The gift rules
Two gifts per villager per week (resetting Mondays), one on a birthday (which does not count against the weekly limit). Gift values: loved +80 points, liked +45, neutral +20, disliked −20, hated −40. Birthdays multiply the outcome by 8 — a loved birthday gift is +640 points, over 2.5 hearts in one item, which is why the calendar’s birthdays matter more than any gifting schedule.
Decay and the floors
Friendship decays 10 points per day for villagers you have not gifted or talked to, stopping at the last heart earned... (actually it decays until reaching zero past earned hearts’ decay floor — the practical rule: talk to everyone daily, it grants a small daily bump and stops decay). Hearts gate recipes, cutscenes, and marriage at 10; the town’s specials unlock at 2–6 hearts.
The efficient loop
Keep a loved-gift cheat sheet (the wiki’s loved lists per villager), farm the universal loves (golden pumpkin, rabbit’s foot work for everyone except one or two villagers), and save loved items for birthdays. A daily 20-minute town loop — gifts twice a week, talk daily — carries every villager to heart milestones without thinking.
One heart is 250 friendship points
Stardew Valley hides its friendship system behind the heart icons in the Social tab. The hearts are the display; the actual currency is friendship points, and every heart is worth 250 of them. That single conversion turns "how long does this take" from a guess into arithmetic.
| Action | Points | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Talking to a villager | +20 | Once per day each |
| Ignoring them for a day | −2 per day | Applies until decay stops |
| Loved gift | +80 | 1 gift per day, 2 per week |
| Liked gift | +45 | Same limit |
| Neutral gift | +20 | Barely worth the slot |
| Disliked gift | −20 | — |
| Hated gift | −40 | — |
| Quest the villager asked for | +150 | On turn-in |
| Two gifts in one week | +10 bonus | Applied on Sunday morning |
Ten hearts is the normal maximum, so 2,500 points. A spouse's meter extends to 14 hearts, or 3,500 points.
Gift value is multiplied, and the multiplier is where the time goes
Gift points are not just a flat 80. Two multipliers stack on top of the base value:
- Event multiplier: ×5 at the Feast of the Winter Star secret gift exchange, ×8 on the villager's birthday.
- Quality multiplier, for loved and liked gifts only: normal ×1, silver ×1.1, gold ×1.25, iridium ×1.5.
| Gift | Normal day | Winter Star (×5) | Birthday (×8) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loved | +80 | +400 | +640 |
| Liked | +45 | +225 | +360 |
| Neutral | +20 | +100 | +160 |
| Disliked | −20 | −100 | −160 |
| Hated | −40 | −200 | −320 |
The best single gift in the game is an iridium-quality loved gift on a birthday: 80 × 8 × 1.5 = 960 points, which is 3.84 hearts in one action — just short of four. Quality only multiplies loved and liked gifts, so an iridium liked gift (67.5) still beats nothing but loses to a plain loved gift (80).
Worked example: how long does ten hearts actually take?
Take a villager you want at ten hearts, and assume you play optimally: talk every day, and give two loved gifts a week.
- Talking: 7 × 20 = 140 points a week
- Two loved gifts: 2 × 80 = 160 points
- Sunday bonus for two gifts: +10 points
- Total: 310 points a week = 1.24 hearts
At that rate, ten hearts (2,500 points) takes 2,500 ÷ 310 = 8.06 weeks. Call it eight weeks of in-game time, or one heart per week. Two full seasons of daily attention, and that is the ceiling — the weekly gift limit is what caps it, not your effort.
Now the shortcuts:
- Birthday loved gift: 640 points = 2.56 hearts in one day. A birthday is worth about two and a half weeks of ordinary work.
- Birthday iridium loved gift: 960 points = 3.84 hearts, the single largest gain available.
- Winter Star loved gift: 400 points = 1.6 hearts, and it is a fixed festival date you can plan around.
If you are filling one heart from zero with gifts alone and no talking, it takes four loved gifts (250 ÷ 80 = 3.125, rounded up). With iridium loved gifts it takes three (250 ÷ 120).
The weekly gift limit, and the birthday exception
You can give one gift per villager per day, and two per week — the checkboxes in the Social tab track it. The week begins on Sunday, and if you use both slots you get an extra 10 points on Sunday morning.
The birthday gift is the exception: it does not count against the two-gift limit, so a villager can receive three gifts in a birthday week — two normal ones plus the birthday present. Give the two ordinary gifts first, then the birthday gift.
For a spouse the rules change again: you may give a gift every day, but all friendship gains and losses are halved. Spouses also decay faster than anyone else, and decay never stops for them.
Decay, and when it stops
Friendship decays by 2 points for every day you do not talk to a villager. It is slow — a 14-day season of total neglect costs 28 points, about a tenth of a heart — and it does not run on festival days.
| Situation | Decay | Stops at |
|---|---|---|
| Married | −20 per day | Never |
| Given a bouquet (dating) | −10 per day | 10 hearts |
| Not yet given a bouquet | −2 per day | 8 hearts |
| Not romanceable at all | −2 per day | 10 hearts |
The practical reading: a non-romanceable villager at ten hearts is safe forever, while a spouse needs constant attention. Neglecting a spouse costs ten times more per day than neglecting a friend.
Romance milestones
- 8 hearts — the ceiling until you give a bouquet (bought from Pierre's). Without a bouquet, friendship with a marriage candidate is capped and cannot grow further.
- 10 hearts — give a Mermaid's Pendant to propose; the villager always accepts. Krobus accepts a Void Ghost Pendant to become a roommate instead.
- 14 hearts — after marriage the meter extends, and at 12.5 hearts (3,125 points) your spouse gives you a stardrop if you have not had one this way.
Giving bouquets to several villagers at once carries no penalty, which is why seeing every heart event before marrying is a common strategy.
Common mistakes
- Treating hearts as the unit. Plan in points (250 per heart) and the maths becomes checkable.
- Wasting the two weekly gift slots on liked gifts. The difference between liked (45) and loved (80) is most of a heart a week, and small because it compounds.
- Giving a hated gift to be social. −40 undoes two days of talking.
- Forgetting the birthday does not use a gift slot. People stop at two gifts in a birthday week and leave 640 points on the table.
- Ignoring quality. Iridium loved gifts are worth 50% more for no extra gift slot.
- Not talking. 20 points a day is free, and it is the larger half of the weekly total.
- Letting a spouse decay. −20 a day, and it never stops.
Keeping track of gifts and hearts
Two gifts a week, birthday multipliers and decay floors are easy to lose track of across a long save. These are the items that suit managing a big social list.
- Planner notebook — A loved-gift list per villager is exactly the sort of reference you keep beside you week to week.
- Second monitor — Keeping the gift cheat sheet open while you play saves scrolling the wiki mid-day.
- Gaming mouse — Sorting gifts out of chests and inventory is mouse-heavy work.
- Insulated mug — Heart-building is slow daily play, best done unhurried with something warm to hand.
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Sources and standards
Where these figures come from
Every number on this page is taken from the reference material below rather than from memory. Where a value changes with a game or platform update, the page says so and tells you where to check it.
- Stardew Valley Wiki — Friendship — point values per heart, gift preferences, decay rates, birthday and Winter Star multipliers, quality multipliers and romance milestones.
- Stardew Valley official site — game version history — friendship values have been adjusted in past updates, so re-check after a major patch.
Figures, formulas and reference tables last verified: 24 September 2026
