Let's talk about maximizing profit and income

[aspienerd92]

I have been playing Stardew Valley for a while, now. One of the best things about it is that aspect of realism when it comes to maximizing your profit and resources while minimizing your losses and time usage. I have gotten to the point where I want to capitalize and run my game in the most proficient way possible. Initially, farming crops and animals are the best methods. However, as you go along, it quickly becomes realized how precious time is -- and both of those things require a great deal of time. Pigs seem like the animals which are most profitable, but I would like to figure out how to make the most money without relying on the Rancher profession. I have already started filling my greenhouse with Ancient Fruit plants... Let's talk about some of the methods everyone has tried which have brought them higher income, with more time to spare. So much of my days are taken up by tending to animals and their produce, that rarely do I get a chance to go mining, fishing, or practice my combat skills. Any tips, tricks, or recommendations??

 

[MstrJedi Kyle]

Sprinklers, crops that take a while to grow, (pumpkins, starfruit, etc) and crops that continually produce (blueberries, eggplant etc)

That setup gives me the most time for other things such as fishing. I dont plant anything that grows quickly unless it is the end of the season and I can squeeze some stuff out of the last 3 or 4 days

 

[Looh]

I feel like Artisan Goods are my most profitable source of income. You can turn 1 Wheat (25-40 ) to 1 Beer (200-560 ) in 1-2 days which is insane...

 

[Holliups]

Iridium quality truffles sell for almost as much as truffle oil. If you have the occupation that makes all the forage you collect be iridium quality, that counts for truffles as well, meaning you technically never have to pet them and will only ever have to pick up the truffles. Minimises the amount of time you have to spend by a lot.

My main income is still ancient fruit wine though, and filling up your entire cellar with casks for ageing it makes it even more valuable, without you having to do any work.

I do some other crops for fun and aesthetics, but only cauliflower, melons and pumpkins since they take a long time to grow meaning I don't have to replant them often.

 

[Cole]

Setting up a full green house of ancient fruit, then having enough kegs to have capacity to constantly process the fruit into wine, and then having a maxed out cellar of barrels to age that wine is some of the most insane profit in the game. While your wine is aging sell any overflow wines you produce. Once all your aged wine is iridium quality you sell and repeat. Regular ancient wine sells for around 2500g each, iridium quality ancient wine sells for almost 5000g each.

You’ll eventually have so much money and ancient seeds that you can start farming the ancient fruit outside on huge plots of land assisted by Junimo huts for harvesting. At this point the goal is to mass produce as many kegs as possible. You’ll find the bottleneck here is the materials for the kegs. You can buy wood from Robin and copper and iron from the blacksmith. However, there is no reliable way to obtain oak resin. So you’ll end up having massive tree farms in the desert with hundreds of tappers to obtain enough. Now that you’ve mass produced kegs you just gotta place them all over the map in places where they won’t be destroyed by villagers.

Infinite money unlocked!

 

[TuxedoMask@29]

Iridium quality truffles sell for almost as much as truffle oil. If you have the occupation that makes all the forage you collect be iridium quality, that counts for truffles as well, meaning you technically never have to pet them and will only ever have to pick up the truffles. Minimises the amount of time you have to spend by a lot.

My main income is still ancient fruit wine though, and filling up your entire cellar with casks for ageing it makes it even more valuable, without you having to do any work.

I do some other crops for fun and aesthetics, but only cauliflower, melons and pumpkins since they take a long time to grow meaning I don't have to replant them often.

I would recommend you to forget about Melons and plant Starfruit you can get 800 - 1000 gold from one. they take 13 days to grow. and if you choose profession of Artisan and you will make wine out of them and again age wine you can make minimum 4k for a silver star... ( if you will age it until iridium start you will get 6k)

and Ancient fruits are good too because once you will plant it it never disappears after collecting.

 

[Dwc2790]

I have been playing Stardew Valley for a while, now. One of the best things about it is that aspect of realism when it comes to maximizing your profit and resources while minimizing your losses and time usage. I have gotten to the point where I want to capitalize and run my game in the most proficient way possible.

