I'm looking for interesting min/max challenges to try to complete. Any suggestions? My current ideas are: Farming level 10 in Spring Y1 - how early can this be done? (Ultimate target: Spring 24). Catch all fish in Year 1 (I think a lot of people have done this, but I never have). Earliest date to reach level 100 of the Skull Cavern. (I've never actually done this, so no idea of a feasible target at the moment!). I would love to read other suggestions!
Sounds like a waste of a perfectly good Spring. I've gotten to level 8, which isn't anything to crow about, those last two levels are huge. Good luck! I've done that. The only real trick is getting leveled up to get the Legend in Spring 1. It's a fun challenge, but not really min/maxy because after that first Spring it's really laid back, just gather a few new fish each season. I think a better challenge might just be, how fast can you catch a Legend. But there it's dependent on rainfall RNG. With ladders, I can picture this the day after unlocking the bus. Question is how fast can you get the bus unlocked. The quicker you get the bus, the more you'll have to spend on stone.
I generally try to go for 'everything' in the first year. The primary main goals are community center, and all the achievements that are listed on the in-game menu. In addition to that, I try to get max hearts on as many people as possible; max out all skills; and build / upgrade as much as possible. The most difficult achievements on the list are 'polyculture' and 'complete (museum) collection'; but there are a few others that are also hard to get if you don't keep up steady progress - such as 'the beloved farmer', 'a bit help', and 'master angler'. In my current game I'm on-track to get most of the achievements - including polyculture and all items shipped. I was lucky enough to get a cabbage from the cart in spring, which allowed me to grow a couple of rounds of cabbages during summer to build up enough seeds to finish off polyculture with the greenhouse during winter. This will also be the first time that I've got the community centre in the first year. In my previous attempts, I missed out on the cabbage... but this time I've been especially dedicated in checking the cart. I think I've missed too many birthdays to get max hearts on everyone before the end of the year (and I don't really want to spend every day talking to every person; because I want to make progress with other stuff as well). I don't expect that I'll get the complete museum collection; but I will get pretty close to that as well. One of the nice things about having a broad set of goals is that there's a fair bit of variety in what you do while playing. Also, although I do play with 'one year' in mind, I fully intend to play on at the end to finish off the things that were incomplete with a much slower paced and more relaxing second year. (I find it amusing to imagine Kent coming back to find that a new farmer has basically rebuilt the town during the past year. Poor Kent.)
Let's see... * Year One Community Center Completion. Partially RNG dependent, with a mandatory requirement for Red Cabbage from the cart vendor, and several others are highly desired (Truffle and Rabbit's Foot, notably). The earliest it has been completed is Fall 2nd, to my knowledge, since they got an insanely good luck with the cart vendor offering lots of the season-locked stuff early. Generally, any completion before Winter 1 is enormously difficult, requiring several key items to be obtained from the cart vendor which are normally only found in the winter. The foraging items you can get from an early unlock of the Greenhouse and planting winter seeds from processing winter roots (from various enemies in the mines, level 41-79), but the Nautilus Shell will need to be obtained via cart vendor. * Year One Millionaire. Get a million bucks earned in the first year. Not too difficult, more of one of those 'in conjunction with' things, but still notable. * Wombo Combo! Start combining challenges! A typical example would be something like 'Year 1 CC + 1M1Y (first year millionaire) + All Fish Year One'. The all fish on first year is not particularly difficult, although it makes your spring especially busy trying to get up to skill 10 and the Legend obtained by the end of the month. So it is pretty good to combo with something like the first year community center challenge, because it keeps you occupied in the summer and fall as you rush to complete everything in time. Finishing out the year with a million earned isn't too difficult, so it's just kind of thrown in there to keep you 'honest' so you have to at least play the macro game as well.
In my current game, I got a nautilus shell from Demetrius in the mail because he likes me. That's not really something you can rely on, but it might be worth keeping in mind if you're really keen to get an early community centre. (For my game it didn't really matter anyway; because I'm not going for earliest CC. I'm going for best end-of-year.)
