Stardew Valley: An Early Look At Solo vs Co-op

Recently I finally started playing a cute little comfy game you might have heard of called Stardew Valley. It is a pixel-art farming simulation where you escape the endless cycle of corporate office life and take over a farm that your grandfather left to you. You arrive and the farm is ridden with weeds and trees that you will have to clean up before you can even think about starting your farm. As you explore the town and its surrounding areas, you will meet the residents, explore a mine, and even fish at a beach. There is something for everyone, and playing with multiple people makes things even more enjoyable.

My SOLO Experience

After having a close friend beg me to play Stardew with them, I finally broke down and started my own farm. I wanted to get used to the controls and better understand what the game really was before getting thrown into a coop game with someone with over 300 hours invested over multiple farms. I took a day to just go all in and really have fun. I spent around 3.5 hours growing my farm. This put me, in the game's time, about halfway through the Spring season. For those who are new to this game, you start out in Spring and work your way through each season, with each season getting 28 days. I had a blast getting sucked into all of the aspects of Stardew. I was having fun growing my crops, but I was sad that I could never get enough money to get some farm animals. I loved going in the mines and would spend whole days just mining away until it got too late or I was running low on energy. I did find out the hard way what time of night you pass out (it's 2 AM if you wanted to know). The punishment for letting your character pass out isn't too bad, but watching your little pixel person sit down and fall asleep right in front of your house is a really sad thing to witness.

As I was going through my gameplay, I was struggling really hard to earn money and get everything I wanted done. The day seemed to go by too fast and I always felt like I was behind. I never was able to get enough money to upgrade my backpack, never got any additional buildings on my farm, and couldn't even scrape enough materials together to make a furnace. This was kind of frustrating seeing how one of my goals, when I started, was I wanted to get some farm animals. In ways to make money, I would plant as many crops as I could (I went with a lot of potatoes after reading they were a good choice), and after watering them in the morning, I would go and fish to try and earn more money.

This game is still great and I love it and will continue to work on my poor solo farm, but I do have to say, without a doubt, that playing with friends makes the experience so much better.

My CO-OP Experience

The weekend after I began my adventures in Stardew Valley, my friend Amy and I finally started up a co-op farm. We picked the Wilderness Farm to spice things up (as it gets dark, monsters will begin to spawn on your farm). Right away I learned some helpful hints that I, as a new player, could have used in my first run. The scythe does not drain your energy! This tip will save so much energy in the beginning when you try to get rid of all those weeds covering your farm.

Having two people starting out means that we had two batches of seeds to start our farm. We found our greenhouse and Amy suggested that it would be smart to have our outside farm close to our greenhouse. After getting our crops situated, we cleared out some of the trees on our farm and spent the first day just walking around to see what kind of farm we picked. Around 8 PM is when the monsters started showing up so we took our leave and went to bed.

As time passed, we were able to surpass where my solo farm was in even less time. I really enjoy the mining and fishing parts of the game while Amy enjoys tending to the crops and foraging (another thing I had no idea about in my personal run). The divide and concur strategy really worked and we were both able to upgrade our backpacks and get some new gadgets for the farm. By Summer, we already had chickens and cows and were working on expanding to get ducks and goats.

In total, we have played for around 14 hours on our co-op farm and have expanded to finally get out ducks, we will be getting goats soon as we have just finished expanding the barn. We have reached the bottom of the mines as well as completed multiple bundles for the community center.

Ending Thoughts

Stardew Valley is a relaxing game with an adorable art style. With the game being known as a farm simulator, that is something that I have never been able to really get into and enjoy. I was really worried that I would get bored a few hours in, but I was surprised in the best way when I found myself still wanting to play after each session. There is always something new you can buy for your farm or an area of town you can explore so the game never seems to hit that wall that makes you lose motivation to play.

I would say if you want to play this game and you have friends who also want to play, start a farm together. This makes things a lot more manageable and you can progress a lot faster. With this being a game where you move at your own pace, it's great to pick up a play for an hour or two with a group.