User:Butterbur/Glossary

Asset

An asset is any item that the player can own or control as its master. This contrasts with the many map items off the farm which the player can only interact with (at most) but cannot alter or manipulate. Non-assets include the produce-yielding trees and bushes that can be foraged in-season.

There are three types of assets: foods, materials, and recipes.

Backpack

The player's backpack is a tool that is always with the player, moving anywhere on the map that the player moves. It holds the player's inventory in its slots, one type of asset per slot, making the assets therein available for the use of the player at any time.

Building

A building is any game item that mimics a real-life building. Not all buildings are assets, the buildings of the town and the train station, for example.

Farm buildings are building assets that are located on the farm. The farmhouse and greenhouse are permanent farm buildings present from the start of the game. The player can pay to have others built for the farm. The player assigns the location of new farm buildings, can move them later (if desired), and can destroy them at any time, although these actions are not possible for the permanent buildings. The player also pays for any desired upgrades (the farmhouse too), and separately earns the repair of the greenhouse as a reward. The player controls much of the decor of all the buildings, being able to place furniture or other assets as desired inside, to wallpaper, and to replace flooring.

Buildings are not portable, even though some of them can be moved.

Clothing

Articles of clothing are material assets that are wearable. They come in three types: hats, rings, and footwear. Hats are cosmetic, changing only the appearance of the player. Rings and footwear can also provide buffs as long as they are worn.

The player can don or doff clothing by pausing the game and accessing the inventory menu. Clothing items can be transferred between the inventory itself and the four slots next to the picture of the player that hold the clothing items currently being worn. At any one time, a maximum of one hat, two rings, and one set of footwear can be worn.

Cooked Food

A cooked food is any processed food that must be made (by recipe) inside a kitchen. To make a cooked food, the player must have finished the first upgrade of the farmhouse, which provides the kitchen. The player must also know the recipe, have its ingredients available, and be at the stove in the kitchen when cooking. Some cooked foods can also be purchased from a shop, such as the Saloon.

Please note that Sashimi is technically considered a "cooked food" by this definition, which is designed to indicate game activities and requirements more than the natural meaning of the words. But consider that while the sashimi is "cooked", the game still treats the fish in it as "raw"! (It seems the knife also cuts the definition very fine.)

Consumable

A consumable asset can be consumed, meaning that it can be used up so that the player no longer possesses it. When any food is eaten, it is consumed. When any asset is an ingredient to a recipe and the recipe is applied, the asset is consumed (but not eaten). When fertilizer, bait or bombs are used, they are consumed (but not eaten). Consumable contrasts with durable.

Consuming an asset always returns some alternate effect to the player, such as increased energy or health, another asset, or a better opportunity or chance. An edible material can be consumed by eating, even though the effect is an unhealthy one. Such materials are usually saved to be used in a recipe that returns an asset with beneficial effects.

When an asset is sold, it is not consumed, but traded for gold (g).

Crafted Food

A crafted food is any processed food that may be made anywhere (by recipe), just as any other crafted asset. The player can make any crafted food as soon as the recipe is learned (and the ingredients are available in inventory).

Crop

A crop is a type of plant (a "farm plant") grown only on the farm and sustained by the agricultural work of the player. It is those player activities that make it a "farmed plant". A crop is distinct from forage, except in the case of the Grape.

The term "crop" applies to the plant throughout its entire life cycle in all its stages, including the seed, the immature growing-plant stages, the mature producing plant, and the produce itself. All the different kinds of assets that may refer to any of these stages may be referred to as a crop.

Fruit Trees are an exception to the strict definition of crop. Trees are generally considered forage. While Fruit Trees grow only on the farm, and must be farmed until maturity, they are largely independent of the player afterward. Their produce is neither forage nor crop, their harvesting increases neither Farming nor Foraging skill, and the produce's price is not affected by either the Farming or Foraging professions. Being a tree, if the player cuts down a fruit tree (an unlikely activity), the harvesting of the entire tree would increase Foraging skill.

