Stardew Valley

All the money achievements track total gold earned across the save, not what's in your pocket - spending doesn't set you back. 15,000g arrives during your first spring without trying: parsnips, potatoes and a bit of fishing do it. The ladder continues through Cowpoke, Homesteader, Millionaire and Legend.

Ten different fish species - fish the river, the mountain lake and the ocean across your first spring and this lands on its own. Crab pot catches count towards it too. First rung of the ladder to Ol' Mariner and eventually Master Angler.

50,000g total earned - cumulative, not banked. A decent first-summer crop run (blueberries or melons, replanted on time) sails past this on its own. Next rung: Homesteader.

100 fish caught in total - repeats count, this is volume not variety. A few crab pots checked daily quietly rack it up, and any Master Angler attempt (Master Angler) blows straight past it. No planning needed.

The first house upgrade from Robin: 10,000g + 450 wood gets you a kitchen (and cooking - Cook needs it). Save it for early autumn of year one if money's tight; it's the gateway to marriage, kids and the rest of the ladder up to Living Large.

Forty donations to Gunther's museum - minerals and artifacts. Crack open every geode with Clint, dig every artifact spot (the little wriggling worms), pan rivers, and fish up treasure chests. Donations stack fast in the first year; the full sweep is A Complete Collection, so donate everything new you find rather than selling it.

250,000g total earned. Year one with pumpkins in autumn and a few preserves jars gets you most of the way; once kegs come online (pale ale, wine) it's a formality. On the way to Millionaire.

Mine level 120. Take the lift five levels at a time, and go on days you can commit: food, a decent sword, and bombs from level 40 onward speed things up enormously. The lower third (purple slimes, shadow brutes) is where deaths happen, so keep your health topped up. Reaching the bottom earns the Skull Key for the Desert's Skull Cavern - and much later the same mines get a harder remix in Danger In The Deep.

24 different fish species. Fish each season's new arrivals in each water type and it comes naturally - remember rain changes what bites, and crab pots pad the list with shellfish for free. The full sweep is Master Angler, so nothing here is wasted effort.

Five hearts with anyone: two loved gifts a week plus a chat does it in a few weeks. Pick an easy target - most villagers love a Diamond, and nearly everyone likes cooked food from their favourites list. Birthdays give 8x friendship on a gift, so check the calendar outside Pierre's. First step to Cliques and the rest of the social ladder.

Level 10 in any one skill. Farming and Foraging arrive on their own; Fishing is the fastest to force (a few dedicated days of fishing does it, and feeds Master Angler anyway). Mining climbs quickly once you're bombing your way down for The Bottom. It'll almost certainly be your first skill to cap without trying - the full set is Master Of The Five Ways.

Fifteen different crafted items. Cheap and cheerful: torches, chests, wood fences, gates, sprinklers, scarecrows, paths - each recipe just needs crafting once. Skill level-ups hand you new recipes constantly, so this pops in the first season if you craft each new one as it arrives. The full horror is Craft Master, so keep the habit.

Ship 300 of a single crop. Pick a cheap, fast repeater and plant big: potatoes or blueberries do it inside a season or two, and hops practically do it by accident if you're brewing pale ale. Cranberries in autumn are another easy vehicle. It's total shipped across the save, not one harvest.

Ten hearts with someone. For a non-datable villager it's just the A New Friend routine continued; for a bachelor/bachelorette you'll need a bouquet from Pierre's (400g) at 8 hearts to unlock the last two. Ten hearts also unlocks their final heart event - some of the best writing in the game, so don't skip the cutscenes.

Ten 'Help Wanted' quests from the noticeboard outside Pierre's. A new one appears most days - item deliveries, slaying requests, fishing errands - and each pays gold plus friendship, so they're worth the detour anyway. Only accept what's convenient; the board refreshes daily. Forty of them is A Big Help.

1,000,000g cumulative. This is where artisan goods take over: a shed full of kegs running starfruit or ancient fruit into wine prints money, especially with the Artisan profession. Pops well before Legend on any completionist save.

Five hearts with four people. Same routine as A New Friend, times four: two loved gifts a week each, birthdays for the 8x bonus, and festivals for free chat points. Universally-loved gifts (Diamonds, Rabbit's Feet) keep it brainless. En route to Networking and Popular.