Yeah, and it can, in a way, be relied on. If you get him to high enough hearts he will, randomly, send you something. The "something" is randomized when you read the mail, so you can keep restarting the day till you get the gift you're looking for. It is cheaty, but yeah, it can come in the mail.
Some interesting thoughts, thank you! I think on reflection I don't so much min-max as try to play as close as possible to max-max (if that makes any sense?). I don't like to ignore one aspect of the game in order to do something else; it just doesn't feel right. So combining challenges suits me and is something I do informally anyway. I definitely did make myself do the million Y1 the first time I did the community centre in Fall. For the farming 10 challenge, I will also be planning to have a whole bunch of quality sprinklers up and running so that it makes a really solid start to the game. I think after trying the farming 10 challenge I will look at how early I can complete the achievements. Polyculture Y1 sounds insane to attempt, and would presumably require vendor luck for the Y2 seeds, but would be doable with luck and careful use of the greenhouse - I think I would enjoy trying that. Regarding Demetrius sending Nautilus Shell, I've played games where I spoke to him nearly every day and gifted him twice a week and didn't get a single present in time for early Community Centre finish. I'm not sure quite how it chooses whether to send a gift, but there is definitely luck involved and I seem to get the bad end of it!
Did you try my CC bundle mod for 1 year challenge? There is couple options to choose. You can pick what sounds best for you. Hf. https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewva...y/ajax/moddescription/?id=1222&preview=&pUp=1
Yes, I did! I enjoyed it. EDIT: Although it seems to have changed, so I might try the new version. I like the lack of randomness, and the need to play very well. Great mod! EDIT 2: But which version should I try for the highest level of challenge? I don't currently have longevity or more crops mod.
Version 1.02E2H was the hardest but with More crops mod. Without MCM mod probably 1.02R was the coolest, If you like I can make new harder version with 10.000, 25.000, 50.000 and 100.000 for Bus stop Bundle for example - it's like 2min of work. It also should be doable in 1 year. Edit: I did and add 1.02RH version with that change (10.000, 25.000, 50.000 and 100.000 for Bus stop Bundle).
Hmm, somehow I never even thought of a race to Farming 10 before. I suspect someone has tried this, and probably achieved it, but for a bit of a challenge I'm going to plan this out for myself now and see if I can execute it. In fact it might even be possible to get there a day or two earlier than Spring 24, if you get a bit of luck from the RNG with rain. This can almost certainly be done in Spring. Fish enough money for the bus repair and other expenses, get down to the bottom of the mines, keep the stones for ladders, and plenty of iron ore and coal for bombs, get a gold pickaxe upgrade and buy a lava katana and that should be job done. Bomb down most of the way, ladder down the rest, and if you still don't make it, the gold pickaxe and lava katana are there as insurance to help you down the last few floors. Going to try this too. He definitely cannot be relied on. In what is, nevertheless, still my fastest legit CC completion, I smooth talked and gold strawberried that bastard all the way to 10 by Summer 20, the day after his birthday, and still had to wait for the cart to bail me out on Fall 19 for the nautilus shell, the last item I needed. I played that farm deep into Year 2, and he didn't send me anything at all, not even once. NPC mail items are a bonus, not something to bank on.
Interesting. I can see how to manage Spring 23 with good fishing luck for seed money early on, but not any sooner. I'll have to have another think!
