Ranking Every Crop in Stardew Valley – Update 1.6
Stardew Valley has tons of crops to choose from, including new crops from update 1.6. I’ll rank the crops from every growing season based on overall profits and utility.
0:39 Ranking Criteria
2:09 Spring Crops
9:32 Summer Crops
18:09 Fall Crops
24:54 Winter Crops
25:32 Special Crops
29:02 Final Thoughts
13 Comments
Great video! thanks for making this is gonna help alot in my new playthru 1.6!
I feel a lil flabbergasted by scythe-harvestong being considered a downside (don't we love the Iridium Scythe???? It's the same principle, isn't it???) but otherwise hell yeah to all of this. I do think Kale should be a B considering how it's just Very Good for rapidly building up EXP and money before the Strawberry apocalypse, that's all.
The real useful part of this video is that it absolutely affirms multi-harvest "berries" as amazing in general, which I already knew but I'm HAPPY TO BE RIGHT. I'm admittedly pretty surprised that green bean, tomato, and hot pepper being relatively good (not that I'd ever take them when the better choice is right there, but they're not trash like I thought they were (green bean maybe in my next playthrough though?? But I like strawberries…)). And. God. Next fresh playthrough, I need to form a Hops empire, don't I (Pam will get none of it)
I use parsnips in spring as universally liked gifts because green beans are annoying to me. But if we account for all seasons, eggplants is an insanely cheap gift that is universally liked. If you don't have any fruit tree going on, planting eggplants and not selling them all is a must!
Justice for tulips!🌷We’ve all grown them in year 1 spring as gifts. You get a tulip, YOU get a tulip. EVERYONE gets a tulip!
Wow i never knew hops were so good. Something new to try on my next playthrough. Thanks!
one of the best voices. it soothes the soul. it's the perfect, "stardew valley" vibe voice.
I like your analysis and from a profitability perspective I agree with most of your list, however I feel like some of these rankings are a little cost-agnostic. SDV has three primary Costs: Available Gold, Energy and Time. Ranking a crop with a higher gold ROI over a potential Energy or Time savings may not be more valuable to the player depending on their current context. Even the initial "free" parsnip seeds are a potential pitfall to the first 5 days in game.
I think the most extreme example of this is in your ranking of Wheat. Wheat from a profit standpoint is a D tier crop for sure, but what it lacks in profit it more than makes up for in Time and Energy specifically in the context of the transition of Summer to Fall year 1. If you are farming at scale at all large portions of your field will need to be cleared, re-tilled and watered before being planted Fall 1. Additionally all of the Deluxe speed grow you purchased for your Summer Crop harvests will be gone. However, with some planning wheat can be planted on the 26th and harvested via scythe (energy free) Fall 1; not only saving time and energy in labor but also preserving your 80g per tile investment at the cost of 10g. Its use-case is a bit niche for sure, but I cant personally call it low-tier crop.
What are your thoughts on preserve jars in the first year? With the dehydrator is there any point to make more than 2 or 3 unless you invest into fishponds. I still have the habit of making 15-20 of them for the vegetables like the pumpkin in fall.
I’m surprised by the ranking of wheat. It synergizes well with speed gro, and with just deluxe and kegging it’s about comparable to pumpkins for profit. If you’re profession switching or using the radioactive speed gro it’s actually the most profitable fall crop. I don’t usually go for it because of how labor intensive it is, but it’s perfectly viable and even ends up giving you a good bit of hay too.
Ace list exactly what I was looking for as a new-old player. One thing about sunflowers/seeds and corn — it’s pretty handy to have a small stock on hand during winter when it’s too cold for the pigs to find truffles outside for the oil maker. Prob not enough to push them out of c-tier as the cooking oil doesn’t even approach truffle oil re: gold and you’re prob better off just shipping the raw crops but I just like having the oil-makers active during those winter days so they are churning out something (anything!).
Thanks again for the list!
Thank you for giving fairy roses the recognition they deserve
One big upside of the 1.6 crops, especially the summer squash, is that they’re high energy. Salads had been a good benchmark for energy/gold, but squash beat them out. Available at a time when having a kitchen is questionable, they can be a lifesaver.
Another wheat apologist here! One thing I like doing with wheat is to plant a full scarecrow's coverage worth (I think it's about 260+ plants) on or before the first rainy day in summer. Then I just ignore them and wait until enough rainy days happen and then harvest. Really makes the trip to the chest to retrieve the scythe worthwhile at that scale, and gives my kegs something quick to process to make some decent short-term money. Can repeat through fall and use that same area for carrots or garlic in spring. Helpful in the first few years when you've got way more land than can be effectively utilized (especially on the beach farm with no sprinklers).