#this week is elliott from the hit game stardew valley (again)

[barondiesbach]

i really love and enjoy cycling through the same three favorite characters every week

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

Stardew Valley Game Plan

Spring

put all the money I can muster (fishing, foraging, etc) into as many parsnips as I can plant by spring 8. Then take (almost) all of that money and put it into strawberries to be planted the day of the Egg Festival, spring 13. (perhaps take 5 gold star parsnips for the community center) Put just the money necessary into spring crops to complete community center.

Acquire a combination of 11 dandelions and/or leeks to gift to Penny. Two every week in spring and the first week of summer. One in week two of summer.

Summer

Put as much of that strawberry money into blueberries as possible come summer, also planting necessary community center crops. Plant 8 melons for Penny. Beginning at the end of the second week of summer you gift her two of these each week. In fall you can gift her one on the first, one on the second, and then again on the third because that’s her birthday. My hope is to achieve bouquet levels by the second of fall so on her birthday the gift will complete the final two hearts. Then any rainy day in the rest of the fall I can grab the amulet to propose.

First blueberry harvest is summer 14. So you can put off all other crops except the melons for Penny until you have the money from that harvest.

Fall

When summer ends you sink a on of money into your fall crop of cranberries. Pretty much as much as possible. If you haven’t done it yet, upgrade your house as well (I need to look into if the house upgrade is necessary to grab the proposal amulet or if I can get the amulet and then upgrade).

Notes

For strawberries it likely doesn’t matter, but from blueberries on, plant your crops in a 3x3 grid with the center open so you can plug in any sort of sprinklers you get as the season goes on, lessening the work and time you spend watering every day. Prioritize fishing and foraging early in the season to get those knocked out. Then spend any other time available in the mines specifically looking for minerals to upgrade tools and fill your fields with sprinklers.

IMPORTANT: Keep about 1500 on you every Friday and Sunday to visit the traveling merchant. Netting some animal products or especially the red cabbage and sandfish can save you thousands of gold and lots of time and effort. I’d kick myself if those items were there on a day I didn’t have money for them. Though in a pinch you should be able to scavenge up some stuff to sell day of and make it back in time to grab up those coveted items.

The next step on this is to figure out exactly how much of my spring and summer berry money should go into more seeds and how much is available to spend on farm buildings, animals, and the community center. I am leaning toward all strawberry profits going into the next set of crops and then after I see how much I get from the first blueberry crop I can crunch some numbers and see what I can accomplish. Animals can wait until fall I believe (I think I got stuff from them for the community center within three weeks of caring for them every day). But if it’s possible to knock out all my goals in Fall then by damn I’m gonna shoot for that.

Still need red cabbage or red cabbage seeds (and then the greenhouse if that’s the case) from the traveling merchant, but everything else should be achievable.

Also debating how early I should grab a stable. Faster travel is really big so probably sooner than I think (mid summer is my thought currently).

Mining strat: Dive as deep as possible first. It gets you better gear, a stardrop or whatever that fruit’s called, is necessary to get the red quartz to complete the community center, and then gives you more choices on where to go to mine the minerals you need later (you could even just go to the 5 levels via elevator only grabbing the easiest stuff and not bothering to look for a ladder down a level). Basically, take a ladder as soon as you find one until you hit the bottom of the mine.

That’s honestly probably the condensed culmination of my Stardew spreadsheets. I think this is the ideal strat. Other love interests that might be feasible are Sam (Summer 17 birthday, so I’m not sure that gives you enough time prior but it may, and you should have enough time after), Elliott (Fall 6 birthday so basically he’s the male version of Penny as far as things go except Penny’s favorite gifts are much easier to achieve) or perhaps Maru (Summer 10 birthday, so least ideal as far as making her your girlfriend in time to use a birthday gift to net the last two hearts).

I’m doing another play through with all this in mind and then I’ll probably look into presenting it in some sort of guide. My next play through I’m actually going to note what I do each day so I can look back and pinpoint any misplays or misused time.