Stardew Valley is a game in which the player controls a character who recently inherited a farm from their grandfather. The character chooses to leave behind the big city and their former life in favor of moving to the farm and taking care of it. The player grows crops, tends to animals, and develops relationships with the people living in nearby Pelican Town. The game goes through seasons that each have 28 days and each has different events, crops, and other seasonal variations.
Stardew Valley: Things You Have To Do Your First Year
Stardew Valley is an awesome game that runs in a seasonal format - here's what players should do in their first year.
Anyone familiar with Stardew Valley will know the fact that during the wintertime there's not a lot to do. Crops don't grow during the winter, so players can't step outside and farm, and so it's a season that a lot of people tend to struggle with as far as maximizing what they can do. Thankfully, there are a lot of things that users can do during the winter that will set their farm up for a profitable and smooth spring after the snow melts.
Updated April 28, 2025, by Usama Ali: Players always have plenty to do in Stardew Valley, but the scarcity of winter crops means finding engaging activities during the coldest season requires more creativity. Thankfully, developer ConcernedApe has added a bunch of content in the 1.6 update, including a unique winter crop that can now be cultivated outdoors. This opens up new farming opportunities in the winter. This list has now been updated with even more tips for players looking to make the most of their time during the game's coldest month.
28 Don't Skip Winter Days
Make the Most of It
- Seize every day to make the most of winter
It might be tempting to skip through some of the winter days in Stardew Valley by simply going back to bed after waking up. Doing this becomes increasingly tempting as the season progresses because it gets players closer to spring.
It can be tough to deal with the ongoing snow and lack of things to do, but the best way to maximize the winter season is to make the most of every day it brings. So, when gamers feel the urge to interact with their bed early on in the day, they need to try their hardest to get their character out of the house and proceed by following some of the other tips mentioned on this list.
27 Get Ready Before Winter Actually Starts
Prep Beforehand
- Start planning for the winter season before the end of Fall
In Stardew Valley, there are plenty of ways to get ready for the next season before it starts - and it can be as simple as checking the weather on the last day of fall to know what to expect from the first day of winter.
To make sure they're ready, gamers can, for example, stock up on money so they can pay for any services they might need, stock up on meals so they can simply go down to the mines as soon as they wake up, and stock up on bait to make fishing easier.
26 Collect Walnuts On Ginger Island
Trade for Rewards
- Try to find as many of the 130 walnuts as possible
With time on their hands due to the lack of crops, players might want to focus on collecting all the walnuts on Ginger Island. Collecting walnuts allows the player to trade with the Ginger Island parrots for a number of rewards.
One hundred and sixteen total walnuts are needed to unlock every reward, though there are a hundred and thirty available, allowing for some leeway when dealing with harder walnuts. Once 100 walnuts have been reached, the player will unlock Qi's room, which allows completionists to keep a closer tab on their save file and net even more rewards for doing so.
25 Maintain A Ginger Island Farm
Farm All Year Around
- Focus on the Ginger Island farm to keep being productive
The great thing about Ginger Island is that the seasons don't change - so there's no winter to mess up the player's crops. This means the crops that can be planted on the Ginger Island farm can be planted all year long!
Winter is a great time to focus on this farm, or even to build one that can yield handsome profits at any time of the year. Another perk of Ginger Island? Crows don't appear! There's no need to waste tile space with Scarecrows and worry that crows might sneak into the uncovered gaps.
24 Experiment With Mods
Try Out Community Mods
- Visit the NexusMods platform and take this opportunity to add all sorts of mods to the game
While this is a more general tip for maximizing profit in Stardew Valley, the flexibility of winter - from not having crops to take care of - is a great time to start experimenting with mods. If something goes wrong with a time-skipping mod, for example, there's less chance of ruining a batch of crops by speeding through another season.
Stardew Valley has a thriving modding community. If there's something a player needs, it's likely they'll find it on NexusMods, a platform that hosts thousands of mods that can be downloaded for free.
