Stardew Valley: How to Increase Villager Friendship

Friendship

Players can become friends with the residents of Pelican Town. As your friendship deepens, residents’ dialogues will become friendlier, affection events will occur, and residents will give you gifts in letters.

Some residents (such as Gunther and Marlon) do not have a friendship system.

Affection Point System

The player’s affection with each resident is represented by 10 hearts. For your spouse or roommate, the maximum affection limit will be increased to 14 hearts. Single residents who have not been given bouquets can have a maximum of 8 hearts.

Each heart represents 250 affection points. You can view relationships in the social tab of the game menu.

When talking to residents, a circle will appear next to their portrait. The color of this circle depends on the player’s affection with the resident. Blue indicates 0-1 hearts, green indicates 2-3 hearts, yellow indicates 4-5 hearts, red indicates 6-7 hearts, purple indicates 8-9 hearts, and a purple star indicates 10-14 hearts. Hovering over the circle will display your affection (heart count) with that resident. If you are not married to that resident, the maximum affection will only display as 10.

You can increase affection through the following measures:

Talking to residents (generally +20 points; if residents are engaged in a special animation, such as exercising or taking photos, only +10 points. Each resident can only increase once per day.)

Completing help-wanted quests of a certain type posted by residents (+150 points)

Completing specific storyline quests (see #Storyline Quests interface for details)

Giving them their favorite, liked, or neutral gifts (see Gifts)

Giving the same resident 2 gifts in one week (+10 points, settled on the following Sunday after the end of the week)

Inviting residents to watch movies (favorite +200 points, liked +100 points)

Buying snacks for residents when watching movies (favorite +50 points, liked +25 points)

Choosing specific options in residents’ affection events

Kissing your spouse (+10 points, only effective once per day; cannot kiss Krobus)

The following behaviors will decrease affection:

Not talking to residents (see decline)

Giving them disliked or hated gifts (see Gifts)

Using a slingshot on them (-30 points each time)

Choosing inappropriate options in residents’ affection events

Digging through trash cans within 7 tiles of a resident (-25 points, but if the resident is Linus, it will increase by +5 instead)

When the affection with a resident is full, even if you never talk to them again, the Friendship value will not decrease. (If the resident is a marriage candidate but you have not given them a bouquet, the affection limit is 8 hearts — actually below 9 hearts, which is 2249 points. If the player is married, the spouse may become jealous.) However, it will still decrease due to other behaviors (such as giving them disliked gifts). Breaking up/divorcing a resident will immediately reduce it to 5 hearts.

Apart from post-divorce jealousy of spouses, residents’ affections are independent of each other, and giving gifts will not affect the affections of their relatives.

When the affection with a resident reaches 2 hearts, you will be able to enter their room. Linus is not subject to this restriction because his tent has no door.

Note: Intentionally blocking a resident’s path will cause a bubble indicating displeasure to appear, but the change in affection is unclear.

Decline

Every day, not talking to residents will slightly decrease their affection, unless their affection is already full. [1] Using the telephone to call residents does not count as talking to them.

After marriage, the decline in affection with spouses never stops. Please do not ignore your significant other!

Giving Gifts

Each resident can receive 2 gifts per week (once a day), and the box in the “Social” tab of the game menu will record the number of gifts given this week. Clicking on the line where the resident is located in the “Social” interface will allow you to view the “Gift Log,” which records the gifts you have given and the resident’s preference for them, as well as the resident’s gift preferences obtained through secret notes and gift hints.

For gift giving, a new week begins on Sunday. If you give the same resident two gifts in one week, when you wake up on Sunday morning, their affection for you will increase by an additional +10 points.

You can always give a gift to a resident on their birthday, even if you have already given them two gifts this week.

After marriage, you can give gifts to your spouse every day, but the change in affection with your spouse is halved. [2]

Each resident has their own likes and dislikes, meaning that after giving a gift, the Friendship between you and them will change. The effect on Friendship from giving gifts will double or halve on their birthday (×8) and the Festival of Winter Star (×5):

For favorite or liked gifts, higher quality items will increase affection more:

On any given day, giving any resident their favorite gift of normal quality will always yield more friendship points than giving liked gifts of iridium quality.

For loved or liked gifts, you can calculate the friendship points gained by the formula: festival coefficient × preference level × quality coefficient. Where, festival coefficient takes values: 1 (normal), 5 (Winter Star Festival), or 8 (Birthday); preference level can be 80 (loved gift) or 45 (liked gift); quality coefficient corresponds to 1, 1.1, 1.25, or 1.5. (For normal, disliked, or hated gifts, this formula can be simplified to: festival coefficient × preference level.)

Heart Events

When a resident’s Friendship value reaches a certain level, special events will unlock (see each resident’s page for triggering conditions). Players may permanently miss certain events, but most events can be triggered when conditions are met, without needing to trigger them in order.

In some heart events, choosing dialogue options will not affect the player’s Friendship with any residents, while in others, choosing certain dialogue options will increase or decrease the player’s Friendship with residents. Linus’s 8-heart event (+250 Friendship points) is the event that can increase the most Friendship points, while Penny’s 8-heart and 10-heart events can decrease the most Friendship points (-1500 Friendship points).

Marriage

Some residents can enter into romantic relationships with the player (see eligible bachelors/bachelorettes). When you reach 8 hearts of friendship with one of them, giving them a bouquet will increase the maximum friendship to 10 hearts. (Before marriage, giving bouquets to multiple residents will not affect the game. Doing so after marriage may decrease your spouse’s friendship.) When you reach 10 hearts of friendship with a potential spouse, you can propose to them by giving them a Mermaid’s Pendant, and they will accept the proposal. If the player is unmarried and has reached 10 hearts of friendship with Krobus, you can also invite them to be your roommate by giving them a Void Ghost Pendant, and Krobus will accept the invitation.

After a resident becomes your spouse or roommate, they will move into your farmhouse, and the maximum friendship will increase to 14 hearts.

When friendship reaches 12.5 hearts (3125 Friendship points), they will give the player a Stardrop (if the player has not obtained a Stardrop in this way before).

Tasks

When completing the introductory task “Introduction,” players will gain 100 Friendship points with each resident they know. (The Wizard does not count among the 28 residents required for this task.)

Some storyline quests and special tasks will increase the player’s Friendship with certain residents.

Completing help-wanted tasks of the delivery type will increase the player’s Friendship with the resident who posted the task by 150 points.

Festivals

On festival days, talking to residents increases friendship the same as on regular days (20 points each), but there are 3 festivals that affect the player’s friendship with residents:

During the Flower Dance, Friendship between you and your dance partner increases by 250 points.

During the Luau, depending on what items you put in the potluck, your friendship with all residents (except Sandy, the Wizard, Krobus, and the Dwarf) will increase or decrease.

During the Winter Star Festival, the friendship gained from giving gifts to your secret friend is five times more than usual.

At the Night Market, you can also give gifts to residents, and the change in friendship is the same as outside of the festival scene.

Community Center Bundles

Completing bundles at the Community Center will increase the player’s Friendship with each non-marriageable resident by 2 hearts (500 Friendship points). Note that this bundle only increases Friendship with residents the player already knows. Residents not displayed in the social tab of the game menu, as well as those shown as “???” will not receive this Friendship boost.

Players can gain 2 hearts of Friendship with the Dwarf without having obtained the Dwarf’s language tutorial, but if players want to give gifts to the Dwarf, they still need to obtain the Dwarf’s language tutorial.

Complete Gift List

Below is a list of most residents’ favorite, liked, neutral, disliked, or hated items. It is important to note that there are exceptions, as some residents have their unique preferences.

Different residents have different preferences for eggs, milk, fruits, and most forage items, so they are not listed here.

Note: Dinosaur Egg is considered an artifact rather than an egg when given as a gift.

Favorite Gifts

The table below lists residents’ favorite gifts. They guarantee friendship points (80), but may be harder to obtain.

When receiving a favorite gift, a heart bubble will appear above the resident’s head.