How does Spring 21 sound? Just did this, and this is how it looked. https://upload.farm/all?series=1GEBS4 Somehow forgot to upload after Day 15, but the rest of them are there When I sat and thought about it, I realised a highly detailed plan was not really that important, just a basic principle of make as much money as possible then plough it all into seeds, the only caveat being that you make sure to keep enough edible stuff on hand that you don't run out of energy. Also I chose the river farm, because if I did make a mistake and run low on energy then as long as I had about half a bar I could bring in much more energy than I'd expend doing the fishing, without needing to waste time travelling. It also made rainy days more profitable because catfish are on my doorstep. If I were to try this again, I'd actually add up what seeds I bought, and not buy too many. A quick glance at the map suggests I got about 250 more seeds than I needed, and obviously I was wasting a lot of time and energy watering it when I didn't need to. I don't think you even need much luck with early fishing tbh; I had a horrible day 2, got so much trash I couldn't even afford the fiberglass rod at the start of day 3, for the first time in forever, and still recovered to get this result. Day 3 was scarcely better because of starting with the basic bamboo pole. If you're simply aiming for Spring 23, I reckon the thing you need most luck on is a rainy day, specifically somewhere from day 7 to day 10, for an opportunity to upgrade the watering can without losing a day. I got my rainy day on day 8. You then use that day to catch catfish, for a big money boost to buy crops with enough time to use the plots twice. If it doesn't rain and you're prepared to lose a day to the can upgrade then Spring 24 is trivially easy, because instead of the catfish you simply have a whole extra day's fishing, which will make up the difference for not having access to catfish. And I'd rather not try doing this with only a basic can I think where I got really lucky was with back to back rainy days 15 and 16, obviously can't plan for that. It enabled me to catch catfish and buy the seeds that got me to Farming 10 on Spring 21, otherwise I think it would have only been Spring 22 or perhaps only Spring 23. On the other hand, I think there were a couple of bad decisions in there too, including on day 5, my only mining day, where I made a chest for the top of the elevator basically by habit, when it really wasn't necessary and it almost cost me the time to get the necessary 45 copper ore; I was then lucky, at close to 11pm on floor 9, to run into one of those spots where there's about ten or twelve copper nodes all next to each other, which got me the ore I required with a handful to spare. Also on one of the rainy days I got my order of activities badly wrong and potentially caught far fewer catfish than I could have. That said, I don't think they made me lose so much that I could have got there any earlier, and the mines one didn't actually cost me at all.
Browsing around on the Reddit this morning I got inspired for a challenge. User was talking about doing a playthrough just fishing. Another user said that Joja route made more sense for a pure fishing farm. And I realize that 12 Legends pay for the Joja projects. If you pour all earnings into projects there are a lot fewer Legends needed. Can it be finished in the first spring? I'm not certain of the hurdles I'm not anticipating yet, but if anyone needs me, I'll be at the lake.
farming level 10 in spring ...i think it can be done...i was managing around 200 cauliflowers by the end of spring I started out with the parnsnips+mixed seeds...after that bought around 100 potatoes+the rewards from the spring bundle, 30 spring seeds...and with the money from that i bought 200 cauliflowers ..i don't remember if i got level 10 from that
After my Farming 10 run, above, I toyed with the idea of carrying that farm on somehow, and as it happens, the first thing I actually thought of was buying Joja, but instead I opted to see how much money I could earn in year 1 with no sprinklers, just manual watering and no artisan machinery, just selling raw crops; I'm expecting comfortably over 1 million, and hoping for 2 million, though I think the latter is heavily against the odds But it also got me wondering how quickly it was possible to race to level 10 on each of the other skills if I just focused on those (except Combat, I can't be bothered with that). So, I have already started a farm a few days ago, trying to see how early I can get Fishing 10, because that's probably the easiest to start with. Haven't been able to play for a few days, but right now I'm up to day 5, I think, and I reckon it was looking like day 9 or 10 to complete. When I get there I might just carry it on past that to try this Joja race myself. My own current fastest Joja completion isn't until Summer 15, which was after waiting for the first Blueberry harvest to be able to afford the two big ones, and was incidental to the point of that playthrough anyway. As for hurdles, I don't know about you, and maybe I have caught one or two Legend at a bare Fishing 10, but even with tackle to help, I'm simply not good enough to catch them reliably without buffing my skill level to 12 or 13. And even then I still miss a few. I simply can't see how to cook those buffs in the first spring. The only one I can reliably purchase is Trout Soup, which is only +1 Fishing, not quite enough for me. Maybe I need to use a mod to force rain and then get some practice on them. The only other real hurdle I can see is not actually getting any rain, or not enough. Even before you hit Fishing 10, on rainy days you can catch Catfish for bigger money than the lake, but I've had playthroughs where day 3 was the only rainy day all season. One tip, make sure you definitely don't run out of bait on days 9, 13, 24 or any Saturday.
