by Farming is the most important skill and one of the most profitable (if not the most) in Stardew Valley . At the end of the day, the game revolves mostly around the concept of Farming, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t infinite more things to do.
This consists above all in cultivating crops, which has its thing and its tricks if we want to obtain the best results. But, despite the fact that the name is misleading, this ability also includes everything related to livestock (you know, animals in stables, in the corral… that can give us certain goods such as eggs).
HOW TO CREATE AND CARE FOR CROPS IN STARDEW VALLEY
Creating crops on your Farm will be very simple:
- You must use the Hoe (you start with one) to remove the earth.
- Then (optionally, up to level 1 in agriculture you will not be able to) you can fertilize the land with some fertilizer. The simplest to do is done with sage, which is very easily obtained by cutting down trees. It is not mandatory but each fertilizer will bring certain benefits to the crops, from an increase in their speed to being “harvestable” to an improvement in their quality.
- You will have to plant some kind of seed in the turned earth.
Once all the crops are planted, you will have to take care of watering them every day . Keep in mind that if you don’t water them, you will stop their growth and you are very interested in getting the money from the harvest. To do this you will have to use the watering can, you can fill it with water by pressing the action button next to a puddle, river and water in general.
The good thing is that the day it rains you’ll get rid of having to water, so take the opportunity to do other things like I don’t know… When it rains it’s a very good time for fishing or mining, for example.
Keep in mind that actions such as using the hoe or watering, among many others, consume your character’s energy. For this reason, it is not recommended to have excessive crops simultaneously until we have certain tools that make our work easier, such as automatic sprinklers, for example.
TO GATHER THE CROP
Each crop requires certain days to grow and be harvested (if the crop isn’t watered, it’s as if there isn’t a day ahead for it), plus many of them can only be harvested in a certain season, so be careful.
This also applies if, for example, you grow something in the spring because those seeds are from that season. But be very careful, because if these seeds need more time to grow than the days left in that season, the harvest will be spoiled and you will not get anything.
That said, the procedure for harvesting the crop is again very simple. You will simply have to press the action button to collect the crop, although on some occasions, such as with wheat, you will have to use the sickle.
A good method to know if a crop has already grown completely (although it is noticeable, but in some cases it costs a bit) is to water it. If the crop is ready for harvest, you will not be able to water it.
The harvest will acquire a lower or higher quality based on probabilities, these probabilities can increase with several factors, including the use of certain fertilizers.
RANCHING IN STARDEW VALLEY
Livestock is included in the farming skill even though I think it should be a skill in itself, right? But hey, that’s the way things are.
This consists of taking care of various animals , such as chickens, ducks, cows, sheep… to extract resources from them, the typical ones: eggs, feathers, milk, wool and others.
Although it is part of agriculture, I think it would be better to deal with it in depth in another post (which is cool), I hope to have it soon. You have the link of the post just in the previous paragraph.
FARMING LEVEL UP UPGRADES
These are the improvements that we will be obtaining as we level up in the farming skill in addition to something that will be common at each level, which is improving the skill with the Hoe and the Watering Can:
- Level 1 : You will unlock the crafting of the scarecrow and the basic fertilizer.
- Level 2 : You unlock the mayonnaise , the stone fence and the sprinkler.
- Tier 3 : Hive , Basic Accelerator, and Farmer’s Lunch.
- Level 4 : Packaging machine, basic hydrogel and iron fence.
- Level 5 : You will have to choose a profession.
- Ranchero : They will give you 20% more money with animal products.
- Farmer : You will be paid 10% for crops.
- Level 6 : Cheese Press, Hardwood Fence, and Quality Sprinkler.
- Level 7 : Loom and deluxe hydrogel.
- Level 8 : Oil can, barrel and accelerator deluxe.
- Level 9 : Seeder, iridium sprinkler and deluxe fertilizer.
- Level 10 : Depending on your profession you will have to choose a specialization.
- Barnyard (Ranchero): Eggs hatch twice as fast and barnyard animals want you sooner
- Shepherd (Rancher): The stable animals love you faster as well as the wool will also grow faster.
- Craftsman (Labrador): You will be paid 40% more for crafting products (oil does not count)
- Farmer (Labrador): Crops grow 10% faster.
Keep in mind that this is probably the hardest ability to level up since the harvests are quite slow. There are other factors that increase experience, such as collecting animal products, but it still seems like the most difficult skill to level up.
TIPS FOR FARMERS
And to finish, a series of tips related to agriculture:
- Sprinklers are a godsend in Stardew Valley, so don’t hesitate to create a few when you can. The first ones are a bit crappy, but better than nothing, from the second ones is where the thing spreads a lot.
- Scarecrows are also very necessary as without them there is a possibility that birds will spoil your crops, it is very annoying.
- Watch the weather on television to know if it will rain tomorrow, to plan in advance what you will do.
- You can upgrade the hoe and watering can at clint’s smithy, this will make it so that if you hold down the action button with the item in your hand, you will increase the radius of effect of that item. The more improved the higher range you can have. It is very worth it.
- Take advantage of the new methods to generate a profit that you will obtain as you level up, do not limit yourself to just selling the harvest, you can go much further. Remember that you also have the livestock, the mayonnaise, the beehive, the packaging machine… and many more things to increase your profits.
