Stardew Valley — Achievement Walkthrough

Cumulative gold-earned tracker. Sell crops, foraged items, or fish in the shipping bin. 15,000g is roughly one full season of basic farming. You'll hit this naturally before the end of spring.

Each unique species counts once. Sardine, Sunfish, Anchovy, Bream, Carp, Catfish... fish in different biomes (river, ocean, lake, mountain) to vary your catches.

Sell crops, foraged items, monster drops, animals products. Mixed-farming summer (strawberries → blueberries → starfruit chain) hits this around mid-summer.

Just fish. Cumulative across all species. Sit at the river/dock in any season for an hour of game time and you'll have 5-10 catches. 100 takes 10-20 fishing sessions of normal play.

Halfway to the museum-complete count (95 total). Donate every unique artifact and mineral you find. Hardest 40 items: tier-1 Iridium minerals, niche Artifacts (Trilobite, Anchor).

Fall year 1 with starfruit / pumpkins gets you here. Ancient Fruit + Sweet Gem Berry crops once unlocked accelerate hugely. Don't sell raw — turn into Artisan goods (wine, cheese) for 2-3x prices.

## The 120-floor mines
Elevator levels every 5 floors. Reach the bottom by mining + descending ladders/holes.

## Strategy
- Bring Spicy Eel meals (sea cucumber + hot pepper) for speed + luck
- Iridium Tools by floor 80
- Bombs for fast staircase generation

Floor 120 has a chest with a Stardrop. Achievement pops on reaching the chest room.

Visit Robin's carpentry. House upgrade 1 costs 10,000g + 450 Wood. Takes 3 in-game days to complete. Adds a kitchen so you can cook.

Diversify by season and weather. Lots of fish are season-locked or weather-locked (Lava Eel in the volcano, Catfish only in rain).

Skills are Farming, Fishing, Foraging, Mining, Combat. Each levels by doing related actions. Fishing levels fastest if you spam-catch perfect-quality fish; Foraging levels naturally if you collect daily.

Level 10 typically reached by end of year 1 in your specialty.

Pick someone — Penny and Caroline are easy early targets. Give them their loved gifts twice per week (max 2 per villager per week). 5 hearts ≈ 30-40 successful gifts.

Fastest: target a marriage candidate AND give them daffodils (universal liked) when you can't get loved gifts.

Earn crafting recipes by leveling skills, reading books, mail. Craft each once. Wooden Fence + Torch + Sprinkler + Tapper... 15 is the easy threshold.

Pick a high-volume crop — Potatoes, Cauliflower, Strawberry, Hops. Plant a huge field. Ship 300 in a single season. Strawberry and Hops are the classic picks because they re-harvest.

## Fastest paths
- Ancient Fruit Wine — Ancient Fruit seeds in greenhouse → wine in kegs → age in casks. ~1100g per cask cycle
- Starfruit Wine — summer 28-day cycle, similar economics
- Sweet Gem Berries — 3000g each raw, no processing needed

Million-gold farms run dozens of Iridium-quality crops through artisan equipment. Plan kegs early.

10 hearts requires giving loved gifts consistently AND triggering all the character's heart events. Heart events trigger at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 — visit the right location/time to see each.

Marriage candidates require a Bouquet at 8 hearts before they'll reach 10.

Non-romance NPCs hit 10 just via gifts + heart events.

Check the board outside Pierre's daily. Quests appear: fetch a fish, gather a mineral, deliver a crop. Each completed quest counts. 10 quests = 1-2 weeks of normal town visits.

4 simultaneous 5-heart bars. About 80-100 gifts total. Pick 4 villagers and rotate gifts weekly. Easy by fall of year 1.

Three upgrades total at Robin's:
- Tier 1: 10k g + 450 Wood — adds kitchen
- Tier 2: 50k g + 150 Hardwood — adds children's rooms, bigger upstairs
- Tier 3: 100k g — adds the cellar (for casks)

Tier 3 is the one you actually want — cellar unlocks artisan aging.

Level all skills to ~5 each to unlock more recipes. Quality sprinkler, Crystalarium, Keg, Mayonnaise Machine, etc.

