Whether you decide to help the Junimos restore the Community Center or purchase all the town repairs from Joja Mart, it'll take a while to finish Stardew Valley's main objective. It's a hard challenge to finish within the first year, but not impossible. It takes most people at least a couple of years.
How you get there depends on your playstyle, and many things that are late-game objectives might be completed by some people before the Community Center or Joja's community developments. If you're not ready to move on from Stardew Valley to other farming games just yet, here are some goals you can take on after you beat the game.
Updated on August 5, 2023 by David Kinder: Stardew Valley is a game that never gets old. When it first launched back in 2016, many of its fans probably would've never imagined they'd spend thousands of hours replaying a farming simulator. For those who don't know where to go next, use this list as a starting point. Like Minecraft, you often create your own goals to enhance your experience. Don't forget about mods! Give yourself something to do while you wait for 1.6 to eventually launch.
19 Uncover Secrets
Stardew Valley has an array of little Easter eggs, hidden secrets, and spooky mysteries. From strange objects appearing on your farm to secret messages, there are a ton of wonderful things that you can stumble upon or seek out.
Before beating the game, it's easy to be laser-focused on the day-to-day operation of your farm and what have you. However, once you have more free time, you should explore more of the world. It's more than a farming simulator! Don't forget you can slay monsters, collect exotic fish, and mine for materials.
18 Ginger Island
Have you explored Ginger Island? After finishing the Community Center or Joja Community Development Form, you'll learn from Willy that he has an old boat he wants to fix up. Once you help him fix it by bringing the right materials, he can take you to Ginger Island.
This tropical paradise contains so much to do and see that it can be overwhelming: there's a new dungeon, a new NPC to meet and befriend, new quests, new fish, new crops, and even an entire second farm for you to use how you like.
17 Find The Statue Of True Perfection
Spoilers ahead: While on Ginger Island, you might notice a door with a Golden Walnut on it. Behind that door is Qi's Walnut Room. Once you access it, you'll be able to complete quests for Mr. Qi and earn Qi Gems. There's also a perfection tracker here, which keeps a record of the tasks you need to complete to achieve 100 percent completion in the game.
Once you reach this lofty goal, you'll earn the Statue of True Perfection. This cool statue produces a Prismatic Shard every single day, so it's something worth working toward.
16 Complete The Monster Eradication Goals
The various mines of Stardew Valley are full of monsters, from slimes to skeletons. Gil and Marlon, the two men who make up the Adventurer's Guild, hope to change this by slaying as many of them as possible. They'll reward you for your help if you kill some monsters as you dig for ore and gems.
The Monster Eradication chart, which can be seen next to Marlon's counter, will keep track of what you've killed. It's possible to complete this before finishing the game, but it's definitely something you should tackle when you get the chance.
15 Find Every Secret Note
Stardew Valley's developer ConcernedApe added secrets and Easter eggs that expand the world's lore. One of these secrets is the Secret Notes. You can unlock this feature by walking to the bus stop on a Winter day between 6am and 4pm and tracking down the "Shadow Guy" who flees the scene.
Some ways to find Secret Notes are cutting weeds, fishing, and slaying monsters. Some notes detail NPCs' favorite items, while others act as a treasure map or cryptic puzzle. On Ginger Island, you'll also find another type of item similar to the Secret Notes called Journal Scraps.
14 Finish The Museum Collection
There are only two ways to find items for the Museum. One way is looking for artifact spots throughout the Valley. They look like little worms. The other way is while adventuring through the mines. You'll have to crack open gem nodes. Sometimes you'll end up getting the same items.
There are 95 total items to donate to the Museum — 42 artifacts and 53 minerals. It's an incredibly daunting task, but if you want to complete everything Stardew has to offer, you'll have to get hunting! You'll feel so accomplished once you find and donate everything.
13 Make Your Farm Look Great
It's tough to renovate a farm in Stardew Valley. Most of the time, people fill their farms with builds and crops. Not that many people have spent their time worrying about farm aesthetics over its function. They'd rather get the maximum amount of money.
After completing the game and working toward the later goals, try reformatting your layout! Many people use bombs to clear out all of the stuff on the farm and visit Robin or the Wizard's magic book to move the buildings around. Try to build around a theme or make it look nice!
12 Unlock The Movie Theater
Leveling up your friendship with some of the villagers is undeniably challenging. You could give them their favorite gift, but grinding for each villager will get tiring, so why not take them to see their favorite movie? You can earn a heart each week if you play your cards right.
The movie theater is unlocked either by finishing the Missing Bundle, if you completed the Community Center, or by purchasing it from the Joja upgrades. The Missing Bundle is much more challenging since it requires some of the rarest items in the game, including Caviar, a Prismatic Shard, and more.
11 Beat Junimo Kart
There are few things as uniquely fun and charming as games within video games. The Stardrop Saloon has an arcade machine tucked away that allows you to play Junimo Kart, but it only works if you have the Skull Key. Junimo Kart is a sidescroller where you hop from one rail to another.
