History VideoGame / StardewValley

* TheArtifact: After Emily was added as a marriage candidate in version 1.1, the subplot involving Clint's crush on her remained unchanged, even if you married her;. Although her ten-heart event seems to suggest that he's accepted your relationship and given up on her, his ''own'' heart events still show him pursuing her, including the event where he finally asks her on a date and she accepts, even if she's already married you! The final part was fixed in version 1.4, and Clint will no longer actually ask Emily on a date if you've seen Emily's 8-heart event or married her.

** Tomatoes, pumpkins, and corn are considered vegetables by the game, even though they are scientifically classified as fruits. This is lampshaded in a cutscene in which Demetrius brought a bag of tomatoes when Robin told him to buy some fruits, with Robin arguing that nobody thinks of a tomato when they talk about fruits.

* EveryoneIsBi: The player character(s) can get together with any of the twelve eligible bachelors and bachelorettes, regardless of the sex of either partner. However, all of the bachelors and bachelorettes seem to default to "straight" (each of them tends to be shipped with an opposite-sex counterpart), and if you pursue a same-sex relationship with any of them, several will note that [[ClosetKey they've never felt this way about another guy/girl before]]. Leah and Elliot are exceptions: depending on your player's gender, Leah can be seen as either straight or gay, because [[spoiler:Kel, her ex, is always the same gender as the player.]] Elliot, meanwhile, admits to having feelings for a male farmer, but being afraid to act on them in case of IncompatibleOrientation.

** Elliot and Leah often drink together at the Stardrop Saloon (although Elliot, being the gentleman that he is, will stop doing so if your relationship value with her gets high enough); both are similar personality-wise, loner creative types who live in solitude (they're the only bachelors who live and work alone).

* LateArrivalSpoiler: A ''lot'' of them in regards to the [=NPCs=]. Pelican Town is very private and close-knit, and many characters won't tell you basic information about themselves (like Leah being a sculptor or Elliot being a writer) until you build a friendship with them, but it's hard to discuss the game in any detail without mentioning such things.

** Each of the bachelors and bachelorettes has a character of the opposite sex who they get a varying degree of ShipTease with; the pairings being Abigail and Sebastian, Penny and Sam, Haley and Alex, Maru and Harvey, Leah and Elliot, and Emily and Shane. None of the pairs except Abigail/Sebastian and Haley/Alex have an unambiguous romantic air to them, though, and there's no MatchmakerQuest for the player to engage in, either.

* StockYuck: Joja Cola is hated by ''every single NPC'' (Sam, who likes it, being the only exception), and is categorized as trash by the game.

** Gift-giving. Each character has only a few "loved" gifts, which are often rare and/or expensive, and outside of a few specific hints from characters the only way to find out whether they love a specific gift is to use it up and give it to them. Add to this the fact that you can only give them a gift two times per game week and if you get it wrong you can even lose hearts with them, figuring out gifts without using a guide can get quite frustrating. Even the few "universal" loves tend to have exceptions (e.g. everyone loves Prismatic Shards except Haley, who hates them). The one exception to this is the Mermaid's Pearl, since everyone loves it, but you'll only ever get one (this was changed later but it's still pretty rare), and [[GuideDangIt the only thing in the game that tells you how to get it may never show up]] (though there's another hint kind of HidingInPlainSight).

* VagueAge: No character is given an explicit age in the story, a deliberate design choice by [=ConcernedApe=] to help players make their own subjective interpretations of characters, events, and relationships. This is especially true of the bachelors and bachelorettes: many seem to be fresh out of high school or the equivalent (Alex, Abigail, Haley, Maru, and Penny in particular) whereas others are clearly meant to be somewhat older (Elliott, Leah, Emily, Shane, and Harvey in particular). [=ConcernedApe=] has said that all the characters are "legal" and that he envisions most of the younger bachelor(ette)s to be around 20 years old. Only Shane has some level of canon age, based on WordOfSaintPaul (see the Characters page).

** [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking You can also anger people by using the slingshot on them, or building things in their walking paths]].

* ExposedToTheElements: Prior to version 1.6, both the player character and non-playable characters used the same outfits through all seasons (the only exception is while at the island resort where they changed to swimsuits). Demetrius, who normally wears a short-sleeved polo shirt, [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this during the Festival of Ice, saying "You know what? I probably should've worn a jacket." [=ConcernedApe=] added winter clothes with patch 1.6 finally averting this.

