This guide aims to fill you in on the basics while providing you with a bit of a cheat sheet. It'll (hopefully) teach you all you need to know to get the most out of your day without drowning you in information.

I've mixed in a lot of tips for all kinds of players; beginners, veterans, even enthusiasts. This means you might have a better time by simply skimming the underlined sentences, then reading what's below if anything catches your eye.

I've tried my best to keep this as spoiler-free as possible. I've even had friends comb over it to make sure. If you spot anything spoilery, however, then please let me know!

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions, or if you think there's something that should be added!

Please note that we're not adding bugs and exploits to the guide. It's impossible to guarantee their longevity and stability in the grand scheme of things. Sorry! Maybe someone should compile them into a handy guide? ;)

"My farmer keeps swinging in the wrong direction!"

"She keeps hitting the wrong block!"

"He's watering the tile I just watered and shimmied away from!"

Does this sounds like you?

Stop.

Look at your cursor. Chances are, it's near the your player avatar. Move it away. Now, when you re-adjust yourself, your character will stay facing the direction you stick them. They'll now correctly aim at the tile in front of them.

Why is this happening?

The cause is actually quite simple; there are two aiming mechanics.

One allows you to exercise precision in your strikes without fiddling with your position. This is triggered when your cursor is nearby to allow you to click on individual tiles and objects, as well as access tiles diagonally.

The other allows you to play much like you're playing with a gamepad controller-- and it is, in fact, the default control scheme when using one. This is activated when your cursor isn't within range of your farmer avatar.

This is the most basic tip; watch the television every morning.
You can select from a range of shows, each with its own unique purpose. It also has the added bonus of pausing reality around you. That's right-- you can read through the dialogue at your own pace.

Pressing E doesn't show just your inventory.
See those tabs running along the top of the inventory window? Click though them, get associated with what they show, and don't be afraid to take some time to check their stats every now-and-then. The clock's paused while you're in here anyway, so why not?

Clicking anywhere on the map dismisses it.
Now you don't have to fiddle about trying to press a tiny button to close it.

Avoid holding non-tool items when in town.
Villagers will automatically steal whatever you're holding if you speak to them and it's not a tool-- and they'll judge you for it to boot!

Hold a scythe during your downtime to prevent wasting energy!
Swinging your tools usually takes energy, regardless of what it actually achieved. The only exceptions are weapons and scythes.

Axes and picks can destroy crops and un-till soil.
Don't hold either of these while out in the fields.

Scythes don't destroy crops. Hold one while harvesting if you don't have an empty inventory slot.
Most crops don't react when slashed with a scythe. In fact, there are some kinds of crops that require the scythe to be harvested.

Using tools while the cursor is close to your character can cause you to face the wrong way.
You'll typically want to keep your cursor away from the middle of the screen unless you're placing or interacting with specific objects. You wouldn't want to accidently axe a crop or cast a fishing line inland thanks to an errant mouse.

Upgrade your tools whenever you can to make life better.
Take the tool in question, five bars of the next tier metal, and a pocket full of cash to the blacksmith to upgrade your hardware. Upgrading your pick and axe decreases the number of swings it takes to break down rocks and trees, and your hoe and watering can gain access to areas of effect when charged up for efficient farming. Your watering can will also be able to hold more water, which is super handy in the first few years until sprinklers take over. Buy your upgraded backpack from Pierre as soon as you can.

Upgrading tools takes two days, and you won't have a replacement while they're gone.
If you give the blacksmith your hoe on Monday, you can expect to get it back on Wednesday. Make sure you won't need it!

Build the stable as soon as you can, and build it close to your house with the front easily accessable.
Having a stable gives you a horse friend! Your valiant steed is much faster than walking, and has literally no upkeep. It'll even teleport home in the morning. This fantastic beast will shave hours off of travel time, making it even easier to get more out of your day and hit the shops before they close. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it. The stable costs 5 iron bars, 100 pieces of hardwood, 10,000g, and takes up a 4x2 space.

You can lose consciousness by either staying up too late, overexerting yourself or running out of health.
If you fall from tiredness, some kind soul will whisk you off to bed (after helping themselves to your wallet, of course). If you run out of health, however... don't expect a pleasant sight once you've been stitched back together. The loss of inventory can be utterly devastating.

Fish, crops and foraged goods can sometimes be of higher quality. These are denoted by a gold or silver star.
On one hand, these are more valuable than standard quality items. On the other hand, they take up an additional inventory slot.

Higher quality ingredients do not improve the quality of the end product.
If a process changes one or more item(s) into another, the quality of the former does not translate to the later. Selling higher quality would-be ingredients can be a good idea if their quality makes them more valuable than what they'd produce.

Try to keep a couple of everything you find.
The townsfolk can give you quests with strict deadlines. you don't want to be caught unawares when they want a particular crop at the very end of a season, or a fish that only comes out in the rain while you're stuck in a drought. The only exception is equipment.

Set aside a variety of NINE gold-star quality items for an event in Autumn.
You'll want to prove your worth for a small prize. These should be from a spread of activities.

See some stemworms? Hoe them for a chance at goodies.
These are denoted by three lines sticking out of the ground. Digging them with a hoe can reward you with artifacts, clay, edible roots or... rocks. Lots and lots of rock. Still! There are some thing you definitely want that make the effort worth it.

