The only way you can befriend a character fast in Stardew Valley is by giving them gifts. The more gifts you give someone, the more friendship points you will get with them.
Relationships in Stardew Valley are defined by hearts, which visually show your total friendship points. You can have any number of hearts from 0 to 10 with most normal NPCs and can even get as high as 14 with your spouse.
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Willy is one of the non-romanceable characters in Stardew Valley, and giving him the right gifts will make the friendship progress much faster. Since you can only give two gifts per week, you should be careful what you give.
The best items to gift Willy in Stardew Valley are Quartz, Mead, and Pumpkins. Willy will mostly like cooking dishes made out of fish, but the easiest items to give him will require Farming.
Table of Contents
- How Friendship Works and Why You Should Give Gifts
- What Gifts Does Willy Like and Love in Stardew Valley
- Best Gift to Give Willy
How Friendship Works and Why You Should Give Gifts
To befriend NPCs in Stardew Valley, you will have to give them gifts. Some will love some items, while others will hate them. Depending on their reaction, you will get different friendship points.
In Stardew Valley, 10 friendship hearts are the usual cap for each villager. The limit with Willy is 10 hearts, as you cannot romance him.
To get hearts with Willy, you will need to start getting friendship points with him. Each heart in Stardew Valley is worth 250 friendship points, which will start slowly disappearing as time passes.
The best way to befriend someone is to give them gifts they love. This will increase your relationship with them by 80 friendship points.
If you don’t have those items, you can also give them liked items, which will increase the relationship by 45 friendship points.
As long as you don’t give them disliked or hated items, you will only improve your relationship with NPCs by giving gifts. Since you only lose 2 points a day with them, the liked gifts will usually be enough.
What Gifts Does Willy Like and Love in Stardew Valley
There are some items in Stardew Valley that are universally loved by all NPCs, including Willy. These gifts are the Golden Pumpkin, Magic Rock Candy, Pearl, Prismatic Shard, and Rabbit’s Foot.
Here is a list of the gifts that Willy likes and loves in Stardew Valley, excluding the universally loved items, and how to get them:
| GIFT | SOURCE | OPINION |
|---|---|---|
| Catfish | Fishing | Love |
| Diamond | Mining | Love |
| Iridium Bar | Furnace | Love |
| Mead | Keg – Honey | Love |
| Octopus | Fishing | Love |
| Pumpkin | Farming – Fall | Love |
| Sea Cucumber | Fishing | Love |
| Sturgeon | Fishing | Love |
| Baked Fish | Cooking – TV, 7 Summer, Year 1 | Like |
| Carp Surprise | Cooking – TV, 7 Summer, Year 2 | Like |
| Chowder | Cooking – Willy, 3 Hearts | Like |
| Crab Cakes | Cooking – TV, 21 Fall, Year 2 | Like |
| Crispy Bass | Cooking – Kent, 3 Hearts | Like |
| Fish Stew | Cooking – Willy, 7 Hearts | Like |
| Fish Taco | Cooking – Linus, 7 Hearts | Like |
| Fried Calamari | Cooking – Jodi, 3 Hearts | Like |
| Fried Eel | Cooking – George, 3 Hearts | Like |
| Gold Bar | Furnace | Like |
| Lingcod | Fishing | Like |
| Lobster Bisque | Cooking – TV, 14 Winter, Year 2 / Willy, 9 Hearts | Like |
| Quartz | Foraging – Mines | Like |
| Salmon Dinner | Cooking – Gus, 3 Hearts | Like |
| Seafoam Pudding | Cooking – Fishing Level 9 | Like |
| Tiger Trout | Fishing | Like |
| Trout Soup | Cooking – TV, 14 Fall, Year 1 | Like |
Best Gift to Give Willy
Though the list of items that Willy likes is huge, you can tell that he only wants dishes made out of fish. The problem with fish is that they are unreliable, as you can’t catch the exact fish you want at any time and the seasons will decide if one of them is available or not.
Due to this fact, we will have to improvise a bit in the early game and go for the Quartz. You can easily find a lot of Quartz in the Mines on the earlier levels, and you can just give him two of them every week.
All the fish dishes require a lot of preparation and relationships with the other villagers to unlock them. Some even require you to watch TV in Year 2. By that time, you should already have 10 hearts with Willy.
This is why we will go for Quartz in the early game. But, once you get to Fall, you can give him a gift that he actually loves: Pumpkins. Grow a lot of them and make sure to keep some in store to give him every week.
Once you reach level 8 Farming and unlock the Keg, you can start making Mead from Honey to get a lot of friendship points with Willy in Stardew Valley.
That’s everything you need to know about what gifts Willy likes in Stardew Valley!
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