Review: Stardew Valley: The Board Game

7.1

What is Stardew Valley: The Board Game?

Based on the beloved farming video game, Stardew Valley: The Board Game is a co-operative worker placement game for 1–4 players. Designed by Eric Barone (creator of the original video game) and Cole Medeiros, it’s a goal-oriented adventure where players work together to restore the Valley. With a playtime ranging anywhere from one to four hours and a price point of £50–£60, it’s essentially a cosy mug of hot chocolate in board game form.

What's in the box?

• 1 Rulebook
• 1 Game Board
• 4 Player Mats & Corrosponding Pawns
• 1 Spouse Pawn
• 1 Starting Player Token
• 21 Gold Tokens (Split into denominations of 1, 5 & 10)
• 10 Heart Tokens
• 6 Dice (3 x Stardew & 3 x Animal)
• 66 Item Cards (Including 17 Epic Items)
• 31 Villager Cards
• 54 Event Cards (Including 16 Mine Event Cards)
• 26 Bundle Cards
• 84 Season Cards
• 19 Tool Cards
• 64 Profession Upgrade Cards
• 48 Crop Tiles
• 60 Foragable Tiles
• 40 Artifact/Mineral Tiles
• 24 Animal Product Tiles
• 16 Ore/Geode Tiles
• 60 Fishing Tiles
• 4 Bug Meat Tiles
• 4 Stone Tiles
• 13 Joja Tiles
• 8 Animal Tiles
• 9 Building Tiles
• 8 Grandpa’s Goal Cards
• 12 Mine Level Cards
• 40 Map Cards
• 2 Cloth Bags

The components in Stardew Valley: The Board Game do a wonderful job of capturing the feel of the video game. The table presence is enormous, with bright tiles and sturdy cards that make the board feel alive with activity.

We especially appreciate the cloth bags included for the fish and mineral tiles — too many games expect players to improvise with their own containers, so it’s a thoughtful addition that keeps the experience seamless. The organiser inside the box is also well designed, which makes setup and pack-down far easier than it could have been with this many pieces.

That said, a few elements feel underwhelming for the game’s price point. The coins and hearts, as the core currencies, could have been more tactile and premium, and the player pawns are a noticeable step down from the otherwise beautiful design, coming across as a bit of a cheap afterthought.

Overall, though, the game may be component-heavy, but the consistently high quality more than justifies it, and the pieces really enhance the play experience.

How to Play Stardew Valley: The Board Game

Setup

Place the main board in the centre of the table. Keep the dice, spouse pawn, and Joja tiles nearby. Shuffle the villager, item, epic item, event, and mine event decks and place them face down beside the board.

Sort the animal tiles into barn and coop stacks (with their matching tiles on top) and draw two random building tiles to place face up. Put the resource tray within reach, fill the grey bag with artifact/mineral tiles, and the blue bag with fish tiles.

Plant your first parsnip on the crop track, place Spring forage and tree tiles face down on the board, and draw five fish tiles to fill the track from right to left.

Organise the mine deck from 1–12, shuffle the mine map cards, and reveal one to start the first level. Build the season deck with four cards for each season, separated by their Season End card. For your first play, the game recommends using the “standard” season cards.

Set up your goals: draw one random card for each room of the Community Center (placed face down), then shuffle Grandpa’s Goals and reveal four.

Each player chooses a profession board and matching pawn, takes a tool deck (starting with level 0), and places it on their board. As a group, decide whether you’ll keep a dog or cat, and start the game with 3 gold. The first player is chosen by whoever suggested playing.

Playing The Game

The game is played over a series of rounds, each with three phases:

Season Phase:

Draw the top card of the season deck and resolve it from top to bottom. These icons can water crops, reveal gifts, trigger Joja tiles, and more. If a festival card appears, follow its special instructions. At the end of each season, resolve the Season End card, refresh forageables for the new season, and choose one of two profession upgrades.

Planning Phase:

Players can freely trade resources, discuss their strategy, and place pawns on the board to show where they plan to act.

