Hill-top farm - least popular and usable?

Which farm map is the rock bottom?

  • Wilderness Farm

    Votes: 4 44.4%

  • Hill-top Farm

    Votes: 5 55.6%
  • Total voters
    9

riklaunim

Rancher
Looking over various "popularity" polls, Hill-top and Wilderness Farm tend to be at the bottom when it comes to popularity. Wilderness had a unique feature of monster spawns, which isn't unique anymore, but the farm itself is still similar to standard, with somewhat better look... Hill-top has a quarry that, 99% of the time,e isn't that useful unless you get lucky with artifact spots for quick sewer access or something similar (maybe if it had coal and clay nodes instead of stone? :D) On top of that, the layout of the farm is so jagged it's hard to do mass crops or mass building. Over 100 fish ponds on the standard farm, to like 20-30 on Hill-top.

So is Hill-top farm the worst? :) Does it have any redeeming features, secret world domination strategies?
 

Storm628

Farmhand
It's a great farm if you're a newbie who is scared/overwhelmed by the mines.

It's also one of the more interesting farms for a don't leave the farm challenge.

If you want to do a modded playthrough with Ridgeside village, that mod doesn't add a new farm type and I find that the hilltop farm fits that mod thematically the most.
 
REtroGeekery

REtroGeekery

Farmer
Hill-Top Farm can be challenging, but allows you to start smelting copper bars before the mines even unlock. That can really give you a head start. It's also broken into a few areas if different size and shape, giving you some natural divides for animal pen/crop/tree/shed/etc placement. The river gives most of the same fish as the river in the forrest (I've even caught Lincods in there), which can be a nice time saver in early game, too. It doesn't lend itself to those who like a lot of machine sheds or half a dozen barns, so it really depends on your goals and play style.

Hill-Top, Wilderness, and Beach are my favorite farm types. I like the unique shapes and challenges they each bring, as well as the bonuses that help offset those.
 

riklaunim

Rancher
REtroGeekery said:
The river gives most of the same fish as the river in the forrest (I've even caught Lincods in there), which can be a nice time saver in early game, too.
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It is inferior as you don't get a level 5 fishing zone there, and it has 50% to catch trash. So you are getting fewer fish, and those you get will be of lower quality.
 
Jayamos

Jayamos

Farmer
I’ve played on Wilderness a little with monsters turned off, because I think it’s a pretty farm and would like to try that layout.
ET Betsy is living a good life on Hilltop, and I agree with Retrogeekery that it does break readily into areas for various uses. Very early game the quarry is handy, later it becomes building or maybe forestry space. But if you want more than a couple of any kind of building Hilltop gets difficult. ET Betsy is never going to get into fish ponds, because where? I haven’t done much fishing there, will give it a try.
 
Terdin

Terdin

Farmer
riklaunim said:
You can enable monster spawns on any farm type now.
Click to expand...
True, but according to the wiki other farm maps don't get iridium golems, that appear after reaching Combat 9. I'm doing a wilderness farm right now, and encounter them most nights if I cross the farm, but I haven't had monsters enabled on any other map I've done, so I can't say for certain.
 
Confused

Confused

Farmer
Between these two farms, I've only ever had the Hill-Top farm.

But looking at the layout of the wilderness, I think the wilderness farm is kinda cool...

However... I'm a hilltop enjoyer... 😔

It's got mountains! That's really cool, and though I'm not crazy about the quarry in late game, I like the sectioning of the farm, but that comes from me, someone who enjoys decorating my in Stardew.
 
Lew Zealand

Lew Zealand

Helper
I quickly found that the layout of the Hill-Top Farm map didn't allow me to do my key mid-game strategy of making a big field of Grass and letting the animals go out and feed themselves for 3/4 of the year. There wasn't quite enough space to do that when I played it in v1.4. Now that Blue Grass was added in v1.6 which lasts twice as long with each tuft of grass feeding 2 animals, you could probably manage it by putting the Coop and Barn in the space to the right of the Quarry and using the space below for grazing.

I initially started with that strategy but the added annoyance of the Horse not being able to take the most direct path to the NW sector, and now my favorite play style of leaving the Stumps and Logs in place prevents the second route to the NW farm over the bridge. So I find it to be too annoying to move through, it's fun for design just not for movement. In the end, I edited my save file to convert it to the Default Farm map and enjoyed the experience much more.

LOL I still haven't played the Wilderness Map yet though it looks like an interesting layout. Probably do that next time!
 
FilthyGorilla

FilthyGorilla

Local Legend
The second file I played, and the one which I'd consider my first real file was on hilltop after picking the game up again. It's definitely a bit of a hassle, but decorates really nicely and does make you think about getting off the farm a little more, whether that be moving machines around the valley, making a little more use of ginger island, or balancing your crops well.

I agree that it's a little more of a challenge to play on, but I think that if you like going at a bit of a slower pace when you play, it can be pretty enjoyable.
 
nicodeux

nicodeux

Farmer
I like hilltop farm. I agree that it is not designed to be a production intensive layout, but there are so many other ways to play Stardew Valley!

It's interesting to have many sub areas in the farm and they push the player to be more creative, I think.

The river, pond and mini quarry are also nice to raise skills without living the farm or when lacking time (which may happen a lot a the beginning when the farmer can only travel by foot).

The only issue is that there is no pond near the farm house, meaning that on early play, the farmer as to plant crops far from the farm house or walk a lot to water crops. This is probably the only farm layout where I try to build a well as soon as possible, which pushes for a slightly different play style at early stages, due to the cost in stones that delays some upgrades or buildings.
 
MogBeoulve

MogBeoulve

Local Legend
riklaunim said:
Meadowlands as well, I think. The closest water is at the chickens.
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I just move the chicken coop to the area south of the farm house (where most people put crops) and plant the crops next to the little river next to where the coop starts out. I refuse to build a well, even if a real farm should have one.
 
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