A major gameplay aspect of Stardew Valley is befriending the locals. Doing so provides rewards like recipes, random gifts in the mail, cutscenes that offer insight into the characters, and even a potential spouse.
You can gain this friendship slowly but surely by speaking to a person every single day, but this takes far too long for anyone to try. Instead, the best method is to give them gifts that show how much you care. But not every character in Stardew Valley likes every item you can give them, and some days are far more effective for gift-giving than others.
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Updated on April 18, 2025, by Usama Ali: Stardew Valley’s Update 1.6 not only introduced a ton of new content, it also adjusted most of the villagers’ gift preferences. For long-time players who have memorized everyone’s favorite items, the update breathes new life into the game by prompting players to relearn and adapt their gifting strategies. The introduction of the Bookseller as a regular vendor adds a whole new category of giftable items: Books. We’ve updated this guide to reflect all of these changes, so that players can continue to deepen their relationships with the beloved residents of Pelican Town.
How to Choose The Right Gift For Everyone in Stardew Valley
Like in real life, gifts are very personal in Stardew Valley. Each villager has their own specific loves, likes, dislikes, and even hates. Here are some ways you can figure out the individual preferences of everyone in the Valley.
Check The Gift Log
Each time you give someone a new gift, the game will record their reaction in the Gift Log. To see a character’s gift log, check the Social tab in the menu, then click on the character’s name. You’ll see their liked and loved gifts in a special “Character’s Favorites” section, and you can see their reactions to every known item in pages devoted to each item category.
Find All The Secret Notes
Another way to learn about likes and dislikes is to find all the Secret Notes in Stardew Valley. You get access to Secret Notes by completing the quest “A Winter Mystery” and getting the special Magnifying Glass. Many of the Secret Notes lay out some of the special items each villager loves, and after reading these notes, the items will appear on their gift logs. For instance, Secret Note #2 spells out favorite gifts for five characters, including Sam.
Look At Universal Loves and Likes
Another fantastic way to start is by looking at Universal Loves and Likes. These are items that most villagers will react positively to, and make perfect gifts to boost your friendship with them.
Here’s a list of all the Universally Loved items in Stardew Valley (and their player exceptions):
The Stardrop Tea grants 250 Friendship points, which is equal to one full heart. This makes it one of the best gifts to give anyone in the Valley.
The Universally Liked gifts include entire categories of items, mostly rare or high-quality items. Here’s a list of all of these items, along with certain exceptions.
|
Universally Liked Items |
Item Exceptions |
|---|---|
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All Artisan Goods |
Oil, Void Mayonnaise |
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All Cooked Meals |
Fried Eggs, Bread, Strange Bun, Seafood Pudding |
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All Flowers |
Poppy |
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All Foraged Minerals |
Quartz (vaies by villager) |
|
All Fruit Tree Fruits |
Banana and Mango (varies by villager) |
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All Gems |
Prismatic Shard (it is Universally Loved) |
|
All Vegetables, including Fiddlehead Fern |
Hops, Tea Leaves, Wheat, Unmilled Rice |
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– |
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– |
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– |
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– |
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– |
Life Elixir
Maple Syrup
Piña Colada
Rainbow Shell
Treasure Chest
The Best Stardew Valley Villager Gift Guide
Each character in Stardew Valley also has a unique set of likes and loves that appeal to them and them alone. Don’t stress too much about getting it right every time, especially early on. Even a “liked” gift helps build friendship over time.
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For the sake of brevity, the following list will only cover what each character uniquely loves and likes:
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Character |
Loves |
Likes |
|---|---|---|
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Abigail |
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Alex |
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Caroline |
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Clint |
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Demetrius |
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Dwarf |
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Elliot |
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Emily |
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Evelyn |
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George |
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Gus |
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Haley |
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Harvey |
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Jas |
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Jodi |
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Kent |
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Krobus |
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Leah |
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Leo |
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Lewis |
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Linus |
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Marnie |
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Maru |
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Pam |
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Penny |
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Pierre |
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Robin |
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Sam |
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Sandy |
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Sebastian |
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Shane |
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Vincent |
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Willy |
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Wizard |
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Amethyst
Leek
Truffle Oil
Fairy Rose
Fried Eel
Sturgeon
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How to Make the Most of Gifting
Each character will only accept one gift per day, and two gifts per week. There are only two exceptions to this: a spouse will accept one gift per day with no weekly limit, and every character will gladly take a gift on their birthday even if you already gave them two earlier in the week.
The amount of points gained or lost from a gift depends on three things: the character’s reaction, the item’s quality, and the timing of the gift given.
Reaction
A character’s friendship rating can go up by 80 points by giving them a loved item or down by 40 points by giving them a hated item. Keeping in mind that speaking to a character once per day adds 20 points, you can boost a relationship by 300 points in one week by giving a character as much attention as possible. Each relationship heart represents 250 points, so nine weeks of attention and loved gifts will bring a relationship from 0 to 10.
Quality
A high-quality item multiplies its effect. For instance, giving Maru a normal strawberry gives her relationship 80 points, while giving her an iridium-grade strawberry gives her 120 points. High-quality items also make relationship losses worse: give Jas some iridium goat cheese and her relationship will go down by 60 points.
Timing
Special days are more meaningful and multiply the effect of a gift. A gift given on Winter Star is worth five times as much as normal, and a gift given on the character’s birthday is worth eight times as much.
This stacks with the item quality bonus. If you give any character aside from Penny an iridium-grade rabbit’s foot on their birthday, their relationship will go up by a total of 960 points (or 980 including the daily conversation bonus). That’s almost four hearts from a single gift.
One other way to make the most of a gift is during the Luau potluck. Lewis encourages players to add something to the soup before the governor tastes it, and if the item is high-quality and expensive you can get up to 120 relationship points with every attending character. On the other hand, a poor-quality or poisonous item will drop every relationship by up to 100 points. These bonuses and losses are universal, so even Harvey will like it if you toss in some iridium goat cheese.
One last thing to keep in mind is relationship decay. For most characters, this decay is small (-2 points each day you don’t interact with someone), and reaching the maximum relationship level will stop this decay completely. However, a girlfriend or boyfriend’s relationship will decay by 10 points per day until you reach 10 hearts, and a spouse’s relationship decays by 20 points every day no matter what.
Gift-giving is a surprisingly tricky business, but a calendar and a few rabbits in a coop can help you eventually make everyone happy (even if you ignore them for most of the year).
Stardew Valley
- Released
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February 26, 2016
- ESRB
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E for Everyone (Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Simulated Gambling, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco)
- Developer(s)
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ConcernedApe
- Publisher(s)
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ConcernedApe
- Engine
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Proprietary
