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The Night Market is a special three-day festival that takes place on the beach starting in year one of Stardew Valley. The Desert Festival is another three-day festival added to the game in the 1.6 patch, but you might not get to visit it until the start of year two.
Compared to the Night Market, the Desert Festival has several more challenges and vendors you can buy from. It also has a special currency you can only earn and spend during the event. All these activities may be overwhelming for new players, so read on to learn everything you need to know about the Stardew Valley Desert Festival.
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How to Start the Desert Festival (and When to Visit)
The main requirement for activating the Desert Festival is getting the bus up and running. Before then, it'll appear on the Spring calendar as a set of grayed-out stars on days 15, 16, and 17.
There are two main ways to repair the bus:
- ​​​​​​​On the Community Center path, you must buy all the Vault Bundles (a total cost of 42,500g).
- On the JojaMart path, you must pay 40,000g on the Joja Community Development Form.
Either way, as soon as the bus is running, you can start attending the Desert Festival.
The Desert Festival's Start & End Times
On all three days of the event, the festivities begin at 10 am. At that point, you can take part in all the various challenges and activities the festival has to offer. Several villagers from Pelican Town also stop by to enjoy the festival, including some who only visit on one day and some who attend on all three.
Most of the villagers leave Calico Desert by 10 pm, but several of the vendors and activities stay open until 2 am. You can even head to Calico late during the festival because Pam (the bus driver) stays on-station all evening instead of heading home at 6 pm like normal.
Calico Eggs
During the Desert Festival, you can find a new kind of currency called Calico Eggs. You can see a helpful counter in the upper-left corner while you're in Calico Desert, but these eggs are an inventory item that take up a slot and persist after you leave. This means you can earn Calico Eggs on the first day of the festival, spend them on the second day, and then toss the remainder into a storage chest after the festival ends. Just be sure to grab them back out of storage the next time the Desert Festival begins, because the game only keeps track of how many you have in your inventory.
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The Chef
Just to the left of the bus is a chef from out of town. His habits may be a little off-putting, but he makes unique foods you can only find at the festival.
If you ask him to make food for you, he'll start by asking you to choose between five main ingredients. He then asks for a sauce to add to it, and which sauces you can add depends on which main ingredient you choose. The chef will then throw something together based on your choices, and your character will eat it on the spot.
Like the food you can make at home in Stardew Valley, the chef's food can give you health, energy, and temporary buffs. Unlike the food you can make at home, buffs from the chef's food stack with regular food buffs instead of replacing them. However, they don't stack with each other, so only one chef creation can be active at any given time.
The chef's food is free, and you can speak to him as often as you want, so feel free to experiment with his creations.
Willy's Challenge
Next to the oasis behind the chef is Willy, who offers a special challenge every day of the Desert Festival. If you succeed, you can speak to Willy to get Stardew Valley's Calico Eggs, the special currency exclusive to the Desert Festival.
These challenges seem to be the same no matter which year you visit:
- Day 1: Catch three Sandfish
- Day 2: Catch one Scorpion Carp
- Day 3: Find Willy's Golden Bobber
To get the Golden Bobber, you need to catch a treasure chest as you're reeling in a fish. The first chest you open in Calico Desert on day three of the festival will contain the unique Golden Bobber item, and you'll need to actively give it to Willy to complete the day's challenge. As for the fishing challenges, you get to keep the fish you catch, and you can do whatever you want with them.
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Skull Cavern Challenges
If you have the key that unlocks the Skull Cavern door (found on the lowest floor of the Mines), you can take part in special daily challenges that can earn you more Calico Eggs. Calico Eggs are also a new item you can farm in the Skull Cavern, with more available the deeper you go.
To start a daily challenge, speak to Marlon in the booth by the Skull Cavern entrance. You can pick one of two randomly generated challenges each day, and their requirements include "Reach level 30 of the Skull Cavern," "Slay 10 Purple Slimes," and "Gather 15 pieces of Iridium Ore from the Skull Cavern." Each challenge also lists how many Calico Eggs you get for completing it. Unlike Willy's challenges, you'll get your reward the moment you complete the challenge, so you don't have to return to Marlon.
You can also gain Calico Eggs in the Skull Cavern by breaking normal rocks and special Calico Egg nodes that only appear during the festival. The odds of finding a Calico Egg in the cavern go up when you reach floors 5, 10, 15, and so on, and each time you activate a Calico Statue.
Calico Statues' Effects
Aside from boosting the odds, Calico Statues also produce random effects. These effects include:
- Nothing happens (no effect)
- A full health and energy restore
- 20 free Calico Eggs
- A specific monster type upgrades to a more dangerous type
- More of a specific monster type appears
- Monsters deal more damage
The monster buffs last until you leave the Skull Cavern, so don't activate Calico Statues unless you know you can handle the extra difficulties they can deliver. Fortunately, if you fall in the Skull Cavern during the festival, you'll wake up in Harvey's medical tent instead of appearing back in the valley.
