sell the fish now.
  • Empty the contents of the chest and pick it up. (To pick up a chest without a pickaxe, select an empty square on the toolbar and spam left-click.)
  • If you saved 75g, go to Clint and buy a copper ore (75g) in order to initiate the Clint cutscene tomorrow. (You do not have to drop the copper on the ground.)
  • Go to the forest river.
• The best spot to fish at the forest river is casting south 6 tiles west of Leah's door. Place the chest one tile north and east of you.
  • For reference, see the pathing infographic on the wiki.
• Fish until 2 AM. Before passing out, fill your inventory with the rod + gems + ore + coal + the most expensive fish.
  • You will not return to this chest until Spring 7 (or the next rainy day, whichever is sooner).
• At the end of the day, you should get:
  • Fishing 4 --> 6 (choose Fisher profession)

Spring 4

• From here on out, check the TV every single day to reveal the next day's weather so that you can plan accordingly. (For example, if you are fishing at the mountain lake and you know that it will not rain on the next day, you can safely leave your fishing pole in the chest at the end of the day.)
• Water.
• If you do not have 150 wood, chop up to 150 wood. (Remember to take your Scythe while chopping to clear grass.)
  • This is because we will need 2 more chests and a scarecrow over the next 2 days.
• Craft a Chest and take it with you.
• Empty your inventory. Retrieve the Fiberglass Rod + crafted chest.
• Go to the mountain lake. The best spot to fish is casting east while standing next to the fence at the bottom of the screen. Place the chest three tiles behind you.
  • For reference, see the pathing infographic on the wiki.
• Fish until 1:00 AM. Fill your inventory with any gems, ore, coal, and the most expensive fish.
  • You can leave your Fiberglass Rod in the chest unless it is going to rain tomorrow.
• Go home.
• Ship all sellable items (gems, fish, etc.).
  • Save any Chubs for eating.
  • Save one of each fish that is used in community center bundles.
  • Save Jade, Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds for the Skull Cavern later on.
• It should be 2 AM immediately after selling. If not, cut down grass and pass out.
• At the end of the day, you should get:
  • Fishing 6 --> 7

Spring 5

The main goal for this day is to make 5 Copper Bars as soon as possible and then make it to Clint before he closes to upgrade the pickaxe. (The window to do this is small.) Then, we plant some seeds. Then, we fish.

• From here on out, check the TV every single day to reveal the current day's luck.
• Choose to either take the pet or decline it. (See Pet Mechanics.)
• Harvest the Parsnips and make a note of how many you harvested.
• Make a note of which mixed seeds you have planted. (You can tell either by looking at the appearance of the seed or by using a mod.)
• Claim the reward for the parsnip quest (100g).
• Do not water any remaining mixed seeds until later on in the day.
• Craft a chest and take it with you.
• Make a note of how many iron ore and gold ore you have, if any. (They randomly drop from fishing chests.)
• Retrieve the pickaxe + gems + stone + coal + copper + all but 3 parsnips from the chest.
  • Leave Jade, Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds though since we want to save those for the Skull Cavern.
  • We need 1 parsnip for the bundle, 1 parsnip to ship (optional), and 1 parsnip for Pam (optional).
  • You may leave one coal behind to craft a Scarecrow tomorrow.
• Go to the mines.
• Place the chest to the left of the elevator.
• Make your way to floor 10. (See General Mines Strategy.)
• As soon as you have 25 copper ore and 25 stone, return to the 0th floor, craft + place a Furnace, make a Copper Bar. (Do not wait until you get to the next elevator unless you are really close.)
• Keep the furnace going until you have 5 bars. For reference, you must have all 5 bars crafted by no later than 3 PM.
• Once you get to floor 10, farm floor 11 over and over for copper ore while you wait for the remaining bars to smelt (because you likely will not have time to get to floor 15 before 3 PM).
• As soon as you have the 5 bars ready:
  • Leave the sword + parsnips in the chest. (You will not return to this chest until Spring 11.)
  • Retrieve the furnace + any gems + miscellaneous. Make sure you leave 4 slots open in your inventory.
  • If you did not leave a coal behind on the farm, take one with you to craft a Scarecrow tomorrow.
  • Go to the blacksmith.
• As an extra tip, if you are running late and do not have time for the 5th bar to smelt, then you can still get to the blacksmith by 4 PM, place the furnace inside in blacksmith, smelt the 5th bar, and wait 30 minutes. As long as you are inside the building, Clint will continue to sell to you until 7:10 PM. (Even when Clint moves away from the counter and goes to the anvil, you are still able to interact with the counter. However, this is considered a bug, so if you want to avoid cheating, you would have to purchase what you need from Clint before he actually moves away from the counter.)
• If you fail to craft the bars in time or fail to reach the blacksmith before he closes, then fish for the remainder of the day. For the rest of the route, push everything back one day. (This is not as bad of a mistake as you would think, since you will need to do a lot of fishing for extra money anyway.)
• In the mines, you will get Geodes, Frozen Geodes, and Magma Geodes. If you do the math, they are technically worth more gold on average if you pay 25g to Clint to break them. However, this does not account for the opportunity cost of having to walk to Clint's blacksmith in the middle of the day to do this, which is a huge drain that dwarfs the marginal increase in value from breaking them. Thus, all types of Geodes should be shipped for the extra cash. (You should hold off on worrying about minerals and completing the museum until the very end of the game.)
• At the blacksmith:
  • Sell gems.
  • Make sure you save at least 3,310g, and then with the remaining money:
    • Buy up to 25 iron ore (accounting for iron ore gained from fishing chests) (25 * 150g = 3,750g).
    • Buy up to 25 gold ore (accounting for gold ore gained from fishing chests) (25 * 400g = 10,000g). (You almost certainly won't have enough money to buy all of the gold ore at this point, and that's ok.)
• For reference, you need the 3,310g for:
  • 2,000g for the pickaxe upgrade.
  • 1,120g for 16 Kale Seeds to get farming level 2 (380 total XP). (You can buy less Kale seeds if you account for the experience gained from mixed seeds & Rice Shoots.)
    • 8 XP per Parsnip * 15 Parsnips = 120 XP
    • 380 XP - 120 XP = 260 XP
    • 260 XP / 17 XP per Kale = 16 Kale
    • 16 Kale Seeds * 70g = 1,120g
  • 60g for 1 Bean Starter.
  • 80g for 1 Cauliflower Seeds (not necessary if you have one from a mixed seed).
  • 50g for 1 Potato Seeds (not necessary if you have one from a mixed seed).
• Upgrade to the Copper Pickaxe (2,000g).
• Go to Pierre's and buy:
  • 1 Bean Starter (60g)
  • 1 Cauliflower Seeds (80g) (not necessary if you have one from a mixed seed)
  • 1 Potato Seeds (50g) (not necessary if you have one from a mixed seed)
  • 16 Kale Seeds (1,120g)
  • With any remaining money, buy additional Kale seeds.
• If you do not get to Pierre's in time before he closes, this does not change the route in any meaningful way. Simply buy and plant the seeds tomorrow.
• Go home.
• Plant + water.
• Retrieve the Fiberglass Rod + furnace + iron ore + gold ore + coal + Chubs.
• Go to the mountain lake.
• Place the furnace next to the chest. Smelt 5 iron bars while you fish.
• Fish until 2 AM. Before passing out, fill your inventory with the most expensive items.
  • Leave remaining iron ore + gold ore at the mountain lake chest. (Unless it is going to rain tomorrow; if so, remember to take the furnace with you.)
  • Make a note of how many gold ore you have.
• At the end of the day, you should get:
  • Farming 0 --> 1
  • Mining 0 --> 1
  • Fishing 7 --> 8

