Stardew Valley is a fun, relaxing life simulation game that will allow you to live a life as a farmer in a quirky town. This game is about farming and befriending various villagers in your grandfather’s town, however, is all about money.
To befriend people, you will need to give them gifts, which cost money. To get animals and seeds for your crops, you will need money. Gold is everything in Pelican Town, and you are supposed to be a millionaire to truly enjoy the experience.
Recommended Read: How to Milk Cows in Stardew Valley
Luckily, there are many ways to make money in Stardew Valley, and the skills give you a hint of which ones are. A balance between Fishing, Farming, and Mining activities should get you to become Pelican Town’s first millionaire.
In this guide, we will showcase all the best ways to make money in Stardew Valley, based on the year and season, and help you become a millionaire by the first Summer.
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Best Ways to Make Money in Stardew Valley
When it comes to Stardew Valley, each season is very different. The years are also very important, as what you do in the first Spring in the game isn’t the best way to make money in the second Spring.
This is why we will go through each season in the first year in Stardew Valley and talk about the best ways to make money in each one of them, and then also mention the best ways long term after the first year.
We won’t mention any bugs or cheats, such as Clay farming, since those aren’t legitimate ways to make money in Stardew Valley.
Spring Year 1 Money-Making Methods
There are only a few ways you can make money in the first Spring in Stardew Valley:
- Get Sprinklers and Plant Strawberries
- Fish to Level 10
- Get to the Floor 120 in the Mines
Strawberries for Money
Farming isn’t an incredible way to make money during the Spring. The Summer is when you will start making bank. However, your only other good option to make money would be the Skull Cavern.
If you don’t want to fight the Skull Cavern right from Spring year 1, then Strawberries are the way to go. Though they will make you less money than the Skull Cavern, they are safe, and they are an easy source of money.
Unfortunately, you will first have to make some money before buying and planting Strawberries from the Egg Festival (Spring 13).
All you need to do regarding Farming until Spring 13 is to get to level 2 to unlock Sprinklers. You can do this by planting 16 Kale Seeds, which you can buy with around 1.1k g. Kale grows in 6 days, so you only need to plant these seeds by Spring 7 or 8.
This means that, until Spring 7 or 8, you will need to get around 1.1k g and maybe even more if you want to explore the Mines.
Make sure to also place as many Tappers as possible on Oak Trees, as you will need Oak Resin to make Kegs. You will need as many Kegs as possible if you want to make real money in Stardew Valley.
If you don’t want to fish or mine for money until Strawberries are available, you can plant a lot of Potatoes. Potatoes are a relatively profitable crop that is worth more money than Energy. So, you can farm them until you can buy Strawberry Seeds.
Fishing for Money
This is why you will need to level up your Fishing to level 10 by day 13. Fishing at high levels is an amazing source of money in the early game.
You should try to buy the Fiberglass Rod as soon as possible from Willy’s shop. The rod costs 1.8k g, and it becomes available once you reach level 2 Fishing. Until you reach this level, you should buy and use the Training Rod if you don’t want to fail every time you try to catch a fish.
The Fiberglass Rod is needed because it can use bait. Since bait increases the chance of catching fish instead of trash, you will have to buy bait as soon and as much as possible.
The best spots to fish in Stardew Valley during Spring year 1 are the Mountains when it doesn’t rain and the river in the Cindersap Forest (south of Farm).
The Mountains’ lake has one of the best rates when it comes to catching fish in the Spring. Remember that you should sell all the fish that you catch. Also, try to always get the treasure, as it will usually be much more valuable than the fish.
If it rains, the river at Cindersap Forest is an incredible source of Catfish that sells for 200 g a piece. The amount of money you can make by catching Catfish is incredibly good.
When it comes to Energy, you won’t need to keep most of the food you make from farming since you should only eat the Green Algae that you catch in your endless fishing run.
Mining for Money
If you want to make real money in Stardew Valley, you will need to make it to the Skull Cavern. However, it would be impossible to challenge the cavern if you don’t have the right equipment.
This is why you will have to start visiting the Mines more seriously than ever after day 13. Now that you have your Strawberries growing strong, you will need to get better tools than the Copper ones you should have by this day.
Getting to floor 120 is mandatory if you want to unlock the Skull Cavern in the Desert. This is why, in the Spring, you need to end the Mines. If you manage to do it early, you can start farming copper, iron, and gold ores at any time.
In general, you should have a Steel Pickaxe by the end of Spring. You don’t need to defeat any enemies, as your goal is to get the Obsidian Edge from floor 90. Until then, you would do well to build staircases once the enemies get too hard for the weapons you got before.
The Obsidian Edge should be more than enough for the Skull Cavern until you get your first Prismatic Shard, and then you can get the Galaxy Sword.