Keep a hold of trash and rubbish. You'll want to recycle it later.
Soggy newspaper? Broken glasses? Chunk of driftwood? All good. After leveling up your fishing, you'll learn how to make a recycling machine. This'll make your junk an invaluable source for more expensive to acquire materials like cloth and refined quartz.

Don't keep explosives in your hotbar while outside the mines.
Explosions can devastate your farm and home. You definitely don't want to accidently place a bomb next to your chests or furnaces.

Dialogue and cutscenes freeze time.
If it's not on the calendar, just walk into the right area at the right time and enjoy the show.

Festivals fast-forward time to night.
If it's on the calendar, you're going to lose your entire day once you enter the zone. Take the reins of your morning to water as much as you need to. The festivals usually have a broad starting time so check ahead and take whatever you can get.

If you're told to bring something for a cutscene (say, asked to bring a bass for dinner) and it's not in your journal, do not give the item to the organiser.
Just hold the item and enter the area at the requested time. Go through the door repeatedly if you have to.

If you want a cutscene to trigger, the required NPCs must be present.
Say, for example, Abigail asks you to meet her at her house after 20:00. Her schedule means she's often not there until after 21:00, at which point the door is locked. Unfortunately, you have to enter the house while she's inside, not merely be there when she enters.

Take your time!
People worry about an "evaluation" of their efforts. However, this can be repeated as many times as you like without penalty. It's impossible to lose this game, so don't worry; play at whatever pace you like!

Conveniently enough, all the television stations are directed at giving you farming advice. Either that or the previous owner was a notorious workaholic who only thought about his farming and tinkered with the dish.

Livin' Off the Land: (Mondays and Thursdays)
This will teach you the untold secrets of Stardew Valley, anything from basic tips about farming to the specific criteria of catching certain fish. It's only available on certain days so keep an eye out!

Weather Report: (Everyday)
Knowing whether or not it's rainning tomorrow can make a huge difference to your routine. Don't be caught off guard to capitalise.

Fortune Teller: (Everyday)
Luck dictates the frequency of ore and ladder spawns in the mines. Geodes are pre-seeded so don't worry about saving them up for a good day.

The Queen of Sauce: (Wednesdays and Sundays)
Watch on Sundays to learn a completely new recipe (if your friends haven't beaten her to it!), or on a Wednesday for a randomly-selected, previously-aired recipe. Wednesdays help catch you up on ones you missed, but it's potluck so don't count on it!

The bread and butter of the game; tilling the land and pulling flora-gold from the ground.

Till the land, plant your seeds, keep the soil watered every day, and you'll have your harvest. Rinse and repeat for your basic cashflow needs.

First and formost, don't scythe more grass than you need to.
This doesn't include the impassable shrubs called "creeping weed", kill those on sight. I'll get into why you want grass later in the Ranching section.

Charging your tools.
Once you've upgraded your tools, you'll notice some interesting effects-- especially in your hoe and watering can. With a copper or better farming tool, you can hold the tool while using it for a bigger area of effect. This can save time when used right, and upgrading the tools again and again will further increase the area to effect you can hoe/water when holding it for longer, but be warned. Each effective area it hits will consume an equal amount of energy (and water). It's your choice whether or not holding it for longer and longer is worth it in the later tiers.

Pay attention to the season listed on the tooltips of your seeds!
The crops will not live outside of the season specified; if it's a Spring crop, it'll die as soon as Summer rolls round.

The days taken to mature are listed in the tooltips too.
Remember that the season changes between the 28th and !st days of the month. Don't plant your plants too late, however--

Crops will not start growing until the day after they're planted, and dry soil will stunt their growth!
For example, turnips (which are listed to take 4 days), will take 5 days if you include the day of planting, and 6 days if you forget to water them once.

Plant a good variety of everything and save some for recipes, gifts and quests.
Flowers make good gifts (and bank), crops can be requested for quests, and there's an achievement for shipping one (and fifteen) of every producible item.

You don't need to water your crops on the 28th.
They're going to die tomorrow. You generally water crops when you want them to give you something later, and you can't get much later than the last day they're alive. Unless it's corn and you're going into Autumn, but your entire farm's not going to be just corn.

If you're going to upgrade your watering can outside of winter, do so on the 27th.
Water your crops on the 27th, give the blacksmith your watering can immediately, then pick it up again on the 1st. The crops will die anyway so there's no point to watering them on the 28th.

If you're going to plant crops that keep giving, do so at the beginning of each season.
Spring beans, hops, grapes, cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, corn and the like all give a constant stream of goods-- but they still need time to grow before they'll produce anything. Plant them as soon as possible to get the most bang for your buck.

Make plans for replanting your entire farm every season change.
The only exception to this is if you grow exclusively corn. But don't do that. Don't just grow corn. The world doesn't need more corn syrup.

Fertilisers wear out between seasons.
Don't bankrupt yourself if they're not going to earn their keep.

Spring brings mess.
You can expect to spend some time clearing your farm of weeds, branches and rocks.

Summer brings dry spells.
Don't expect to see much rain. Your pet's bowl will empty every night too.

Autumn doesn't bring much.
You'll make the most bang for your buck with cranberries though.

