This guide will let you know how to Date, Get Married & Have Children in Stardew Valley. Go through the guide and follow all the instructions carefully to do so.
You can look through your NPCs on the screen, some of them are shown single meaning that they are open to dating your character. So marriage is only possible with the villagers that have this single written under their social tab.
You can also delve into a marriage between players that are doing a multiplayer game together but this guide is not about that. Instead, it is specifically dedicated to romancing the NPCs in Stardew Valley.
These potential candidates on the screen are NPCs in Stardew that you can potentially marry as you begin building up relationships with people. Whether it is by talking to them every day or giving them two gifts a week and making sure you are giving them two gifts a week, then these are things that the NPC actually enjoys. As you begin to do this on a weekly basis, you will find that the hearts rise on that NPC in the social tab.
Once you reach the first eight hearts with a character that is single, you will get a mail from Pierre letting you know that there is a bouquet for sale in his general store. This bouquet will cost you 200 gold, so it’s really not too expensive. If you go into Pierre’s store and buy that bouquet, you can then gift it to the NPC that you have been trying to build a relationship. Once you hand over this bouquet to that NPC, then it will allow you to advance the hearts in the bar with them. And once you actually hand over the bouquet, you will find the bouquet’s little symbol next to their name in the social tab and it is going to refer to this NPC as your boyfriend or girlfriend.
Stardew Valley is a game where you can have same-sex relationships if you want to, there are not going to be any sort of blocks on NPCs because of your gender. Once you are dating, there are certain scenes that you can have with the NPC. For example, an NPC can send you a letter telling you to meet at the bathhouse, so you two can have a special date together but other than that there’s not too much out of the ordinary with the dialogue that you share with them every single day.
Now if you want to take it a step further, there are some things that you have to do prior to proposing to your girlfriend or boyfriend. When you have reached eight hearts with that NPC that you’ve given the bouquet to, you need to raise it up to 10 hearts of friendship and you have to repair the bridge that’s near Elliot’s cabin on the beach, and it will cost 300 wood.
At the bridge, there will be an NPC, an old mariner, selling a mermaid pendant that you need in order to propose to a candidate. So your NPC with which you are in a relationship will send you a letter in the mail explaining that the mermaid pendant is something that everyone recognizes as a symbol of marriage. It means that if you were to present one of these items to a potential romance candidate. they would understand that that means that you want to marry them.
So maybe this old mariner on the beach where you had to build the bridge could tell you that you’re not ready for what he has to sell and that’s probably because you haven’t upgraded your house yet. In order to get married, you will need a house expansion. So you need to upgrade your house using 10,000 gold and wood and stone materials. Once you have those two things down, you’re in a good place.
Now you need it to be raining for the old mariner to arrive on that section of the beach and make sure you have at least 5,000 gold saved up while you’re waiting for the old mariner. Once it is raining, you have to head to the beach and you can purchase the mermaid’s pendant from him for 5,000 gold. You need to have 10 hearts with your eligible partner and for that, you need to have upgraded your house and the bridge fixed on the beach to access the old mariner. So if you have all that with the 5000 gold, then you’re good to go ahead and buy the mermaid pendant from him. Now you can take that mermaid pendant and just give it as you normally would to your potential partner and they will answer you by saying “yes” and inform you that in three days’ time you will be getting married.
So if there is a specific date that you wanted to marry them on, you have to make sure that you ask them three days in advance of that.
When the marriage day comes, you’re actually going to wake up and experience the event in the morning. You have to do it in the center of pelican town in the plaza right below the piers. It is where you’ll have your ceremony and everyone from the town will be there and it’s a really special moment.
After that, the cut scene will be over and you will have your regular day as usual. However, your spouse will be on the farm with you, they’ll have some unique dialogue telling you what they’re gonna do for the day talking about farm life and things like that. You can actually begin giving them one item per day.
Now, you’ll also notice the hearts have gone up on the social menu for your wife or husband. There’s going to be a maximum of 14 hearts instead of the 10 that you used to have and keeping them happy is going to result in them working on your farm.
So the spouses actually have some chores that they can do to help you out, including watering your crops as well as filling your dog or cat bowl with food, feeding your animals, and repairing broken fences.
In addition to that, they can also cook you meals including breakfast and dinner dishes just to make sure that you have space in your inventory for it before interacting with them. But as you build that relationship up more and more with them, you’ll notice them helping out more around the farm.
In addition to this, you can also obtain a star drop from your spouse. This is a random chance to obtain it once you’re at 12.5 hearts with them. Now, in addition, having a spouse actually changes some things up on your farm. You’ll notice the interior of your house, there will be a room dedicated to your spouse’s interests on the right side. You can see all of the different room choices for the NPCs right there but essentially it’s based on what they like to do. Penny is sort of a bookworm therefore it has a little library set up in the home.
They’re also going to have their own little outside area right behind your house. There are some stones and fencing around for Penny. She has a little garden going.
Now if you may want to consider getting a child in the future, it is another thing where you have to upgrade your home to get a child because of course you need some space for them. So if you upgrade your house again and get the room that has the nursery built in, you’re sort of set up to have a child. At this point, you need to make sure you maintain a ten heart at least relationship with your wife or husband and have been married for at least seven days.
You might be asked if you want to have a child, there’s around a five percent chance for this so it might take a bit for it to be prompted. If you end up saying “yes”, then you will have a baby 14 days later and it’s just going to appear in the crib in your nursery. If you end up saying “no”, then you’re not ready for a kid yet. It’s totally fine, there’s still a five percent chance that your spouse continues to ask you each night that you’re married and maintain those ten hearts.
Now if you’re a same-sex couple, then you have to go through a similar thing only. they’re going to ask about adoption rather than having a baby. You still need to have the 10 hearts and the nursery and be married for at least seven days for this to occur. It’s the same prerequisites for it, so if you agree, your adoption is going to occur 14 days later and your spouse will actually let you know that the adoption paperwork has been filled out and they’re ready to go. You’ll get a note in the middle of the night saying that the adoption agency dropped off your new baby while you were sleeping and you’re gonna see them appear in the nursery right after that.
So the first 14 days of having the baby are just going to stay asleep in the nursery room and once they age a little bit, they’re going to be able to stand up in their crib. Then 14 days later, you can begin playing with your child. They will leave their crib for another 28 days and then you can see them wandering around your house during the day. Once they enter the toddler stage, they are not going to grow up anymore, they’re gonna start sleeping in one of the beds that’s in the nursery room and it is going to free up a nursery for another child if you want it.
You can only have two kids in the game, one will be a boy and one will be a girl. You can’t have two girls or two boys. Once you have the two kids you’re not going to be able to have anymore and that’s going to be it for your family life.