So true about time usage wasted so much time my 1st year running around checking things instead of doing LOL

I'm only in my year 3, but what was productive for me early on were preserve jars made from foraged fruits(so many blackberry jams!) and multi harvest crops like cranberries for pure profit.
My next thing I'm thinking is coffee in kegs, feel that may be a broken strat you can get almost 20 coffees a day from a keg so I'm going to see how much I can make in a season off my two dozen kegs rocking coffee non stop.

 

[aspienerd92]

I am trying to decide which professions to focus on, and if I want to focus more on animal products or artisan goods.
With the Rancher and Shepherd profession, you can prioritize farming pigs for their truffles, and if you include the Gatherer/Botanist profession, you would not have to worry about the expenses, resources or time to worry about crafting an overabundance of oil makers, picking up the truffles, creating the oil, etc. etc... You just let the pigs go about their business until the day is done, and clean up the farm.
On the other hand, if you let go of the aspect of farming animals... Fill your greenhouse with ancient fruit, plant trees for tapping and extra fruit for wine/preserves... Aka, go the route of Tiller/Artisan profession, then your focus is going to be on the resources, time and expenses for crafting. Tappers, Kegs, Casks, Preserves Jars... So long as you are buying your resources instead of foraging for them (mainly wood/stone), then maybe this would be a good route to pursue.
THEN, there is always the idea of focusing more on the mining aspect. Focusing your time towards crafting crystalariums, furnaces, staircases, lightning rods... Using the Geologist/Gemologist combo to up your profit off of mining, OR choosing Excavator for more geodes... except, to get anything good out of your Geodes, would depend too heavily on daily luck.
Has anyone figured out whether, in the case of combat, it is more beneficial to be proficient via the Fighter/Brute route, or with critical strikes via the Scout/Desperado route?
Fisher/Angler is a must, you can make profit off of that anytime you are not producing enough profit otherwise. Or so I believe.

 

[Joker]

I am trying to decide which professions to focus on, and if I want to focus more on animal products or artisan goods.
With the Rancher and Shepherd profession, you can prioritize farming pigs for their truffles, and if you include the Gatherer/Botanist profession, you would not have to worry about the expenses, resources or time to worry about crafting an overabundance of oil makers, picking up the truffles, creating the oil, etc. etc... You just let the pigs go about their business until the day is done, and clean up the farm.
On the other hand, if you let go of the aspect of farming animals... Fill your greenhouse with ancient fruit, plant trees for tapping and extra fruit for wine/preserves... Aka, go the route of Tiller/Artisan profession, then your focus is going to be on the resources, time and expenses for crafting. Tappers, Kegs, Casks, Preserves Jars... So long as you are buying your resources instead of foraging for them (mainly wood/stone), then maybe this would be a good route to pursue.
THEN, there is always the idea of focusing more on the mining aspect. Focusing your time towards crafting crystalariums, furnaces, staircases, lightning rods... Using the Geologist/Gemologist combo to up your profit off of mining, OR choosing Excavator for more geodes... except, to get anything good out of your Geodes, would depend too heavily on daily luck.
Has anyone figured out whether, in the case of combat, it is more beneficial to be proficient via the Fighter/Brute route, or with critical strikes via the Scout/Desperado route?
Fisher/Angler is a must, you can make profit off of that anytime you are not producing enough profit otherwise. Or so I believe.

For farming, if you're looking to maximize profits Artisan is the only way to go. Wines will net you more than any animal product or crop will.

For mining, I switch between Gemologist and Prospector depending on if I'm low on coal or not. From a purely profit based perspective, Gemologist is the clear way to go though, geodes are too unreliable.

For combat, I found Brute to be more consistent than Desperado, but your milage may vary. Defender also isn't a bad choice.

You are correct about the Angler profession. Pirate also isn't a bad choice, but it is very dependent on your luck. I would only use Pirate if you are trying to complete the Museum asap.

