Stardew Valley/First time calendar

This is the Stardew Valley First Time Calendar that you can edit.

Audience
This calendar is for
 * imperfect gamers
 * first-time players (assumes no map, tool, or object knowledge)
 * people who are sensitive to SPOILERS (This calendar attempts to avoid spoiling the fun of discovery. Don't read ahead in the calendar unless you want a little spoilage, okay?)

Goals and Limits

 * help you avoid regrets weeks into your farm
 * give you clear last-chance alerts with hard dates and numbers where possible so you can decide
 * stay relaxed and forgiving/efficient so you can catch up
 * no troubleshooting

Scope

 * unlimited detail through Y1 Spring 13
 * limited detail through Y2 Spring 7
 * mostly blank calendar continues through end of Y2 for your convenience
 * doesn't mention specific rewards or events until after they are to happen

What do I have?
You start the game on your farm that is in the west (left) of the Bus Stop that brought you here. The Pelican Town is in the east (right) of the Bus Stop. Your farm consists of everywhere you can go to without a screen change. You have 500 money, 15 parsnips, and whichever farm map you chose. (For your first game the Standard Map is a good choice; if you’re playing on another map you may need to think about where your water and your open land are before choosing where to plant your seeds.)

What am I doing?
The story consists of
 * 1) Befriending the villagers (including eventual marriage and children), which you mainly do by
 * 2) Giving them just the right gifts especially on birthdays (!)
 * 3) Listening when they want to talk
 * 4) Helping to rebuild the community.

It doesn't matter at all to the story how many years those take. But some things can only be done certain days or seasons each year. This walkthrough follows the story, alerts you to those things, and helps you know what items to save or spend.

This first time calendar will help you know what's important

Notes/Key

 * Important things to prioritize are in bold. Key word: "recommended" (means optional, but not wise to omit)
 * Suggested gifts are listed in order of preference, with later choices better for other uses.
 * Since vertical space is infinite and horizontal space isn't, paragraphs are used instead of bullet lists.

To do

 * Plant and water 15 crops (15 max until Spring 6); 15 Parsnips or 13 Parsnips plus a Green Bean and a Cauliflower.


 * Top trees to make two Chests.


 * Pick up wild plants (Spring forage) for food and money (to buy food).
 * Listen to anybody you happen to meet by making sure your hands are empty, then interacting with them. Good friends listen, and you never know what you may learn.
 * Ship stuff for money.

Your weaknesses today

 * Energy. You are appallingly flabby at the moment.
 * Don't have more than 15 crops to water until Spring 6 (see Spoiler under To Do crops). Save your energy for trees, rocks, and fishing.
 * Don't use your pickaxe at all today. To exit your farm south using no pickaxe and little axe energy, head directly south from your mailbox/shipping bin/pond area before turning west. Or use the Screenshot tool
 * Avoid tilling or watering anything unnecessarily.
 * Chop down tree tops only (leave stumps) for maximum experience for the energy you spend.
 * Backpack space.
 * Chest(s)! Save every bit of your energy today to chop tree tops (leave stumps) for wood to build two Chests. One is for your farm and the other you will use off your farm tomorrow (see safe locations at the official Worm Bin article).
 * Drop on ground. If you try to craft a Chest or retrieve something when your backpack is full, you don't always have to throw something away to make room for it. Instead drop your lowest value stack of items onto the ground off to the side of your menu. It will always drop directly in front of you, so this could drop things in the water if you are fishing.

Your strengths today

 * Time. Time is always short in Stardew Valley. But you have very little going on and as much free time as ever today. Greet people you see, forage, and use your scythe as frequently as possible on weeds wherever you see them for fiber to sell and possibly mixed seeds to plant later.
 * Fresh start. Your future is wide open. If you feel lost and would like more time just to explore and window shop Stardew Valley before committing to Grandpa's farm, you can use Exit to Title under the inventory/menu and Load the day again without penalty other than losing anything you did since you awoke. Stardew Valley saves your progress when you go to sleep every night. You can retry the same day as many times as you want until you go to sleep and it's a new day.

