How To Get Hearts In Stardew Valley

1 Friendship mechanics
- 1.1 Point system
- 1.2 Decay
- 1.3 Gifts
- 1.4 Heart Events
- 1.5 Romance
- 1.6 Quests
- 1.7 Festivals
- 1.8 Bulletin Board Bundles
2 Universal Gifts
- 2.1 Universal Loves
  - 2.1.1 Universal Loves exceptions
- 2.2 Universal Likes
  - 2.2.1 Universal Likes exceptions
- 2.3 Universal Neutrals
  - 2.3.1 Universal Neutrals exceptions
- 2.4 Universal Dislikes
  - 2.4.1 Universal Dislikes exceptions
- 2.5 Universal Hates
  - 2.5.1 Universal Hates exceptions
3 Achievements
4 References
5 History

You can become friends with Pelican Town's villagers. As your friendships deepen, the villagers' dialogue lines become more friendly, cut-scenes called heart events occur, and the villagers send you gifts in the mail.

Friendship mechanics

Point system

Each villager has a friendship score represented by a ten-heart meter (for a normal villager) or fourteen-heart meter (for your spouse):

Each heart is 250 friendship points. You can view all heart meters on the social tab of the game menu.

When talking to villagers, a circle will appear next to their portrait. Its color will depend on the number of hearts you have with the villager. Blue denotes 0 hearts, green for 2, yellow for 4, red for 6, purple for 8, and at 10-14 hearts a purple star will appear. Hovering the mouse over the circle will display the number of hearts out of 10, if not married.

You can increase friendship points by:

Talking to villagers (+10 if the villager is in the middle of a special animation, like exercising or using a camera, otherwise +20; can only score once per day)
Completing an item delivery quest for them (+150)
Giving them a gift they love, like, or are neutral towards (see Gifts)
Giving a second loved, liked, or neutral gift in a week (see Gifts)
Inviting them to the Movie Theater (+200 if loved, +100 if liked)
Purchasing a snack for them (+50 if loved, +25 if liked) (see Movie Theater)
Making certain choices in their heart events

You can lose friendship points by:

Not talking to a villager (see Decay)
Giving them a gift they dislike or hate (see Gifts)
Hitting them with a slingshot (-30, can only score once per day)
Rummaging through a Garbage Can when they're within 7 tiles of you (-25, except Linus who doesn't mind). They will speak to indicate that they have seen you. If more than one is within 7 tiles of you when you rummage, only one will speak and lose friendship.

You may enter a villager's bedroom when the relevant heart meter reads at least 2 hearts. This level improves access to the villager for talking and gifting.

Friendship points can increase up to a maximum of 2749 (one point less than 11 hearts) for villagers whose heart meters show as 10 hearts on the Social tab.

With marriage candidates, the meter pauses at 8 hearts. It will not increase unless you give the candidate a bouquet to indicate your romantic interest. If you do so, that meter is unlocked and operates as before until ten hearts is reached. (Note that after reaching 8 hearts but pre-bouquet, friendship points can continue to rise to just below 9 hearts (2249 points) and will not decay until the candidate is given a bouquet.) It is possible to give a bouquet to any and all marriage candidates, and raise all their friendship levels to 10 hearts, without damage to your relationships with other romantic partners, so long as you have not yet proposed. (If you have proposed, are married, or have a roommate, there is a chance your fiancé/spouse/roommate may become jealous.)

Dating all bachelors or bachelorettes may result in a Group Ten Heart event, which does not affect friendship, but may prevent you from giving gifts for one week afterwards.

When you propose marriage, the heart meters of all other marriage candidates convert to the behavior of all other villagers, since none are marriage candidates any longer. However, their entries in the social tab still show whether you have previously given them a bouquet. (Also, after marriage you can still activate romantic heart events with these other marriage candidates if you have previously given them a bouquet.) After the marriage ceremony, your spouse's meter unlocks once again and can rise as far as 14 hearts.

Decay

Each day, not talking to a villager will slightly decrease their friendship unless their heart meter is full.^[1] Marriage doesn't stop decay with your spouse. Calling a villager using the Telephone does not count as talking to the villager.

