Stardew Valley Alex gifts are easy to plan once you know his short list. Alex, one of the game’s 12 marriage candidates, loves three specific items plus the universal loves, likes almost every egg, and dislikes books. This guide lists all of his gift tastes, his birthday, where to find him, his heart events and the steps to marry him.
The lists below reflect version 1.6.15, the latest PC patch as of Oct. 31, 2026. ConcernedApe released 1.6.15 on Steam on December 20, 2024, and consoles got the matching 1.6.15.1 patch in February 2025. Gift data comes from the official Stardew Valley Wiki page for Alex.
Alex at a glance
Before you start gifting, it helps to know the basics. Alex’s birthday is Summer 13, and he lives at 1 River Road, the house southeast of Pierre’s General Store, with his grandparents George and Evelyn.
| Detail | Alex |
|---|---|
| Birthday | Summer 13 |
| Home | 1 River Road, Pelican Town |
| Family | George (grandfather), Evelyn (grandmother), his dog Dusty |
| Friend | Haley |
| Clinic checkup | Summer 16 |
| Top gifts | Complete Breakfast, Salmon Dinner, Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Thick |
How gift points work
Every gift moves Alex’s friendship meter up or down by a set amount. According to the wiki’s Friendship page, each heart is 250 points, and you can give a villager one gift a day and two gifts a week. A birthday gift is always allowed, even after those two.
Birthdays matter most. Points are multiplied by eight on a villager’s birthday, which works in both directions. The table below shows what each type of gift is worth to Alex on a normal day and on Summer 13.
| Gift taste | Normal day | Birthday (Summer 13) | Alex’s reaction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Love | +80 | +640 | “Hey, awesome! I love this stuff!” |
| Like | +45 | +360 | “This is cool! Thanks.” |
| Neutral | +20 | +160 | “Thanks!” |
| Dislike | -20 | -160 | “Um… Okay. Thanks.” |
| Hate | -40 | -320 | “Are you serious? This is garbage.” |
Item quality adds a bonus to liked and loved gifts: silver is worth 10% more, gold 25% more and iridium 50% more. Reading the 1.6 book Friendship 101 also raises all friendship gains by 10%. Giving two gifts in one week earns an extra 10 points the following Sunday.
Gifts Alex loves
Alex dreams of playing gridball professionally, and he spends much of his day working out. On top of every universal love, he loves two hearty dishes and one book about bulking up.
- Complete Breakfast: cooked from a Fried Egg, Milk, Hashbrowns and Pancakes. The recipe airs on The Queen of Sauce on Spring 21 of Year 2.
- Salmon Dinner: cooked from Salmon, Amaranth and Kale. Gus mails you the recipe once you reach three hearts with him.
- Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Thick: a power book added in 1.6. It can drop from artifact spots, and from Year 3 the Bookseller may stock it for 20,000g.
Both dishes need a kitchen, which comes with the first farmhouse upgrade, or a Cookout Kit. If you cannot cook yet, the Complete Breakfast and Salmon Dinner pages note that both can turn up in the Stardrop Saloon’s rotating stock, Krobus’s Saturday shop or the trash can outside the Saloon.
Universal loves
Alex has no exceptions to the universal loves, so all six of these count as loved gifts:
- Stardrop Tea: new in 1.6. It grants 250 points (one full heart), or 750 on a birthday, and does not count toward the gift limits, according to the wiki’s Stardrop Tea page.
- Prismatic Shard: found in Mystic Stones, Omni Geodes, meteorites and Skull Cavern treasure rooms, among other sources.
- Rabbit’s Foot: produced by rabbits, sometimes sold at the Traveling Cart, and rarely dropped by Serpents in the Skull Cavern.
- Pearl: found in golden fishing treasure chests, Artifact Troves and the Night Market, including the Mermaid Boat puzzle (one per save file).
- Magic Rock Candy: a reward for donating 90 items to the museum, and sold by the Desert Trader on Thursdays for three Prismatic Shards.
- Golden Pumpkin: won every other year in the Spirit’s Eve maze, or found in Artifact Troves and Mystery Boxes.
Gifts Alex likes
Liked gifts are easier to come by and still earn 45 points each. Alex likes all universal likes, which cover artisan goods, most cooked dishes, flowers, gems, vegetables, fruit tree fruit, Maple Syrup, Life Elixir, Rainbow Shells and Treasure Chests.
Eggs are his real weakness. He likes every egg except the Void Egg, so a Large Egg or Duck Egg from your coop is a cheap way to raise his hearts. In 1.6 he also started liking the Dinosaur Egg and the Field Snack, which most villagers dislike. The Parrot Egg, a 1.6 trinket, is also on his liked list.
Neutral gifts
Neutral gifts earn a modest 20 points, enough to keep the meter moving when you have nothing better. Alex is neutral toward:
- Universal neutrals: Bread, Coral, Duck Feather, Fried Egg, Hops, Mystic Syrup, Nautilus Shell, Roe, Squid Ink, Sweet Gem Berry, Tea Leaves, Truffle, Wheat and Wool
- All milk
- Most fruit, except fruit tree fruit (liked) and Salmonberry (disliked)
- Forage items: Chanterelle, Common Mushroom, Daffodil, Dandelion, Ginger, Hazelnut, Leek, Magma Cap, Morel, Purple Mushroom, Snow Yam and Winter Root
- Frog Egg, a 1.6 trinket
Gifts Alex dislikes
Books are the main thing that sets Alex apart from the universal rules. Most villagers treat books as neutral, but Alex dislikes every book except Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Thick. He also dislikes:
- Salmonberry and Wild Horseradish
- The Void Egg
- All universal dislikes, such as building materials, bombs, fences, fertilizer, sprinklers, seeds, tackle, geodes, geode minerals, artifacts (except the Dinosaur Egg) and all fish except Carp and Snail
The fish rule now covers the Clam. The official 1.6 changelog made the Clam a fish “just like all the other shellfish,” so it moved from neutral to disliked.