 

[Paranoic]

I am trying to decide which professions to focus on, and if I want to focus more on animal products or artisan goods.
With the Rancher and Shepherd profession, you can prioritize farming pigs for their truffles, and if you include the Gatherer/Botanist profession, you would not have to worry about the expenses, resources or time to worry about crafting an overabundance of oil makers, picking up the truffles, creating the oil, etc. etc... You just let the pigs go about their business until the day is done, and clean up the farm.
On the other hand, if you let go of the aspect of farming animals... Fill your greenhouse with ancient fruit, plant trees for tapping and extra fruit for wine/preserves... Aka, go the route of Tiller/Artisan profession, then your focus is going to be on the resources, time and expenses for crafting. Tappers, Kegs, Casks, Preserves Jars... So long as you are buying your resources instead of foraging for them (mainly wood/stone), then maybe this would be a good route to pursue.
THEN, there is always the idea of focusing more on the mining aspect. Focusing your time towards crafting crystalariums, furnaces, staircases, lightning rods... Using the Geologist/Gemologist combo to up your profit off of mining, OR choosing Excavator for more geodes... except, to get anything good out of your Geodes, would depend too heavily on daily luck.
Has anyone figured out whether, in the case of combat, it is more beneficial to be proficient via the Fighter/Brute route, or with critical strikes via the Scout/Desperado route?
Fisher/Angler is a must, you can make profit off of that anytime you are not producing enough profit otherwise. Or so I believe.

Well, I might have just the thing if you need a guide on professions. Remember that Artisan ALSO affects animal produce if you've processed them, so you should always go Artisan.

In general if you're looking for the best money/time activity, animals would be that, since you can get away with spending literally no time tending to them once you have automated feeding and collecting. But, artisan products will be the best bet in general, since for little time investment you get a huge gain. So "realistically" the best thing to do is a farm filled with expensive crops, and a lot of kegs outside to process these crops.
Any spare time should be spent in the mines, either get more ores for progress, or, if you're not scared of SC and really want to minmax, go collect iridium and sell it with Blacksmith profession, it's actually a really good source of income. Especially early in the game, prioritizing mining (and unlocking SC) over everything else will really kickstart your game.
(Funnily enough, after having done the math, Crystalariums with Diamonds seem to actually be the best possible income/time, but setting up enough of them to fill your farm with sheds filled with Crystalariums will take more time than it's worth)

 

[tommybob]

I am trying to decide which professions to focus on, and if I want to focus more on animal products or artisan goods.
With the Rancher and Shepherd profession, you can prioritize farming pigs for their truffles, and if you include the Gatherer/Botanist profession, you would not have to worry about the expenses, resources or time to worry about crafting an overabundance of oil makers, picking up the truffles, creating the oil, etc. etc... You just let the pigs go about their business until the day is done, and clean up the farm.
On the other hand, if you let go of the aspect of farming animals... Fill your greenhouse with ancient fruit, plant trees for tapping and extra fruit for wine/preserves... Aka, go the route of Tiller/Artisan profession, then your focus is going to be on the resources, time and expenses for crafting. Tappers, Kegs, Casks, Preserves Jars... So long as you are buying your resources instead of foraging for them (mainly wood/stone), then maybe this would be a good route to pursue.
THEN, there is always the idea of focusing more on the mining aspect. Focusing your time towards crafting crystalariums, furnaces, staircases, lightning rods... Using the Geologist/Gemologist combo to up your profit off of mining, OR choosing Excavator for more geodes... except, to get anything good out of your Geodes, would depend too heavily on daily luck.
Has anyone figured out whether, in the case of combat, it is more beneficial to be proficient via the Fighter/Brute route, or with critical strikes via the Scout/Desperado route?
Fisher/Angler is a must, you can make profit off of that anytime you are not producing enough profit otherwise. Or so I believe.

You will definetly make more money off artisan products but there's a lot of material investment you need to put in to build all the kegs and preserves jars you need to maximise off of it. Of course this totally depens on if you are going to for min/max approach of casually want to make more money.

 

[aspienerd92]

Well, I might have just the thing if you need a guide on professions. Remember that Artisan ALSO affects animal produce if you've processed them, so you should always go Artisan.

