Horse: The Book

Horse: The Book

Type	Book
Location	Bookseller
Sell Price	1000g

Horse: The Book is the power book for farmers who ride everywhere. One reading adds half a point of speed on top of whatever the horse already manages, and that bonus is live for as long as the farmer stays in the saddle. It is among the dearest titles the Bookseller stocks, and it only pays off on a farm that has already built a Stable, so it tends to be a mid-game or late-game purchase rather than an early one. For anyone who crosses the valley on horseback several times a day, it is the single biggest change to how quickly the map goes by. Spare copies still earn their keep, since every reread drips a little experience into each skill.

The in-game description reads: You gain a little extra speed when riding a horse.

Overview

The horse itself comes from Robin rather than from any book. She builds a Stable for a solid lump of gold along with a hundred Hardwood and a few Iron Bars, and a horse is waiting inside it when the work is finished. Horses ask for nothing after that: no feeding, no water, no petting, and if one is left on the far side of the valley it finds its own way back to the stable overnight. A hat put on the farmer's head can be transferred to the horse, which is the only maintenance most players bother with.

Riding is already quicker than walking, and the book widens that gap. The half point it grants applies only while mounted, which is the one thing to understand before paying for it. A farmer who spends the day on foot inside a greenhouse or down a mine shaft gets nothing out of it and should look at the Way Of The Wind volumes instead, since those raise walking speed wherever the farmer happens to be. The two kinds of bonus are built to sit side by side, so a well-read farm ends up fast on foot and faster still in the saddle.

Only the Bookseller carries this one. He sets up twice a season on the slope above JojaMart, his stock is shuffled before each visit, and a blue balloon on the calendar outside Pierre's General Store gives notice of the day. A title at this price is worth saving for deliberately, because missing it means waiting out the rest of the season and hoping the next roll is kinder.

After the first reading the power appears on the Special Items and Powers tab, and the book is gone. Any later copy on the stall is marked with a thumbs-up so no gold is wasted buying the same power twice, but reading one anyway hands over a small amount of experience in every skill. Once all the skills have topped out and the Mastery Cave has been opened, that same reading turns into Mastery points, which makes the cheap end of the Bookseller's table surprisingly attractive very late in a save.

Notes

The riding bonus is personal. On a shared farm each player has their own mount, and only the one who read the book goes faster on it.

Penny is delighted by the gift, Elliott is pleased, and Alex is unenthusiastic. Put into the dye pots at 2 Willow Lane the book counts as an orange, while the spool of the Sewing Machine turns it into a brown dye for whatever garment is in the feed. Reading it once also covers one of the entries the Well-Read achievement asks for.

All Books

Every entry in this group, with its key details.

Name	Image	Price
Animal Catalogue		2000g
Bait And Bobber		500g
Book Of Stars		2500g
Book of Mysteries		3000g
Combat Quarterly		500g
Dwarvish Safety Manual		1000g
Friendship 101		3000g
Horse: The Book		1000g
Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Thick		500g
Jewels Of The Sea		800g
Mapping Cave Systems		4000g
Mining Monthly		500g
Monster Compendium		2000g
Ol' Slitherlegs		1000g
Price Catalogue		1000g
Queen Of Sauce Cookbook		10000g
Raccoon Journal		1000g
Stardew Valley Almanac		500g
The Alleyway Buffet		3000g
The Art O' Crabbing		1000g
The Diamond Hunter		1000g
Treasure Appraisal Guide		500g
Way Of The Wind pt. 1		5000g
Way Of The Wind pt. 2		10000g
Woodcutter's Weekly		500g
Woody's Secret		500g