How to Beat Journey of the Prairie King in Stardew Valley

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Stardew Valley released in 2016 to critical acclaim. Since then, it has received numerous updates free of charge. It is a charming game where players manage a farm much in the style of the Harvest Moon series. Despite being an indie game, it has released on so many different platforms making it very accessible. Another impressive thing about the game is that it was developed by one person: Eric Barone, also known as ConcernedApe.

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Stardew Valley may be a peaceful farming simulator most of the time, but within it, there is an action-packed arcade minigame called Journey of the Prairie King. It can be accessed by an arcade cabinet inside the Stardrop Saloon. It is completely optional to play, though players will encounter a version of it if they befriend Abigail. There is an achievement for beating Journey of the Prairie King, and another for beating it without dying. Neither are simple tasks. Players who manage to achieve this will join an elite group. For the Steam version of Stardew Valley on PC, only 1.3% of players have actually managed to beat Journey of the Prairie King, and only 0.7% have completed a run without dying. It is exceedingly difficult, and players are unlikely to succeed on their first try. Or second. Or third. However, there are some strategies for staying alive. If players keep practicing, they will soon see progress, and learn what their playstyle is and what works best for them.

There are a few general strategies and important things to know when playing Journey of the Prairie King. First is that when items drop and enemies spawn, they do so in a random manner. This means it is possible to get into an unlucky game where the player is swarmed by enemies and has no effective weapons or powerups to deal with them. It happens. The best bet is simply to try again. Generally speaking, if players use the following strategies, they will find themselves dying less frequently.

Keep to the center of the screen as much as possible. Staying in the center of the screen gives the player the most amount of time to react to the incoming enemies. They will be better able to dodge enemies while firing upon them. Also, players will have a better chance of grabbing pickups if they are near the center than if they are on the opposite side of the screen.Use obstacles when things get desperate. Many levels have obstacles, which brings both advantages and disadvantages. It does mean that sometimes bullets will be blocked, and the player has less space to maneuver, but it also can block the paths of enemies. If the player is finding themselves overwhelmed, they can hide behind obstacles, and the enemies will have to go around to get to the player. During that time, players can get a few shots off, whittling down the number of enemies.Use diagonals. The game does not make it immediately clear, but players can both move and shoot diagonally, which is crucial to winning. Moving diagonally can be essential to not dying, because while a player moves diagonally, many enemies do not, which give the player a little more time to deal with them.Keep an extra weapon stored for emergencies. When players pick up a weapon or item, it is stored in their single-slot inventory until they decide to use it by pressing the appropriate button. If an item is already stored when picking up a new item, the new item will automatically be used. This can save crucial moments when things get desperate, but if need be, the player can also use the stored item. There are some weapons that are incredibly useful to use in these desperate times. First is the nuke (the rocket with a skull), as it instantly kills all enemies on the screen, giving the player much-needed breathing room. The Wheel is also a good choice, as it fires bullets in 8 directions. The Sherriff’s Badge is great as well, as it increases fire rate, movement speed, and the bullets fire in a cone, like the shotgun.Collect as many coins as possible. Sometimes when enemies die, they will drop coins, indicated by a 1 for pennies and a 5 for the extremely rare nickel. Okay, technically enemies drop whatever the equivalent is for currency upon the prairie. In any case, these coins can be spent at the vendor, who appears after every second level. The player can use the coins to purchase items or permanent upgrades. There are three upgrades in total, and with advanced versions later. Boots increase movement speed, the revolver increases shooting speed, and the ammo box increases both bullet damage and bullet penetration, which means it is possible to kill multiple enemies with one bullet.

At the end of every stage, the players will face off against a cowboy in a shootout boss battle. The cowboy has a lot of health, and the player can still only take one hit. If that’s not fair enough, the cowboy also has cover he can hide behind. The strategy here is to keep firing bullets just to one side of the cover. The cowboy will come out eventually and will suffer damage when he does so. He will also return fire, so be ready to dodge. It can be a challenging fight, but just remember that there is no time limit. If players need to be careful and take their time, it is better than taking a bullet and dying.

The final boss is named Fector, and it is for him that the second achievement is named. Unless the player has powered up enough, they are in for a very tough fight. Fector will do things like fire in all eight directions, summon enemies, and be generally a nuisance. In order to defeat him, there are two main tactics. The first is to get a weapon powerup like the heavy machine gun, and simply shoot him until he is dead. If that is not an option, players can move quickly from side to side while firing back at him. He will fire at where he anticipates the player to be, but if the player reverses direction, the shots will go wide. A fun fact about this tactic is that it can work in some other games as well, especially older games with slower-moving projectiles. Try it out!

NEXT: Stardew Valley: Best Mods for 2020 (& How to Install Them)

Stardew Valley is available now on PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Linux, Android, macOS, and iOS.

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