It's now the morning of the 11th. I woke up with level 10 fishing. Robin's on the first day of building me a kitchen. It rained the 5th, and I had cash for the iridium rod and some trap bobbers. Rained again on the 7th. Between the two days I got 24 catfish. I've got 12 Sardines, 9 potatoes, the hashbrowns recipe and I'm buying oil today. 53K total earnings and 15K in pocket. If the rain treats me good I think I got a shot at this. Yeah, and it's vanilla on video! *BIG SMILEY* EDIT: And I've already sold my soul to Joja. Just need to scrouge up like 135K in the next 17 days.
Dammit, I always forget about dish o the sea because I never fish the ocean in spring and therefore never get sardines. And by the time I go there in summer, there's no Legend to worry about and I don't need the buff for anything else except octopus, which aren't worth the effort. I only bother with Legend in years 2+, if at all, and I take my +3 buff from Fish Stew with what I get out of my crab pots. Haven't played any more days in my fishing 10 farm yet, so the first thing I'll do when I get back to it is plant some spuds, then hit the ocean as soon as I have Fishing 10.
An update on my current quest. It's the morning of the 23rd and no sign of rain, but I'm not certain it's needed. I've made 144K earnings, and have unlocked all items, except the bus(40K.) For a week or so it seemed grindy but now it's just boring. At level 10, catching the standard lake fish is just blindingly repetitive. I've only been selling what I fish up except for the random beach items I forage on the way to Willy's shop. (and 3 daffodils I sold on day 1 before deciding on my rules.) The fishing chests haven't really been too kind. I've gotten a few emeralds and rubies but only three diamonds. A treasure chest now would be awesome. Without a Legend or a Treasure Chest I see it coming right down to the 28th. I'd like to be able to get the ceremony during the Spring, just because it would seem more "official," but that means having 40K, in pocket, on the 27th. It's gonna be tight. I need to get off of here and go finish this but I'm scared, because I know if I miss it by 1,000g, I'll just turn around and do it again. ------------------------ UPDATE: I got it. It rained the 25th. I missed the first Legend, got the next two. Cashed out with Willy at 2pm and filled the last bundle. It rained again on the 26th, then the 27th I got the ceremony... I did get one more Legend on the 26th, so I've got seed money for Summer 1, if I decide to play it any further. (Probably won't.) ANOTHER EDIT: As an aside, where the wiki says that artifacts in treasure chests require having found an artifact, it seems it's correct to a point. I've often found my first artifact in a treasure chest and assumed the wiki was wrong, but this time I didn't hoe any artifact spots and went the whole month without seeing an artifact. I did give Gunther a fire quartz early on, just to get his 250g reward but I didn't dig up any artifacts or lost books. Possibly the lost books count as artifacts for the treasure chest's requirement.
OK, here's my version of early Farming 10: https://upload.farm/all?series=1GJ8Gc I also managed Day 21 in the end. My strategy was based around planting mostly parsnips with some potatoes, and carefully avoiding the need to sell any crops to Pierre on Wednesdays. I planted: Day 1: 40 parsnips & 1 mixed seeds potato Day 5: 285 parsnips Day 6: 90 parsnips, 1 cauliflower, 1 green bean Day 9: 185 potatoes, 9 cauliflowers (museum reward), 92 parsnips Day 10: 98 parsnips (bought the day before to avoid shop problems) Days 12 & 13: 216 parsnips, watered day 13. Day 14: 100 potatoes Day 15: 185 potatoes Day 17: 216 parsnips (bought the day before) This gave me about 16 spare parsnips when I harvested on 21st. I had planned it out quite tightly, but then kept rounding my seed purchases up slightly out of an abundance of caution. Despite watering up to 500 crops per day, food turned out ok. The fishing map was a good call for early on - thank you for the idea. Then from Day 10 onwards I also had spare parsnips to eat. It didn't rain between 5th and 15th, so I didn't upgrade my watering can. Instead I upgraded my pickaxe to copper, which helped me get to level 55 in the mines by the end of Day 22. Although that's behind my normal schedule, I'm still on track for some quality sprinklers by the end of the month. I'm curious now to take the game forwards and see how it pans out: I've ordered a barn from Robin and should also get a coop before the end of Spring, so I think it's going to end up as quite a solid start!