Winter brings death.
There's not much to do on your farm once winter rolls round, so it's the perfect time to do literally anything else. Plan out your farm afresh for spring, make some progress in the mines, level up your fishing, work on your relationships. This is also the best time to upgrade your farming tools.

You can plant trees for wood, but they need a tile of space in each of the eight directions; horizontally, vertically and diagonally.
They'll get stuck halfway between sapling and fully grown tree if they're too close to other objects. Paving and tilled soil count as an occupied space for some reason so don't try those in an attempt to stop creep weed.

When planting fruit trees, the eight tiles of space cannot overlap another fruit tree's tiles of space.
This effectively means fruit trees must be kept two tiles away from each other and any other kind of tree. Again, paths and tilled soil count as an occupied space.

Scythes can kill tree saplings!
Make sure you use an axe or a pick if creep weed encroaches on your budding trees.

Try not to overextend.
You can only water so many crops in a day without tiring yourself out and running out of hours. Don't worry though, it's not a major loss if you decide to ignore some of the outer reaches of your farm.

Get quality sprinklers or better when you can.
Setting these up will save you some time and energy so you can focus on other things, like putting down more spinklers. Sprinkle as much as you're comfortable tending.

Sprinklers only water tilled soil at the start of the day.
If you till the soil around a sprinkler, it's not going to be watered. Remember to water your crops the day of planting if the sprinklers haven't had a chance, else you'll lose a day of growing-- on some crops, that can extend the wait to harvest by 20%.

Notice a crop's disappeared with no warning? You need a scarecrow.
Crows reportedly become more frequent the more crops you plant. Make sure a scarecrow's nearby, else some of your produce (and the rest of the plant!) will disappear in the night.

Scarecrows are effective for a radius of eight tiles vertically and horizontally, but only six tiles diagonally.

This means the scarecrow protects an octogon and not a circle or a square. There's no shame in spamming scarecrows if you're unsure.

Paving prevents tilling.
All craftable paths count. This is especially helpful if you want to designate specific non-tilling zones or protect placed objects. Speaking of which--

Place scarecrows and sprinklers on crafted paths to avoid accidently breaking them while mass-farming.
It's easy to break these and forget about them while using the upgraded hoe so paved tiles add a nice little layer of security. They don't break-break, mind you, you can easily pick them up and replace them afterwards, but it's still a hassle.

Kill creeping weed to avoid damage to your farm.
Believe it or not, those little shrubs that block your path spread, and their advance can destroy paving, sprinklers and other things. This makes them a bit of an issue! Kill them on sight with your scythe. You can also use a pick or axe for precision you're a bit close to a sapling.

Lightning also damages your farm.
Piece of paving missing? No creep weed nearby? Storm last night? Probably lightning.

The seed maker has a very specific use and should not be used for singular-cycle crops.
It's the dream, right? Put in a crop, receive seeds. Infinite seeds, infinite money. Except it will only produce 1 to 3 seeds with anything you insert and it doesn't distinguish between what kind of crop it is. You could easily lose 90% of your harvest of, say, wheat in trying to sustain your cycle of crops this way. On the other hand, this makes berries and other reoccuring crops rather imbalanced, since they'd make more and more until you have entire fields filled with infinitely harvestable crops.

Otherwise known as dungeoneering, this is where you'll get your hands dirty. Well, dirtier than usual.

Plan your mining around the Fortune Teller's predictions.
You don't want to spend twenty years stuck on one floor with no loot to show for it thanks to bad luck.

Don't leave any ore behind.
Believe it or not, iron and copper become invaluable to your farming needs once you start pushing the later levels.

Kill everything.
The Adventurer's Guild has a vendetta against certain beasties, so much so that they'll reward you with powerful equipment for racking up certain numbers. You can check their bounties in their shack to the east of the mines.

You have to fight and mine to reveal the way to the next level.
Ever hit a floor and see nothing but a dead-end? Simply kill everything and start mining to proceed. Your fortune for the affects this so don't be surprised if you're stuck for a while on a bad day.

Ladders cannot spawn on soft ground.
If you can hoe it, you can't put a ladder on it.

Bombs make clearing large areas easier.
If you don't have the time or energy to clear out a dense cluster of rocks and boulders in your search for the way down, bombs will make short work of everything in your way. You'll even get all the stone, geodes and ore you would from ordinarily mining. You can craft these with raw ore once you level up your mining, or get them from random enemy drops. Be warned, however--

Explosions completely destroy "forageables".
Mushrooms, quartz, frozen tears, anything you can right-click to pick up will leave this earthly realm if hit by a bomb explosion. Make sure you grab what you want before bombing your way through.

Weapons come in three classes, each with their own special moves.
Right-clicking with a weapon activates its special skill. Swords block attacks and deliver handy counters, making dealing with zerging enemies much easier. Daggers strike three times in quick succession, provided you dare to get close enough. Clubs strike with massive knockback, clearing out some breathing room when swarmed.

Break crates and barrels with your weapon.
You may find wooden crates and barrels in your travels. These would normally take three pick or axe swings to break open. Not with a sword! In addition to saving you precious time and energy, weapons tick for hitbox collision the entire time they're out. One swing can instantly break containers if you're close enough.

Don't click-spam your weapon.
Swinging your sword will lock you in place for the duration of the animation. Accidently facing the wrong direction while clicking in a panic is an easy way to let your enemies swarm you.

