Fall is the season of harvest, and that is certainly true in Stardew Valley. Taking place before Winter, players will want to harvest as many of their crops as possible before they die out in the Winter season. There are also items to forage for that are only available in the Fall season. The same is true for certain types of fish.
Players that plan ahead in Stardew Valley have the most successful farms. It is worth planning ahead what players are going to do each season, as there is far more to Stardew Valley than just farming. Players also cannot forget events, birthdays, and simply preparing for the future season.
Updated on March 25, 2022, by Anastasia Maillot: In a game like Stardew Valley, there are always more things for players to do, no matter what season they find themselves in. The fall season is the last one in the year that still allows players to harvest and grow crops, making it vitally important before the farm enters winter. Before this one-month-long of no-crop farming, players should do a lot of preparing to make sure they don't find themselves in a pinch. There are also a few additional purely fall-related activities that are worth completing around this time. With that, here's what to do during fall in Stardew Valley.
12 Get Ready To Rearrange The Farm
Players who have been frustrated all year in Stardew Valley with how their farm looks will be happy to know that winter is the best month for starting from scratch. However, in preparation for that, fall needs to be dedicated to cleaning up the farm.
Once the final harvests are done, players can clean up and pick up any objects they want to move, from chests to sprinklers. If players want and end up with a bit of extra free time during fall, they can also chop up extra trees on their farmland to make space for any rearranging and redecorating they plan on doing during winter.
11 Craft Artisan Equipment For Winter
Players will likely gather quite a big harvest at the end of fall, but making money during winter will be a challenge. That is unless players spend some time during fall crafting a bunch of artisan equipment on top of what they might already have.
Any crops that haven't been turned into artisanal goods by fall can be used for profit during winter by using kegs, preserves jars, and so on. This will create a nice little financial dampener for players during the winter month, but it's important to start crafting all this equipment and gathering the crafting materials for them in fall.
10 Unlock More Farm Buildings
Another great way to prepare for winter during fall is to construct those farm buildings players have been saving up for. That's because animal products, with the exception of truffles, will still continue to produce during winter, provided the player ensures their animals are happy.
Make sure to have at least some type of barn by the end of fall, as well as a coop. Fall is a great time to stockpile the materials required for these buildings as well since players shouldn't be too focused on replanting crops towards the end of the season.
9 Complete Fall Themed Bundles
Players still in their first or even second year might be missing a few of the fall-themed bundles at the Community Center. Focus all efforts on finishing up these bundles, because otherwise, players will need to wait for an entire year to have access to all the crops and items required once again.
- Fall Foraging Bundle: 1 Common Mushroom, 1 Wild Plum, 1 Hazelnut, 1 Blackberry
- Fall Crops Bundle: 1 Corn, 1 Eggplant, 1 Pumpkin, 1 Yam
- Enchanter's Bundle requires 1 Pomegranate and Fodder Bundle requires 3 Apples, both of which are trees that grow during Fall.
8 Grow Cranberries
It is no secret that Fall spawns some of the most valuable crops in the game. Fall has single harvest crops such as beets, yams, sunflowers, bok choy, artichoke, amaranth, pumpkins, and fairy roses. There are also crops with multiple harvests like cranberries, grapes, eggplants, and corn.
The general consensus among hardcore Stardew Valley players is that cranberries are where the real money is at. This is due to the frequency in which they can be harvested. Each plant also gives multiple berries. They don't need any replanting and just produce all season long, which each plant giving players two berries every five days.
7 Put Everything Into Harvesting Crops
Do not leave a single crop unharvested by the end of Fall. They are all going to die once Winter begins. Due to this, players strive to make Fall their most profitable season. This means paying attention mostly to crops and harvesting them throughout the season.
This does not necessarily mean selling everything. It is actually smarter to save some of what is harvested for later. Crops can be used to make seeds, meals, artisan goods, or just to sell later when there is a greater need for gold.
6 Forage For Mushrooms And More
Foraging is a big part of Stardew Valley, and there is particularly a lot to forage in the Fall season. The Fall forage items include wild plums, hazelnuts, blackberries, and four different kinds of mushrooms. Places these items can be found include the Bus Stop, Railroad, Backwoods, Mountain, Pelican Town, Cindersap Forest, Secret Woods, and Forest Farm.
Blackberries are on bushes from Fall 8-11 and Hazelnuts can fall from shaken trees after Fall 14.
5 Prepare For The Stardew Valley Fair
This event takes place on the 16 of every Fall season. There is a lot to do at the event, but what needs preparation is the Grange Display. This display can show up to nine items and players will want their best of the best items to be displayed so that they can get first place. The first place will grant them one thousand tokens which can be used to buy very special items (the stardrop being the best item that costs two thousand tokens).
Players got to prepare for this event and save their highest quality goods. This means the best display will have all nine items be iridium quality. What can be displayed includes artisan goods, animal products, fish, cooking, vegetables, fruits, minerals, flowers, foraged items, and tree sap.
4 Capture Fall Season Fish
There are a couple of fish that only appear during the Fall season. First is salmon, which can be caught in the river of the town or forest. They can be caught from 6 A.M. to 7 P.M. The second Fall-only fish is the angler, which is a pretty difficult fish to get. While it can be caught at any time of day in the season, it can only be caught in the area north of JojaMart on the wooden plank bridge. Not only is it restricted to that one location, but the player will need to have fishing at level three.
Other fish that can be caught in Fall include shad, midnight carp, albacore, sardine, tilapia, tiger trout, super cucumber, sea cucumber, red snapper, eel, catfish, walleye, smallmouth bass, and anchovy.
3 Prepare Gifts For Eight Birthdays
There are eight characters with birthdays in the Fall and they are Penny, Elliot, Jodi, Abigail, Sandy, Marnie, Robin, and George. It is worth it to prepare for these birthdays and give each character a favorite gift on their special day.
Penny loves melons, sandfish, and emeralds. Elliot loves lobsters, duck feathers, and pomegranates. Jodi loves fried eel, pancakes, and diamonds. Abigail loves pumpkins, amethysts, and chocolate cake. Sandy loves daffodils, crocus, and sweet peas. Marnie loves diamonds, pumpkin pie, and pink cake. Robin loves goat cheese, spaghetti, and peaches. George loves fried mushrooms and leeks.
2 Produce And Gather As Much Hay As Possible
There is no way to get hay in the winter unless players are willing to spend money at Marnie's Ranch or trade with the Desert Trader. So if players do not want to spend money, then they will have to gather as much hay as possible over the Fall season to last the Winter season.
Hay can be harvested from grass or wheat using a scythe. It is also worth building a silo, as it can automatically store harvested hay. A single silo can store up to 240 pieces.
1 Cultivate Rare Seeds
Rare seeds are tricky if players don't have a greenhouse as they are only purchasable in Spring and Summer from the traveling cart. Despite being sold in those seasons, rare seeds are for the Fall and take 24 days to grow. This means they must be planted around the beginning of the Fall so that they can be cultivated before Winter.
The seeds produce Sweet Gem Berries which can sell for at least 3,000 gold. They are best for selling but save one to give to Old Master Cannoli in the Secret Woods. Players will get a Stardrop in return, which permanently increases their energy.
Stardew Valley is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, and many other platforms.