Durable

A durable asset is one that cannot be consumed. It is not edible, and is not an ingredient to any recipe known or unknown to the player. It endures through multiple uses (if applied). It remains in the possession of the player forever unless the player sells it, destroys it, puts it into inventory trash, or places it outside the farm in the path of one of the non-player characters (who will destroy it eventually by walking through it). At least one of those disposal options is available for every asset. (Littering is not possible.)

Buildings, tools, weapons, furniture, and equipment are all examples of durable assets.

Equipment

A piece of equipment, like a tool, is a portable, durable asset that performs a specific function, as set into operation by the player. Unlike tools, equipment performs its function on other assets, and the player initiates the function but does not control it throughout the equipment's operation. Equipment functions often take a certain time to complete, sometimes even (game) days. For this reason, equipment is placed somewhere on the map before it can perform its function. Thus, equipment is carried only to move it to another location for use there.

Examples of equipment are furnaces, seed makers, sprinklers, heaters, and crab pots.

Farm Improvement

A farm improvement (or simply improvement) is anything that enhances the value or organization of the farm. It includes various assets, such as buildings, lighting, pathways, and fences and even crops and trees. It also includes more abstract characteristics: cleared land, kept free of recurring debris, organized patterns of plant growth, better access and movement, housing and care for animals, produce, products, and their generation.

On day one, the player finds the farm cluttered, wild, overgrown, unfit for production, with only a rudimentary dwelling and a broken-down farm building. One of the main goals in playing the game is to see to its improvement, and "development" is the process by which that takes place. This process leads the player across the map in pursuit of forage, materials, and business dealings that make improvement possible. And while doing so, the player encounters the NPCs that provide a social community within which not only a farm, but a life can be built. Have a good time settling in!

Food

A food item is any asset that it is healthy for the player to eat. Food may also be used as a classification that includes all food items.

While any food must be edible, there are a few items that the player can eat but that are not healthy. Two examples are sap and red mushrooms. Eating such items reduces the player's health bar, so they are considered to be materials, not food.

Forage

Forage is any type of harvestable plant that grows off the farm and independently of the player. When the player obtains wild seeds for the current season, those seeds may be farmed as though they were crops, making them "farmed plants" the same as crops. However, they are never considered a type of "farm plant" or crop. Their harvesting, even on the farm, increases the foraging skill, not the farming skill, and the price of the produce is affected only by foraging professions, not farming professions.

The term "forage" applies to the plant throughout its entire life cycle in all its stages, just as with a crop, even if the plant is farmed. Any assets associated with a forage plant in any of its stages may always be referred to as forage, even when they are in the process of being farmed.

Furniture

Furniture assets are farm improvement items that can be placed in the farmhouse, often for its decoration.

Improvement

See Farm Improvement.

Ingredient

An ingredient is any asset that can be consumed by the use of a recipe. The term is usually applied only when referring to the recipe or its use, as an ingredient often can serve other purposes as well.

Inventory

The inventory is the collection of assets currently located in your backpack. These assets come with you wherever you are. The inventory contains a limited number of slots (the backpack's capacity), each capable of holding one stack of assets (up to a count of 999 for stackable assets, 1 otherwise).

The inventory "menu" is the inventory tab that is accessible when the game is paused. All slots (stacks) are movable within the backpack when the inventory menu is displayed, but only the first 12 stacks of assets are immediately available for use or placement when it is not. The inventory menu must first be used to move a cached stack forward if it contains a tool, a stack of seeds for planting, an intended gift item, or objects for other activities that require interaction apart from the player. Moving a stack is not required for buying or selling items at a shop, or for crafting new assets from any of the inventory items.

Most storable assets can be placed in the inventory, but a hay hopper is one that cannot. Thus, the backpack and its inventory are not precisely considered to be storage. Their key purpose is accessibility rather than storage.

