Despite rapidly closing in on its 10-year anniversary, Stardew Valley remains wildly popular among cozy gaming and farming sim fans to this day. The game stays fresh in part thanks to ongoing updates from its creator, Eric Barone, known online as Concerned Ape. However, even without the big content updates, Stardew Valley is a huge game that offers players endless opportunities to discover something new. Case in point, one player’s question recently many fans to uncover something many don’t realize about tracking quests via the Community Board.
Videos by ComicBook.com
In Stardew Valley, players take on various quests to help their fellow villagers. These quests are posted in two places – on the bulletin board outside of Pierre’s shop and on the community board down near the path to the beach area. These quests offer a variety of rewards, from cold hard cash to building up relationships with villagers players want to befriend or romance. With the massive 1.6 Update, Stardew Valley quests got even more rewarding, with the addition of prize tickets.
Players can earn these prize tickets in a variety of ways, from certain festival events to completing quests. They’re used for a new machine in Mayor Lewis’ house, where players can redeem them for various prizes such as seeds, useful tools like the Fish Smoker, and more. However, this new feature isn’t really explained in the game itself, leading many fans unaware that there’s an easy way to figure out when the next quest offering prize ticket rewards will arrive.
The 1.6 update added a tracker to the lefthand side of the Help Wanted board, next to the paper detailing the specific quest. This tracker shows a number of stars anywhere between 1-3. Many players assumed the stars were a new difficulty rating to help determine which quests would be worth taking on. However, the stars on the Help Wanted board actually have another, more useful meaning.
What the Stars on the Stardew Valley Help Wanted Board Actually Mean
The stars are not a difficulty or rarity rating, but rather a tracker. When the number of stars reaches 3, the next quest to show up will offer a prize ticket reward. Given that many players are eager to earn the prize tickets and redeem them for extra rewards, this is a helpful tip when deciding whether to accept or ignore a quest.
Although the 1.6 Update has been out for a while, at least for PC players, many fans are still unaware of the stars or what they mean. As one fan notes, “I always refused to accept quests without prize tickets… I did not know this.” Apparently, just skipping quests and hoping for a prize ticket reward isn’t the way to go – players need to work through Help Wanted quests to unlock the next one that will give them a prize ticket.
RELATED: Haunted Chocolatier Creator Shares Update After Focusing on Stardew Valley 1.6
This tracker doesn’t appear for the Community Board outside the mayor’s house, as these trickier quests offer a ticket for every quest. However, because the Help Wanted board by Pierre’s tends to include easier quests, players need to work up to earning that prize ticket to redeem at Mayor Lewis’ house.
While this Reddit post isn’t the first time players have wondered about what these stars on the Help Wanted board mean, the responses prove that many fans still don’t know about the prize ticket reward tracker. Given that the 1.6 Update didn’t arrive to consoles until November 4th, 2024, it makes sense that fans are still uncovering new features from Concerned Ape’s massive addition to Stardew Valley.
