The Best Characters to Marry in Stardew Valley, Ranked

Stardew Valley is a juggernaut of the Farming and Life Sim genre. It features a host of different activities and slice-of-life events. Among them is the ability to marry one of the slew of eligible bachelors and bachelorettes living in the valley. Choosing your would-be spouse is a personal matter best left to your own discretion, but with twelve potential paramours players might be wondering if some suitors are better than others. You can read our personal list of the best characters to marry in Stardew Valley below.

The Best Characters to Marry in Stardew Valley, Ranked

Marriage in Stardew Valley yields most of the same perks regardless of who you court, but the small differences between characters can make big changes to your playthrough. Here’s a list of every Stardew Valley marriage candidate ranked in terms of their approachability and all-around usefulness.

12. Sam

In Stardew Valley, all possible spouses will regularly shower you with gifts of varying quality. Some are cooked goods which can raise your skill levels, others will increase your luck rating, and so on. Then there’s Sam. Sam’s gifts are common forageables you can find on your own, a Pizza with no boons, and when he’s feeling really adventurous: Pancakes. The Foraging bonus from Pancakes may boost your odds of finding higher-quality forageables, but unless you’re taking the Gatherer and Botanist professions, it’ll have diminishing returns in the late-game. If it weren’t for his fondness of Joja Cola, Sam would also be a picky gift recipient; he’s neutral towards Fruits, a typically universally liked item, and similarly dislikes Vegetables. To top it off, when he isn’t underperforming as a supportive spouse, Sam likes to blow off his responsibilities by doing kickflips on the half-pipe he installs outside your house. 

11. Abigail

Abigail eats rocks. She especially loves eating Amethysts, but she’ll settle for Quartz in a pinch. Players adventuring in the mines might find themselves with plenty of snacks to offer her, but Abigail is hard to please otherwise. Once you get through the long courting process, Abigail’s gifts leave a lot to be desired; she likes to give items you can find from the mines, such as Void Essence and Fire Quartz. Abigail’s other gifts include cooked food with nominal combat stat boosts. If you’re romancing her, chances are you already have plenty of these items collecting the aforementioned rocks, and the plus one or two to your attack and defense isn’t going to make a difference in the game’s basic combat system. All in all, Abigail just doesn’t hold a candle to the other marriage candidates. Did I mention she eats rocks? She eats rocks.

10. Penny

It may be surprising to learn that Penny is one of the more complicated partners to romance in Stardew Valley. You could offer her any artifacts you find in the mines, but this slows down your museum completion progress. Penny also has a pitfall in one of her heart events, unlockable cutscenes with dialogue options, that can plummet your friendship rating with her if you say the wrong thing. After avoiding sabotaging your relationship and finding the right gifts to give her (potentially at the cost of progress in other areas of the game), marriage with Penny won’t yield any interesting gifts. At best, her cooked meals might improve your luck by one, or increase your item magnetism for a while. With Penny, there’s just too much to think about and not enough to make it worthwhile, especially when there’s better options out there.

9. Shane

Even from a flavor perspective, Shane is a confusing choice for marriage. The easiest way to romance Shane is to offer him an easily purchased beer, but this contradicts his character arc in a way that leaves a poor taste in the mouth. Beyond this, he’s a natural option for players focused on raising barn animals; Shane likes eggs! An early chicken coop can win you the heart of this bachelor before your first year is over. However, Shane is a certified bad gift giver. If he isn’t giving you alcoholic beverages that slow you down, he’s inconsistently handing over Pepper Poppers with a slight farming skill and speed boost. This inconsistency vastly outweighs the benefits you’d receive, unfortunately making Shane a poor romance option for players looking to get more out of their marriage.

8. Sebastian

Sebastian is everyone’s favorite post-scene phase tech-bro, but unfortunately brings very little to the table as a spouse. His gifts consist of various items you can easily find by plunging through the mines, and he won’t even cook you any delicious meals. Making matters worse, Sebastian isn’t fond of many gifts. He’s neutral towards, dislikes, and even hates a lot of universally-liked item categories, including artisan goods and flowers. This makes romancing Sebastian a drawn-out endeavor you might want to reconsider enduring. His saving grace is his propensity to make coffee for you some mornings, but with how long it can take to marry him, you’ll probably have a more reliable way of getting your caffeine rush elsewhere.

