Updated date:

Aug 7, 2020

"Stardew Valley" Marriage Guide

Author:: Heather Lengel

Heather has a passion for writing and drawing and maybe a slight addiction to anime and video games.

stardew-valley-marriage-guide — Eric Barone, Sickhead Games

Bachelors and Bachelorettes!

Stardew Valley allows players of either sex to marry any of these eligible bachelors or bachelorettes! The only difference is that obviously any children brought into the marriage will be adopted if the couple is same sex.

Friendship Levels and Dating

In order to fall in love with one of the bachelors or bachelorettes, you need to first increase your friendship levels with them. You can view your progress under the menu. You can gift any person two times a week. Talking to them once each day also gives a small increase to your friendship level.

At certain points, you'll unlock events. This only applies to bachelors and bachelorettes however you can still gain friendship levels with the other townspeople, who will reward you with recipes in the mail.

Gift giving is not as simple however as just giving them anything you have in your inventory. Everyone has preferences and dislikes, choosing items that they love will significantly increase your friendship levels while giving them things they dislike will have negative effects.

Once you have reached 8 hearts you can ask your sweetheart to date you. The bouquet will become available at Pierre's General Store and by purchasing it and gifting it to them they should accept your proposal. This does not count towards the 2 gift weekly cut off and can actually be used to help increase your relationship if needed.

You cannot break up with someone once you start dating, however you can still be a two-timer and date and marry someone else instead. This will cause the others to get jealous though.

There is a decay rate if you don't interact for a day.

Married: -20 a day. Never stops decaying.
Dating: -8 a day. Stops decaying when you reach 10 hearts.
Non-partner Bachelor or Bachelorette: -2 a day. Stops decaying at 8 hearts.
Normal Villager: -2 a day. Stops decaying at 10 hearts.

Heart Events

While gaining friendship levels, you unlock character-specific heart events. They are unique to each character and you could end up permanently missing them if you're not careful.

Haley's Level 10 Heart Event
Stardew Valley

Universal Gifts And Bonus Effects

Universal gifts are those that are typically loved, liked, neutral, or hated by everyone. Of course, there are exceptions. Keep in mind that During the Winter Star event there is a 5 times effect on gifts, and Birthdays give 8 times the effect.

Loved Gifts: +80 Friendship, +400 During Winter Star, +640 on Birthday
Like: +45 Friendship, +225 During Winter Star, +360 on Birthday
Neutral: +20 Friendship, +100 During Winter Star, +160 on Birthday
Dislike: -20 Friendship, -100 During Winter Star, -160 on Birthday
Hate: -40 Friendship, -200 During Winter Star, -320 On Birthday.

Item Quality also affects the number of points given.

Silver: Times 1.1 Multiplier, +10%
Gold: Times 1.25 Multiplier, +25%
Iridium: Times 1.5 Multiplier, +50%


Universal Loves	Universal Likes	Universal Neutrals	Universal Dislikes	Universal Hates
Golden Pumpkin	All Aristan Goods (Except Oil and Void Mayonnaise both hated)	Bread	All Building Materials	Artifacts
Pearl	All Cooking (Except Fried Egg and Bread which are Universal Neutrals, and Strange Bun that is hated)	Fried Egg	Battery Packs, Clay, Fiber	Bait
Prismatic Shard	All Flowers (Except Poppy, hated)	Sweet Gem Berry	All Bombs	Monster Loot (Solar Essence and Void Essence are Disliked)
Rabbit's Foot	All Foraged Minerals (Except Quartz, varies)	Clam	All Crafted Floors and Paths	Trash (Driftwood is disliked)
	All Fruit Tree Fruits	Hops	All Fences	Carp
	All Gems (Except Prismatic Shard, loved)	Truffle	All Fertilizer	Copper Ore
	All Vegetables and Fiddlehead Fern (Wheat and Hops are Universal Neutrals)	Coral	All Fish (Clam is Neutral, Carp and snails are Hates)	Crab Pot
	Life Elixir	Nautilus Shell	All Geode Minerals	Drum Block
	Maple Syrup	Wheat	All Geodes	Energy Tonic
		Duck Feather	All Seeds (including foraged and fruit trees)	Error Item
		Rainbow Shell	All Sprinklers	Explosive Ammo
		Wool	All Tackle	Flute Block
			Most Metal: Coal, Copper Bars, Gold Bars, Gold Ore, Iridium Bars, Iridium Ore, Iron Bars, Refined Quarts	Grass Starter
			Cave Carrot	Green Algae
			Oil	Hay
			Tea Set	Iron Ore
			Driftwood	Mermaids Pendant
			Pine Tar	Muscle Remedy
			Vinegar	Oil of Garlic
			Field Snack	Poppy
			Rice	Rain Totem
			Void Egg	Red Mushroom
			Jack-O-Lantern	Sap
			Solar Essence	Sea Urchin
			Void Essence	Seaweed
			Oak Resin	Secret Note
			Spring Onion	Slime Egg
			Wheat Flour	Snail
				Stardrop
				Strange Bun
				Sugar
				Torch
				Treasure Chest
				Void Mayonanaise
				Warp Totem: Beach
				Warp Totem: Farm
				Warp Totem: Mountains
				Weeds
				White Algae

Proposing

Once you've reached 10 hearts you'll be able to buy the marriage item, Mermaid's Pendant to propose. The NPC who sells this item, the Old Mariner can be found on the eastern part of the beach after repairing the bridge, during rainy weather only. He will only sell you the item if you have reached level 10 friendship with someone and your farmhouse has been upgraded.

Marriage

3 days after you propose, your wedding ceremony will take place first thing in the morning. When the cutscenes are complete you'll appear on your farm at 6 AM with your spouse who has just moved in! If the third day lands on a holiday your wedding will take place the day after instead.

Once you are married, you can raise your friendship rate to a hidden level 13. You can now give a single gift every day rather than only twice a week.

Each spouse will build their own unique room to the side of the bedroom within the farmhouse.

Kissing your spouse can reward you with some energy once per day.

If you gift any of the other eligible bachelors (of the same gender as the one you married) your spouse could become jealous. If so you receive a penalty of 30 friendship points.

Spouses actually come with benefits rather than just existing on your farm.

Feeds animals
Fills pet bowl
Repairs broken fences
Gives gifts (breakfast and dinner)
Waters crops on the farm during Spring, Summer and Fall.

You can get divorced from your spouse by visiting the Mayor's Manor and interacting with a book. It will cost you 50,000 currency and you only have until the end of the day to change their mind by cancelling. If you do so they will carry the title "Ex" and have negative interactions going forward. They will return to their old home, and any children from the marriage will remain at the farmhouse. Their unique rooms and areas will also disappear. Ex's will not accept gifts from you anymore either.

If you decide you want to re-marry that character, you could turn to the Witch's Hut and pay an offering of 30,000 currency for their memories to be erased.

Children

There is a 5% chance that your spouse will ask you if you want to have or adopt a child (depending on your genders). If you choose to say yes, 14 days later a baby will be born or be delivered. Careful though, do not complete any of the Community Center or JojaMart bundles the night before the baby is due or the event may just be skipped entirely.

You can have only 2 children, 1 boy and 1 girl. They will not grow past the toddler stage, and you cannot have your second child until the first has reached that stage.

If you'd like to get rid of children, you can turn to the dark shrine at the Witch's Hut with a prismatic Shard, exchanging it for them to be turned into doves.