Stardew Valley: Hidden Secrets of the Mermaid Show

A hidden secret at the Mermaid Show is worth a decent chunk of cash.

During the Night Market festival in Stardew Valley, you can watch the Mermaid Show, which features funky cutscenes. Watching the show doesn’t get you anything besides the short cutscene; you can find a hidden secret if you know the correct password. Here’s what you need to know.

The Mermaid Show

The Mermaid Show is part of the Night Market festival, which takes place from Winter 15 to 17. The Night Market is located on the pier, right outside Willy’s shop, and runs from 5 PM to 2 AM all three days, although the Mermaid Show closes at 12:30 AM. The Mermaid Show is located on the eastern part of the pier.

You can unlock the secret reward by pressing the shells in the correct order after the show ends.

When you enter the Mermaid Show, it will automatically start playing and restart if you leave and come back in. The show takes 1 hour and 40 minutes of in-game time to complete. Once the show ends, the curtains will close, leaving you in the room with five interactable shells in a line in front of you. Interacting with the shells will play a musical note, and the puzzle requires you to play them in the correct order.

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The solution is 1-5-4-2-3, with the leftmost shell being one and the rightmost being 5. You can find his information by finding the Secret Note with the answer. You can unlock Secret Notes by completing the Winter Mystery quest, which can be done as early as Winter 1. You don’t have to have the note to put in the correct solution.

Upon solving the puzzle, you’ll be rewarded with a Pearl, a valuable treasure that can only be obtained from the Mermaid Show once per save file. This exclusivity adds a sense of accomplishment to your gaming experience. Pearls are a valuable commodity, fetching 2,500G when sold. Alternatively, they make for a universally loved gift, giving you a significant reward for your efforts.

Solving the Winter Mystery in Stardew Valley

Here’s where you can find the mysterious figure in Stardew Valley.

Early into your first winter in Stardew Valley, you might get a short cutscene when leaving your farm. You will spot a mysterious-looking character walking around, who runs away after you spot them. This starts the quest A Winter Mystery, which tasks you with tracking them down. While the quest isn’t too difficult to complete, it does unlock a vital tool. Here’s how to finish this snowy quest.

A Winter Mystery

Starting on Winter 1, you can trigger the cutscene by entering the Bus Stop area east of your farm between 6 AM and 4 PM. You will see the mysterious figure, who will run away towards town. You can track them by following a series of footprints in the snow, leading you to a bush between the Community Center and the playground, just north of town.

The mysterious figure can be found in this bush near the park and Community Center.

Approach the bush the footprints lead to. The mysterious character will emerge from the bush and give you a new tool, the Magnifying Glass. The Magnifying Glass unlocks Secret Notes, special notes you can find randomly while doing certain activities.

Secret Notes

Secret Notes can be found while doing specific activities in Stardew Valley. These notes are randomly distributed to you, but they provide different information. They can tell you about villagers’ likes and dislikes, give you a map of secret items, or provide knowledge to complete hidden puzzles. These notes drop as an inventory item, but once you read them by using the note while holding it, they will move to a particular menu tab.

Secret Notes have a chance to drop while doing the following activities:

• Chopping Weeds
• Defeating Monsters
• Chopping Trees
• Fishing
• Digging Artifact Spots
• Mining Stone
• Stumps, Logs, Boulders, and Meteorites
• Giant Crops

Stardew Valley Traveling Cart Guide

The traveling cart is an excellent resource for obtaining rare items. Here’s what you need to know about the Traveling Cart’s schedule and unique stock.

The Traveling Cart, a special vendor that appears twice a week in Stardew Valley, offers a collection of 11 random items. These include rare items that might be hard to obtain otherwise, and even out-of-season items. This can be a game-changer, helping you complete Community Center bundles earlier than expected. Here’s everything you need to know about this potential resource.

Traveling Cart in Stardew Valley

The Traveling Cart appears in the same spot on Friday and Sunday every week.

The Traveling Cart appears in the Cindersap forest every Friday and Sunday. It is open from 6 AM to 8 PM and can be found south of your farm and west of Marnie’s Ranch. Whenever the Traveling Cart appears, it offers ten random items and one piece of furniture. These items typically appear far overpriced compared to their value, but the benefit is that you can get items that are hard to find otherwise. Every item the Traveling Merchant sells is of average quality; Silver-tier or better items cannot appear. The Traveling Cart will sell one or five of its items.

This makes the Traveling Cart great for completing Community Center bundles since some rarer items, like a Rabbit’s Foot or certain fish, can appear for sale. It’s also one of the few ways to obtain Starfruit and Rare seeds, some of the rarest crops in the game and some of the most valuable. It’s worth checking the Traveling Cart’s inventory whenever possible. Suppose you select the option when starting a new game to guarantee the ability to complete the Community Bundles in the first year. In that case, the Red Cabbage seeds will be guaranteed to appear once starting on Spring 7, but the exact date is random.

The Traveling Cart, a fascinating feature, also appears during two festivals: the Night Market and the Desert Festival. The Night Market runs from Winter 15 to 17, with the Traveling Cart offering a diverse selection each day of the event. The Desert Festival runs from Spring 15 to 17, if you have repaired the bus, with the Traveling Cart offering a different variety of items each day of the event. This variety keeps the game fresh and exciting for players.

The Traveling Cart will also sometimes offer items considered particular stock, which have different odds of appearing compared to other items, sometimes based on which season it is.

Every Traveling Cart particular stock:

• Rare Seed – 100% in Spring / 90% for 1 and 10% for a stack of five in Summer
• Scarecrow #4 – 40% chance in Fall and Winter
• Coffee Bean – 25% in Fall and Winter
• Red Fez – 10% chance in all seasons
• Joja Furniture Catalogue – 10% chance in all seasons after completing the Community Center Bundles
• Junimo Catalogue -10% chance in all seasons after completing either the Community Center or Joja Mart
• Retro Catalogue – 10% in all seasons
• Tea Set – 5% in all seasons starting in Year 25
• All five skill books – 5% in all seasons for one to appear
• Wedding Ring (multiplayer only) – 100% chance to appear until purchased