Money-making

Potatoboy96

Cowpoke
How do you guys make money on your farm, as in animals, artisans, plain crops, or a little of it all? If artistians what do you usually try and sell?
 
How much money you can make, and how quickly, depends a lot on your levels of skill and knowledge. Also, remember that not everyone gets maximum enjoyment from this game by aiming for maximum money. There's friendship, fishing, artifact hunting, mining, general exploring and much more


If you really want to go the mega bucks route, it's basically a race to Farming 6 to unlock quality sprinklers, while also racing down the mines to get the materials for crafting about 300 of them, to cover your entire farm. Meanwhile, you're planting as many acorns as possible, to grow oak trees to be tapped for oak resin, the crucial bottleneck ingredient for kegs. You also want to repair the bus, for the desert access. Then you plant as much starfruit as you can in summer, and shove it all through your kegs to make starfruit wine at 3,150g a bottle. Basically the same gig in Fall, except you grow pumpkins instead of starfruit.

On the other hand, if you want to do a bit of everything, and not rush, you can still make good enough money to afford all the things. For instance, animals are a steady earner, and once you have deluxes barns/coops to manage the hay, an auto-grabber to collect their product, and machines to process it, there's very little daily maintenance required aside from petting them. A full deluxe barn of cows, each producing a daily large milk that gets made into gold cheese, brings in almost 650,000 a year. It's a lot less than pigs earn, but it's also a lot easier than pigs.

Crops don't need to cover your entire farm either, to produce a worthwhile income. One scarecrow can fully protect 22 quality sprinklers, and if you choose your crops carefully, and process it, that's an easy million per year. Once you get your greenhouse open, you can propagate your ancient fruit and rake in over a quarter million a week, or 4 million a year, without ever having to replant. While we're on the subject of greenhouses, fill the inside perimeter of it with 18 peach trees, and they will each produce a fruit every day forever; even if you don't process these peaches, that'll eventually be another 600,000 a year as the quality increases.


In the end, machines that do the work for you are what makes the money, whether it's sprinklers to water, machines to process, or whatever. Probably the most important choices are picking the Miner profession once you level up to Mining 5, and the Tiller and Artisan professions at Farming levels 5 and 10 respectively. The Miner will give you the extra ore to make all your machines, and the Farming professions are what give you the best prices for what you sell. Other than that, there aren't many wrong choices, so good luck, and have fun.
 

Potatoboy96

Cowpoke
Well thanks a lot for the response, there was a lot of important information in there. I think I’m going to do a a bit of everything. Right now I have two sheds about full with preserved jars and kegs. And a greenhouse full of ancient fruit. I was doing animals for a while but I’m not sure if I should continue, because it seems kinda high attention, low reward. How do you feel about the animals approach?
 

shimm3r

Farmhand
I sell Ancient Fruit Wines, I have like two full sheds with Kegs, full greenhouse and a plot of land in ginger island and I make around 500k in a week, I do not even sell crops and animal products anymore.
 

imnvs

Local Legend
How you make the most money is grow the most expensive crops and then process them in kegs to make wine. We're talking Starfruit, Ancient Fruit and Pineapple wines, and you age as much as you can fit in your cellar. Even hops can be a huge money-maker because of how fast it processes in the keg, but because of the low unit price it is unsuitable for aging in the cellar. The top 5 things for aging in the cellar, based on value increase over time, in order: starfruit wine, ancient fruit wine, goat cheese, cheese and pineapple wine.

I do not sell crops. Crops are ingredients. They are made into food or artisan goods. I do not sell animal products, like milk and cheeese, either (except iridium wool is worth more than cloth so that is sold directly, and rabbit's feet are kept for gifting). I definitely keep animals around for their produce which goes into cooking, though. There is a late-game repeatable quest that asks you to make a lot of cooked foods, so having a stockpile of ingredients is always handy.

As for professions, there is something to be said for going Agriculturalist instead of Artisan. Yes, with Artisan you will make more money, but with Agriculturalist, I will have more crops to process and sell... and also have more crops that are ingredients for cooking. It's up to you to decide which works for you.
 

Potatoboy96

Cowpoke
How you make the most money is grow the most expensive crops and then process them in kegs to make wine. We're talking Starfruit, Ancient Fruit and Pineapple wines, and you age as much as you can fit in your cellar. Even hops can be a huge money-maker because of how fast it processes in the keg, but because of the low unit price it is unsuitable for aging in the cellar. The top 5 things for aging in the cellar, based on value increase over time, in order: starfruit wine, ancient fruit wine, goat cheese, cheese and pineapple wine.

I do not sell crops. Crops are ingredients. They are made into food or artisan goods. I do not sell animal products, like milk and cheeese, either (except iridium wool is worth more than cloth so that is sold directly, and rabbit's feet are kept for gifting). I definitely keep animals around for their produce which goes into cooking, though. There is a late-game repeatable quest that asks you to make a lot of cooked foods, so having a stockpile of ingredients is always handy.

As for professions, there is something to be said for going Agriculturalist instead of Artisan. Yes, with Artisan you will make more money, but with Agriculturalist, I will have more crops to process and sell... and also have more crops that are ingredients for cooking. It's up to you to decide which works for you.
Do you think that animal products are even worth it in general, or would it be more wise or easier to focus on just wines, and jams? And aging such wines?
 

imnvs

Local Legend
Animal products are worth it... for the ingredients they give you. For example, I don't have sheep because I'm not trying to create a wool/cloth empire, because that isn't worth it. Having some cloth for when I want to make clothes, and rabbits feet for gifting to everyone (except Penny)? Worth it. That's why I have rabbits and no sheep.
 

