Stardew Valley - Efficient Start

The main priority for the early game in terms of efficiency is to unlock sprinklers, freeing up the energy you would have been spending on watering crops for other activities like fishing and mining. There are 3 types of sprinklers: Regular which waters 4 crops around it, Quality which waters 8 crops around it, and Iridium which waters 24 crops around it. Quality sprinklers are the sweet spot, and are what we'll be concentrating on in this guide. They're ulocked on reaching farming level 6. You increase your farming level by harvesting crops

At the start of the game you'll receive 15 free parsnip seeds. Do-not plant any of these seeds. Leave them in the farmhouse while you go outside and prepare your land. We're going to plant kale to level up farming to level 1 to unlock scarecrows. Once we have the scarecrow we'll expand our crop production and include the parsnips for the community center, the shipping requirement and maybe some for Pam, who loves them. The reason for planting parsnips over potatoes - which are more profitable - is to try to get 5 gold star parsnips, as it's advantageous to use parsnips for the quality crops bundle rather than more expensive crops like pumpkins. If you find yourself with free energy plant more parsnips!

Day 1

Clear the area in front of your house of weeds and rocks
Chop trees and single branches until you have 50 wood then make a chest and put it next to your farmhouse
Plow and water a 3 x 3 plot in front of your house
Scythe weeds on your farm to get as many mixed seeds as you can - at least 2
Plant the mixed seeds one at a time. You're looking for a cauliflower seed and a potato seed. If you don't get these two seeds restart the game
Go to Pierre's and buy 6 kale seeds and 1 green bean starter. This will cost 480g
Go back and plant the kale seeds and the green bean starter
Use whatever energy you have left to clear more trees, weeds and rocks from the front of your house
Make another chest if you have enough wood before you run out of energy. If not do it tomorrow

Day 2

Water your 9 crops and load the second chest into your inventory
Visit Willy to get your fishing rod
Spend the rest of the day fishing at the mountain lake. Use the chest for excess fish
Take as many fish back home as you can carry and put them in your chest before you go to bed

Day 3

Fish all day at the mountain lake
Once you have enough fish to reach1800g sell them to Willy and buy the fiberglass rod from him
Return to the mountain lake and continue fishing for the rest of the day
Don't sell any more fish until you reach fishing level 5 when all fish sell for 25% more with the Fisher profession

Day 4

Water your crops
Buy the backpack upgrade from Pierre as soon as you have 2000g
Fish all day at the mountain lake

Day 5

Water your crops and clean up your farm until 8am then head into town (this will trigger the community center event unless it's raining)
If it's not raining enter the community center and trigger the junimo writing
Go to the mines. Get as deep as you can. You're trying to reach level 40, where iron starts to appear
Collect as much copper ore as you can; 45 is the goal - enough to make a furnace (20) and five copper bars (25)

Day 6

As you obtained some copper yesterday Clint will show up and give you the furnace blueprints
Craft a furnace and put it in your inventory then visit the wizard to trigger the community center bundles
Water your crops
Go to the mines. Set up the furnace in the mine and get as deep as you can. Smelt ore as you go. Take the furnace with you when you leave

Day 7

Harvest the 6 kale and the potato - this will give you 116xp, meaning you will level up tomorrow. Put the potato and 2 of the kale in your chest
Put 1 kale in the shipping bin, give 1 to Lewis (it's his birthday today), and sell the remaining 2 to Pierre. Buy 18 parsnip seeds while you're there
Take your pickaxe and 5 copper bars to Clint for upgrading
Fish at the mountain lake all day

Day 8

Expand your 3x3 plot to a 4x9 plot. Leave one spot in the middle free, then water the rest, including your green bean and cauliflower
Plant the 18 parsnip seeds and the 15 free seeds from your farmhouse. Apply fertilizer to as many spots as you can (64 sap is needed for them all)
Craft a scarecrow and place it on the free spot you left. Scarecrows cover a circular area around them with a radius of 8 tiles
Smelt any copper and quartz you've collected in the furnace
Fish all day at the mountain lake. Keep any broken glasses, CDs and soggy newspaper as these can be turned into refined quartz/cloth in a recycler

Day 9

Water your crops
Collect your pickaxe from Clint
Go to the mines. Try to collect 25 copper ore, 25 iron ore, and 10 coal and smelt the ores into bars