Torches are a necessity in the absence of a glow ring.
Is the way dark? Drop a few and you might be surprised by what was waiting for you in the shadows.

Stockpile stone to make staircases when you lose patience.
Some folks make their own luck. After levelling up your mining, you'll eventually learn how to craft "staircases". They don't stack but the stone used to create them does.

Floor wall layouts are static.
Rooms will always be the same shape according to their floor number.

Rock, ore, crates, soil and enemies spawn (and respawn) upon entering a floor.
If you find floors that consistently give you the kinds of enemies and ores you want, you can simply take the elevator down, clear them, leave before you go too deep, and repeat.

When farming ores, it's best to find a set of five good floors and repeat those.
Ores, understandably, have a low spawn rate on floors instantly accessable via the elevator. This is why you pick five at a time. Take the elevator down, clear floors until you find the next elevator, take it back up, and again, repeat.

Whatever you do, do not collapse in the mines.
Nothing down here's your friend. You'll find your pockets significantly emptier than they would be had you taken a dive outside the entrance, sometimes robbing you of powerful, necessary equipment and tools.

The shack to the right of the mines will buy most equipment you find.
Weapons, boots, rings, even the drops from monsters fetch a nice price. This is especially helpful since you can't put many pieces of equipment in Lewis' sell-bin.

Visit the library in the SE of town whenever you discover any new minerals and/or artifacts.
You'll want to share new finds with your archaeologist friend. It can only lead to good things. Otherwise, you can sell them for petty cash.

You'll need wood. Lots of wood. Sometimes, you'll take more than you need. Sometimes, you'll underestimate the forces of nature and get overwhelmed. This is where we step in.

When cutting down a tree, keep chopping to break the stump.
Aside from granting extra wood when destroyed, stumps prevent future growth if left behind. Be a brainy beaver and clear out that mess!

Trees south of your fields grow back without being replanted.
Heading south of your farm will bring you to Cindersap Forest. This magical place houses a handle of townfolks folk and a thriving fishing spot. It's also full of trees, ripe for the logging! Don't be afraid to completely clear this place out-- it'll all come back within weeks if you remember to remove the stumps.

If in need, you can plant trees on your fields.
Make sure you leave plenty of space for them to grow. Refer to the Farming section for more details on planting restrictions.

You can also plant trees in specific spots throughout Stardew Valley.
So long as they're not in anyone's way, you can find spots here and there to leave your beloved saplings (just make sure they're not fruit trees you're trying to plant).

Set up tappers when you get the chance.
You'll learn how to craft tapper as you level-up your foraging. Tapping a variety of trees will occasionally grant you valuable syrups and resins, each necessary for crafting special items later on. Lacking these can act as a timegate if you're not quick enough in stockpiling.

You can raise animals! Despite everyone in the valley being pescetarium, you can score some fat stacks from produce like eggs, milk, feathers and the like.

Most important tip, build the silo first.
The game will tell you to build the coop first. Ignore this and go straight for the silo. The reason for this is your animals' need for hay to feed on. Build the coop without a silo and you'll be working at a loss of 50g per animal per day...and that's if Marnie actually works her shop, which she tends to not do.

Secondly, don't cut more grass than you have to before building the silo.
Once you have a silo, any grass you cut will automatically turn into hay for your animals. This eliminates any and all operating costs post-purchasing your loyal herds.

Silos are key to surviving Winter when grass stops growing.
Grass doesn't grow in Winter, so you'd best have a healthy stockpile of hay. Because of this, you should--

Build one silo for every eight animals.
Winter lasts for 28 days. A silo will hold 240 portions of hay. That's enough for eight and a half animals, and since no one's in the market for chicken tenders, we'll round it down. This means three silos will happily service two fully upgraded coops or barns.

Interact with any silo to see how much hay you have left.
The silos all show the combined total of any and all silos you have on your farm. Super handy if you need to space them apart for whatever reason.

Leave some grass to spread.
Grass grows more grass. It's like spread weed but faster, more helpful and less harmful. Leaving patches everywhere makes keeping animals sweet and dreamy.

Leave grass near the coops and barns.
Any day the animals eat the grass is a day you don't have to feed them, making winter much easier to prepare for. Fresh grass also helps build your relationship with your animals which leads to more eggs and milk. Careful, though-- your animals won't eat it if it's too far away. They're picky like that.

To feed your animals, interact with the hay-bin on the left of the feeding troughs, then lay it in the empty trough spaces. It's best to keep the trough topped up whever possible.
This is nice to do in case your animals can't find the grass outside, and it never goes off so there's no need to worry about wastage. ConcernedApe also went the extra mile and made it so you'll get the exact amount of hay needed to either feed all the animals occupying the barn/coop, or completely fill the trough. No need to keep clicking the hay-bin!

Cut any remaining grass at the end of Autumn.
It's all going to die anyway so best to make sure you have enough! Hay will stop appearing above your head when the silos are full.

Buy heaters for each barn and coop before Winter to keep your animals from getting grumpy.
You can buy radiators south of your farm from the rancher. One heater per building will do just fine. Place it anywhere you like. As always, do it in advance by a couple of days at least; your rancher friend prefers life on the range (and by that, I mean as far away from the till as she can get!).

