Stardew Valley Beginner Guide - The First 7 Days

Introduction

This guide is meant to give you a rough direction for your first week, not a strict schedule. If something goes wrong or you do things in a different order, that’s totally okay. Stardew Valley isn’t about perfection, it’s a chilled game where you're settling in and figuring things out as you go. Kinda like Dark Souls or Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Day 1 - Get Your Bearings

On the first day, don’t try to do everything. You start with low energy and basic tools, so keep things simple.

Focus on:

• Clear a small patch of land near your house

• Plant the starter parsnip seeds & water them

• Chop a few trees or break a couple of rocks if you still have energy

Ignore the rest of the farm for now. It looks overwhelming, but you don't need to work on rest right now. You have too low energy in the early-game.

Day 2 - Explore a Bit

Now that you’ve planted crops, use this day to explore.

Do these:

• Forage around the map and pick up anything you find

• Talk to villagers you run into

• Keep watering your crops

• Visit Pierre’s shop and check prices

Learning the layout of the town early makes everything feel easier later on!

Day 3 - Light Chores and Learning

By now, you’ll start getting into the rhythm of watering crops every morning. Do it often and it becomes second nature.

Try to:

• Keep up with watering

• Do a little more farm cleanup

• Forage again

• Check the TV in the morning for tips and weather

Day 4 - Try Fishing

This is a good day to at least try fishing.

What to do:

• Go to the beach or river and give fishing a shot. It awkward at first but you'll get used to it

• Catched one? Sell a few fish if you catch any!

Fishing gets much easier later, so don’t give up too quickly if it doesn't work straight away. Here is a cool fishing guide:

Day 5 - Mine or Forage

Around this point, you’ll have more freedom in how you spend the day.

Options:

• Visit the mines if they’re unlocked

• Focus on foraging

• Do light farm cleanup

• Try fishing again

Pick one main activity and stick with it!

Day 6 - Check the Community Center

At some point in the first week, you’ll unlock the Community Center.

Take a few minutes to:

• Walk around it

• Look at a few bundles

• Get a general idea of what items it wants

No pressure to complete anything yet, just have a look there.

Day 7 - Welcome to the Game

You made it! Now you slowly starting to understand how the game works. Enjoy it :)

Next do these:

• Buy a few more seeds if you want

• Organize your chests

• Talk to villagers you’ve ignored

• Do something that feels fun, not productive

This is where the game really starts to click. Hope you like this guide, make sure to check out the fun facts we wrote about the game. It's worth a read!