Stardew Valley is a very entertaining farming simulation game where you get to live a whole new life. As you befriend the quirky villagers of Pelican Town and start working on your farm, you will realize that the game is much more nuanced than you would think at first sight.

Time will start passing, and all the information you got at the start of the game is that you are now a farmer. However, what does this mean? Do you have any real responsibilities?

Recommended Read: What to Do in the Winter in Stardew Valley

Well, players can actually do whatever they want, and there will be no repercussions. This, unfortunately, will confuse many new players who have no idea what they can actually do.

Luckily, after many in-game hours, we are glad to say that we know exactly what you can do in the first couple of days playing Stardew Valley, and we will do our best to show you the way in this beginner’s guide.

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What to Do in the First Couple of Days Playing Stardew Valley

ConcernedApe, the developer of the game, does his best to guide players at the start of Stardew Valley. You will get a few quests in the Journal that show new players a path they could follow.

However, that is not enough to actually help you understand the most important thing about the game: take your time.

Though you have likely seen a lot of speedruns on YouTube and a lot of people talking about having millions of Gs in the Summer, you don’t actually have to do that.

Learn to take your time and enjoy the experience. Now that we went through that let’s give you some advice on the things that you should do during your first days in Stardew Valley:

What to Do on Day 1

When you wake up on day 1 in Stardew Valley, you will find 15 Parsnip Seeds waiting for you in a box next to the bed. When you pick them up, you will also get a quest asking you to plant and harvest a Parsnip.

Clear the Land and Plant the Parsnip

This will generally give you an idea of the first thing you will have to do when you get out of the house in Stardew Valley.

Clear enough space in front of your house, using the axe and pickaxe, to clear 15 spaces for the Parsnip Seeds.

Use the axe on logs and trees, the pickaxe on rocks, and the sickle on grass. You should generally avoid cutting more than one or two 

The seeds don’t need a lot of space. A 3×5 area is more than enough for the start.

If you have some extra Energy, you should also clear some space around the area where you want to place them, so you can actually see what you are doing.

Use the hoe to till the land, place the Parsnip Seeds in the ground, and make sure to water them all. You will use a large amount of Energy during this start, so make sure to keep an eye out for the bar in the bottom right corner.

If your Energy reaches 0, you will faint and wake up the next day with a lowered Energy bar.

You should generally avoid fainting as much as possible in the first few days unless you’ve discovered some incredible speedrun strategy.

Forage and Meet the People

The other quest you will have in the Journal will ask you to meet all the citizens of Pelican Town. Since this can take a while, you don’t actually have to do it on the first day.

Players should try to look around for forageables (items that you can pick up), which will allow you to recover some Energy.

If you manage to get some more Energy, you can plant some more seeds and get a real profit in the first few days.

As you wander through the map, looking for forageables, you should also talk to everyone you meet.

If you’ve never played Stardew Valley before, this is an amazing moment to look through Pelican Town and learn where everything and everyone is.

Buying Seeds and Planting New Crops

Once you manage to get some more Energy in, you should head over to Pierre’s General Store and buy some more seeds.

Since you will also have to complete the Community Center Bundles in the future, it would be a good idea to use the 500 g that you have to buy 1 Potato Seeds, 1 Bean Starter, and 5 Cauliflower Seeds.

The first two will be useful in the future, so make sure not to sell them. The Cauliflower is one of the most profitable crops in the first few days, so make sure to plant as many as you can and sell them off for an amazing profit.

A single Cauliflower Seeds pack costs 80 g, and you can then sell the Cauliflower in 12 days, if you water them every day, for at least 175 g.

Once you realize that you don’t have any more Energy left, or if you are just done with farming, you can either talk to more people, forage, or head home to sleep.

Your character will faint at 02:00 AM, so make sure to reach your bed before that hour.

Make sure to also check the TV channels before going to sleep, as you can learn beforehand what the weather will be like the next day and new cooking recipes, as well as tips and tutorials.

What to Do the Following First Days

On the second day, you will get a letter in the Mail that will tell you to visit the Beach. From this day onward, Stardew Valley players can now start fishing to earn money.