Day 10

Water your crops
Go to the mines for more copper, iron and quartz

Day 11

Water your crops
Harvest the green bean. This will give 9xp, taking your total to 125
Go to the mines

Day 12

Water your crops
Harvest the parsnips. These will give 264xp, taking your total to 389. Regular sprinklers will unlock tomorrow
Go to the mines, make copper bars and iron bars (the goal is 5 of each), and continue to collect and smelt copper, iron and quartz

Day 13

Harvest the cauliflower for 23xp, taking your total to 411xp
Craft 5 regular sprinklers. Place them to the leftt of your other plot, then plow and water the 20 spaces around them
Go to the egg festival and buy 84 strawberry seeds (8400g). When you're done with the festival you'll be returned to the farm at 10pm
Take the parsnip, potato, green bean and cauliflower to the community center to complete the spring crops bundle
Collect the speed-gro reward and return to the farm
Sow the 20 spots you plowed and watered in the morning with the speed-gro
Plant 20 of your 84 strawberry seeds on these spots then go to bed

Day 14

Go to the mines and continue collecting copper, iron and quartz
Buy more parsnips seeds from Pierre and plant them in the fertilized spots if you don't yet have 5 gold star parsnips

Day 15

Craft another scarecrow. then plant and water the remaining 64 strawberry seeds around it in 8 groups of 8 (see below)
Go to the mines and continue collecting iron ore and quartz as you descend
Smelt the iron and quartz into bars while trying to reach level 80, where gold starts to appear

Day 16

Water the 64 strawberries
The first 20 strawberries should be ready to harvest on the 20th, then on the 24th and again on the 28th, giving a total of 1080xp. The other 64 strawberries will be ready to harvest on the 23rd, and again on the 27th, giving a total of 2304xp.

Days 17 through 27

Continue down through the mine levels until you reach at least floor 80. Here you will find gold ore. Smelt this into gold bars and continue collecting iron ore for iron bars and quartz for refined quartz bars. These are the 3 items required to make quality sprinklers. Hoard as many gold, iron and refined quartz bars as possible until your strawberry harvesting unlocks quality sprinklers. 24 is a good amount to aim for - that's 120 gold ore, 120 iron ore and 24 quartz. These sprinklers will water 192 blueberries costing 15,360g.

Day 28

Harvest the last crop of strawberries. The total return on all strawberry harvests combined is 3384xp. Add this to the 411xp gained from the previous harvests and you will achieve farming level 6 (3300xp required) with a grand total of 3796xp. Quality sprinklers are unlocked, ready for the first day of summer

Summer Day 1

Buy blueberry seeds according to how many quality sprinklers you managed to make. Having 8 quality sprinklers around a scarecrow works very well. The Four Corners farm - a great farm for organization - can accomodate a layout of 24 quality sprinklers, watering 192 blueberries in front of the farmhouse:

Prioritize getting the greenhouse open before winter year 1

It's ideal to get the greenhouse fixed before winter year 1, as no crops worth your time grow outside during winter. If you get the greenhouse opened some time in Fall you can plant cranberries there. They'll continue to produce or as long as you want to leave them there, giving you a constant income stream with no effort

The following shows what's needed to open the pantry along with the rewards for the individual bundles

Villager Schedules

Marnie is unavailable on Mondays and Tuesdays unless it's raining
Robin is unavailable on Tuesdays unless it's raining
Pierre's store is closed on Wednesdays
Sandy sells Deluxe Speed-Gro at The Oasis on Thursdays for 80g each
The traveling cart is available from 6am to 8pm every Friday and Sunday
Krobus sells 1 iridium sprinkler every Friday for 10,000g (need the sewer key - from Gunther once 60 artifacts are donated to the museum)
Clint will be unavailable on Fridays once the community center has been opened
Willy's fish shop is unavailable on Saturdays
A new Queen of Sauce episode is aired on Sundays (re-runs are aired on Wednesdays)
The Desert Trader exchanges an unlimited number of staircases for the same number of jades on Sundays

Craft A Villager Chest

It's a good idea to have a chest that contains special items you'll need for gifting to villagers, and for fulfilling their requests. Villager requests are often crops that you may not be currently growing, disrupting your schedule.

