Can You Get Stuck In Stardew Valley? (Trapped By Villagers!)

Yes, you can get trapped in place in Stardew Valley.

What is the solution for getting stuck in place in SDV?

How do I fix getting trapped by a villager in SDV? There’s only one solution –

Closing the game before saving (in my experience).

Here’s how it happened to me and the outcome.

How I Got Trapped by a Villager in Stardew Valley

Put this under “Things I Never Thought Would Happen”, but here it is.

The other night, I was playing Stardew Valley.

It was Spring 24, Year 2, the day of the Flower Dance.

The previous year, being a total newbie, I got to the Flower Dance right as it started, and, of course, was deposited back on my farm at 10 p.m., having lost an entire day’s worth of weeding and mining.

(If I have one gripe with Stardew Valley, it’s that every special event day plops you back on your farm at 10 p.m. instead of releasing you at whatever time the event might actually reasonably end.)

So, this year, I decided to get smart about it. Instead of going straight to the dance at 9 a.m. when it kicked off, I used those precious hours before the 2 p.m. cut-off to take care of a few things.

Stopped by the Community Center.

Did a little fishing.

Then, I showed up at the Flower Dance right before 2 p.m., the last to arrive. Fashionably late, as always.

It was lovely, the dance, if a little repetitive. The flowers were fragrant. The pink was pink. The villagers were (mostly) in very festive moods.

I talked to everyone, as you do. Including Haley, which, for me, takes work. I can take being told to buzz off, but this chick is just straight-up vapid.

This year, I even asked a few people to dance. None of them were interested. It really was a blow to the old ego. Maybe I should have tried asking a dude.

Gus and Willy were in conversation at the riverside. I thought, you know, Go up, say hello. Be sociable. So, I did.

There were two tiles separating Gus and Willy by the river’s edge. One of those tiles contained a flower basket. I stood in the other one.

“Yo, Gus! What’s up? How’s the Stardrop?”

Then, it happened.

Pam closed in.

At the last moment, I thought, Whoa. She really is going to walk right up on me. I’d better get the hell out of here.

But it was too late. Pam was already directly behind me. I had the river in front of me, Gus to my right, flowers to my left, and Pam boxing me in like she played defense on the Stardew Valley recreational basketball league.

I tried to walk. I couldn’t. Not in a single direction. When I turned, my Player experienced a small moment of possession, where she quaked and went into fits before turning back to the river in dismay.

There had been some signs this might be a possibility in the game.  When a villager was coming in or out of a business, for instance, and my Player couldn’t pass through the door because they were standing in the way.

Okay, keep calm, I thought, as I stood stuck there between Pam and Gus and the flowers. Someone has to move eventually.

But they didn’t.

Other villagers moved in the background, walking to and from the food table, having a little skip in their step, but Pam and Gus kept me pinned to the riverside and that damn flower basket.

For eight minutes, I waited. I watched my Player stand. Hopeless. Defeated.

Here were the queasy thoughts that passed through my head during those eight minutes…

What about my Gs?

I know, I know. It’s just money. You can always sell more veg. But this “trapped by the river” incident occurred on what just happened to be a very big day for my Player, Sensei.

The reason I had popped into the Community Center that morning was to pay up 25,000g and complete the bundle for bus repair. It had taken a lot of hardworking days to earn that kind of cash.

Will it glitch? Will it keep my Gs? I panicked.

What about my fish?

Like I said, I had done a little fishing that morning too, and I caught a new one. A brand spanking new fish I also needed for a bundle.

I’m gonna lose that freakin’ fish, I accepted with some pain.

Then, with dismay, I closed the game.

What Happens When You Get Stuck in Stardew Valley?

I cannot say with absolute authority what happens when you get trapped by a villager in Stardew Valley. I imagine it can change by scenario. Given enough time, your capturer might move.

But here’s how it went for me once I closed the game –

The game reopened on the same day, Spring 24, the day of the Flower Dance.

Everything was exactly as it had been – all my Gs back in my account, my sexy new fish gone (as you would expect when closing without saving).

Is it possible something would have changed had I given the game 15 or 20 minutes to recognize a full game day gone? I don’t know, I didn’t wait that long, but I doubt it since it was a special event sequence.

More likely, I think, had I left the game open, my Player, Sensei, would have been stuck between Pam, Gus and the flowers until the battery on my iPad died, thereby having the exact same effect of closing the game without saving.

End result? Except for that freakin’ fish, everything worked out in the end.