Relationship	Decay rate	When decay stops
Married	-20/day	Never
Gave bouquet	-10/day	10 hearts
Pre-bouquet	-2/day	8 hearts
Not romanceable	-2/day	10 hearts

Gifts

You can give each villager one gift per day, up to two gifts per week, as indicated by the checkboxes in the social tab. You can review the villager's gift preferences by clicking on their row in the Social Tab to open the "Gift Log". This log keeps track of gifts given, and gift preferences learned via Secret Notes and dialogues with their family and friends.

For the purpose of gift-giving, the week begins on Sunday. If you give a villager two gifts in a week, their heart meter will rise an additional ten friendship points on Sunday morning when you wake up.

You can always give a birthday gift to a villager, even if you've already given that character two other gifts that week.

You can give your spouse one gift every day of the week.

Each villager has individual likes and dislikes, which affects how many friendship points are gained or lost when you give them a gift. The friendship points are multiplied on their birthday (×8) and Feast of the Winter Star secret gifting event (×5):

Gift Taste	Normal	Winter Star (×5)	Birthday (×8)
Love	+80	+400	+640
Like	+45	+225	+360
Neutral	+20	+100	+160
Dislike	-20	-100	-160
Hate	-40	-200	-320

If a gift is liked or loved, the points gained will be further affected by quality of the item:

	Multiplier	Effect
Normal	×1	+0%
Silver	×1.1	+10%
Gold	×1.25	+25%
Iridium	×1.5	+50%

Note that a no-star loved item always gives more points than an iridium-star liked item.^[2] The equation is Event Multiplier × Preference × Quality Multiplier, where Event Multiplier is 1 (any day), 5 (your Winter Star recipient), or 8 (their birthday), Preference is 80 or 45, and Quality Multiplier is 1, 1.1, 1.25, or 1.5. (For neutral, disliked, or hated gifts, the equation is simply Event Multiplier × Preference.) With this format, the highest possible amount of points would be to gift someone an iridium-quality loved gift, on their birthday. Doing this, you would get 960 points, or just short of 4-hearts for one gift.

Heart Events

Gaining friendship with each villager will unlock unique events (see each villager's article for the requirements). It's possible to permanently miss some events, though most events can be viewed at your leisure or out of order.

Romance

Main article: Marriage

Some villagers can be romanced by the player (see marriage candidates). Once you've reached eight hearts with an eligible villager, you can give them a bouquet to unlock the ninth and tenth hearts. Once you've reached ten hearts with an eligible villager, you can give them a Mermaid's Pendant to propose. Alternatively, at 10 hearts, you can give Krobus a Void Ghost Pendant to indicate you'd like to move in together as roommates.

After you've moved in with or married a villager, they get an expanded fourteen-heart friendship meter. At 12.5 hearts (3125 points), they will randomly give you a stardrop.

Quests

Main article: Quests

The game-opening Introductions quest, when completed, increases by 100 the player's friendship points with each of the 28 starting townspeople. (The Wizard is not included among these villagers.)

Completing an Item Delivery Quest awards 150 Friendship points with the requesting villager.

Festivals

Main article: Festivals

You earn friendship points for speaking to villagers at Festivals, the same as any non-festival day. Three festivals can have special effects on friendship points with villagers:

The Flower Dance increases friendship 250 points (one heart) with your dance partner, unless the partner is locked at eight hearts beforehand.
The Luau can increase or decrease friendship points with most villagers (all except Sandy, the Wizard, Krobus, and the Dwarf).
Your gift to your secret friend at the Feast of the Winter Star is worth 5x the normal amount of friendship points.

In addition, giving gifts to villagers at the Night Market will increase friendship with them, in the same way as it does outside of festivals.

Bulletin Board Bundles

Main article: Bundles

Completing all Bulletin Board bundles improves the player's friendship rating with non-datable villagers by two hearts (500 points). Note that this applies only to non-datable villagers whom you have met in person. Villagers who do not show on the "Social" tab of the player menu and villagers whose names appear as "???" will not receive 500 points.

Note that you do not have to understand Dwarvish for the Dwarf to receive 500 points. In contrast, you do have to understand Dwarvish for gifts to affect friendship with the Dwarf.