All three of Robin's house upgrades: the kitchen (Moving Up, 10,000g + 450 wood), the nursery level (50,000g + 150 hardwood - also a prerequisite for Full House), and finally the cellar (100,000g), which pops this and gives you casks for aging wine and cheese. The cellar pays for itself quickly if you're chasing Legend.

Thirty different crafted items - same habit as D.I.Y., just kept up: craft one of every recipe the moment a level-up or friendship letter hands it to you. Nothing needs seeking out at this stage; the real list-chasing waits at Craft Master.

Restore the Community Centre by completing all the Junimo bundles - the de facto main story. Mutually exclusive with Joja Co. Member Of The Year: buy a JojaMart membership and the centre becomes a warehouse, locking this out on that save. Do this one on your main farm and Joja on a throwaway.

The bundles want seasonal produce, fish, forage, minerals and animal goods, so read them early (the golden scroll icon opens the book) and hoard accordingly - the classics that catch people out are the seasonal fish and the Red Cabbage for the Dye Bundle (year-2 seed at Pierre's, or the Travelling Cart sooner). Full completion triggers a lovely cutscene, reopens the town from its Joja funk, and unlocks the Missing Bundle in the abandoned warehouse - the road to Two Thumbs Up.

Five hearts with ten people. By now you want a system: batch-produce a loved-or-liked gift (wine and cooked dishes travel well), keep a gifting rotation, and never skip a birthday (8x friendship). Coffee or Triple Shot Espresso helps you cover ground on gift rounds. Halfway house to Popular.

Level 10 in all five: Farming, Mining, Foraging, Fishing, Combat. Four of them happen through normal play; Combat is usually the laggard if you avoid the mines - a few Skull Cavern trips or dangerous-mines runs (Danger In The Deep) fix that quickly. Fishing is the one people force early; do it in bad weather when the farm doesn't need you. Also a requirement (Farmer Level 25) buried inside Perfection.

Five hearts with twenty villagers - effectively the whole town, including awkward customers like Sebastian (loves Frozen Tears, Sashimi) and the ones you never bump into. Sashimi is the great leveller: cheap to make from any fish, and liked by almost everyone. Two gifts a week each, birthdays prioritised, festivals attended. This also feeds the Great Friends requirement of Perfection, so nothing is wasted.

Win the grange display at the Stardew Valley Fair (Fall 16). Bring nine items, aim for variety and quality: items from at least six different categories (fruit, vegetables, fish, minerals, animal products, artisan goods, forage...), all gold or iridium quality. A display along those lines comfortably beats Pierre and pops the achievement when Lewis announces the result.

Not ready in year one? It returns every autumn - stash a box of your best iridium-quality bits through the year and it's a formality.

Fix Willy's boat to reach Ginger Island. The quest opens via a letter from Willy once the Community Centre (or Joja equivalent) is done - visit his back room, then supply 200 Hardwood, 5 Battery Packs and 5 Iridium Bars. The iridium is the gate: Skull Cavern runs or the Statue of Perfection cover it. Land on the island and this pops - and the whole late game (walnuts, Qi, Danger In The Deep, the last fish and recipes) opens up with it.

Ten different recipes cooked. You need a kitchen first - the house upgrade (Moving Up) - then work through whatever recipes you've learned from the Queen of Sauce TV show (check it every Sunday), skill levels and friendships. Fried Egg, Sashimi and the other one-ingredient dishes make the count trivial. Keep cooking each new recipe once for Sous Chef and eventually Gourmet Chef.

Ten hearts with eight people - the summit of the gifting grind. Non-datable villagers are simpler (no bouquet cap), and there's no shortage of easy ones: Linus, George, Evelyn and the kids all love common items. For datables, a bouquet at 8 hearts opens the path without committing you to anything. Batch gifts, work the birthday calendar, and it falls in a year or so of steady rounds.

Forty noticeboard quests - the continuation of Gofer, and pure routine: glance at the board outside Pierre's each morning and take anything you can fill from your chests. Deliveries you can satisfy from stock are effectively free money and friendship. It'll finish long before the collections do.

At the Luau (Summer 11), put something genuinely good in the communal soup - a high-quality, high-value item. An iridium or gold-star fruit, vegetable or cheese does it (gold-star Starfruit or Melon is the classic); the Governor beams, Lewis relaxes, achievement pops. Put in something cheap or foraged-off-the-floor and you'll get the other reaction, and a year to think about it - it comes back every summer.