Spring 6

• Water.
  • If any of your spring bundle crops got eaten by a crow, make a note of it and re-purchase the seed from Pierre when convenient.
• Craft and place a scarecrow.
• Chop trees until 7:40 AM.
• Empty inventory + retrieve Fiberglass Rod.
• Go into town from the Bus Stop. You will trigger the community center cutscene; do not skip the cutscene.
  • This is because if you skip the cutscene, you will be placed at the entrance to town. If you watch it, you will be placed next to the community center.
• Go into the community center and touch the Golden Scroll square (to start the quest).
• Go to the mountain lake and fish until 1 AM. Fill your inventory with 5 iron bars + the most expensive items to sell.
• Go home.
• Out of your sellable items, ship however much will give you 5,000g for the Steel Pickaxe upgrade + however much gold to buy up to 25 gold ore.
  • If you do not have enough, sell Chubs. (Remember, sell the lowest-quality ones first.)
• It should be 2 AM immediately after selling. If not, cut down grass and pass out.

Spring 7

• Check the Queen of Sauce for the Stir Fry recipe.
• Check the mail until you get the wizard's letter.
• Water.
• Empty inventory. Retrieve 5 iron bars.
• Go to the wizard (to trigger the cutscene).
  • Note that watching the cutscene does not count as meeting the wizard. If you want to have his name appear in the social tab, you must talk to him after the cutscene. However, this is purely cosmetic and has no actual gameplay advantage, so talking to him is considered a waste of time, especially if you plan on giving him gifts later on.
• Empty out the contents of the forest river chest (optional).
• Go to the blacksmith:
  • Buy up to 25 gold ore (including what you have fished up).
  • Upgrade to the Steel Pickaxe (5,000g).
• Fish at the mountain lake until 2 AM, then pass out. Smelt gold bars while you fish. You should be able to smelt 2-3 bars, with one more in the furnace when you pass out.
• At the end of the day, you should get:
  • Fishing 8 --> 9

Spring 8

• If you get the cave cutscene, choose mushrooms. (See Other Notes.)
• Water.
• Out of your sellable items, ship however much will give you 12,000g.
  • This is for the Gold Pickaxe upgrade (10,000g) + the backpack upgrade (2,000g).
  • If you do not have enough, then you will need to return home before the end of the day and ship the fish you catch during the day to make up the difference.
• Fish at the mountain lake until 2 AM, then pass out. Smelt gold bars while you fish, until you have 5 total. Make sure you have these bars in your inventory when you pass out.
• As this is the first day we have not increased a skill since the start of the game, make sure not to exhaust yourself. (We need to wake up with 50% energy instead of 0% energy.)

Spring 9

• Water.
• Chop wood until around 8 AM.
• Empty inventory. Retrieve the Fiberglass Rod.
• Go to the blacksmith and upgrade to the Gold Pickaxe (10,000g).
• Go to Pierre's and buy the backpack upgrade (2,000g).
• Fish at the mountain lake until 2 AM, then pass out.
• At the end of the day, you should get:
  • Fishing 9 --> 10 (choose Angler profession)
• If you do not get fishing level 10 today, then you will get it after the next day of fishing. This does not change the route in any meaningful way.

Spring 10

• Water.
• Grab mushrooms from the cave.
• Calculate how many additional kale you need to get to farming level 6.
  • 8 XP per Parsnip * 15 Parsnips = 120 XP
  • 17 XP per Kale * 16 Kale = 272 XP
  • 3300 total XP - 120 XP - 272 XP = 2908 XP needed
  • 2908 XP / 17 = 172 Kale
  • 172 Kale Seeds * 70g = 12,040g
• If you are level 10 fishing, ship enough fish to buy half of the Kale Seeds necessary (6,020g). (We will plant the Kale in two batches.)
  • Two batches is optimal because we don't want to craft more Sprinklers than necessary. This allows for the maximum amount of iron bars to craft Quality Sprinklers on Spring 28.
• If you are not level 10 fishing, then don't ship any fish right now (because you will miss out on 25% of the gold). Tomorrow, you will have to sell the fish directly to Willy.
• Empty inventory. Retrieve Fiberglass Rod.
• If you have less than 100 bait on the rod, also retrieve a few fish. Fish in the mountain lake for a few hours while you wait for 9 AM. Then, go to Willy, sell the fish, and buy more bait.
• Fish at the mountain lake until 2 AM, then pass out. Remember to take your furnace with you (because we will take it to the mines tomorrow).

Spring 11

• Harvest the Kale. (This should get to you farming level 2.)
• Start hoeing squares in a sprinkler-pattern. (Do not water any squares.)
• Leave the farm at around 8:00 AM.
• Go to Willy to sell fish if you did not ship any fish yesterday.
• Go to the blacksmith. Retrieve the gold pickaxe.
• Go to Pierre's and buy the previously calculated amount of Kale Seeds. (6,020g)
• Go back to the farm and finish hoeing + planting. (Do not water any squares.)
  • You can optionally craft and place Cobblestone Path to mark where the future sprinklers will go.
  • We do not need to water the Kale until Spring 14.
• Go to the mines and place the furnace. Keep the furnace going with smelting bars.
• Mine until 2 AM, then pass out.
  • As you get more copper, craft + place 3 more furnaces (to have 4 in total).
• At the end of the day, you should get:
  • Farming 1 --> 2

Spring 12

• Grab mushrooms from the cave.
• Mine until 2 AM, then pass out. As you mine, smelt copper and iron.
• When you get mining level 5, choose the Miner profession.