Year 1 crop requests:

Spring 19 - Jodi wants a cauliflower (a pack of 9 cauliflower seeds is the reward for donating 5 artifacts to the museum)
Summer 14 - Pam wants a pale ale (put hops in a keg to make one, or just buy it from Gus)
Summer 20 - Demetrius wants a melon (a pack of 9 melon seeds is the reward for donating 10 artifacts to the museum)
Summer 25 - George wants a hot pepper (you should have a few of these as one is required for the summer crops bundle and it's regrowable)
Fall 3 - Marnie wants a bunch of amaranth (Pierre sells amaranth seeds)
Fall 19 - Caroline wants a pumpkin (a pack of 9 pumpkin seeds is the reward for donating 35 artifacts to the museum)

Loved crops:

Pam loves parsnips
George loves leeks
Evelyn loves tulips and beets
Vincent loves grapes
Jas loves fairy roses
Caroline loves summer spangles
Lewis and Shane love hot peppers
Demetrius and Maru love strawberries
Haley and Linus love sunflowers
Willy and Abigail love pumpkins
Sam loves cactus fruit
Sandy loves forageable flowers - daffodil, sweet pea, crocus
Leo loves mangoes


Also include in this chest: 1 melon seed, 1 wheat seed, 1 garlic seed, and 1 deluxe speed-gro (see below)

Villager gift giving

There is no single item that's universally loved that you can give to every villager in Pelican Town to gain hearts (at least none that are easily obtainable in large quantities), but the closest is diamond, which you can mass produce in crystalariums later in the game. Evelyn ,Gus, Jodi, Krobus, Marnie, Maru, Penny and Willy love diamonds, and everyone else likes them. It takes a while to collect lots of diamonds though, so in the meantime you can give salads. Everyone except Krobus, Willy and Leo likes them (and Leah loves them), and you can buy them from Gus at the saloon for 220g

Tool Upgrade Costs (All tool upgrades through Clint)

Upgrading a starter tool to copper costs 2,000 gold and 5 copper bars
Upgrading a copper tool to steel costs 5,000 gold and 5 iron bars
Upgrading an iron tool costs 10,000 gold and 5 gold bars
Upgrading a gold tool to iridium costs 25,000 gold and 5 iridium bars

Construction Costs (All construction through Robin)

Silo - 100 gold, 5 Copper bars, 100 Stone, 10 Clay. Must have a 3x3 area free to place. Holds 240 hay
Coop - 4000 gold, 300 Wood, 100 Stone. Must have a 6x3 area free to place. Houses chickens (800g each)
Barn - 6,000 gold, 350 Wood, 150 Stone. Must have a 7x4 area free to place. Houses cows (1500g each)
Fish Pond - 5,000 gold, 200 Stone, 5 Seaweed, 5 Algae. Must have a 5x5 area free to place. Only one fish type per pond
Shed - 15,000 gold, 300 Wood. Must have a 7x3 area free to place. The optimal shed layout can accomodate 67 kegs

Building Upgrades (All building upgrades through Robin)

First Farmhouse upgrade - 10,000 gold, 450 Wood. Provides a kitchen area allowing you to cook dishes
Second Farmhouse upgrade - 65,000 gold, 100 Hardwood. Provides two new rooms, allowing you to have children
Third Farmhouse upgrade - 100,000 gold. Adds a cellar for aging wine and cheese in casks. Comes with 33 casks

Big Coop - 10,000 gold, 400 Wood, 150 Stone. Can now also house ducks (1200g each)
Deluxe Coop - 20,000 gold, 500 Wood, 200 Stone. Can now also house rabbits (8000g each)

Big Barn - 12,000 gold, 450 Wood, 200 Stone. Can now also house goats (4000g each)
Deluxe Barn - 25,000 gold, 550 Wood, 300 Stone. Can now also house sheep (8000g each) and pigs (16000g each)

Big Shed - 20,000 gold, 550 Wood, 300 Stone. Doubles the interior space of the shed. (Optimal layout accomodates 137 kegs)