Prepare 15 crop spaces
Prepare yourself first.
 * Get out of bed and look at the TV programs


 * If you are lost and want to explore before committing to your Grandpa's farm, practice looking around your farm and Stardew Valley (practice using the Screenshot tool. Exit and Load the day again (your day is not saved until you go to sleep) until you can follow the map in your backpack and find your way around the valley and your farm.


 * Zoom all the way out so you can see better. Zoom is under the menu/inventory box, Options tab. Your zoom level is saved when you go to sleep.
 * Turn on "Always Show Tool Hit Location" to help you save energy by avoiding errant tool use. Turn it off later to improve your skills.

Now it's time to prepare 15 spaces. Pick up your free seeds and leave your house. Use the Screenshot tool to choose a place free from rocks and logs to prepare for 15 crops. Clear Grass and Weeds generally in your preferred area with your energy-free scythe. You want to be near a water source, and you don't want to clear even one rock today (later you do, but today you would like to save your energy to get all the wood you can). So find a mostly clear or grassy/weedy patch of ground (away from big stumps, nearly rock-free and log-free, maybe not obscured by trees, and not too big; you still have city slicker muscles and cheap tools) near a pond.

For the first year and beyond, a field layout of 3x3 squares is perfect.
 * Leave the middles empty.
 * Helps you visualize your layout and count things easily while you till, plant, harvest, and make your shopping list.


 * Plan for 160 crops with a 3x3 square empty in the middle of a field shaped like a plus sign. SDV-scarecrow-middle.png Or leave a space left (west) or right (east) of a future rectangular field. SDV-scarecrows-3x5-square-tall.png

Using your scythe and hoe only (to save energy), till and water 15 empty spaces. If you get Mixed Seeds using your scythe on Weeds now (or anytime), trash them (zero value), or save them in your Chest for later unless you want test them for 13 Parsnip, 1 Cauliflower, and 1 Green Bean before you go shopping.

Craft a Chest
Avoid removing rocks (not the kind of experience you need today) and small logs (no experience) today.

Use your axe to chop the top (leaving the stump) of enough trees (avoid the mop-top Oak Trees) near your house for a Chest. Then craft a Chest and put it near your field, your house, and your path to town.

It should now be around 10-noon.

Go shopping, foraging, and socializing

 * Take only your hoe and extra Parsnip Seeds with you.
 * Use the Screenshot tool to get a God's eye view of any location (new screen) you enter to help find forage, artifact spots, and people.
 * Forage wherever you go picking up all the plants you see to eat or sell. If you get any plants with stars, it means you leveled up Foraging.


 * Eat Spring Onions, Dandelions, and Leeks if you need backpack space. See Spoiler for gifting guidance.


 * Note and hoe Artifact Spots that look like wiggling worms in bare dirt. If you find an artifact, take it to the Museum and donate it. Then check your Journal for a reward.
 * Check any Garbage Cans you see (there are 8). But don't take lots of time exploring. And leave the Beach for later.
 * Don't prioritize finding and meeting people. But listen to anybody you happen to meet who has anything to say (before you listen to them, make sure your scythe is equipped instead of a wild plant unless you want them to take it as a gift). There are many clues to gift preferences in the things the villagers say and do.


 * Go to the counter inside Pierre's General Store (closed on Wednesdays), sell your extra Parsnip Seeds, Daffodils, and Wild Horseradish, and buy 1 Green Bean Starter and 1 Cauliflower seed.
 * Now either save all your money to use on Wednesday or go to the Saloon south of Pierre's General Store (opens at noon) and buy all the Salads you can afford so you can chop wood for the rest of today.

Return to your farm
Plant your Green Bean Starter in a far corner of your little field where it won't be in your way. Also plant your Cauliflower. Then plant 13 Parsnips. Make sure everything is watered every day.

Your Parsnips should be ready for harvest on Spring 5th and your Cauliflower on Spring 13th if you keep them watered every day. Note how much energy that all cost you.

Get your Scythe, Axe, and Pickaxe from your chest and use the rest of your energy (eat Salads as needed) and time to top all the trees you can (leaving most mop-top Oak trees standing) from your farm, still avoiding rocks. But don't get exhausted! Exhaustion doesn't go away, and it lasts through the night. If your energy bar gets right down to scarlet—and you get the message "You are becoming exhausted," stop right there and eat something or switch to your scythe only for the rest of the day.

