How/Where to Get All Secret Notes in Stardew Valley

Chances are, you're here because you've run into a shadowy figure at the Bus Stop in Pelican Town. If you're here because you heard that there are Secret Notes in Stardew Valley and wanted to see where they are, unfortunately, it's not so simple. Regardless of the reason, this guide will help you understand how to get the Secret Notes and complete your collection.

How/Where to Get All Secret Notes in Stardew Valley

The first thing you should know is that none of the notes have a set location. They are accessible during random drop events when you're completing certain actions in the game. The good news? These actions aren't hard to do. The bad news? You have to do them. You have to do them a lot.

There is one thing you have to do to enable the search for the Secret Notes. You must get the Magnifying Glass. Chances are you already have this, but in case you don't, here is how.

On any day during Winter, between the hours of 6:00 am and 4:00 pm, you must walk to the Bus Stop from the Farm. Upon doing so, a cutscene will trigger in which a shadowy figure will become startled by you and run away. This enables the A Winter Mystery quest. This part is easy and is shown in the picture below. If you follow the footsteps that the shadow figure imprints in the snow, it will lead you to the playground west of the Community Center.

Related: How to Get Ancient Fruit in Stardew Valley - Pro Game Guides

Interact with the bush here, and it will cause the shadowy figure to pop out. After a short interaction, he will give you the Magnifying Glass, enabling the search for the Secret Notes. The treasure hunt begins!

To get the notes, you really just need to play the game. Now that you have the Magnifying Glass, certain actions you take and resources you gather have a small chance to drop a Secret Note. So, while there is no set location for these notes, if you perform these actions often enough, you'll eventually access all of them.

The list below shows each action you can take that may drop a Secret Note. For your convenience, we've listed them in order of likelihood that a note will drop.

• Harvesting a Giant Crop — 100 percent
• Digging up an Artifact Spot — 11.0 percent (Assuming artifact checks and winter forage checks fail)
• Fishing — 8.0 percent chance to replace trash (This means that if trash would have been what you caught, it has an 8% percent chance to be a Secret Note instead)
• Resource Clump — 5.0 percent (Large Stump, Large Log, Meteorite, or Boulder)
• Killing a Monster — 3.3 percent
• Chopping Weeds — 0.9 percent
• Harvesting Stone — 0.75 percent
• Chopping Trees — 0.5 percent

One last thing to note: Secret Note #10 is only possible to obtain upon completing Qi's Challenge Quest, a quest you receive from Qi to reach level 25 in the Skull Cavern.

As frustrating as that is, it really is that basic! It's less of a treasure hunt and more of a challenge to scavenge as much as you can. Another head's up before you go — don't give them to anyone as a gift. They're universally hated!

Once you found all the notes, you'll know what gifts to give some of the characters! Or you can follow this easy guide on the best gifts for building friendships to skip the search!