Ancient Fruit Seeds

Ancient fruit seeds cannot be bought anywhere. Instead you generally find one ancient seed as a random drop from a monster. You must donate this first ancient seed to the museum. This will give you an ancient fruit seed pack and the seed recipe. To obtain more ancient fruit seeds you need to sow the first ancient fruit seed in your greenhouse and wait 28 days for it to produce an ancient fruit (21 days with deluxe speed-gro) then put this fruit into a Seed Maker. This will give you back between 1 and 3 ancient fruit seeds. Then you sow those seeds, put the fruit from them into the seed maker to make more seeds, and so on until you have the number of ancient fruit seeds you want to sow on Ginger Island. 480 - the preferred amount - takes a long time

If you're having trouble finding an ancient seed then kill lots of grubs, bugs and cave flies on levels 1-29 of the mines

Most useful recipes and where to get them

Fishing Level 3 - Dish O' The Sea: Gives +3 Fishing (2 sardines, 1 hashbrowns)
Caroline - 2 Hearts - Tea Sapling: Required for the craft every item part of Perfection
Linus - 3 Hearts - Sashimi (1 of any fish): Turn cheap fish into sashimi to sell for 75g. Also great energy/health food (75/33)
George - 7 Hearts - Spicy Eel: Gives +1 Luck, +1 Speed (1 eel, 1 hot pepper)
Robin - 7 Hearts - Pumpkin Soup: Gives +2 Defense, +2 Luck (1 pumpkin, 1 milk)

Regrowable Crops

Spring: Green Bean (10/3), Strawberry (8/4)
Summer: Blueberry (13/4), Corn (14/4), Hot Pepper (5/3), Tomato (11/4), Hops (11/1), Coffee Bean (10/2)
Fall: Cranberry (7/5), Eggplant (5/5)
Special: Ancient fruit (28/7), Pineapple (14/7), Cactus fruit (12/3)

Preparing for Ginger Island and Perfection

When you start thinking about Ginger Island you start thinking about Perfection, and the rest of this guide has Perfection in mind. There are two main ways of generating the huge profits in the late game that Perfection requires: Ancient Fruit and Starfruit and their subsidiary products. Whereas ancient fruit seeds are effectively free, and regrow every 7 days after the initial harvest, starfruit seeds have to be purchased at the desert, are very expensive, and do-not regrow. The profits are astronomical but require significantly more investment and attention. The choice is yours, but this guide assumes a certain amount of laziness, so ancient fruit is preferred :)

On your first few trips to Ginger Island be sure to take the following:

1 Melon seed, 1 Wheat seed , 1 Garlic seed, 1 Deluxe speed-gro and 1 Quality sprinkler - Once you gain access to the west coast of the island, you'll want to plant these in front of the sleep hut, applying the deluxe speed-gro to the melon crop. This will reduce the melon's growing time to 9 days. Do-not harvest any of these until you've talked to the gourmand frog

Quick growing crop seeds - There are 5 golden walnuts available as random drops, but they only drop from non-regrowable crops that don't require a scythe to harvest. Pick the cheapest seeds that have the shortest growth time depending on the what Pierre is currently selling. Spring - Parsnips, Summer - Radish, Fall - Bok Choy. How many you need will depend on how lucky you are when you harvest them, but expect to have to sow 48 or so. This can be done when you first arrive to sow the melon, wheat and garlic seeds. You should have some iridium sprinklers to water them at this point

Sprinklers - Bring enough iridium sprinklers to water the number of seeds you brought. If you plan on sowing 480 seeds then you'll need 20 iridium sprinklers, as each sprinkler waters the surrounding 24 tiles

Ancient Fruit Seeds - Ideally you should have 480 ancient fruit seeds ready to sow when you arrive on Ginger Island. Sow them then return to the mainland and do other things while you wait for the 28 day growth period to pass. After the initial 28 days they will regrow every 7 days. You'll want to put as many as possible into kegs, and whatever is left each week you can put in preserve jars, dehydrators or just sell as raw fruit. Ideally you want to keg all 480 ancient fruit. Good luck with that

Your weapon and tools (the watering can - upgraded to at least steel quality - is important for creating stone bridges over lava in the volcano dungeon)

A big chest to keep all your Ginger Island stuff in

3 rubies for upgrading your sword for more damage, and 1 each of the stork puzzle gems: Emerald, Topaz, Ruby, Aquamarine and Amethyst so you don't have to wait for 4 rainy days

Any prismatic shards you may have for enchanting your weapon/tools

The Master Slingshot you got from the mines, loaded with a few stones. This is required for shooting down a golden walnut from one of the trees