Gifts Alex hates
A hated gift costs 40 points, or 320 on his birthday. Alex hates two items on his own, Holly and Quartz, and every universal hate. The main universal hates are:
- All bait, all fossils, all monster loot (except Solar and Void Essence) and all trash (except Driftwood)
- Carp, Snail, Sea Urchin, Seaweed, Green Algae, White Algae and Red Mushroom
- Copper Ore, Iron Ore, Radioactive Ore, Radioactive Bar, Sap, Hay, Sugar and Torch
- Poppy, Seafoam Pudding, Strange Bun, Bug Steak, Void Mayonnaise, Energy Tonic, Muscle Remedy and Oil of Garlic
- Crab Pot, Drum Block, Flute Block, Grass Starter, Blue Grass Starter, Rain Totem and every Warp Totem
- Artifact Trove, Mystery Box, Golden Mystery Box, Golden Coconut, Golden Tag, Golden Bobber, Dragon Tooth, Fairy Dust, Butterfly Powder, Monster Musk, Qi Seasoning, Cookout Kit, Tent Kit, Explosive Ammo, Secret Note, Journal Scrap, Slime Eggs and Error Item
What changed for Alex in 1.6
Gift lists written before 1.6 may not match the current game. The changes below come from the official changelog and the wiki’s Friendship history and Alex history notes.
| Item | What 1.6 changed |
|---|---|
| Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Thick | New power book; Alex loves it |
| Stardrop Tea | New item; universally loved and worth 250 points |
| Dinosaur Egg | Now liked by Alex (most villagers still dislike artifacts) |
| Field Snack | Now liked by Alex (still a universal dislike) |
| Treasure Chest | No longer a universal hate; liked by everyone except Linus |
| Rainbow Shell | Now liked by all villagers except Elliott and Harvey |
| Clam | Now counts as a fish, so it is universally disliked |
| Books | Books of Power and Skill Books added; Alex dislikes all except his own |
Version 1.6 also gave Alex custom reactions to certain gifts. Give him the Dinosaur Egg, for example, and he jokes about the size of the omelet.
Where to find Alex
Gifts only help if you can find him, and Alex’s routine changes by season. His full schedule is on the wiki’s Alex page, but these are the usual spots:
- Spring and Fall: outside his house from about 8 a.m., playing with his gridball by the tree, then in his room lifting weights from 1 p.m.
- Summer: on the beach in the morning and running the Ice Cream Stand next to the museum in the afternoon.
- Winter: working out at the Spa on most days.
- Rainy days: mostly inside his house, with a late-afternoon stop by the dog pen.
Once the Ginger Island resort is open, he may also spend a day there. He goes to bed at about 10 p.m. on a regular day.
Alex’s heart events
As your friendship grows, Alex opens up about his family and his sports dream. The table lists each event’s trigger. Only the five-heart event changes your points directly.
| Hearts | How to trigger it |
|---|---|
| 2 | Visit the beach on a sunny Summer day while Alex is there. |
| 4 | Enter town between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. |
| 5 | Enter Alex’s house while he is home. “We all have our strengths and weaknesses” adds 50 points; the insulting reply costs 50. |
| 6 | Enter Alex’s house while he is home. |
| 8 | Visit the beach on a sunny day while Alex is there. |
| 10 | After his letter arrives, enter the Stardrop Saloon between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. |
| 14 | After marriage, leave the farmhouse between 6 a.m. and 8:20 a.m. in Year 2 or later (not Sunday) with 5,000g on hand. |
The eight-heart event normally happens in Summer, but you can also see it in other seasons if you meet him on his way to Ginger Island. A movie date helps between events too. Alex loves the films It Howls in the Rain and Wumbus, and a loved movie invitation is worth 200 points.
How to marry Alex
Alex can be courted by a farmer of either gender. The wiki’s Marriage page sets out the steps:
- Reach eight hearts. His meter stops there until you give him a Bouquet, which Pierre sells for 200g.
- Keep raising his friendship until you reach 10 hearts.
- Upgrade your farmhouse at least once.
- Buy a Mermaid’s Pendant for 5,000g from the Old Mariner. He appears on rainy days at the beach tide pools, past the bridge that costs 300 wood to repair.
- Give Alex the pendant. The wedding takes place three days later.
After the wedding, Alex moves into your farmhouse, adds his own room and sets up a workout area behind the house. On some rainy nights he may cook you dinner, such as Survival Burger or Crispy Bass.
A simple plan to reach eight hearts
How long the courtship takes depends on your routine. Here is a rough estimate using normal-quality loved gifts, with no Friendship 101 bonus and no heart-event points.
Talking to Alex every day earns 20 points, or 140 a week. Two loved gifts add 160, and the two-gift bonus adds 10, for 310 points a week. Eight hearts is 2,000 points, so that pace takes about six and a half weeks. One loved gift on Summer 13 (+640) shortens it by about two weeks.
Plan your stock around his birthday. Save a Complete Breakfast, a Salmon Dinner or a Stardrop Tea for Summer 13, and keep a few chicken eggs on hand for the weeks in between.
