Fans of farming sims love Stardew Valley for the level of depth it offers beyond its routine mechanics. Players not only get to plant and harvest crops, but also discover new resources, upgrade their facilities, and even expand their knowledge in other skill sets. With the many things Stardew Valley players can do, their inventory space can often run out much quicker than they expect.
While a bit overwhelming at first, managing and upgrading one’s inventory space in Stardew Valley isn’t complex. With the right mindset and tips, fans can work their way around collecting and managing their favorite items without hurting their backpacks.
What Is The Inventory?
The Inventory, or the player’s backpack, consists of the items they are currently carrying on their person that they haven’t stored in special storage locations around the map. Funnily enough, this section of the game doesn’t necessarily have “Inventory” as its name. It is accessible alongside the rest of the game menu. Players can look at their full inventory by accessing the menu and selecting the leftmost tab.
The Hotbar
Unlike other games where a hotbar on the HUD is dedicated for the player’s skills, Stardew Valley instead assigns players a Hotbar to aid with their inventory management. The Hotbar consists of the first row of 12 items that the players have access to in their inventory.
Players can directly access items in the Hotbar by scrolling through the scroll wheel or by pressing the number key corresponding to that slot. The Hotbar is commonly recommended for tools, weapons, consumables, or even gifts such as Universal Loves for Villagers of Stardew Valley.
Hotbar Shortcuts
Players can expand the utility of the Hotbar through special shortcuts and tips in the game. Knowing these can allow players to further personalize their Stardew Valley experience and optimize the way their character functions.
- Tab: Pressing Tab while playing on PC will rotate the next available Inventory row to the top row, effectively making this row the Hotbar. This means players don’t necessarily need to open their Inventory every time they need to access a non-Hotbar item, such as a tab of gifts for Stardew Valley romances.
- Reassignment: Players can simply go to the Options menu to remap their Hotbar keys.
Inventory Spaces
Directly below the Hotbar are additional Inventory rows where players can put items. This is the primary player-based storage option for characters. Items stored here can be actively carried around, dropped, used, or given as gifts to villagers.
While it’s perfectly possible to just store all items players have in various Storage Boxes, it’s imperative that players use their Inventory for events that involve transferring items. These include gathering special resources or even providing gifts to other characters that require players to put those gifts in their inventory.
Inventory Options
On the inventory menu screen, players have a few options related to the inventory that they can select. These include:
- Golden Scroll: Located in the top right corner, selecting this option allows the player to view Community Center bundles and see if any of the items in their inventory can be used to complete them. Note that the items still must be delivered to the building itself, however.
- Auto-Sort, located below the Golden Scroll, will organize a player's inventory for them.
- Trash Can: Located to the right, players can drag an item here for permanent disposal.
Inventory Shortcuts
Aside from being a nifty way of accessing major elements of the character’s information in the game, the Inventory also has shortcuts players can use to enhance their collection experience.
- Drag and Drop: Players can drop an inventory item by selecting and dragging them outside the Inventory. However, doing so near a body of water may cause the item to fall in and be permanently lost.
- Shift + Click: Doing this to any stack or inventory item in the bottom two rows will move them to the top row of the Inventory. This is useful if players want to sell expensive Stardew Valley crops in one sitting.
- Right Click: Using this option on a stack of items will allow the player to remove a single item from it, separating the stack into two. This can be useful for storing or selling, if the player does not want to store/sell all the items in a stack.
Upgrading The Inventory
When players start Stardew Valley for the first time, they have access to only the first row of items. Putting items here directly places them on the player’s Hotbar, giving them immediate access to these items for the duration of the playthrough. Thankfully, players have various opportunities to upgrade their Inventory and expand the number of items they can carry throughout the game — useful for stressful situations such as fighting monsters in Stardew Valley Mines.
Players actually have access to upgrade options for their inventory at the very start of the game. This can be acquired by purchasing the Stardew Valley inventory upgrades at Pierre’s General Store. The game offers two options for expanding their Inventory, which comes in the form of two special backpacks:
- Large Pack (Red), 2,000g: This gives players access to another 12 slots, expanding their Inventory to 24 slots.
- Deluxe Pack (Blue), 10,000g: This expands the player’s Inventory by another 12 slots, giving them full access to the 36 item slots that the game offers.
Management Tips
Players who always find their Inventory full while exploring Stardew Valley may not be optimizing their Inventory properly. Not taking the time to organize storage may result in players lacking the necessary space when acquiring rare items. They may even have to throw some valuables away simply because of the lack of planning. These include situations in which NPCs like the Stardew Valley Wizard may want to give players special items. To avoid these circumstances, players may want to consider some management tips to ensure their Inventory won’t catch them by surprise.
Use Chests Everywhere
Similar to inventory systems in other games, Chests in Stardew Valley serve as extra storage options for players. They are easy to craft, as the recipe is available from the start of the game and requires only 60 wood. Chests have the following properties:
- They can carry 36 types of items. Each item can stack up to 999 times; if more items of the same type are placed in the chest, it will create a new stack.
- Items don't decompose when stored inside a Chest.
- Empty Chests return to the Inventory if hit by any tool or hand.
- Empty Chests get pushed or jump (if there's an obstacle) one tile towards the closest valid space away from players when repeatedly hit.
Thanks to Chests, players can store relevant items and resources, and don't have to resort to throwing them away While players may have gotten used to putting their Chests on their Farm, players may have more use of Chests when placing them in strategic locations around Stardew Valley, especially when obtaining season-specific Stardew Valley items. However, players need to remember that NPCs will destroy Chests if they pass through them. Here are ideal locations for Chests outside the Farm:
- The Mines, next to the Elevator: Essential for Mining, players don’t need to waste Energy and travel afar just to store their newly-mined items.
- 1 Willow Lane, next to the opposite riverside: Essential for those who want to capture the Gold Catfish, this allows players to store and discard unwanted fish quickly.
- Blacksmith, outside: Players hoping to craft items can store their collected artifacts and geodes close to Clint’s shop for easy access.
- Fish Shop, outside: Players who spend a lot of their time Fishing may want to put a Chest just outside the Fish Shop for easy disposal and selling of items.
The Drop Or The Bin
Due to different players having different priorities, it’s always possible for them to either want to drop an item or discard them entirely through the Trash or Bin feature. While the two options seem interchangeable at first glance, it’s important to understand their advantages and repercussions, especially when dealing with seasonal items. Here are some things to consider:
- The Bin: When players put items in the Bin, they immediately dispose of those items. Players should only do this to items that they believe don’t have any more selling or gifting value.
- Dropping: When players drop an item from the Inventory, they simply spawn on the ground. Unless interacted with, the item stays where it is dropped. This allows players to pick it up again once they have made space in the inventory, perhaps by eating food items, giving a gift, or placing something in a chest.
Optimal Consumption, Disposal, Selling
Since all items in the game can be carried like in other farming sims, it’s important for players to understand that both Quest Items and even Consumables will occupy the same Inventory slot. There no special slots allocated for these items. As such, players need to consider the way items work when consumed when planning their Inventory management.
- Consider which stacks to sell: Sometimes, players may get more benefits selling multiple stacks of low-quality items compared to a small pile of high-value items.
- Consume lower-stack items: When consuming, players should eat or drink the item that will empty the stack. This way, they get the consumable’s benefits as well as an extra Inventory slot.
Stardew Valley was released in 2016 and is currently available for the PC, macOS, Linux, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, and PS Vita.