Villagers and Relationships
Friendship runs on a 10-heart meter per villager, expandable to 14 for a spouse, and you raise it by talking daily, gifting twice a week, finishing quests, and picking good dialogue in heart events. Loved gifts award 80 friendship points, Liked gifts 45, and Neutral gifts still give you 20. A birthday gift applies an 8x multiplier, so a single Iridium-quality Loved gift on a birthday is worth 960 points, just short of four full hearts.
Building relationships with the residents of Pelican Town unlocks new recipes, gifts in your mailbox, and access to new areas. Mastering the friendship system is a key pillar of Stardew Valley.
The Friendship System
Friendship is measured in "hearts." Each villager has a 10-heart meter (expandable to 14 for spouses). You gain friendship points through several actions:
- Talking: Speaking to a villager once per day grants a small amount of friendship. Phoning them does not count.
- Gifting: You can give a villager two gifts per week, and one extra gift on their birthday. The gift week resets on Sunday, and there is a one-gift-per-day ceiling on top of the weekly two. Use both weekly slots and you collect a bonus 10 points on Sunday morning.
- Quests: Completing delivery requests posted outside Pierre's shop awards a significant friendship boost.
- Events: Making favorable choices during heart events or festivals increases friendship.
Friendship decays every day you do not interact with a villager, and the rate depends on where you stand:
- Ordinary villagers and pre-bouquet candidates: -2 per day, and it stops once their meter is full.
- After you give a bouquet: -10 per day, until you reach 10 hearts.
- Married: -20 per day, and it never stops, even at 14 hearts. A maxed spouse still needs a daily hello.
One piece of useful sequencing: a marriage candidate's points keep climbing to just under 9 hearts before a bouquet and do not decay at all in that window, so you can park someone at 8 hearts indefinitely at no cost.
Mastering Gifts
Gifting is the fastest way to build friendship. Every villager has specific preferences categorized as Loved, Liked, Neutral, Disliked, and Hated.
- Loved Gifts: Provide a massive friendship boost (80 points). These are usually specific, hard-to-find items unique to the villager.
- Liked Gifts: Provide a solid friendship boost (45 points). These are often Artisan Goods, cooked meals, or gems.
- Neutral Gifts: Still give you 20 points, so an unknown item is rarely a wasted turn.
- Disliked/Hated Gifts: Cost you 20 and 40 points respectively. Never give villagers trash, bait, or monster loot.
Universal Loves
Six items are loved by nearly everyone: Golden Pumpkin, Magic Rock Candy, Pearl, Prismatic Shard, Rabbit's Foot, and Stardrop Tea. Haley hates Prismatic Shard and Penny hates Rabbit's Foot, so those two are not quite universal.
Stardrop Tea is the strongest friendship item in the game. It gives a flat 250 points, a whole heart, and it ignores the weekly gift limit entirely.
Universal Likes
Memorize these to build friendship when you do not have a specific loved gift:
- Tree Fruits (Apples, Pomegranates, etc.)
- All Vegetables (Hops, Tea Leaves and Wheat are neutral, Unmilled Rice is disliked)
- All Foraged Minerals
- Gems (Topaz, Amethyst, etc.)
- Artisan Goods (Mayonnaise, Cheese, Jelly). Oil is universally disliked, and Void Mayonnaise is universally hated except by Krobus, who loves it.
- Cooked Meals (Fried Egg and Bread are neutral and not liked, and Strange Bun and Seafoam Pudding are hated)
- Flowers, foraged or grown (Poppy is the exception and is widely hated, though Penny loves it)
Vegetables and foraged minerals are the two cheapest sources of bulk friendship in year one, and both are easy to overlook.
Three villagers reject the Artisan Goods rule. Jas and Vincent hate every Artisan Good except Honey and Jelly, which they like. Sebastian does the same with Coffee and Green Tea as his exceptions. Oil is only disliked for them, not hated, the same as for everyone else. All three also hate Piña Colada, and Jas and Vincent dislike most vegetables.
The Birthday Multiplier
A gift given on a villager's birthday applies an 8x multiplier to the base friendship points. Never miss a birthday. Check the calendar outside Pierre's shop daily.
Quality compounds it: Silver (x1.1), Gold (x1.25), and Iridium (x1.5), and quality only applies to Liked and Loved gifts. So an Iridium Loved gift works out at 8 x 80 x 1.5, which is 960 points, just short of four full hearts. Read the Friendship 101 power book first and the same gift becomes 1,056 points, which does clear four.
Friendship 101 is one of the 19 power books added in 1.6. It raises all friendship gains by 10% and leaves losses untouched. Pull it as the ninth prize from the machine in the Mayor's Manor, or buy it from the Bookseller for 20,000g from Year 3.
