Secrets
| Secrets | |
|---|---|
| Type | Collection |
Stardew Valley hides a great deal that no quest log ever mentions. Some of it is scenery with a joke attached, like the single stone marked on the valley map that nothing in the game explains. Some of it is a real reward at the end of a real puzzle: a sword forged by standing between three desert pillars, three bizarre statues earned by posting the right item into the right locked box, a Stardrop traded to a statue in a forest clearing. Some of it is pure mischief, from hats worn by cats and scarecrows to a pair of purple shorts that cause trouble in half a dozen separate places. The title screen and the loading screen keep small animations of their own, and the newest additions reach outside the game entirely, borrowing a sword and a serpent from somewhere else.
Overview
The locked boxes are the valley's set-piece puzzle. One of the unreadable Lost Books in the museum turns into a clue when only its capitalised letters are read, and the three phrases that fall out each name an item and a place. A Super Cucumber goes into the brown box inside the fenced ground north of the blacksmith. A Duck Mayonnaise goes into the metal box half hidden in the Stardrop Saloon's back storeroom. A Strange Bun goes into the chest in Vincent's bedroom at Willow Lane. Each box pays out a statue with an unpronounceable name, and they are the whole reward, since a statue is furniture and nothing more. The box tucked behind JojaMart is a decoy and does nothing at all.
The Galaxy Sword is the oldest of the secrets and still the best paid. Donating all four Dwarf Scrolls to the museum earns the Dwarvish Translation Guide, and one of the previously unreadable tombstones in the graveyard then resolves into a short verse about standing between three pillars with a gift as precious as the sky. The pillars stand in the north-east of the Calico Desert, and walking into the middle of them while carrying a Prismatic Shard turns the shard into the sword. The scrolls are only the signpost, so a farmer who already knows where to stand can skip the museum entirely. Spending a shard that way is still a real decision, because the same shard would otherwise buy a prismatic garment, a slider-perfect dye job or an enchantment at the Forge.
The newest chain borrows from another game outright. An Ancient Doll offered to the lava on the hundredth floor of the mines, or to the lava beside the chest at the Forge, brings a bone serpent up out of the pool, and the serpent leaves a strange stone behind. That stone fits the plant pedestal in the Wizard's basement, which opens a portal, and a cat steps through it carrying a sword. That basement only opens to somebody the Wizard already counts as a friend, and he has something to say about the whole business afterwards.
Timing rather than items unlocks the Junimo Plush. The bush behind the playground beside the Community Center gives it up when shaken on the last day of a season at exactly midday, and the window is only a few seconds wide, so the trick is to be standing in position before the clock turns rather than walking over once it has.
Mayor Lewis's Lucky Purple Shorts are the single richest vein of mischief in the valley. Dropped into the Luau soup they draw a reaction out of both the Governor and Lewis. Entered in the grange display at the Fair they disqualify the farm outright, after which Lewis quietly pays out several hundred star tokens to keep it quiet, and Marnie has a line of her own about seeing them there. Stitched together with a Gold Bar they become a trimmed pair that can actually be worn in public. Handing that trimmed pair over while Lewis is on holiday at the island resort puts him in them on the beach for a month of visits afterwards. Clipped into the tackle slot of a rod they turn the bobber purple, and set in the first slot of a two-slot rod they stop the tackle in the second slot wearing out at all. They will even sit in a Fish Tank as an ornament. A staircase dropped in Lewis's bedroom opens a hidden maze with another pair waiting at the end of it, and reaching for that pair animates a cursed version that chases the farmer about and cannot be hit back.
Hats go on far more than heads. Toddlers, horses, cats and dogs will all wear one, and a hat comes off by clicking again with a different hat in hand, which pops the old one loose without seating the new one. The Alien Rarecrow wears one too, though getting it back out means breaking the rarecrow and picking both pieces up. A Sea Urchin in a Fish Tank will wear a hat, and so will a mannequin.
Turning children into doves at the Dark Shrine of Selfishness opens a run of small, unpleasant rewards. A telephone call may come through as roiling static with a voice underneath it saying that it has been forsaken. Watching television on the day before Spirit's Eve and choosing the unmarked option puts an Ancient Doll on the screen and then out of it, after which a cursed doll circles in front of the shrine for every child given up, and leaving and re-entering the hut brings it back for another go. Doves may also settle in a Bird House on the farm, and they fly past in formation above the Summit now and then.
The menus hide the gentlest secrets of the lot. Clicking the letter E in the game's name ten times opens a door behind it for an alien, which smiles, waves and fades away. Ten clicks on the leaves bring three junimos into the logo to wave as well. Ten on the lower right screw of the W let loose a cloud of butterflies. A few clicks in the bottom left corner of the title box pick up a small happy face, and dropping that into the hole in the R covers the box in foliage and sends parrots flying out of it. On the loading screen, clicking the logo opens its eyes, takes the sunglasses off and makes a noise like a duck, and the logo turns up in green now and then instead. The game also counts how many times it has been started, and the little message in the corner changes as the count climbs, running from a controller reminder through a handful of tips to a bare heart, a challenge to finish the arcade game without dying, and eventually a note of congratulation.
The end-of-day screen has its own small sky. Santa crosses the top of it with a few reindeer on the twenty-fourth of Winter. On most other dry evenings a saucer may drift across instead, and loitering on the screen makes it likelier. On the twenty-seventh, a dry evening can put a full moon in the top right corner, and eleven clicks on it bring out the face in it.
Character creation hides two lines of text that only surface much later. Entering ConcernedApe as the favourite thing puts an extra line into the note that comes up as a Stardrop goes down, and so does any favourite thing containing the word Stardew, as long as the capital letter is there. Certain punctuation keys typed into those fields produce symbols and sounds of their own, among them a heart, a pair of arrows, a star and the anger mark familiar from Japanese comics.
Several of the townspeople keep lines that almost never play. Marnie's supply counter has a vanishingly small chance of sighing that she had hoped the opening door was Lewis, and both she and Robin can greet a visitor with half of his name before catching themselves. Pierre asks whether the wallet came along, Gus suggests that a drink is in order, and Gunther approves of the smell of dirt. Four hearts of friendship also turn each villager's portrait in the gift log into a short animation, different for every character, played by clicking the sprite.
Elliott's piano answers to the right notes. Playing the opening of the valley's own theme while he is working at his desk makes him turn round with a heart over his head, and the tune comes out of four keys in the order two, four, three, two, three, four, two, one. In a shared save there is a quiet joke buried under it: a farmer whose hidden multiplayer number happens to divide by 111 produces off-key music all game, the piano included, and even the music emote comes out as a sour strum.
Two household oddities round the collection off. A glass of Milk or a Cookie left out on a table on the eve of the Feast of the Winter Star is gone by morning, replaced with a Mystery Box, and only one swap happens however many tables are laid. Slimes hatched in strange places behave strangely: a slime incubated in town greets the residents by name and gets greeted back, and a slime hatched inside the farmhouse gives a spouse a great deal to say while trying to kill it.
Notes
The lonely stone is the purest joke in the game. It sits on the map south-west of the beach pier and can be made out from the dock, clicking it on the map plays a rock noise, and that is the end of it. No villager mentions it and nothing in the game explains it.
Very rarely a green creature surfaces south of the main dock at the beach, drifts for a moment and sinks away southwards. The same creature turns up again in the last of Krobus's heart scenes, where it carries him on its tentacles, which is the only hint the game offers about what it is.
The Secret Woods hold a trade rather than a puzzle. The weathered statue among the ruins there asks only for the sweetest taste, and a Sweet Gem Berry handed over earns a Stardrop, once in a save.
All Collections
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