* RescueRomance: Even given the exceptions above, many of the romances have an element of this, particularly the ones where someone has a strained home life (where moving in with you alleviates the problem and gives them their own space) or feels unloved and neglected (in which case marrying you gives them the affection and security they craved). Penny, Sebastian, Alex, Shane and (to a lesser extent) Abigail all have shades of the rescue romance.

** Patch 1.6 improved some crafting machines by giving them a second level to make them work better. For example, there's a heavy furnace that can process as much ore as five normal sized furnaces while using 60% as much coal and only 20% the space to reduce clutter and, perhaps more importantly, a new buff to the worm bin item. It now produces 4-5 bait per day instead of 2-5, but is still just as expensive to craft and only makes cheap bait you can buy from Willy for five gold each. However, using it as a material alongside the new moss resource allows it to make 4-5 ''deluxe'' bait per day, which are impractically expensive to buy but much better than normal bait. This turns the item from useless into a rather solid addition to players who like to fish.
** Further, there are now new items to allow the reliable production of mushrooms, turning mushrooms and fruit into artisan products to increase value, and a fish smoking machine that can nearly triple the value of any fish you put into it with the right perks, as it is tagged as both a fish and an artisan product. While each fish you smoke ''does'' cost one coal each, the smoked fish retains its quality, so it's still pretty much always worth doing[[note]]Year one, you can buy ten wood for 100g to turn into a single piece of coal, meaning the fish only needs to sell for 56g to be worth it, while in year two it would increase to 139g, which is still usually worth it unless you're using a cheap fish like sardines. And even then, this is only if you're actually buying the coal.[[/note]]. This alongside the deluxe bait machine helps keep fishing more competitive with proper farming for longer, or at least allows it to remain a solid way to spend time and earn profit on the side. There's even a machine to allow you to produce targeted bait to increase the odds of catching that particular fish again, making "catch 10 of this particular fish" quests much quicker.

* BearyFriendly: After 1.3 adds secret notes, one comes from a bear asking for maple syrup. [[spoiler:Should you bring it for him, he thanks you and gives you Bear's Knowledge, which triples the selling price of Salmonberries and Blackberries.]]

* ATankardOfMooseUrine: Pam request some of "the strong stuff", brewed from potatos, as a special order. When you deliver it, she takes a swig, [[SpitTake spits it out]], and describes it as "fermented baboon kidney", since it's not actually vodka (which you can't make), just potato juice. TruthInTelevision: There's a lot more to distilled spirits like vodka than there is to fermented products like beer and wine.
* AuthorAppeal: [=ConcernedApe=] clearly HasAType. Robin, Leah, and Penny all are very similar-looking red-haired women, and Marnie, Jodi, and Sandy are also attractive redheads. 22% of the villagers have red hair, which is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hair#Northern_and_Northwestern_Europe more than double per capita than Ireland]].
* AutomatonHorses: If you build a stable, the horse you get might as well be a bicycle. Doesn't need feeding, grooming or resting, can turn on a dime, and can run at full speed indefinitely. Is also completely loyal and will remain in the same spot where you left it (in case you decide to take a brief trip to the desert over the day), but will trot back to the stable if you go home and go to bed without bringing it back.