Here's a guide to using your tools today (has Spoilers about tomorrow).

Prepare for bed
Today will end at 2:00 a.m. Be inside your house before then tonight.

Be convenient to your house by 1:00 (Tip: Start far from your house and work your way closer as it gets late) and—today only—ship all your Fiber, Clay, Sap, Wild Horseradish, and Daffodils for money (in that order of preference; see spoilers in this section), though they will all come in useful this month.

Clear Weeds. If you run out of energy early, swinging your scythe takes no energy, and Weeds stand in the way of your your movement, crops, trees, and off-farm forage, so cut down as many Weeds as you can easily find until you need to quit. If you get any more Mixed Seeds, save them in your chest. Before you run out of time (about 1:30 if you are close to your house), ship and go in your house.

Spring 2
Today's theme is Fishing. But you can't ignore Farming and Foraging.

Farming
Planting calendar: Don't plant anything from today until Spring 6. Then plant 1 Potato and 39 to 79 Kale. Right now you don't want to be watering many Parsnips, and you can get money for Kale + 1 Potato by fishing and foraging. Save any Mixed Seeds you find for testing later. You won't have time for three harvests of Parsnips before a surprise at the Egg Festival, so you may as well save up from here out to step up to Kale/Potatoes on Spring 6. Stepping up on Spring 6 helps you keep your field small to save time and energy for other important things.

Today: Water, top more trees as necessary for 50 or 350 (foraging experience and Beach surprise), empty your backpack except for Wood and your hoe, and go south from town to try fishing at the beach.

Foraging
Artifact Spots. Today, if you see Artifact spots, till them with your hoe.

Wild Plants: Today you need every possible fishing hour. Don't bother hunting for anything around the valley. Pick up only what you see.

Fishing
You’ll get an invitation to go fishing.

It's easy to earn more money the first few weeks with fishing than with early crops. Try it out for a full day to see if you level up. The goal is not to make money today. It's just to make it through the day and level up without running out of energy.


 * Water your 15 crops.
 * Top more trees as necessary for Wood/experience (50 or 350 for Beach surprise). Don't delay longer than about 10 a.m.
 * Go to the beach with your hoe and Wood. Willy will give you an old fishing rod.
 * Place a chest under his window between the door and the bench. Empty your backpack.
 * If you still have 300 Wood, go to the east end of the Beach and see what you can do with your wood. Collect everything you see.
 * Go to the counter and sell only what's necessary to buy a Training Rod for 25 gp. This will help you level up faster.
 * Fish from the pier with the Training Rod until 4:00 p.m. or when you run out of energy. Eat seaweed and buy Trout Soup if necessary for energy. Try to keep the green bar on the fish. It's okay if you don't catch all or most fish. You are leveling up. If you don't even move the green bar, you will level up today. Perfect catches level you up even faster.
 * Keep an eye out for bubbles with circular ripples you can reach. The fish there will bite much more quickly, helping you level up faster.
 * At 4:00 or when you are out of energy and seaweed, sell just enough fish to buy Trout Soup for energy through the end of the day. If you have money left, buy Bait just to use up your money. Put the rest of your fish in your Chest.
 * Fish until you fall asleep penniless at 2:00 a.m. Keep two empty spaces in your backpack at all times in case you catch a treasure. Stay near your chest and use it. Eat seaweed, Joja Cola, and Trout Soup for energy. All this will get you to fishing level 1 or beyond today. From there on out everything just gets better.

Spring 3 Wednesday
Today is rainy (Future rainy days are random, but not today).


 * Break a few rocks on your farm, empty your pack, then go straight to the Beach.


 * Forage anything obvious along the way. And forage the Beach and Tidal Pools.


