Stardew Valleyis a game in which the player controls a character who recently inherited a farm from their grandfather. The character chooses to leave behind the big city and their former life in favor of moving to the farm and taking care of it. The player grows crops, tends to animals, and develops relationships with the people living in nearby Pelican Town. The game goes through seasons that each have 28 days and each has different events, crops, and other seasonal variations.
Anyone familiar withStardew Valleywill know the fact that during the wintertime there’s not a lot to do. Crops don’t grow during the winter, so players can’t step outside and farm, and so it’s a season that a lot of people tend to struggle with as far as maximizing what they can do. Thankfully, there are a lot of things that users can do during the winter that will set their farm up for a profitable and smooth spring after the snow melts.
Updated June 30, 2025, by Usama Ali:Players always have plenty to do in Stardew Valley, but the scarcity of winter crops means finding engaging activities during the coldest season requires more creativity. Thankfully, developer ConcernedApe has added a bunch of content in the 1.6 update, including a unique winter crop that can now be cultivated outdoors. This opens up new farming opportunities in the winter. This list has now been updated with even more tips for players looking to make the most of their time during the game’s coldest month.
28Don’t Skip Winter Days
Make the Most of It
It might be tempting to skip through some of the winter days inStardew Valleyby simply going back to bed after waking up. Doing this becomes increasingly tempting as the season progresses because it gets players closer to spring.
It can be tough to deal with the ongoing snow and lack of things to do, but the best way to maximize the winter season is to make the most of every day it brings. So, when gamers feel the urge to interact with their bed early on in the day, they need to try their hardest to get their character out of the house and proceed by following some of the other tips mentioned on this list.
27Get Ready Before Winter Actually Starts
Prep Beforehand
InStardew Valley, there are plenty of ways to get ready for the next season before it starts - and it can be as simple as checking the weather on the last day of fall to know what to expect from the first day of winter.
To make sure they’re ready, gamers can, for example, stock up on money so they can pay for any services they might need, stock up on meals so they can simply go down to the mines as soon as they wake up, and stock up on bait to make fishing easier.
26Collect Walnuts On Ginger Island
Trade for Rewards
With time on their hands due to the lack of crops, players might want to focus on collecting all the walnuts on Ginger Island. Collecting walnuts allows the player to trade with the Ginger Island parrots for a number of rewards.
One hundred and sixteen total walnuts are needed to unlock every reward, though there are a hundred and thirty available, allowing for some leeway when dealing with harder walnuts. Once 100 walnuts have been reached, the player willunlock Qi’s room, which allows completionists to keep a closer tab on their save file and net even more rewards for doing so.
25Maintain A Ginger Island Farm
Farm All Year Around
The great thing about Ginger Island is that the seasons don’t change - so there’s no winter to mess up the player’s crops. This means the crops that can be planted on theGinger Island farmcan be planted all year long!
Winter is a great time to focus on this farm, or even to build one that can yield handsome profits at any time of the year. Another perk of Ginger Island? Crows don’t appear! There’s no need to waste tile space with Scarecrows and worry that crows might sneak into the uncovered gaps.
24Experiment With Mods
Try Out Community Mods
While this is a more general tip for maximizing profit inStardew Valley, the flexibility of winter - from not having crops to take care of - is a great time tostart experimenting with mods. If something goes wrong with a time-skipping mod, for example, there’s less chance of ruining a batch of crops by speeding through another season.
Stardew Valleyhas a thriving modding community. If there’s something a player needs, it’s likely they’ll find it onNexusMods, a platform that hosts thousands of mods that can be downloaded for free.
23Prepare the Farm for Spring
One of the best ways to make use of the lack of harvesting time in the winter is to prepare the farm’s layout for spring. Over the year, players might find that their plots are in the way of other possible developments, their animals need more room, or that their farm’s overall layout and speed of travel throughout is less efficient than it could be.
Winter is the perfect time to re-plan the farm’s layout because nothing can grow anyway. Using fences to mark the corners of future plots is a great way to get a head start on spring planning, for example. A farmer’s hoed tiles won’t remain hoed as winter turns to spring, but there are lots of ways to plan a new layout without actually tilling any of the lands.
22Complete Special Orders
Complete Side Quests
Special Orders are a more recently added feature inStardew Valley, thanks to the release of update 1.5. They are functionally similar to the Help notices outside of Pierre’s shop but designed totake much longer to complete. The challenges in winter tend to be oriented around tasks that can be accomplished without farming, like killing slimes in the mine or donating wood and other supplies to Robin.
When the player completes a Special Order they are given a special reward that, more often than not, is super helpful for future farmwork. By completing Willy’s bug meat Special Order, for example, the player gets aQuality Bobber, 5,000 gold, and a special cutscene. By completingGus' egg Special Order, the player gets a mini-fridge and 3,000 gold.
21Decorate Your Farm
Pay Special Attention to How Your Farm and Home Look
Since gamers will undoubtely have some free time during the winter inStardew Valley, they should take this opportunity to craft or purchase some decorative items and place them wherever they find aesthetically pleasing.
This way, once the snow melts away, they can take in what they’ve created and wander around a beautiful farm come spring.
20Grow Powdermelons
The Best Winter Crop
The 1.6 update toStardew Valleyintroduced a new Winter crop: thePowdermelon. Unlike many other crops that lie dormant during the colder months, the Powdermelon thrives in the snow and ice of winter, presenting players with new opportunities to maintain farm productivity and income throughout the year.
Powdermelon Seeds are not available at Pierre’s Store, JojaMart, or theTraveling Cart inStardew Valley. Instead, players can get them by trading 2 Pine Cones at the Raccoon Wife’s Shop. This is the most reliable method to get Powdermelon Seeds. Other methods include digging up Seed spots, completing Raccoon requests, catching Golden Fishing Treasure Chests, and using the Seed Maker. Iridium Golems also have a 50% chance of dropping these seeds when slain during Winter.
Once players have the Powdermelon Seeds, they can plant Powdermelons all throughout Winter. The growth cycle for Powdermelons is a relatively short 7 days. Powdermelons are one of the fewcrops inStardew Valleythat have the potential to grow into Giant Crops, which burst into a large quantity of regular-sized melons when harvested.
Powdermelons make a solid source of income during the winter. The base selling price for a regular quality Powdermelon is 60 gold. This price increases with the quality of the crop, reaching 75 gold for silver, 90 gold for gold, and 120 gold for iridium quality. Players who have chosen the Tiller profession, which grants a 10% bonus to crop values, will see these prices increase further. They can also be processed into Artisan goods, like Powdermelon Wine and Jelly, which sell for higher prices.
19Arrive Late to the Feast of the Winter Star
No Need to Rush Into It
TheFeast of the Winter Staris a must-attend holiday in theStardew Valleywinter, as it gives the player a chance to really improve their relationship with a townsperson and also receive something in return. The item received in the gift exchange is randomized, but there are some great things one can pick up this way.
However, just like with all holidays in the game, the event will end once the player leaves the area, instantly fast-forwarding time to 10 pm. Be sure to arrive at the Feast of the Winter Star as late as possible, right before 2 PM, to maximize the time spent completing other tasks around the farm and areas of town that are accessible that day.
