Summary
New players ofStardew Valleymight think this cozy little farming sim is all about relaxation: farmers taking their time, cultivating their crops, connecting with their local community, and stopping to smell the roses. More experienced players know that, while thatisall true,Stardew Valleyisalsoa game about profit and productivity. Building a successful farm with all its utilities and exciting additions can be an expensive business.
For a long time, players have known kegs and preserves jars are the best way to make money, turning their delicious crops into artisanal goods. However, the recent 1.6 update introduced a new maker item, the dehydrator. With that, the artisanal goods game has gained some advantages. Here’s a great strategy on how to maximize profits with the dehydrator thrown into the mix.
Updated on December 31st, 2024 by Stephanie Harris:Stardew Valley 1.6 is now out on all devices, with a few subsequent patches under its belt too, having fixed a number of bugs that resulted from the update. 1.6 finally brought all players dehydrators, the much-sought-after artisanal tool that can create dried mushrooms, fruit, and raisins. Players can even use inedible fruits like coconut, rhubarb and ancient fruit to maximize profit in this way. For keen picklers, a lot more fruit and veg options have been added to the Preserves Jar, and kegs have a few new uses, including producing juice, and vinegar made from rice. The health and energy derived from wine and juice now scale with the base item’s values.
9Build A Big Shed (Or Two)
Artisanal Makers Take Up A Lot Of Space
Managing real estate is an important part of farm planning. After all, most of the viable soil will be dedicated to growing crops. With that in mind,shedsare a great way for players to maximize their space. A Big Shed only takes up 7x3 spaces outside but is way bigger on the inside. At 17x12 spaces, an optimally laid-out Big Shed can hold a maximum of 137 makers.
Starting out with one Big Shed to fit everything is fine for most farmers. Kegs can go on one side, preserves jars on the other, and the dehydrators along the southern wall. However, as the farm continues to expand and crops become more plentiful, two sheds are preferable for all the artisanal goods players can make.
8Craft Makers
Lots of Kegs, Few Dehydrators
Now, it’s time to start crafting, keeping priorities in mind. Preserves jars and kegs should be made in equal amounts, but kegs are generally more profitable. If resources are tight, focus on kegs first and foremost. It can all be evened out eventually.
Dehydrators are way more profitable than kegs, but since they work much faster (and use up way more crops), players won’t actually need very many. Thinking about how much each maker will be used will help determine how many of them to make. Keep the ratio of kegs to preserves jars the same, with just a few dehydrators thrown in for good measure.
7Fill The Cellar With Casks
Kegs Still Have Their Place In This World
Dehydratorshave become the true money-makers inStardew Valley, but that doesn’t mean kegs have gone completely out of fashion. Alcohol and cheese are still the only items that can be aged in casks, raising their value to iridium star quality.
Players should definitely consider investing inupgrading their houses to include a cellarand filling it with casks. The cellar comes with 33 casks, but an optimal layout can hold as many as 125.
6Place Down Mushroom Logs
Grow More Spores
The introduction of dehydrators has largely increased the value of mushrooms: alongside fruits, fungi can also be turned into dried goods to sell for massive profit. That’s why the1.6 update also included mushroom logs, which produce bunches of them every couple of days.
Mushroom logs work faster when placed near lots of mossy trees, so it pays to have a dedicated mushroom forest somewhere on the farm. If players are worried that all their dehydrators are full of mushrooms, that means more fruit can go into kegs.
5Collect The Goods
And Know Which Makers To Use For Them
Artisanal makers generally produce four different item types: fruit, vegetables, honey, and mushrooms. Fans ofStardew Valleyhave done a lot of math to figure out which items are the most profitable to place inkegs vs. preserves jars, but here’s the general rule of thumb:
Keep a Big Chest or two inside or near the Big Sheds to hold all these items until it’s time to use them. This is especially important for Dehydrators since players will need five of whatever fruit/mushroom they want to dry at a time.
4Capitalize on Berry-Picking Seasons
Nothing Like Some Dried Salmonberries and Blackberries
Twice a year, various bushes around town will be laden with fresh berries, waiting to be picked. From Spring 15-18, it’s Salmonberries, and from Fall 8-11, it’s Blackberries. Usually, these berries aren’t worth very much, even when sold in large quantitiesandafter theBear’s Knowledgechallenge triples their selling price.
However, when using dehydrators,large quantitiesare perfect. It can take time to load up on regular fruit in increments of five, but during berry-picking season, it’s a cinch! So load up on dozens of berries, and start churning out plenty of artisinal goods!
3Dried Fruit First, Make Wine Later
Dehydrators Are More Profitable Than Kegs
Never mindpreserves jarsfor now. They can be very time-consuming creations, turning vegetables into delicious pickles. Therealcompetition is for who gets what fruit: the dehydrators and kegs.
As mentioned previously, dehydrators are fasterandmore profitable, but they need more fruit. So, after any harvest, use the majority of the haul on dehydrators first. Anything left over can be placed in kegs for wine. Rarer items like Cactus Fruit or Coconuts should also go into kegs because they make the best wine.
2Keep Kegs Wine-Only
No Hops, No Beer, No Coffee
Technically, there are other items that can go into kegs than just regular fruit to make wine. Hops createPale Ale.Wheatturns intoBeer, and fiveCoffee Beanturn into, well,Coffee. However, these beverages aren’t nearly as profitable as wine, even before aging them in casks. So try to avoid processing these crops whenever possible.
Turning Honey into Meadis the only exception to this rule. For starters, kegs are the only way to make honey more profitable. Secondly, they’re a good way to keep the kegs busy when there isn’t enough fruit to go around, for example, in winter, when crops fail to grow anywhere but the greenhouse and foraging produces only Crystal Fruit.
1Only Age The Finest Wine And Cheese
Casks Are A Major Time Sink
Dried goods from the dehydrator can be sold right away. But with wine, its true value can only be unlocked through casks. That being said, aging goods in the wine cellar takes upwards of four whole weeks (two in-game seasons). So, once again, players should establish their priorities.
With all the wine and cheese a farm can produce, players should save the best items to use first in their limited number of casks.Goat cheese is far better than regular cheese.As far as wine goes, the top sellers are the ones made from the following:
Players keeping this in mind will soon have the greatest winery in all of Pelican Town.
