1 The Recluse Playthrough

We begin with a roleplay that will see you embody the spirit of a grumpy old man who never gives your ball back when you kick it in their yard, and then take that to the absolute extreme. The rules of this playthrough are simple. You need to get through an entire playthrough without ever leaving your farm. This means you'll need to give off the land via Mixed Seeds and manage your resources carefully as you won't be allowed to leave your farm to get more.

This is the hard mode of this particular role-play, but a way to make this more accessible and fun would be to allow yourself to leave the farm, provided you are never seen. So you would need to learn the characters' routines and go all Solid Snake to avoid them at all costs, and generally speaking, only leave your farm under the cover of night.

Then, you could allow yourself a few more liberties by building relationships with blow-ins and fellow recluses like Krobusor The Travelling Merchant. The ultimate goal here would be to complete the Community Center without ever meeting a soul outside of mandatory cutscenes. So, if you want to live the life of a hermit, this could be a fun roleplay to try out.

2 The Non-Consumerist Playthrough

As we live through the end-game of late-stage capitalism in real life, why not fight the good fight against 'The Man' and do a Stardew Playthrough where you never spend a penny? This means you won't be able to buy seeds from Pierreor Joja Co, and you'll generally need to live off the land. It sounds hard, but aside from growing different crops, it's achievable.

Especially if you add in certain allowances, like being able to spend money in local stores and pop-up shops (except Pierre's because he's a crook). Then you could also add in little extras like being forced to share the wealth, and within the week, you could set yourself a rule where you need to give two gifts to every single person in town.

Oh, and this should go without saying, but you should prioritize running Joja Co out of town by completing the Community Center, so be sure to work hard on getting all those bundles sorted. The Money Bundles may be tough in this playthrough, but if you plan things out carefully, we reckon you can manage it.

3 The Environmentalist Playthrough

If you see yourself as a bit of an 'Eco-Warrior' then this playthrough will interest you. In principle, it's similar to the Non-Consumerist Roleplay above, but there are slight differences that make it worth trying out separately.

As you would expect, you'll be forced to live off the land in this roleplay. Anything that you can source from the world around you for free, you should. Then, if you do have to spend money on seeds, for example, you should try to get the most out of them by using a Seed Maker, meaning you'll never have to purchase them again.

Then, you can stretch the parameters of this roleplay even further by adding rules, such as your player needing to clear a certain amount of trash from the town each day via fishing and checking Trash Cans. And naturally, everything you find should be recycled and reused.

Then, if you want to play this roleplay on hard mode, you can play through the entire playthrough without ever cutting down a tree, catching any fish or eating vegan. How strict you want to be is up to you, but whatever way you play, I promise you, it's a lot of fun.

4 The Monster Hunter Playthrough

You've heard of the Monster Hunter series, but what if we brought some of that mercenary-for-hire energy to Pelican Town and beyond? In this playthrough, the player should begin by selecting a Wilderness Farm and should then skip to day five when the Mines open up. You'll then be able to get your first weapon, and from then onwards, your only way to acquire cash is by killing enemies, going to the mines, collecting Bounties at the Adventurer's Guild and then perhaps selling the rewards.

Basically, you would be playing Stardew Valley as if it were a traditional Dungeon Crawler. Your primary focus would be to complete the Adventurer's Guild Bounties and get to the bottom of the Skull Cavern, and you would only engage with the other mechanics as a means of achieving this goal, such as growing crops for good healing items for example.

Then, you could take this even further by serving as a hero to the townsfolk. You could do this by regularly checking the notice board, and any time there are related tasks or mining items requested, you could prioritize these to earn favor, and only through the friendship points gained this way would you be able to marry someone.

That would obviously take forever, but in their defense, who would want to marry someone who kills monsters for a living? It's not exactly a peaceful life. So, if you want to bloody your blade and make your next Stardew Playthrough a little more gory, this is a good option.

5 The Toolless Playthrough

Lastly, we have the Toolless playthrough, which does what it says on the tin. You can pretend that your player character has a bad case of Aichmophobia, which Rogue Legacy fans will recognize as a fear of sharp objects. So that means no fishhooks, chopping trees, using your scythe, mining rocks or killing monsters.

This means you'll need to lean into the resources that are still available to you, such as harvesting crops, foraging and raising livestock. Then, if you want to engage with the other parts of the game, you'll need to get creative. This might be by only mining by using explosives or only fishing by using Crab Pot You may need to up your Fishing and Mining Level slightly to accommodate this, but it might be worthwhile for a more well-rounded roleplay.

You can even take this roleplay down to the finest detail, by perhaps only cooking items that wouldn't require any chopping, or not going to the Calico Desert out of fear you might get pricked by a Cactus Fruit. This one can be a lot of fun, but you might be afraid of yourself in the end because you'll need to be sharp to pull this off.