Stardew Valley Coop is one of the most relaxing multiplayer gaming options available to cozy gamers in the modern era, especially for those who prefer the farm simulation type genre. If you're a fan of games like Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, or Story of Seasons many of the gameplay aspects of Stardew Valley will come extremely easy to you and the multiplayer aspects have been intertwined beautifully into the game's narrative.
While many games in this genre simply have to code multiplayer as an additional "singleplayer" character, preventing them from interacting with the characters of the world and betwixt each other, Stardew Valley opted against that completely. Stardew Valley Coop allows players to all be completely independent people in each playthrough, maintaining their relationships with the people of Pelican town, owning their own homes, farms, and even being allowed to marry other players.
Stardew Valley Coop - Marriage
We covered this way back in our Expert Stardew Valley Multiplayer Guide blog post as well, but marriage in videogames is among one of the most beloved features in modern gaming. While many players may be eager to marry NPCs in Stardew Valley and other modern titles as well, the romance of in-game characters isn't nearly as large a trend as it used to be to the modern gamer. MMOs and many RPGs of this gaming era are now allowing gamers to marry each other in-game and Stardew Valley is no different, adding a brand new level of immersion.
If Stardew Valley Coop bringing Marriage into the equation wasn't enough for immersion, married players can even settle down and have children together (given their house has the suitable kid's room upgrade). Players also don't lose out on their Stardrop upgrade they would naturally receive from NPC marriage as the game provides the Stardrop bedside when players are married together instead. Not only is the game set up for roleplay, but for player marriage optimization too.
Stardew Valley Coop - Experience
Experience distribution in Stardew Valley Coop multiplayer is a valid question as players may assume that since they are playing together, any experience they receive may be halved and distributed equally. In Stardew Valley, experience is completely earned independently of other players and all experience is earned at the normal rate but isn't share whatsoever. That means that all players will earn experience at the same rate as normal, but cannot assist others with their grind.
This presents a unique situation where players can "divide and conquer" by focusing their early-game efforts towards a skill or two to level them as quickly as possible and benefit from the Profession rewards. Players who are extremely high level at some skills may be able to accomplish more by teaming up with those who have alternatively leveled up differing skills at the same pace. In example, the Foraging Player can team up with a Miner for increased profits without overlap.
Stardew Valley Coop - Coops
One of the biggest things that players will mix up when researching Stardew Valley's multiplayer is confusing it with the building item of "The Chicken Coop!" The Chicken Coop comes in three sizes: Small, Medium, or Large, with their true names being: Normal, Big, and Delux respectively. These Chicken Coops are imperative to every player's journey in Stardew Valley, becoming the home to Chickens, Ducks, Rabbits, and Dinosaurs for all players who own the farm.
Stardew Valley Coops have some very weird interactions and are considered somewhat unreliable due to their buggy nature by the community but they are still an integral part of the gameplay as they protect your farm animals from "wild animal attacks" during the night and otherwise cold temperatures so they are necessary despite this drawback. In a multiplayer session multiple players can share a Coop and house their collection of animals all in a single Coop to make for a communal living space rather than requiring separation of their resources.
Stardew Valley Coop - Luck
Luck is an extremely unique aspect of Stardew Valley's game system as it adds randomness to a game otherwise completely lacking. There are a few things throughout Stardew Valley where players can expect randomness to regularly play into their results with the most obvious being: Fighting and Fishing. Many players might not consider that Mining also has several significant benefits from Luck that are not immediately obvious and luck is much different in multiplayer!
Luck can only be a single digit when being decided for calculations during interactions but when there are two players, each individual player has their own unique "Daily Luck" stat that is individual to them. In order to compensate for this, the Luck stat used each day is the averaged Luck between all players currently playing which means players can near-always expect to be as close to neutral as possible unless players are intentionally manipulating their luck stats.
Stardew Valley Coop - Time
Time in Stardew Valley is very interesting because it is a key part of the gameplay, deciding where characters will be, the day and night cycle, and whether shops are open or closed. It also decides whether your character needs to currently sleep or not and many other story-based time-sensitive triggers such as romance events and daily interactions. When two or more players are in your Stardew Valley server though, time doesn't simply freeze when you enter a menu like in normal Stardew.
As long as you're playing Stardew Valley Coop, unless you use the command "/pause" or you're attending an in-game festival, time is continuously ticking down, progressing each individual day moment to moment. For every 7 seconds you spend in Stardew valley, it passes about 10 minutes of IN-GAME time. Even if one player is in a menu and you're not, time will continue to tick down for BOTH players, so keep that in mind. Enjoy every second of game time together in Stardew Valley Coop with your friends, family, or loved ones!
Looking for more Stardew Valley knowledge?
- The Best 10 Stardew Valley Mods
- Expert Stardew Valley Multiplayer Guide
- Stardew Valley Server Hosting Now Available!
About Shockbyte
Shockbyte is one of the only game server hosts for Stardew Valley, The Isle, and many more.
Do you want to start your own Stardew Valley dedicated server? Click here to view our Stardew Valley server hosting plans.