## What's needed
Complete all bundles in the Community Center. Each room has multiple bundles; each bundle needs specific items.

## The bundles
- Pantry — seasonal crops, animal products, artisan goods
- Crafts Room — wood, stone, foraged items
- Fish Tank — fish from every season + biome
- Boiler Room — minerals, monster drops, etc.
- Bulletin Board — gifts to specific villagers + completed dishes
- Vault — money (~25k-2.5m total)

The last room (Vault) just consumes money; everything else needs items. Use the wiki to plan crops by season. Achievement pops on final bundle completion.

10 villagers at 5 hearts. ~200-250 successful gifts. Rotate through the village; carry universal-liked gifts (Daffodils, Maple Syrup) for anyone whose loves you can't get.

## The grange
Fall 16 fair. Bring 9 items for the grange display. Score is based on item quality + variety across 5 categories (animal products, fruits/veggies, foraged, fish, minerals/artifacts).

## Best 9-item lineup
- 2× Iridium animal products (Truffle Oil, Cheese, etc.)
- 2× Iridium crops (Starfruit, Ancient Fruit)
- 2× Iridium foraged items (Cactus Fruit, Pomegranate)
- 1× Legendary fish or rare fish
- 2× Iridium minerals or gems

You'll score ~90+ with this lineup. Mayor's at ~88 max.

All 5 skills × level 10. Each skill is independent. Hardest two:

• Combat 10 — needs many monster kills. Stay in Skull Cavern for late-game monsters; bombs accelerate.
• Foraging 10 — chop trees, gather forage. Time-investment heavy.

Master all five by year 3 with focused play; year 2 if you optimise.

## How to unlock
1. Complete the Community Center OR Joja Mart projects
2. Repair Willy's boat at his shop (5 Hardwood + 5 Iridium + 200 Cinder Shards... wait, Cinder Shards come later. Easier: 5 Hardwood + 5 Iridium Bar + 5 Battery Pack)
3. Pay Willy to take you to Ginger Island (1000g per trip after first)

Ginger Island is the late-game zone with Mr. Qi, the Volcano, parrot puzzles, and Golden Walnut hunts. Achievement pops on first arrival.

Go here ASAP after Community Center — Ginger Island unlocks the best progression items in the game.

20 villagers × 5 hearts ≈ 500+ gifts. Stardew Valley has 28 giftable NPCs total, so this means roughly 70% of the town.

Pace 5-6 gifts per day. Use the birthday system — gifting on a birthday gives 8x friendship, accelerating progress massively.

8 simultaneous 10-heart friendships requires giving gifts to 8+ people consistently. Don't lock into just bachelor/ettes; the Old Farmers and shop NPCs (Caroline, Robin, etc.) are easier 10-heart targets because they have no romance gating.

Keep a weekly schedule: 16 gifts per week (2 each × 8 people).

Get the kitchen via house upgrade 1 (10,000g + 450 wood from Robin). Unlock recipes via TV, gifts, friendship events, mailbox. Cook 10 unique recipes once each. Fried Egg (free recipe) counts.

Bring an item to put in the Luau Soup. Iridium-quality crops, Iridium animal products, or rare items (Lobster, Sturgeon) make him love the soup.

Best picks: Iridium-quality Starfruit, Sweet Gem Berry, Lobster (sashimi-cooked), Truffle.

If the Governor says 'I have to be honest, the soup was disgusting' — that's a fail. Save before adding ingredient if uncertain.

Cumulative count. Most requests reward 150-500g + friendship. Keep checking the board daily.

Hidden achievement. 10 million gold cumulative is the longest-tail money goal. Requires:

• Full greenhouse Ancient Fruit wine cycles, every season
• Sheds of kegs going year-round
• Ginger Island farm with banana / mango processing
• Sell Iridium-quality artisan goods only

Most players take 50-100 in-game years (real-time hours) to reach this. The 'Legend' name is fitting.

Unlock the Movie Theater by completing the Community Center (Local Legend path) OR by paying Joja for it (Joja path). After unlock, buy a ticket at the Theater and watch any movie.

Movies cycle weekly. Different movies have different snack-themed achievement variants (none of which are this one).

