Stardew Valley Beginner Guide: First Week, Money & What to Do

Stardew Valley doesn’t teach you much — it just drops you on a farm and lets you figure out the rest. This guide covers what actually matters in the first two weeks so you skip the flailing phase.

What should you do on day 1?

Three things in order:

1. Plant the 15 parsnips Lewis gives you — they’re free money and they finish the first friend quest
2. Clear debris with the basic tools to free up field space
3. Walk into town and meet people — early villager introductions pay off in recipes and quests

By evening you’ll have watered everything and probably met a third of town. That’s a good day 1.

Where does the money come from?

Early game the answer is fishing and foraging, not farming — a parsnip only nets ~15g per tile over its 4 days. The actual early income spikes are:

• Fishing the mountain lake — 200–600g per day even on the bamboo rod
• Foraging spring onions, daffodils, and the beach tidepools after the bridge repair
• Selling the parsnips you grew from Lewis’s gift

The moment you can afford it, the single best purchase is the backpack upgrade — inventory is the early bottleneck, not energy.

What should you rush?

Roughly in order:

1. Fishing level 2 → Fiberglass Rod (bait = faster fishing)
2. Beach bridge repair → tide pools, better foraging
3. Community Center bundles — see the bundle checklist for the room-by-room unlock order
4. Copper tool upgrades at Clint’s — start with the watering can
5. First barn or coop — animals are the real mid-game income

What do new players waste time on?

• Trying to buy every Pierre seed — early farm plots are cash-flow negative
• Keeping the original watering can too long — energy is the real limit
• Gifting random items — the gift guide tier system means a wrong gift can cost you points
• Skipping the beach fishing — ocean fish pay better than river

What’s the first big goal?

The Egg Festival (Spring 13) is the first real money event — Strawberry seeds are 100g each and are the best Spring money-per-day crop (see the crop ranking). Then Community Center progress through summer and fall.

Frequently asked questions

Is it okay to fish instead of farm early? Yes — fishing out-earns farming until roughly mid-Summer. It’s the standard early-game route.

What should I sell and what should I keep? Sell most crops, keep one of each for the bundle museum. Never sell the first harvest of anything until you’ve checked if a bundle needs it.

When do I get a kitchen? The first farmhouse upgrade (10,000g + wood) adds a kitchen — before that you can’t cook, which gates a lot of late-game value.