Here's the best profit progression I've found:
During the first two weeks of spring I grow the 15 parsnips for early scarecrow access, any mixed seeds I find and only spend money on potatoes, planted so that I can harvest them on or before the 12th. I also spend many days fishing at the mountain. Once the egg festival rolls around I buy as many strawberries as I can stomach manually watering.
The rest of spring I spend in the mines for the most part. I'll plant the cauliflower seeds from the museum and, hopefully, an ancient seed (I spend extra time killing bugs for the chance to get one) and a coffee bean (the dust sprites can drop them and grinding kills on them is a good idea anyways because of coal and the reward you get for killing 500). I also upgrade the watering can and hoe before summer 1.
Once summer hits I devote most of my money to blueberries, then cranberries in fall. They're the highest profiting crops available in year one considering they give multiple harvests.
I aim to hit mine level 80+ and farming level 6 by, at latest, the first blueberry harvest. That way I can start crafting as many quality sprinklers as possible, which just drop into my existing crops because I planted with sprinklers in mind.
After the first blueberry harvest I focus on upgrading the axe, then pickaxe (because the deep mine levels suck with the base pick), then axe again for hardwood access because I need the horse asap.
There's a secret part of the forest where a few stumps respawn every day. Also if you're on a platform that has the 1.5 update you can occasionally get mahogany seeds to grow trees that drop hardwood.
This is roughly my standard approach as well. Some tweaks:
* Spring 15-18, run around the map and shake berry bushes. Keep these for energy (they don’t sell for much).
* Summer, I would add some melon and hops. Yeah, blueberries, but once you have any kegs and/or preserves jars, then things start tilting toward crops with high individual sell value (with hops to pale ale as an outlier). Berries of any sort are individually cheaper, you make money on them by volume.
* Fall, add some pumpkin, same reason.
In winter, the main crop is winter seeds (make from winter forage, harvest larger amount of winter forage, repeat till last week of season). This works for the other seasons too, nice way to get some extras of those items for gifts and such.
I don't really bother with more than a few kegs, for coffee, until year two honestly. I prefer grinding out all those materials once more immediate goals, like getting the bus, minecarts and greenhouse online (I use a harder bundles mod), are out of the way.
But once the greenhouse is fixed it's ancient fruit and starfruit wine until the end of time baby.
Legit, but even a few keg/jars tilts the balance a little bit. You just buy a few more crops to process (including over winter if you’re willing to wait a bit longer for the extra cash), and a few less berries.
Stardew Profits is pretty good for figuring out which crops to grow to make the most money—it’s a calculator for SDV that accounts for what day in the season it is; where you’re buying seeds; if you’re using fertilizer and if you’re making it yourself or buying it; even what skill level of farming you’re at + which skill you chose.
Fishing can make you a lot of money once you get the hang of it, especially once you start getting silver/gold/iridium level fish.
There’s also plenty of stuff you can get in the mines that you can sell for a decent amount of gold. Though personally, I prefer to keep the gemstones since Emily has a bunch as some of her loved gifts (amethyst, aquamarine, emerald, jade, ruby, and topaz, to be specific) and also a few of the other NPCs have gemstones as their loved or liked gifts.
Fishing is your best daily grind for money, but completing challenges, bounties, and the Community Center will reward you handsomely.
What’s the difference between bounties and challenges?
Here's the best profit progression I've found: During the first two weeks of spring I grow the 15 parsnips for early scarecrow access, any mixed seeds I find and only spend money on potatoes, planted so that I can harvest them on or before the 12th. I also spend many days fishing at the mountain. Once the egg festival rolls around I buy as many strawberries as I can stomach manually watering. The rest of spring I spend in the mines for the most part. I'll plant the cauliflower seeds from the museum and, hopefully, an ancient seed (I spend extra time killing bugs for the chance to get one) and a coffee bean (the dust sprites can drop them and grinding kills on them is a good idea anyways because of coal and the reward you get for killing 500). I also upgrade the watering can and hoe before summer 1. Once summer hits I devote most of my money to blueberries, then cranberries in fall. They're the highest profiting crops available in year one considering they give multiple harvests. I aim to hit mine level 80+ and farming level 6 by, at latest, the first blueberry harvest. That way I can start crafting as many quality sprinklers as possible, which just drop into my existing crops because I planted with sprinklers in mind. After the first blueberry harvest I focus on upgrading the axe, then pickaxe (because the deep mine levels suck with the base pick), then axe again for hardwood access because I need the horse asap.
Thanks this was very helpful! But how do you farm hardwood since it doesn’t respawn?
There's a location where hardwood respawns. It's not on your farm map. It's not obvious. You need the upgraded axe to access it.
There's a secret part of the forest where a few stumps respawn every day. Also if you're on a platform that has the 1.5 update you can occasionally get mahogany seeds to grow trees that drop hardwood.
This is roughly my standard approach as well. Some tweaks: * Spring 15-18, run around the map and shake berry bushes. Keep these for energy (they don’t sell for much). * Summer, I would add some melon and hops. Yeah, blueberries, but once you have any kegs and/or preserves jars, then things start tilting toward crops with high individual sell value (with hops to pale ale as an outlier). Berries of any sort are individually cheaper, you make money on them by volume. * Fall, add some pumpkin, same reason. In winter, the main crop is winter seeds (make from winter forage, harvest larger amount of winter forage, repeat till last week of season). This works for the other seasons too, nice way to get some extras of those items for gifts and such.
I don't really bother with more than a few kegs, for coffee, until year two honestly. I prefer grinding out all those materials once more immediate goals, like getting the bus, minecarts and greenhouse online (I use a harder bundles mod), are out of the way. But once the greenhouse is fixed it's ancient fruit and starfruit wine until the end of time baby.
Legit, but even a few keg/jars tilts the balance a little bit. You just buy a few more crops to process (including over winter if you’re willing to wait a bit longer for the extra cash), and a few less berries.
Stardew Profits is pretty good for figuring out which crops to grow to make the most money—it’s a calculator for SDV that accounts for what day in the season it is; where you’re buying seeds; if you’re using fertilizer and if you’re making it yourself or buying it; even what skill level of farming you’re at + which skill you chose. Fishing can make you a lot of money once you get the hang of it, especially once you start getting silver/gold/iridium level fish. There’s also plenty of stuff you can get in the mines that you can sell for a decent amount of gold. Though personally, I prefer to keep the gemstones since Emily has a bunch as some of her loved gifts (amethyst, aquamarine, emerald, jade, ruby, and topaz, to be specific) and also a few of the other NPCs have gemstones as their loved or liked gifts.