## The Infinity Blade
The Galaxy Sword (from the Three Pillars on the Calico Desert with a Prismatic Shard) can be upgraded:

1. Galaxy → Galaxy + 1 Cinder Shard = level up
2. Eventually upgrade to Infinity Blade via Forge on Ginger Island + 60 Cinder Shards + 1 Galaxy Soul (extremely rare drop)

Galaxy Souls drop from completing Mr. Qi's Volcano challenges. Takes 5-10 full Volcano runs to farm enough.

The Infinity Blade is the strongest weapon in the game.

## Steps
1. Reach 8 hearts with a marriage candidate, give a Bouquet to start dating
2. Reach 10 hearts, propose with a Mermaid's Pendant (Old Mariner sells one on a rainy day for 5000g)
3. After marriage, after a few weeks, a child question event triggers (kid 1)
4. Wait again, second child question (kid 2)

Kids take ~14 in-game days to be born after the question event. Two kids = ~1-2 in-game years post-marriage.

## What's needed
42 Artifacts + 53 Minerals = 95 unique donations.

## Hardest items
- Dinosaur Egg — drops from prehistoric forage or dinosaur incubator
- Ancient Seed (the artifact form, not the seed) — rare drop from Bug Lairs
- Mummified Frog / Bat — rare from Skull Cavern
- Iridium-tier Minerals — Ruby, Diamond, Iridium Ore via Geodes

Don't sell raw artifacts or minerals — donate first, sell duplicates after. Carry an artifact-detector or two.

Collect recipes through friendship, the Queen of Sauce TV show (Sundays), and skill-up rewards. By the end of year 1 you'll have 30+ recipe options if you watch TV consistently.

## The villain path
This is the 'corporate' alternative to Local Legend. Buy a Joja Membership from Morris (5000g, year 1). The Community Center disappears; in its place, you fund Community Development projects via Joja Mart.

## Projects
Each project costs 5k-100k gold. Total: ~165,000g.

• Bus repair
• Greenhouse access
• Glittering Boulder removal
• Bridge repair
• Movie Theater (alternative path)

After funding all: Joja Warehouse becomes a permanent fixture (you can buy stuff there for the rest of the game). Achievement pops on the final purchase.

## You can't do both
Local Legend AND Joja Member are mutually exclusive per save. Need two saves or two playthroughs.

## What is the Dangerous Mode
After completing certain Mr. Qi quests on Ginger Island, you unlock a 'dangerous' version of the regular mines. Monsters hit harder, faster, more numerous.

## Strategy
- Galaxy Sword minimum, ideally Infinity Blade (post-Iridium Bat upgrade)
- Bring Spicy Eels for buff
- Bombs for emergency clearing
- Magnet Ring + Iridium Bands for stat boosts

Floor 100 chest has a Stardrop. The achievement triggers on reaching it.

## All-fish list
55+ regular fish + Legendary fish + Ginger Island fish + Night Market fish.

## Hardest fish
- Legendaries (Crimsonfish, Glacierfish, Legend, Mutant Carp, Angler) — one-shot per save, specific weather and seasons
- Crab Pot fish (Lobster, Crab, Shrimp) — count for this too; use Crab Pots in different water types
- Submarine fish (Spook Fish, Midnight Squid, Blobfish) — only at the Submarine on Wednesday in winter at Night Market

Level Fishing to 10 + use a high-quality rod. Bring Trap Bobber + Magnet for Legendaries.

## All Stardrop locations
1. Mines floor 100 chest
2. Community Center / Joja completion reward
3. Fair (purchasable with 2000 Star Tokens)
4. Old Master Cannoli statue in Secret Woods (give him a Sweet Gem Berry)
5. Spouse 13-heart event
6. Master Angler reward (Willy 10-heart)
7. Tunnel Lewis chest (mountain area, late game)

Each Stardrop permanently boosts max energy. The achievement requires all 7 across your save.

## What it requires
Kill the assigned number of each monster type. Marlon (Adventure Guild) tracks the count. Goals include:
- 150 Slimes
- 50 Skeletons
- 250 Dust Sprites
- 50 Rock Crabs
- ... etc.

