Can You Complete Stardew Valley's Community Center Without Levelling Up?

Farming. Mining. Foraging. Fishing. Combat. These five skills permeate every aspect of Stardew Valley—it's hard to do much of anything without gaining a few levels here and there. That goes double for the completion of the Community Center.

So what if you wanted to complete it, but didn't want to progress in any of the skills? Would it even be possible? Join me in my journey to find out!
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0:00 Intro
1:33 Rules to Live By
3:48 The Plan
9:39 The Journey
56:20 The Final Push
1:13:30 Conclusion
1:15:23 Closing Remarks

#Gaming #StardewValley #Challenge

[ArgonMatrix]

Hey, thanks for watching and/or commenting! This video seems to be getting a lot more attention all of a sudden, and I couldn't be more grateful for that. I worked pretty hard on this project, so seeing a bit more of a return on that investment of time and energy is really rewarding. From the bottom of my heart, thanks to everyone for your kind compliments and for watching this hour-plus video all the way through. You're awesome!

All that said, I've gotten quite a few questions and remarks over the past few days, so I've gathered some of the more common ones and answered them here for your convenience (spoilers below if you haven't finished watching, by the way). If you have a question that isn't answered below, feel free to reply to this comment and ask me directly. I'm always happy to answer!

Q: A lot has changed in Stardew Valley in the 2 years since you did this challenge. Are you going to do an update/sequel to this video?
A: As of right now, I don't have any specific plans to. There are a few ideas floating around in my head for ways I could update the challenge, so I might do a short follow-up at some point in the future, but right now I don't think there would be a substantial enough difference to make a full video covering it. Plus, I just don't have as much free time as I used to. At any rate, I'll discuss some of the specific changes to the game that affect this challenge over the next few questions.

Q: Is this challenge possible to complete without the use of multiplayer now that Remixed Bundles are a thing?
A: I haven't looked into it in too much depth, but it seems likely that it would be possible, yes! It would probably be a bit of a nightmare to find a seed that has an ideal combination of bundles to make it work, but if they work the way I think they do, the Remixed Bundles are probably the key to making this challenge doable solo.

Q: When you were trying to get to Floor 40 of the mines, why didn't you just go to the Desert Trader and trade jade for staircases? Wouldn't that have been easier?
A: The Desert Trader wasn't added to the game until a few months after this video, so it wasn't possible in the version of the game used here. Now that it's an option, though, that would definitely be the way to go. Provided you can get your hands on a jade, you could put it in the crystallarium you get for completing the 25K bundle in the Vault and that would allow you to trade for effectively unlimited staircases, allowing you to bypass the mines pretty easily.

Q: Since you don't level up until the end of the day, couldn't you have farmed all of the Gold Quality Melons you needed in one go and taken them to the Community Center on the same day?
A: It's a good theory, but unfortunately it doesn't work within the rules of the challenge. While it's true that you don't see the level-up message until the end of the day, you actually gain the level itself the moment you hit 100 experience in that skill. You can see this for yourself by checking the Skills tab of your inventory in the middle of the day after you gain the level. So while the Community Center would be complete and you wouldn't have seen the level-up message, the level would nevertheless still be there.

Q: You can only get one cup of coffee per night at the night market now. Does this impact the challenge significantly?
A: It definitely makes earning money in the early game more of a grind, but overall it's not a massive hurdle. Most of my income came from the Mushroom Cave, and the coffee strategy was mainly a way to fast-track my earnings to 25K in order to get access to the Mushroom Cave. So yes, the challenge would probably take longer, but not substantially so.

Q: Do you know how rare that dialogue you got from Marnie at 27:23 is?!
A: I do now!

[vsptylore]

I just adore the fact that not only did an aquamarine drop basically instantly, but one dropped from the next crate you checked too

[zednotdead]

I can't believe this challenge was accomplished literally by the power of friendship.

