Getting Started
Stardew Valley is an open-ended game, allowing the player to achieve goals non-linearly.
There are various ways to earn income and many activities to choose from including farming, fishing, foraging, mining, fighting enemies, crafting, cooking, gift giving, completing quests, and restoring the Community Center.
Character creation
The Character Creation screen allows options for character name, gender, appearance, farm name, and preferred pet.
- There are 24 skin tones, 32 hair styles, 112 shirts and 20 accessories to choose from.
- The sliders next to eye color, hair color, and pants color represent hue, saturation, and lightness.
- The pet chosen here determines which pet will arrive on the farm later.
- Gender does not affect ingame marriage.
- The "favorite thing" will be referenced ingame when a specific item is obtained.
Players can later change their appearance for 
500g, in the Wizard's tower, after reaching 4 Hearts of friendship with him.
Controls
All hotkeys can be reassigned by opening the menu and choosing the Options tab 
| Key | Description |
| W A S D |
W moves the character up, A moves left, S moves down, D moves right |
| Left Click, C | Use tool |
| Right Click, X | Check/Do Action |
| Escape, E | Open Menu |
| F | Open Journal |
| M | Open Map window |
| Left Shift | Run |
| 1 - 0, - , + | Inventory hotkeys |
| F4 | Screenshot mode |
| Mouse Selection | Click on any item position with your mouse, even empty ones (which cannot be done with the mouse wheel or even the hotkeys) |
Tilling the soil
Use the hoe to till the soil on the farm and plant the 15 parsnip Seeds provided by Mayor Lewis.
Watering crops
The best times to upgrade the watering can is the day before it is supposed to rain or the second to last day of the season. Blacksmith will need 2 days to upgrade any certain tools, including watering can. Upgrade during rainy days means that crops will become moisturized, so it is a great deal to do watering can during rainy day or no duty on watering. Note: Players can craft rain totem to increase rain probability.
Another way to waters a crops is by Sprinklers. They will water the crops daily (including Winter) with no need for maintenance. As the cheapest sprinklers, they can water 4 tilted tiles (plus direction), and others are 8 tiles (3x3 area)and 24 (5x5 area).
Energy
Energy limits productivity. One of the main ways to overcome this is by eating food. Most crops and many foraged items can be eaten in order to regain energy.
On the third day of summer, an earthquake will remove the rocks that block the path leading to the Spa (north of the Carpenter's Shop). The Spa will fully restore energy over a short period of time.
Skills
The only way to level up skills is by actively performing related tasks. Farming increases farming. Foraging increases foraging. Mining increases mining. And fishing increases fishing.
Villagers
- See also: List of Best Gifts by Villager
Giving gifts to villagers will increase their friendship rating. At certain levels of friendship, villagers will send cooking recipes in the mail.
Television
The television provides useful information, such as weather forecasts, fortune telling, free cooking recipes, and other general tips.