SDVLL
Greenhorn
I'm on my second play through (LATE GAME SPOILERS) and wanted to share my main method for making money, as so far I've not seen any other guides suggesting this. I'll compare it to ancient fruit wine as that seems to be the most popular method of making money.
My method is to have a "mystic mushroom forest", a grid of mushroom logs and mystic trees laid out as in the diagram.
Compared to ancient fruit wine, this method has the following pros and cons:
Pros
More money
Less maintenance (no watering)
Can be placed anywhere and will still produce all year round.
Can increase yield with rain totems
Not exclusive - Greenhouse/ Ginger island/ kegs not required so can be done alongside ancient fruit wine.
Cons
Large space required to be effective.
More preserve jars (and space for them) required.
Foraging mastery required (though a less lucrative version can be done early game with pine trees instead of mystic trees - see below.)
A lot of moss, hardwood, and seeds required to get started.
Variable income (average over the year will be more than ancient fruit)
Method
Laying out mystic trees and mushroom logs as below (purple = mystic tree, green = mushroom log):
A) Allows you to harvest in straight lines.
B) Maximises mushroom production by ensuring that every mushroom log has 6, 8, or 12 trees in its 7X7 square, while still having as many mushroom logs as possible.
Interested to see if anyone else can come up with a better layout, but I believe any other layout would either mean fewer mushrooms (either because some logs didn't have as many trees in their 7X7 square, or because there weren't as many logs) or would not allow you to harvest in straight lines.
Maths
An ancient fruit plant, produces one ancient fruit worth 605 gold (with the tiller profession) every seven days. This can go in a keg to produce ancient fruit wine worth 2310 gold (with the artisan profession) after another 7 days.
The above layout means (excluding those on the outside of the forest as the forest can always be expanded) 1/3 of the mushroom logs have 6 trees in their 7X7 square (and will produce an average of 4 mushrooms every 4 days), 1/3 have 8 trees (and produce an average of 4.5 mushrooms every 4 days), and 1/3 have 12 trees (and always produce 5 mushrooms every 4 days).
Taking a conservative estimate, let's say every mushroom log produces 4 mushrooms every 4 days, or one mushroom per day.
Taking another conservative estimate let's say 55% of the mushrooms produced are purple mushrooms (actual chance is closer to 60%), and the rest are common. Purple mushroom is worth 250 gold (770 after being pickled with artisan profession). Common mushroom is worth 40 (182 after being pickled with artisan). This means that on average, each mushroom log (after processing) will be producing roughly 505.4 gold per day (770*0.55 + 182*0.45).
Which means for every mushroom log you get an average of 3537.8 gold every 7 days, compared to a bottle of ancient fruit wine worth 2310 (Removing the artisan profession, and/ or not processing the produce, tilts the balance even further in the mushroom log's favour, as kegging fruit increases value more than pickling mushrooms, and mushrooms are not affected by the tiller profession.).
Even if you age every 8th batch of wine to double its value (aging wine in a cellar takes 56 days, ancient fruit plant produces every 7 days meaning you'll only be able to age every 8th batch as cellar space is a hard limit.), that still only takes the average value up to 2598.75 gold (2310*1.125) every 7 days.
Without foraging mastery
If you don't have foraging mastery, using pine trees instead of mystic trees is less impressive but still competitive with ancient fruit wine. Say 55% of your mushrooms are chanterelles instead of purple mushrooms. This would mean each mushroom log (after processing) will be producing 366.8 gold per day (518*0.55 + 182*0.45). Which means 2567.6 gold every 7 days. Still more than the 2310 you get for a bottle of ancient fruit wine.
And again, these are very conservative estimates. Actual produce (for the mushroom log) will be much higher when you factor in:
1) Percentage chance of getting a more valuable mushroom (purple or chanterelle) is closer to 60% than 55%.
2) Average number of mushrooms produced per log will be 4.5 every 4 days rather than 4
3) Rain, naturally occurring or with a rain totem, will cause mushroom logs to produce every 3 days instead of every 4.
Side note: Mystic trees can be tapped to produce an extra 1000 gold (1250 with tapper profession) every 7 days (or every 3 days with a heavy tapper - which on its own is slightly better than ancient fruit wine, and with no processing required).