Spring 13

• Mine until 2 AM, then pass out.
• (There is nothing that we need from the Egg Festival, so going there would be a waste of time. One exception would be if you are doing a challenge to ship every item by the end of year 1; in that case you would need one or two Strawberry Seeds.)

Spring 14

• Check the Queen of Sauce for the Coleslaw recipe.
• Grab mushrooms from the cave.
• Go to the mines until 12 AM.
• If you do not have enough ore for the rest of the sprinklers that you need, then farm ore on floor 21/41 before continuing to descend in the mines.
• If you reach the bottom of the mines, revert to farming more ore. (You can reach floor 120 anywhere between Spring 14 through Spring 18, depending on how well you play, how lucky you are, and whether or not you took days off to fish in the rain.)
  • Once you have all of the (normal) sprinklers made, copper ore is only needed for tool upgrades. Lots of iron ore and gold ore will be needed for Quality Sprinklers.
• At 12 AM, go home and craft + place as many sprinklers as possible. (If you do not have enough sprinklers to cover all of the crops, that is okay.)
• Ship items to get up to 42,500g.
  • If you don't have enough, then only get up to 32,500g. Tomorrow, don't buy the 10,000g bundle. (In most runs, you will not have enough.)
• It should be 2 AM after this. If not, cut down grass and pass out.

Spring 15

• Salmonberries start spawning today, but do not venture too far out of your way to harvest them. (They are not worth a lot of extra time for the little energy that they return.)
  • Use the same pause strategy for Salmonberry bushes that you do for garbage cans.
• Water the crops that are not yet covered by sprinklers (if any).
• Empty inventory. Retrieve 4 Spring Foraging Bundle items + 4 Spring Crops Bundle items + 3 Blacksmith's Bundle items + 4 Geologist's Bundle items + 2 Adventurer's Bundle items.
• Go to the community center and complete the bundles for these items.
  • Remember to exit out of the Golden Scroll after completing two of the Boiler Room bundles in order to prevent getting trapped in the bugged cutscene.
• Also complete the vault bundles, if you have enough money (42,500g).
• Go home and place the Crystalarium and stick a diamond in it.
• Empty inventory and go to the mines.
• If you do not have enough ore for the rest of the sprinklers that you need, then farm ore on floor 21/41 before continuing to descend in the mines.
• Mine until 2 AM, then pass out. If you still need to craft more sprinklers, remember to leave the smelted bars in your inventory.
• At the end of the day, you will unlock the Minecarts.

Spring 16

• Grab mushrooms from the cave.
• Water the crops that are not yet covered by sprinklers (if any).
• Use the bars smelted on the previous day to craft more sprinklers (if needed).
• Mine until 2 AM. (Remember to use the minecarts to get there faster.)

Spring 17 & Beyond

• If you have not already reached floor 120 in the mines, get that done as soon as possible.
• Furthermore, if you need more gold to finish the vault (42,500g), then fish at the mountain lake, and finish the vault as soon as possible.
  • If you still need to do both of these things, then you should time it such that you finish both of them on the same day. (Because the bus will not be repaired until the next day.)
• Once you have reached floor 120 of the mines, move all of the furnaces from the mines back to your farm.
• Start to do Skull Cavern runs as soon as possible and as often as possible. (See General Skull Cavern Strategy.)
• During periods of downtime, you can:
  • Start to clear debris on the farm where your Quality Sprinklers + Starfruit crop will go.
  • Craft + place flooring where the Quality Sprinklers will go.
  • Craft + place Scarecrows.
  • Craft + place extra furnaces with your spare copper.
  • Start to plant acorns in a corner of the farm to build up an Oak Tree forest.
  • Farm more ore in the mines (on floor 20/40/80).

Spring 18

• Ship enough items to get:
  • 2,000g for the Copper Axe upgrade.
  • However much gold is needed to buy the second batch of Kale Seeds (70g each).

Spring 19

• At 9 AM, go to Clint and upgrade to the Copper Axe (2,000g).
• Go to Pierre and buy the second batch of Kale Seeds

Spring 20

• Harvest the first batch of Kale and plant the second crop.
• Ship enough items to get 5,000g for the Steel Axe upgrade.

Spring 21

• Check the Queen of Sauce for the Radish Salad recipe.
• At 9 AM, go to Clint, retrieve the Copper Axe, and upgrade to the Steel Axe (5,000g).
• If your run goals include shipping everything by the end of year 1, you must buy and plant a Tulip Bulb (20g) and Jazz Seeds (30g) today for it to be ready on Spring 28.

Spring 22

• Ship enough items to get 2,000g for the Copper Hoe upgrade.

Spring 23

• At 9 AM, go to Clint, retrieve the Steel Axe, and upgrade to the Copper Hoe (2,000g).
• Now that you have the Steel Axe, if you get a bad luck day, use it to clear space on your farm and prepare for your sprinklers. This will need to be done on the 27th at the latest, even if it is not a bad luck day.
  • However, you must get level 10 mining first before taking any days off because you need the Blacksmith profession before Spring 25.
  • Remember, you also need to set up Scarecrows and Parsnip Seeds (as a linger crop).

Spring 24

• Ship as many items as possible. (We want as much gold for tomorrow as possible.)

Spring 25

• Plan out how many Starfruit Seeds (400g each) that you will be planting on Summer 2. This will depend on how well your run is going. Make sure to account for the future revenue from Skull Cavern runs between now and Summer 2. Note that you will need around two full days to clear and prepare the farm. (You may have already spent one day clearing if you got an unlucky day between Spring 23 and now.) You should aim for around 400-500 Starfruit Seeds.
• At 9 AM, go to Clint, retrieve the Copper Hoe, and upgrade to the Steel Hoe (5,000g).
• Go to the Oasis and buy 1 Deluxe Speed-Gro for every Starfruit Seed that you plan to purchase.
  • The Oasis only sells Deluxe Speed-Gro on Thursdays and we need it by Summer 2.
  • Note that you must use a Warp Totem: Desert to access the desert today, since Pam will go to the clinic for an appointment (instead of driving the bus). On most runs, this is never an issue, since you are generally using Warp Totems on every single day to prevent wasting time & gold.
• Spend the rest of your money on Starfruit Seeds so that you can pass out without penalty. (You will buy the rest of the Starfruit Seeds on Summer 2.)

Spring 26

• Nothing notable on this day.

Spring 27

• Harvest the second batch of Kale. (This should get you to farming level 6.)
• At 9 AM, go to Clint and retrieve the Steel Hoe.

