We all want to get the most from our gameplay experience - however, in many cases, games can begin to feel a little dull and tired after a while of playing. To combat this frustrating situation, Stardew Valley players have come up with numerous unique challenges to make the game more complex - and these vary from slight tweaks to all-out game-changing experiences. Following this thought, today, we’re looking at some of the main Stardew Valley challenge runs you should know about if you’ve been looking to add a bit more challenge to your game.
What are the Best Stardew Valley Player-Made Challenge Runs?
There are numerous challenge runs you could try if you’ve been looking to make the most of your Stardew Game. These include the following challenges, which are among the most unique runs in Stardew Valley.
But remember: to make the most of your challenge runs, you’ll need to start with a dedicated game from Day One. As part of this, it’s also worth setting up your new game with a dedicated ScalaCube server, to ensure 24/7 uptime and a lag-free experience.
Complete the Community Center in the First Year
One of the most demanding challenge runs that players undertake - and also one of the oldest Stardew Valley challenge runs conceived - is the idea of completing the Community Center within the first year. This can naturally be challenging, given the amount of items you’ll need to get hold of (some of which are very tricky to come by). In order to achieve this, though, you’ll need to set up your game to be Year One completable, otherwise there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to finish the Community Center in time.
Botanist Farm
Most of us only grow a couple of flowers on our Stardew Valley farms, either to complete the Community Center and other in-game achievements or to simply beautify our farms. However, why not take this challenge to the next level by running a Botanist farm, instead?
This particular player-made Stardew Valley challenge tasks players with growing nothing but flowers on their farms - and, given the far lower profit margins, it’s easy to see why this can be such a challenging gameplay approach. If that wasn’t challenging enough, some people also take this concept a step further still and restrict themselves to growing just a single flower type per season.
Boycotting Pierre’s and JojaMart
Generally speaking, at the start of the game, you’ll want to buy seeds from either Pierre’s store or - if it’s closed for the night - JojaMart. However, one particular challenge run has you boycott both of these, restricting you just to the seeds you start the game with and any you can scavenge in the environment (or buy from other, more reclusive traders). This can definitely be a tricky way to get started, given that most people will simply buy their seeds from Pierre, and it requires you to think a lot more about how you’ll prepare your crop fields in turn.
Boycotting Sales Entirely
Thus far, we’ve focused on relatively mild challenge runs; however, if you really want to push yourself to the extreme, why not try the No-Ship Stardew Valley challenge? With this unique challenge, players are tasked with building a thriving farm - but neither shipping nor selling any items until the last day of the year. This can be quite the conundrum, given you only start out with 500g; as such, in this mode, the two main ways to make money are to complete villager quests and hope for a payout in the mail. In short: you’ll definitely need to get creative to pull this one off, making it a great challenge in turn.
The Hermit Challenge
While you might start the game restricted to just Pelican Town itself, there’s still plenty enough room to move around, meet the NPCs in the game, and the like. However, the Hermit challenge takes the position that even visiting Pelican Town is far too much freedom - and instead tasks players with starting their farm as a lonely hermit, only allowed to leave the farm for one day per year.
This poses incredibly difficult restrictions on your gameplay, as not only does it mean that you only have one chance per year to spend your money and stock up on equipment, but it also means that you’ll have to make do with what you’ve got on your farm for a whole year.
The one benefit this gameplay method does offer is that you are free to leave the farm at any point during the year of your choosing. However, you’ll need to weigh up the benefits of leaving early and stocking up versus leaving later when you can afford more resources (but potentially struggling more in the lead up to this point).
Bulk Sales Challenge
Generally speaking, most players will sell items as and when they get them. However, the bulk sales challenge makes this significantly harder, preventing players from selling items until they have achieved a full stack - or, in some even more hardcore iterations of the challenge, a full chest of completed stacks.
This undoubtedly makes each payday more lucrative, but you’ll need to prepare very carefully to balance getting enough income to fund this unique challenge with growing enough items to do so. In line with this thought, you’ll likely want to start with free or cheap items to begin building stacks (such as stone, wood, parsnips, wheat, etc). Remember, 99 crops will generally require 99 bags of seeds, unless you choose a crop that regrows or drops seeds, so you’ll need to plan this carefully.