 * Fish from the pier all day again. The continued value of the Training Rod is to help you make Perfect Catches for experience. The cost is reduced income (no stars on fish). While Max Casts don't give you anything special (90% and 100% cast is all the same), Perfect Catches are worth 2.4 times as much experience. You'll eventually need to decide when to stop using the Training Rod so you can get more valuable fish (with stars). Use this information: Trout Soup boosts you one level higher. So when you are at level 4 plus Trout Soup, your green bar will finally equal the Training Rod green bar, which is equal to level 5. If you can afford the Fiberglass Rod before then, you may want to switch to it even with a shorter green bar than the Training Rod because of the increased bite rate of a baited rod.


 * Fish, fish, fish. Don't worry about profitability or fish type. Just keep levelling up.


 * Stop at 4:00. You have two priorities tonight.
 * Buy a Fiberglass Rod and Bait if you can. Use your smallest/cheapest stacks first to free pack space.
 * Fall asleep penniless at the pier. Keep saving your fish in hopes of reaching Fishing level 5 before you sell most of them.

Spring 4 Thursday
Much like yesterday.


 * Break farm rocks until you have one copper ore.
 * Water crops.
 * Repeat yesterday, hopefully with a Fiberglass Rod in your hands by 4:00.


 * Stop at 4:00. You have two priorities tonight.
 * Buy a Fiberglass Rod and Bait if you can. Use your smallest/cheapest stacks first to free pack space.
 * Fall asleep penniless at the pier with as much fish value as possible in your pack.

Farming
Today your first Parsnips will be ready to harvest. Today is your first harvest. Congratulations! Equip your scythe for safety and harvest them. Then check your Journal and collect your reward. Don't plant anything else today. But make sure you have field space for 40 crops.

You will need to buy 2640gp+ of seeds tomorrow for 1 Potato and 39+ Kale.

Parsnips are good food and gifts, so it's not recommended to sell them if you can get 40 crops any other way.

Foraging
Chop wood for another Chest, saving around 10 or 12 (mop-top) Oak Trees (ideally with their trunks visible). Use your Screenshot tool to find and plant all the Tree (Oak, Maple, Pine) seeds you can (skipping a space between seeds; don't just keep them in your chest). Do this often in the next weeks.

Fishing/Mining
You’ll get a notice that the path to a mine is open today, and that’s good since you need the ore you find there.

Willy's Fish Shop will be closed tomorrow unless there's rain. So ship all the fish you have now. And if you want want to try one more day to reach Fishing Level 5: Fisher Profession before your fish are priced, you'll need to bring your fish home and ship them again tonight (unless there's rain tomorrow).

Today or tomorrow, take your pickaxe, hoe, fishing pole (just in case), all but 2 of your Parsnips for emergency food, and a new chest and go early in the day out your north exit to The Mines in the northeast corner of the valley. Once inside The Mines, put your chest by the elevator and leave everything but sword, pickaxe, hoe (if you upgraded your backpack) and food (only 1 stack). Now start your first day of mining. It's not too hard to reach Floor 5 today if you get started before noon. So keep your eye on the clock, but take your time to get all the sparkling ore, goodies, monsters, and unique-looking rocks you can as you go. Your main goal for the next couple of weeks is to get all the copper and goodies you can as you progress about 10 Floors every 2 or 3 days to reach Floor 80 around Spring 26. If you reach Floor 5 early, empty your pack and mine to Floor 10 or smelt some copper bars as you fish in the Mountain Lake. Fall asleep penniless.

Main article: Stardew Valley/Mining

Farming and Museum
Your harvest yesterday unlocked recipes for a Scarecrow (from 20 fiber, 50 wood, and 1 coal) and some Fertilizer.
 * Craft a scarecrow and all the fertilizer you can. Place them (see field layouts above). Cut trees for more fertilizer if you want.
 * Consider visiting the Blacksmith and Museum today as described in this spoiler (not necessary)

Take a Dandelion gift to Pierre. Buy 1 Potato and 39+ Kale. Spend all the rest of your money on a backpack upgrade or up to 40 more Kale seeds. Go home and plant and water everything for a total of 40-80 crops.


 * Go to town at 8:30 with nothing in your backpack except:
 * All your Parsnips but two
 * Possibly your stuff for the Blacksmith and Museum
 * At Pierre's store (after the Blacksmith and Museum), check your Journal (exclamation mark under your screen clock) and collect any money you have coming to you for completing Story Quests so far.
 * Buy, plant, and water expensive 6-day seeds (Kale) for a total of 40 (to 80) to beat the Egg Festival. If you are making good money with fishing, you don't really need the money. But you need the farming experience.

