Stardrop Tea
| Stardrop Tea | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Collection |
| Location | Mayor's Manor; Golden Fishing Treasure Chests; Raccoon |
| Sell Price | 77g |
Stardrop Tea is a present and nothing else. Nobody in the valley can drink it, including the farmer, but everybody loves being handed one, and a single cup is worth a whole heart of friendship on an ordinary day and three hearts on a birthday. Better still, it sidesteps the rule that limits how many presents a villager will accept in a week, so a pocketful of tea can be poured into one relationship in a single afternoon. It comes out of Mayor Lewis's prize machine, out of the golden chests that surface on lucky fishing days, and out of the raccoon family's later requests. For anyone working towards the friendship side of Perfection, it is the most powerful item in the game.
Overview
The prize machine supplies it dependably. Stardrop Tea sits early in the fixed run of prizes, which means a farm that has been doing odd jobs and special orders will usually see its first cup long before it could find one any other way, and the tea comes round again on the machine's repeating cycle afterwards. That turns a steady habit of helping people into a steady supply of goodwill.
Fishing provides the rest. The golden treasure chests that come up on high-luck casts hold tea often enough to notice, which gives a rainy day at the river a second purpose. The raccoon family at the Giant Stump will also hand one over among the rewards for their later requests, once their earlier ones have been worked through.
What makes the tea extraordinary is the gift limit it ignores. Villagers normally accept two presents a week, which puts a hard ceiling on how fast any relationship can grow, and that ceiling is what makes the friendship category of Perfection such a slow grind. Stardrop Tea is not counted against the limit at all. Several cups can go to the same person on the same day, on top of their two ordinary gifts, and each one lands a full heart. A farmer with a chest of tea can lift somebody from strangers to good friends in a week rather than a season.
The birthday multiplier makes it better again. Handed over on a villager's birthday, or during the secret gifting at the Feast of the Winter Star, a cup is worth three hearts instead of one. That is more than an ordinary loved gift manages on a birthday, which only reaches the equivalent of a bit over two hearts at best quality. The tea can be given alongside a normal birthday present, and both get the day's bonus.
The reaction is a nice touch. Every villager has a line for the tea that is different from their usual delight at a loved gift, and they answer with a musical note over their head instead of the usual heart, which is the game's way of marking the tea as something special rather than merely welcome.
Notes
The sensible plan is to hoard rather than spend. Cups arrive slowly and birthdays come round on a known calendar, so a chest of tea opened on the right mornings is worth several times the same tea handed out at random.
The best targets are the villagers who hold a save back. Kent arrives late and therefore starts from nothing, and the few townsfolk nobody finds charming tend to be the last names on the friendship list. A couple of cups each is a far shorter route than two years of polite conversation.
All Collections
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
