A major gameplay aspect of Stardew Valley is befriending the locals. Doing so provides rewards like recipes, random gifts in the mail, cutscenes that offer insight into the characters, and even a potential spouse.
You can gain this friendship slowly but surely by speaking to a person every single day, but this takes far too long for anyone to try. Instead, the best method is to give them gifts that show how much you care. But not every character in Stardew Valley likes every item you can give them, and some days are far more effective for gift-giving than others.
How to Learn Each Character's Preferences
The most direct method for learning preferences is through trial and error. Each time you give someone a new gift, the game will record their reaction in the gift log. To see a character's gift log, check the Social tab in the menu, then click on the character's name. You'll see their liked and loved gifts in a special "Character's Favorites" section, and you can see their reactions to every known item in pages devoted to each item category.
Another way to learn about likes and dislikes is to discover all the Secret Notes. You get access to Secret Notes by completing the quest "A Winter Mystery" and getting the special Magnifying Glass. Many of the notes lay out some of the special items each villager loves, and after reading these notes the items will appear on their gift logs. For instance, Secret Note #2 spells out favorite gifts for five characters, including Sam.
A third option is to discover (or research) one of the universally liked or loved gifts. Some gifts are so good that almost everyone is happy to get one. Here are the universal loves (and their exceptions):
Item | Exceptions |
|---|---|
Magic Rock Candy | |
Pearl | |
Prismatic Shard | Haley |
Rabbit's Foot | Penny |
The universally liked goods include entire categories of items, mostly rare or high-quality items. The exceptions listed are for items that people generally don't like or people who don't like an entire category. Each character's special likes and loves will be listed separately.
Item Category | Exceptions |
|---|---|
Artisan Goods |
|
Cooked Foods |
|
Flowers |
|
Foraged Minerals (Fire Quartz, Earth Crystals, etc.) |
|
Gems (Emeralds, Rubies, etc., but not Prismatic Shards) |
|
Tree Fruits (not counting Bananas or Mangoes) | |
Vegetables |
|
Life Elixir |
|
Maple Syrup |
|
Each character also has a unique set of likes and loves that appeal to them and them alone. For the sake of brevity, the next list will only cover what each character uniquely loves.
Character | Loves |
|---|---|
| |
Alex |
|
Caroline |
|
Clint |
|
Demetrius |
|
Dwarf |
|
Elliot |
|
Emily |
|
Evelyn |
|
George |
|
| |
Haley |
|
Harvey |
|
Jas |
|
Jodi |
|
Kent |
|
Krobus |
|
Leah |
|
Leo |
|
Lewis |
|
Linus |
|
Marnie |
|
Maru |
|
Pam |
|
| |
Pierre |
|
Robin |
|
Sam |
|
Sandy |
|
Sebastian |
|
Shane |
|
Vincent |
|
Willy |
|
Wizard |
|
How to Make the Most of Gifting
Each character will only accept one gift per day, and two gifts per week. There are only two exceptions to this: a spouse will accept one gift per day with no weekly limit, and every character will gladly take a gift on their birthday even if you already gave them two earlier in the week.
The amount of points gained or lost from a gift depends on three things: the character's reaction, the item's quality, and the timing of the gift given.
Reaction
A character's friendship rating can go up by 80 points by giving them a loved item or down by 40 points by giving them a hated item. Keeping in mind that speaking to a character once per day adds 20 points, you can boost a relationship by 300 points in one week by giving a character as much attention as possible. Each relationship heart represents 250 points, so nine weeks of attention and loved gifts will bring a relationship from 0 to 10.
Quality
A high-quality item multiplies its effect. For instance, giving Maru a normal strawberry gives her relationship 80 points, while giving her an iridium-grade strawberry gives her 120 points. High-quality items also make relationship losses worse: give Jas some iridium goat cheese and her relationship will go down by 60 points.
Timing
Special days are more meaningful and multiply the effect of a gift. A gift given on Winter Star is worth five times as much as normal, and a gift given on the character's birthday is worth eight times as much.
This stacks with the item quality bonus. If you give any character aside from Penny an iridium-grade rabbit's foot on their birthday, their relationship will go up by a total of 960 points (or 980 including the daily conversation bonus). That's almost four hearts from a single gift.
One other way to make the most of a gift is during the Luau potluck. Lewis encourages players to add something to the soup before the governor tastes it, and if the item is high-quality and expensive you can get up to 120 relationship points with every attending character. On the other hand, a poor-quality or poisonous item will drop every relationship by up to 100 points. These bonuses and losses are universal, so even Harvey will like it if you toss in some iridium goat cheese.
One last thing to keep in mind is relationship decay. For most characters, this decay is small (-2 points each day you don't interact with someone), and reaching the maximum relationship level will stop this decay completely. However, a girlfriend or boyfriend's relationship will decay by 10 points per day until you reach 10 hearts, and a spouse's relationship decays by 20 points every day no matter what.
Gift-giving is a surprisingly tricky business, but a calendar and a few rabbits in a coop can help you eventually make everyone happy (even if you ignore them for most of the year).
Stardew Valley is available now on Android, iOS, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