In general if you're looking for the best money/time activity, animals would be that, since you can get away with spending literally no time tending to them once you have automated feeding and collecting. But, artisan products will be the best bet in general, since for little time investment you get a huge gain. So "realistically" the best thing to do is a farm filled with expensive crops, and a lot of kegs outside to process these crops.
Any spare time should be spent in the mines, either get more ores for progress, or, if you're not scared of SC and really want to minmax, go collect iridium and sell it with Blacksmith profession, it's actually a really good source of income. Especially early in the game, prioritizing mining (and unlocking SC) over everything else will really kickstart your game.
(Funnily enough, after having done the math, Crystalariums with Diamonds seem to actually be the best possible income/time, but setting up enough of them to fill your farm with sheds filled with Crystalariums will take more time than it's worth)

I had thought about filling a bunch of Crystalariums with diamonds, as well. Once I started looking more into it, though, you are exactly right... It would take way too long to get that up and running enough to gain a profit from all of the resources you would lose in the process.
I was under the impression that even once you max out your barns, you still have to pet your animals at least once a day for them to stay happy, or else their product supply/quality would start lowering. Is this wrong? If so, I would save so much time every day and I would definitely go the pig route with truffles and truffle oil. In addition to the greenhouse full of ancient plants. I just don't want to have to waste so much time every day petting animals to keep them happy and supply coming in.

 

[aspienerd92]

For farming, if you're looking to maximize profits Artisan is the only way to go. Wines will net you more than any animal product or crop will.

For mining, I switch between Gemologist and Prospector depending on if I'm low on coal or not. From a purely profit based perspective, Gemologist is the clear way to go though, geodes are too unreliable.

For combat, I found Brute to be more consistent than Desperado, but your milage may vary. Defender also isn't a bad choice.

You are correct about the Angler profession. Pirate also isn't a bad choice, but it is very dependent on your luck. I would only use Pirate if you are trying to complete the Museum asap.

Maybe that is a good way to play, as well. If I need more coal or ores, switch until I am mining for more gems or geodes. Same with Foraging, switch depending on if I'm spending more time chopping wood, or foraging other things. I stayed with Shepherd for a while, that way I could make a bigger profit off of selling the truffles straight, without turning them into oil. Combined with the Iridium quality foraging profession, I make a very good profit daily, since my pigs find an overabundance of truffles, and they are all iridium quality.

 

[aspienerd92]

You will definetly make more money off artisan products but there's a lot of material investment you need to put in to build all the kegs and preserves jars you need to maximise off of it. Of course this totally depens on if you are going to for min/max approach of casually want to make more money.

I really would like to min/max. Eventually, I want to be able to buy buildings from the Wizard, and the return scepter. Just enjoy every aspect of the game, in a sense.

 

[Paranoic]

I was under the impression that even once you max out your barns, you still have to pet your animals at least once a day for them to stay happy, or else their product supply/quality would start lowering. Is this wrong? If so, I would save so much time every day and I would definitely go the pig route with truffles and truffle oil. In addition to the greenhouse full of ancient plants. I just don't want to have to waste so much time every day petting animals to keep them happy and supply coming in.

That is true, if you care about product quality. Nevertheless, if you are fine with 0-heart animals, you can just keep the silos full and go on forever without checking on animals. Even without processing and with buying hay, turning hay into base quality milk is still some profit, and, since you spend basically no time on that (as much as filling a silo takes), it's a good profit/time spent and you can spend the rest of your day mining. Again, not a good minmaxing strat, since going through Deluxe Speed Gro Starfruit + Pumpkin route will get you much more much easier, but it does minimize time spent on the farm, as the crops need to be planted, collected, and processed.

 

[Broccolihead]

THEN, there is always the idea of focusing more on the mining aspect. Focusing your time towards crafting crystalariums, furnaces, staircases, lightning rods... Using the Geologist/Gemologist combo to up your profit off of mining, OR choosing Excavator for more geodes... except, to get anything good out of your Geodes, would depend too heavily on daily luck.
Has anyone figured out whether, in the case of combat, it is more beneficial to be proficient via the Fighter/Brute route, or with critical strikes via the Scout/Desperado route?

