There are many reasons to return to Stardew Valley in recent months. With the amazing patch 1.5, ConcernedApe continues to support this fantastic work of art. If you start a new game within this next patch, you’ll see that you have a few new farm types to choose from, now seven in total! All of these types affect how much land you have to work with and which resources your farm will have right outside your door. So, are any of these farms going to overcome the titan that is the Standard Farm?
What Are the Best Farm Types in Stardew Valley?
There are seven total farm types to choose from, and each of them come with a certain affinity. For instance, the Standard Farm is great for farming, and offers resources and land dedicated to that job. You can select any of these farms by choosing the corresponding picture to the right of your Character Creator.
All Farm Types
Standard Farm
The Standard Farm is what you’ll likely remember from older versions of Stardew Valley. It’s a large, circular surface full of dirt and opportunity.
The farm has very small bodies of water, and is ultimately poor for fishing. However, you have so much farming land! You have 3,427 tiles that you can till, with a 1,953 continuous rectangular area. This is exceptionally customizable, and very, very easy to farm with.
Riverland Farm
The Riverland Farm is the ultimate fishing farm. Your farm is completely flooded, and you only have so much land to work with. However, water being right outside your door comes with its own advantages!
You have two pools of fish that you can work with. You have a high chance to catch fish from Pelican Town, and a lower chance to catch fish from the Cindersap Forest. This means you have a big selection of fish to nab, and they’re all right outside your door. How convenient! With loads of islands to walk to, you can keep your fishing fresh.
However, your farming suffers greatly. You have 1,578 tiles to work with – a loss of almost 2,000 tiles compared to your Standard – and awful consistent rectangles. Your organization is heavily, heavily limited. And all for slightly easier fishing!
Forest Farm
Your farm got a touch crowded, huh? The Forest Farm is crowded with foraging items. Bushes, trees, weeds… All over the place.
In addition, unlike your standard farms, you can find respawning Large Stumps, seasonal forage items, and Weeds that drop mixed seeds in the Western Clearing. Your foragables are as follows:
- Spring: Dandelion, leek, Morel, and Wild Horseradish
- Summer: Common Mushroom, Grape, Spice Berry, and Sweet Pea
- Fall: Chanterelle, Common Mushroom, Purple Mushroom, and Red Mushroom
You also have slightly better fishing then your Standard Farm, with a chance to catch Woodskip and Pond Fish. However, there is a high chance to collect trash.
Sadly, this forest area comes at a massive cost. 1,413 tiles of farming land. The lowest in the game. You still have plenty of buildable land for some basic structures, but your crops will not have much room to stretch.
Hill-Top Farm
The Hill-Top farm is for players who dearly wish to mine. You spawn different Stones, Ore nodes, and Geode nodes depending on your Mining Level. This quarry has respawning stones that appear every 4th day. However, you can get unlucky if there’s a Large Stump, Large Log, or a Boulder in the way. That’d stink!
There’s a stream that goes by, with a 50% chance to catch useful items.
This quarry, and some additional cliffs, does decrease your farming space. 1,648 tiles isn’t the worst in the game, but it’s not stellar. You also have limited building area compared to other maps… Though, it’s not bad at all. Perfect for having a consistent, easy mining source!
Wilderness Farm
You’ve chosen one of the spookiest farms in history! The Wilderness Farm spawns monsters at night, which lets you find items that are monster-based. As your Combat Level increases, you will get rarer monsters. That means you won’t have to travel far to gather combat-oriented items.
There are also fishing areas. You actually get a 35% chance to get Mountain fish. That’s a much shorter trip, if you want to stay in your starting farm! Great for that small chance to get rare items.
This farm is also relatively large; 2,131 is an impressive amount of tillable tiles. You’re only about 1,000 down. Not bad!
Four-Corners Farm
The Four Corners farm is designed with multiplayer in mind. The corners are designed with some ideas from the four other basic maps:
- The Top Left is the forest, which is the Forager area; Mixed Seeds and a Large Stump.
- The Top Right is the Standard farm. It has the most raw farming space, and holds the basic farmhouse.
- The Bottom Left has the pond, which has a good chance of catching fish.
- Finally, the Bottom Right has a small quarry that generates Ore and Geode Nodes. Great area for grabbing a few ores!
Despite it being massive compared to other maps, it still doesn’t have the most farming land. 2,952 tiles is great, but doesn’t actually reach the same level as the Standard Farm. However, nobody can doubt that this map is great for multiplayer.
Beach Farm
This farm is… interesting. The Beach Farm is designed with gathering in mind. You’ll get some forest and beach foragables that spawn infrequently about. You have good fishing, as the ocean is right next to your home.
There’s a big, big problem, however. There are exactly 202 tiles that you can put Sprinklers on. That might sound like a lot, but if you’re putting together a big farm… Yeah, that’s not a good place to put it. You need to plan ahead and figure out what parts of the farmable land are needed.
That being said, you can technically till on 2,700 tiles. Knowing your crops is important here will be useful, as you can decide what crops are most important and what you can move to other parts of your island paradise and use your Watering Can on. You’ll also need other sources of income, which experienced players won’t find too tricky. And it might be worth it for more chances at rare collectables.
Best Farm Types
The best farm in Stardew Valley is still the Standard Farm. The resources of the other farms are great, without a doubt, but you can’t get the massive amount of farmland with any other map. It’s also very safe and simple: Just make your farm and care for it.
For multiplayer, Four Corners is interesting and it simplifies multiplayer. Everyone can have their chosen roles and get some small benefit out of the space. Farming, Foraging, Fishing, and Mining are all strong occupations.
Otherwise, the Beach area is great for those who know where to get good watering cans and spend their time efficiently. However, it’s not the best choice for new players, namely because it requires a lot of extra attention.
Love Stardew Valley and the 1.5 patch? Check out some of our guides to it!
- What Do Treasure Chests Do in Stardew Valley?
- What is the Best Way to Organize the Museum in Stardew Valley
- How to Feed Chickens in Stardew Valley