Spring 28

• Check the Queen of Sauce for the Omelet recipe.
• Ship as many items as possible. (We want as much gold for tomorrow as possible.)
• Craft + place Quality Sprinklers.
• Plant Parsnip Seeds (as a linger crop) if you haven't already done so earlier on in the season.
  • Do not use Deluxe Speed-Gro on the Parsnip Seeds, as it will not carry over to Summer 1.
• If you finish before around noon, then you can spend the rest of the day in the Skull Cavern.

Summer 1

• Nothing notable on this day. Can do a Skull Cavern run, etc. Don't scythe any of the Parsnips since we do not need to plant any Starfruit Seeds until tomorrow. (This is because the Agriculturist profession will affect the third batch of Starfruit.)

Summer 2

• Scythe + plant all of the Deluxe Speed-Gro + the first batch of Starfruit Seeds that was purchased on Spring 25.
• At 9 AM, go to the Oasis and purchase the rest of the Starfruit Seeds, then return home and plant them.
• This will take the majority of the day. If you have any time left:
  • Craft + place around 10-20 Lightning Rods.
  • Craft + place Tappers on the Oak trees scattered around your farm that you did not cut down.
  • Continue to plant acorns in a corner of the farm to build up an Oak tree forest.

Summer 3

• Do a Skull Cavern run. (We need enough money to buy 25,000g to upgrade to the Iridium Pickaxe.)

Summer 4

• Smelt Iridium Bars. Later on in the day when they are finished (around 2:30 PM), go to Clint and upgrade to the Iridium Pickaxe. (If you need more money beyond just what the Iridium Bars provide, you can sell some gems directly to Clint.)
• Craft + place around 10-20 Lightning Rods.
• Craft + place Tappers on the Oak Trees scattered around your farm that you did not cut down.
• Continue to plant Acorns in a corner of the farm to build up an Oak Tree forest.
• We are going to need as much Oak Resin as possible for Kegs. Tree Fertilizer is extremely handy for growing our Oak tree forest very quickly, but we need level 7 foraging to craft it. The best way to level up foraging skill without actually wasting much in-game time is to craft and harvest Summer Seeds (as opposed to chopping down trees or walking the relatively long distance to the Secret Woods to chop down stumps).
• Thus, on days when you are not in the Skull Cavern (like today), you should:
  • Look around the map for summer foragable items so that you can craft at least 10-20 Summer Seeds. When the Summer Seeds are harvested, re-craft and re-plant as many Summer Seeds as possible (until you get to level 7 foraging).
  • Chop down the 5 stumps in the Secret Woods to get both foraging XP and Hardwood. (You will need 100 Hardwood for the Stable.)
  • As soon as you have 100 hardwood, you should purchase the Stable from Robin, which will make you waste less time on subsequent Secret Woods runs. (You need will need 150 hardwood for the second farmhouse upgrade.)

Summer 5 & Beyond

• Do more Skull Cavern runs. We need to build up as much money as possible for the second batch of Starfruit Seeds.

Summer 9

• Ship enough items to buy the second batch of Starfruit Seeds.

Summer 10

• Buy the second batch of Starfruit Seeds. (We have to buy them today because the Oasis is closed tomorrow for the Luau.)

Summer 11

• Harvest + replant. (The Deluxe Speed-Gro will stay on the tiles, so you should not have to re-apply any.)
• Do not sell any Starfruit - it should be going into kegs, even the gold-quality ones. At this point you should be tapping as many Oak Trees as possible and building as many Kegs as possible. (Buy the necessary wood from Robin when you run out.)
  • Don't sell any wine until you have re-specialized from Agriculturist to Artisan using the Statue of Uncertainty.
• To start with, you can fill your house with kegs. Later on, it is convenient to buy several Big Sheds and place them near the house. Alternatively, once you unlock the Quarry, you can cover it with flooring and use it to stockpile kegs.
• At the end of the day, you should get farming level 10. Choose the Agriculturist profession.
  • Unfortunately, the benefit from Agriculturist will not affect the crops that were planted today.
  • We will re-spec to Artisan later on before selling any of the Starfruit Wine.

Summer 13 & Beyond

• Summer 13 is guaranteed to be a stormy day.
• At some point on or after Summer 13, buy and plant any other summer crops that you need for bundles/quests/presents/whatever.
• The longest crops to grow are Melons and Blueberries, which will take 10 days with the Agriculturist profession. With Deluxe Speed-Gro, you can speed this up to 7 days. So you can defer planting extra summer crops to Summer 21 at the latest.

Summer 19

• Ship enough items for the third batch of Starfruit.

Summer 20

• Harvest the Starfruit.
• At 9 AM, go to the Oasis and buy the second batch of Starfruit Seeds.
• Plant the Starfruit Seeds. (The Deluxe Speed-Gro will stay on the tiles, so you should not have to re-apply any.)

Summer 24

• Ship enough items to buy more Deluxe Speed-Gro. (You will be covering your whole farm with Pumpkins, so you will need additional Speed-Gro beyond what will carry-over from the Starfruit squares.)

Summer 25

• Buy additional Deluxe Speed-Gro from the Oasis.
• Sometime between now and Summer 28, hoe and place all the quality sprinklers and additional Deluxe Speed-Gro. The wheat will not be ready on Fall 2 if the soil is not watered on Summer 28.

Summer 26

• Summer 26 is guaranteed to be a stormy day.

Summer 27

• Ship enough items to purchase enough Wheat Seeds to cover your whole farm tomorrow (10g each).

Summer 28

• Harvest the Starfruit.
• At 9 AM, go to Pierre's and buy enough Wheat Seeds to cover your whole farm.
• Plant the Wheat Seeds (as a linger crop, which keeps the Deluxe Speed Gro).
  • Planting them on Summer 28 is only viable if you have the Agriculturist profession. Otherwise, this strategy would not work to get 3 batches of pumpkins.

Fall 1

• Nothing notable on this day. Can do a Skull Cavern run, etc. We need to wait for the wheat to finish growing.
• Note that if you are trying to complete the Museum, then it is extremely helpful to have level 10 foraging and the Tracker profession before Winter 1 (so that you can see the Artifact Spots easier). If you do not yet have level 10 foraging, you might want to plant a huge forest using spare Maple Seeds and Pine Cones, and then chop it all down. (This is more efficient than harvesting Fall Seeds.)
• Ship enough items to purchase the Pumpkin Seeds to cover your farm (100g each).

