If a resource is not listed, it is a liked gift. If the player is able to do so, they can gift them a resource to make a friend and earn heart tokens. A loved gift will earn 2 hearts whereas a liked gift will earn 1. If the current season matches the villager’s birthday, players can earn an extra bonus heart. If the mermaid’s pendant epic item is obtained players can marry a villager to give a bonus action during the action phase.

Today I’m very excited to announce something special: today we release the official Stardew Valley Board Game! This is the very first merchandise project where I’m acting as publisher from start to finish. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Isn’t Stardew a slow, chill farming social game?”. Yes, you’re right but the board game takes that and throws it on its head and makes it a race against time where you have to finish a certain amount of difficult tasks that take time and concentration to get done. I know that might put some people off, but this is no small game. The game takes up to 2 hours to complete and is constant planning and resource management but with a theme like this how can you hate that!There’s a goal that encourages fishing, another that pushes you to make friends, and since only half of Grandpa’s Goals are used in each game, every playthrough is different. To reveal a room in the Community Centre, players can spend an action at the Community Centre in Town and spend heart tokens equal to the number of players. They can then reveal the leftmost bundle card, starting with the Crafts Room. Donating to the Community Centre requires players to spend an action at the Community Centre and donate as many of the required resources as they are able. If bundles become impossible during the game, they can be replaced by spending more hearts. The Bundles goals and what they could be so there is no way of telling which ones you’ll draw, and it makes the game different on each playthrough. Farmin’ Solo Stardew Valley is a co-op game where players take on different specialised roles. Players choose their profession and take the corresponding player mat. Players then select which tool type they would like to claim and take all the tool cards relating to that tool.

Five years later, without any real warning, ConcernedApe teams up with Cole Madeiros to make Stardew Valley: The Board Game. It sells out in less than 24 hours, leaving board gamers everywhere demanding a second edition. That edition is finally here, and while there’s no denying the original’s runaway success, is the board game as magical as its predecessor, and does it bring anything new to the franchise? Livin’ Off The Land If you’ve never played the original video game then I would still say that this is perfect for you (and so would many others based on it constantly being sold out) and is a really fun game. The board game is co-op and is quite challenging too so don’t let the cutesy stylised art throw you off, this game will make you think and strategize to get to win. The challenge to catch one legendary fish per player can be almost impossible at higher player counts because fish are drawn randomly. If one of those legendary fish is at the bottom of the fish bag, you might never see it! In contrast, getting to level twelve of the mine is easy with four players, but a real challenge in solo mode. Speaking of skills, the game categorises players by giving each player an expertise which could be farming, mining, foraging, or fishing. These allow players to focus on certain tasks as they get bonuses for their respective roles, and they will get specific role-based skills and items throughout their time playing. This in my opinion is a great addition to the game as it stops new players from being totally overwhelmed by all the possibilities and options given to them when starting the game and instead gives them a crutch to stand on where they can focus on their one skill and build up their knowledge as they play. This aspect of the game also gives a lot of replay-ability to the game as players will want to experience playing as another certain roles to see the differences in gameplay and strategy.

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But is this difference bad? I appreciate that this is a surprisingly heavy game under the fluffy theme. It would have been easy to slap the Stardew brand on a Monopoly board and call it a day, but the developers challenged themselves with something more and the result is a lot of fun. To obtain hearts, players must make friends with the other villagers in Town. Spend 1 action in Town to turn over a Villager card. Each Villager will tell you what types of gifts they love and hate by the left and right hand sides of their card. There are plenty of ways to spend actions on a turn in Stardew Valley, and Grandpa’s Goals direct the focus of a game. If you have a goal of raising animals, you’ll need to build a barn. This means you’ll be chopping wood and focusing on making money. If your goal is to restore the museum, you’ll want to visit the mine or forage for buried artifacts.