Animals have their own relationship meters. Fill them up for better results!
Animals who love you are more likely to give more and better goods. You'll begin to notice large eggs, duck feathers, and the like. Anything with "large" in the name will give gold-star quality artisan goods when processed. In addition, animals gain more and more resale value the fuller their meters are.

You can fill their little herbivorous hearts with love through petting and letting them outside to eat grass. You can also lose points for starving them and letting bad weather in.

Pet your animals every day.
This is easiest when you've woken up in the morning before you let them out to feed. If you've left your barn and coop doors closed, they'll all be in one place, ripe and ready for petting. This'll make your animal friends happier (yay!) and improve the chances of them giving you more eggs and milk (double yay!).

You can't pet your animals while they're asleep.
They all tend to head to bed around 17:00-18:00. If you forget to pet them in the morning, this would be the perfect time to stand by the doors and pet them as they come in.

You can milk sleeping cows.
They don't mind. It's like tucking your kids in at night.

Open your barns and coops on clear days, close it for nights, rain and winter.
They can't eat the grass if they're trapped. They'll get mad if you let the cold and wet in though.

Leaving the doors open during the night hurts tomorrow's yield.
Ever wonder why your hardy, large-egg-laying horde of hens gave you these tiny egg pebbles after you left the door open one night? They were cold, my friend, cold and annoyed.

Do not close your doors at night if one of your animals is missing.
Every once in a blue moon, you'll check your coop and notice there's a chicken missing or something. Sometimes they fall asleep before they can get back in, sometimes they glitch out. Do not close the door. They WILL be VERY grumpy with you for shutting them out in the cold.

Use fences to make finding your animals less of a hassle if you leave the doors open at night.
Let's face it; we're all human. We'll forget to close that barn or coop door more than we'd like to admit (or we'll do it intentionally). Surround it in fences and you won't have to search twenty fields for wherever they've wandered off to when it's milking time.

If you fence your animals in, leave enough grass inside the walling to grow infinite feed.
Leave too little grass and your animals might finish off before it gets the chance to recover. And with Pierre marking it up to 100g a patch, it's not desirable.

To upgrade a building, talk to the carpenter, select the next tier of barn or coop, then select a building on your farm.
You don't have to demolish what you've already got to build a better version of it. I was confused by this too.

Upgraded buildings let your furry friends breed!
Is the rancher gouging your wallet? Worry no longer, for animals living inside upgraded barns and coops can enjoy the magical process of breeding!... just as long as there's room left, of course. Animals are conscious of the economic impact of overpopulation.

Barn animals breed asexually.
You don't need to do anything but feed them and leave room in your barn. No, there isn't any way to speed this up. Just play some Barry White when you go to bed and hope for the best.

Upgraded coops come with an incubator.
It looks like a wooden pole with straw poking out the top to the left of the hay bin. Pick up an egg, stick it the incubator. There's no difference between normal and large eggs in this case.

The incubator works with more interesting eggs.
It's worth experimenting!

Bees produce more valuable kinds of honey based on the flowers nearby.
As a farmer, you can grow flowers. And as a shrewed farmer, you can neglect to pluck them out of the earth. Which, as you probably already know, is counter-productive to the philosophy of taking things out of the dirt and shoving more seeds in until you're filthy rich.

Unless you've got a beehive or two.

Grow a flower to maturity in close proximity to a beehive and, once the bees are done producing delicious honey, it'll take on a new flavour. Do note that certain flowers, like sunflowers, have no effect.

This is quoted by ConcernedApe as being a challenging mechanic he's proud of. All I know is it's basically helicopter without the instadeath and I've played it to the point of developing carpal tunnel.

This fishing bar's affected by physics.
If you let go from too high up, it'll bounce along the bottom. If you let go on the way up, it'll slingshot upwards with the inertia. Keep the end position in mind when you're aiming to stop somewhere.

Use short, quick clicks to maintain height and soften movements.
Like helicopter, short click give small amount of upward thrust. Rapidly clicking sends the bar upwards without the slingshot effect, slowly clicking cushions a descent and prevents bouncing, and pacing clicks keeps the bar somewhat in place.

Aiming the bobber at unusual, hard to reach places can guarantee gold-star quality fish.
This is nigh-impossible when you're under-levelled since levelling increases your range, but this can score you some extra dough if you don't much care for cooking the fish. This is also how you find legendary fish.

Pressing E while reeling in will automatically snap the line.
You won't lose the tackle and bait, but you'll lose that fish. This is handy if you need to immediately drop the fish and pause the game. Otherwise, it's best avoided because--

Time freezes while you're reeling in...
I've seen some guides recommending giving up on difficult catches to save time, but let's be real here; how are you ever going to improve your reflexes and control if not with a hard won (or lost) fight?

... But not while you're waiting for a bite.
If you notice you're getting too many fights you simply can't win, just move to another biome. You could technically wait for another time since fish are sensitive to when you're fishing, but if you're like me then you won't appreciate just throwing away precious hours when you could be fishing even more.

Different fish become available based on where you're fishing, when you're fishing, what season it is, whether or not it's raining and the quality of your rod.
Livin' off the Land likes to drop infobombs on certain fish and their habits, but I find most of what I need save for a select few from levelling up my fishing.

