Winter Mystery Quest Guide
Aside from the exciting quests in fulfillment of your farm’s growth, Stardew Valley also has a way for players to get thrilled and intrigued about the actual game story and the small yet important details that you can find in the game. One of ConcernedApe’s ways of luring you into the rabbit hole of Stardew Valley plot is through the quest called A Winter Mystery. Just from the name itself, you can easily get a grasp of the quest’s idea – a mystery discovery!
During the winter season, there are lots of activities that you will not be able to do in the meantime. Only limited types of crops grow in this cold season which is why you can take a break from all the tilling and watering of plants. Other than that, your barn and coop animals will not be grazing outside of their shelter so feeding them inside their shelters is the only thing you should concern yourself. However, these are some activities you want to try during winter.
Other than the mentioned ones, you can also trigger the quest A Winter Mystery if you want a little detective game and receive a small yet very helpful item as a reward.
To help you complete this quest, here is a brief guide on how to start and finish A Winter Mystery quest.
How to Trigger the Quest
Compared to other existing quests in Stardew Valley, A Winter Mystery quest is one of the easiest to trigger. Unlike the usual storyline quests that require the player to complete a prerequisite quest before proceeding, this specific quest does not need one. In fact, you can do and complete this one in your first year in Pelican Town. All you have to do is wait until the winter season.
Once it is already winter of any year, take a walk to the bus stop between 6:00 AM and 4:00 PM. By then, a cutscene will play showing a shadowy figure, closely similar to Krobus. The figure looks happy and relaxed not until it notices you, and runs swiftly. At the end of the cutscene, the quest will be added to your journal asking you to look for the mysterious shadowy figure.
Where to Spot the Mystery Figure
The task in this quest is quite simple. All you have to do is find where the mystery figure is staying or probably hiding. At first, you might get confused about where you will start finding the shadowy figure in the vast land of Stardew Valley. So to give you a headstart, you simply have to look for some footsteps on the snow.
Similar to the place where you found the shadowy figure walking, that is also where you can find the shadowy figure.
Look closely at the ground and there should be small footsteps on the snow. Simply follow this trail and it will lead you to the bushes near the park close to the community center. Once you reach the end of the footstep trail, interact with the bush where it leads you.
After that, the mystery figure will jump out of the bush and will immediately apologize as it turns out that it is some sort of a thief.
Rewards for Completing the Quest
After getting caught, the shadowy figure will give you a Magnifying Glass as a way of apologizing.
Upon completing the quest, the player will receive the magnifying glass as a completion reward. Now that you already have this precious magnifying glass, you will be able to locate and find secret notes around the town and the whole valley.
What are Secret Notes
Obtaining the magnifying glass through the completion of A Winter Mystery quest is the only way to unlock the chances of finding secret notes.
Secret notes are collectible items that carry essential information about the game. Some notes will tell you important details about the villagers, while some will show you pictures of puzzles that you have to find out in order to unlock or discover something new inside the map. Besides that, some may also serve as clues to some of your quests.
By collecting these items, you will be able to solve some puzzles and answer some questions. Although skipping or not prioritizing this quest will not affect the main storyline and quests, it is still vital to accomplish this as early as possible to make your run smoother.
Finding Secret Notes
All in all, there is a total of 25 secret notes that you can find around the map. Just like other resources, grinding some activities has a higher chance of discovering one.
There are different activities that you can try in searching for secret notes. Namely, these are defeating monsters, chopping trees, fishing, exploring artifact spots, breaking rocks, removing weeds, interacting with resource clumps, and harvesting giant crops.
All these activities have varying rates of dropping a secret note. Here is a list of the drop chances:
- Giant crops: 100%
- Artifact spot: 11%
- Fishing: 8% chance of replacing trash
- Resource clump: 5%
- Monsters: 3.3%
- Weeds: 0.9%
- Stone and rocks: 0.75%
- Trees: 0.5%
The collection of particular secret notes is not restricted to any specific activity. For example, some players might find secret note #1 by chopping trees, while some find it by exploring artifact spots.
If you want to complete all these secret notes, all you have to do is be enthusiastic about doing the mentioned activities. However, you might as well want to consider the drop chances instead of being excited about just grinding one specific activity.
In conclusion, you might think that it is absurd to accomplish this simple quest early, but obtaining the magnifying glass in the early game will increase the chance of completing the secret notes earlier.