## Most-grinding goals
- Slimes (200+) — fastest in Slime Hutch or skull cavern
- Bugs (125) — Mines floors 70-79
- Dust Sprites (500) — Mines floors 40-79 in deep dive sessions

Kill counts pool from previous saves only if you load the same save. Hardcore players keep slime hutches for the kill count.

## The scope
~150 shippable items. Includes every crop, every forage item, every fish, every artisan good (mead, oils, dyes), every monster drop.

## Tracking
The collection menu (right side of inventory) shows progress. Tap each shippable item once it appears.

## Hardest
- Truffles (require pig in pasture)
- Wine + Cheese for every type (need every base item first)
- Forage items from Night Market / Ginger Island

Follow a wiki checklist or you'll miss 2-3 obscure items.

Friendship arcs with the 'outsider' NPCs of Cindersap Forest. Linus, Leah, and Marlon-adjacent NPCs have personal questlines that the achievement tracks. Complete each NPC's 14-heart event to fully resolve.

Note: 1.6 patch added clarification on which NPCs count. Generally — give Nectars/Bouquets and watch the heart events trigger.

Every regular crop counts. Hop, Coffee Bean, Strawberry, etc. — including niche ones like Cactus Fruit (only via mailman event) and Ancient Fruit. The crops requiring deep progression slow this down.

## Where books come from
Books are rare drops from monsters and chests, plus a few from specific NPCs. As of Stardew 1.6:

• Power Books — permanent stat boosts (Magic Boost, Combat Boost, etc.)
• Lost Books — old library lore; spawn from Artifact Spots
• Skill Books — boost specific skills

Keep an Artifact Trove for Lost Book spawning. Read each book once (right-click). Achievement pops on the last unique book read.

## The list
80+ recipes across Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter Queen-of-Sauce broadcasts, friendship events, skill-ups, and special unlocks.

## Hardest recipes
- Recipes from rare TV broadcasts — some only air once per in-game year on specific dates
- Fish Stew — requires 10-heart friendship with Willy
- Magic Rock Candy / Hardy Recipe — late-game ingredients

Keep a checklist. The community wiki has a tracker.

## The list
140+ recipes total. Hard ones include:
- Skull Cavern recipes (Mega Bomb, Iridium-tier sprinklers)
- Wedding / kid recipes (Maple Bar, Pink Cake)
- Year-2+ unlock recipes (Hopper, Solar Panel)
- Master Angler recipes from level 10 Fishing

Keep a wiki checklist. Some recipes only unlock after specific in-game events; don't ignore the TV broadcasts.

## What perfection requires
Mr. Qi will recognise you as having achieved Perfection when you have:

• All 47 base achievements (yes including Legend at 10M gold)
• All Stardrops (7)
• Maxed friendship with all marriage candidates AND every villager
• Catch every fish + every legendary + Master Angler
• Cook every recipe + Craft every item + Ship every item
• Find every Walnut on Ginger Island (130 total)
• Complete all Monster Slayer goals
• Reach Skull Cavern level 100
• Beat Prairie King + Junimo Kart
• All Stardew Hero Statue + every other obscure tracker

## How long
Even optimised, perfection takes 100-150 hours of focused play after year 1 fundamentals. Casual players take 200-300 hours.

The Perfection 'cutscene' is one of the game's most-loved moments.

Found at the Stardrop Saloon arcade machine. Old-school top-down shooter. Has 12 levels.

Tips:
- Save upgrade tokens for the multi-shot weapon
- Bomb on every wave 5+ enemies on screen
- Save coffee for the final boss (instakill resistance)

The minigame is genuinely hard. Some players take 5+ in-game days of practice. The achievement pops on first credits roll.

Hidden achievement. The hardest non-Perfection challenge in the game. Beat all 12 levels of Prairie King in ONE life — no deaths.

## Strategy
- Master each level's enemy patterns first
- Save bombs for true emergencies (bosses, locked rooms)
- The coffee buff is critical for the dragon boss
- Practice level 9-11 specifically; those are the killers

Most completers spend 10-20 hours of pure Prairie King practice. There's no shortcut — pattern memory wins it.