Stardew Valley: 10 Best Heart Events

Summary

• Stardew Valley offers some diverse relationships with NPCs, each with unique heart events and dialogue options as you level up.
• Friendship can be developed through various activities like gifting them items they like, chatting regularly, and saying hello at special events.
• Heart events with characters like Shane, Haley, and Alex provide deeper insight into these initially standoffish characters.

The level of depth that has been given to the friendship mechanic in Stardew Valley is almost unmatched. With over two dozen NPCs to level up your friendship with, Stardew Valley has a diverse cast of characters that each have their own relationship with your farmer. These relationships can be developed through gifts, talking to them regularly, the movie theater, and much more.

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Each villager has different "heart events" that occur. These are cutscenes and dialogue options that occur when you reach certain friendship milestones or "heart levels" with them. Some of them are charming, some are sad, and others are kind of boring. Here are some of the best Stardew Valley heart events.

Updated April 17, 2024 by Gabrielle Castania: With the recent launch of the 1.6 update for the PC version of Stardew Valley, we're refreshing plenty of our Stardew Valley content to bring it up to our current publishing standards and make sure we still stand by our picks for the best Stardew Valley Heart Events.

In the list below, we've included a link to the romance guides for each of the bachelors/bachelorettes mentioned, to help you reach these heart events even faster.

For all the other townsfolk, check out our general guide to friendship instead.

10 Leah's Two-Heart Event

Click here for Leah's romance guide.

During the developing friendship you form with Leah, you'll help guide her ideas for her art projects. During her two-heart event, she'll ask for advice on raising money as an artist. You can either suggest she sell her art online or that she hosts an art show in town. If you choose the latter, you'll unlock a scene when you reach eight hearts with Leah.

Enter town between 3 and 5 p.m. after she invites you to her show to trigger this cutscene.

At the show, many of the other villagers will express their appreciation for Leah and her work, and she'll be very grateful. This is a nice one because it really feels like you've contributed to the character's development. And, Leah expresses feeling like she doesn't know people very well sometimes, so this helps make her more acquainted with the locals.

9 Leo's Six-Heart Event

Leo is a newer character added to the game in the 1.5 update. He lives with his Parrot family on Ginger Island after his parents were lost at sea. At first, he won't speak, but once you give the Parrots some Golden Walnuts, he'll warm up. After you reach six hearts with him, he'll move to the mainland and become friends with the townspeople (especially Linus, his new neighbor up near Robin's shop).

It's a heartwarming scene when Leo and Linus meet and Leo agrees to move away from the island, and it's very cute how quickly he takes to life on the mainland.

Don't worry, though, he's left but not forever - Leo will still visit Ginger Island from time to time, too.

8 Shane's Fourteen-Heart Event

Click here for Shane's romance guide.

Shane is a complex character. At first, he's incredibly mean, but as he warms up to you, he'll open up about his drinking problem. If you choose to marry Shane, you'll help him recover along the way, and it's nice to have a positive impact on someone who truly appreciates you.

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During his fourteen-heart event, it seems like Shane has started drinking again. Worried, you and Marnie will investigate. It turns out he's actually just trying to get a high score in the arcade game in the saloon. It's a cute scene, and it's nice to see Shane find a new hobby to help stay away from drinking.

7 Alex's Eight-Heart Event

Click here for Alex's romance guide.

Alex comes across as a meathead jock who only cares about sports and his appearance, at first. Level up your friendship with him, however, and he'll show you a softer side with a pretty tragic past - Alex's mother died when he was younger, and he's struggled with his grief since.

During his eight-heart event, you'll find him crying on the beach, and he'll confess to you that it's the anniversary of his mother's death. You also learned during an earlier event that his father had abused him and his mother, so you'll give him a bit of encouragement and he'll feel better.

6 Caroline's Two-Heart Event

Though you're most often at her home to shop with her husband up front, don't forget to say hi to Caroline when you see her at Pierre's! From the moment you meet her, she'll take a liking to you and seems to be very lovely, but during her two-heart event, she shares something truly special.

Entering the sunroom in the back of her house after reaching her second heart will trigger this cutscene. Caroline shares her love of tea and teaches how to craft a Tea Sappling for you to plant back home, and since Tea Leaves are a pretty valuable resource, it's a tender and helpful scene.

5 Haley's Eight-Heart Event

Click here for Haley's romance guide.

Haley is often made out to be a vapid and shallow snob, since at first, she's rude to the player and only seems to care about herself and her appearance - but this is exactly what makes her eight-heart scene so special, amazingly. As Haley warms up to you, she'll thaw out that icy heart and start to show an interest in hobbies besides herself.

During this cutscene, Haley will show you her interest in photography, and you'll have an impromptu photoshoot with Marnie's cows. It's warming to see Haley have a passion, and it's hard not to be proud of her character development.

4 Emily's Eight-Heart Event

Click here for Emily's romance guide.

Reaching an eight-heart level with Emily will trigger this event, where she'll ask you to come to the Mayor's Manor. Once there, she'll explain that she wants to help the other villagers express themselves through fashion, and she'll encourage the others to choose an outfit that really expresses their personality.

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Shane will dress like a goth with spiky hair, Abigail dons a full suit of armor, Robin lets her girly side fly with her hair down over a fun dress, and Mayor Lewis chooses to sport a fancy hat, cape, and walking stick. It's a fun, light-hearted scene that leaves you with a feeling of happiness for the other villagers that participated.

3 Marnie and Mayor Lewis' Six-Heart Event

One of the more scandalous scenes, this heart event features two residents of the valley; Marnie and Mayor Lewis. To trigger this event, you will need to have at least six hearts with both of these characters. With this done, just enter Pelican Town at night.

Here, you will witness a strange scene between the two, where they discuss keeping their relationship a secret. The love between these two fully grown adults is quite cute, especially since they act like a couple of teenagers sneaking around in bushes, but why do they need to hide their affair?

2 Alex's Ten-Heart Event

As we learned in the earlier Alex event we listed above, he can have a soft side. Once you make it to ten hearts with Alex, you will receive a letter from him in the mail, inviting you to the Saloon at night.

You need to be dating Alex to be able to see this event.

This heart event is quite unique; his exact dialogue will change depending on your gender. If you are a girl, Alex will say he has a crush on you, but if you are a boy, Alex will confess that he denied the feelings but just can't hold his heart back any longer. It's a cute moment that was unexpected from the town jock.

1 Sebastian's Six-Heart Event

Click here for Sebastian's romance guide.

To trigger the best heart event in Stardew Valley, you'll just need to enter Sebastian's room after reaching six hearts with him. Once you arrive, you find him and Sam seated together and playing Solarion Chronicles: The Game, which is essentially Dungeons and Dragons.

In this lighthearted event, you can choose a hero (warrior, healer, or wizard), and play with Sam and Sebastian to complete the scenario. Overall, it's a fun experience that gives you a chance to know a bit more about Sebastian's interests.

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