23 Prepare the Farm for Spring
Think Ahead to Maximize Future Profits
- Rethink your farm layout and modify it without worrying about having to get rid of any growing crops
One of the best ways to make use of the lack of harvesting time in the winter is to prepare the farm's layout for spring. Over the year, players might find that their plots are in the way of other possible developments, their animals need more room, or that their farm's overall layout and speed of travel throughout is less efficient than it could be.
Winter is the perfect time to re-plan the farm's layout because nothing can grow anyway. Using fences to mark the corners of future plots is a great way to get a head start on spring planning, for example. A farmer's hoed tiles won't remain hoed as winter turns to spring, but there are lots of ways to plan a new layout without actually tilling any of the lands.
22 Complete Special Orders
Complete Side Quests
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- Make use of your free time to work on harder tasks, such as Special Orders
Special Orders are a more recently added feature in Stardew Valley, thanks to the release of update 1.5. They are functionally similar to the Help notices outside of Pierre's shop but designed to take much longer to complete. The challenges in winter tend to be oriented around tasks that can be accomplished without farming, like killing slimes in the mine or donating wood and other supplies to Robin.
When the player completes a Special Order they are given a special reward that, more often than not, is super helpful for future farmwork. By completing Willy's bug meat Special Order, for example, the player gets a 
Quality Bobber, 5,000 gold, and a special cutscene. By completing Gus' egg Special Order, the player gets a mini-fridge and 3,000 gold.
21 Decorate Your Farm
Pay Special Attention to How Your Farm and Home Look
- Build fences, paths, and place decorations
Since gamers will undoubtely have some free time during the winter in Stardew Valley, they should take this opportunity to craft or purchase some decorative items and place them wherever they find aesthetically pleasing.
This way, once the snow melts away, they can take in what they've created and wander around a beautiful farm come spring.
20 Grow Powdermelons
The Best Winter Crop
The 1.6 update to Stardew Valley introduced a new Winter crop: the 
Powdermelon. Unlike many other crops that lie dormant during the colder months, the Powdermelon thrives in the snow and ice of winter, presenting players with new opportunities to maintain farm productivity and income throughout the year.
Powdermelon Seeds are not available at Pierre’s Store, JojaMart, or the Traveling Cart in Stardew Valley. Instead, players can get them by trading 2 Pine Cones at the Raccoon Wife’s Shop. This is the most reliable method to get Powdermelon Seeds. Other methods include digging up Seed spots, completing Raccoon requests, catching Golden Fishing Treasure Chests, and using the Seed Maker. Iridium Golems also have a 50% chance of dropping these seeds when slain during Winter.
Once players have the Powdermelon Seeds, they can plant Powdermelons all throughout Winter. The growth cycle for Powdermelons is a relatively short 7 days. Powdermelons are one of the few crops in Stardew Valley that have the potential to grow into Giant Crops, which burst into a large quantity of regular-sized melons when harvested.
Powdermelons make a solid source of income during the winter. The base selling price for a regular quality Powdermelon is 60 gold. This price increases with the quality of the crop, reaching 75 gold for silver, 90 gold for gold, and 120 gold for iridium quality. Players who have chosen the Tiller profession, which grants a 10% bonus to crop values, will see these prices increase further. They can also be processed into Artisan goods, like Powdermelon Wine and Jelly, which sell for higher prices.
19 Arrive Late to the Feast of the Winter Star
No Need to Rush Into It
- Get there a few minutes before 2 PM to seize the day for as long as possible
The Feast of the Winter Star is a must-attend holiday in the Stardew Valley winter, as it gives the player a chance to really improve their relationship with a townsperson and also receive something in return. The item received in the gift exchange is randomized, but there are some great things one can pick up this way.
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However, just like with all holidays in the game, the event will end once the player leaves the area, instantly fast-forwarding time to 10 pm. Be sure to arrive at the Feast of the Winter Star as late as possible, right before 2 PM, to maximize the time spent completing other tasks around the farm and areas of town that are accessible that day.