Universal Gifts

See also: List of All Gifts

Below are lists of items that are universally loved, liked, considered neutral, disliked, or hated. Note that there are some exceptions and that individual villager tastes override any universal tastes.
Preferences for Eggs, Milk, Fruit, and most Foraged Items vary by villager, and are generally not listed here.

Note that Dinosaur Eggs are considered Artifacts and not Eggs for gifting purposes.

Universal Loves

This is a list of items that almost every villager loves to receive as a gift. These items are guaranteed to give the most points (80) towards your relationship, but may be difficult to obtain.

When given a loved gift, villagers usually respond with a heart dialogue bubble.

Universal Loves exceptions

Universal Likes

Though worth fewer friendship points than a loved gift, a liked gift increases friendship by 45 points, and is often much easier to obtain.

Universal Likes exceptions

Below is an Expandable table of all Universal Likes exceptions, listed by Villager. (See also: List of All Gifts)

Villager	Loves	Likes	Neutrals	Dislikes	Hates
Abigail	Gems: Amethyst Cooking: Banana Pudding, Blackberry Cobbler, Chocolate Cake, Spicy Eel Vegetables: Pumpkin			All Vegetables except Pumpkin
Alex	Cooking: Complete Breakfast, Salmon Dinner
Caroline	Artisan Goods: Green Tea Cooking: Fish Taco, Tropical Curry Flowers: Summer Spangle	Vegetables: Tea Leaves		Artisan Goods: Duck Mayonnaise, Mayonnaise Vegetables: Amaranth
Clint	All Gems except Diamond Cooking: Artichoke Dip, Fiddlehead Risotto			All Flowers (except Poppy)
Demetrius	Cooking: Bean Hotpot, Ice Cream, Rice Pudding
Dwarf	All Gems except Diamond
Elliott	Cooking: Crab Cakes, Tom Kha Soup Fruit Tree Fruit: Pomegranate			Cooking: Pizza	Vegetables: Amaranth
Emily	Artisan Goods: Cloth Cooking: Survival Burger All Gems except Diamond			Cooking: Fried Eel, Ice Cream, Rice Pudding, Spicy Eel	Cooking: Fish Taco, Maki Roll, Salmon Dinner, Sashimi
Evelyn	Cooking: Chocolate Cake, Stuffing Flowers: Fairy Rose, Tulip Gems: Diamond Vegetables: Beet				Cooking: Fried Eel, Maki Roll, Sashimi, Spicy Eel, Trout Soup Vegetables: Garlic
George	Cooking: Fried Mushroom			All Flowers (except Poppy)
Gus	Cooking: Escargot, Fish Taco, Tropical Curry Fruit Tree Fruit: Orange Gems: Diamond				Cooking: Coleslaw
Haley	Cooking: Fruit Salad, Pink Cake Flowers: Sunflower			All Vegetables (except Hops & Wheat)
Harvey	Artisan Goods: Coffee, Pickles, Truffle Oil, Wine Cooking: Super Meal			Artisan Goods: Cheese, Goat Cheese Cooking: Blueberry Tart, Chocolate Cake, Cookie, Cranberry Sauce, Fried Mushroom, Glazed Yams, Hashbrowns, Ice Cream, Pancakes, Pink Cake, Pizza, Rhubarb Pie, Rice Pudding
Jas	Cooking: Pink Cake, Plum Pudding Flowers: Fairy Rose			All Vegetables (except Hops & Wheat)	All Artisan Goods (except Honey, Jelly, & Oil) Cooking: Triple Shot Espresso
Jodi	Cooking: Chocolate Cake, Crispy Bass, Eggplant Parmesan, Fried Eel, Pancakes, Rhubarb Pie, Vegetable Medley Gems: Diamond			Vegetables: Garlic
Kent	Cooking: Fiddlehead Risotto, Roasted Hazelnuts				Cooking: Algae Soup, Sashimi, Tortilla
