Stardew Series #2: The spicy backpack quest

Making money, and friends, is harder than I thought.

Welcome to Stardew Diaries #2! A lighthearted and silly series chonicalling the first playthrough of Stardew Valley.

In case you haven’t read the latest Friday Reflection (#13), I’ve decided to halt this series indefinitely because I’m prioritizing some other work I’m excited to do put my time and energy into. I just wanna enjoy the game and be able to put it down once I’m ready to move onto something else.

Thank you so much for those who were excited for this series! Maybe someday I can get the gear and tech knowledge to do livestreams!

I hope you enjoy this wrap-up post, and keep enjoying your time here on Losing Orbit. :)

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I need MONEY!

For a backpack, dang it!

After going through a stress-induced conniption that I thoroughly explained in my first post of the series, I decided to set the intention to let this play through have a “go with the flow” vibes.

And it went better!

… Sorta!

I may have gone too hard on trying to live an in-game soft life?

The gameplan was to fish fish fish!

But I was using the training rod that does help me get fish easier, but they’re sucky fish.

They don’t bring in the money like I’d hoped. Maybe like, 270 per day.

But… I also tend to only catch like, three fish a day somehow? I think I get distracted while fishing and don’t fish as long as I could…

But I’d say my inability to sit still to fish was sometimes for a good reason!

So there’s this granny I enjoy giving flowers to. 

So, far I’ve only given her two flowers. But literally every time I see her, I don’t have a flower on me (limited backpack space means sacrificing what items I carry). 

Or I’ll see her outside by a fountain or something and decide to go aaaall the way back home to grab a flower from storage, come back to the main town area, and see she’s disappeared.

I don’t know which house is her’s! I can literally only identify like three places… So that’s one reason to stop fishing: I need to give granny a flower!

Have to!

An arguably better reason to stop fishing was when I was looking for said granny by barging into everyone’s houses, I saw a man in a wheelchair I had never talked to before!

I’m over a week into the game (in-game) and still haven’t met everyone in town! I’m like, two or three people short.

Anyway, I ran over to him to say hi and he says:

“I’m not much of a talker. Especially not to strangers, if you don’t mind me saying.”

Welp! I held my hands in the air in defeat and backed away…

At least he took the time to tell me why he won’t be continuing our conversation (and I am one person closer to meeting everyone in town! Yes!). 

By that time, I was pretty sure that wasn’t granny’s home anymore, but I looked a little further into the house to make sure…

And came across this:

You see at the top of the screen slightly off-center? My eyes!

Curiosity certainly does kill the cat.

I was finished “exploring” there; it was time to see what else the town had to offer me.

But what I ended up doing was risking it all: I took what little money I had and bought some expensive seeds to plant, hoping to turn a decent profit.

The next day, it rained! Which means I didn’t have to waste time watering my crops. So I spent some time crafting fertilizer (which is made of tree sap from trees I cut down) for the handful of expensive seeds I bought the day before.

While I was going around my farm breaking down rocks and cutting trees, I ran across this broken-down building on my farm?

I don’t remember seeing it before! Couldn’t do anything to it, so I left it alone and went foraging and fishing.

But! I got distracted again! While I was foraging, I ended up running into that abandoned building the mayor wants fixed up.

Another one of my tasks was to explore the building. Which I decided to take advantage of since I was there and because… possibly reward money for completing that task.

I walked all around that building. A shy little green alien popped up once or twice that I saw, but my character didn’t. I also found a glowing yellow slate with some scribbly language on it? But couldn’t do anything to it, so I left. 

The task was gone (because it was completed), and no money was rewarded to me!

Humph! Nothing happened!

Until the next day…

I received a letter that read: “My sources tell me you’ve been poking around inside the old community center. Why don’t you pay me a visit? My chambers are west of the forest lake, in the stone tower. I may have information concerning your… ‘rat problem’.”

An “M. Rasmodius”--a wizard–wanted me to meet him alone.

