Prize Ticket
| Prize Ticket | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Collection |
| Location | Quests; Special Orders |
| Sell Price | 1g |
Mayor Lewis keeps a prize machine in his house, standing beside the town ledger, and Prize Tickets are the only thing it will take. Tickets come from helping people out: the odd job board outside Pierre's, the special orders board by Lewis's own front door, repeat wins at the Egg Festival and the Festival of Ice, the chest at the heart of the Spirit's Eve maze and a box tucked behind the stump where the Bookseller parks. The machine is not a gamble, which is the best thing about it. The first run of prizes comes out in a fixed order on every farm, and the screen shows the next three, so it is possible to see a Stardrop Tea or an Iridium Sprinkler coming and save tickets accordingly. After that fixed run the machine settles into a repeating loop, which turns Fairy Dust and Treasure Chests into something a diligent farmer can count on rather than hope for.
Overview
Ordinary help-wanted quests are the steadiest supply. Any job pinned to the board outside Pierre's that shows a small ticket in the corner pays one on completion, alongside the usual gold and goodwill, so the habit of checking the board every morning quietly builds a stack. Special orders pay one each as well, which makes Qi's and the townsfolk's weekly challenges worth taking even when the main reward is unexciting.
The festivals add a few more. The Egg Festival's egg hunt and the Festival of Ice's fishing contest both hand out a ticket for winning again after the first victory, so the yearly contests keep their value instead of becoming empty traditions. The maze at Spirit's Eve hides one in the chest at the end, which is a good reason to walk the maze properly rather than leaving after the first fright. At the Stardew Valley Fair, the prize counter will sell a ticket for a thousand star tokens, which is a serious share of a day's grange display and games, and only one is available each year. One more sits waiting in a box behind the stump above the Bookseller's pitch, which is a single find rather than something that comes round again.
The machine itself is simple and honest. It reports how many tickets are in hand and which three prizes are next in line. Claiming one takes the item at the front of the queue and moves everything else forward a place, so nothing is lost by cashing in early except the chance to time a better prize.
The early queue is generously front-loaded. A packet of the season's quick-growing seeds comes first, then a fruit sapling, then Mixed Seeds, then a handful of Mystery Boxes. The fifth prize is a Stardrop Tea, which is as good a present as the valley has to offer and arrives long before most farms could find one elsewhere. A bed follows, upgraded to a double if the farmhouse has been extended. Then come four Quality Sprinklers or four Preserves Jars or four Mushroom Logs, each of which is a meaningful jump for a young farm, and a little later the Friendship 101 book, bombs by the dozen, a Fish Smoker or a Dehydrator, a skill book, a stack of Omni Geodes, four Kegs or four Bee Houses, a pile of Diamonds, and Magic Rock Candy to close out the fixed run.
Once that run is finished the machine loops through a short list of slots, so each prize type comes round again at a steady interval. Stardrop Tea returns on that cycle, which is the easiest way to keep getting hold of it. Iridium Sprinklers, Treasure Chests, Iridium Bars, more Mystery Boxes and Fairy Dust all take their turn, and the loop includes decorations such as a Pig Painting and the fancier house plants for anyone furnishing a farmhouse. Fairy Dust is the standout, since sprinkling it finishes a keg or a furnace instantly and it is otherwise awkward to come by in quantity.
Notes
Tickets are worth saving rather than spending the moment they arrive. Since the next three prizes are always on display, a farmer who wants the Fish Smoker or the Dehydrator can hold tickets back until that slot reaches the front, then claim it immediately. The same trick works for timing a Stardrop Tea to land just before a birthday.
A Prize Ticket also works as a red dye at the pots in Emily's and Haley's house, which is an amusing waste of an afternoon's errands and nobody's recommendation.
All Collections
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