Fall 2

• Harvest the wheat and replant Pumpkin Seeds to cover your whole farm.
  • Pumpkins are better than Cranberries because we will not have enough kegs to support all of the cranberries.
• Similar to Starfruit, you should harvest + replant in order to get three batches of Pumpkins in fall.

Fall 9

• You can finally sell your Starfruit Wine now.
• Use the Statue of Uncertainty to re-specialize from Agriculturist to Artisan.
• Buy more seeds for tomorrow. (We need to buy the seeds today because Pierre's will be closed on Wednesday.)

Fall 10

• The first batch of Pumpkins are ready on this day.
• Replant. (We can get 3 total harvests of Pumpkins, just like Starfruit.)

Winter 1 & Beyond

• Now is your chance to complete any remaining Community Center bundles. You want to complete the Community Center as fast as possible in order to unlock Ginger Island & the island farm.
  • Once you have access to the island farm, you can start to mass-plant Starfruit again, which will be your primary source of income.

Appendix A: Recommended Restrictions

Some techniques and strategies are considered to be "cheating", but it differs from player to player.

For example, players like TheHaboo take the stance that using a specially crafted filename to get extra items is "not allowed", but that exploiting a bug in the game to deal massive amounts of damage with a hammer is "allowed". Haboo also takes the stance that manipulating RNG to get Desert Totems from the Casino is "not allowed", but that manipulating RNG to sell clay is "allowed".

Players are free to use whatever strategies that they want, but for the purposes of this guide, we want to be consistent - we assume that you are not using any bugs, exploits, or any "borderline" strategies at all. Even when restricting yourself to play in the most vanilla-way possible, it is still possible to complete a bunch of different challenges (like getting almost all Grandpa points by the end of the first year). We challenge other Stardew players to try to make things as difficult as possible, within reason.

We recommend the following self-imposed restrictions:

• Choosing the Community Center path instead of the Joja path.
  • It is generally more interesting and more difficult to choose the Community Center. However, if you are e.g. only concerned with getting as much money as you can by a specific date, then feel free to use the Joja path. (Choosing Joja is optimal in this case because it allows access to Ginger Island in Year 1 Spring.)
• No using glitches / bugs / debug features (e.g. the item spawning cheat).
• No cheats (e.g. Cheat Engine).
• No mods.
  • Some quality-of-life mods are okay if they provide no actual gameplay advantage.
• No playing on a set seed. The seed must be randomly generated.
• No restarting a day in the middle of a run. If a mistake is made, you must continue on with the run or restart all the way back to a new save file. (See below for the reasoning.)
• No restarting the first day over and over to guarantee an artifact / multiple Spring Onions / etc.
  • Since you are allowed to reset from day N to day 1, it follows that you should be allowed to reset from day 1 to day 1. But if you want, you can force yourself to keep playing a suboptimal day 1 as an additional challenge. (An optimal day 1 is probably not necessary for most runs.)
• No using Stardew Predictor, BlaDe's Map Predictor, or similar methods to derive information from your save file.
• No using a spreadsheet planner to know beforehand what specific tiles will yield a gold-quality crop.
• No using the hammer spam bug to deal massive amounts of damage to enemies.
• No buying from NPCs when you are not supposed to (e.g. buying from Robin on Tuesdays when she paths next to the shop counter).
• No animation canceling (e.g. to swing a tool extra fast).
• No using RNG manipulation to get massive amounts of clay.
• No using RNG manipulation to guarantee Ancient Seeds from a Seed Maker.
• No using RNG manipulation to get massive amounts of Warp Totem: Farm from the Casino.
• No using RNG manipulation to count steps and change the luck of the subsequent day.
• You are allowed to use Stardew Checkup (since it is easier than manually writing down all of the items you donate to the museum).
• You are allowed to zoom the game past the normal 75% value. (See below for the reasoning.)

The reasons for not allowing the restarting of a day are twofold:

• First, if you allow restarting a day as many times as you want, mistakes become inconsequential: simply restart the day over and over until you get a perfect day. This essentially removes the execution aspect of the game. It also minimizes the planning aspect of the game.
• Furthermore, consider that when players are forced to improvise on-the-fly after a mistake is made, it promotes interesting gameplay. Players have to quickly think "on their feet", coming up with an alternate plan or an intelligent way to mitigate the mistake.
• Second, resetting a day allows for unfair knowledge. For example, players can check what the Traveling Cart has, and then reset the day if it does not sell anything useful, "regaining" all of the time that it took to walk down there.
• If resetting a day is allowed, then it follows that for players to correctly min-max, they would be need to play each day multiple times. This would be so that they can "explore" the possibilities of the day (or use a luck predictor), try out different strategies, and then pick one and execute it until they are satistifed.
• Re-playing every single day in this fashion is extremely tedious and is probably not in the spirit of what the game is supposed to be.
• Allowing the resetting of a day will allow for "near-perfect" runs. But at the end of a challenge run, you can be much, much more satisfied with a run where you played solidly from start to finish (as opposed to a "challenge" run where you simply reset the day whenever you made a mistake).

The reasons for allowing a mod to zoom the game are threefold:

• First, players with 4K monitors can see much farther than players on 1080p monitors. It would be silly to force players to have to buy a 4K monitor in order to get a competitive advantage at Stardew Valley, so allowing arbitrary zooming puts everybody on a level-playing field.
• Second, it is possible to set the zoom level to be a value less than 75% by manually editing the value in your save file by using a text editor. Thus, it is possible to achieve the arbitrary zoom-levels that a mod provides while still playing without any mods. The only difference is that by having zoom hotkeys, you can easily zoom in and out without having to squint at the screen, which is a huge quality of life improvement.
• Third, even if you consider manually editing a save file to be cheating, it is still possible to see the entire area without changing the zoom level by taking a screenshot from the in-game options menu. By pausing the game and opening the resulting PNG file, players can see the entire area that they are in without having to actually walk there.
• Even with these three things in mind, one could argue that a skilled Stardew player should arbitrarily restrict themselves to playing in a "normal" zoom level and to not ever use the in-game screenshot feature. This is a reasonable restriction to take on, but the resulting gameplay that this restriction causes does not end up being more fun - having to walk out of your way to explore an area does not really add any meaningful decision-making to the game.

Appendix B: Mods

Some mods add additional content into the game, which changes the calculus of what the optimal thing to do on each day is. We do not use any of these mods and prefer to min-max the vanilla game. With that said, we recommend that everyone use some of the excellent quality-of-life mods out there (that do not interfere with the vanilla strategies).