[charlotteamalier]

The “GOTCHA!” Comments on this video piss me off. “Why not just trade jade for staircases at the desert trader?” - there was no desert trader. “Why not just clay farm?” - clay spawns were believed to be random. “Why not just—-“ PLEASE. this challenge was done five years ago; when we didn’t have as many features OR as much knowledge!

[nocobalt]

The fact that clay farming wasn't popular/known at the time makes me love this video more

[Yahiamice]

who knew that ""friendship"" was such a gamechanger

[lauradev]

Me: No I don’t feel like watching a movie, I can’t focus for that long on one thing
Also me: Watches 75 minutes of someone playing Stardew Valley without leveling up

Dude, I cannot BELIEVE your patience in completing this challenge, and the production and entertainment value of this video was outstanding, well done! Could not look away from my screen lol

[TheFlameofIcarus]

Community Center: "YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME"

ArgonMatrix: "I know I can't, but he can"

*The Power of Friendship comes crashing in*

[QualityGamingStudios]

"So no, I can't beat stardew valley without leveling up, and you can't either. But together, *we* can."
*damnit man I'm gonna cry*

[gferrol]

"Don't repeat my mistakes if you try this challenge yourself"
Mistake 1: Trying this challenge yourself

[billie-ve_in_yourself]

To anyone wanting to do this yourself, here’s some ideas.
1. The merchant at the desert sells staircases for jades. Prioritize the vault bundle and use 40 staircases to get to floor 40 with 0 experience.
2. Clint gives you bars for free. Also, The item you get from a gift letter is determined the moment you open it. Reset the day to guarantee any friendship item you need.
3. Clay farm. Even if you don’t use the speed runner method, u can still get 20G per clay.
4. Beach farm or 4 corners is probably the best
5. Building paths and buildings early from robin will help get more space/block wild growth
6. Killing a slime in the secret woods has a chance of getting a mahogany seed. This is another option for hardwood

[jetherac]

I know the video is pretty old by now, but a minor tip for anyone who wants to try this (or who plays the game in general): In the settings there’s an option to change how zoomed in your screen is. Zooming all the way out would be super useful for things like finding ladders and panning spots, but in a normal playthrough I often just use it to scan for ore in the mines or find forageables.

P.s, did you know theres an option in settings to change the sound a fish makes when it bites? Definitely check out the whole menu if you haven’t already, there’s lots of useful stuff there.

[StarlightMoss]

For anyone who hates themself enough to want to attempt this challenge, there is a mod that shows how close you are to leveling up in Nexus. It probably wasn’t around during the making of this video but it’s around now and I would recommend it.

[carinalim]

Me: Oh, he could argue that he didn't level up until night, and just kinda cheat with the melons, going over the farming experience limit.
Him: ~friendship~
Me: I am a fool

[JelloApocalypse]

I'm sure someone has already commented to this effect, but I bet this challenge COULD be completed solo! The trick is to farm the melons as the very last thing you ever do and then turn them in before the day ends and you level-up. Technically you've earned all six stars in the community center without increasing your Farming level even one stage and the community center is complete at level zero (even if it's only for one afternoon).

Great video though. Love to see how awful foraging is. This really explains why I was unable to level it efficiently on my first playthrough. Why are mushrooms not foraging but picking up fruit from the cave is????

[fishcraft]

This video had the most satisfying conclusion ever. It was like finishing a movie. Thank you.

[Jay-chfp]

When he bought the hay from Marnie, the text over her head said “Lew…? Oh…” (27:23), which is one of two of the rarest texts in the game, both from Marnie. The other also refers to her and Lewis’ relationship. This is also one of the top few rarest things in the game, and I cannot BELIEVE you got it on camera without even trying, noticing, or probably even knowing.

[jaygamings]

Put a gold star crop into the soup
"Ah, this soup is pretty mediocre."
Put a strawberry you found in the garbage into the soup
"This is delicious!"

[boopdoop]

This was an absolute journey. I felt like cheering by the end of it because it was really such an emotional journey

[CreeperPizza]

Mr. Qi would be proud of the greatness you have achieved. Truly legendary and one of the best videos I've ever watched.