Krobus	Gems: Diamond Vegetables: Pumpkin	Cooking: Seafoam Pudding		All Cooking except Bread, Fried Egg, Strange Bun, & Seafoam Pudding Misc: Life Elixir
Leah	Artisan Goods: Goat Cheese, Wine Cooking: Poppyseed Muffin, Salad, Stir Fry, Vegetable Medley			All Foraged Minerals except Earth Crystal All Gems except Diamond & Prismatic Shard Cooking: Carp Surprise, Cookie, Ice Cream, Pink Cake, Rice Pudding, Survival Burger, Tortilla	Cooking: Hashbrowns, Pancakes, Pizza
Leo	Cooking: Poi		Artisan Goods: Coffee	Artisan Goods: Pickles All Cooking except Bread, Fried Egg, Poi, Mango Sticky Rice, Strange Bun, Seafoam Pudding, & Triple Shot Espresso Misc: Life Elixir	Artisan Goods: Beer, Mead, Pale Ale, Piña Colada, Wine Cooking: Triple Shot Espresso
Lewis	Artisan Goods: Green Tea Cooking: Autumn's Bounty, Glazed Yams, Vegetable Medley
Linus	Cooking: Blueberry Tart, Dish o' The Sea Vegetables: Yam			All Foraged Minerals All Gems except Diamond & Prismatic Shard
Marnie	Cooking: Farmer's Lunch, Pink Cake, Pumpkin Pie Gems: Diamond
Maru	Cooking: Cheese Cauliflower, Miner's Treat, Pepper Poppers, Rhubarb Pie Gems: Diamond Vegetables: Cauliflower			Misc: Maple Syrup	Artisan Goods: Honey, Pickles
Pam	Artisan Goods: Beer, Mead, Pale Ale, Piña Colada Cooking: Glazed Yams, Parsnip Soup Vegetables: Parsnip
Penny	Cooking: Poppyseed Muffin, Red Plate, Roots Platter, Tom Kha Soup Gems: Diamond, Emerald			Cooking: Algae Soup, Pale Broth	Artisan Goods: Beer, Mead, Pale Ale, Piña Colada, Wine
Pierre	Cooking: Fried Calamari			All Foraged Minerals All Gems except Diamond & Prismatic Shard	Cooking: Parsnip Soup, Tortilla Vegetables: Corn, Garlic
Robin	Artisan Goods: Goat Cheese Cooking: Spaghetti Fruit Tree Fruit: Peach
Sam	Cooking: Maple Bar, Pizza			All Vegetables (except Hops & Wheat)	Artisan Goods: Duck Mayonnaise, Mayonnaise, Pickles
Sandy	Cooking: Mango Sticky Rice Flowers: Crocus, Sweet Pea
Sebastian	Cooking: Pumpkin Soup, Sashimi Foraged Mineral: Frozen Tear			All Flowers (except Poppy)	All Artisan Goods (except Coffee, Green Tea, & Oil) Cooking: Complete Breakfast, Farmer's Lunch, Omelet
Shane	Artisan Goods: Beer Cooking: Pepper Poppers, Pizza				Artisan Goods: Pickles
Vincent	Cooking: Cranberry Candy, Ginger Ale, Pink Cake			All Vegetables (except Hops & Wheat)	All Artisan Goods (except Honey, Jelly, & Oil) Cooking: Triple Shot Espresso
Willy	Artisan Goods: Mead Gems: Diamond Vegetables: Pumpkin	Cooking: Seafoam Pudding	Cooking: Dish O' The Sea, Maki Roll, & Sashimi	All Cooking except for Dish O' The Sea, Maki Roll, & Sashimi, and the following dishes he likes: Baked Fish, Carp Surprise, Chowder, Crab Cakes, Crispy Bass, Fish Stew, Fish Taco, Fried Calamari, Fried Eel, Lobster Bisque, Salmon Dinner, Trout Soup & Seafoam Pudding Misc: Life Elixir

Universal Neutrals

This is a list of items that will elicit a neutral response from the villagers, and give 20 points toward friendship. There are some exceptions.

Universal Neutrals exceptions

Universal Dislikes

This is a list of items that will decrease friendship by 20 points when given as gifts.

