All Stardew Valley Secrets & Easter Eggs You Need to Know | Tips & Guide

Indie darling Stardew Valley is full of fun secrets and hidden content, some that you just have to see for yourself. Here are all the best Stardew Valley secrets and Easter eggs you need to know about!

Every Secret and Easter Egg in Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is huge game, with plenty of do and lots of sights to see. Naturally, the developer ConcernedApe hid plenty of secrets for curious and intrepid players to find. Feel free to jump around the list of secrets with the buttons below.

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Secret #1: Title Screen Easter Eggs

Easter eggs can be found as soon as you boot up the game! When you see the ConcernedApe logo appear, you can click on it to surprise him and make a sound play.

When the Stardew Valley logo appears, you can click on different areas of the sign to produce some fun effects.

• Clicking on any of the big green leaves produces smaller leaves that fall down the screen. If you click the big leaves enough times, Junimos appears.
• Clicking the bottom left wooden swirl plays a sound and makes wooden chunks fly off. Click it multiple times to get a small wooden piece with a smiley face, then click on the small hole in the letter R of Stardew. It’s a perfect fit!
• Click the letter E of Stardew multiple times to see a green alien dude.
• Click the bottom right nail in the letter W of Stardew multiple times to get butterflies to appear.

Secret #2: Secret Naming Symbols

Upon starting a new game, you’ll be asked to name your farmer, farm, and favorite thing. In any of these input fields, you can insert certain symbols or characters to get special characters and sounds.

• < makes a heart symbol and a ringing sound.
• $ makes a double circle symbol and a selection sound.
• * makes the angry anime symbol and a stone impact sound.
• = makes a star and a popping sound.
• + makes a squishy sound.

If you actually use these characters in any of the names, they’ll come up as detailed symbols in-game. The heart is a pink heart, the double circle is a coin, the angry symbol is a gray star, the star is a purple star, and the plus is a cool guy icon.

Also, if you put in “ConcernedApe” as your favorite thing, you’ll get a nice message from him whenever you get a Stardrop, thanking you for the flattery.

Secret #3: Pranking Mayor Lewis

One of the first quests you get during the Summer season is to find Mayor Lewis’ lucky shorts. He tasks you with finding them… discreetly. You can find them at Marnie’s Ranch, specifically in her bedroom. How in the world did they end up there?

Whatever the case, you can return the shorts to Mayor Lewis and he’ll be ecstatic, rewarding you with 750g. That’s great and all, but these garish purple shorts give us some delightfully devilish ideas! You can keep the shorts and never turn in the quest, and instead present the shorts at the most opportune moments, which include:

• During the Luau, you get to add a single ingredient into the communal potluck soup. Throw in the shorts to get some funny comments from both the Governor and Mayor Lewis.
• During the Stardew Valley Fair, you can place the shorts in your grange display. Naturally, Mayor Lewis immediately disqualifies you, but also bribes you with 750 star tokens to never show the shorts again.
• Running the shorts through a tailoring machine with a gold bar results in Trimmed Lucky Purple Shorts, which can be worn by your farmer. Talk to Marnie or Lewis while wearing them for silly comments.
• Show Marnie the shorts to get her absolutely flustered. She denies any knowledge of the shorts and who they belong to, but we know the truth.

By the way, if you love Stardew Valley and enjoy playing games on the Nintendo Switch, be sure to check out our list of the 10 best games like Stardew Valley on Switch!

Secret #4: Fishing for Sunken Treasure

There are 12 hidden items that can be obtained by fishing in the correct spot. Most of these items are fun decor for your house, save for the Frog Hat, which you can wear. All of these items can be found at any fishing level, with the sole exception being the Iridium Krobus, requiring your fishing level to be at least 15.

Item	Appearance	Location
‘Boat’ Painting		Fish in the Beach Farm’s southwest pond.
Decorative Trash Can		Fish in the fountain near the Pelican Town Community Center.
Foliage Print		Fish in the secluded river spot at the northern end of Ginger Island.
Frog Hat		Fish in the small ponds in Gourmand Frog’s cave in Ginger Island.
Gourmand Statue		Fish in Ginger Island’s Pirate Cove.
Iridium Krobus		Fish near the entrance to the sewers in Cindersap Forest.
Lifesaver		Fish in Willy’s Fish Shop, near the Ginger Island boat.
‘Physics 101’ Painting		Fish in Ginger Island’s Volcano, on floor 10.
Pyramid Decal		Fish in the southernmost pond at Calico Desert.
Squirrel Figurine		Go through Ginger Island’s volcano and take the exit that puts you on the northwest side of the river.
‘Vista’ Painting		Fish in the Spa’s tiny pond.
Wall Basket		Fish in the Secret Woods’ pond.

Secret #5: Secret Farm Events

Every time you turn in for the day, there’s a 1% chance for a secret event to occur that night. Some players don’t even realize these secret farm events exist since it’s so rare to see one happen, so we’ll fill you in on what you might encounter.

The Fairy’s light magic

The Fairy can show up in any season besides Winter, if you have crops growing. She’ll fly in and randomly select a 5×5 area with crops and fully mature them on the spot, using her light magic. Thanks Miss Fairy!

The Witch’s dark magic

The Witch from the swamp can pay your farm a visit if you have at least one upgraded Coop or Slime Hutch. She flies over one of these buildings and casts dark magic on your animals or Slimes.

When a Coop is targeted by the Witch’s dark magic, a Void Egg is left behind in the Coop, which can be hatched into a Void Chicken.

When a Slime Hutch is targeted, all of the Slimes inside the hutch are transformed into Black Slimes, though their stats are unaffected.

Fallen meteorite

If you hear a loud crash during the night, a meteorite may have landed on your farm. If there are open spaced on your farm, the meteorite event can potentially occur. You’ll wake up to the message, “An explosion was heard in the night…” if it happens.

The meteorite is a large 2×2 rock that needs a Gold Pickaxe or better to mine. They sort of look like giant Iridium Ores, and as such, they drop 6 Iridium Ore, 6 Stone, and 2 Geodes.

Visitors from beyond

If you hear some otherworldly sounds during the night, some strangers from outer space paid your farm a visit. You’ll wake up to the message, “A strange sound was heard in the night…” if it happens.

Look around your farm and you’ll find a Strange Capsule sitting somewhere. You can break it and pick it up, and examining it reveals that something fleshy is moving around in the capsule’s fluid. Wonder what it could be?

Well, you don’t have to wonder for long—leave the Strange Capsule alone on your farm for a few days, and you’ll find that whatever was growing inside has broken free.

From this point on, there’s a 1% chance to see a shadowy figure running between bushes and trees in Pelican Town, or at the bus stop. I hope they come in peace!

The mysterious owl statue

If you hear some gentle hooting during the night, then a mysterious Stone Owl statue has appeared somewhere on your farm. You can pick up these cool statues and move them around freely to decorate your farm. For some reason, this event has an even lower chance (0.5%) of occurring compared to the other secret farm events.

Secret #6: Three Weird Statues

One of the Lost Books you can dig up from the artifact spots is an untitled book that seemingly has nothing but gibberish in it. There’s actually a hidden message here, if you take the first letter of each word and add them together.

Let’s look at the first phrase, as an example. Take the first letter of each word and you get “SUPERCUCUMBERTOWN”. What the heck does that mean? Well, each phrase corresponds to an item and location, so that’s got to mean something right?

You’re supposed to take the item mentioned and find a hidden box somewhere in the listed location, and your reward is a rather strange looking furniture. Here’s the solution for each phrase.

“SUPERCUCUMBERTOWN” is the first phrase, and you need to bring a Super Cucumber to the brown box in Pelican Town. Go to Clint’s Blacksmith shop, and head north to the fenced off area with a bunch of trees. There’s an opening on the right side that’s obscured by a pink tree, so walk in to find the box behind one of the trees. This nets you the ??HMTGF?? furniture.

“DUCKMAYOSALOON” is the second phrase, which asks for Duck Mayonnaise at the Stardrop Saloon. Head through the arcade and around to the back storage room to find a gray box behind some barrels. Completing this gets you the ??Pinky Lemon?? furniture.

“STRANGEBUNTOYBOX” is the final phrase, needing a Strange Bun at a toy box. There’s only a couple of children living in Pelican Town, so head to Vincent and Sam’s house, which is the blue house near the southwest corner of Pelican Town.

There’s definitely a toy box inside Vincent’s room, but this means that you have to be close enough to Vincent in order to enter his room. Befriend him, then place the Strange Bun in the toy box to get the ??Foroguemon?? furniture.

Here’s what all three weird statues look like. From left to right, we’ve got ??HMTGF??, ??Pinky Lemon??, and ??Foroguemon??. These odd balls are fantastic conversation starters!

Secret #7: End of Day Secrets

At the end of every day, the game tallies up your sales for the day and shows your total profits. Normally, you’ll see a starry background that’s colored to match the current season you’re in.

Very rarely, sometimes you’ll see secret animations play out when you’re on the loading screens. The first secret is a jolly one—on the 24th of Winter, you can see Mr. Claus himself go by with his trusty reindeer.

There are two other random end of day secrets. The only conditions for these events to occur is that it cannot be the 27th day of the month, and it can’t be raining. One event is a UFO sighting, perhaps related to the Strange Capsule. The other is a full moon appearing in the top right corner of the screen. Clicking on it multiple times causes a face to appear, complete with a classy monocle!

Secret #8: Curse of the Children

Unlike the other secrets in Stardew Valley that are fun and lighthearted, this next one is very dark and sinister. Thankfully, most players probably won’t see this, as it requires you to practice some dark magic on your own family!

Inside the Witch’s Hut is a strange shrine that looks like a rectangular monster with birds on top. This is the Dark Shrine of Selfishness, and it has the power to turn your children into doves, effectively removing them from your family, at the cost of a Prismatic Shard, and probably some of your humanity.