Material

A material item is any (conceptually) physical asset that is not food. The game treats most (but not all) of them as inedible (see Food). Material may also be used as a classification that includes all material assets.

A recipe is the only type of asset that is neither Food nor Material.

NPC

NPC is an acronym for "non-player character", one of the village residents or additional characters that populate Stardew Valley. An NPC is generally considered to need to be an actual game character that the player can interact with on some level, and not just a visual depiction that never reacts to the player's presence (like the checkout clerk at JojaMart).

Portable

Portable assets are assets that the player can carry in the backpack. Most assets are portable. Buildings are one type that are not portable.

Processed

Processed is an adjective that applies to any asset derived from one or more raw assets by one or more game operations. Operations can mean various kinds of processing, like crafting, cooking, and opening Geodes. Such operations can sometimes be performed upon processed assets as well as raw assets, creating a product that is yet another step removed from the natural state of things. "Processed" contrasts with "raw".

Processed Food

A processed food is any food that is not raw. Most processed foods are made by the use of a recipe. Rice and Vinegar are not raw because they can be obtained only through commercial purchase, not from the natural environment, so they are also considered to be processed foods.

Produce

Produce is any raw asset. The commonest use of the term is in reference to food, where it refers to the yield of harvesting plants or getting edibles from farm animals, such as milk or eggs. But wool is farm animal produce as well, though it is inedible, and red mushrooms are produce, though they are unhealthy. Tree seeds, wood, stone, metal ores, and gems are all raw material produce.

This word is used mostly to refer to the fact that the asset is usually produced by means of activity, or to the fact that it can be produced this way. It is therefore technically reasonable to refer to caught fish as produce, but the word is not often used in this context because "fish" suffices.

Some types of produce are also available from some shopkeepers, and any assets obtained that way remain produce despite their commercial origin.

Product

A product is the asset yielded by applying a recipe to its ingredients, which means it is a processed asset. Product is used as a contrast to produce in order to distinguish the game activities and requirements involved in getting the two types of asset.

Raw

Raw is an adjective that applies to any type of asset that is obtainable directly from the natural environment. Some raw assets require a tool to obtain them.

The item is "raw" because it is in its natural state. Raw food is just as it was harvested, not crafted or cooked. Raw fish is as it was caught, not cooked. Raw materials are collected by digging, chopping, or other such actions. Ore is a raw material, but metal bars are not. Geodes are raw materials, but geode minerals are not (the geodes must be broken open before the minerals can be accessed). "Raw" contrasts with "processed".

Recipe

A recipe is a process, and an asset, but it is neither food nor material, neither raw nor processed. It is itself the process by which the player transforms a set of ingredients into a new product, the means of transmuting physical assets. The player must acquire recipes by various means during the progress of the game, and only then gains the ability to engage in manufacture of specific assets.

Storable

Storable assets are assets that (foremost) can be placed in a chest. Most assets are storable. Buildings are one type that are not storable themselves, but buildings can also store assets, including tools, chests themselves, furniture, and decorative assets. The hay hopper is a storable asset even though it cannot be placed in a chest, but can only be stored in a coop or a barn.

Supply

Supplies are consumable assets, usable only one time. "Supply" in this technical sense is used to contrast with tool or equipment, which are durable. The word may also be used in its natural, non-technical way, as in "supply of energy".

Technical examples of supplies are money (gold), seeds, food, forage, raw materials, bait, bombs, and staircases.

Tool

A tool, like a piece of equipment, is a portable, durable asset that performs a specific function under the operation of the player. Unlike equipment, tools perform their function (more often) on objects in the surrounding environment rather than on other assets. They also do so only under the direct, immediate, and continuous control of the player. For this reason, they must be placed in one of the 12 front slots of inventory in order to be used. Thus, tools are carried specifically in order to be used.

Examples of tools are the hoe, the axe, shears, a fishing pole or rod, durable weapons, and clothing (which, uniquely, performs its function upon the player). A crab pot, however, is equipment.