Stardew Valley: Health And Stamina, Explained

When you’re first starting out in Stardew Valley, there are plenty of mechanics to learn that might be a bit confusing until you’ve got the hang of them. Two of the most critical systems you’ll need to learn are your farmer’s health and stamina meters, two distinct gauges that keep them healthy.

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Your stamina is your farmer’s energy for all their daily chores like planting crops or chopping trees, while the health meter is focused mostly on any combat you may encounter. There are plenty of ways to replenish your health and stamina throughout the day in Stardew Valley, too.

Your Farmer's Stamina, Explained

The mechanic you'll be dealing with the most in Stardew Valley is your stamina. How much stamina you have is shown in the bar in the bottom right corner. On most mornings, you'll wake up with the bar fully green, showing you've got the most possible energy for the day.

Stamina is consumed by using your tools, with almost all of them using a portion of your total stamina for the day. This is especially clear in the earliest days of your game, when you've only got the most basic tools to use to clear your new property, finding pretty quickly that that kind of work is pretty exhausting.

Using any of the following tools consumes stamina, so be mindful of them when making your plans for the day:

• Your Axe, making chopping any kind of wood reduce your stamina.
• Any of the Fishing Rods, which means that fishing in any location around Pelican Town will use stamina.
• Your Hoe, so plan accordingly when tilling your fields or trying to dig up artifact spots around town.
• The Pickaxe, meaning you'll find pretty quickly that any kind of Mining you do requires quite a lot of stamina.
• Finally, the Watering Can becomes less prominent once you begin to automate the farm and install some sprinklers, but watering your crops is pretty tedious work when done manually.

Both the Scytheand your weapons like swords or daggers consume no stamina when used, meaning you can swing them to your heart's content.

When low on stamina, keep the tools out of your farmer's hand - even misclicks register as using the tool, so prevent yourself from accidentally wasting energy by either keeping your farmer's hands free or equipping the Scythe or a weapon.

Your Farmer's Health, Explained

On the other hand, your farmer also has a health bar. However, unlike the stamina meter, it's not on your screen at all times - you'll only see the health bar if you're engaging in any kind of combat.

This can happen in a number of ways, like:

• Visiting any dungeon in the game, where plenty of various monsters will attack your farmer as you gather resources.
  • There are enemies in the Pelican Town Mines, the Skull Cavern, the Ginger Island Volcano, and on the Wilderness Farm.
• Using a bomb to clear debris and standing too close.
• Standing in front of the train when it's passing through Stardew Valley.

The only way for your health to deplete is to take damage, meaning you're pretty safe if you're not engaging in combat or using bombs.

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How To Restore YourHealth And Stamina

Your health and stamina meters are both restored every day when you first wake up in the morning. Most of the time, it'll be filled all the way when you wake up, but not always.

Passing out doesn't seem very restful in real life, nor does it in Stardew Valley. Be sure to go to bed every night to wake up with full stamina in the morning - you have less stamina for the next day if you pass out, so be sure to make it home to get to bed.

You pass out automatically at 2AM regardless of where you are, so factor this into your daily plans!

But there are a few ways to restore your health and stamina in Stardew Valley throughout the day, like:

• Consuming any food item, be it a cooked meal or just a tasty ingredient.
  • Stamina replenished is noted with the green plus sign, while health is the red plus sign.
  • These numbers will almost always be different, making some meals better for health while others are better for stamina, so weigh up the stats of each meal before you eat.
• Visiting the spa by the train tracks for a soothing dip to rest your weary bones after a long morning's work.
  • Both your stamina and health meters slowly refill to normal, and the spa is totally free! If you've had a long morning on the farm before heading to the Mines, stop in for a quick dip.
• Finding a Stardrop, which automatically replenishes your health and stamina for the day.
  • It also permanently increases both meters, making collecting them a Stardew Valley must.

Regardless, going to bed at the end of the day will always be the quickest way to refill your health and stamina once you're finished working for the day!

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