UI Info Suite 2

This mod is a compilation of several different features:

• Display an icon that represents the current days luck - This is not considered cheating since if you place the TV next to your bed, it wastes no in-game time to check the luck of the day.
• Display experience point gains & Display a dynamic experience bar that changes based on your current tool or location - This is not considered cheating because you can manually track your experience for each skill by keeping a running tally on a piece of paper as you forage things and so forth. In vanilla, you can also see your current level in the skills tab of the menu.
• Display more accurate heart levels - This is not considered cheating because you can manually track what each person's heart levels are on paper.
• Display more information on item mouse overs, including items that are still needed for bundles - This is not considered cheating because you can just pause the game and look up the item on the wiki.
• View calendar and quest billboard anywhere - Viewing the calendar is not considered cheating because you could just pause the game and bring up the Calendar page on the wiki. However, viewing the billboard anywhere is considered cheating, because you save time from having to walk to Pierre's. Either don't ever click on the billboard in the pause menu or simply turn off the feature in the "UI Info Mod Options" tab of the menu.
• Display icons over animals that need petting - Probably only considered cheating if you have a ton of animals; most runs only buy one of each animal (which is subsequently trivial to keep track of).
• Display crop type and days until harvest on mouseover - Not cheating because you can write down what day you plant a crop. In the case of mixed seeds, it is still not cheating because you can go to the wiki and look up what crop it is based on the image tile of the seed.
• Display icon when animal has item yield (milk, wool) - Could be cheating in the case where you use the notifications to intentionally skip milking a cow, for example. Don't do that. Most runs use Auto-Grabbers, so this quickly becomes a non-issue.
• Sprinkler, scarecrow, beehive and Junimo hut ranges - Not considered cheating because you can just pause the game and count the number of squares that it is supposed to cover.
• Display npc locations on map - Not considered cheating because you can just go to the NPC's page on the wiki and look up their schedule for the day.
• Display an icon for Queen of Sauce when she is airing a recipe you don't already know - Not considered cheating because the show airs on predictable days and it wastes no in-game time to check the TV.
• Display an icon when Clint is upgrading one of your tools. Icon will tell you how long until the tool is finished and shows you which tool you are upgrading. - Not considered cheating because you can just write down when you give a tool to Clint.

(UI Info Suite is the most important mod that we recommend. The mods below here are listed in alphabetical order.)

Always Organize Chests

This automatically clicks on the "Organize Chest" button whenever a new item is put into a chest. This is a quality of life feature for those of us who compulsively click on the button manually all the time.

Always Scroll Map

This allows the screen to be centered on the player. It can be toggled on and off by pressing ";" and the default behavior is customizable. This is helpful for restocking massive amounts of jars/kegs in a Shed, for example, because when the screen is centered, you need to do a lot less mouse movements. This is not considered cheating because the "skill" difference between moving the mouse a little more while restocking a shed or planting crops is negligible.

Eat & Drink From Inventory

This allows food and drink items to be consumed from the pause screen by pressing a hotkey. This is a quality of life feature to prevent having to accept the eating dialog confirmation box over and over.

Energy Count

This always shows the numerical energy count on screen so that you don't have to constantly pause the game and mouse over the energy bar in order to see it. It also shows an accurate count when the energy drops into negative values, which is helpful.

Fast Animations

By default, this mod speeds up a lot of different animations, so it must be customized using the "config.json" file to prevent cheating. All values should be set to 1 with the exception of:

• EatAndDrinkSpeed - Set this to 2 (or higher) to speed up the rate of the eating animation. This is not considered cheating because the game is paused when the animation is occurring.
• HarvestSpeed - Set this to 2 (or higher) to speed up pulling up massive amounts of crops. This is not considered cheating because the game is paused when the animation is occurring.
• MountOrDismountSpeed - Set this to 2 (or higher) to speed up getting on and off the horse. This is not considered cheating because the game is paused when the animation is occurring.
• BreakGeodeSpeed - Set this to 20 to make geodes break open instantly. This is not considered cheating because the game is paused when the animation is occurring.
• PamBusSpeed - Set this to 20 to make the bus travel to the desert instantly. This is not considered cheating because the game is paused when you are riding on the bus.
• TitleMenuTransitionSpeed - Set this to 20 to make the title screen more functional.
• LoadGameBlinkSpeed - Set this to 20 to make the title screen more functional.

Highlighted Jars

This changes the color of unfilled Preserves Jar and Kegs to be red. This is helpful because when you are filling massive amounts of jars or kegs, it is common to accidentally miss one. This allows you to easily see missed jars/kegs. (Otherwise, you would have to pause the game and squint to examine if all of the jars/kegs on the screen have a pulsating animation.)

Morning Auto-Pause

This automatically pauses the game at the beginning of the day. This is useful since the game can lag when first loading the day, wasting precious in-game seconds.

No Defend With Sword

This prevents the usage of defending with a sword. This is helpful because accidental usage of defend is a common mistake.

Running Late

This prevents the game from rounding the time to the nearest 10 minutes. (It is hard to believe that this simple feature is not in the vanilla game!)

Better Shipping Bin

This allows you to put things and take them out of the shipping bin like it was a chest. Importantly, it also shows a running tally of the amount of gold you will recieve the next day. This is extremely useful because at several points in a min-max run, you will have to ship exactly a certain amount of gold, and this mod obviates the need for writing everything down with pencil and paper. Presumably, the vanilla shipping bin does not function like this because it would allow for additional unlimited temporary storage. Thus, in order to prevent cheating, you should never temporarily store items in the shipping bin with this mod.

Skip Intro

This removes the intro cutscene (e.g. the cutscene that appears before you get to the main menu, not the one that plays at the beginning of a new save file). Even though you can press escape to skip this cutscene, it is helpful to just completely remove it so that you can get into the game that much faster.

Sleepless Fisherman

This disables the "ZZZ" animation that plays at 12 AM and 1 PM when you happen to be fishing. This is helpful since it can be confused with a bite animation, causing you to waste precious energy.

Swap Rings

This swap rings upon pressing a hotkey. This is extremely useful in a min-max run, because you will be constantly swapping out Lucky Rings and magnatism rings in the Skull Cavern.

Zoom Level

This allows you to zoom in and out by using hotkeys. It also allows you to zoom out farther than the normal 75% maximum value. See the justification in the previous section as to why this is not considered cheating.

Appendix C: Average Gold per Hour for Fishing

• For calculating the opportunity cost of something, it is useful to know how much gold per hour that one can expect while fishing.
• The values for various fishing spots are located in my fishing spreadsheet.
• Most importantly, in Spring:
  • The best spot to fish in sunny weather is the mountain lake, which results in 661.79 average gold per hour.
  • The best spot to fish in rainy weather is the forest river, which results in 842.94 average gold per hour.
• The ratio between sunny lake and rainy river is 1 to 1.27.

