Multiplayer

The following describes the upcoming Stardew Valley 1.3, and may change before release.

A screenshot of multiplayer showing two cabins and two players.

Multiplayer is an optional game mode (currently in beta testing) in which 1–4 players can play in the same world over LAN or the Internet. Each player needs their own copy of the game (split-screen isn't supported), but GOG and Steam players can crossplay with each other. The player who created the world has the save file, can launch it in multiplayer mode, and can switch back to single-player anytime. Other players can connect via Steam (non-Steam support is planned but not yet announced).

Features

Multiplayer is mostly identical to single-player. Here are some features specific to multiplayer-only:

• The farm can contain up to 3 cabins (selectable during farm creating). For each cabin one player can join the farm. If the farm starts with less than 3 cabins, Robin can build the other ones on your farm for a very cheap price (finishing instantly) so it can be built on the first day. The main player can also demolish a cabin at any time.
• Some decisions are made collaboratively by all players by either clicking dialogues or joining areas:
  • when to sleep, by entering a bed;
  • when to start a festival, by entering the area;
  • whether to finish the Community Center or buy a Joja membership;
  • when to pause the game using a /pause command (opening a menu doesn't pause in multiplayer).
• All players share the same money and farmland
• Each player has their own energy bar, their own Skills, and their own relationships with NPCs.
  • Each NPC can only be married by one player. If multiple players want the same spouse, the first to propose will win their hand.
• Interactions between player:
  • Players can marry each other and have children. Players propose to each other using a craftable wedding ring. The wedding ring recipe can be obtained at the Traveling Cart for 500g, and will then allow the player to craft a wedding ring with 5 Iridium Bars and a Prismatic Shard.
  • Players can dance with each other in the Flower Dance Festival (no prior requirements).
• During the creation of a multiplayer file, it is possible to select a "profit margin" of 25%, 50%, 75%, or default (100%). This is, essentially, a difficulty setting.
  • Picking any option other than default reduces both the buy price and the sell price of all crops and fruit trees (thus, for example, at 25% profit margin you can buy Wheat Seeds for 2 gold each, and the resulting Wheat sells for 6 gold). The sell price for almost all items (including forageables, minerals, and cooked foods) is also reduced accordingly.
  • However, the price for buildings and tool upgrades (and most other shop items) remains the same, as does the amount of money you receive for quests (including answering Help Wanted notices on the bulletin board).
    • For example, Green Algae, which is sometimes posted as a request on Help Wanted, sells for 3g (at a profit margin of 25%), but the Help Wanted quest will still pay you 45g on completion.
  • This makes gold much harder to come by in the early game. Progressing in all your skills evenly, crafting items, and completing Help Wanted quests becomes far more important.
    • For example, Willy still sells Crab Pots for 1500g, despite your much reduced income, so crafting your own (from wood and iron bars) is significantly more economical than buying them, and you probably want to mine your own iron for those bars too (to save money).
  • Profit margin selection (and thus difficulty) is not available at the creation of a singleplayer farm. As a workaround, it is possible to create a file in "multiplayer" with zero cabins built, wait for the game to save the new file, leave multiplayer, and then load and play the save afterwards in singleplayer; this save will retain the reduced profit margin (if any).