Wiki: Guides, Database & Strategy
Stardew Valley is an open-ended country-life RPG centered on inheriting and rebuilding your grandfather's old farm in Stardew Valley. You decide how to spend your days, whether that means farming, fishing, foraging, mining, combat, crafting, cooking, giving gifts, completing quests, donating to the Museum, or restoring the Community Center.
Core premise
You begin with hand-me-down tools and a small amount of money, then work to turn overgrown land into a thriving home. Progress is nonlinear, so there is no single required path; the game rewards long-term planning, routine work, and choosing the activities you enjoy most.
The valley’s story premise is shaped by the arrival of Joja Corporation, which contributed to the decline of the old way of life. The Community Center, once a lively town hub, now sits in ruins, and many of the game’s goals revolve around helping the valley recover.
How the game is structured
Stardew Valley is built around open-ended daily play. A player can focus on one income stream or combine several at once, and most major systems connect back to the farm, the town, and the surrounding wilderness.
Main ways to progress
- Farming and crop sales
- Fishing
- Foraging
- Mining
- Combat against enemies
- Crafting
- Cooking
- Gift giving
- Quests
- Museum donations
- Community Center restoration
Collections and tracking
Several in-game collection tabs track what the player has discovered or shipped.
Museum collections
The Museum collection tabs track the Artifacts and Minerals donated so far. Items do not reveal their names or descriptions in the collection tab until they are donated.
Shipping Collection
The Shipping Collection tab tracks which shipped items have been sold and how many of each have been shipped.
Special Items & Powers
The Special Items & Powers tab displays the special items, book powers, and mastery powers the player has collected.
Save system
Stardew Valley uses a save system built around standard saves, emergency saves, and backup saves. On mobile, the game creates a folder for each saved game, and the save structure follows the computer version with additions suited to mobile devices.
Backup saves
Players can manually create a backup save at almost any time using the Save Backup button on the options page, except during certain festivals, cutscenes, and other events. Backup saves use the same format as an emergency save, but they are tied to a specific game ID.
When loading a game, if a backup exists, the player is asked whether they want to restore from where they previously left off. Choosing yes loads the backup; choosing no loads the normal 6am save.
Only one backup save can exist per game ID. Creating a new backup overwrites the old one for that ID. Backup saves are deleted automatically when a new standard save is created for that game ID, usually overnight after level-up dialogs and shipping reports. They are not deleted when an emergency save is created.
Platforms and release history
Stardew Valley is available on PC, console, and mobile.
Supported platforms
- PC: Linux, macOS, Windows
- Console: PS4, PS Vita, Xbox One, Switch, Switch 2
- Mobile: Android, iOS
A Wii U port was planned but canceled in favor of the Nintendo Switch.
First release dates
- Windows: 26 February 2016
- Linux and Mac: 29 July 2016
- PS4 and Xbox One: 14 December 2016
- Switch: 05 October 2017
- PS Vita: 22 May 2018 in the US, 24 May 2018 in Europe
- iOS: 24 October 2018
- Android: 13 March 2019
- Switch 2: 25 December 2025 in North America, 6 March 2026 in Europe
Development and publishing
Stardew Valley was developed entirely by ConcernedApe, also known as Eric Barone, during the original development period. That includes the art, sound effects, and music. The game was programmed in C# using Microsoft XNA on Windows and MonoGame on Linux and macOS. The art was created in Paint.NET, and the music and sound effects were composed in Propellerhead Software's Reason.
The first public release came on 26 February 2016 after four years of development. ConcernedApe posted development updates during development and later on the official website.
For Stardew Valley 1.3, ConcernedApe focused on gameplay and content changes while Tom Coxon developed the multiplayer code. Later updates were created by ConcernedApe together with Arthur Lee and Alex Erlandson.
Publishers
Stardew Valley was initially published by Chucklefish. It is now self-published by ConcernedApe on all platforms.
UI and chat emotes
The game includes an Emoji Menu for chat. Players can also type emote codes in brackets to use emojis in chat.
Chat emotes are identified by numeric emoji IDs, with many available in-game through the menu and code system.