Tip: Timing for Tappers and Tree Syrups

If you like tapping trees in Stardew Valley, here is an important PSA

Oak Resin is an essential ingredient for kegs, which, when used to brew wine, or pale ale, are the fastest route to making the big money you need for all the expensive end game items like the Gold Clock and the Return Scepter.

Pine Tar is an ingredient used for home crafted Speed Gro, and helps your crops reach maturity faster. This can help you get more harvests per season, and more harvests equals more money.

These both come from a Tapper placed on an Oak Tree or Pine Tree, but the game has a unique way of calculating the time a Tapper takes to produce. Other machines have a fixed time to produce a product, but Tappers vary their processing times depending on what time of day you start them, and somewhat counterintuitively, the later in the day you start them, the faster they will be done. Conversely, the earlier you start them, the longer they take.

So, if you harvest your Oak Resin just before you go to bed, it'll be ready seven days later, for a regular weekly supply. But if you harvest it first thing in the morning, you'll actually add an unnecessary eighth day to the next harvest.

With Pine Tar there is a similar problem, where placing or harvesting your Tapper first thing in the morning will add a sixth day to the completion time. But placing or emptying it late at night will keep it to just five days. This is especially crucial if you want to craft your own Speed Gro to get an extra Strawberry harvest in your first year, because you either have to get Tappers fitted by Spring 7, or do it last thing at night on Spring 8.

Maple Syrup isn't as badly affected; the exact nature of the mechanics means that the possible range of times for Maple Syrup will still result in a 9 day harvest, regardless of the time you start them, so you don't need to worry about timing on Maple Trees.
 

Lew Zealand

Helper
Thanks for this. The only problem is that it's so weird that I'll never be able to remember it. However the saving grace is it seems I should always harvest tappers at night and I can probably remember that.
 
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