A talented sculptor with a deep love of nature, Stardew Valley's Leah is a shy loner with a lovely red braid who lives on the outskirts of town. If you want to charm Leah with your gift-giving, you must know all her likes and dislikes. Despite refined tastes that include a love of wine, truffles, and goat cheese, Leah hates pizza. So is it worth befriending her? That's up to you. Here’s a rundown of Leah's preferences for gifts in Stardew Valley.
What Does Leah Like? A Gift Guide for Stardew Valley
As a general rule of thumb, Leah does not like sweets and instead prefers flowers or foraged vegetables. She'll love it if it grows in the ground and reminds her of nature. The only heavy carb she'll tolerate is a Poppyseed Muffin. Bread, Hashbrowns, Pancakes, and Pizza are some of her least favorite things. She's a woman of refined taste who wants to sit back with a bottle of wine and some charcuterie.
Here's a specific rundown of everything she prefers and doesn't like:
Gifts Leah Loves
- Goat Cheese
- Poppyseed Muffin
- Salad
- Stir Fry
- Truffle
- Vegetable Medley
- Wine
- All Universal Loves
Gifts Leah Likes
- Chantarelle
- Common Mushroom
- Daffodil
- Dandelion
- Driftwood
- Ginger
- Hazelnut
- Holly
- Leek
- Magma Cap
- Morel
- Purple Mushroom
- Snow Yam
- Spring Onion
- Wild Horseradish
- Winter Root
- All Fruit
- All Milk
- All Eggs except...
- Void Egg
- All Universal Likes except...
- Foraged Minerals other than Earth Crystal
- Gems other than Diamond, Prismatic Shard
- Carp Surprise, Cookie, Hashbrowns, Ice Cream, Pancake, Pink Cake, Pizza, Rice Pudding, Survival Burder, Tortilla
Gifts Leah Tolerates (Neutral)
- All Universal Neutrals except...
- Bread
- Fried Egg
- Truffle
Gifts Leah Dislikes
- Carp Surprise
- Cookie
- Fried Egg
- Ice Cream
- Pink Cake
- Rice Pudding
- Seaweed
- Survival Burger
- Tortilla
- All Universal Dislikes (except Driftwood, Spring Onion, & Void Egg)
- All Foraged Minerals (except Earth Crystal)
- All Gems (except Diamond & Prismatic Shard)
Gifts Leah Hates
- Bread
- Hashbrowns
- Pancakes
- Pizza
- Void Egg
- All Universal Hates (except Seaweed)
For more Stardew Valley tips, check out our dedicated page.
How Friendship Works in Stardew Valley
How does friendship even work "under the hood" in Stardew Valley? Each character’s affection for you is measured in up to 10 Hearts (14 for a spouse), which can be tracked on the Social tab of your inventory screen. Do enough things the character likes, and the hearts go up. At certain heart levels, you trigger special events with that character. In Leah's case, you can enter her cottage and chat with her while she works on a wood sculpture. You can even encourage her to host an art show if your relationship deepens enough.
Each visible heart is worth 250 invisible “friendship points,” for want of a better term, and there are a few different ways to earn those points. You can befriend a villager by simply talking to them once a day (20 pts.), completing their random item delivery quests (150 pts.), or going to see a movie with them (200/100 pts. if they enjoy the flick). Every day you don't interact with a villager, their friendship points decrease by 2.
Giving a villager gifts is the arguably fastest way to grind hearts, however, as long as you’ve got a reliable source for something that the villager loves.
Stardew Valley Gift-Giving Table
- Loves: +80
- Likes: +45
- Neutral: +20
- Dislikes: -20
- Hate: -40
These gains are multiplied by 5 during the Feast of the Winter Star event and multiplied by 8 on a villager’s birthday. (Leah's birthday is Winter 23.) You also gain an additive 10%/25%/50% bonus for giving higher-quality versions of an item when they’re available.
Most of Leah's favorite gifts veer towards rather expensive, but many of her liked gifts are simple foraged items. If it grows in the ground, she will probably like it. You can also buy Salads — one of her loved gifts — from the saloon for only 220g if you have the money. One of the trickiest parts of befriending her is her schedule because, other than sculpting every morning, she spends much of her time wandering around the wilderness.