All Building Materials -- Battery Packs, Clay, Fiber, Hardwood, Stone, and Wood
All Bombs
All Crafted Floors & Paths
All Fences
All Fertilizer
All Fish (except for Clam which is a Universal Neutral, and Carp & Snails which are Universal Hates)
All Geode Minerals
All Geodes
All Seeds including Fruit Tree Saplings, Tea Saplings, Acorns, Maple Seeds, and Pine Cones
All Sprinklers
All Tackle
Misc. Mined/Metal Goods -- Bone Fragment, Cinder Shard, Coal, Copper Bars, Gold Bars, Gold Ore, Iridium Bars, Iridium Ore, Iron Bars, and Refined Quartz

Universal Dislikes exceptions

Abigail loves Pufferfish; hates Clay
Clint loves Gold Bar, Iridium Bar, Omni Geode; likes Copper Bar, Iron Bar; is neutral toward Coal, Gold Ore, Iridium Ore, Refined Quartz
Demetrius is neutral toward All Fish (except Carp & Snail)
Dwarf loves Lemon Stone and Omni Geode; likes Cave Carrot; is neutral toward Solar Essence, Void Essence
Elliott loves Lobster; likes Octopus, Squid; is neutral toward All Other Fish (except Carp & Snail); hates Sea Cucumber
Evelyn hates All Fish, Clay
George hates Clay
Haley hates All Fish, Clay
Harvey likes Spring Onion
Jas hates Clay
Krobus loves Iridium Bar, Void Egg; likes Gold Bar
Leah likes Driftwood, Spring Onion; hates Void Egg
Leo is neutral toward All Fish, hates Oil and Unmilled Rice.
Linus likes Spring Onion; is neutral toward All Fish (except Carp & Snail)
Marnie hates Clay
Maru loves Battery Pack, Gold Bar, Iridium Bar; likes Copper Bar, Iron Bar, Oak Resin, Pine Tar
Pam is neutral toward All Fish (except Carp, Octopus, Snail & Squid); hates Octopus, Squid
Penny loves Sandfish
Pierre hates All Fish
Robin likes Hardwood
Sam loves Tigerseye; hates Metal Goods
Sebastian loves Obsidian, Void Egg; likes Flounder; is neutral toward All Fish (except Flounder, Carp & Snail); hates Clay
Vincent hates Clay
Willy loves Catfish, Iridium Bar, Octopus, Sea Cucumber, Sturgeon; likes Gold Bar, Lingcod, Tiger Trout; is neutral toward All Other Fish (except Carp & Snail)
Wizard loves Solar Essence, Void Essence, Super Cucumber; likes All Geode Minerals

Universal Hates

This is a list of items that will decrease friendship by 40 points when given as gifts.

When given a hated gift, villagers usually respond with a hate dialogue bubble.

All Artifacts
All Bait
All Fossils
All Monster Loot (except Solar Essence and Void Essence which are disliked)
All Trash (except Driftwood which is disliked)

Universal Hates exceptions

Achievements

There are 6 Achievements related to Friendship:

A New Friend (Reach a 5-heart friend level with someone)
Best Friends (Reach a 10-heart friend level with someone)
The Beloved Farmer (Reach a 10-heart friend level with 8 people)
Cliques (Reach a 5-heart friend level with 4 people)
Networking (Reach a 5-heart friend level with 10 people)
Popular (Reach a 5-heart friend level with 20 people)

References

↑ See Farmer::resetFriendshipsForNewDay in the game code.
↑ See NPC::receiveGift in the game code.

History

1.3: The Golden Pumpkin is now a universal love instead of a universal hate. Added new item, the Pearl, as a universal love.
1.4: You can now increase friendship by talking with NPCs at Festivals. Removed glitch where a birthday gift would remove a checkbox on the social tab. Added Gift Logs, accessed by clicking on the villager in the Social tab. Changed jealousy of player's spouse to only apply to marriage candidates who have received a bouquet. Harvey now dislikes many cooked dishes. Willy is neutral towards Maki Roll, Sashimi, and Dish O' The Sea. Vincent loves Snails. Dwarf likes Cave Carrot. Vincent & Jas like Honey and Jelly. Sebastian hates Mead.
1.4.4: Mermaid's Pendant and Void Ghost Pendant can no longer be given as gifts at the Feast of the Winter Star. Jas & Vincent now hate Triple Shot Espresso. Dwarf now loves Lemon Stone.
1.5: Penny and Dwarf now like all artifacts.