A Powergamer's Build Order for your first Spring

What about just updating Shoukry's guide for 1.4? This one: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/189967-stardew-valley/faqs/74654. With his permission, of course.

 

@ShneekeyTheLost firstly, you don't owe anyone a guide, so don't beat yourself up at all for not doing it

That's part of the problem of trying to create a set of precise instructions for an extremely fluid situation where the RNG can play so much havoc, for a group of people playing on different platforms, with a diverse range of abilities, who are probably all aiming at an equally diverse range of goals. Meanwhile, the best plan for one goal will diverge from the best plan for a different goal as early as 6am on day 1.

Completely disagree here though. How deep one can dive on Day 5 is basically a direct consequence of the daily luck. On a star luck day, getting all the way to floor 40 is possible. On a skull luck day, even getting to 20 might be a struggle. But if you did the first four days correctly, having enough food should never be an issue, no matter what the luck. You don't know in advance what the daily luck is going to be, so you want to make absolutely sure to take enough energy to keep the pick swinging for the whole day, and come midnight, it doesn't really matter whether you're swinging it on floor 19 or 39, as long as you still have the energy to do so. The preparation is the important thing. If you didn't do any fishing, you've still got at least 15 parsnips, and you will have had time to gather all the spring onions from the first four days. You'll also find cave carrots by breaking boxes or digging in the dirt in the mines.

While we're on the subject of day 5...There's also no particular advantage to simply opening up the Adventurer's Guild for the sake of it; there's nothing worth the bother in there in early spring anyway. And there's also no particular imperative to see Lewis at the CC today either. Assuming that you're mining, just run straight round the backwoods and hit the mines ASAP to take full advantage of every single minute and give yourself the best chance to get as deep as you can.

If your many previous threads are anything to go by, I'm sure that they will still be an enjoyable read.

 

I believe that a reliable guide then, would be one that doesn't count with forage (with the excuse of have onions in day 1, or else reset) and descend 15 levels peer day because that's a rational ratio even in the unlucky days.

 

I agree with One More Day and Pangaea.

You don't owe any of us a guide. Don't feel bad if you don't put one out. People's priorities change as well. If your life dictates something different, then go with the direction you want to go. No hard feelings

Most of us are just looking to steal ideas anyway.

 

Somehow missed this at the top of a new page. First off, Shoukry's guide is rather openly recommending pursuing the early access advantages of the Joja membership, whereas I believe Shneekey wants to route in barns and coops and animal items for the community center bundles. Neither is better than the other, but the two are not quite competing in the same space, and it probably needs significant additional work to convert one to the other.

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Accidentally stumbling across Shoukry's guide about two years ago was what got me into pushing the limits of possibility in stardew. Having started countless farms since then, I think that my most important take from it was not the specific day to day details, but the element of understanding and then using knowledge of game mechanics in the process of planning the strategy towards whatever the goal is.

Back then it took me several attempts to get close to replicating what Shoukry suggested, but while I'm confident that I could now exceed those targets without too much trouble, I would nevertheless take out or heavily reschedule quite a few of the elements if I were to rewrite it with my own thoughts. Quickly rereading it to refresh my memory of the details, off the top of my head I can already think of well over a dozen things that I'd do differently to it now, even if my goals were only the same as the guide. Although that would be including at least three different things that take advantage of new features in 1.4, that weren't available when the original was written almost three years ago.

Actually, if anyone is interested, maybe I might do that, revamp it, keeping only the goals and general structure of going day 1, day 2 etc. Even though I wouldn't go extreme minmax in such a guide, most of my days would look a bit different, but I'd include with it with my own thoughts on what I believe is the best thing to do, and just as importantly, why I do so. If I do, the only things I can really guarantee are that it would look quite different, and that it won't be written as elegantly. But as Shneekey has already pointed out, the further you get from the starting conditions, the more generic it would inevitably have to become to remain relevant while taking account of the enormous range of conditions in which we could find ourselves, given how far away RNG could have taken us after a whole season.

 

I'd love to see an updated version of Shoukry's guide. I've used it as a template for all my farms after my first and I can't imagine not having the stable on Spring 16 or missing out on all the fishing treasures. Until I discovered this forum and some of the advice I've gleaned from it, I stuck pretty close to the guide. Now with 1.4 it just seems like so much has changed, there must be improvements that could be made to the guide.

 

I, personally, think it would be great if you made a single mega-post with all these smaller guides in it that are swirling around your mind-brain. Just reserve the first few comments so you can go in later and edit them in as you get them done. That way there is no rush to make some massive single post. Then, if you write about v, w, x, y, and z, and I want to do my Spring with v, x, and z, I can go to the one post, find everything, and tailor my game to my liking.

This kind of thinking was my real goal. When I wrote it, I knew it was not the most efficient guide with the spring onion hunting, fixing the bridge to the tidal pools, four full days of salmonberrying (What can I say? I am a sucker for foraging in this game. It is my favorite thing to do, even still. Also, I wish it were an entire week), upgrading the watering can, etc. But I wanted people to have options, knowing certain benchmarks were definitely attainable.

Please, please write a guide/walkthrough/hints/tips/whatever: I wish more people did. It is great reading how other people see the game and I thoroughly enjoy reading everybody's guides, tips, and tricks. Even though my gameplay has significantly changed since I started playing again in 1.4 (I artificially limit what I can do based on what my current skill level is in any given skill: e.g., at Farming 0 I can only water 1 type of crop and only 4 of that crop--like a basic sprinkler--because I know nothing of farming) I like coming back to these threads and see what everyone has figured out the last few years.


If you still enjoy writing them @ShneekeyTheLost, then I hope you get them written, but not to your personal detriment. Life happens and it takes priority. Happy farming.


edit: I neglected to mention...