A few bombs, for quickly clearing the dig site of bones and freeing Professor Snail. Bring more if you want to quickly clear the volcano dungeon levels

5 Flute Blocks for completing the mermaid puzzle on the east of the island

Farm Warp Totems - You can get back to the mainland any time by returning to Willy's boat in the south of Ginger Island but this gets annoying after a while and only takes you to the beach. Using a farm totem is much more efficient. Farm totems can be crafted with 1 hardwood, 20 fiber and 1 honey, but you can get an almost unlimited amount of them for free by visiting the Oasis casino on a great luck day and playing the slot machines
Make sure you have a farm totem in your inventory any time you enter the volcano dungeon. You can't leave unless you finish the whole dungeon or re-trace your steps all the way back to the start, so being able to warp out is essential

Ginger Island

The area in front of the sleep hut has space for 500 crops in a nice rectangle with 20 iridium sprinklers in a 5 x 4 layout. That's 480 spots for crops

Get a banana sapling planted as soon as possible, as bananas are required for shipping every item, the island obelisk and to complete the golden walnut collection. The Island Trader (10 walnuts to unlock) will trade a banana sapling for 5 dragon teeth. You can also get banana saplings from golden coconuts. These have to be opened by Clint, and the first golden coconut is always a single golden walnut, so you'll need at least two

When you get a banana sapling plant it in your greenhouse - sometimes it's prevented from growing by random ginger spawns on Ginger Island

Once the island resort is open check where Gus is every day. You can only get the tropical curry recipe from him when he's on the island

When going through the volcano be sure to equip the burglar's ring and always kill the lava lurkers - they have a 15% chance to drop dragon teeth

Take very careful note of which golden walnuts you've found, from where and how many. Once you get close to the 130 required if you lose track you may never know which you've still to find, and consequently where to look to complete your collection

Seed Purchasing

If going for Perfection you will need to cook one of every dish, and ship one of every item - many of which are crops, so knowing which seeds to buy, and how many is essential. The following is a list of which seeds you should buy each season, how many of each you need, and what the crop is required for i.e. bundles, recipe ingredients and villager requests. In bold parenthesis is the recommended amount to buy to be on the safe side, or due to being a loved item of one or more villagers etc.:

Spring

3 Blue Jazz - Shipping, Tub-o-Flowers (seed), Lucky Lunch
1 Carrot - Shipping
4 Cauliflower - Shipping, Spring Bundle, Cheese Cauliflower, Jodi
1 Coffee Bean (can't be bought) - Shipping
14 Garlic (Year 2) - Shipping, Escargot, Fiddlehead Risotto, Oil of Garlic (10), Frog (seed)
4 Green Bean - Shipping, Spring Bundle, Bean Hotpot (2)
3 (4) Kale - Shipping, Salmon Dinner, Stir Fry (Good gift for Lewis on his birthday on spring 7th of the first year)
9 (lots) Parsnip - Shipping, Spring Bundle, Quality Bundle (5), Parsnip Soup, Farmer's Lunch
4 Potato - Shipping, Spring Bundle, Hashbrowns, Complete Breakfast (contains hashbrowns)
2 Rhubarb (Can only be bought from the Desert Oasis) - Shipping, Rhubarb Pie
1 (6) Strawberry - Shipping (keep gold star strawberries for gifting Demetrius)
2 Tulip - Shipping, Tub-o-Flowers (seed)
1 Unmilled Rice - Shipping

Summer

4 (lots) Blueberry - Shipping, Summer Bundle, Blueberry Tart, Fruit Salad. Great summer money crop - second only to starfruit
11 (12) Corn - Shipping, Fall Bundle, Quality Bundle (5), Tortilla, Oil, Fish Taco, Lucky Lunch
3 Hops - Shipping, Pale Ale Shipping, Pale Ale for Pam
6 (12) Hot Pepper - Shipping, Summer Bundle, Pepper Poppers, Spicy Eel, Tropical Curry, George
11 (32) Melon - Shipping, Summer Bundle, Quality Bundle (5), Fruit Salad, Pink Cake, Demetrius, Frog (seed)
4 Poppy - Shipping, Chef's Bundle, Poppyseed Muffin, Tub-o-Flowers (seed)
3 Radish - Shipping, Radish Salad, Red Plate
5 Red Cabbage (Year 2) - Shipping, Dye Bundle, Coleslaw, Fish Taco, Red Plate
2 (up to you) Starfruit - Shipping, Kent. This is the most profitable crop in the game whose seeds can be bought
2 (6) Summer Spangle - Shipping, Tub-o-Flowers (seed) (Loved gift of Caroline)
1 Summer Squash - Shipping
2 Sunflower - Shipping, Dye Bundle
8 Tomato - Shipping, Summer Bundle, Bruschetta, Eggplant Parmesan, Fish Stew, Pizza, Spaghetti, Vegetable Medley
13 (16) Wheat - Shipping, Fodder Bundle (10), Beer shipping, Frog (seed)