Every radar in my head’s screaming: Danger! Danger!

But I don’t feel I’m close enough to anyone in town for them to actually miss me or care that I’m gone.

I didn’t get through a good mental pros and cons list in my head about meeting someone who dubs themselves a “wizard” before Marnie (she owns livestock, I think?) met me outside on my porch to show me a stray kitten she found!

So now I have a farm kitten I named Geo and I will love them forever!

I gave my new kitty a pat pat, and went back into town, deciding to greet anyone I met as I headed back–once again–to any body of water to start catching fish.

The only guy who’s ever piqued my interest I’ve only seen twice in days, and he was pretty rude during our last encounter!

So I decided to go up to Alex to say hey real quick since he was just aimlessly twirling a football in the air.

And do you know what he said to me?!

“If you weren’t a girl I’d ask you to play catch.”

And yeah! I picked the third option ((angry) What’s that supposed to mean?)!

That’s right. We’re both saying, “nevermind” to that encounter.

I spent the rest of the day flailing around, trying to find ways to make money, but never sticking to anything in particular, which led to me making a whopping 115g for the day.

Waking up to such a tiny amount of growth toward my bigger backpack goal left me feeling disappointed, yet determined. So I headed out of my house to make (once again) another promise to myself to really work on finding ways to make money!

But before I could get off my front porch…

I found Clint the blacksmith awkwardly at my door.

He came to tell me that I would now be able to upgrade my tools, which should make my farming work a lot easier (that’s sweet but… has he seen my “farm”?).

Clint handed me a blueprint to build a furnace and I felt a little more self-reliant!

So eventually–once I’ve “smelted a few copper bars”--I can build a furnace? Or, do I learn how to build a furnace… Then smelt the copper bars to then let Clint upgrade my tools??

… Where do I get copper from?

Ahhhh… Self-reliance.

A Missing Axe Quest

Anyway, once Clint left, I found a poster on my farm from Robin:

She lost her favorite axe! And she’s offering a 250g reward for whoever finds it!

Now… to figure out who Robin is again… And where to look… how do lost items show up in-game?

… Oh boy.

I finished up my farming chores (aka giving my cat Geo and the like, 10 crops I’m growing water), and headed into town.

I really enjoyed a video by Salmence I watched about playing Stardew Valley as a beginner, and learned about some alternative routes you can take from your farm to other parts of the map.

✨Magical!✨

But then I overheard the two kids in town messing around by this sewage drain that was bigger than both of them combined!

It was so weird! I think they heard something in there and talked about looking for someone with a key to eventually open it. But they came running up behind me, shivering after hearing something I suspect. So I walked up to the sewer myself (why?!), and then jumped in horror at what I discovered?!

Aaaaand then I blacked out and was back in town.

As if nothing ever happened… So I guess we’re just gonna keep pretending like nothing ever did.

Returning to the Axe Quest

So I went back to searching for the missing axe, and found it fairly easily once I got a clue where to look!

But what took even longer was for me to realize I was trying to give it to the wrong person…

I think I was accidentally stalking Penny, so much so that she became visibly distressed with me constantly stopping her.

Oops.

It was starting to get dark, and I just happened to run across Robin–the actual axe searcher–before it was too late to really even see.

And I got my 250g!

Meeting Linus, Creeping on My Crush, and First Time in the Mines

On Spring 12th, I did my usual morning routine on the farm and while leaving my usual route past the bus, I picked up a flower to hopefully give it to that sweet older lady again!

Didn’t end up finding her (per usual) and was just tired of not gifting anyone anything!

So I have it to the lovely man that lives in the mountains: Linus!

And he seemed to really appreciate it! Honestly warmed my heart.

I tried again to remember the alternative routes Salmence’s beginner video shared, and still don’t know how I got where I did but I wasn’t mad…

I promise I only watched him for a few seconds… He may be cute, but even a Jason Moma looks boring if you’re just watching him scroll on a computer.