Your Feast of the Winter Star recipient gets a 5x multiplier, which is the only other event bonus of its kind.
Marriage Candidates
You can romance and marry specific villagers. They are marked as "Single" in your social tab.
To marry a villager, you must complete the following steps:
- Reach 8 hearts with the candidate. Their last two hearts stay grayed out until you act.
- Buy a Bouquet from Pierre's for 200g and give it to them, which unlocks hearts 9 and 10 and starts the faster decay.
- Reach 10 hearts.
- Upgrade your farmhouse at least once. This requirement is easy to miss, and without it the Old Mariner will not sell you the pendant at all.
- Repair the beach bridge with 300 wood, then buy the Mermaid's Pendant for 5,000g from the Old Mariner at the tide pools on the east side of the beach, on a rainy day between 6:00 AM and 7:00 PM.
- Propose using the Mermaid's Pendant. The wedding lands three days later.
Your spouse moves into your farmhouse, occasionally helps with chores like watering crops or feeding animals, unlocks a unique 14-heart event, and gives you a Stardrop at 12.5 hearts.
Krobus is a thirteenth option and a different one. He is a roommate and not a spouse: at 10 hearts, with the farmhouse upgraded once, you give him a Void Ghost Pendant and he moves in three days later with no ceremony. He does no chores and you cannot have children, but he never gets jealous, he does not block the group ten-heart events, and evicting him is free where a divorce costs 50,000g.
Heart Events
As you reach specific heart thresholds, you trigger unique cutscenes called "Heart Events." The 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 pattern holds cleanly for all twelve marriage candidates, each of whom also has a 14-heart spouse event. It does not hold for anyone else: non-candidates cluster on odd thresholds instead, so Pam triggers at 3, 7, and 9, and the Wizard has a single event at 4.
Several are genuinely one-shot, and these are the ones that bite:
- Sam's 3-heart beach event exists in Year 1 only. Miss it and it is gone for that save.
- Abigail's 10-heart event will not fire once you have given her the Mermaid's Pendant, so proposing early locks it out.
- Leah's 8-heart event splits into an art show or an art website depending on what you told her at 2 hearts. You only ever see one.
- The group ten-heart events, all six bachelors at the Saloon and all six bachelorettes at 2 Willow Lane, trigger once per save and shut off the moment you marry anyone or hand out a pendant.
During these events you may be presented with dialogue choices. Choose the option that aligns with the villager's personality to earn bonus friendship points.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many gifts can you give a villager per week in Stardew Valley?
Two per week, plus one extra on their birthday, and only one gift on any given day. The week resets on Sunday, and using both slots earns you a bonus 10 points on Sunday morning. Talking to them once a day grants friendship on top of that, though phoning does not count.
What are the universal liked gifts in Stardew Valley?
Tree Fruits, all Vegetables, all Foraged Minerals, Gems, Artisan Goods, Cooked Meals, and Flowers work on almost everyone. Vegetables and foraged minerals are the cheapest bulk friendship in year one and are the two people most often overlook. Oil is universally disliked, and Sebastian, Jas, and Vincent break the Artisan Goods rule.
How much friendship does a birthday gift give in Stardew Valley?
A birthday gift applies an 8x multiplier, and quality compounds it at 1.1 for Silver, 1.25 for Gold, and 1.5 for Iridium. An Iridium Loved gift comes to 8 times 80 times 1.5, which is 960 points, just short of four hearts. Read the Friendship 101 power book first and it becomes 1,056, which does clear four.
What is the strongest friendship item in Stardew Valley?
Stardrop Tea. It gives a flat 250 points, a whole heart, and it ignores the weekly gift limit entirely. The other universal loves are Golden Pumpkin, Magic Rock Candy, Pearl, Prismatic Shard, and Rabbit's Foot, though Haley hates Prismatic Shard and Penny hates Rabbit's Foot.
How do you get married in Stardew Valley?
Reach 8 hearts, give them a 200g Bouquet from Pierre's to unlock hearts 9 and 10, then reach 10 hearts. You also need your farmhouse upgraded at least once, or the Old Mariner will not sell to you. Repair the beach bridge with 300 wood, buy the Mermaid's Pendant for 5,000g on a rainy day, and propose. The wedding is three days later.
Does friendship decay in Stardew Valley?
Yes, and the rate depends on the relationship. Ordinary villagers lose 2 points a day and stop once their meter is full. After a bouquet it is 10 a day until you reach 10 hearts. A spouse loses 20 every day you ignore them and that never stops, even at 14 hearts.
What to Read Next
- Community Center. Restoring Pelican Town changes how villagers treat you.
- Achievements. The social and friendship achievements and what they actually require.
- Getting Started. Where relationship building fits in your first-year schedule.