Appendix D: Early Community Center

In some challenge runs, getting to Ginger Island in winter is fine, since you are busy with other activities all throughout Fall. However, in other challenge runs, it might be beneficial to invest time into getting there earlier than that (e.g. a min-max run only concerned with maximizing gold earned in which it is explicitly against the rules to use the Joja path).

Even with our recommended restrictions, it is possible to complete the Community Center by Fall 14, which gets you to the island 14 days faster (the boat will be unlocked on Fall 16 but will be delayed by a day because of the Stardew Valley Fair).

The 3 items needed are the Snow Yam, Crocus, and the Nautilus Shell.

For the Snow Yam and the Crocus:

• Complete the Greenhouse by Fall 9 (by planting a Pumpkin with Deluxe Speed-Gro on Fall 1).
• Put Winter Roots in a Seed Maker to get Winter Seeds. (Winter Roots drop from blue slimes on levels 41-79 of the Mines.)
• Alternatively if you have spare Spring Seeds you can trade 2 to the Desert Trader for Winter Seeds on Saturdays.
• Plant the Winter Seeds in the Greenhouse on Fall 10.

For the Nautilus Shell:

• You can get randomly them from the Traveling Cart. If you check the Traveling Cart every day from Spring 5 onwards, you are likely to find one in the first year.
  • Note that in this ruleset, we consider using Stardew Predictor to be cheating, so you must actually walk to the Traveling Cart on every Friday and Sunday.
• You can also get them as a rare drop from Fish Pond with Crab Pot fish, but for the purposes of min-maxing, we can safely ignore this method.
• You can also get them as a random present from Demetrius, but for the purposes of min-maxing, we can safely ignore this method.

Appendix E: Birthdays

• On a birthday, giving a liked gift gets 360 friendship. This is equal to 8 normal liked gifts or 4.5 normal loved gifts. 360 friendship will decay after 1.6 years (at -2 per day).
• On a birthday, giving a loved gift gets 640 friendship. This is equal to 8 normal loved gifts. 640 friendship will decay after 2.9 years (at -2 per day).
• Thus, depending on how soon you need the friendship, for most NPCs it will probably be worth it to skip birthday presents, at least in the spring of year 1.

Lewis - Spring 7

• Unless you happen to get extremely lucky in getting an Autumn's Bounty, Glazed Yams, or Vegetable Medley from the Saloon garbage can, then you won't be able to give Lewis a loved gift on Spring 7 of year 1.
• Thus, you generally would want to give him an Earth Crystal or a Parsnip.
• The friendship from a liked gift would be fully depleted on Winter 19 of year 2.
• In this route, it is convenient to give Lewis a present, since he is on the way to the blacksmith from the wizard.
• If you plan on waiting until the end of year 2 to accumulate friendship with Lewis, then it is probably not worth it to give him a liked gift.

Vincent - Spring 10

• Unless you happen to get extremely lucky in getting a Pink Cake from the Saloon garbage can, then you won't be able to give Vincent a loved gift on Spring 10 of year 1.
• Thus, you would generally want to give him a Daffodil, an Earth Crystal or a Parsnip.
• The friendship from a liked gift would be fully depleted on Winter 22 of year 2.
• Vincent comes out of his room at 9 AM.
• In this route, it is somewhat convenient to give Vincent a present, since you can fish outside his house and it only wastes a few hours in total.
• If you plan on waiting until the end of year 2 to accumulate friendship with Vincent, then it is probably not worth it to give him a liked gift.

Haley - Spring 14

• Unless you happen to get extremely lucky in getting a Pink Cake from the Saloon garbage can, then you won't be able to give Haley a loved gift on Spring 14 of year 1.
• Thus, you would generally want to give her a Daffodil, an Earth Crystal or a Parsnip.
• The friendship from a liked gift would be fully depleted on Winter 26 of year 2.
• Haley leaves her room at exactly at 11:06 AM (to walk to the fountain).
• In this route, it is inconvenient to give Haley a present, since you would have to leave the mines, meet her at the fountain, and then head back to the mines.
• If you plan on waiting until the end of year 2 to accumulate friendship with Haley, then it is probably not worth it to give her a liked gift.

Pam - Spring 18 - ✔

• Pam loves Parsnips, so this is the easiest gift.
• The friendship from a loved gift would be fully depleted on Winter 2 of year 3.
• You can enter Pam's trailer to give her a gift at 9 AM.
• In this route, it is convenient to give Pam a gift, since you will pass by her while running through the Bus Stop (if you have already fixed the bus).
• If you care about friendship with Pam, then it is probably worth it to give her a Parsnip.

Shane - Spring 20

• Shane loves Beer, which can be easily purchased at the Saloon for 400g.
• The friendship from a loved gift would be fully depleted on Winter 4 of year 3.
• Shane comes out of his room at 9 AM.
• In this route, it is inconvenient to give Shane a gift, since you have to wait for him to come out of his room, and you are typically warping to the Skull Cavern at 6 AM.
• Even if you care about friendship with Shane, it is probably not worth it to waste 3 potential hours at the Skull Cavern. Especially since Shane is one of the easiest NPCs to max out later on.

Pierre - Spring 26

• Unless you happen to get extremely lucky in getting a Fried Calamari from the Saloon garbage can, then you won't be able to give Pierre a loved gift on Spring 26 of year 1.
• Thus, you would generally want to give him a Daffodil, Dandelion, or a Parsnip.
• The friendship from a liked gift would be fully depleted on Spring 10 of year 3.
• Pierre's store opens at 9 AM.
• In this route, it is inconvenient to give Pierre a gift, since you have to wait until for the store to open, and you are typically warping to the Skull Cavern at 6 AM.
• Even if you care about friendship with Pierre, it is probably not worth it to waste 3 potential hours at the Skull Cavern. If you are doing a "farm prep" day on the 26th (clearing debris, etc.) instead of going to the Skull Cavern, then you might want to give him a present in conjunction with buying Parsnip Seeds (as a linger crop).

Emily - Spring 27

• Emily loves any gem, so this is the easiest gift.
• The friendship from a loved gift would be fully depleted on Winter 11 of year 3.
• Emily comes out of her room at 12 PM.
• In this route, it is inconvenient to give Emily a gift, since you have to wait for her to come out of her room, and you are typically warping to the Skull Cavern at 6 AM.
• Even if you care about friendship with Emily, it is probably not worth it to waste 6 potential hours at the Skull Cavern. If you are doing a "farm prep" day on the 27th (clearing debris, etc.) instead of going to the Skull Cavern, then you might want to give her a present if you have to head into town for some reason.