Anyway I left, and recognized where the house was located: near the mines!

So I popped in for a visit, met a man who found me worthy of my first sword, and went at it!

I found out two things while going deeper and deeper into the mines:

One, there’s lots of resources and monsters to find and slay in the mines! Two, dedicating time in the mines takes up A LOT of energy!

If you decide to roam the mines? Make sure to bring field snacks and other foods to keep your energy up!

My First Night at the Saloon

With my energy dwindling, I headed back down into town (the safe way I knew) to head back home…

And remembered the many instances where I was invited to come to the Saloon at night…

And boy, was it bustling!

Even Sebastian the loner who seems to hate people and is never see in town was there! Wow!

This guy name Shane was there too, and (rudely) asked me if I had work to do during actual work hours, and now in the middle of wind down time at a bar.

Great.

He looks a bit haggard, so I’ll take that as a projection for him possibly being overworked?

I talked to the mayor, who was talking to Marnie (the woman who gave me my stray cat, Geo)...

Then went to talk to Marnie next and…

She apparently didn’t even notice me!

Was she intentionally ignoring me?!

I went through the startingly detailed journal I have of each person in town, and realized we have zero relationship! I felt so embarrassed…

So. Marnie just gave me the cold shoulder… Yikes.

I couldn’t stay much longer without hanging my head in shame every time I passed Marnie, so I just left the Saloon so I could head home.

But got caught right in the middle of a strange conflict.

A Vulnerable Moment with Linus

Was that… Linus?

… And he’s… Digging through the trash…

The grumpy old man, George, who didn’t wanna talk to me a few days before was now grateful for my presence.

He came out of the house, thinking raccoons were going through his trash when it was actually Linus.

But Linus went to hide.

George asked me to go around the corner to scare off the “raccoons”, so I did while George went back inside.

Linus asked me if I thought his digging through the trash was wrong, and I told him no. It is a shame to see good food go to waste…

(The other responses are pretty spicy!)

Linus told me to tell George that I’d scared off the raccoons, and that he wouldn’t dig through people’s trash anymore. Then I started to head home again.

But before I did, Linus was caught just seconds later going through the Saloon’s trash.

Gus, the Saloon owner stopped Linus in his tracks and approached him.

He confronted him about digging through the trash, and told Linus that he’d feed him.

He shouldn’t go hungry in Stardew Valley. Not under his watch.

Linus was so grateful for the hospitality, and I was too.

A Quick First Egg Hunt

The next day was Egg Hunt day! And a lot of my crops were ready to harvest!

Aaaaand, I sold a good chunk of them! I need that backpack.

I placed what I decided to sell into the selling bin to be picked up in the middle of the night, and went to head into town to fish a bit before the Egg Hunt started that morning.

But I wasn’t allowed anywhere near town because everyone was setting up for the Egg Hunt. Sigh…

It’s okay though, I really enjoyed my break for the day and hunting for eggs.

Even if I didn’t win. (I honestly could’ve lied here and said that I won, but I wouldn’t do that to you.)

Waking Up to Wins!

The Egg Hunt took up the whole day so I went to sleep and woke up the next day to this! 

I gained a skill level in farming! Apparently improving skills is important and good for progressing in the game! Yay!

And even more importantly…

Ayyyyeee!! I made 961g from my produce sales!

That was the most I ever made!

A sweet way to end my playthrough I must say. :)

That sweet sweet backpack will be mine in no time!

Thank you so much for reading!

I really enjoy playing Stardew Valley! I actually mentioned buying a guidebook and I truly love it!

It’s only been a few playthroughs, but I understand its hype.

Stardew Valley is a great game I recommend! And you’ll have more fun as a beginner if you chip away at it bit by bit.

I’m excited to now play it at my own pace and time without the pressure of working on a piece for it immediately after.

Let me know if you’ve ever played or do play! I’d love to keep the convo going even if I’m stopping the series.

And I’ll see ya over at the rest of the Losing Orbit’s newsletter!