Since the launch of Stardew Valley, there’s been a debate coursing among the players regarding the best way to use the Farm Cave — for mushrooms or for bats. There isn’t one correct answer for all Stardew Valley players, and you can only make one pick for your particular farm. Fortunately, the decision is easy once you know what you want. This guide has all the information you need to help you make the decision that’s right for you.
Now, both options will provide profitable opportunities for you to explore. Both are unique in terms of production, but there are some vital notes to keep in mind here. While this decision will come at a later time, it’s good to consider the crucial points before you select a cave type for your farm.
Which is Better, Mushrooms or Bats?
For us, the Mushroom Farm Cave is the best choice when choosing between either mushrooms or bats. This decision ultimately falls on the fact that mushrooms are rarer to collect than your seasonal fruits. The latter is easily more obtainable when it comes to considering both options since fruit grows on your farm and in the Greenhouse.
Once you reach the earnings milestone of 25,000g, prominent scientist Demetrius will pay you a visit to your farm the following morning in Stardew Valley. He’ll tell you about his latest research, which offers to greatly improve the use of the Farm Cave but leaves the decision to you as to which use you’d like to put the space to. The choice is between using the Farm Cave to either grow mushrooms or attract fruit bats. This is a permanent decision that affects the remainder of your gameplay; like all decisions, the mushrooms or bats choice has both pros and cons.
Fruit Bats
Choosing fruit bats means they’ll be flying to the cave and occasionally dropping off a variety of fruit you can harvest. Fruit brought by these particular bats is important since they’re highly praised as gifts by the citizens of Pelican Town. Gifts help you gain and increase the Friendship levels between you and the villagers, which is necessary for unlocking individual villager events, and for opening romancing options.
Fruit is also the prime ingredient for crafting their respective Artisan Bundle, which can be delivered to the Community Center to help bring it back into full operating status, and unlocks the ‘Local Legend’ Achievement. You’ll also be rewarded with the Keg to craft some delicious drinks.
Expert Tip
Should you choose the fruit bat option, you can quickly accumulate a large number of different fruits by simultaneously growing fruit trees on the farm, in the Greenhouse, and collecting dropped ones from the Farm Cave. Some Bundles also come to mind if you’re looking to complete the Artisan, Enchanter, Fodder, and Summer Foraging packs.
The problem with the fruit bat option is one of consistency. The bats will regularly drop fruit into the Farm Cave, but which fruits they drop is random. Therefore, you may find you have an abundance of one or more fruits, but are sorely lacking in others, and those are the ones you just happen to need right this moment. And once you get to the point in-game where you can plant, grow, and harvest Fruit Trees, the fruit bat cave option becomes almost obsolete.
Mushrooms
Choosing the mushroom option for your Farm Cave will cause Demetrius to set up six mushroom planter boxes in the cave, each of which will randomly grow one of the five types of mushrooms available: Common, Chanterelle, Morel, Purple, and Red. Mushrooms are generally ready to harvest every one to two days, making them a much more reliable and consistent product to have when needed.
And if you plan on making your own Life Elixir, you’ll be needing a lot of mushrooms. The Life Elixir requires one of each Chanterelle, Morel, Purple, and Red mushrooms to craft after attaining Combat Level 2. Each Life Elixir will fully restore your Health, no matter how low it is, and is one of the most important items to survive within the 120 levels of The Mines. If you don’t craft your own Life Elixir, then you’ll be buying them from The Dwarf at 2,000g each.
So, the answer to the mushrooms or bats choice is one only you can answer and depends on what your short and long-term plans are for your gameplay. Whichever option you choose, just be sure you’re having fun playing, as that’s one of the decisions that affect the entire game.
