Maybe your bad at games, like me, and can't get any money on your own, or maybe you're just too lazy to actually go through the effort of playing the game normally and getting money the right way. So now you'd rather play unfairly to give yourself an advantage...

Well good news! I'm here to help you cheat in Stardew Valley, without even downloading anything!

This guide is a walkthrough on how you can edit your character's save file to change specific stats about the character, (but we'll be focusing on getting money) and trust me it sounds harder than it actually is...

Alright, so the first thing you need to do is locate your save file.
To do this, type %appdata% in the bottom left search bar and click the folder that appears.
　

Once you're in the AppData folder, open the StardewValley folder, then open the "Saves" folder.
　

Now you should be in a folder similar to this one, except with your own player name(s):

Congratulations! You've found your save files!

I would recommend making a backup of the save you're going to edit just in case anything goes wrong... (which it shouldn't if you follow directions)

To make a backup, simply copy the character folder, and paste it inside the same saves folder (or for less confusion later on, paste it somewhere else, such as the desktop)!

Oh you thought this was going to be easy? Of course not!
　
First you need to open the folder of the character you want to change (aka give money to), then select and right click the top file, and click "Open with".
　

Next, choose to open the file with Notepad.
　

Now the notepad may look daunting at first, but it's not as complicated as you think! We're actually almost done, believe it or not.
Once you've opened the notepad, click Ctrl+F on your keyboard to open up a search option, then type in <money>
　

Now that you've found your current amount of money, select the number to the right of the "<money>" text you just found, and type in however much money you want!
Note: Too much money will make the game crash upon trying to open the save (If the game crashes, nothing bad will happen, but you will need to make your amount of money lower).
　

Once you've typed in your desired amount of money, simply click File>Save on the top left, and you're ready to launch the game!

Here's a few other things you can change with this if you'd like to bend the rules of this game even farther! These are not necessary if you just want gold, these are completely optional.

Health: <maxHealth>
Energy/Stamina: <MaxStamina>

NPC Friendship Level (250 points per heart): [npc name]</string></key>
*A bit to the right of the part you pasted will be a part that says <Points>, change the number to the right of that to change friendship level.

Pet Name: Just type in your pet's name in the search bar, and change it when you find it.

You can also use the following to change skill levels 0-10, you'll need to sleep one night in-game before it'll take full effect. (credit to CloudyGiraffe for pointing this out):
Farming: <farmingLevel>
Mining: <miningLevel>
Combat: <combatLevel>
Foraging: <foragingLevel>
Fishing: <fishingLevel>

If you find any other helpful things you can change using this, feel free to put it in the comments and I'll add it to this section!

Once you launch the game and go to select a new game to load, it will show that your character has the same amount of gold as when you last saved, but when you click on them and start the world, the money will update to however much you typed. (If you typed in 100,000,000 it will likely show as 0 in the top right, but you'll still have the full amount)

Also if you created a backup save inside your saves folder, there will be 2 files that look exactly the same. One of these saves won't open correctly and will send you back to the loading screen (the 2nd one is likely the functional one). If this happens, you can then just go back and try the other file.
　

Now that you've cheated in your money (and possibly other stats too), you can enjoy your infinite, completely unfair money that you didn't put in much effort to get...
So have fun with it!
　

P.S. If your money isn't showing correctly in the top right, there's always a "Current Funds" that shows your actual amount when you open your inventory!


Enjoy!