Beating Progress Mode requires you to play through six levels that progressively become more challenging than the last. You get more than bragging rights for winning. You'll also get a Jumino Kart Arcade System mailed to your farm. Now you can game at home!
10 Unlock Achievements
Stardew Valley comes with its own built-in achievements list. Like any game, some achievements are straightforward, while others will sap your time and patience. We recommend finishing the game first, as it'll make some achievements easier to obtain.
A few of Stardew Valley's more challenging achievements include completing the Museum's collection, shipping 15 of every item, and reaching the bottom of the Mines. Focusing on these will take you through many adventures and new developments on your farm. Start tackling them once you've finished the game, and you'll get a beautiful menu full of stars for your achievements.
9 Reach Level 100 Of Skull Cavern
After finishing the Winter Mystery quest, you can start collecting Secret Notes. Depending on your luck, Secret Note #10 might be the last note you need. Unfortunately, you have to complete Qi's Challenge first. Once you reach level 25 in Skull Cavern, you'll have to reach the bottom to find your illusory surprise.
Reaching level 100 in Skull Cavern is no small feat, but once you succeed, Mr. Qi will give you a potion that raises your maximum health by 25 points. If you don't feel like struggling as Mr. Qi intended, stairs will be your greatest ally.
8 Max Friendship With Every Villager
You can bond with more than the villagers! Krobus, Krobus, the Wizard, and the Dwarf can also become your best friends. You can raise your friendship level to ten hearts with the villagers that can't be married, 14 with your spouse, and eight with bachelors/bachelorettes that you aren't dating (ten if you are).
Raising everyone's bonds is no easy task. You'll have to chat with everyone pretty regularly and try to memorize all of their favorite gifts. Some villagers have universal likes that are fairly easy to come by, but a loved gift will level your friendship faster.
7 Buy The Gold Clock
Are you trying to flex your wealth? You can do that with some of the most expensive items in the game. For example, obelisks are 1,000,000 gold each. However, Gold Clock is the ultimate show of wealth. After completing "Goblin Problem" for the Wizard, you can buy the clock for 10,000,000g.
Start planning now because you probably won't get it before finishing the main story. Your best bet is a lot of Ancient Fruit sales, but you may never financially recover from this. It stops fences on your farm from decaying and prevents debris from appearing.
6 Get The Return Scepter
In Stardew Valley's late game, money becomes background noise. You can splurge on things no farmer would ever buy in their first year. Some luxuries like The Return Scepte are worth the hassle. It costs 2,000,000g in Krobus's shop, but it's incredibly useful.
This item will warp you to your home at the touch of a button and never wears out, unlike warp totems. Owning a Return Scepter is both a convenience and a status symbol. Besides, who wants to waste time walking home? Horses aren't good enough when you can teleport at will.
5 Collect Every Rarecrow
Any collector knows how satisfying it feels to have a complete collection of the subject they love. Anyone who's obtained a Rarecrow in the game has seen the message urging you to "collect them all!"
Not only are Rarecrows much more stylish than a regular scarecrow, but collecting them all will unlock the Deluxe Scarecrow, which has a much wider crop protection radius. Rarecrows are often sold at festivals, though some are only available by donating to the Museum or winning big at the Casino. If you haven't finished your collection, it's another great goal to check off your list.
4 Become Fabulously Wealthy
Stardew Valley has a surplus of content, but at the end of the day, it's still a farming simulator. Making money is the overarching thread that connects almost every aspect of the game. If you've finished the Joja projects or Community Center, why not turn to becoming a full tycoon?
If you can afford it, it's fun to save up all the items you want to sell for a whole season and then dump them all in the shipping box on the final day. This way, you can watch huge numbers roll in, rewarding you for your hard work all season.
3 Enjoy Life In The Valley
Stardew Valley can often seem more like a life simulator. You'll find you do very little farming much of the time. However, you will form relationships with the people of Pelican Town and the valley itself.
If you've completed the game, nothing's stopping you from escaping your real life to the idyllic world of Stardew. Spend time hanging out with your favorite villagers, play Junimo Kart and Journey of the Prairie King, or spend your days fishing at the beach with Willy. There's a ton to do and no end-game to stop you from kicking back forever.
2 Start Over
There is an almost unlimited number of ways to complete Stardew Valley. Every time you start a new file, you can marry a new person, pick a different farm layout, focus on different productions, and so much more.
So, if you've completed the game and don't have much else to do, why not just start over? Many people have spent their time on multiple files, sometimes even simultaneously. Give yourself a challenge of some sort, like animals only or no mining, or roleplay as Linus's long-lost nephew. Your options are endless, so go wild.
1 Try Out Mods!
When you feel like you've exhausted all your options, it's time to consider the wide world of mods. Some mods overhaul the entire game. Other mods add new villages, buildings, crops, and so on. You can pick and choose whatever mods fit your interest and experience a brand-new game.
For example, the Stardew Valley Expanded mod enriches the adventure with more storylines and quests. Did you feel like siding with Joja didn't do enough? Well, SVE gives you all that and more. The SVE mod is designed to give you an experience you had when you first started Stardew Valley.