Keep planting and topping trees (not Oaks unless they are in the way). It may be worthwhile to put a chest in your house now for your Community Center, Birthday, Luau (see Spring 14 section), and Fair (see Spring 14 section) items. And soon you may want to categorize your chests further to help you reserve the right things.

For the next week, your priorities are wood, copper, and fishing.

Foraging
Today or soon you will be at Foraging level 3, and you can start removing stumps from your farm.

This week's wild plants are wiped out tonight, so today would be a good day for foraging (looking to save five Daffodil and one each Leek, Dandelion, and Wild Horseradish) and socializing. Four of the saved Daffodils are for the birthdays this month shown on the appropriate dates below, so gold star would be good.

Spring Onions vanish every night, so visiting daily makes some sense. But the other wild plants accumulate 0–4 per screen area through Saturday night up to 6 per area. So wait until Saturday to look for them or Wednesday (for twice per week foraging) if you need the energy badly.

Mining
You should be to Floor 10 today or tomorrow.

Spring 7
Don't miss Lewis's birthday today. He would like a Parsnip.

Visit the the Wizard if he invites you. Then donate to the Spring Foraging Bundle when you have all four (or wait until Spring 13). You will receive a reward of Spring Seeds. Spring Seeds are also known as the Spring version of Wild Seeds (Wild Seeds (Sp)). They are not the same as the Mixed Seeds you get from chopping weeds. Mixed Seeds grow into random farm crops with a few failures. Spring Wild Seeds grow into Leeks, Dandelions, Wild Horseradish, and Daffodils as crops on your farm. That said, the best use of these seeds at this time is to sell them immediately for money to save watering energy.

Save 4000gp+ for the Egg Festival. Some people even wait to upgrade their backpack until then. Chests at safe locations near the Mines, Blacksmith, Saloon, and your fishing spot(s) can get you by with your small backpack. You can even try keeping an extra chest with you everywhere you go.

Legendary crop alert: The legendary crop in Stardew Valley is Ancient Fruit, and you can't buy seeds for it. You must snowball from a single Ancient Seed artifact (or any additional ones) you happen to find into Ancient Seeds (with an "s"), then to Ancient Fruit, more seeds, and more fruit and beyond. So when you happen to find any Ancient Seed artifact, feel very lucky, plant it immediately (generally), and don't sell it or its raw produce until year 2. Make all produce into seeds using a Seed Maker and replant them immediately.

Look ahead today at the calendar upgrades and tappers on Spring 10, 12, and 19. These will take money (fishing), wood, and copper. So those are your focus now.

Last chance

 * Farm: Parsnip (1 base quality + at least 5 gold star), Green Bean (at least 1 base quality), Cauliflower (at least 1 base quality + at least 2 gold star), Potato (at least 1 base quality)


 * Fish: None
 * Forage: Dandelion (1), Leek (many), Wild Horseradish (many), Daffodil (1)

Last chance

 * Farm:
 * CC Tomato, Hot Pepper, Blueberry, Melon
 * CC 5 gold Melon and Corn
 * Fish: CC Sunfish and Pufferfish
 * Forage:
 * CC Grape, Spice Berry, Sweet Pea
 * Rainbow Shell for surprise
 * Misc: ice cream for Demetrius

Last chance

 * Farm: CC Fall Crops Bundle (Corn, Eggplant, Pumpkin, Yam) for Greenhouse, CC Quality Crops Bundle (5 gold Pumpkin if not done) for Greenhouse (key reward)
 * Fish for CC
 * Rain only: Catfish, Shad, Red Snapper, Walleye, and Eel
 * Any morning: Tilapia
 * Forage: CC Fall Foraging Bundle (Common Mushroom, Wild Plum, Hazelnut, Blackberry)

Last chance

 * Fish for CC: Tiger Trout, Sturgeon, Sardine, Tuna
 * Forage: CC Winter Foraging Bundle (Winter Root, Crystal Fruit, Snow Yam, Crocus)