Farming
| Farming | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Mechanic |
Farming is the skill behind everything that grows on the farm and everything that lives on it, and for most saves it brings in more money than anything else while supplying almost every cooking ingredient. Levels come from harvesting and from looking after animals, and each one makes the hoe and the watering can cheaper to swing while raising the chance of a star on the harvest. The unlock list is the most valuable of any skill, running from the Scarecrow at the bottom through the Preserves Jar, the Keg and the Seed Maker to the Iridium Sprinkler near the top. Two professions sit in the middle of the ladder, one aimed at animals and one at crops, and the choice at the top of the crop branch decides whether a farm sells produce or sells wine. Everything about planning a season follows from one hard rule: outdoor crops die when the season turns.
Overview
Experience comes from finishing things rather than starting them. Harvesting a crop pays, and the more valuable the crop the more it pays, so a Pumpkin is worth many times a Parsnip and a Sweet Gem Berry is worth more again. A crop that yields several items at once only pays for the first one, which is why Blueberries and Cranberries level the skill more slowly than their harvests suggest. Animals pay too: petting one, milking a cow or a goat, shearing a sheep and picking up an egg inside a coop each give a small amount. Truffles are the exception, since they count towards Foraging instead. Reading the Stardew Valley Almanac or the Book Of Stars hands over a lump of experience in one go. As with every skill, the experience lands the moment the work is done but the level-up screen waits until morning.
Each level does two quiet things. It adds proficiency to the hoe and the watering can, which lowers the energy each swing costs and lengthens the working day, and it raises the chance that a harvest comes out with a silver or gold star.
The unlock ladder is worth planning around. The first level brings the Scarecrow and Basic Fertilizer, the second the Mayonnaise Machine, a Stone Fence and the first Sprinkler. The third brings the Bee House, Speed-Gro and the Farmer's Lunch recipe, and the fourth the Preserves Jar, Basic Retaining Soil and an Iron Fence. After the profession choice at the fifth, the sixth brings the Cheese Press and the Quality Sprinkler, the seventh the Loom and Quality Retaining Soil, the eighth the Oil Maker, the Keg and Deluxe Speed-Gro, and the ninth the Seed Maker, the Iridium Sprinkler and Quality Fertilizer. A farm that reaches the eighth level has everything it needs to stop selling raw crops.
Quality is decided when a crop is picked, not when it is planted, which means a late level-up improves a field already in the ground. The chance of a gold star climbs steadily with farming level and climbs again with the grade of fertiliser underneath the plant, and the chance of silver runs at roughly double the gold chance. Deluxe Fertilizer changes the rules rather than the odds: under it nothing comes out plain, silver is the floor, and iridium becomes possible for the first time. For crops that give several items per harvest, fertiliser only improves the first one.
The soil additives split into three jobs. Basic, Quality and Deluxe Fertilizer raise quality. Speed-Gro and Deluxe Speed-Gro shorten the first growth but do nothing for the regrowth of a repeat crop, so they belong under single-harvest crops. Retaining Soil keeps a tile watered into the next day, which matters most on a farm without sprinklers. All of them go into the ground before the seed and last until the season ends, so one application covers every harvest that season.
Watering is the chore the skill exists to abolish. A Scarecrow protects the tiles around it from crows, and a pair of them placed thoughtfully covers a large field. Upgrading the watering can at the Blacksmith makes it hold more and cover more ground per swing, which is the first real quality-of-life purchase most farms make. Sprinklers then end the job entirely: the first tier waters the tiles immediately around it, the second a square, and the Iridium Sprinkler a wide square, and a Pressure Nozzle extends any of them further.
The professions are the biggest decision in the skill. Rancher raises the value of every animal product by a fifth, and leads on to Coopmaster, which halves incubation and builds coop friendship faster, or Shepherd, which does the same for barn animals and speeds up wool. Both of those carry a bonus the game never mentions: they quietly raise the quality of their animals' produce as well, pushing iridium-grade milk, eggs and wool from common to usual on a well-kept animal.
Tiller is the other branch, raising the value of vegetables, flowers and any fruit that was grown rather than foraged. From there, Artisan raises the value of wine, cheese, mayonnaise, jelly and the rest by a much larger share, and Agriculturist speeds every crop's growth instead. Artisan is the profession that changes a farm's income by an order of magnitude, because a Keg turns a cheap crop into a bottle worth several times the fruit and the bonus stacks on top of that. Oil is the one artisan good that does not benefit.
Animal produce follows its own quality formula, built from friendship and mood rather than from the farmer's skill. A well-petted animal produces far better goods than a neglected one, and a cow's friendship decides whether the pail comes back with ordinary milk or the large kind. Combined with Coopmaster or Shepherd, an animal at full friendship and full mood produces iridium goods most mornings. An Auto-Petter in the building keeps friendship climbing without the daily round, while an Auto-Grabber on its own quietly loses a little friendship each day.
Cooking lifts the skill temporarily. Farmer's Lunch gives the largest ordinary boost and asks only for an Omelet and a Parsnip, with the recipe arriving partway up the skill. Complete Breakfast, Pepper Poppers and Tom Kha Soup each give a smaller boost alongside something else useful, Hashbrowns and Maple Bar give a single level, and Qi Seasoning sprinkled on a home-cooked dish pushes its buff higher still. Since quality is rolled at harvest, eating a farming dish before a big harvest day is worth real money.
Notes
A season is twenty-eight days and the arithmetic is unforgiving. A crop has to be planted early enough that its last harvest lands on or before the final day, and anything still in the ground when the season turns is lost. Repeat crops therefore want planting on the first day of a season, while single-harvest crops are the sensible choice for the back half. The greenhouse sidesteps the whole problem, since anything planted inside it keeps growing all year.
Fruit trees are farming on a different timescale. A sapling needs the eight tiles around it kept clear or it refuses to mature, and it takes a full season to grow, but it needs no watering while it does so and it can be planted in any season. After that it drops one fruit a day throughout its own season and keeps standing through the rest of the year, which makes an early planting the most patient investment on the farm. The fruit quality rises as the tree ages, so the first year's apples are the worst it will ever give.
All Mechanics
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