Farming

At this point in time, you can start fishing to make enough money to purchase new seeds for the farm. You should only try to get money to purchase new Cauliflower Seeds. Since they take 12 days to grow, you should stop planting them once you get to day 17.

You can just directly sell them each time they grow, as you won’t have many other uses for them. You can use fish for Energy and other crops if you feel like you need more food for your work.

By the time you reach Summer, you will have gotten used to how farming works in Stardew Valley, and you can just use a guide to see what crops you should start planting in this new season.

In general, in the first couple of days in Stardew Valley, you just need to prioritize planting as many crops as possible that you can handle.

If you have the patience to also discover Mining, you should generally prioritize getting Sprinklers to make your life easier.

Sprinklers are special that will water your crops every day. They will only water the tiles adjacent to them, which means you can only water 4 crops with one.

You will unlock these when you get to level 2 Farming, and then you will need 1 Copper Bar and 1 Iron Bar to craft it.

So, plant as many crops as you can and make sure that you don’t faint while watering them, and try to get Sprinklers as fast as possible since it will make farming a breeze from that point onward.

Fishing

From day 2 onward, players will get access to the Fishing minigame. This can be one of the hardest minigames you’ve seen in a video game, so be prepared.

Your ultimate goal, if you don’t like fishing at all, in the first few days in Stardew Valley is to reach level 3 in the skill.

This will allow you to passively catch fish and also increase your XP gain. Once you start using the Crab Pot, unlocked at level 3, you will see that you will gain a lot of levels in Fishing without doing anything.

The green bar from the Fishing minigame will get larger and larger as you level up. Once you get to higher levels, you can actually fish as much as you want, and you will find it relatively entertaining.

Since you won’t really make any money from farming in the first few weeks, you will need to prioritize either fishing or foraging as a source of income.

Fishing would be the best choice, as most fish sell for a really good price and you can get the necessary sources of Energy right from the water.

If you eat Seaweed and Green Algae that you catch while fishing, you can continue fishing until the end of the day. This is an amazing way to get that extra cash to buy seeds for farming.

Mining

Once you reach day 5, the Mines in the northern part of Pelican Town will open up. You should start exploring them as soon as possible, as you will find special ores in here that will help you upgrade your tools.

You will have to be careful though, as there will be many enemies inside and you will need to fight them. Combat in Stardew Valley is relatively bad, but you will get used to it. Just know that the best weapon type is the sword.

The other weapons, such as the daggers, will be annoying, as they won’t have a good reach and will often result in you being damaged by enemies in the Mines.

One thing you should be careful of when exploring the Mines in Stardew Valley is time. Since the Mines can be very entertaining, many lose track of time and end up fainting in them.

It would be a good idea to craft a chest and place it at the top of the elevator since you will often get more items than you need inside the Mines and will need to leave them off somewhere.

Your goal for the first couple of days in Stardew Valley when it comes to Mining is to get to around floor 30 and get as much Copper Ores as you can. This will allow you to build all of the buildings that you need at the start and upgrade your tools.

On floor 20 you will also get a new weapon, which would be much preferred to the horrible Rusty Sword you start with. In general, you should get your weapons for free in the Mines and not buy them.

On day 5 of Spring, you will get access to more than just the Mines. You will unlock the Community Center. This building in Stardew Valley is the most important location in town, as it will allow you to repair and improve Pelican Town.

To do this, you will need to collect special items that can be obtained from Farming, Fishing, Foraging, and Mining. Since you will need to complete all the Bundles in the Community Center, you will actually have to get used to doing all 4 tasks.

A complete Stardew Valley player will grow crops, fish, mine, and forage to get what they need. Since there is no time limit for most quests and events, you can take your time completing the Bundles at the Community Center.

Since you can only complete everything by Winter, you should do your best to complete the first Bundle in the first few days.

The Spring Foraging Bundle is the first Bundle you will discover when you finally learn the language of the Junimos, and it will require you to give 4 forageable Spring items.

This is why one of your goals for the first few days in Stardew Valley will be to collect one of each of these items and give it to the Community Center to complete your first Bundle:

• Daffodil
• Dandelion
• Leek
• Wild Horseradish

That’s everything you need to know about what to do in the first couple of days of playing Stardew Valley!

Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.