Legendary fish exist, each with their specific conditions for being caught. They're impossible without being max-level, and using food and tackles.
They're denoted with a red spot on the fish icon when you're trying to reel one in. If you encounter one, just move. While I said you should fight hard fights, you're wasting too much time waiting for a bite for a legendary to ever be worth it. Note the conditions and come back next year.

Every once in a while, you'll see a red chest appear while reeling in a fish.
These can contain anything. Gems, bait, geodes, rings, weapons, artifacts-- you name it, you'll probably find it. These have their own fishing gauges so you'll need to reel them in seperately.

The red chest is lost if it isn't reeled in before the fish is in your hands.
You'll have to drop the attention of the fish to focus on the loot. Be careful, though--

Don't attempt to reel in treasure until it's safe!
The fish will still try to escape while you're hooking that sweet, sweet loot, and if you lose that fish, you'll also lose the treasure! Wait until the main fishing guage will allow you ample time and opportunity to reel in the treasure-- you'll get an instinctual grasp on this as you play.

You're able to buff up your fishing by buying the next tier of rod.
You're fairly limited with your bamboo rod, but a fibreglass rod allows you to use bait to dramatically cut waiting times for bite, and iridium rods have an additional slot for tackles.

To apply bait/tackle, open up the inventory, pick up the bait/tackle with left-click and right-click the rod with it.
Not quite explained by the game so there you go.

You can also remove the bait/tackle from your fishing pole by right-clicking it with an empty hand.
This is great if you want to save inventory space while also maintaining crab pots, or if you want to only use that special tackle every once in a while.

Tackles have little bars at the bottom of their icons to denote their "endurance".
This goes down every time you hook something, and once it's gone, the tackle disappears.

There's a tackle for every aspect of fishing.
From making fish bite faster to making the fishing bar bigger, slowing the escape of fish, spawning more treasure chests, disabling the bouncing physics of the fishing bar, there's one for everything you could think of. You can either buy or craft these once you level up your fishing skill.

Barbed hook tackles auto-fish for you.
They're prone to bugging out and completely ignoring the fish while reeling in though, so use at your own peril.

You'll unlock these as you level up your fishing. You'll find this an easy source of income and unique ingredients.

Interacting with an empty crab pot picks it up.
Nice and easy. You wouldn't want to smack it and see the water claim it, would you?

Holding bait while collecting from a crab pot restocks it.
Wait two ticks and you'll be good. Or even better--

Set up crab pots in a straight line for ridiculously quick emptying and baiting.
Hold the bait, find the sweet spot on one end, and just run. It's so satisfying. There are plenty of banks and docks to do this.

Just remember to watch out for NPCs.
You don't want to offend anyone with a paltry offering of soggy bug guts.

Catch results are decided by one thing; fresh or salt water?
There are different things to be caught with crab pots, so you'll probably want to switch their location at some point in your career.

The cash in your wallet isn't the only way to measure your progress! As time goes on, your little avatar will become better at the tasks you complete until they reach level 10. It's a very sweet deal that only gets sweeter.

Levels reduce energy costs, grant skill-specific crafting recipes and boost the quality of results.
If you're good at foraging, you'll notice your axe swings taking less energy and your forageables being of higher quality more regularly. You'll also learn how to craft seasonal seed packs and, eventually, totems that teleport you and save massive amounts of time.

With fishing, your casts will go further, you'll have less difficult reeling-in minigames, you'll learn to craft tackles and crab pots, and again, the energy costs go down.

Combat increases your HP pool and teaches you potion and ring crafting.

Mining lets you swing more for less energy and transmute copper and iron into iron and gold respectively. You'll even learn to make "staircases" that skip entire floors in the mines.

Farming lets you till and water the land more cheaply as well as teaching you to craft sprinklers, important fertilisers and ways of making "artisan" goods, straight upgrades to the raw goods you produce in terms of cash.

Harvesting crops levels up your farming, not watering, tilling or planting.
If you want to level up your farming on the fast track, hit up the bok choy, turnips and radishes until you ding all the way home. Buuut, you'll likely hit level 10 by the end of your second Spring anyway, and there's no rush so don't burn yourself out over it!

Mining rocks and ore veins levels up your mining.
This will go by much faster with a better pick.

Killing monsters gives you combat experience.
We still don't know if the strength of the monster affects the experience given, but my levels came fastest when repeating floors 20 to 60 in the mines with my overpowered equipment from later floors. Told ya copper and iron were valuable.

Successfully reeling in fish and emptying crab pots grants fishing levels.
Crab pots are the least effort in the end, but they carry a high initial material investment and offer very few experience points. Pick a spot you feel comfortable with the difficulty and bring in that fish money.

Chopping down trees and picking up forageables are combined in the foraging skill, and both contribute to it.
Again, the active task of chopping trees rewards more than the "passive" task of collecting what's there.

You can choose major perks at levels 5 and 10 of every skill.
These perks do things like make your life easier and/or make the goods you sell worth more. Make sure you know what path you want to go down, since--

The perks you pick at level 5 decide the perks available at level 10.
Let's say foraging offers you two perks at level 5, one that aids in lumberjacking and the other in gathering. If I pick the one that makes my wood worth more, the perks I see at level 10 will have to do with wood. Fishing has another example; you can focus on either angling or crab pots. Every skill-line does this, so think about what area the perk you choose will affect.

