Summary
InStardew Valley, players become cute, pixellated farmers in a cozy town by the sea, building the farm of their dreams. What starts out as an empty field filled with weeds and branches can soon become a prosperous expanse of nature and profit. But what’s the point in spending all that effort on a farm without also making it look good?
Decorating the farm is a time-honored tradition in this 2016 indie classic. There are plenty of items players can buy and place wherever they please. However, one of the best ways to spend all those hard-earned resources is to craft decorations from scratch. There are plenty of crafting recipes to choose from, most of them with some utility on top of aesthetics. Here aresome of the best DIY projects the game has to offer.
How to Obtain:
Robin’s 6-Heart Event
A few years back, there was that real-life staircase that played different notes when people stepped on it, like a giant piano. The goal of it was to use the power of music to encourage people to use the stairs instead of the escalator. Well, these blocks are like theStardew Valleyequivalent of that.
All players have to do is set them down, right-click to change the pitch, then just walk past them to hear a little musical note. Set up abunchof them, and players can set up little ditties all over their farm. Special shoutout to the player who used theFlute Blockand Drum Blocks toplay “Take on Me” by a-ha.
Pierre’s stand at the Spirit’s Eve Festival
Let’s all agree:pumpkins are a mainstay of the fall season. Love them or hate them, they’re everywhere. It’s a busy time for farmers, growing all those pumpkins for cooking, carving, or turning them into delicious seasonal drinks. Surely, no townsfolk would mind if the farmer kept just a few pumpkins for themselves, especially if it’s to give their farm the perfect autumnal vibe.
Everyone loves a goodJack-O-Lantern. They look good on a rustic porch, they emit a faint bit of light on those shorter days, and they’re easy to make! The only downside is they turn to mush when winter finally comes, but there’s always next year.
Recipe unlocked at Foraging Level 4
It’s an unspoken rule among cozy gamers that mushrooms are cute. They bring the forest to mind, and they’re just so round and squishy. And so, cozy gamers everywhere rejoiced whenStardew Valley’s1.6 updateintroduced theMushroom Log. Every couple of days, it blooms with cute purple and red shrooms.
What’s even better is that the Mushroom Log’s spore produce can beput into the dehydratorfor some major profits. So players had better start crafting! Money doesn’t grow on trees; it grows on logs.
Gus’ 5-Heart Event
Stardew Valleyhas a marvelous original soundtrack that perfectly captures that small-town vibe. It’s the perfect thing to listen to for some relaxation. But sometimes players have a specific track in mind they want to listen to while farming.
Thankfully, the local Stardrop Saloon proprietor has the perfect solution. TheMini-Jukeboxis a cute little decoration that lets players listen to whichever earworm they like while they till the fields. It also has a randomizer option, if players prefer to listen to their playlist on shuffle rather than repeat.
Recipe unlocked at Mining Mastery
Many players have a dedicated area on their farm for all their mining and forging supplies. Some furnaces here, a chest there. But what really ties the look together is this guy right here.
TheStatue of the Dwarf Kingis so much more than an impressive bit of stonework. He’s also a daily buff machine, granting players two different mining benefits every day. This can be anything from an increased chance of finding ladders and ore to being completely immune to bomb damage.
Recipe unlocked upon completing “A Curious Substance” special order
Out of all the crafting recipes on this list, theMini-Obeliskis by far the hardest one to unlock. Once the “A Curious Substance” special order is active, slaying ghosts will have a 9.5% chance ofdropping the required Ectoplasm.
Even so, the reward is worth it. These celestial-looking structures look good outdoors all year long, but it gets even better. Place two down anywhere on the farm, and players can instantly teleport from one to the other. This little addition is perfect for when a farm grows too big for its own good.
Recipe received in the mail after Caroline’s 2-heart event
Caroline has the right idea: tea plants are beautiful and relaxing! Planting them around a farm is the perfect way to spruce up the place. They produce tea leaves during the last week of each season, which isn’t the most profitable source of income. However, players have found another use for them.
There’s no way to walk through a fully-grown tea plant, which means they make for beautiful hedge-like fencing. Farmers can plant lines of them around their barns and coops to give their open pastures a lovely overgrown vibe.
