Stardew Valley - Take Two.

Grass anyone?

Yesterday I started character number 2, by the name of Reginald Merriweather. I decided to go for a guy this time just for the tincy dialogue changes, for something new.

This playthrough I decided to see how quickly I could achieve everything and I'm aiming by the end of year 2 for everything to be completed. It might be wishful thinking as it took me 6 in game years on my first character!

Starting off on year 1, I haven't farmed and don't intend to until year 2. This year I'm concentrating on mining and fishing. I'm into my second month and am already level 10 fishing and level 5 mining.

From fishing alone I've earnt over 50k gold. I did this by saving all of the fish I caught, until I reach level 10 and chose the increased price for selling fish. I've also gotten around 9 or 10 different artifacts. With mining I already have a whole bunch of the required gems too. I only need 15 more minerals to complete my gem collection, so I don't think that's bad going only being in the second month.

I now already have a house upgrade, the largest backpack, two silos and a stable currently being built. My main tools (axe and pick axe) are already at gold level and my others are steel. The farm itself I worked on clearing up but I left all of the grass in hopes to fill a couple of silos before I get any animals. I've now already filled two silos and the picture attached is how much grass I have left. So I think I'll probably need another two!

My plan when it comes to animals is to not purchase any until I have a barn and coop ungraded to max. By then I'll have so much hay (hopefully) I won't have to worry about feeding them for a long while and hopefully won't have to spend gold to buy hay from Marnie.

This time around I'm going the JojaMart route, instead of the community centre. For three reasons: it's quicker, I hope for a different storyline and I need the steam achievement.

So that's it so far. I'm hoping my expertise in the game will help me to push towards my goal.

How many playthroughs have you all done so far and did you do anything differently from the first time? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Aaaaaaand now I'll stop rambling!

 

That is pretty awesome. On my second play through I also was going to make a dude and go the jojo mart way. I was probably going to marry Alex. Haha

 

Ah yeah, the adoption process is also a little something new. Maybe I could marry Elliot and then I wouldn't need to divorced Sebastian on my other character.

 

This is true!!! I wanted to marry a girl but then I was like Idk just Alex marrying a guy was funny and I couldn't resist so that is my plan now.

 

On my second play-through, I did all the opposite stuff from my first play-through. I watched cooking shows every day to get recipes, focused more on farming (instead of on Artesian), went with Joja Mart instead of the Community Center, and was super-nice to everyone (Instead of just the girls I wanted to marry)

 

Did you see much in the way of newness? I know I can't expect much, but a little something would be nice.

 

Not really anything with newness, but I still enjoyed it! I had more fun because I took more time to enjoy the game, and I planted all kinds of crops (On my first play-through I tried to just do what I thought got the most profit like blueberries/cranberries) I spent more time giving people gifts, so I saw most of the different scenes for each villager. I actually cooked more, played around with how my farm was setup more, did lots more farming too.

However, going with Joja was much less fun. I just paid moneys and when I went to sleep they fixed the bus or mine carts or whatever. Much more fun to work towards finishing the bundles.. and poor Shane.. will be a mindless Joja zombie FOREVAH

 

Either way he is screwed because being unemployed isn't that great either.

 

I'm only going the JojaMart route because I need the achievement and I figure it'll help me with my two year completion mark.

 

Wow, sounds like you're going to have a really streamlined experience. Good planning on your part!

My second run was a female, instead of a male. I was going to do the Joja route, but the dang junimos are just too cute! What I did was look up all the "honors" that were the original per-requisites for getting four candles from grandpa at the two year mark, and challenged myself to see how many of those I could meet by the two year mark. She also wound up playing the field a bit because I couldn't figure out who I wanted to marry her off to, which did a lot to keep things interesting. The differences in dialogue for male and female mc's are subtle, but telling.

I've just started a slow and easy playthrough for my third (serious) character, so that I can focus on cosmetics for the farm a little more than I usually do.

 

my first one was a test I tried a tiny bit of farming, mining, and fishing mostly focusing on characters I got engaged to Elliot as Naomi. Second play through I focused on making a nicer section of farm, never cleared out much of the forest on the farm but I had more space to make more money had more of a story for Ellia so still focused on friends. Married Harvey and had a daughter with him, the third play through I did less farming more fishing and married Elliot with several friends, I don't remember that farmer's name. Fourth play through I focused on fishing and mining actually still have that one going I was a loner in the beginning until I met Sebastian, now I have half of my farm looking good preferring to keep a good chunk of forest and I've got many best friends, Juniper came out of her shell. I think my next one I'll focus mainly on fishing and...I'm thinking maybe Penelope or Cat will marry Alex. Fun times for me

Also at some point I want to go for Joja and marry Abby...cause why not

 

Woah, that's a lot of gameplay!

 

I'm waiting to do the jojomart stuff till multiplayer yall

 

heh and I still haven't completed everything, I just go with the flow

 

my second playthrough im going for a theme farm. Blaze's Bunny Bonanza. Nothing but coops of rabbits!
Im also aiming for a more streamlined layout, as my first one is aesthetically pleasing but some parts are twitching my symmetry OCD.

