The Alleyway Buffet
| The Alleyway Buffet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Book |
| Location | Pelican Town; Bookseller |
| Sell Price | 3000g |
The Alleyway Buffet is hidden in the one place nobody thinks to look: a golden bin in a clearing behind the eastern fence of Pelican Town. Reading it makes every Garbage Can in town a fifth more likely to hold something, which turns the daily round of lids into a habit worth keeping rather than a curiosity. Getting to the book needs a steel axe and a steel pickaxe to clear a log and a boulder off the path, so it waits on tool upgrades rather than on money. Linus loves being handed a copy, which is about as neat a piece of characterisation as the game manages. Later copies pay out foraging experience, so a spare from the Bookseller is never wasted.
The in-game description reads: You have a greater chance to find items in the trash.
Overview
The way in is easy to walk past. Outside the Blacksmith's, just north of the minecart track, a gap in the eastern fence leads out of town. Past the gap the path is barred by a fallen log and a boulder, which need a steel or better axe and a steel or better pickaxe respectively. Beyond those sits a small clearing, and the golden Garbage Can is tucked behind a tree at the far end of it. Searching the bin hands over the book.
Garbage cans themselves are one of the game's quietly generous systems. Each can in town can be searched once a day, every can draws from its own loot table, and what comes up ranges from Trash and a Soggy Newspaper to a Diamond, a Gold Bar or a cooked dish nobody else will sell. There is a chance the lid flies off, in which case it can be worn as a hat. There is also a social cost: a villager who catches a farmer with their arm in a bin loses a little friendship over it, unless they happen to approve.
A fifth more chance on every one of those searches is a real improvement across a year, particularly in the early game when a Gold Bar out of a bin is a genuine windfall. It also sits well with a routine that already involves walking into town for the shops, since the cans line the route.
For anyone who never got round to the fence, the book joins the Bookseller's rotation in the third year, showing up on roughly one table in ten at a price that makes the walk into town look very cheap indeed. Most farmers take the walk.
The first reading claims the power and lists it on the Special Items and Powers tab, and every later copy read gives a hundred points of foraging experience, which pairs sensibly with a book about finding things.
Gifts
These villagers love receiving The Alleyway Buffet as a gift.
| Villager | Image |
|---|---|
| Linus | 
|
Notes
Linus loves this one, and there is nobody it suits better: he lives alone in a tent on the mountainside and gets by on what the valley gives him rather than on what the shops sell. Penny loves it too, Elliott likes it, and Alex dislikes it.
Through the spool of the Sewing Machine with a dyeable garment in the feed, the book dyes cloth a dark grey.
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 |