While this is mostly true, I generally prefer Joja over the Community Center because of my immense distaste of Pierre; I wish he had to get a job at Joja when you completed the Community Development Form. Also, I was slightly annoyed by reading how Joja "cost" so much more. /soapbox

 

I've noticed it's nearly impossible to have a "perfect" play through. I have created and deleted probably 100 games in the first weeks of playing trying for the best outcome. It's difficult to predict how each day will turn out since a number of things can happen that throw the plan off course. My best play thrus are the ones that I modified the plan as things came up.

 

Fishing really is a good way to bolster one's income in those early days before the mines open up, especially now with the training rod. the training rod barely requires any skill at all. Sure, you're not going to get any of the fancy fish or catch any with stars, but that doesn't matter at this stage. I just chucked a handful of chub, carp, and bullheads into my shipping box and got 1250-ish in gold. That's 1250 I didn't have before with minimal brain usage on my first rainy day

As part of my routine, I use the training rod until my fishing skill gets me crabpots. Then I forage the beach and if I'm lucky in the mines I'll get my fifth crabpot bundle item, otherwise I've got to buy a crabpot to get that fifth item. (I know this sounds like a waste, but it does pay off!) With the crabpot bundle complete, you get 3 crabpots, I put those somewhere and even if I never buy/make anymore, I have at least three (or four if I bought one earlier) that will continue to net me money and fishing experience for the rest of the game, not to mention valuable items once I get a recycler. After I have crabpots, I don't do any fishing unless I need something for a bundle or a request from an NPC; rainy days from this point on are spent in the mines! Crabpots are made even better if you use mods, like Automate

 

The training rod is a mixed bag. Not only does it cost a little (a tiny amount later in the game, but the first couple days 25g can make a difference), but it will slow down both your skill and gold gain significantly if you're decently good at fishing. It's a *really* great idea for beginners. But if you're decent at fishing, or especially if you're quite good at it, you absolutely shouldn't buy the training rod. Experience is everything in fishing at first... more experience = easier fishing and much more gold much faster. Even a random catch of a silver quality fish is double the experience of a normal quality, and it's possible to get silver (and even gold, though rarely) without a perfect catch. So as long as you don't lose the fish completely, it's almost always better *not* to use the training rod.

And since experience is so important, that leads me to mentioning an important part again I think I mentioned years ago in this post: ALWAYS use trout soup if possible until you're at fishing skill 6 if you're going to fish for the duration of it (~3 minutes). It makes it easier to catch fish, they'll bite faster and they'll be worth more. You almost always make up the cost of the trout soup as it is, and it just makes everything better.

 

I found a new strategy that's extremely good for powergaming, and is remarkably easy and consistent... I call it the Caroline rush. Technically you could have done it in 1.4, but I never noticed then. I almost always left Caroline until one of the last friendships (her loved items are hard to get until mid-Summer). And the strategy has also made Fiber extremely valuable so don't throw it away, ever.

The idea is to rush Caroline's friendship to two hearts to get the Tea Sapling recipe. It's rather easy to do, even if you have to go out of your way a little to make sure to talk to her every possible day (rainy Wednesdays are impossible to get to her). Even if you give her two normal quality gifts each week and don't get lucky with a quest, you should get her to two hearts by the day after the Egg Festival (the 14th) as long as you talk to her every day. I missed both Wednesdays because of rain my first time through, and still got her to the necessary friendship by then. So that part is repeatable no matter your start, and shouldn't change on different platforms.

So the Tea Saplings require Wild Seeds, Fiber and Wood. All foraging stuff, which is nice because foraging never used to be a way to make any significant money. Now it is. Put some effort into searching for forageables, even if you have to skimp on some mine time or *gasp* even fishing... trust me, it's worth it. To get the most out of this strategy (really powergaming), you'll want to get at least 30 Wild Seeds planted on day 2, but that takes a lucky start. Takes a good bit of time and energy to water, but you don't have to worry about scarecrows. You'll want to accelerate your forageable stock as much as possible, even though Fiber will generally be the biggest sticking point in the end. If you got a normal start and no luck with Loved gifts for Caroline at the Traveling Cart/Saloon or Quests for her, the timing works pretty well anyway. You'll get the recipe on the first day of Salmonberry season, giving you a good reason to roam around grabbing them while getting more Wood, Fiber and forageables.

So why go through the trouble with this route? Tea Saplings are worth a ton. My first try with the strategy I did get 30 Wild Seeds planted on day 2, but got bad luck with speeding up Caroline's friendship any faster. Still, on Day 15 I made 40 Tea Saplings which sold for 20,000g. If I hadn't run out of Fiber, I could have had 30,000. Not bad for a first run through, and I even took a detour since I got a Fish Stew on a rainy day 5 and managed to catch Legend that day. But with the 8,700g cost (7,500 rod/500 trap bobber/700 Fish Stew) to make just 9,375g, the Caroline rush returns significantly more gold than even the fairly high return of Fishing (and sometimes you just don't get rain). By the end of the month, it shouldn't be hard to make 50,000g from Tea Saplings alone, making this a rather easy and consistent way to powergame. It also doesn't consume all your time or energy, so it can be combined fairly well with other methods with the exception of needing to stop by town at certain times in the middle of the day for the first 2 weeks.

So, happy foraging and stop ignoring poor Caroline!

EDIT: Just an update after finishing my first Spring with this method. I crafted 128 Tea Saplings by the end of Spring for a very nice 64,000g. I spent plenty of time focusing on other tasks netting 190,000g total. That's quite a bit better than my usual 150,000 or so even from a good run. With more focus, you could probably get 100,000 while completing other tasks, and maybe even 200,000 if you ignore other tasks (and just buy everything instead). I haven't had this much money early on in runs in an unmodded game since the old fishing exploit.