It's nice to think ahead, but don't worry if you make a mistake...
The world of Stardew Valley is rife with potential. Maybe you'll find a way to change those skill you picked right underneath your nose...? Ahem. Make the museum happy and you'll find the key to success.

There's a wonderful world of food out there just waiting for you to glut yourself on it. Flavoursome fried eel, crispy hash browns, tangy rhubard pie, tart apple crumble. But wait; Flavourtown, SDV has other treats in store.

Cooked food generally heals more health and energy than raw.
Why waste fifteen minutes shoving salmonberries down your throat when a blackberry cobbler or two will do the job?

More specialised foods grant temporary stat buffs!
If you need to get a job done, you need the right food. An army marches on its stomach, after all. Cooked foods come with a variety of stat buffs to make things a little bit easier.

Farming: Makes watering and tilling the land less energy intensive.
Foraging: Lowers the energy cost of lumberjacking and increaes the chance of foraging higher quality goods.
Mining: Swinging your pickaxe doesn't drain your energy pool as quickly.
Fishing: Casts go further, fish are easier to catch, and you spend less energy whilst casting.
Combat: Grants a little bit of extra health.
Max Energy: Bigger tanks (usually) have to refuel less.
Defence: You take less damage. No need for stitches if the cut never happened, am I right?
Speed: Run speed up! You'll want this when time is of the essence.
Luck: Increase the chance of goodthings coming your way. Especially useful in the mines!

You can buy specialised food from certain merchants.
For example, the fisherman will sell you broth to boost your fishing stat. Pay attention to the stocklists to know where you need to stock up.

Alternatively, you can make even better specialised foods once you have access to a kitchen.
Ingredients from all walks of life can contribute to amazingly useful recipes.

Food buffs last longer when applied earlier in the day.
Conversely, they don't apply at all if used very, very late at night. Don't be afraid to top up if you need to.

Booze applies speed debuffs.
Why are you even drinking during working hours?

Recipes can be learned from The Queen of Sauce and the post townsfolk send you.
Make friends and watch the television on Sundays to become a culinary master.

You can cook food that's in your fridge.
That ice box isn't for your finished dishes! Store ingredients in your friend and, if you don't have them in your backpack, they'll be used automatically when you cook.

Ignoring townspeople causes your relationship to decay.
Talk to everyone you can if you happen to see them on the way to wherever you're going.

You can give people two gifts a week each.
This resets every Sunday. Don't be surprised if you decide to make Sundays and Mondays your socialising days!

The relationship screen shows how many gifts you've given this week.
See those little boxes to the right of their relationship-meters? Those will show checkmarks for every gift you've passed them along, regardless of whether or not they liked them. Use this to stock your bags with presents before heading into town!

You can also give people a sneaky third gift if it's their birthday.
It's a secret to everyone.

The quality of the gift now influences the relationship points earned!
Sebastian really didn't care how nice that frozen tear was, only that you went out of your way to give him some... until a recent patch that upped the value of high-quality goods in the eyes of villager who appreciate them.

Gifts given on birthdays receive a multiplier on the relationship points gained and lost.
If you have nothing good to give and no time to find something, ignoring that person's birthday can sometimes be the best course of action because--

There is no penalty for not giving someone a present on their birthday.
It's better to play it safe if you have nothing they'll like or love.

Talking to people boosts your relationship slightly.
Once per day, each person you talk to likes you a little more.

One conversation outweighs ten days of neglect.
This makes it very easy to maintain relationships, even if you only speak to most people once a week.

Fruit from a tree is liked by everyone, hated by no one, and loved by only one.
If you have fruit trees, the fruits they drop make for excellent gifts while you're unsure of everyone's tastes. If you know what someone loves, though, you should definitely go with that.

Completing "Help Wanted" quests gives relationship points.
Get these done whenever you can for a helpful little boost. And just in case you were wondering, no, handing in requested items doesn't count towards your gift cap.

The saloon is a great place to visit each night to build your first few relationships.
Aside from the regulars you can always find there, quite a few of the townsfolk pick a night or two in their schedules to visit. The slow rate of decay can easily be negated by prodding these irregulars every week.

Friends can send you gifts and recipes through the postal system.
It pays to be social.

If you want a cutscene to trigger, the required NPCs must be present.
Say, for example, Abigail asks you to meet her at her house after 20:00. Her schedule means she's often not there until after 21:00, at which point the door is locked. Unfortunately, you have to enter the house while she's inside, not merely be there when she enters.

Winter halts some relationship-triggered cutscenes.
Several NPCs won't let you see their cutscenes during Winter. Don't panic, just wait for Spring, follow them about their day, or check the wiki.

"Singles" must be given a bouquet to advance their relationships beyond eight hearts.
This is a soft-cap, meaning there are ways to advance to 10 hearts with the bouquet, but we're still figuring these things out. Anything else I could say here would be conjecture at best. Sorry!

There is currently no penalty to giving multiple people bouquets.
Give your boyfriend a bouquet. Give your friends a bouquet. Give your parents a bouquet. Give your cat a bouquet. We're a very close community here in Pelican Town.

Disclaimer: Please do not give your pets bouquets. Some are liable to be offended/poisoned.