Potatoboy96

Cowpoke
Animal products are worth it... for the ingredients they give you. For example, I don't have sheep because I'm not trying to create a wool/cloth empire, because that isn't worth it. Having some cloth for when I want to make clothes, and rabbits feet for gifting to everyone (except Penny)? Worth it. That's why I have rabbits and no sheep.
Oh I see, so your using animals for side projects. That makes sense, I’ll probably do the same, but when I no longer need the animals I’ll prob drop them. Something that has been really making me nervous is the designing of the farm, some people are so good at that kind of thing, stresses me out slightly not gonna lie.
 

Potatoboy96

Cowpoke
I sell Ancient Fruit Wines, I have like two full sheds with Kegs, full greenhouse and a plot of land in ginger island and I make around 500k in a week, I do not even sell crops and animal products anymore.
I have a question about the island. Is it easy to keep up with farming over there, it seems like it would be tedious going back and forth?
 

imnvs

Local Legend
Oh I see, so your using animals for side projects. That makes sense, I’ll probably do the same, but when I no longer need the animals I’ll prob drop them. Something that has been really making me nervous is the designing of the farm, some people are so good at that kind of thing, stresses me out slightly not gonna lie.
Exactly... like, I have dinosaurs. Do I need dinosaurs? Not really. I'll probably sell them to make space for more chickens and rabbits, because their produce I use for the random other stuff, aka the side projects.
I have a question about the island. Is it easy to keep up with farming over there, it seems like it would be tedious going back and forth?
Once you get far enough along, getting back and forth becomes pretty easy. I wait to grow on the island until it becomes easy. (In other words, until I have obelisks.)
 

Potatoboy96

Cowpoke
Yeah I have one dinosaur and it
Exactly... like, I have dinosaurs. Do I need dinosaurs? Not really. I'll probably sell them to make space for more chickens and rabbits, because their produce I use for the random other stuff, aka the side projects.

Once you get far enough along, getting back and forth becomes pretty easy. I wait to grow on the island until it becomes easy. (In other words, until I have obelisks.)
yeah I have one Dino but only for the theater bundle, this game seems really exciting, and being brand new to it is great. The community is so welcoming as well.
 

shimm3r

Farmhand
I have a question about the island. Is it easy to keep up with farming over there, it seems like it would be tedious going back and forth?
It is easy once you get the teleport thing on the island, better if you have it on your farm too, and I usually just go there once a week just to get the fruits and go back and put it on the kegs and just wait until the next week.
 

Potatoboy96

Cowpoke
It is easy once you get the teleport thing on the island, better if you have it on your farm too, and I usually just go there once a week just to get the fruits and go back and put it on the kegs and just wait until the next week.
Ohhhh that makes much more sense, so you actually keg the fruit in Pelican town. I just burned like 400 bars of copper and iron on kegs. Gotta respect the grind.
 

imnvs

Local Legend
Ohhhh that makes much more sense, so you actually keg the fruit in Pelican town. I just burned like 400 bars of copper and iron on kegs. Gotta respect the grind.
That's about 3 big sheds worth of kegs in one go. 😲 I usually build up to that point.
 
Oh I see, so your using animals for side projects. That makes sense, I’ll probably do the same, but when I no longer need the animals I’ll prob drop them. Something that has been really making me nervous is the designing of the farm, some people are so good at that kind of thing, stresses me out slightly not gonna lie.
I'd also like to point out that Mayo and Cheese are generally liked gifts, except for a few outliers, and make adequate gifting options. Furthermore, Cheese is a pretty amazing food item to go mining with. Gold-star cheese (made automatically from Large Milk of any type) heals more HP and Energy than a Health Elixir does, for example. And maintenance is pretty trivial once you have a Deluxe Barn (12 cows, with auto-feeder, and auto-grabber... only thing you have to do is give pats) for a fairly consistent 12 Cheese per day.

So while animals may not be as profitable, a single coop and single barn can provide useful products for other areas of the game.
 
iridium wool is worth more than cloth so that is sold directly
As of v1.4, that's no longer true. The loom was changed so that the input quality of the wool affects the output quantity of the cloth. Iridium wool has a 50% chance of producing a second cloth, meaning that, with Artisan, when you input iridium wool, the average output of the loom is 1.5 cloth worth 987g, a big improvement on the 680g sell price of iridium wool
 

imnvs

Local Legend
As of v1.4, that's no longer true. The loom was changed so that the input quality of the wool affects the output quantity of the cloth. Iridium wool has a 50% chance of producing a second cloth, meaning that, with Artisan, when you input iridium wool, the average output of the loom is 1.5 cloth worth 987g, a big improvement on the 680g sell price of iridium wool
Yes, I am aware that there is that chance, but I seem to be unlucky on this one. Oddly enough I seem to get 2 cloth per 1 wool more often with silver quality wool. It's frustrating. I gave up and skip that frustration.
 

Potatoboy96

Cowpoke
I'd also like to point out that Mayo and Cheese are generally liked gifts, except for a few outliers, and make adequate gifting options. Furthermore, Cheese is a pretty amazing food item to go mining with. Gold-star cheese (made automatically from Large Milk of any type) heals more HP and Energy than a Health Elixir does, for example. And maintenance is pretty trivial once you have a Deluxe Barn (12 cows, with auto-feeder, and auto-grabber... only thing you have to do is give pats) for a fairly consistent 12 Cheese per day.

So while animals may not be as profitable, a single coop and single barn can provide useful products for other areas of the game.
I wish I could just chug mayonnaise.
 
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