Frequently Asked Questions
Final Thoughts
If you’ve been looking for the best Stardew Valley challenge runs, today’s guide may well have helped. Indeed, these unique gameplay styles can make it a lot more challenging to make a success of the game - the ideal way to keep things interesting as a veteran player who has already done it all. However, while some Stardew challenges are relatively mild, others can be incredibly complex and difficult to complete. As such, this is well worth keeping in mind as part of your game preparation.
What are the Best Stardew Valley Player-Made Challenge Runs?
There are numerous challenge runs you could try if you’ve been looking to make the most of your Stardew Game. These include the following challenges, which are among the most unique runs in Stardew Valley.But remember: to make the most of your challenge runs, you’ll need to start with a dedicated game from Day One. As part of this, it’s also worth setting up your new game with a dedicated ScalaCube server, to ensure 24/7 uptime and a lag-free experience.
Complete the Community Center in the First Year
One of the most demanding challenge runs that players undertake - and also one of the oldest Stardew Valley challenge runs conceived - is the idea of completing the Community Center within the first year. This can naturally be challenging, given the amount of items you’ll need to get hold of (some of which are very tricky to come by). In order to achieve this, though, you’ll need to set up your game to be Year One completable, otherwise there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to finish the Community Center in time.
Botanist Farm
Most of us only grow a couple of flowers on our Stardew Valley farms, either to complete the Community Center and other in-game achievements or to simply beautify our farms. However, why not take this challenge to the next level by running a Botanist farm, instead? This particular player-made Stardew Valley challenge tasks players with growing nothing but flowers on their farms - and, given the far lower profit margins, it’s easy to see why this can be such a challenging gameplay approach. If that wasn’t challenging enough, some people also take this concept a step further still and restrict themselves to growing just a single flower type per season.
Boycotting Pierre’s and JojaMart
Generally speaking, at the start of the game, you’ll want to buy seeds from either Pierre’s store or - if it’s closed for the night - JojaMart. However, one particular challenge run has you boycott both of these, restricting you just to the seeds you start the game with and any you can scavenge in the environment (or buy from other, more reclusive traders). This can definitely be a tricky way to get started, given that most people will simply buy their seeds from Pierre, and it requires you to think a lot more about how you’ll prepare your crop fields in turn.
Boycotting Sales Entirely
Thus far, we’ve focused on relatively mild challenge runs; however, if you really want to push yourself to the extreme, why not try the No-Ship Stardew Valley challenge? With this unique challenge, players are tasked with building a thriving farm - but neither shipping nor selling any items until the last day of the year. This can be quite the conundrum, given you only start out with 500g; as such, in this mode, the two main ways to make money are to complete villager quests and hope for a payout in the mail. In short: you’ll definitely need to get creative to pull this one off, making it a great challenge in turn.The Hermit Challenge
While you might start the game restricted to just Pelican Town itself, there’s still plenty enough room to move around, meet the NPCs in the game, and the like. However, the Hermit challenge takes the position that even visiting Pelican Town is far too much freedom - and instead tasks players with starting their farm as a lonely hermit, only allowed to leave the farm for one day per year. 
This poses incredibly difficult restrictions on your gameplay, as not only does it mean that you only have one chance per year to spend your money and stock up on equipment, but it also means that you’ll have to make do with what you’ve got on your farm for a whole year.
The one benefit this gameplay method does offer is that you are free to leave the farm at any point during the year of your choosing. However, you’ll need to weigh up the benefits of leaving early and stocking up versus leaving later when you can afford more resources (but potentially struggling more in the lead up to this point).
Bulk Sales Challenge
Generally speaking, most players will sell items as and when they get them. However, the bulk sales challenge makes this significantly harder, preventing players from selling items until they have achieved a full stack - or, in some even more hardcore iterations of the challenge, a full chest of completed stacks. This undoubtedly makes each payday more lucrative, but you’ll need to prepare very carefully to balance getting enough income to fund this unique challenge with growing enough items to do so. In line with this thought, you’ll likely want to start with free or cheap items to begin building stacks (such as stone, wood, parsnips, wheat, etc). Remember, 99 crops will generally require 99 bags of seeds, unless you choose a crop that regrows or drops seeds, so you’ll need to plan this carefully.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a reason to follow Stardew Valley challenge runs over a regular game?
Generally speaking, people choose to play a challenge run instead of a regular game because of the extra challenge. These help keep the game enjoyable and rewarding even once you’ve gotten the hang of and mastered the basics.