Stardew Valley is a life simulator where players build their life from zero on their newly inherited farm. Though this is mostly a relaxing game where you just slowly grow crops and befriend villagers, you will have to face some RPG elements here and there.
One of the most annoying aspects of Stardew Valley is the Energy bar that slowly goes down as you work around the farm and will likely cause you to faint once it goes down under 0.
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As you progress through life in Pelican Town, you will likely wonder if there are ways to permanently increase the Energy pool and also how to efficiently recover it throughout the day.
To get Energy in Stardew Valley and recover it, you will need to eat certain foods and relax in the Spa, which unlocks after Summer 3. To permanently increase the Energy pool in Stardew Valley, you will have to eat the incredibly rare Stardrops.
Table of Contents
- How Energy Works
- How to Get More Energy When Depleted in Stardew Valley
- How to Increase Maximum Energy in Stardew Valley
How Energy Works
Almost all actions in Stardew Valley will use up some Energy. Most actions will use 2 Energy, but this can be lowered by increasing your skills.
At the start of the game, players will have 270 Energy per day to use, and once they reach 0, they will become exhausted.
You will see a sad little blue face appear over the Energy bar, and you will start moving extremely slowly.
You can still use your tools and other energy-using items but it will be a very slow process.
Players can also go under 0 Energy, and they will faint the moment you reach -15 Energy, the same way you would at 2 AM.
Even if you recover from going under 0, you will only recover 50% of the Energy you would get from sleeping that night.
Since most actions in the game will use Energy, you will always need to keep an eye on it.
Though you don’t really need to calculate in detail how much Energy you use for each action, it’s a good idea to keep an eye out for the bar and prepare all the necessary resources to recover it.
How to Get More Energy When Depleted in Stardew Valley
There are three ways to get more Energy when it is depleted in Stardew Valley:
- Sleep
- Eat Food
- Relax in the Spa
Sleeping
Sleeping is the most common way to completely restore your Energy in Stardew Valley since you have to do it every day, and it will get you all the Energy you need for the next day.
However, there are rules with sleeping as well that can ruin your next day if you aren’t careful.
Generally, as long as you sleep before 12 AM you will get full Energy the next day when you wake up. However, each 10 minutes past midnight will lower the amount of Energy you get the next day.
Here are the exact amounts of Energy you lose by sleeping past 12 AM in Stardew Valley:
- 12:10 AM – Energy -2.50%
- 12:20 AM – Energy -5%
- 12:30 AM – Energy -7.50%
- 12:40 AM – Energy -10%
- 12:50 AM – Energy -12.50%
- 1:00 AM – Energy -25%
- 1:10 AM – Energy -27.50%
- 1:20 AM – Energy -30%
- 1:30 AM – Energy -32.50%
- 1:40 AM – Energy -35%
- 1:50 AM – Energy -37.50%
- 2:00 AM – Energy -50%
So, as long as you go to sleep before 12 AM and you don’t exhaust yourself beforehand, you will always recover all of your Energy for the next day.
However, most players will likely want to use the time as much as possible, so here are ways to recover Energy during the day:
Eating Food
Food is generally the most common way to get Energy once it has depleted in Stardew Valley, since you can easily carry it in your inventory and use it when necessary. You can just equip it and eat it, instantly recovering a lot of Energy.
Almost all edible items in Stardew Valley will get you extra Energy to fill up the bar, except some special ones that lower it (such as Void Mayonnaise).
For most of the game, you are most likely to use the food that you produce the most for Energy recovery since you don’t need to be extremely effective.
You don’t need to cook any of the food since then you will most likely get buffs from them as well, so just eat raw food for Energy.
However, later in the game, you can just purchase the Energy Tonic from the Clinic, which instantly recovers 500 Energy and 225 Health.
The Spa
On the 3rd day of Summer in your first year in Stardew Valley, you will receive the following notification: “There was an earthquake during the night,” and you will now find a new region north of the Mountain.
In this region, you will find a train station and a Spa. If you go inside the Spa and into the water there, you can just stand still and recover 10 Energy every second.
This is the best way to recover Energy in Stardew Valley without using money or effort. All you waste is the time you spend getting there.
If you are someone who isn’t obsessed with using the in-game time as efficiently as possible, then the Spa is an incredible way to recover Energy, as you can just take a break from work and relax, getting ready for your next probable trip to the Mines.
How to Increase Maximum Energy in Stardew Valley
The maximum Energy in Stardew Valley is 270 at the start of the game.
You can increase this maximum Energy either temporarily or permanently.
Unfortunately, it is very hard to increase maximum Energy permanently since you need to find the rarest item in the game, the Stardrop.
Foods and Drinks that Temporarily Increase Max Energy
However, there are ways to temporarily increase the maximum Energy in Stardew Valley using the following foods and drinks:
- Bean Hotpot – Max Energy +30 (Effect Duration: 7 minutes)
- Complete Breakfast – Max Energy (+50) (Effect Duration: 7 minutes)
- Green Tea – Max Energy +30 (Effect Duration: 4 minutes and 12 seconds)
- Lobster Bisque – Max Energy +50 (Effect Duration: 16 minutes and 47 seconds)
- Red Plate – Max Energy +50 (Effect Duration: 3 minutes 30 seconds)
- Super Meal – Max Energy +40 (Effect Duration: 3 minutes 30 seconds)
- Tom Kha Soup – Max Energy +30 (Effect Duration: 7 minutes)
You can also have two Max Energy buffs at the same time as long as one of them is the Green Tea since it counts as a drink buff.
So, just from food, you can temporarily increase the maximum Energy in Stardew Valley by 80, which is a 30% increase from the normal Max Energy.
How to Permanently Increase Max Energy
The only way to increase the maximum Energy in Stardew Valley permanently is to eat Stardrops. These are incredibly rare items that you can only find by completing relatively end-game missions and tasks.
There are a total of 7 Stardrops, which you will need for the Perfection ending, and each one of them increases your Max Energy by 34.
This means that the total flat rate of Max Energy you can get in the game, without temporary buffs, is 508. With the help of buffs, you can temporarily get 588 Max Energy.
Here is how to get all 7 Stardrops in Stardew Valley and increase your maximum Energy permanently:
- Catch every fish type in the game.
- Donate all 95 items to the Museum.
- Get 12 and a half friendship hearts with your spouse/roommate.
- Give Old Master Cannoli a Sweet Gem Berry in the Secret Woods.
- Open the Treasure Chest on floor 100 of the Mines.
- Purchase for 2,000 Star Tokens at the Stardew Valley Fair.
- Purchase for 20,000 g in the Sewers from Krobus.
As you can tell, all of these tasks are very hard to achieve and will likely take many in-game years.
Your best chance is to buy it from Krobus, since that is incredibly cheap, to give Old Master Cannoli a Sweet Gem Berry, complete the Mines, and befriend your spouse to get 4 Stardrops.
You can do all of these in the first year and get an extra 136 Max Energy relatively early game.
That’s everything you need to know about how to get and increase Energy in Stardew Valley!
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