Fall

3 Amaranth - Shipping, Marnie, Salmon Dinner
3 Artichoke (Year 2) - Shipping, Artichoke Dip, Super Meal
12 (16) Beet (Can only be bought from the Desert Oasis) - Shipping, Vegetable Medley, Mysterious Qi (10) (Loved gift for Evelyn)
2 Bok Choy - Shipping, Super Meal
1 Broccoli - Shipping
5 (lots) Cranberry - Shipping, Cranberry Candy, Cranberry Sauce, Stuffing, Super Meal. Best Fall money crop
4 Eggplant - Shipping, Fall Bundle, Eggplant Parmesan, Survival Burger
2 Fairy Rose - Shipping, Fairy Dust (buy more if you want to go heavy into bee houses)
2 (0) Grape (don't need to buy these as they're summer forageables) - Shipping, Summer Foraging Bundle
12 (lots) Pumpkin - Shipping, Fall Bundle, Quality Bundle (5), Caroline, Autumn's Bounty, Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Soup, Jack-o-Lantern
4 Yam - Shipping, Fall Bundle, Glazed Yams, Autumn's Bounty

Winter/Special

Most of these are foraged or from random drops or dig spots. Sweet Gem Berry seeds must be bought (as Rare Seeds) from the traveling merchant:

1 Powdermelon - Shipping
1 Ancient Fruit - Shipping
2 Cactus Fruit - Shipping, Exotic Foraging Bundle
1 Fiber - Shipping
2 Pineapple - Shipping, Tropical Curry
5 Taro Root - Shipping, Poi (4)
2 Sweet Gem Berry - Shipping, Secret Woods Statue
2 Tea Leaves - Shipping, Green Tea Shipping

Special order board requests with recipe rewards (Updates on Mondays)

Island Ingredients (28 days)
Harvest, then ship 100 of one of the following: Taro Root, Ginger, Pineapple
Crops must be harvested while quest is active. Ginger dropped by Tiger Slimes counts toward the total.
Reward: Solar Panel recipe

Cave Patrol (7 days)
Slay 50 of one of the following: Bats, Dust Sprites, Skeletons, Grubs (wait for the dust sprites version, or grubs - you'll get lots of bait from grubs)
Reward: Geode Crusher recipe

Aquatic Overpopulation (7 days)
Catch 10 of one type of fish listed (don't pick this request in fall or winter - midnight carp are only available from 10pm, and lingcod are awkward)
Reward: Farm Computer recipe

Biome Balance (7 days)
Catch 20 of one of the following fish listed
Reward: Farm Computer recipe

Fragments of The Past (7 days)
Collect 100 bone items - don't pick this until you've unlocked Ginger Island - there are copious amounts of bones at the dig site
Reward: Bone mill recipe

Community Cleanup (7 days)
Gather 20 trash items and dump them in a bin at the train platform - fish in your farm pond which is almost all trash (depending on the farm)
Reward: Fiber seeds recipe

Robin's Resource Rush (7 days)
Collect 1000 wood or stone - stone is much more difficult, so wait for the wood version)
Reward: Stone chest recipe

Juicy Bugs Wanted (7 days)
Collect 100 bug meat and dump in bin next to Willy's fish shop (regular mines, floors 10-29)
Reward: Quality bobber recipe

A Curious Substance (7 days)
Collect ectoplasm from a slain ghost (regular mines, floors 55-65)
Reward: Mini-Obelisk recipe

Prismatic Jelly (7days)
Collect prismatic jelly from a slime (regular mines, floor 5 - floor 5 only spawns two monsters: slimes and blue bugs, with a preference for slimes
Reward: Monster Musk recipe

