If you’ve ever had your crop attacked by a crow in Stardew Valley, you likely remembered the frustration of having to chase them out. Thankfully, the Valley has a great solution to your problem. A Scarecrow is advertised to protect your crops from crows in Stardew Valley, and it does just that. However, its limited range is incredibly finicky to work with at the best of times. If you’ve ever been confused about how good your straw man is at protecting your crops from the bird-like threats that feed for free, this guide will help you out!
The Scarecrow is a furniture item that is active in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. It is placed on your farm in outdoor areas. The tile that it occupies cannot be used for crops or tilling, but tiles above it are free reign. The furniture piece advertise that it protects crops from random crow attacks, which otherwise damage the harvest. That can be a real boon for the highest quality crops in the game, such as Starfruit.
Scarecrow Range Explained
Your Scarecrow protects your crops in a nearly circular radius of eight tiles around the strawman. From each cardinal direction, it protects eight spaces, and then protects a rectangular shape of four spaces from each cardinal. Then, about ten spaces are taken away from each corner in a pyramid shape, leaving the diagonal to be about six spaces northwest, northeast, southwest, or southeast from the faux farmer.
If you want to make your own visual representation of your Scarecrow’s radius of protection, dig out eight tiles below the strawman’s stake. Dig four to the right, then dig four diagonally upright. Dig up nine spaces and repeat the “circular” shape. Below is what the result should look like from your own Scarecrow, in the guise of an actual grid shape.
Sadly, those black corners represent areas that your Scarecrow does not protect. This does mean that, if placed 12 diagonal tiles away from one another, your Standard Scarecrows will not overlap with one another. This makes the network neat and tidy, while wasting as few crafting resources as possible. However, it does also mean that you will need a few more than you might expect.
Expert Tip
Crows don’t attack crops produced from these, so you can feel safe without a Scarecrow watching over them in particular. Feel free to save the blank corners of a Scarecrow’s range for these randomized seeds, since they’re safe from attack by default. Alternatively, planting a Scarecrow on the 12 diagonal or 16 horizontal position is a good way to get a solid intertwining system of anti-crow on your farm.
How To Craft Scarecrows
In order to craft a Scarecrow, you must first learn the recipe by reaching Farming Level 1. Once you do, you need 50 Wood, 20 Fiber, and one Coal to make the strawman and protect your farm. These materials are found primarily on your farm, with Wood gathered from felling trees and Fiber being picked from the ground when you destroy weeds. Coal can be found through mining rocks on the map or heading into the Mines themselves and cracking a few rocks.
Reaching level 1 in Farming is your first goal, and you can reach that goal by planting and harvesting all 15 Parsnip seeds you get for free at the start of your run. Once you reach this milestone, you can craft the Scarecrow.
Wood is easy enough to farm by cutting down trees, but Fiber can be a bit trickier. The most common source of Fiber is through cutting Weeds with a Scythe, Pickaxe, Axe, Hoe, or Sword. You can also grow Fiber from Fiber Seeds, though this should not be necessary if you’re just looking to craft some Scarecrows. They also drop from some enemies and can be found on early levels of the Mines. While your in the mines, you can use your Pickaxe on some stones to get coal.
Once you have the ingredients, head to the Hammer tab in your menu to find the recipe on the Crafting menu.
How To Get Rarecrows
Rarecrows are special addition Scarecrows that take a special appearance. Other than their looks, they function just like a standard version of a strawman. They are normally acquired by purchase during several festivals or at specific locations. However, some are notable achievements.
These are the full list of eight Rarecrows in Stardew Valley as of Patch 1.6.
- Rarecrow #1 (Top Hat) is from the Stardew Valley Fair shop. It can be purchased for 800 Star Tokens.
- Rarecrow #2 (Witch) is from the Spirit’s Eve Festival shop. It costs 5,000g.
- Rarecrow #3 (Alien) is from the Casino, at any time. It costs 10,000 Qi Coins, though. At least you can put hats on him.
- Rarecrow #4 (Snowman) is from the Traveling Cart for 4,000g or from the Festival of Ice shop for 5,000g.
- Rarecrow #5 (Female Farmer) is from the Flower Dance shop for 2,500g
- Rarecrow #6 (False Dwarf) is from the Dwarf‘s store. It costs 2,500g.
- Rarecrow #7 (Racoon) is from donating 20 artifacts to the Museum. After your first, you can purchase additional ones from the Night Market.
- Rarecrow #8 (Pumpkin) is from donating 40 items to the Museum.
How To Get Deluxe Scarecrow
The Deluxe Scarecrow recipe is earned after you collect all eight Rarecrows in Stardew Valley. The Deluxe version of the strawman is given to you via letter on a night soon after you get your 8th Rarecrow. The letter is from the “Z.C. Rarecrow Society” and includes a fun message about how you are one of the rare few to collect all of the special edition strawmen.
Deluxe Scarecrow Doubles Range
The Deluxe Scarecrow has a horizontal and vertical range of 16 tiles and a diagonal range of 12 tiles. This forms a much more circular shape than the standard version, since the corners are cut by a significant margin. The “edges” on the top, bottom, and sides of the Deluxe version are 11 tiles long, meaning the corners are quite a bit rounder. However, it is more than worth it, as it covers a massive 888 tiles of cropland around it.
Since the Deluxe Scarecrow has so much additional range, you can be much less worried about building your farm exactly to scale. A single Deluxe strawman covers so much ground, you can plop on in the center of a fairly large field and be fine in almost all situations.
Unfortunately, it comes at a cost. To craft a Deluxe Scarecrow, you need 50 Wood, 40 Fiber, and 1 Iridium Ore, an endgame material. You’re likely not unlocking the recipe without getting Iridium, but still! It’s a bit expensive for a fancy-pants Scarecrow.