If you have visited Qi's Walnut Room and completed his Skull Cavern challenge, you may spot a shrine at the entrance to the Skull Cavern that will let you switch it to the more dangerous version. Doing so won't make Calico Eggs appear more often, but it will increase the chances of finding Iridium Ore and other rare items.
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The Scholar's Quiz
Head to the northeast corner of Calico Desert to find the Scholar. You can take on the challenge of the Scholar's quiz once each day, and the questions cover aspects of the game Stardew Valley. They include topics like "How many days are there in a season?" and "How many steps have you taken?" If you answer every question correctly, you get Calico Eggs as your prize. However, if you miss even one question, you'll have to come back the next day to try again.
You can also find the mysterious hooded figure along the northern edge of Calico Desert. This is the same sort of person as the one you'll find during the Night Market, and for a fee, they'll warp you back to your Stardew Valley farm. However, the warp isn't worth the price since the bus is just to the south, and the Bus Stop area is next to the farm.
Emily's Makeover Box
Head south towards the Oasis shop to spot Emily and Sandy by a giant cardboard box (and keep in mind that, since Sandy is here, her normal Oasis shop is closed during the festival).
Emily is raring to give you a whole new look, and all you have to do to get it is walk into the cardboard box. Emily will go in after you as Sandy guards the door, and when you walk out you'll have a completely new outfit. This outfit is mostly random but color-coordinated. Any clothing you had on before will go into your inventory, and if you don't have two or three empty slots for them, the game will refuse to let you enter the box.
The clothing Emily chooses for you includes common hats, shirts, and pants you can craft on your own, never unique or hard-to-get items. However, these items are yours forever, and you can keep, wear, dye, or dispose of them as you like. The only downside is that Emily will only perform one outfit makeover per day.
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The Great Desert Race
Head to the east side of the map and go south from the road (or head northeast of the warp point) to find the starting line of the Great Desert Race. The man sitting on the carpet is the Race Announcer, and the course next to him covers half the Calico Desert. Each day from 10 am to 10 pm, three colorful animals race along the course to find out who's the fastest.
Between races, you can approach the Race Announcer and bet on one of the racers. This bet costs nothing, but if you win you get 20 Calico Eggs. Just be sure to collect your winnings before the next race begins.
Something to keep in mind when choosing a winner is that the racers only look unique. Each one has an equal chance of winning or losing, and they don't come with any special odds or abilities.
However, you can partially fix a race by speaking to the Suspicious Guy on the bench behind the Oasis building. For the small price of one Calico Egg, he'll make sure that one of the three racers has a bad day. This doesn't guarantee that your racer will win, but it'll boost your chances of success from 33 percent to 50.
The Cactus Man
During the festival, a pair of stairs appear along the southern cliffs that let you access a section of the Calico Desert you normally can't reach. In this area, you can speak to several villagers, cut down a few extra palm trees, fish in the large pond, and speak to the odd Cactus Man.
If you have at least one free inventory slot, the Cactus Man will offer to give you a free cactus you can care for at home. This cactus is a decorative item, which means you don't have to worry about watering it, but it won't produce any Cactus Fruit. So long as you don't throw away or otherwise destroy the cactus you get, the Cactus Man will only ever give you one cactus.
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The Calico Egg Vendors
The point of gathering Calico Eggs is to spend them at the special vendors who only show up during the Desert Festival.
The Desert Trader has the same items at the same prices as usual during the Desert Festival, but behind them, you can find the Traveling Cart. The cart has the usual set of random goods for sale, but you can also pick up a Joja Furniture Catalog for 30,000g and a portrait of your spouse for the same amount.
To the left of the Traveling Cart is the main Calico Egg merchant for the event. Unlike the villager shops (see below), this merchant never changes their location, inventory, or prices.
Item | Cost (in Calico Eggs) |
|---|---|
Mystery Box | 20 |
Mummy Mask | 120 |
Blue Bow | 50 |
Dark Velvet Bow | 75 |
Strawberry Seeds | 5 |
Mega Bomb | 15 |
Eggplant Parmesan | 10 |
Sun Dunes (Painting) | 30 |
Sandy Rug | 20 |
Desert End Table | 20 |
Calico Statue | 25 |
Woodcutter's Weekly | 100 |
Woodcutter's Weekly gives you experience in Foraging. You don't need to read it if you've already reached level 10 in Foraging, but doing so counts towards the "Well-read" achievement.
You can also spend your Calico Eggs at a couple of stalls just south of the bus. By around noon, two villagers from Pelican Town will man the stalls and offer a unique set of items. For instance, Evelyn sells Cookies, Mixed Seeds, Mixed Flower Seeds, and Daffodils, while Sam offers Sam's Skateboard, Sam's Old Guitar, Maple Bars, and Joja Cola. Each day, two different villagers sell their goods in these stalls, and they only accept Calico Eggs.