10,000,000g total earned - the longest money grind in the game, and it wants an engine, not effort. The classic: fill the greenhouse (and Ginger Island farm) with ancient fruit, keg the lot into wine, age the best in cellar casks to iridium, and take the Artisan profession. Junimo huts harvest for you; you just bottle and sell. Let the in-game years roll - this pops eventually on any save that's chasing Perfection anyway.

Marriage first: 10 hearts with a bachelor/bachelorette (bouquet at 8), house upgraded at least once, then the Mermaid's Pendant from the Old Mariner - he stands on the tide-pool beach past the bridge on rainy days, 5,000g. Wedding is three days later.

Kids next: with the nursery upgrade (Living Large's second tier), your spouse will eventually ask if you want children - or you can adopt; both count. Two kids, each a couple of in-game weeks apart through the baby stages, and it pops. Same-sex marriages adopt automatically. Patience is the only ingredient.

The 'dangerous' mines are the regular 120 levels remixed with far nastier monsters. You unlock them late: during Mr. Qi's "Danger In The Deep" special order (Walnut Room, Ginger Island), or afterwards at will via the Shrine of Challenge on mine level 120. Reach level 100 during the Qi order, or level 120 with the shrine active, and it pops.

Treat it like a proper expedition: galaxy-tier weapon, plenty of food, bombs for the ore-heavy floors, and use the lift to break it into trips. The new monsters hit hard but drop generously - it's the best radioactive ore source in the game, so the trip pays for itself.

See any film at the Movie Theater. Unlocking the theatre is the real task: on the Community Centre route, complete the Missing Bundle in the abandoned JojaMart after Local Legend; on the Joja route it's a 500,000g purchase. Then buy a ticket (1,000g, from the box office), walk in, and enjoy the show - taking a villager whose taste matches the film earns bonus friendship, but solo counts fine.

Twenty-five different recipes. The Queen of Sauce (TV, Sundays - plus Wednesday reruns for anything missed) is the main tap; friendship letters and the Saloon fill the rest. Cook each new recipe once, immediately, and this ticks over without a dedicated session. The complete set is Gourmet Chef.

All 95 museum pieces. The minerals mostly come from geodes - keep every type (regular, frozen, magma, omni) and crack them with Clint; the artifacts come from worm-tile digging, fishing chests, monster drops and panning. The last few are always rare artifacts with drop rates designed to hurt - dinosaur eggs (Skull Cavern prehistoric floors, or fishing treasure), and the region-specific dig drops.

Two tips that save real time: check the collections tab to see what's missing and where it comes from, and donate before selling anything unfamiliar - buying replacements later isn't always possible. The 95th donation also hands you a Stardrop (Mystery Of The Stardrops).

The 'most powerful weapon' means an Infinity weapon: take a Galaxy weapon and forge it with three Galaxy Souls at the Volcano Forge on Ginger Island (plus the cinder shard cost).

The chain: get a Prismatic Shard, carry it to the Three Pillars in the Calico Desert to receive the Galaxy Sword (or buy the dagger/hammer variants from the Adventurer's Guild afterwards), then earn Galaxy Souls - 40 Qi Gems each at Qi's Walnut Room shop, or drops from Qi's combat special orders. Forge all three in and the Infinity weapon pops it. Expensive, late-game, and genuinely worth having for Danger In The Deep.

The corporate route: buy a JojaMart membership (5,000g), which converts the Community Centre into a warehouse, then purchase all five community development projects from the Joja form - Bus (40,000g), Minecarts (15,000g), Bridge (25,000g), Panning (20,000g) and Greenhouse (35,000g). About 140,000g all in.

Mutually exclusive with Local Legend on the same save - completing the Community Centre closes JojaMart for good. The standard play: keep your main save Junimo-side, then speedrun this on a second farm - a focused year of crops and mining funds it comfortably.

Every fish in the collection tab, including the five legendaries (Legend, Crimsonfish, Angler, Glacierfish, Mutant Carp) and the crab pot shellfish - though you can't do it on pots alone. The extended-family legendaries from Qi's quest do not count, mercifully.

The shape of it: fish each season's exclusives as they come round (season, weather, water and time of day all gate spawns - check the collection tab for gaps), do the mines levels for the cave fish, the Desert, the Witch's Swamp, and Ginger Island's handful. The legendaries want fishing level 10, an Iridium Rod, trap bobber and Seafoam Pudding buffs - Legend in the mountain lake (rain, spring) is the nastiest.