Action Phase:

Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player resolves their turn. On your turn you can:

Take two actions at your current location, or

Take one action at their current location, move along a connected path (foraging along the way), and take another action at the new location.

After completing your actions, return your pawn to the farmhouse. Once everyone has taken a turn, a new round begins.

Winning The Game

Players win by completing all four of Grandpa’s Goals and finishing every bundle in the Community Center before the end of Winter. If the final Season End card is drawn before these goals are met, the Valley is lost.

Our Thoughts on Stardew Valley: The Board Game

Setting up Stardew Valley: The Board Game for the very first time can feel a little daunting. There are a lot of tiles, tokens, and decks to organise, and getting them into the insert properly takes a chunk of time. Thankfully, once everything is in its place, setup becomes quicker on repeat plays. That said, even with the organiser, there’s no escaping that this is a game with a longer setup compared to many others on our shelves. With so many decks to shuffle, goals to reveal, and tiles to place out on the board, it can be a bit off-putting if you’re looking for something you can just dive into straight away.

When it comes to quality, though, Stardew Valley does impress. Licensed games often get a bad reputation for being cheaply made, but this one feels like a passion project. The cards and tiles are thick, the colours vibrant, and the artwork instantly evokes the charm of the video game. The included cloth bags for fish and minerals are a particularly thoughtful touch, since many other games expect you to provide your own randomiser. We also appreciate the well-designed box insert — a small thing, but it makes a huge difference in keeping such a component-heavy game organised.

That said, not everything shines. The coins and hearts, which are central to the game’s economy, feel a little flat and underwhelming, and the player pawns in particular come across as low-quality compared to the rest of the components. For a game at this price point, a few more premium, tactile elements would have elevated the experience even further.

When it comes to gameplay, Stardew Valley: The Board Game is straightforward to learn. Each action — farming, mining, fishing, or exploring — feels like its own little mini game, complete with dice rolls, bag draws, and resource collection. This gives turns a playful, varied rhythm that fits the source material well. Winning, however, is another matter. The game is not shy about punishing players with bad dice rolls or unlucky draws, and it only takes one wasted turn to feel like you’re falling behind. Because there are so many goals to juggle, from Grandpa’s challenges to the bundles at the Community Centre, even small setbacks can snowball. We’ve found that the more players you have, the easier it is to spread the workload and mitigate bad luck, which can make the experience feel unbalanced depending on player count. At two players especially, the challenge can verge on brutal. We’ve talked about adding house rules — like extra days per season — to even things out.

But for all its harshness, the randomness is also part of what makes Stardew Valley so enjoyable. Reaching into the bag for fish or minerals is a delight every time, and whether you uncover something rare or something mundane, it always adds a moment of excitement. That unpredictability carries through to the events and goals as well. In one game you might spend days battling crows that won’t leave your crops alone, while in another you’ll reel in every legendary fish before summer’s over. This sheer variety means that no two games ever feel the same, and it keeps us coming back to the table. Rob even went so far as to name this his desert island game in Episode 1 of our podcast, largely because of how endlessly replayable it feels.

Thematically, the board game captures a lot of what makes the video game so beloved. There’s a cosy, collaborative feel to building up the farm together, and the variety of small tasks mirrors the original game’s relaxed, slice-of-life rhythm. At the same time, the board game condenses that open-ended freedom into a strict time frame, which makes the experience feel much more urgent and sometimes more stressful. Some players will love the added tension, while others may find it clashes with the laid-back vibe they associate with Stardew Valley.

Overall, Stardew Valley: The Board Game is a rich, cooperative experience with plenty of charm, challenge, and replayability. It’s not the easiest game to table, both in terms of setup and difficulty, and we probably wouldn’t introduce it to brand-new gamers. But for players who already have a few board games under their belt, it offers a rewarding challenge that feels different every time you play. With a few small tweaks, it could be truly fantastic, but even as it stands, it’s one we’re glad to have in our collection.

Rob 7.0 - Jess 7.2

💡 Looking for another cosy adventure? Check out our book review of Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree.