This is an excellent guide written by MrPop1 for Marriage% Glitchless runs that is very beginner friendly. While the document and guide state Ver. 1.4.x is the fastest version for this run, these strats are all viable for Ver. 1.5.X

Link to the Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gX28oimAlV3Aa34ZR-BhHe4esCM6sSh9moaoSlviOD8/edit?usp=sharing

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Overview

Routes: 2 Beer (more beginner friendly) 4 Beer (more reset heavy and RNG reliant)

General idea of every Shane Marriage run is as follows:

Spring

Gift 2 parsnips 11,12 Gift berry 18 Gather forage and gift beer 20 Gift beer 23 Gift beer(or berry) 24 and flower festival

Summer

Day 1: Prep 35 pepper spaces w/ basic fertilizer and water, gift beer/parsnip, sell forage from 20 and buy peppers, plant and sleep Days 2-28: Harvest 7 times and gift twice on weeks 2-4

Fall

Sell peppers and extra $$ making items, gift pepper, buy house, sleep day 4 Gift bouquet then pepper day 5 Gift pepper on __ day(s) (route changes) Once 10 hearts achieved, get bridge upgrade, Mermaid’s Pendant, sleep Get married

Every gifting day you’ll be cutting down trees while you wait for him to go to work, obtaining a total of 850 wood: Storage (50) Scarecrow (50) House (450) Bridge (300)

You’ll need to have lots of money in order to buy the necessary items for the run: Beer (400 each) Pepper Seeds (40 each) House (10K) Mermaid’s Pendant (5K)

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Starting the Run

Stardew Valley speedruns are run on all different versions, Glitchless Marriage can be run on every version but due to improved sleep and loading times, 1.4x is currently the fastest version (as of 01.27.20).

When selecting a game, select CO-OP farm, this will be used to get to Shane faster and allow for more tree farming time.

Select 2 SPREAD farms, skip intro, CAT, name, farm name, favorite thing, FEMALE, and FOREST farm Female is important because Mom gives more money to females for her first gift Forest gives more forage in Spring 2 Spread gives the south house and gives room north during Spring foraging Cat cutscene is faster than dog cutscene

Time starts on selecting OK

Note: the first farm on a fresh start of the game takes a little longer. I like to load one new farm before starting runs

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Spring Day 1: Day 1 is pretty straight forward. Pick up the 15 parsnip seeds, remove the debris around a 5 wide x 3 high rectangular plot, water 2 plots, plant the seeds and sleep.

Days 2-10: The objective between days 2-10 is to have the two parsnips we watered on day 1 be fully grown by our first gifting day on day 11. Day 2 will always be sunny, day 3 will always be raining and day 4 will always be sunny. Days 5-10 will need to have 2 watering days on atleast our 2 parsnips before it's over. You can choose to chance with rain or go out and water (around 10-20 second timeloss per watering day depending on how many you water). The chances of getting 2 rain days in this time is roughly 30%.

Day 11: Our first gifting day! At this point, go get two of the parsnips (I prefer only two even if all 15 are grown) and chop down about 2-3 trees while making your way to the south exit. I like to chop trees in the path between the parsnip mini farm and the south house as we will need to make a path between the two eventually anyways and will need trees close to the south farm later. Gift a parsnip AND TALK TO SHANE at 7:20AM and sleep in the south house. EVERY gift you need to talk to Shane before or after to get the extra friendship points.

***For ALL normal gifting days, you want to exit to the south (Cindersap Forest) before 7:10AM. You are losing time if you don't make it to his house before 7:20AM.

Day 12: Another gifting day. You should have quite a few trees to cut close to the south house, I like to go to the right and cut 3-4. If you have extra time here, hit a few of the rocks to try your luck at getting an early coal. Gift our second parsnip, talk, and sleep in the south house till day 18.

Day 18: Go outside and get 2/1 salmonberry from a bush, cut down 3-4 trees and gift a salmonberry. This is a very similar day to Day 12. Personally, I like to cut trees in the southeast corner of the farm as there are always about 3-4 close trees and you generally can get a berry from 2 bushes before heading there. You can chance getting a berry from Cindersap but make sure you enter there with extra time as the berry bushes can be far away with bad RNG. Sleep till 20.

Day 20: This is the longest day of the run and is a huge determining factor in how your run will go. Exit the house and a cutscene will happen with the lost pet. Don't adopt the pet 😔 and make a storage container. Deposit all of your items except axe, pickaxe and scythe and do the following:

Make your way over to the left side of the farm using only your scythe Forage the entire left side (take the shortcut between southwest and middle west areas). Note that some forage can be hiding behind bushes so make sure to be attentive! Make your way around the north side of the greenhouse and to the middle north of the farm.

Use your axe to cut trees. Note, wood per hit is 1.2 with full grown trees and 1.0 with stumps. I’d suggest only cutting full grown trees until you feel comfortable animation cancelling (AC) and feel wood isn't a problem in your runs. If you are effective with woodcutting, you can get 14 trees cut without exhausting (sap count at 70 and wood count roughly 170). The objective at the end of day 20 is to exhaust so you want to be at 1 or 0 energy at around noon. Make sure to check around this area for forage, some can be hidden behind trees.

If you have enough energy exhausted by about 9am (requires good movement and AC) you can make your way towards the north exit and get some extra forage along the north passage towards town.

Go to the bus stop and forage, if you have any energy left over you can cut trees here

Go to the town center, spam F to skip cutscene as you enter, go to the north near the community center to pick up any daffodils (if you havent already) and head to Pierre’s (before 11:40 is optimal)

When entering, spam F again to skip cutscene and go sell

Here’s where the route changes. The easier/slower of the two routes will sell at Pierre’s to get 300 gold (for a total of 800). The harder/faster route will get 1100 gold (for a total of 1600). You need ATLEAST this amount to buy beers at the saloon. Note, you’ll lose 10% of any excess gold you get from selling here so try to be as close as you can to the right amount. Sale amounts are found in the Things to Know section.

Once you’ve sold, go to the saloon and open the doors at 12 noon to buy 2/4 beers. Opening the saloon doors and standing in Gus’s way will make him run faster so you can buy.

Go to Shane and gift him beer and exhaust with pickaxe (it takes 8 hits to exhaust)

Sleep till day 23

Changes if it's raining: Shane will go to work earlier and you’ll lose time compared to a sunny Spring 20. Make your way over to town earlier (about 8:20 leaving from farm) to go talk to Shane on his way to work as you’ll need the points and you can't talk to him while he’s working. You can then go back to the farm or bus stop to get wood/forage. Remember to go to Joja mart to give him his beer instead of his normal path to work.

This day requires a lot of on the spot thinking, it’ll take time to get comfortable with Spring 20.

Day 23: Gift day with Beer. Harvest parsnips on your way to Shane’s if they are ready. I like to cut down trees on the path down to the south house. If the parsnips are not ready, stop by the storage container on either day 23 or 24 to get the watering can in case you need to water on any of the days before 28. Talk/Gift and sleep in the south house.

Day 24: Immediately make your way towards Cindersap at the start of Day 24. You won't be able to enter Cindersap at 6:10 or later because of the Flower Festival. Cut a few trees in Cindersap and gift Salmonberry/Beer. Time of gifting isn't as important here since you have time to kill before the 9 o’clock Forest Festival. Eventually make your way up to the farm and clear the area to the left of the south house for the soon-to-be pepper farm. If you haven't gotten 1 coal at this point, start farming for coal. If you have extra time, try to get some more wood. Right at 9, enter Cindersap, dance with Shane and sleep in the North house.

Closing Spring: To recap Spring, you should have the following entering Summer: Wood count roughly 350-450 Sap count atleast 80 Fiber count at or above 20 (should be in the storage container) 1 coal Spring Forage Parsnips (at least 13 harvested in total for lvl 1 farming) 1 Beer (if 4 beer route)

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Summer

Day 1: Exit house and make way to south house. Go to the storage container and grab the watering can and hoe. Make sure you also have at least 20 fiber, all sap, coal, and wood in your inventory as well. Your pepper farm size can be 30/35/40 with increasing difficulty as you increase the farm size. 30 requires 8 harvests, 35 requires 7 harvests and 40 requires 6 harvests. The summer watering schedule for each can be found HERE (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1seWLf8nujizryqT7Uk_wo3QVY40BoAGvuKYMp7fYAIo/edit#gid=0). Use the hoe on a farm plot in the size you want and make the same number of basic fertilizer and a scarecrow. Place a scarecrow so your farm does not get affected by crows and place your fertilizer and water the crops. You should be done with this section by 7:50-8 to make the Shane cycle. Stop by the storage chest and put away all of the excess crafting materials and the hoe and grab the spring forage, parsnips and anything else that sells for money. If you have extra room, keep wood in your inventory, it’ll save a couple seconds later.

Head to Pierre’s and on the way, talk&give Parsnip/Beer to Shane. At 9 when Pierre’s opens, sell everything in your inventory and get pepper seeds. Head back to the farm, plant, and sleep.

Types of days in Summer:

Water Days - pretty self explanatory, go water the plants and sleep Sleep Days - go straight to sleep Harvest Days - harvest plants and water them here

Gift Days - after watering (and maybe harvesting as well), go cut a close tree or two and gift Shane at 7:20. Gift days should NOT be on weekends as he goes to work later. There should always be 2 gift days per week. Generally don't want to gift on a rain day. Gifts from here on out should be GOLD QUALITY PEPPERS. Quality gives more friendship points and is important for routing!!

Day 28: Harvest peppers and sleep, no need to water.

Again, follow the schedule HERE (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1seWLf8nujizryqT7Uk_wo3QVY40BoAGvuKYMp7fYAIo/edit#gid=0) to help with your summer planning. Rain may affect the schedule slightly. The most important thing to do here is to have the right number of harvests so you can get lvl 5 farming and choose the Tiller profession to make a few more $$$.

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Fall

Day 1-3: sleep

Day 4: At this point you may need to go to the storage container to grab any extra items to make money and grab all of the wood. Farm a few trees on the path from the south house to the main house. You do have till about 8 oclock when you need to leave the farm, so you can get quite a few. Sometime in between here, go to the main mailbox and get mail. Right clicking and pressing E after each other will get mail quickly. Make sure you have 2 inventory spots open before getting mail so you don't have to menu for pizza and popper slots.

Head over to the town and gift Shane another gold pepper and talk to him. Go into Pierre’s and sell everything EXCEPT 3/2 gold peppers and buy a bouquet. The goal amount here is to reach 13800 or 14000 (depending on if you have used your free 200 gold from the Journal objectives). I would sell poppers last as you may be able to use one to save some time with the speed boost instead of selling them (reminder they are 200 gold each).

After you have money you need, head over to the carpenter to buy the house upgrade. This will cost 10k and 450 wood. Go back to the farm and sleep in the north house. Earlier in Day 4 before heading to Pierre’s, you can clear a path from the north entrance of the farm to the main house to save a little bit of time. If not, just go back to the community center, bus stop, and sleep.

Day 5: Another gold pepper gifting day. Before heading south, grab mail on the way. If you selected female, which you should have, you’ll get 1000 gold from mom (thx mom luv u). Get some wood along the way and gift Shane in this order: Bouquet, talk, Pepper. It's the fastest way to get everything we need done and Bouquet first is REQUIRED for the routing.

Route Split 2 Beers: normal gifting day on 8 (7 if its raining), and the last gifting day on the first rain day before day 14. If no rain on or before 14, do a normal gold pepper gifting day and sleep until the next rain day.

4 Beers: must get rain on 7 or 8 to finish run, if no rain on 7 or 8, you must gift on 8, then sleep till the next rain day (no matter what day of the week)

Proposal Day: On this day you are either gifting Shane to get to 10 hearts or have already done so and it is raining. Make sure you have you 5k gold and 300 wood at this point. Go to the beach, spam F entering the beach to skip the cutscene and head over to the broken bridge and repair with 300 wood. Head over to the north side of this new area and talk to the Mariner to get the Mermaid’s Pendant. Head back to town square to give Shane his gift, go to the farm and sleep till you are married!!!