Stardew Valley may be best known as a farming simulation where you can also romance the villagers, but there’s a lot more to do than just plant crops. In fact it is So There is so much to do that it can sometimes be overwhelming to plan your days. Are you going fishing or to the mines? Will you stay home or explore a new island? The best part is that there are many ways to play the game, and none of them are wrong. Some may be more preferred than others.
The sim has also received a ton of updates since it first came out in 2016, including the recent 1.6 patch; these updates are spread across all parts of the game. In addition, numerous community mods and online tools have been created, so overall there are many more types Stardew Valley players now and then there were eight years ago. But which one are you?
The farmer’s houseman
Image: ConcernedApe via Polygon
You’re the most standard kind Stardew Valley player, and that’s not a bad thing. This is a farming simulation after all, so you’ll take advantage of everything you can do on your farm. You don’t choose any farm type other than the default when you start a run, although the new Meadowlands Farm in update 1.6 may be appealing. You would prefer to spend every in-game day at home making products to sell or use in recipes, but unfortunately you have to go away every now and then. If you do leave, head to the mine, where you can get ore and other materials for machines, or take the bus outside Pelican Town for more potential crops. After a long day of farming, you fall asleep at 8 p.m., cuddled up against the fire with your pet or partner. But maybe you don’t even have a partner, because why talk to people when you can talk to your plants instead?
The designer
Although you enjoy spending time at home, it’s not necessarily because you enjoy growing crops. Because you want your home to look exactly the way you want it. In your game, farming is more like landscaping. You’ll spend a lot of your time decorating your farm for maximum visual appeal, and you’ll probably use a layout planner to do it. In your opinion, the best updates are the ones that add more background or customization options for your home, but you might want to download a mod or two to unlock even more. Maybe you build yours Star Dew world with themes from mods, or maybe stick with an in-game catalogue. If you ever decide you want an underwater themed farm, or a garden where it constantly feels like spring, you will find a way to do it. Putting furniture outside? It’s more likely than you think.
The fisherman
Image: ConcernedApe via Polygon
Many of us here at Polygon aren’t big fans of it Stardew Valley‘s fishing. But that’s not you. you Love fish in Stardew Valley. And good for you! We will not judge; we’re actually too busy being impressed. You love the challenge that comes with constantly clicking your mouse or the button on your controller to laboriously reel in a record-breaking fish. You know exactly which fish will appear when you go to a body of water, and if you somehow miss your chance, you have a fish farm to catch even more. You’re the person the rest of us will call when we need to fish and just don’t want to. Join our game and please help us.
The miner
Image: ConcernedApe
Stardew Valley is a largely passive game, but that all changes as you venture deeper into the mines on the outskirts of town. You like to go in with a pick and a weapon to fight slimes and other creatures until you run out of food or it gets too late to stay awake. In the meantime, crush boulders and rocks to pick up as many shiny gems and minerals as you can carry, which you then use to make your pickaxe even better for more mining. Of course you don’t see much sunlight, but that couldn’t be otherwise. Luckily, you can still get some vitamin D at your Hill-top Farm, where you can go to town on some rocks if you don’t have time to go to the mine.
The pillar of the community
Image: ConcernedApe via Polygon
Stardew Valley has a lot of NPCs you’ll want to get to know – and you’ll want to know all theirs. You want to get everyone’s heart rate up, so you spend a lot of time picking out the best gifts for each person, not to mention their daily schedules (by looking it up online or waiting eerily outside their house until they leave). You could even try courting a few different romantic partners. Regardless of whether you want to date multiple people at once or just want Pam and Shane to bond over something other than alcohol, the social aspects of Star Dew are the most important part for you. You just want to be integrated into a small community where everyone knows everyone’s birthdays.
The min-maxer
For many players it is Stardew Valley is an informal pastime; there’s no time limit for completing important tasks (except for message board tasks, of course), and you can take as many years as you like to buy every stable animal or convince your favorite NPC to marry you. However, when it comes to efficiency, you may be the min-maxer. You are the person who has the Stardew Valley wiki opens in a different tab, so you have everyone’s favorite gifts at hand and know exactly when to go fishing. You want to complete the community center in year 1 and only grow star fruit and make star fruit wine on your farm to maximize profits. You took an Excel course online and now you keep track of everything via spreadsheets. Stardew Valley It may be a game, but succeeding is your calling.
The mud
Image: FlashShifter/Nexus mods
Okay, so you like – maybe even – Stardew Valley, but hundreds of hours of play across six major updates is still not enough. That’s where mods come into play. You’ve gone through and installed a personal cocktail of the many, many user-made mods for this game, some of which turn this farming sim into a whole new game. Don’t like the way it looks? You have options: for example, you can give all NPCs anime-style portraits. Do you need a feature that the game doesn’t offer? Add a tractor to your farm. Have you somehow run out of things to do? You don’t even have to worry about that – not when you can unlock all-new love interests, areas, animals and, at the time of this writing, over 200 new character events in Stardew Valley Expanded.
The chaos agent
The most fun you can have in a video game is going against developers’ expectations and just doing what you want. Since Stardew Valley is so big and offers players so much to do, your favorite way to play is running around like a mischievous creature and, for example, putting Lewis’ purple shorts in the luau soup. You’re the Chaos Cop if you enjoy watching NPCs react in disgust as you dig through the trash, or if you want to date everyone in town just to watch them dump you all at once. With new dialogues and features in update 1.6, such as the ability to drink mayonnaise, there are even more boundaries to be tested.
The Stardew Stan
Maybe none of the above player types mean anything to you, and that’s okay! Maybe you don’t really like farming simulations; maybe you don’t even like other video games that much. There is something special going on for you Stardew Valley. You just enjoy opening your most recent one Stardew Valley save it (you probably have a lot) and get to work, whatever that entails. It’s fun to return to Pelican Town and your farm to harvest crops, talk to both real and virtual friends, do in-game chores, and explore what the world has to offer this time. You don’t care how you play; you just want to play. You may have a few dozen hours or over 1,000, but it’s your favorite game even eight years after its release, and you wouldn’t have it any other way.