As I said, I'm only on my second play through so very interested to hear what more experienced players have to say about this guide. Also if any of my maths is wrong (apart from the conservative estimates I made to make calculations simpler) or if there's something I haven't considered, please let me know.
My method is to have a "mystic mushroom forest", a grid of mushroom logs and mystic trees laid out as in the diagram.
Compared to ancient fruit wine, this method has the following pros and cons:
Pros
More money
Less maintenance (no watering)
Can be placed anywhere and will still produce all year round.
Can increase yield with rain totems
Not exclusive - Greenhouse/ Ginger island/ kegs not required so can be done alongside ancient fruit wine.
Cons
Large space required to be effective.
More preserve jars (and space for them) required.
Foraging mastery required (though a less lucrative version can be done early game with pine trees instead of mystic trees - see below.)
A lot of moss, hardwood, and seeds required to get started.
Variable income (average over the year will be more than ancient fruit)
Method
Laying out mystic trees and mushroom logs as below (purple = mystic tree, green = mushroom log):
A) Allows you to harvest in straight lines.
B) Maximises mushroom production by ensuring that every mushroom log has 6, 8, or 12 trees in its 7X7 square, while still having as many mushroom logs as possible.
Interested to see if anyone else can come up with a better layout, but I believe any other layout would either mean fewer mushrooms (either because some logs didn't have as many trees in their 7X7 square, or because there weren't as many logs) or would not allow you to harvest in straight lines.
Maths
An ancient fruit plant, produces one ancient fruit worth 605 gold (with the tiller profession) every seven days. This can go in a keg to produce ancient fruit wine worth 2310 gold (with the artisan profession) after another 7 days.
The above layout means (excluding those on the outside of the forest as the forest can always be expanded) 1/3 of the mushroom logs have 6 trees in their 7X7 square (and will produce an average of 4 mushrooms every 4 days), 1/3 have 8 trees (and produce an average of 4.5 mushrooms every 4 days), and 1/3 have 12 trees (and always produce 5 mushrooms every 4 days).
Taking a conservative estimate, let's say every mushroom log produces 4 mushrooms every 4 days, or one mushroom per day.
Taking another conservative estimate let's say 55% of the mushrooms produced are purple mushrooms (actual chance is closer to 60%), and the rest are common. Purple mushroom is worth 250 gold (770 after being pickled with artisan profession). Common mushroom is worth 40 (182 after being pickled with artisan). This means that on average, each mushroom log (after processing) will be producing roughly 505.4 gold per day (770*0.55 + 182*0.45).
Which means for every mushroom log you get an average of 3537.8 gold every 7 days, compared to a bottle of ancient fruit wine worth 2310 (Removing the artisan profession, and/ or not processing the produce, tilts the balance even further in the mushroom log's favour, as kegging fruit increases value more than pickling mushrooms, and mushrooms are not affected by the tiller profession.).
Even if you age every 8th batch of wine to double its value (aging wine in a cellar takes 56 days, ancient fruit plant produces every 7 days meaning you'll only be able to age every 8th batch as cellar space is a hard limit.), that still only takes the average value up to 2598.75 gold (2310*1.125) every 7 days.
Without foraging mastery
If you don't have foraging mastery, using pine trees instead of mystic trees is less impressive but still competitive with ancient fruit wine. Say 55% of your mushrooms are chanterelles instead of purple mushrooms. This would mean each mushroom log (after processing) will be producing 366.8 gold per day (518*0.55 + 182*0.45). Which means 2567.6 gold every 7 days. Still more than the 2310 you get for a bottle of ancient fruit wine.
And again, these are very conservative estimates. Actual produce (for the mushroom log) will be much higher when you factor in:
1) Percentage chance of getting a more valuable mushroom (purple or chanterelle) is closer to 60% than 55%.
2) Average number of mushrooms produced per log will be 4.5 every 4 days rather than 4
3) Rain, naturally occurring or with a rain totem, will cause mushroom logs to produce every 3 days instead of every 4.
Side note: Mystic trees can be tapped to produce an extra 1000 gold (1250 with tapper profession) every 7 days (or every 3 days with a heavy tapper - which on its own is slightly better than ancient fruit wine, and with no processing required).
As I said, I'm only on my second play through so very interested to hear what more experienced players have to say about this guide. Also if any of my maths is wrong (apart from the conservative estimates I made to make calculations simpler) or if there's something I haven't considered, please let me know.
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