Now that you’ve got your bearings in Pelican Town, you’ve more than likely noticed a few notes spawning around town. If you’ve still to discover your first, ambiguous letter, this guide will cover how to trigger their appearance and explain the mystery behind Secret Note 11 in Stardew Valley.
How to unlock secret notes
In the tranquil farming sim, players have the opportunity to uncover 25 secret notes that are hidden throughout town. Each note will either reveal buried treasure or air the dirty laundry of the townspeople.
In order for the notes to spawn and for you to be able to read them, the Magnifying Glass item must be obtained, which is the reward at the end of the A Winter Mystery quest.
A Winter Mystery quest
This quest is triggered by walking to the Bus Stop during Winter between 6am – 4pm, which will then initiate a cutscene.
The cutscene will offer an interaction between you and a Shadow Guy, who is shaken by your sudden appearance. The Shadow Guy will then flee from your location.
Once the cutscene has concluded, A Winter Mystery quest will be added to your journal. You will then have to follow the Shadow Guy’s footsteps.
Where to find Shadow Guy
Following the footsteps will lead you to a bush on the right of the playground, just left of the Community Center.
You will then need to click on the bush behind the benches, which will encourage the Shadow Guy to jump out. The character will then apologize for stealing and willfully hand over the Magnifying Glass item to you before running away again.
The Magnifying Glass item will then be yours, which will allow you to read Secret Notes and find them whilst digging, mining, fishing, chopping trees and slaying monsters.
Where to find secret notes
Secret notes can be found by performing everyday tasks in the game. Notes can be dropped after conquering foes, picking weeds, and by completing other fundamental chores around Pelican Town.
Some tasks have a higher chance of depositing notes than others, and below is a list of those odds by percentage:
| Giant Crop 100% | 100% |
| Artifact Spots | 11% |
| Fishing | 8% |
| Resource Clumps | 5% |
| Monsters | 3.3% |
| Pulling Weeds | 0.9% |
| Stone | 0.75% |
| Chopping Trees | 0.5% |
Harvesting giant crops is a guaranteed way to find notes, but completing this task takes patience. Digging up artifacts and fishing are the best tasks to undertake in order to find notes.
What is Secret Note 11?
One of the 25 notes you are able to collect in Stardew Valley is Secret Note 11, which will appear randomly if you keep performing the aforementioned tasks.
The note has no text on it, but instead a picture of an older woman holding the hand of a little girl, both surrounded by farm animals.
Secret Note 11 has become one of the game’s unexplained mysteries, as no one has been able to pinpoint exactly who is in the picture. Some players have speculated that it is Marnie and Jas holding hands when the latter was an infant. Others believe that it is Jas holding hands with her mother, who never appears in the game.
What do you do with Secret Note 11?
The mystery of Secret Note 11 also revolves around its purpose. All of the other notes have meaning behind them, leading to treasure or progressing the narrative. However, Secret Note 11 doesn’t seem to be anything more than a curious collectible.
It’s been five years since Stardew Valley was released and no one has been able to find the note’s true purpose or meaning, nor have they been able to confirm exactly who is in the photograph.