Miss a season's fish and it's just a year's wait, not gone - nothing here is permanently missable. Completing the collection also earns a Stardrop from Willy (Mystery Of The Stardrops).

All twelve Monster Eradication goals on the Adventurer's Guild board, roughly 2,600 kills in total:

• Slimes x1000 - everywhere; the Secret Woods and slime hutches help
• Void Spirits x150 - shadow brutes/shamans, mine levels 80+ and the dangerous mines
• Bats x200 - all mine depths
• Skeletons x50 - mine levels 70-79
• Cave Insects x80 - grubs and flies, early mine levels (bug meat funds your early game)
• Duggies x30 - the dirt-popping ones on early levels; walk the dirt patches
• Dust Sprites x500 - levels 40-79; they come to you
• Rock Crabs x60 - includes Lava Crabs and Iridium Crabs; whack suspicious rocks
• Mummies x100 - Skull Cavern; bombs stop them re-rising
• Pepper Rex x50 - Skull Cavern prehistoric floors; the slowest goal for most people
• Serpents x250 - Skull Cavern; they swarm, bring a fast weapon
• Magma Sprites x150 - Ginger Island volcano

Each goal pays out a unique reward from Gil, and the Danger In The Deep mines plus deep Skull Cavern dives clear most of the list on their own. Slimes and Pepper Rex are the two you'll finish last - a slime hutch and dino-floor bomb runs respectively.

Ship one of every shippable item - the whole shipping collection tab, from crops and forage through minerals, monster drops and artisan goods. The method is a habit, not a push: before selling anything through Pierre or Willy, drop one in the shipping bin first, and check the collections tab (shipping) for the greyed-out gaps.

The usual stragglers are the artisan variants (one of every jelly/pickle isn't needed - but each artisan type is), rare monster drops, and the odd seasonal forage you kept eating. Nothing is missable; anything absent just means one more of it through the bin. Also one of the pillars of Perfection, so it's worth doing methodically.

All seven Stardrops:

• Stardew Valley Fair - 2,000 star tokens at the shop (Fall 16; token-farm the games or bring a winning grange display for Blue Ribbon)
• Mines level 100 - in the chest
• Krobus's shop in the Sewers - 20,000g (Rusty Key from Gunther at 60 museum donations)
• Spouse - given at 12.5 hearts of marriage
• Old Master Cannoli in the Secret Woods - hand him a Sweet Gem Berry (grow a Rare Seed from the Travelling Cart)
• Museum - reward for 95 donations (A Complete Collection)
• Willy's mail - for completing the fish collection (Master Angler)

Each one permanently raises max energy, so grab the easy ones early rather than saving them. The museum and fishing drops are the long poles - everything else is money and calendar.

The raccoon questline from 1.6. After the meteor storm fells the giant tree in Cindersap Forest, pay Robin to rebuild the Giant Stump (100 Hardwood), and a raccoon moves in. He asks for themed item sets - often smoked fish, dried goods and preserves, so a Fish Smoker, Dehydrator and Preserves Jar earn their keep - with a new request roughly every 7 days after each is done.

Keep fulfilling requests and the family grows; the achievement lands at the ninth completed request (some report it a request earlier). Requests lean on the current season's produce, so just keep a varied larder and check back weekly.

Ship 15 of each of the 28 standard-season crops - flowers, fruit trees, Ancient Fruit, Sweet Gem Berry and the Ginger Island exclusives all don't count, so don't burn effort there.

The list: Spring - Parsnip, Potato, Cauliflower, Green Bean, Kale, Garlic, Rhubarb (Desert seeds), Strawberry (Egg Festival seeds), Coffee Bean. Summer - Melon, Tomato, Blueberry, Hot Pepper, Wheat, Radish, Red Cabbage, Corn, Hops, Starfruit (Desert). Autumn - Pumpkin, Eggplant, Bok Choy, Yam, Cranberries, Beet (Desert), Amaranth, Grape, Artichoke.

Gotchas: Red Cabbage seeds are year-2 at Pierre's (or the Travelling Cart earlier), Strawberry seeds only at the Egg Festival (buy plenty), Coffee Beans from the cart or dust sprites, and remember to ship them - kegs and jars don't count. Plant 15+ of everything in its season and tick the checklist here as you go.