7. Emily

A lover of shiny gems and wool, Emily is a bit harder to romance than the others. Wool is only reliably collected after upgrading a barn to level two or a chicken coop to level 3, and gems such as emeralds and rubies have low drop rates in the mines. Once you’ve unlocked crystalariums and have a stable of sheep or rabbits to pull wool from, giving Emily gifts she loves becomes relatively easy, making her a great choice for late-game players who haven’t tied the knot yet. This being said, the gifts she provides are largely redundant if you’re already committed to romancing her. Emily will give you cloth and wool, bake you desserts with no skill bonuses, and rarely make you coffee. Other Stardew Valley romance options are simply easier to marry and provide more in marriage than Emily does, so she sits lower on this list.

6. Haley

No one in the valley is harder to impress than Haley, a strong contender for most disliked and hated gift items- including the Prismatic Shard, an item universally loved by everyone else. You can get a head-start on her romance by giving Haley daffodils in the Spring, but once the season rolls into Summer, you better hope you’ve got the Valley’s bus running. Haley loves Coconuts, and there are plenty to source in the desert. This makes her a quick marriage option for experienced players who like to rush completing the community center. As a spouse, Haley offers a broad range of potential gifts. Few of them offer any significant advantages, and are mixed in with a bunch of duds. They don’t have a high likelihood of being received. Still, she’s a solid early-game choice as long as you don’t mind losing out on the benefits other spouses can provide.

5. Harvey

As far as partners go, Harvey can be a little underwhelming. The items he can give you lack any worthwhile advantages. His complete breakfast offers a bonus to your farming skill and max energy, but by the time you’re married, you’ll most likely have a working sprinkler system circumventing the need for better hoe and watering can proficiency. You can always stockpile complete breakfasts until the day you need to harvest your crops for a better chance at gold quality produce. Harvey is also one of the few candidates who likes receiving most forageables, making him easier to romance.

4. Leah

Leah’s popularity with players is well-documented, and it’s easy to see why. Her straightforward but easy-going personality is reflected in her tastes. Leah likes forageables and most of the produce you can make on your farm. She detests gems, minerals, and processed foods. Above all, Leah’s loved gifts include salad, an item you can buy directly from the Stardrop Saloon for only 200g. The downside to marrying Leah is she doesn’t give the player any items with skill boosts or secondary abilities like magnetism or bonus max energy. Even the coffee she makes shares a space with eight other items chosen at random! But she’s an even faster marriage choice than Haley, and doesn’t need community center upgrades to fast-track her romance either, placing her higher on this list just for the marriage benefits alone.

3. Elliot

For fishing aficionados, Elliot is a no-brainer. The chowder and fish stew he cooks on rainy nights elevates your fishing skill- a perfect boost for catching those legendary fish! Elliot loves lobster, obtainable via crab pots with a level three fishing, making him a solid early-to-medium game romance option. As an added bonus, he’s likely to give the player coffee in the mornings, regardless of the weather. The speed boost will drastically speed up your daily routine, giving you extra time to clear those community center bundles faster!

2. Alex

Despite first impressions, Alex is one of the better spouses you can marry in Stardew Valley. His gifts, like the Survival Burger or Dish O’ The Sea, provide a wide range of buffs to your skills. He’s also one of the easier romance options in the early game. One of Alex’s uniquely liked gifts is the Field Snack, which you can craft with one level in Foraging, an acorn, a maple seed, and a pine cone. These components are obtainable year-round, incredibly easy to find (just shake some trees), and don’t cost any energy to collect. For players looking to speed-run marriage in order to gain its in-game advantages, Alex is a perfect match!

1. Maru

Maru has an eclectic taste in gifts which may intimidate players at first glance. A keen eye will pick up on a few standout items that can be exploited to marry her early. Oak Resin and Pine Tar, both of which Maru likes, are easy to collect. Simply slap a tapper on as many trees as you can find! Romancing Maru only gets easier the further into your playthrough you get. She loves receiving Gold and Iridium bars, Strawberries, and Battery Packs, all fairly easy items to collect with enough progress. Once married, the stand-out gift to be on the lookout for is the Farm Warp Totem. This will instantly teleport you back to the farm from anywhere in the valley, extending the amount of time you can stay out on any given day without risking exhaustion! Sure: there’s no guarantee Maru will give you a warp totem, but the chance of receiving one for free is too good to pass up. Her approachability and unique gift are what make Maru a great choice for marriage.

In the grand scheme of Stardew Valley, there is no wrong choice when it comes to marriage (or staying single.) Look for a spouse to compliment a specific kind of playthrough, try to get married as fast as possible, or just pick your favorite. Hopefully this list highlights a few characters you might not have considered before!

Stardew Valley is available on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, Windows, MacOS, Linux, and mobile devices.