Jas - Summer 4

• Jas loves Fairy Rose, Pink Cake, and Plum Pudding.
• If your player is male, then you will have gotten a Fairy Cake in the mail, so this is the perfect gift. Otherwise, you can give a Prismatic Shard from the Skull Cavern.
• Jas leaves her bedroom at 11:05 AM.
• In this route, it is inconvenient to give Jas gift, since you have to wait for her to come out, and you are typically warping to the Skull Cavern at 6 AM.
• Even if you care about friendship with Jas, it is probably not worth it to waste 5 potential hours at the Skull Cavern. If you are doing a non-Skull Cavern day, then you might want to give her a present in conjunction with upgrading the pickaxe.

Birthdays in Summer and Beyond

• In summer, you are on less of a time crunch than in spring. With that said, most of your days are going to be filled with Skull Cavern runs, so you might only want to give a gift if you have some other task to do during the day (e.g. farm prep, buying a building from Robin, etc.).

Appendix F: Elevator Void Farming

In the route above, fishing at the mountain pond is used to gather the money for the Vault. However, in 2020, a new strategy was discovered that allows for a faster rate of gold accumulation by farming Void Essence in The Mines. This strategy is contingent upon whether or not you think that the ability to pause the game during the fade animation is a glitch. The ruleset recommended in this guide does allow this strategy, but we could understand someone considering it to be a glitch and therefore illegal.

Step 1 - Get the Burglar's Ring

• First, alternate between floor 0, floor 5, and floor 55 of The Mines:
  • Pause during the fade in so that no in-game time passes while you are resetting the floors.
  • Kill Green Slimes on floor 5. The goal is to kill 10 slimes to unlock the Adventurer's Guild. Only kill slimes if they are near the elevator as to not waste too much time.
  • Kill Dust Sprites on floor 55. The goal is to complete the Adventurer's Guild quest (500 dust sprites in total).
  • Once you have killed 10 slimes, only alternate between floor 0 and floor 55.
• Second, kill Dust Sprites until you complete the quest and get the Burglar's Ring. The point of this is to increase the Void Essence drop rate. It is possible to kill 500 Dust Sprites in a single day with the following strategy:
  • Use the elevator to go between floor 0 and floor 55 until you see at least 4 or more Dust Sprites that are relatively close to the elevator, then kill them.
  • Sometimes, Diamond Nodes will appear. It is worth it to spend the time to mine them.
  • Sometimes, purple Gem Nodes will appear. It is only worth it to mine them if they are very close to the elevator. (Gem Nodes can randomly drop diamonds, but most of the time they will drop less-expensive gems.)
  • Sometimes, champion slimes will spawn (i.e. slimes with a star). It is worth it to spend the time to kill them, as they can drop useful equipment. Even if the equipment is not useful, the drops can sell for a good amount of gold (to the Adventurer's Guild).

Step 2 - Farm Shadow Brutes, Shadow Shaman, and Diamonds

Once you have the Burglar's Ring, you can kill Shadow Brutes and Shadow Shaman over and over on floors 85, 95, and 105:

• Look for Shadow Brutes and Shadow Shaman that are near the elevator. If there is only one brute/shaman and it is around 6 or more steps away, that is not good enough; keep resetting the floors until you get either a closer one or a group of two or more.
• Aim for either a diamond or 2 void enemies killed per around 15-20 minutes.
• Similar to before, it is worth the time to farm Diamond Nodes.
• Mystic Stone Nodes can also appear on floor 105 specifically. Similar to Diamond Nodes, it is worth your time to go out of your way for these.
• Optionally, you can use a slingshot with stone as ammo to kill Squid Kids for 15 XP each. (They only have 1 HP, so they will die to anything.) This allows for a slightly faster rate of combat experience gain.
• Metal Heads only give 6 XP each, so they are not generally worth it to kill. (Furthermore, you do not need to farm Solar Essence, because by the time you have level 9 combat, you will probably already have enough 100 Solar Essence at that point for two Iridium Rings.)

Other Notes

In addition to getting you more money, Elevator Void Farming also gets you level 8 combat sooner. This allows you to craft Explosive Ammo, which speeds up the first couple Skull Cavern runs.

While fishing for gold at the mountain lake for days on end is considered to be pretty boring, elevator void farming takes this to another level. Not only is it heavily monotonous, the amount of out-of-game time required to finish a single day gets exponentially longer, becuase 95-99% of your time is spent looking at the pause screen. So, there is a big trade off here between being optimal and maintaining your sanity.

The average gold per hour for elevator void farming is slightly higher than fishing at the mountain pond (which is 577.6g), but it depends on how many diamonds you get. Calculate how much money you are getting yourself to see if it is even worth the hassle.

Note that the average gold per hour can be greatly increased with:

1. Coffee and Spicy Eels for a double movement speed buff. However, you won't typically have access to those items at this point in the game while using our restrictive ruleset. (For example, if you had a surplus of money from clay RNG manipulation, then you could buy as many Coffee as you needed, but this is banned in our ruleset.)
2. Being lucky enough to get a The Slammer from either a remixed Mines Treasure Chest or as a random drop from a champion enemy, and then abusing the hammer slam exploit to kill big groups of enemies as once. In our ruleset, using the hammer slam exploit is banned, but if you were using it, then you could optimize the elevator farming even further by being more picky and only going for void enemies in groups of two and three.
3. Animation canceling weapon swings to deal damage faster. In our ruleset, animation canceling is banned.

Appendix G: Miscellaneous

Testing Fishing on Spring Rain @ Forest River

• Started at 6:40am
• Ended at 2am
• 19.33 hours
• Used 78 bait
• 4.04 bait per hour
• Total money: 675+10800+270+2520+448+1800+150=16,663
• 862.03g / hour
• Cost of bait: 390g
• Total money, accounting for bait: 16,273
• 841.85g / hour

From Ocean Fishing Spot to Mountain Lake Fishing Spot

• To get from the ocean fishing spot to the mountain lake fishing spot, it takes 1.13 hours.
• Mountain Lake Combined - 661.71g
• Ocean Combined - 532.81g
• Difference - 128.9g
• Total lost by travelling - 602.08g (1.13 hours * 532.81g)
• Hours of fishing to make up the difference - 4.67 hours
• Leave at 9am ish after buying Training Rod, get there by 10:30am ish
• Fish from 10:30am to 2am --> 15.5 hours