Even from a holistic, community-driven perspective, money is the best measurement of success. After all, the better your farm does, the better Pelican Town’s economy fares. We need to raise Pelican Town’s GDP if Pam is ever going to make it out of that mobile home! Carrying the fate of an entire town on your shoulders might feel heavy, but with the late-game money-making techniques I’m about to share with you, it’ll be a breeze. Move aside, Joja Corp. There’s a new capitalist tycoon in town.
5. Automate Everything
The first thing to remember if you want to become a Stardew Valley billionaire is that time equals money. Every minute you spend feeding your animals, watering your crops, or walking from one place to another is a minute you’re not fishing or delving deep into a dungeon full of loot. Automation should be a priority since the beginning of the game – but it becomes more urgent as your options for making money grow. At first, you need Sprinklers to reduce the time spent watering your crops. Then, an Auto-Petter so your animals aren’t lonely when you’re off in the mines. Eventually, you’ll have an Auto-Petter, an Auto-Grabber, and a Heater in every Coop and Barn, dozens of Iridium-quality Sprinklers around the farm, and Junimo Huts to handle the harvest. If you do this correctly, you can make money while sleeping. Don’t forget to get Obelisks from the Wizard to move around the valley in a matter of seconds. The Island Obelisk is probably the most useful.
4. Set Up Crystalariums
At the beginning of the game, diving into The Mines for ore, geodes, and gems is one of the most exciting and profitable ways to spend your time. If you’ve grown fond of handling so many shiny jewels, set up some Crystalariums. Given enough time, this machine can reproduce whatever gem or mineral you place into it – including Diamonds. Each Crystalarium can make a Diamond every five days, which you can then sell for 750g. That’s 150g a day, or 4,200g in a whole season. With the Gemologist profession, it goes up to 5,460g. Assuming you can fill up an entire Big Shed with Crystalariums – meaning 137 machines – you’ll be making 748,020g every month from this facility. The problem is making that many Crystalariums, as they require valuable items like Gold Bars, Iridium Bars, and Battery Packs. Still, it’s a fantastic investment.
3. Optimize Your Greenhouse
The Greenhouse is an excellent money-making facility because it maintains steady atmospheric conditions for the entire year. Not only can you grow fruits and vegetables out of season, but they’ll never wilt due to the passage of time. These unique characteristics make the legendary Ancient Fruit a perfect candidate to occupy most of your tillable soil in the Greenhouse. It takes an entire season to reach maturity, but it produces fruit every seven days afterward. If you fill up your Greenhouse with its maximum capacity of 120 plants – which sell for 550g a piece – that’s 66,000g a week. Collecting enough Ancient Seeds is kind of hellish, but at that price, it’s worth the time and effort you pour into it. Pro tip: Fruit trees can grow outside the tillable soil in the Greenhouse. You can have around 30 trees producing fruit daily without cutting into the Ancient Fruit’s space.
2. Make Wine & Age It
If you’ve gotten this far in the game, you know the real money is not in farming crops but in processing them into more valuable items like pickles and jelly. The most profitable Artisan item you can sell is wine, which is made in Kegs and sells for triple the price of the original fruit used to make it. That’s already pretty good with fruit like Peach and Pomegranates – which you can get from your Greenhouse trees – but the real treasure trove is the Ancient Fruit wine. At base quality, the Ancient Fruit Wine sells for 1,650g. It’s a ton of cash, but we can do even better. Everybody knows that the best wine is aged for a long time. You can do the same in Stardew Valley thanks to the Cask, able to raise the quality of wine, beer, and cheeses to Iridium given enough time. An Iridium-quality Ancient Fruit Wine sells for a whopping 3,300g – which goes up to a surreal 4,620g with the Artisan profession. If you manage to make your 120 Ancient Fruit from the Greenhouse into aged wine, that’s 554,000g a week – though getting 120 Kegs and Casks will take a while.
1. Raise Pigs & Golden Chickens
Assuming you’re not running a vegan farm with no animal labor, raising critters is a fantastic way to make money in the early, mid, and late game. Cows are fine for the barn at first, but Pigs are the real money printers – or, rather, sniffers. Each of these guys can sniff out a Truffle for you every day. At a selling price of 625g, you’d be making 4,375g a week per Pig. With 12 Pigs in a Big Barn, that’s 52,500g – and this is only the beginning. If your Pigs love you, they might dig out a second Truffle. With the Gatherer and Botanists professions, you’ll end up with about 2x as many Iridium-quality Truffles as you have Pigs. A full Big Barn of pigs can earn you a ridiculous 30,000g a day – or 210,000g a week. Alternatively, Golden Chickens – unlocked after achieving 100% completion – are another easy money-maker. Iridium-quality Golden Eggs laid by a Golden Chicken that loves you sell for 1000g each. That’s 84,000 a week with a Big Coop full of Golden Chickens!
