The Community Center in Stardew Valley is the closest thing you can get to a “main quest” in the game. As you try to collect every item, you unlock new features and locations by completing Bundles.
One of the most annoying items to get for the Community Center is the Red Cabbage since it is almost impossible to get it in Year 1.
Recommended Read: Stardew Valley – Complete Progression Guide
However, once you get to Year 2, getting Red Cabbage becomes an incredibly easy task that anyone can complete.
To get Red Cabbage in Stardew Valley, you either have to buy the seeds from Pierre’s General Store starting in Year 2 or from the Traveling Merchant in Year 1 if you are lucky, plant them, and reap the reward.
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How to Get Red Cabbage in Stardew Valley
The easiest way to get Red Cabbage Seeds in Stardew Valley is to wait for Year 2 and buy them directly from Pierre’s General Store.
The first day of Spring, Year 2, Red Cabbage Seeds will appear in Pierre’s stock, allowing you to either plant them in Summer or inside the Greenhouse.
If you don’t want to wait for Year 2 and you want to finish the Community Center Bundles in the Winter of Year 1, you will need to either fight a lot of monsters or change something in the settings when you start the game.
There are three ways to get Red Cabbage Seeds in Year 1 in Stardew Valley:
- Buy them from the Traveling Merchant
- Loot them from monsters in the Skull Cavern
- Buy them at the Winter Night Market
Traveling Merchant
The most common way to get Red Cabbage Seeds in Year 1 is to buy them from the Traveling Cart, situated in the Cindersap Forest, northwest of the lake there. This merchant appears there every Friday and Sunday.
The problem with this trader is that the stock is completely random, and there is no way you can make sure that you will get what you need during those two days it is open per week.
In total, you will get to see her stock 32 times during Year 1.
There is a very high likelihood that you won’t actually find the Red Cabbage Seeds that you need from her during those conversations. Luckily, there is a way to fix this.
When you select to start a new game, you will see a little wrench in the bottom left corner that allows you to change game settings. One of the first things you will see is that you can tick a box to “Guarantee Year 1 Completable.”
Ticking this makes sure that players have a fair chance to complete all the Bundles in the Community Center in Year 1, which means the game will guarantee that the Traveling Merchant will sell Red Cabbage Seeds at least once during the year.
Now, all you need to do is head south of the farm every Friday and Sunday and talk to the merchant to see if she has in stock your dear Red Cabbage Seeds.
Skull Cavern Monsters
If you’ve already been playing for a while and don’t want to start a new playthrough to enable the “Guarantee Year 1 Completable” setting, then you will either have to wait until Year 2 or defeat a lot of monsters in the Skull Cavern.
There are three monsters in the Skull Cavern that have a change to drop Red Cabbage Seeds in Stardew Valley:
- Mummy (<1% chance)
- Serpent (<1% chance)
- Purple Slime (<1% chance)
As you can see, your chances of getting Red Cabbage Seeds from those three monsters is under 1%. This means that you defeat hundreds of them and still not get what you want.
Since these are also relatively hard to defeat enemies, many players might consider any other method to get the seeds besides this one.
This is a very inefficient way to get them, and you will most likely die trying to get the seeds this way.
Luckily, Mummies and Serpents are the easiest monsters to find in the Skull Cavern since they are the main enemy you will find on almost every floor.
Unfortunately, Mummies don’t die if you don’t use Bombs on them, which makes this an even harder challenge.
There is also another way you can find Red Cabbage Seeds in the Skull Cavern. There are secret Treasure Rooms that have a 1% chance of appearing as you progress through the dungeon.
On these floors, there will be treasure chests with random loot. In one of those chests, players have a very low chance (<0.2%) of finding 5 to 20 Red Cabbage Seeds.
Since there is such a low chance of finding the Treasure Room and then getting the Red Cabbage Seeds, we thought this wasn’t worth mentioning as a real method to get the item.
Night Market
On Winter 16, players can buy as many Red Cabbage Seeds as they want from the Magic Shop Boat for the same price you will find at Pierre’s in 13 days (100 g).
Though this is considered “Year 1,” it is exactly 13 days before Year 2, which doesn’t really make this a good choice.
Still, it takes 9 days for Red Cabbage to grow, so you could raise some in the Greenhouse and finish the Dye Bundle before Year 1 ends.
That’s everything you need to know about how to get Red Cabbage in Stardew Valley!
Have any input or suggestions for this guide? Let us know in the comment section below.