 

I am doing a second playthrough,too. This time I want to make my farm look a bit more structured and prettier. And I have a little challenge, no gifts except for birthdays!

 

Wow these are some mad strats tho for real. It's like you bang-shifted from 1st gear to 6th holy crap. Look at all that grass, are you kidding me? You might actually make the 2-year mark which is a feat in and of itself.

 

I'm still finishing my first play-through and will probably keep it as my main game, since it'll have all the achievements and I'm a bit sentimental about it (still wishing I would have saved my very first Minecraft world). I'm currently in Winter of year 4, and I plan to try and tie up all the loose ends by the end of Winter year 5. I don't have much left to complete - a few artifacts, one legendary fish, and I think three recipes. I think I can tackle those in a year. If we have the update by the time I finish, I'll keep going with whatever new stuff is added, but if not, I'm going to leave it sit and in the meantime start a second file.

For my second one, I plan to take roughly the same route, just slower. I was super rushed the first time because of the ridiculously fast pace of the game. I have since installed a timespeed mod that slows things waaaaaay down and because of that, I feel like I can relax a bit and enjoy all aspects of the game more fully. Since I won't be so hurried, I want to get to know all the singles and get their heart levels up *before* I settle down. I'll still marry Seb because I can't really see my farmer with anyone else, I've grown too attached, but instead of sprinting into marriage with him this time I'm going to wait and just date him for a full year. I feel like I missed a lot of dialogue from him that's unique to just dating because we only dated for one season. I'll focus on the social aspects of the village a bit earlier and be less worried about finishing achievements. Those can just fall into place in their own time, as I play.

In my first game, I was a bit careful with my farming - crops only the first year, then I expanded into fruit trees and chickens at the beginning of year 2, and only added a new kind of animal each season. The idea was to have a bit of everything and go slow so I didn't overwhelm myself. Now that I've got some experience and I know how the livestock side of it works, I may just specialize in only one or maybe two types of animals. Maybe just turn the farm into a huge cow ranch. (And keep one coop full of Void Chickens because I like to keep Seb happy with the eggs lol.)

I also didn't get to plan my farm very well the first time around, and I'm not 100% happy with how it looks now, so that'll be something I'm more careful with in the second file. I know when the update comes we'll have the ability to move things around, which will be a huge help, but I want to actually take the time to think about where things are placed and go for a better aesthetic look, vs. purely functional. (Another thing that the timespeed mod helps with.) I'm keeping my fingers crossed we get some outdoor decorations too, so I can pretty things up even more. >u<

I plan to go slower with the house upgrades as well. I made upgrades the priority in my first game because hey, I wanted more space to decorate, but something about the idea of the little cozy cabin being my "bachelorette pad" for a while is appealing, and I want to see if I can make that tiny little space work for me. I've seen others on here who have done super cute things with just that one room, so I want to take a stab at it as well. I'll keep the small house the first year, then upgrade to the kitchen version the second, and right before I get married I'll do the big one, though not because I want the nursery. I have zero interest in having kids in this game, I just want the extra space, and I've already got the mod that removes the nursery furniture from that room.

I already have a name picked out for my second farm too...oddly enough, I dreamt it. Somehow in my sleep, my brain came up with "Evergreen Manor" and I liked it so well when I woke up I've decided to stick with it. lol Evergreen makes me think of Elves and how they are immortal (if you can't tell from my name, I'm a huge LoTR nerd), much like the evergreen trees that don't "die" during winter, and Manor just makes it sound spooky, which is cool. lol So we'll go with that, maybe I'll grab that mod that makes your buildings look more "witchey". Just for something a bit different the second time around.

I'm also anxiously awaiting the co-op version - I finally convinced my boyfriend to start playing and I think he likes it (at least, he said to me that he can see how someone would get really hooked on this game), and he says he wants to actually play together and share a farm, so that'll be another new approach to take and I'm kind of curious how it'll work. Will we both get our own house and farm? Do we share one? What happens with marriage? Do we have to be married or do we get the option to either marry each other or go for one of the singles? I'm looking forward to finding out.

 

Reginald Merriweather is a swanky, dapper name.

Does he have a monocle?

 

I have 6 playthroughs so far.

First one was just experiencing the game, learning how everything works and get the hang of things, completing the CC as I went along.
Second one was a "better" version of my first one. Planning out what to do first in order to do things most efficient. And I also went for most steam achievements on this run.
Third one was purely to get the Joja steam achievement. Abandoned this save file as soon as I got the achievement, I do not like the Joja route one bit.
Fourth run was similar to second one, planning ahead etc. Minus the steam achievements of course.
Then I decided to up the difficulty on my fifth playthrough and installed a bundle requirement mod. Completionist Hardcore, which adds a lot more needed stuff in order to complete the CC, oh yeah. Goal was to complete the CC before grandpa's return. Failed miserably, made some mistakes early in the game.
And finally my sixth playthrough is a better version of my fifth. I know what I did wrong and I'm going to do it right the second time *nods*

...If you can't tell, I really enjoy completing the CC xP