How The Friendship Point System Works

Making friends is a vital aspect of Stardew Valley. As a new member in small, cozy Pelican Town, the player can integrate themselves into the local community through acts of kindness and generosity towards their neighbors. Whether they’re looking for friendship or romance, building bonds is important.

Most players know that talking to the villagers, giving them gifts that they like, and choosing certain dialogue options will help boost friendship. But how does it all shake out? After all, not all gifts or actions are created equal — some will increase a relationship more than others. Here’s how exactly a Stardew Valley player can raise their relationship with another character to the max.

Updated January 4, 2025, by Demaris Oxman: The 1.6 update for Stardew Valley encouraged many gamers to either get back into this adorable farming sim, or perhaps pick it up for the first time. Now that the update is available for all platforms, players may be curious about changes to the game’s systems. While the friendship point system functions in essentially the same way, there have been a few new additions in 1.6 that players should know if they’re seeking to befriend the whole valley.

The Heart Scale

To check the player’s relationship with every NPC, open the Menu and select the tab with the heart. This will display a list of each NPC and how many hearts (friendship levels) the player has earned with them.

As players earn more and more hearts with NPCs, certain options become available. They may get to witness special Heart Event scenes, receive recipes in the mail, or unlock certain dialogue. However, the heart scale itself doesn’t tell the whole story of how friendship is earned.

What Is One Heart?

To increase friendship by one heart, players must earn 250 friendship points with that NPC. Almost every interaction — talking to the character, giving gifts, etc. — has some effect on friendship. Players can earn points with positive actions, but ignoring the character or performing certain negative actions will cause friendship to decrease.

Boosting Friendship Gain

If players want to raise the rate at which they befriend their neighbors, they should seek out the book Friendship 101. This book can be obtained as the ninth prize from the Prize Machine in the Mayor’s Mansion. It also has a small chance to be sold by the Bookseller starting in Year 3, with a 9% chance to appear in his inventory. Purchasing it will set the player back 20,000g.

Upon reading this book, players will gain a permanent 10% increase to their friendship gains. In other words, each friendship-increasing interaction will now be worth 10% more points. The book does not have an effect on friendship decreases, and does not grant additional effects if read more than once.

Point Values For Individual Character Interactions

There are plenty of ways in which players can gain or lose friendship points. Many of these involve one-on-one interactions with Pelican Town’s residents.

Everyday Interactions

• Talking to the character will typically net the player +20 points. If that character is in the middle of an activity (for example, exercising or doing chores), the reward is +10 points instead. Though slightly lower, it’s still worth giving a greeting in any circumstance to prevent friendship decay. In the Social menu tab, a check mark will appear under the dialogue bubble in the rightmost column to show that the player has spoken to a character that day.
• Completing an item delivery from the Bulletin Board outside Pierre’s store will grant the player +150 points with the recipient.
• Failing to talk to a character on any given day will result in a slight decrease in friendship. Generally, this is -2 points per day. However, if the player has given the character in question a bouquet, this increases to -10 per day. And if the player is married, not talking to their spouse results in a -20 decrease on that day. Don’t ignore significant others!

Giving Gifts

When it comes to gifts, every villager has their own preferences. Still, there are a few that are almost always good choices!

• Loved Gifts: +80 points
• Liked Gifts: +45 points
• Neutral Gifts: +20 points
• Disliked Gifts: -20 Points
• Hated Gifts: -40 Points

Any gift given on the Feast of the Winter Star will net 5x the usual points; meanwhile, birthday gifts will amount to 8x as many points. Keep in mind that this means disliked or hated gifts will lead to a huge decrease on these days. Don’t be afraid to do a little research when giving gifts for special occasions.

Stardrop Tea

There are a few universally loved gifts in Stardew Valley, but among them, Stardrop Tea
is particularly special. When gifted to an NPC, Stardrop Tea will increase friendship by 250 points, or one full heart. If given as a birthday or Feast of the Winter Star gift, this is tripled to three full hearts. Players can even give it to someone after they have met the usual gift maximums (two per week and one per day).

Stardrop Tea is fairly rare, but there are a few ways players can get their hands on a cup of this special brew. It can be obtained from the Prize Machine in the Mayor’s office, or occasionally found in Golden Fishing Chests. The Helper’s Bundle on the remixed Community Center Bulletin Board will give one as a reward when completed. The raccoon may also give the player one as thanks for completing his higher-level requests.

The Movie Theater

Once the movie theater is available, players can take friends or romantic interests to catch a show. To invite someone, buy a Movie Ticket
for 1000g and present it to the character like a gift. Each character has their own likes and dislikes when it comes to both film choices and movie snacks, which will change the friendship outcomes:

• Loved Movie: +200 points
• Liked Movie: +100 points
• Disliked Movie: 0 points
• Loved Concession: +50 points
• Liked Concession: +25 points
• Disliked Concession: 0 points

Conversations & Dialogue

Occasionally, upon chatting with a character, they may pose a question to the player. For example, Abigail might ask what the player thinks of her drawings, or Haley might ask what the player does on the farm. Choosing the appropriate answers can net the player +10 to +50 points, depending on the conversation. However, responding with the wrong thing can result in a decrease.

Typically, it’s not too difficult to tell which responses will elicit which. Players can usually deduce from the asker’s personality which answer they might most like to hear. Mean or snarky dialogue will reduce friendship points, while well-intentioned choices will give the player a few points — or, at worst, have no effect on friendship.

Similarly, Heart Events may also have dialogue choices. These are often more personal conversations, and can increase or decrease friendship by as much as 200 points. As with other dialogue, though, it’s often quite clear which responses will elicit either friendship or anger.

Festivals & Events

The Flower Dance

To ask an NPC to dance at the festival, players must be at four hearts or higher. The dance itself will increase friendship by 1 heart (250 points).

The Luau

During the community potluck at this summer festival, players can choose to add an item to the soup. Depending on its taste, they can gain or lose friendship with every villager:

• Best Soup: +120 points
• Good Soup: +60 points
• Neutral Soup, no item added, or Lewis’ Purple Shorts added: 0 points
• Bad Soup: -50 points
• Worst Soup: -100 points

In Pelican Town’s derelict community center, one group of bundles is referred to as the “Bulletin Board.” This consists of the Chef’s Bundle, the Enchanter’s Bundle, the Fodder Bundle, the Field Research Bundle, and the Dye Bundle. Once all of these are completed, the player will receive 500 friendship points (2 hearts) with every non-dateable villager.