** Hops converted into Pale Ale is the most profitable crop you can grow with low upfront cost and can be grown in the greenhouse or on Ginger Island for year round profit. However, Hops use a trellis, which limits crop placement and require far more micromanagement due to their daily harvest and short brewing times: You'll need two to three times the amount of kegs because hops grow faster than they process, plus the patience to actually harvest and load up that many kegs every day. Most players will instead stick with the simpler and less labor-intensive wine crops, such as ancient fruit, which produce only a single high value crop every week and when processed into wine still net about 80% the income[[note]]Over the long term. If it's just two seasons, hops are ''twice'' as profitable.[[/note]] with only a fraction of the inconvenience.
** Similarly, Starfruit and its corresponding wine (and jelly for that matter) are the most expensive items of their type, but Starfruit is handicapped by falling in the standard "Only one crop at harvest, must be replanted" category; not helped by the fact that seeds can only be bought in the Oasis (itself locked behind a CashGate), and Starfruit's high sell price means that using a Seed Maker to overcome this is actually a net loss.[[note]]A Silver quality Starfruit, or a normal Starfruit with the Tiller perk, will sell for enough money to buy two seed packets and have some change leftover; for the Seed Maker to be better, you'd have to consistently get the max roll of three seeds per Starfruit. Good luck with that.[[/note]] Even in the late game, most wine makers favor Ancient Fruit, second-place in terms of fruit price, due to having far less of an immediate investment, not needing to be replanted with each harvest and lasting three seasons. Planting it in the greenhouse or on Ginger Island means you'll continue to get Ancient Fruit indefinitely with no upkeep costs.
** Sweet Gem Berries are the most valuable crop in the game, selling for an insane 3,000 gold at a minimum. However, they take nearly all of Fall to grow, the seeds are expensive and hard to come by, and using a seed maker to make more seeds means you'll only be breaking even in the ''best'' case scenario. Even the abovementioned Starfruit are a better investment in the long term. Even if you overcome the slow growth time by using the greenhouse, seeds are still too difficult to get and they can't be processed: Processing fruit into wine at least triples the value.
** Hatching a Dinosaur Egg in your coop to raise your own dinosaur is awesome, but the dinosaur itself is underwhelming. It eats as much as the other coop animals but only produces one egg per week which generates a much smaller long term profit than a chicken's constant egg production. The ability to turn them into dinosaur mayonnaise added in patch 1.4 alleviates this somewhat, as it's the most valuable type of mayonnaise, but this doesn't close the profit gap fully.
** You can use casks to upgrade cheese and Keg items to Iridium quality, doubling their value...but the process takes a long time, with cheese taking a week at best[[note]]Cheese made with large milks will start as Gold quality, in which case it will only take a week to get to Iridium. However, normal quality cheese made with normal size milks will take twice that.[[/note]] and wine taking ''two months'' to reach that point. While it's a good long-term investment, if you need money now, it's faster to just sell your wines once they're ready. Also, you have limited cellar space for casks, so if you're making wine/cheese faster than they can keep up with, then you may as well prioritize what'll go into them next and then just sell the rest as is.

** Many of the animals unlocked later are actually less profitable per day than earlier animals, or will only be superior with certain skill perks like Rancher. Goats, for example, produce milk that can sell for up to 690g compared to 380 for milk of the same quality. However, they only produce at half the speed and cost more to begin with. Dinosaurs in particular are hard to get, difficult to breed and in the end still make you less money. Plus, goat milk and duck/dinosaur mayo can't be used in many recipes. However, the most expensive animals, pigs, really ''are'' the best money makers by a wide margin (unless it's winter) and ostriches are a solid replacement for chickens if you don't want to maintain a separate coop, don't need to be purchased and can be bred as quickly as you want rather than having to fork over a large startup cost.
** Fruit trees cost a ton of money, won't reach maturity in the same season you get them and have picky spacing requirements. Worse, they don't even sell for a lot and don't produce high quality fruit for several years. Unless you are aiming for HundredPercentCompletion, want them for gifts or just like looking at them, you'll probably never really think about them often.

** Rabbits can be raised in a coop and will produce wool you can turn into cloth and, at higher friendship levels, will also begin happily chopping off their own limbs to give as gifts. Or maybe mutilating wild rabbits, it's not clear. While Rabbit Feet are universally loved gifts and sell for quite a bit as well, rabbits happen to be extremely expensive. Further, as everyone knows, [[SarcasmMode rabbits are notoriously slow to reproduce]], so you can't breed them whereas basically all other farm animals, especially ones in a coop, can be bred to increase your livestock for free. They're also among the slowest animals to raise friendship with because you do not the get friendship bonus for gathering products from them.

** When you arrive at your grandfather's farm, it's dilapidated and overrun, with only the farmhouse surviving while nature has totally reclaimed the land around it. Naturally, with time and dedication you can not only cut back the weeds, chop down the wild trees, break all the rocks and start making it look, and work, like a real farm again, but by mastering the sundry aspects of crop rotation and livestock maintenance, make it big and self-sufficient enough to support the entire town with your exports, even expand the farmhouse so you and a partner can raise a family together.
** The player can do the same for Pelican Town as a whole too. When they arrive, the town is slowly having the life choked out of it by malaise, the impotence of the local leadership and [=JojaMart=]'s bad practices. By befriending the townsfolk and helping them with their problems some, fulfilling the wishes of the Juminos, and restoring the town's Community Center, you can reinvigorate the town's economy and community spirit, drive Joja out of town, and even build a movie theatre over the ruins of the abandoned [=JojaMart=].
* BadWithTheBone: Defeating Skeletons occasionally drops the Bone Sword weapon, described as "A very light piece of sharpened bone." It's actually a very effective and quick weapon that can last through most of the mines if the player is strapped for cash and doesn't want to buy a new weapon. There are also a few other less popular bone based weapons including yeti tooth swords, a femur club and {{Infinity Minus One|Sword}} weapons made out of dragon teeth.