Every cooking recipe, cooked at least once. The recipe sources: Queen of Sauce TV (Sundays, with Wednesday reruns - the recycler of anything you missed, so nothing is permanently lost), friendship mail, skill levels, the Saloon's shop, the Desert and Ginger Island vendors. Watch the telly religiously and check the collections tab for gaps - each recipe names its source when you hover it.

The awkward stragglers are the ones gated on friendship hearts with specific villagers and the island vendors, so this usually finishes late alongside the social grind. Keep one of every crop and fish in a chest and the actual cooking is an afternoon.

Read all 19 Books of Power (1.6 content) - the skill books and perk books, not the mountain of ordinary letters. Sources: the wandering Bookseller (visits twice a season - the town crier announces him), artifact spots and treasure chests, certain shops and quest rewards. The Bookseller stocks a rotating selection including the dear ones like the Book Of Stars, so bring money (some run 15,000-35,000g).

Each book only needs reading once, and duplicates re-grant their effect - nothing is missable, the checklist is just patience and gold. The Special Items & Powers menu shows which you've read.

Craft one of every crafting recipe - the completionist's spreadsheet job, and one of the pillars of Perfection. Recipes come from skill levels, friendship mail, shops (Robin, Krobus, the Desert Trader, Qi's Walnut Room, the Raccoon shop), special orders and festivals - so this finishes only after the skills are capped and the social rounds are done.

The collections tab (crafting) is your tracker: greyed-out means unlearned, learned-but-uncrafted shows a zero count. The classic stragglers are the Wedding Ring (multiplayer-only recipe - mercifully not required), the Qi-gem recipes, and the ones buried behind specific vendors on specific days. Craft each new recipe the day you learn it and the tail shrinks to a handful.

Beat Journey of the Prairie King - the arcade cabinet in the Stardrop Saloon - once, deaths allowed. Three worlds of twin-stick shooting, ~45 minutes, and your progress holds for the session even when you die (you restart the level, not the game).

What matters: keep moving diagonally, funnel enemies into lanes, and spend coins at the shops - boots and gun upgrades first. Learn the two bosses' patterns and don't hoard powerups; use them the moment a wave gets thick. Once you can clear it with deaths, the real monster is Fector's Challenge.

Reach the summit - which only opens at 100% on the perfection tracker (check it in Qi's Walnut Room on Ginger Island). The tracker wants, in rough order of pain:

• Ship every item (Full Shipment)
• Craft every recipe (Craft Master) and cook every recipe (Gourmet Chef)
• Catch every fish (Master Angler) and find every stardrop (Mystery Of The Stardrops)
• All Monster Eradication goals (Protector Of The Valley)
• Great Friends - max hearts with every villager (beyond Popular)
• Farmer level 25 (all skills capped, Master Of The Five Ways)
• All 130 golden walnuts found
• The four obelisks and the Gold Clock built - roughly 3.5 million gold of construction

The walnuts and the Gold Clock money are the true long poles, which is why Legend tends to arrive en route. When the tracker hits 100%, climb the path north of the railroad summit and enjoy the (perfect) ending. This is the whole game, distilled - expect year 4-5 at a natural pace.

The 'dangerous' mines are the regular 120 levels remixed with far nastier monsters. You unlock them late: during Mr. Qi's "Danger In The Deep" special order (Walnut Room, Ginger Island), or afterwards at will via the Shrine of Challenge on mine level 120. Reach level 100 during the Qi order, or level 120 with the shrine active, and it pops.

Treat it like a proper expedition: galaxy-tier weapon, plenty of food, bombs for the ore-heavy floors, and use the lift to break it into trips. The new monsters hit hard but drop generously - it's the best radioactive ore source in the game, so the trip pays for itself.

Journey of the Prairie King, start to finish, without dying once - the hardest achievement in the game by a distance. One clip, no continues, ~45 minutes of concentration on the Saloon's arcade cabinet.

The consensus approach: grind normal runs first until clearing it (Prairie King) is routine, because you cannot brute-force this one. Movement is everything - circle the arena edges, never get boxed in, and treat powerups as panic buttons rather than bonuses. Buy the movement boots first at every shop, then gun speed. The screen-clear nuke is for boss adds and the moment a spawner overwhelms a corner. If a run dies in world 1, reset immediately and reset your nerves too.

No tricks, no cheese on current versions - just practice. Budget several evenings, and when it finally pops, savour it. You've earned the hat. :)