Farming is a wonderful way of life in Stardew Valley. When we’re not out completing quests and discovering secrets, we’re tending to our crops and animals. But after a while, all we want to do is just rest up and get ready for the next adventure. That means we won’t be always nearby to collect products from livestock. Thankfully, we can get ourselves a nice Auto-Grabber to help us out.
Players can get an Auto-Grabber to help harvest materials from their barn and coop animals in Stardew Valley. However, you won’t be able to get the item right away and will need to do a few things first to unlock it. Here’s everything you need to know about the auto-harvest tool for your farm.
How to Get an Auto Grabber
An Auto-Grabber can be purchased from Marnie’s Ranch once you reach Farming Level 10 for 25,000g. Once you’ve reached Farming Level 10, you’ll receive a letter in your mailbox from Marnie, letting you know that you can visit her Ranch and purchase the harvester for your coop or barn. She’s located just south of your farm.
The Auto-Grabber will automatically harvest materials from your farm animals, but it can only be placed inside a barn or coop. Its main purpose is to save you time, as it will automatically harvest milk from cows and goats, wool from sheep, and ostrich eggs from ostriches. You can have as many grabbers as you’d like — as long as you have the Gold to purchase them, of course.
Be warned, though, that once you buy it you cannot sell it. You also won’t be able to deconstruct it once it’s in your possession, so keep these notes in mind.
Each morning, you can visit the auto-harvesting tool to easily pick up a new batch of items that it has harvested from your barnyard animals. It stores up to 36 harvested items which can be can be viewed or removed by right-clicking on it. The 36-capacity also applies to stacks of items for consideration.
Downsides of Using the Auto-Grabber
However, by using the grabber, the player will not be able to earn +5 friendship points that would normally be earned by manually milking or shearing the animals yourself. This means that it will take a bit longer for your animals to reach their maximum level. Naturally, this has many players wondering if the Auto-Grabber is worth it. After all, it is kind of expensive and prevents you from earning friendship points with your animals.
To us, the Auto-Grabber is a great investment to take upon once you have a large and established barnyard. It will take a long time to harvest materials from all your animals, and having multiple grabbers around in your barns and coops will save you an abundance of time. However, if you’re just starting out and only have a small operation going, it’s probably best to save up your Gold and build a friendship with your animals before purchasing the harvester.
There is a fix to this issue, though. With the help of another tool, the Auto-Petter, your animals’ needs will be met. This allows you to ignore the petting and milking aspects so you can concentrate on other tasks.
This Auto-Petter, a device that kindly tends to your animals, is obtainable in one of three ways. The primary route is to complete the Joja Community Development Form and purchase it from JojaMart for 50,000g. Treasure chests within the Skull Cavern have a chance of appearing. There’s also the possibility of getting one by slaying monsters in certain Mine levels during the Danger in the Deep quest. It’s part of Mr. Qi’s set of special orders.
Consider the auto-harvester a luxury of some sort since it basically requires an investment from you. Aside from everything else in the game that desires payment, obtaining the tool in question all depends on your progress.
Expert Tip
If you need to remove the Auto-Grabber, such as to relocate it, you’ll need to strike it one of your tools.
