There are many secrets in Stardew Valley. Have you heard the myth of the Solid Gold Lewis statue? Wondering what it is, how to find it, and what to do with it? Read on to find out!
What is the Solid Gold Lewis?
The Solid Gold Lewis Statue is a secret furniture item you can get if you find Secret Note #19, and follow its instructions. It’s exactly what it sounds like – a statue of Mayor Lewis, made entirely of gold. The Secret Note will display a map of a house and a selection of green arrows that you must follow in a particular order. If you solve the puzzle, you’ll be able to find the golden statue.
What are Secret Notes?
Secret Notes are one of the many types of collectibles you can find in Stardew Valley. To unlock Secret Notes, players must first acquire the Magnifying Glass wallet item. Once you’ve unlocked this item, you can access your Secret Notes in the Collections tab:
How To Get the Magnifying Glass
To unlock the Magnifying Glass, you must first complete the “A Winter Mystery” quest.
As the name suggests, you’ll obtain this quest during the Winter of Year One. Starting from day one of Winter, enter the Bus Stop area from your Farm between 06:00 am and 04:00 pm, and a cut-scene will trigger:
After the cut-scene concludes, you’ll find the quest “A Winter Mystery” in your journal. All of your Stardew Valley quests can be found there.
Finding the shadowy figure is easier than one might expect! As there is snow everywhere, you can follow the figure’s footprints to find its hiding spot. Head towards Pelican Town from the Bus Stop and find the footprints in the snow.
Head north towards the Community Center, following the tracks in the snow. Once you come close to the playground, you’ll notice that there are no more prints anywhere. This happens regardless of when you started searching for the figure – right away, the next day, or weeks later. Interact with the leaves of the big bush near the benches by clicking right-click, and you’ll find your target.
After a quick cut-scene, the shadowy figure will give you the Magnifying Glass, and disappear once more.
How To Find Secret Note #19
With the Magnifying Glass in hand, you’ll be able to find all of the Secret Notes in Stardew Valley. However, which of the 25 notes you find is completely random. This means that Secret Note #19 can be the first note you found or the very last. Doing the following actions have a chance of yielding a Secret Note:
- Killing monsters – In addition to dropping their normal loot, monsters have a chance to drop Secret Notes once you’ve obtained the Magnifying Glass.
⠀ - Cutting weeds – You can find weeds on your farm, in the mines, or in the Cindersap Forest around Marnie’s Ranch and the Wizard’s Tower. Use a Sword or Scythe to cut cleanly through the weeds; you’ll collect Fiber, and there’s a small chance you’ll find a Secret Note to boot!
⠀ - Chopping down trees – Every single smack with your axe has a small chance to drop a Secret Note.
⠀ - Chopping down Large Stumps and Large Logs – The chance to find a Secret Note is much higher when you’re chopping down Large Stump and Large Logs instead.
⠀ - Mining stone – Each peck with your pickaxe has a chance to drop a Secret Note.
⠀ - Mining Meteorites or Boulders – Like Large Logs and Stumps, bigger rocks like Boulders and Meteorites have a higher chance of spawning a Secret Note.
⠀ - Fishing – Aside from Fish, Seaweed, and Trash, you’ll have a chance to fish up a Secret Note when you go fishing with the Magnifying Glass in your wallet. You can also find notes in Treasure Chests.
⠀ - Tilling Artifact Spots – Grab your Hoe and get to tilling. When you see an Artifact Spot, make sure to dig it up and find yourself a Lost Book, Artifact, or a Secret Note.
⠀ - Harvesting a Giant Crop – Finally, harvesting a Giant Crop – Melon, Cauliflower, or Pumpkin – has a 100% chance to drop a Secret Note. Get to farming!
Do You Really Need Secret Note #19?
Unfortunately, even though it’s totally random and can take time, it’s necessary to find this note. Even if you solve the puzzle perfectly by following our guide, or by rummaging around Pelican Town on your own, you won’t be able to get the Solid Gold mayor Lewis statue unless you’ve found Secret Note #19 first.
How to Solve the Puzzle
Once you’ve found the note, you can interact with it in your collections tab at any point and read it an infinite amount of times. The note depicts a small house with a little orange X above the door. To solve the puzzle, you must first identify which house is in the picture.
Ready for the spoiler? The house in the Secret Note is actually “1 Willow Lane;” Jodi, Kent, Vincent, and Sam’s home.
To solve the puzzle, you must remember the arrows you saw in Secret Note #19, and walk in the correct directions. Start by standing right in front of the door, then walk in a single direction until you hit an obstacle, and then check where the next arrow tells you to go.
Once you’ve walked left, up, right, and up again, you’ll find yourself behind the house. Next, walk right until you hit your next obstacle.
Walking right will lead you all the way across Pelican Town. You’ll pass both the Stardrop Saloon and Lewis’ House and find yourself just below Pam’s trailer. When you go down, left, and down again, you’ll be standing behind Lewis’ truck.
From here walk left, and you’ll find yourself right behind Mayor Lewis’ house. Once you’ve hit an obstacle, walk down, then right-click in front of your character, and you’ll receive the Solid Gold Lewis in your inventory!
What Can You Do With The Statue?
1. Display it In Pelican Town
How can you keep such a gorgeous marvel of art to yourself? One option once you’ve obtained the statue is to display it proudly in Pelican Town. You can place it in the middle of town, by the Saloon, or perhaps next to the Museum?
Once it’s been placed, you’ll receive an unsigned note in the mailbox on the next day:
If you head back to where you placed the statue the previous day, you’ll find a Rotten Plant in its place. You can collect the Rotten Plant with a Pickaxe. This is a special type of Trash that cannot be recycled. It’s completely worthless, except that it can be used as an “Orange Item” for the purposes of dyeing. As such, it can be used to fulfill “Qi’s Prismatic Grange” special order.
As for the mayor’s “private belongings;” don’t worry! You can find the solid gold statue once more. After it’s been replaced by a Rotten Plant, the player can find the statue in either Mayor Lewis’ bedroom or in Marnie’s bedroom. Curiously, you can also find the Mayor’s purple shorts in Marnie’s house too! If you have at least two hearts of friendship points with either of these villagers, you can simply open the door to their bedrooms and collect the statue again.
You can keep placing the statue all over Pelican Town, and Mayor Lewis will keep removing it, and replacing it with Rotten Plants. However, you’ll only get the letter in the mail – and the 750 gold – once. Unless you really want to collect a lot of Rotten Plants, or unless you really wanna mess with Mayor Lewis – there’s no point in continuing to place his statue in town.
2. Place it Somewhere Else
You can place the Mayor’s statue anywhere outside of the main area of Pelican Town, and Mayor Lewis won’t find it. You can place the statue somewhere on your farm, on Ginger Island, Pirate Cove, or, heck, even in Vincent’s House or on the beach. As long as it’s not in Pelican Town, Lewis won’t seem to mind.