Maru
Maturity: Low
Competency: High
Character: Medium
Gives You: Bombs, Crab Cakes, and rarely, a Warp Totem: Farm
Maru is Stardew Valley’s resident tinkerer, nurse, and all-around sweetheart, which makes sense for the child of the local carpenter and botanist. She was originally my go-to for #1 on this list, with her megwatt smile and her tendency to take an interest in the Farmer’s life. However, my girlfriend and I have agreed that Maru is too good for us. Maru is Best Girl, not Best Wife. Our main reasoning behind this is that Maru doesn’t seem to DO anything she loves after she gets married, and in rare cases, a glitch (or maybe not) causes her to remain unresponsive in bed after a few days of marriage. Maru has so much potential and she deserves better than isolated farm life.
Emily
Maturity: High
Competency: Medium
Character: Low
Gives you: wool and duck feathers.
Emily is a friendly ray of blue-haired sunshine, even if her heart events and dance scenes are a bit corny. Emily makes artisan goods, and in particular, clothing. Do you know how hard it is to make clothes, internet?! The biggest obstacle to dating and marrying Emily is Clint’s feelings for her, but the blacksmith is not entitled to Emily’s affection and you can’t base your own relationships on the wants of a third party. Emily is bright and helpful, but she wasn’t created to be a romance option, so some of the romance feels shoe-horned in. Still, you might as well get to know the only person in town capable of dream projection!
Abigail
Maturity: Low
Competency: Medium
Character: High
Gives You: Bombs and Monster Parts
Abigail just might be the weirdest person in town. She plays the flute in the rain, hangs out in the graveyard, and is the source of the funniest glitch in the game. An error early in the Stardew Valley beta resulted in Abigail responding to Minerals as food, and the creator of the game thought this was funny enough to leave it in the released game. Jokes aside, Abigail is a fascinating character at the start of the game but doesn’t undergo a lot of character developement, and is, frankly, young enough that it’s weird for her to be of marrying age. Regardless, Abby is still adorable and probably more like the real people who are playing Stardew Valley than any of the other choices.
Penny
Maturity: High
Competency: Low
Character: Medium
Gives You: Breakfast food and sometimes Geodes or Mixed Seeds
Penny is a natural caretaker, cleaning up after her mother and tutoring Vincent and Jas, and many players find themselves wanting to take care of her. Penny is shy and kind, and confirmed as ConcernedApe’s favorite character. As the Farmer becomes closer to her, they will help her educate the children and deal with her alcoholic mother. Penny can’t cook well at all, giving the Farmer some of the more basic dishes. The player receives the lowest material benefit from marrying Penny, but they get to save Penny from living in a trailer and she seems geniunely happy with her new life.
Leah
Maturity: High
Competency: Medium
Character: Medium
Gives You: Forage Items and Coffee
Leah is well-suited to live on a farm, since as a Bachelorette her life was already rugged; she found genuine joy in scavenging her own food from the woods. She likes anything that grows out of the ground and seeks recognition as an artist. As you grow closer to her, you’ll give her plenty of plants and either encourage her to sell her art online or set up an art show in Pelican Town. Despite how cute she is, or how much I personally like the artist who lives in the woods idea, I never got a sense of chemistry between Leah and the Farmer. By the time I reached the final event, I just hoped that there would be an update with an event that was actually intimate.
Haley
Maturity: Low, then Medium
Competency: High
Character: High
Gives You: (Breakfast) Blueberry Tart, Hashbrowns, (Dinner) Eggplant Parm, Chowder
And here we have the dark horse! Most players don’t think to romance Haley at the beginning because she comes off as such a snob. Like Shane, Haley is slow to make friends with the Farmer. She opens up once she learns how to relate to people with different interests, expands her own horizons, and becomes a genuinely warm and loving person. If you treat Haley well, she’ll start donating her clothes to charity and interacting positively with the community, and if you ignore her, she’ll keep ignoring others. Once married, she shows her affection through surprisingly masterful cooking, with meals on rainy evenings even offering benefits to game stats. Haley is by far the character who shows the most development throughout the game, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see. When you get to know Haley, you get to make her a better person, and you can’t say that about anyone else.
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