Qi's Special Requests (Updates on Mondays)

There are 6 recipes you can only get from Qi's Walnut Room. You need these recipes for the craft every item part of perfection. They must be bought with Qi Gems, which are gained by completing various special requests for Mr. Qi. The recipes are:

Blue Grass Starter (40)
Deluxe Fertilizer (20)
Heavy Tapper (20)
Hopper (50)
Hyper Speed-Gro (30)
Magic Bait (20)

Some of the Qi Special Orders are way too grindy. The following requests can be cheesed with gold or staircases:

Skull Cavern Invasion
Skull Cavern has been invaded by powerful monsters. Make it to floor 100. (Can use staircases)
Time Limit: 7 days
Reward: 40 Qi Gems

Danger In The Deep
Make it to the bottom of the dangerous mines. (Can use staircases)
Time Limit: 7 days
Reward: 50 Qi Gems

Qi's Cuisine
Ship 100,000g worth of freshly cooked items. Only items cooked after accepting the special order count. These will be labeled 'fresh'. The easiest way is to buy 1667 wheat flour from Pierre and turn them into 1667 bread, shipping for 100,020g
Time Limit: 14 days
Reward: 25 Qi Gems

Qi's Hungry Challenge
Your task is to make it to level 100 in the Skull Cavern. However, you can't eat or drink anything while there. (Can use staircases)
Time Limit: 7 days
Reward: 25 Qi Gems

Qi's Prismatic Grange
Place 100 each of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple items into Qi's collection box. Best items: Red - Salmonberries, or Spaghetti from the saloon, Orange - Copper (buy from Clint if you don't have enough), Yellow - Sap, Green - Fiber (or Salad from Gus if you don't have enough fiber), Blue - Blueberries, or buy Joja Cola from the machine in the saloon, Purple - bug meat (not bait), or void essence (buy from Krobus if you don't have enough)
Time Limit: 14 days
Reward: 35 Qi Gems

The other notable request you definitely want to pick is Extended Family. This a 3 day quest which involves catching the 5 relatives of the original legendary fish: Ms Angler, Radioactive Carp, Glacierfish Jr., Son of Crimsonfish and Legend II. While this quest is active you may catch as many copies of these fish as you like. You want to fish up at least 6 Legend II fish at the mountain lake, then build a fish pond for each of them and give each a golden animal cracker if you can. When placed in a preserves jar Legend II roe sells for 7084 gold if you have the artisan profession

Other Requirements

1 Marble is needed to craft a marble brazier, and 1 dwarf gadget is needed to craft the farm computer, so if you find these items after you've already donated them to the museum put them aside

All 8 rarecrows are required in order to craft the Deluxe Scarecrow:

1 - Stardew Valley Fair for 800 star tokens
2 - Spirit's Eve festival for 5000g
3 - Desert Oasis casino for 10,000 Qi coins
4 - Festival of Ice for 5000g
5 - Flower Dance for 2500g
6 - Dwarf in the mines for 2500g
7 - Free when you donate 20 items to the museum
8 - Free when you donate 40 items to the museum


Recipes not unlocked by events:

Robin - Purchase all the recipes she has
Pierre - Tub-o-Flowers (1000g at the Flower Dance), Dehydrator (10,000g from his shop)
Gus - Triple Shot Espresso (5000g from the saloon)
Willie - Fish Smoker (10,000g from his shop)
Gus - Tropical Curry (2000g from the Ginger Island Resort)
Ginger Island Volcano Dwarf - Ginger Ale (1000g from the level 5 shop)
Ginger Island Trader - Banana Pudding (30 bone fragments)

Post-Perfection

There are several in-game achievements not required for Perfection. You will have most of them, but if you're missing any they are probably the following:

Polyculture

Ship 15 of each of the following crops for the Polyculture achievement:

Well Read - Read every book
Two Thumbs Up - See a movie (requires you to complete the Missing Bundle, after which the JojaMart site becomes a cinema)
Good Neighbors - Supply the raccoons in Cindersap Forest with everything they ask for until their family can grow no larger
Danger In The Deep - Reach the bottom of the 'dangerous mines'
Infinite Power - Obtain the most powerful weapon (upgrade your Galaxy Sword with a Galaxy Soul 3 times to make the Infinity Blade)