Favorite Thing In Stardew Explained: Ideas, Easter Eggs, and Gifts (2023)

When starting a new character in Stardew Valley, you always start with the Character Creator Menu.

One of the fields to be filled in the menu is for the character’s “favorite thing”.

This seems like it could be an extremely important piece of gameplay, albeit a somewhat mysterious one.

What does it do? How does it impact the game?

Don’t fret, there are no wrong answers regarding your character’s favorite thing!

Here is everything you need to know about Stardew Valley’s favorite thing mechanic, plus some extra tips and tricks to get all of the fun you can from it!

What Does the Favorite Thing Do in Stardew Valley?

The favorite thing mechanic in Stardew Valley is a required field on the character creator menu.

When you find one of the rare, energy-increasing food items called Stardrops during gameplay, the answer you provided for your favorite thing will add a personalized touch to the text given after eating.

The purpose of the favorite thing is to allow the player to choose a personality trait for the character they will be playing with.

As stated above, this personality trait will be incorporated into the gameplay whenever your character eats a Stardrop. These special fruits increase your total energy bar by 34 points.

Upon receiving it, your character will immediately eat the Stardrop, and the game will randomly give you one of two personalized messages.

The two messages are:

1. You found a Stardrop! It’s strange, but the taste reminds you of [favorite thing].
2. You found a Stardrop! Your mind is filled with thoughts of [favorite thing].

There are exactly seven Stardrops to be found in the entire game. There are various points of the game where you can earn, find, or purchase one of the seven Stardrops.

Here are all of the Stardrops in the game and how to get them:

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Does the Favorite Thing Affect Stardew Valley Gameplay?

The favorite thing does not affect Stardew Valley gameplay, except for mentioning it in the personalized text given when the character eats a Stardrop.

At no other point in the game is the favorite thing mechanic incorporated or used. The game will remain the same no matter what answer you provide.

Therefore, you can pick whatever you would like without worrying about negatively affecting your game down the road.

Favorite Thing Easter Eggs and Secrets

There are a few hidden Easter Eggs in the game that you can find by choosing a couple of specific things as your favorite thing.

Each of these secrets is case-sensitive, so type them with the proper spelling and capitalization if you want to check them out!

Favorite Thing Secret #1: Stardew Everything and Anything

If you are overcome with love with all things Stardew Valley, you might decide to make your favorite thing something Stardew-related.

By choosing anything with ‘Stardew’ in the text as a favorite thing, you will see a unique text after eating a Stardrop!

Stardew Message:

You found a Stardrop! You feel an unwavering connection to the valley itself.

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Note that you must capitalize ‘Stardew’; otherwise, this will not work.

Favorite Thing Secret #2: The Father of Stardew

The creator of Stardew Valley, ConcernedApe, is another Easter Egg that can be found with the favorite thing mechanic.

If you choose to enter ‘ConcernedApe’ as your favorite thing, this will give another unique message after eating a Stardrop.

ConcernedApe Message:

You found a Stardrop! Your mind is filled with thoughts of… ConcernedApe? (Well, thanks!).

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Some Favorite Thing Ideas

The sky’s the limit when it comes to picking your favorite thing!

Well, the limit is actually 13 characters, but they can be whatever you’d like!

You may want to choose something that is one of your IRL favorite things. Many use their favorite food, flower, or person.

Others prefer to use this as a chance to make their character have a personality of their own!

For example, if you are playing a character that always picks the nicest dialogue options, you may want to make their favorite things something sweet or pretty.

Things like sunflowers, peanut butter, or freshly baked bread!

If the character is going to be blunt or otherwise unpleasant, then maybe the favorite thing could be something that reflects this.

Items like anchovies, pineapple pizza, or spiders come to mind.

Finally, you can’t go wrong by choosing something humorous as a favorite item! Imagine eating a Stardrop just to be reminded of Mayor Lewis’ purple shorts!

Stardew Characters’ Favorite Things

Not only does your character have a favorite thing, but so do all the NPCs!

Each of the NPCs has a whole set of things that they love, like, dislike, and hate.

To gain their friendship, you want to give gifts that they love and like while avoiding gifting items they dislike or hate.

There is a small set of items that are known as Universal Loves. These items are a safe bet for any of the NPCs since all of them love them.

Here are the Universal Loves:

• Golden Pumpkin
• Magic Rock Candy
• Pearl
• Prismatic Shard (except Haley)
• Rabbit’s Foot (except Penny)

In addition to the Universal Loves, each has their own unique favorite items.

Below, you can find a complete list of the NPC’s most loved items!

Mods to Simplify Gift Giving

If you often forget who likes what, loves what, and hates other items, some mods can help you navigate friendship and giving gifts!

Of all, the simplest and easiest to manage is the Gift Taste Helper mod.

Simply download this into your mod file, and the game will now show everyone’s favorite gifts when you hover the pointer on their name!

If you are new to modding, here is the detailed guide with everything you need to know to get started!

There are thousands of different mods, from the small quality of life improvements to transforming your horse into an Abigail Centaur.

Can You Change Your Favorite Thing in Stardew Valley?

You can change your favorite thing in Stardew Valley. If you have a friendship of four hearts with the Wizard, just enter his basement and offer 500g to the Shrine of Illusions.

This will let you edit your entire character, including your favorite thing. Otherwise, you can also do this by tweaking your character’s save file.

If you are not yet close enough friends with the Wizard to be allowed in his basement, it is much safer to increase your friendship rather than going into the save file.

To increase the friendship level quickly, give the Wizard two weekly gifts of his most loved items: purple mushrooms, solar essence, void essence, super cucumber, and the universally-loved items.

You can edit your save file if you absolutely must change your favorite thing immediately and don’t have access to the Shrine of Illusions.

Here are the steps for changing the save file:

1. Make a backup of the save file, just in case.
2. Open the file titled SaveGameInfo. It should open up in a Notepad application.
3. Press CTRL+F to open the Find tool
4. Type in favorite
5. Replace the old favorite thing with your new favorite thing.
6. Save and exit.

Changing text in a save file can corrupt the entire save, so be extra careful and always make a backup save file before proceeding.

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