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The question of how to make money in Stardew Valley most efficiently is one that both newcomers and veterans alike find themselves asking when they start a new farm in this beloved indie farming sim. While you’re never under any pressure to make money in Stardew Valley, having gold in your pocket sure does make life in Pelican Town a little bit nicer.
Stardew Valley: A Complete Guide To Every Crop And What It Sells For
Looking to make the most out of your crops in Stardew Valley? Here's every crop, where to buy it, and what it sells for so you can plan each season.In this Stardew Valley guide, we’re focused on helping you make money as quickly and easily as possible. Between a mix of hard work and smart passive income, you’ll be rolling in gold before you know it.
Updated April 10, 2024 by Jacqueline Zalace: Making money in the first year of Stardew Valley can be difficult if you are new to the game, especially if you are trying to build and upgrade your barn or coop. We've updated the formatting of this guide to help you make the most amount possible, setting you up for success in your later years in Pelican Town.
Grow The Best Crops For Each Season
One of the coolest things about Stardew Valley is the sheer amount of variation in the gameplay - after all, you don't even technically have to make money in Stardew Valley. You'll never have bills, and upgrades that cost only come on request.
Variety is fun, but consistency pays when you're growing only the best. Unless you're more focused on fulfilling special orders, you'd be best off focusing on the money-making crops, which are often the crops that can be harvested multiple times or especially hearty vegetables.
The Best Crops For Each Season In Stardew Valley
Use The Greenhouse Efficiently
Although you can see the Greenhouse on your farm as soon as you move in, you'll need to manually unlock the Greenhouse in Stardew Valley. This can be done by finishing all the Pantry Bundles at the Community Center or, if you've gone the JojaMart route, for 35,000g.
Once you've got the Greenhouse unlocked, you'll be able to farm every crop year-round right on the Pelican Town farm, in addition to what you're growing outside. Not only does this open up a whole new wave of things to do in Winter, but with careful optimization, you can use the Greenhouse to grow a constant rotation of valuable crops all year round.
Grow Crops All Year On Ginger Island
Introduced in the massive 1.5 update in 2020, Ginger Island is an entirely new location in Stardew Valley that offers, among plenty of other things, a new farm for you to unlock with Golden Walnuts.
Once you've got the farm on Ginger Island unlocked, you can then proceed to use it like a larger Greenhouse, since it's also able to grow all crops year-round, meaning you'll never need to worry about your most valuable crops withering away as the seasons change back on the mainland.
You've now got a total of over 700 farming tiles available, so use them for valuable crops to exploit the continuous growing season.
As an added bonus, crows don't spawn on Ginger Island, which means any spaces you'd have needed to give to your Scarecrows can now be used for crops as well.
Choose The Best Professions
At both Level Five and Level Ten of your five major skills in Stardew Valley, you'll be allowed to choose a perk related to that skill, known in-game as your Profession.
Both level markers offer two different Professions, both of which will alter your gameplay in some way. You can only choose one profession, but you're not locked into it if you change your mind later - you can visit the sewers to reassign your Stardew Valley Professions.
Make Artisan Goods A Priority
It may be hard to resist the lure of immediately making money by selling produce and animal products as-is, but although it takes some extra time to earn the money from them, artisan goods sell for much more than raw products used to make them.
Use Preserve Jars and Kegs for your produce from the farm, turning Milk into Cheese, or any of the assorted Artisan Goods in Stardew Valley. You immediately earn more for these goods for the investment of your time to convert them into something more.
This is especially helpful with cheap fruits or low-quality animal products, since turning them into artisan goods immediately boosts the price that's otherwise hindered by their quality.
Make Money With Passive Income
You'll be plenty busy with the other aspects of making money in Stardew Valley, so why not let some of the heavy lifting on that come from passive income? The best money is money you earn without doing much for it.
Even outside the Artisan Goods, there are a few great ways to make money on a side hustle as you work toward your main hustles. For minimal effort, you can set up a pretty consistent way to make money.
Passive Income Generators
|
Item Name |
How to Make Money |
What to Use |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Fish Ponds |
Making Caviar |
Sturgeon Roe, aged in a Preserves Jar |
Sturgeon Roe specifically is the only one that will produce Caviar, but other Roe is still a high-value product. |
|
Crab Pots |
Selling anything they catch |
N/A |
Recycle trash collected in Crab Pots to refine materials, and sell any critters you catch in them as well. |
|
Tappers |
Selling Maple Syrup and Pine Tar |
A Tapper, placed on a Maple or Pine Tree |
Tappers collect every couple days, so be sure to check in and collect your goods often, as Tappers only produce one product at a time until the finished one is collected. |
If you keep a consistent stream of these passive money-makers going, you'll earn a good amount of extra work for the effort it takes to harvest these items.
Smoke Your Fish
Fish can sell for a decent amount of money, but what if this was doubled? This is possible with the Fish Smoker, which doubles the selling price of any fish. If you happen to have the Artisan profession as well, then you will get an extra bonus of 1.4, which means that a smoked fish will sell for 2.8 times the amount of the original selling price.
Set Yourself Up For Success In Year One
With Stardew Valley such a beloved farming sim, players have fine-tuned how best to make money in the first year of the game, which allows you to set yourself up for a much easier time in the coming years.
Tips To Make Money In The Beginning Of Stardew Valley
Of course, you can still do other things outside these major focus spots, but these are the quickest ways to earn money in Stardew Valley in your first year.