** Patch 1.6 improved some crafting machines by giving them a second level to make them work better. For example, there's a heavy furnace that can process five times as much ore as a normal sized furnace while using 60% as much coal and only 20% the space to reduce clutter and, perhaps more importantly, a new buff to the worm bin item. It now produces 4-5 bait per day instead of 2-5, but is still just as expensive to craft and only makes cheap bait you can buy from Willy for five gold each. However, using it as a material alongside the new moss resource allows it to make 4-5 ''deluxe'' bait per day, which are impractically expensive to buy but much better than normal bait. This turns the item from useless into a rather solid addition to players who like to fish.
** Further, there are now new items to allow the reliable production of mushrooms, turning mushrooms and fruit into artisan products to increase value and a fish smoking machine that can nearly triple the value of any fish you put into it with the right perks as it is tagged as both a fish and an artisan product. While each fish you smoke ''does'' cost one coal each, the smoked fish retains its quality, so it's still pretty much always worth doing[[note]]Year one you can buy ten wood for 100g to turn into a single piece of coal, meaning the fish only needs to sell for 56g to be worth it while in year two it would increase to 139g, which is still usually worth it unless you're using a cheap fish like sardines. And even then, this is only if you're actually buying the coal.[[/note]]. This alongside the deluxe bait machine helps keep fishing more competitive with proper farming for longer or at least allows it to remain a solid way to spend time and earn profit on the side. There's even a machine to allow you to produce targeted bait to increase the odds of catching that particular fish again.

** Pests are pretty uncommon. The few that the game has show up all have ways of blocking them or dealing with them.

* HundredPercentCompletion: Added in v1.5: Ship one of every crop and forage, catch every fish, max out friendship level with every villager, complete all Adventurer's Guild quests, reach level 10 on every skill, cook every dish, craft every item, find all the Stardrops, build the 4 magical obelisks, build the Golden Clock, and find all Golden Walnuts. Doing so unlocks a cutscene in which the player character and their spouse/roommate (or Lewis/Morris if single or divorced depending on how the Community Center was restored) sit at the valley's summit and watch a credit sequence with all the characters, and the player character's grandpa and Mr. Qi congratulating them on their accomplishment. It also awards the Statue of True Perfection, which gives a free Prismatic Shard every day - a reward which is, of course, [[BraggingRightsReward completely useless]] seeing how you have to have done practically everything the game has to offer, earning over ''thirteen million gold'' in the process, in order to obtain it in the first place. They won't even make good gifts anymore: You've already maxed every friendship out!

** Pierre keeping infinite amounts of seeds of every kind in stock makes very little sense considering he runs a ''grocery store'', and there's only ''two'' farmers in town.
** Speaking of seeds, in real life not all seeds are viable, some seeds will never sprout for any number of reasons and some require special steps to make them sprout (freezing them, scarring them, etc.), Some seeds will need to be grown indoors before they can survive in full sun, etc, etc. In Stardew Valley every seed is a guaranteed to grow into a full plant unless struck by lightning, destroyed by weeds, or eaten by crows.

** Patch 1.6 added mannequins as decorations. However, there's a small chance of triggering a JumpScare animation by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnUFj7Aj450 interacting with them]].

* CreepyDoll: At the Witch's Hut, you can get rid of your children by using the Dark Shrine of Selfishness to turn them into doves. [[spoiler:On Fall 26, if you choose the "???" option while watching TV, an Ancient Doll will appear on the screen and deliver an eerie message, "You've brought this upon yourself... now I'm free... Hee hee hee!", after which it pops out of the TV.]] When you return to the Witch's Hut, [[spoiler:an Ancient Doll waiting there will fly around and attack you. It'll respawn if you kill it, leave, and reenter the hut.]]

** Pierre keeping infinite amounts of seeds of every kind in stock makes very little sense considering he runs a ''grocery store'', and there's only ''one'' farmer in town.