My datemate started up a farm, so I decided to experiment since I wouldn't be the bread winner. I have been only getting money from the mine and he has been only fishing. It is our first autumn and he has about three times the funds that I do (though to be fair I always hoard supplies for the community center and gifting). I use jade and fire quartz in my crystalariums, the income is more steady than diamonds and almost as profitable. I feel like geodes have been the most lucrative, excavator has more then made up for an extra 30% profit.

 

[Sopoaku121]

Just plant and fish everything in spring, and buy animal in summer with sometimes craft a keg. And in summer, i plant a LOT of hops, so i can use it in a keg. Its absolutely profitable in year 1, and do the rest. I get more than 600k gold even winter year 1 isnt started yet

 

[__Fishy__]

My go to setup is Starfruit/Ancient fruit wine and pigs. Pigs with the Gatherer (double foraged goods) and Botanist (max quality) professions make you a ton of money off of the truffles. Don't bother making them into oil as the time it takes isn't worth the extra money 1250 vs 1491

 

[Cptldsilver]

The best late game set up, imo, is iridium sprinklers and deluxe scarecrows plus ancient fruit on every single tillable tile on your farm. In the winter time you'll switch over to winter seeds. I don't think Junimos huts are worth it since they take up so much room and actually harvesting crops doesn't take that long, better to just have more ancient fruit. In the greenhouse, more ancient fruit plus 18 peach/pomegranate trees plus a small plot of starfruit so you can have starfruit wine to age consistently.

Fill your cellar with starfruit wine every time you can obviously, though I'm not sure if completely filling it is worth the extra time to mine all those casks. On the non tillable tiles of your farm place 20-25 lightning rods and as many crystalariums as you can. Outside your farm put enough kegs to be able to process every single piece of produce you find or create, I think this would be about 2400 kegs or so. It will require an oak tree farm to get their but after your done creating all your kegs, better to just chop it all down and put in other stuff.

For all other available off farm spots you can put down tea bushes, bee houses, or crystalariums to create profit from the spot. I think crystalariums are the best option at 150/g day but tea bushes could potentially make more, albeit with much more maintenance and if placed indoors to survive during winter. Bee houses are not worth it over crystalariums since their potential off farm is about 280/g every 4 days and they need to use keg processing time.

You'll also need an area for your seed makers, furnaces, a mayo machine for dino eggs from the cavern, a slime egg press for slimes you collect in the mines, and chests for all your stuff. If you actually manage to do all this, most of your time will be spent clicking on crystalariums, kegs, and harvesting crops. Any spare time should be spent in the cavern.

The optimal professions for a completely optimized profit set up would be using the agriculturalist and prospector for the majority of the year then switching it in the sewers whenever you want to sell all of your stuff to artisan and blacksmith. The other professions don't need to be changed. Foraging should be botanist while combat and fishing don't really matter.

 

[Anthonygood]

This is my opinion so bare with me.

I think pigs make decent money, very comparable with star fruit wine but you have to work for it.

Also pigs cost 16k so the investment is pretty high.

The good thing about wine is you set it and forget it. In terms of gold and work energy, animals require more clicking, moving, working, and just playing the game.

By the time you start making wine with ancient fruit, the game becomes very simple and a little boring. You wake up once every 7 days, make sure everything is good, slot the fruit in the keg, and then you just sleep for 7 days straight, not even playing the game.

Animals have more interaction and you have to get up and work to make gold.

The lazeists simpliest most time and energy efficient for making gold is wine with ancient fruit or star fruit.

Once you got that done, the game is over pretty much.

Chickens and cows make semi decent money, but they require a lot of work, getting up everyday, looting, plugging the eggs and milk in the machines, and looting the stuff.

Pigs make a lot of gold but still take work. They are also a heavy investment.

Wine is easy, quick, simple, set and forget. You can safely ignore your kegs for 7 days while you make that quick free gold.

Everything is about how much work (playing the game you do) versus making the most gold per hour and energy.

Kegs are the best for sure. crops are good too. The sprinklers make it efficient and lazy good so you don't have to do anything.

Animals are exhausting sometimes but can make decent gold, just requires a lot of work.