Once your children have been unwillingly turned into doves, several strange happenings may occur. You can receive a random rare phone call, and picking it up gets you this rather disturbing secret message:

“You place the receiver to your ear, and are met with a roiling, abrasive static. But wait… beneath it all, you can make out something else… an otherworldly voice… ‘Y-O-U H-A-V-E F-O-R-S-A-K-E-N U-S’“.

On the 26th day of Fall, watching TV gives you a ??? channel option. Selecting this channel results in an Ancient Doll appearing on the screen, alongside a creepy message. You’ll hear a screech, then the Ancient Doll flies out of the screen.

From now on, whenever you revisit the Dark Shrine of Selfishness, you’ll be attacked by the possessed Ancient Doll. You can kill it, but it’ll simply respawn every time you come back to the Witch’s Hut.

Some other small occurrences:

• If you’re using the Four-Corners Farm, you can now fish up an Ancient Doll while fishing there.
• There’s a chance that you can see the children’s doves flying through the sky when at The Summit.

Secret #9: Secret Note Secrets!

The various Secret Notes you can find throughout Stardew Valley have some fun riddles and clues on them that can provide you with valuable info about the valley itself or its inhabitants. Here are some of the coolest ones that we think you shouldn’t miss out on.

Secret Note #13

• “12 o’clock noon SHARP. Last day of the season. Check the bush above the playground.”

This note is pretty straightforward, so check out this bush to get a giant Junimo Plush!

Secret Note #19

This secret note depicts a specific route that you need to take, starting in front of the blue house in the southwest corner of Pelican Town. To follow the map, start in front of the blue house’s door, then move in the direction the arrow is pointing until you hit an impassable object, then move in the direct of the next arrow. The approximate location is this hidden spot behind Mayor Lewis’ house.

Once you hit a wall, interact to pick up a Solid Gold Lewis statue. This is a personal project that reflects Mayor Lewis’ confidence in himself, and you can place it on your farm if you’d like. If you place it anywhere in Pelican Town, it’ll be replaced by a Rotten Plant the next day, and you’ll get a disgruntled letter from Lewis, attached with 750g to keep your mouth shut about his pet project.

Secret Note #20

This is another treasure hunt laid out with a path, just like Secret Note #19. This one starts at town square and takes you all the way to the truck parked next to JojaMart. Talk to the person inside, and they’ll ask for a Rabbit’s Foot. Oblige, and you’ll get a Special Charm that permanently boosts your hidden luck stat.

Secret Note #21

This one is probably the best Secret Note of them all. Head to the South Pelican Town bridge that leads to the beach. At exactly 12:40 AM, interact with the large bush to the left of the bridge and you’ll find a steamy secret!

Secret #10: The Galaxy Sword

The Galaxy Sword is one of the best weapons in the game, but getting it requires solving a riddle. Digging up artifact spots can sometimes net you a Dwarf Scroll, and there are four of them in total. If you didn’t know, artifact spots are those spots on the ground that look like they have three worms sticking out of them.

Donating all four Dwarf Scrolls to the museum unlocks the Dwarvish Translation Guide, which allows you to read and translate Dwarvish texts. Once you’ve got the guide, head to the small graveyard in Pelican Town, by the sewer entrance. One of the Dwarvish tombstones reads:

Stand between the pillars three
With gift as precious as the sky:
A rainbow forged from land, not sea
Then galaxies will heed your cry

So we need to find three pillars and a rainbow-colored gift? You’ll need a Prismatic Shard for this next part, then travel to Calico Desert.

Go north from the shop to find the three pillars mentioned in the riddle. Hold the Prismatic Shard, then walk into the center spot. The sky accepts your offering, and rewards you with the Galaxy Sword!

Secret #11: The Summit’s Secrets

The Summit is a place where you can sit back and reflect on your journey through Stardew Valley. If you don’t know how to get up here, you need to achieve total completion, which means you essentially need to do every single thing in the game. To be specific, you need to check off every objective listed on the Perfection Tracker inside Mr. Qi’s walnut room on Ginger Island.

Once you’ve hit 100% perfection, the large boulder that was blocking the path at the Pelican Town railroad is now gone, and you can walk up the path to reach The Summit.

Obviously, reaching 100% perfection is going to take quite some time, and if you’ve managed to make it this far, you’ve earned the fantastic view. While you’re up here, you might see some interesting things fly by, including:

• Birds that match the current season.
• Doves that used to be your children.
• Santa might fly by on the 25th day of Winter.
• If you’ve seen Harvey’s 8-heart event, a jet zooms by quickly.
• If you’ve seen Maru’s 10-heart event, MarlLDA flies by, enjoying her new-found freedom.

Stardew Valley is the gift that keeps on giving, with plenty of fun secrets and Easter eggs being discovered still to this day. What are some of your favorite Stardew Valley secrets? Let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to check out our other Stardew Valley guides!