What you should sell when it comes to mining is Iridium Bars. These are the only ones that are worth the effort and sell well. So, this season, you won’t mine for money. You will mine to make money in the future.
Summer Year 1 Money-Making Methods
Here are the ways you can make money in the first Summer in Stardew Valley:
- Farm Starfruit
- Explore Skull Cavern to Mine Iridium Ores
Farm Starfruit for a Lot of Money
Though there are many things you can still do from before to make money, the best thing you can do during the Summer in Stardew Valley is plant and harvest Starfruit.
The Starfruit has probably the best profit ratio out of all of the crops you can buy in Stardew Valley, and they can only be planted during the Summer. Even though Starfruit doesn’t regrow, you will get around 350 g per Starfruit, including the purchase price from the Oasis.
If you use the Deluxe Speed-Gro fertilizer, you can grow up to 3 Starfruit during the Summer per tile. Each Starfruit can be sold for at least 750 g. However, you should place the Starfruits in Kegs to get Wine worth at least 2.2k g.
You should have at least enough Kegs to place all of the Starfruit that you planted. If not, make sure to make more. If you really want to make money, you will need to plant as many Starfruit as possible on your farm. You will need to almost fill the map up to make millions.
So, this means that if you want to make millions in Stardew Valley, you will need to fix the Bus before Summer to get the most out of the Oasis. This means that you will have to complete 3 Bundles before the season ends and also pay 42.5k g to repair the Bus.
Thus, all of the money you make during the Spring should be used to unlock the Bus to buy Starfruit and unlock the Skull Cavern.
Get Iridium Ores and Bars from the Skull Cavern
The Skull Cavern is the best source of money at the start of Stardew Valley. The only problem with it is that it is extremely dangerous.
This is why you should only head inside with enough food to heal and the best weapon possible. In general, the Obsidian Edge that you get from floor 90 in the Mines is enough to get a Prismatic Shard.
Once you do, get the Galaxy Sword and use that to defeat everything in there. Try to get as low as possible, as the rate at which Iridium nodes spawn in the Skull Cavern increases as you get lower.
Carry a lot of staircases with you and stop only when you see Iridium nodes. Killing enemies is also a good way to get extremely rare items.
Smelting Iridium Ores into Iridium Bars is the most profitable business in Stardew Valley, as each bar can be sold for 1k g or even more if you get into the Blacksmith profession.
Fall Year 1 Money-Making Methods
By Fall, you should have at least made a million. In the best-case scenario, you should have made around 5 to 10 million before you’ve reached this season.
Fall is relatively similar to Summer in the sense that all you can do is explore the Skull Cavern and plant a single crop for money. The Pumpkin is the best crop to plant if you want to make a lot of money in Stardew Valley.
Though Cranberries are, in theory, more profitable, you should plant so many Pumpkins on your farm that you almost won’t have space for them in all your Kegs. If you would do this with Cranberries, you really wouldn’t have space for them.
The Skull Cavern should still be a priority when you have time, as it is a constant source of money if you like to spend time fighting those dangerous monsters.
During this time, if you have enough money collected, you should try to purchase the Statue Of Endless Fortune from the Casino. It costs 1 million g, and it will produce either a Diamond, Iridium Bar, Omni Geode, or Gold Bar every day it isn’t a villager’s birthday.
Many players tend to buy this item too late in their playthrough, and it is generally worthless. However, if you aren’t someone that is trying to beat records with how much money they make, the Statue Of Endless Fortune is the perfect investment at this point in the game.
Winter Year 1 Money-Making Methods
Once you’ve reached Winter, you can finally finish the Community Center Bundles. This is a huge priority as it will give you the chance to unlock Ginger Island.
If you don’t care about the Community Center, then you can unlock Ginger Island earlier by paying for the JojaMart community upgrades and getting their seasons earlier.
Ginger Island is the best place to make money, as you can raise all types of crops there no matter what season it is, and the Volcano Dungeon offers much better items and resources than the Skull Cavern.
Now that you’ve reached Ginger Island, you can grow as many Starfruit or Ancient Fruit as you want and make a lot of money without putting in any real effort.
The Volcano Dungeon is also a source of all of the items you will ever need to make money. All of the items there are really rare and have really high values.
Though Winter should be the worst season since you can’t really grow anything, it is actually the best point in your money-making life.
Year 2+ Money-Making Methods
For the rest of the game, you can just profit from Ginger Island since it basically works as a giant Greenhouse. The only problem is that you also have to place scarecrows to defend the crops.
Just plant as many Starfruit as you can and make money forever. If you are lazy, you can just plant Strawberries as they will just regrow forever, and you will never have to purchase seeds again.
That’s everything you need to know about how to make money in Stardew Valley!
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