Stardew Valley is filled with mysteries that many players might never stumble across. However, in Winter, there will be one event that everyone should be able to find if they leave the farm, so here’s how to complete the A Winter Mystery quest in Stardew Valley.
How to Start A Winter Mystery Quest
You’ll be able to start the A Winter Mystery quest on any given day during the Winter. All you have to do is leave your farm and go to town via the bus stop any time between 6 am and 4 pm. The weather doesn’t matter, as long as there’s snow on the ground and daylight in the sky.
When you load into the bus stop, you’ll be met with a cutscene showing a strange figure get startled before running into town. After this happens, you’ll be loaded back into the bus stop, but you’ll have a quest started in your journal to “find the shadowy figure.” Do so, and you’ll complete the quest and claim your reward.
Where to Find the Shadowy Figure in Stardew Valley
To locate the shadowy figure that the quest tells you to find, all you’ve got to do is follow the footprints that are in the snow. You can head in the direction of town where the figure ran, and once you’re in town you’ll be met with some footprints in the snow leading up North out of Pelican Town.
Follow those footprints up to the playground near the Community Center and you’ll find that the prints stop right in front of a large bush. Just go over and interact with the bush to be met with the Shadow Guy, who will apologize profusely for stealing and give you a magnifying glass as a reward. This will permanently add the magnifying glass to your wallet, but won’t take up any inventory space.
How to Use Magnifying Glass in Stardew Valley
Once you’ve completed the A Winter Mystery quest, you’ll permanently have the magnifying glass that you’ve received for the rest of the game, but you can’t actively use it. From the point that you have it, it’ll passively allow you to find Secret Notes throughout your game, which will have varying effects depending on the note.
You can find Secret Notes at any time while you’re tilling soil, chopping trees, fishing, mining resources or as monster drops. There are 25 Secret Notes all together but you won’t be able to get any before you have the magnifying glass, meaning there’s no way to start finding them until the winter of your first year.
Each different way of accessing them will have a higher or lower likelihood of dropping a secret note, but some of them only appear under particular conditions. The best way to get them is going to simply be doing a diverse array of activities, but artifact spots, fishing or mining resource clumps like boulders and large stumps are the most efficient.
That’s about it as to how to complete the A Winter Mystery quest in Stardew Valley. The Secret Notes could contain puzzles to complete, hints for what gifts to give villagers or even clues as to how to solve other mysteries through the valley. For more Stardew guides like how to get a fiddlehead fern or where to catch an octopus, be sure to check back here.