... However, 1.3 DID bring about the end of the ultimate player.
Romance everyone at your own peril. Not even Casanova could escape this fate without a lucky rabbit's foot and some quality foresight.

Got friends? Give the gift of zen farming and play together!

Connect however you want; both online play and LAN setups work.
Online play is as easy as inviting your friends and sending them the game code from the ingame menus.

Stardew Valley multiplayer requires multiple computers.
Sorry. Local play isn't that local. Link your computers up with ethernet cables and you should be good.

You can set a sell price handicap during save file creation.
More players can mean more money. Utilise this handicap if you want to balance the odds a little.

Cabins act as player profiles.
Everyone will have their own cabin, save for the host. They'll live in my favourite pizza.

That's... that's the farmhouse.

The farmhouse is the name of a type of pizza, and it's also...

Moving on.

Players can use the dresser in an offline player's cabin to access their inventories.
Someone forgot to plant their pumpkin seeds before logging off? No problem, just go rooting through their stuff. Anyone can do this, even non-host players, so trust is a must.

Unfortunately, dressers have been removed from the vanilla experience. You'll probably have to go hunting for mods if you want them back.

Cabins can be made through two methods: First, you can create them in the menu when making a new farm.
It's free, convenient, and you don't have to worry about where you're placing them.

Or, the second option is to have Robin build them for you.
This requires a nominal fee and some building materials dependent on the style of cabin, but you can place where they're built from the get-go.

Too many cabins? Put them in the wrong place? Robin will be all too happy to move or demolish existing cabins.
Mistakes aren't permanent. People can drop out and be replaced with ease.

Deleting a player's cabin will also delete that player.
No, not in real life. That would be illegal. Since cabins act as a player's slot and profile, by extension, deleting a cabin deletes said player's data.

There cannot be more than three cabins on any given farm.
That means you can only have four players on your farm at any given time, including the host in the pizza farmhouse.

... That is, there can only be four players if you're playing without mods.

The host must load and run the save file for other people to play.
Picking the host isn't just a case of who has the best internet connection-- who's the most available is also a huge factor.

All players must be present for festivals to take place.
All too often, players forget this. Time doesn't freeze when you're waiting, either, so if Billy's down the well mine and you've only got ten minutes left on the clock before you miss it, then sorry, you're not attending the flower dance.

Only the host can start the big event during a festival.
No need to worry if you have a new player with you who might accidentally trigger the ice fishing contest. Everyone will have plenty of time to talk to all the villagers if your host is patient.

All players must be in bed to end the day before 2am.
YOU HEAR THAT, BILLY? YOU CAN SPELUNK TOMORROW. GET OUT OF THE DAMN MINES, YOU T

All players will automatically pass out at 2am still.
So go to bed.

Laying in bed replenishes your stamina.
Did you run out of energy tilling the soil? Are heavy fish tiring you out? Is a certain someone still refusing to get out of the mines? Have no fear, just hop into bed and enjoy this multiplayer-only advantage. The day won't end until everyone's in bed, so you're perfectly safe to abuse it. You can even benefit from the bed if you want to grab a drink without inconveniencing your friends with an unfortunate passing out.

Money is shared between everyone...
Be considerate when it comes to purchasing tool and backpack upgrades. This also means passing out outside negatively affects everyone.

That's right. It means you should GET OUT OF THE MINES, BILLY, YOU LACKIDAISICAL C

... Unless the host decides otherwise.
When creating the save file, the host can now decide if we're proud communists or filthy capitalists. That means that you can no longer pool your resources for upgrades, like the Joja route, repairing the bus, or accelerating high-tier tools for one player for speedrunning the mines.

At least Billy won't be a worthless drag on your finances this way, that selfish g

Thanks for reading this far! I hope what you've read here has made your time in Stardew Valley a little easier-- but most of all, I hope you'll pass on what you've learned to your friends. Discussion is the lifeblood of popular media after all.

Feel free to add your thoughts or ask questions in the comments!

v.6.2 (27/06/23): Fixed a typo, and updated the Multiplayer section. I can't believe how many years it's been already. Thank you for using this guide, giving it a thumbs up, and all the love in the comments! <3
v.6.1 (15/03/19): Added a tip to Skills and Cooking sections.
v.6.0 (13/09/18): Added a Multiplayer section. Also updated the guide slightly to account for changes in the lastest SDV update.
v.5.0 (14/10/16): Added a very important section up top to prevent frustration. Also updated the guide slightly to account for changes in the lastest SDV update.
v.4.0 (27/03/16): Added tips here and there, introduced the Food section. We're very close to finishing.
v.3.0 (26/03/16): Added tips to Mining, began Forestry section.
v.2.2 (24/03/16): Language clean up, added breeding to Ranching. We hit 5 stars! Thank you all so much! <3
v.2.1 (21/03/16): Added some more tips to Relationships, Ranching and General. Thanks for helping with your questions-- we'll make this comprehensive soon enough!
v.2.0 (20/03/16): Added Crabbing, ironed out some language.
v.1.1 (17/03/16): General housekeeping and polish, additions to Fishing and Ranching. Thank you all for the four star rating!
v.1.0 (16/03/16): Added in the leveling section, fleshed out the fishing and farming parts. Thanks for the kind comments!
v.0.0 (15/03/16): Published!