The newest update to Stardew Valley has added all kinds of new things with its most recent update. This has been one of the largest content updates that the game has ever received, which means that players now have all kinds of fascinating things to play around with. There are brand new crops, areas to explore, and even activities to engage in throughout this update.
One of the more interesting new additions with this update is the beach farm. This allows the players to build a farm on a beach for the first time, which essentially can make the game much more difficult than it already was. Players who want to play Stardew Valley on a harder difficulty and give themselves more of a challenge going forward in the game should definitely start a farm on the beach. This guide gives out a few tips on how to farm more efficiently.
Stardew Valley - Get to The Soil Patch
Getting started on this new farm type is going to be quite difficult for the majority of players just because there are some normal farming techniques that won't quite work. For one, players are going to have to hand water all of their crops for a while because sprinklers can't be used on sand, which covers almost the entirety of this farm. Early on this means that players will want to focus on upgrading watering can as much as possible and laying out crops in ways that make them easier to water manually. There is a way to fix this that may take a couple of seasons though.
Towards the bottom of the beach farm, the player will find legitimate soil that sprinklers can be used on, but the soil is almost completely covered by hardwood logs and stumps. These won't be able to be cleared out until players upgrade their axe, so this is another tool that should be upgraded as soon as possible. Once done players will be able to clear out all of the hardwood here and set up sprinklers for a more self-sufficient farm. In other words, to make more money at farming on this farm type players will want to focus on upgrading the watering can and axe before the other tools.
Stardew Valley - Collect Beach Detritus
As any Stardew Valley veteran will probably say, one of the best ways to make money in the early moments of the game is by picking up random debris and wild plants off the ground and selling them. This takes pretty much zero effort on the part of the player as they just have to pick these items up as they find them. Without a doubt some of the higher selling items just happen to be the ones found on beaches, and this beach farm makes collecting them much simpler.
Rather than having to walk all the way to the beach below Pelican town, players instead are just able to walk over to the beach that is on their farm itself. Here the player will be able to find an assortment of different items like shells, coral, sea urchins, and other foraging type materials here that players are able to sell off in order to make up for the loss of income from farming without the sprinklers. Another thing to keep in mind is that there are also packages that will wash up on the shore as well. These boxes can be opened up to receive several different kinds of free items, and will appear at random times throughout the year. Players should check the shoreline every day in order to potentially get some free resources for improving their farm.
Stardew Valley - Use Fishing To Your Advantage
Since players will be limited on the number of crops they can plant due to how many they can water on a given day, there will need to be a few other ways that players can earn money. A really great way to do this is by going fishing to make up for that missed income. In a normal game of Stardew Valley though is players want to make decent money from fishing they usually need to travel to areas further from their farm. The beach farm though makes fishing much more lucrative early on.
Since the player is right on the ocean with this farm they are able to catch ocean fish just by walking out their front door. Fishing can be done in the shallower regions to catch smaller fish, or the player can also go straight to the pier and catch bigger and more rare fish types. This makes it much easier to complete the community fishing bundles early on in the game as well as earn money really quickly. Another great way to make money here as well is by investing in crab pots as fast as possible. Players will be able to take these traps and place them right off the pier towards the southern part of the farm. This allows the player to catch fish without having to actually expend energy fishing and is something that can be used for reliable income every single day.
Stardew Valley - Focus On Different Crops or Animals
Players who want to really get good at using the beach farm will need to understand that it will work completely different than the standard farm that they are probably used to. With everything being covered in sand and being as close to the ocean as it is, there are many aspects of it that will trip up experienced players. This means that not only will players have to use different methods to earn money, but even the standard money earning methods will need to be altered in different ways.
One big thing that players will need to do is learn how to focus on different crop types that they normally would. Since players can't use sprinklers, their farm will always be limited to their physical watering capabilities. The best way to negate these effects is by planting crops that don't have to be watered like fruit trees. Trees can be planted directly on sand, never need to be watered, and will never die unlike other types of plants. This means that players can plant and grow them whenever they wish. The biggest downsides to them is that they are expensive and only bear fruit during specific seasons, but smart players can set themselves up to make a lot of money during their second year with a wide variety of trees.
Another great way to focus on making money in other ways is to invest in animals. All of the different animal types in the game have their own byproducts (chickens = eggs, cows = milk, sheep = wool, etc...) that can be sold by themselves or crafted into higher quality artisanal goods or food. These can in turn be sold off at much higher prices to make a lot of money. Since players won't be farming as much on the beach they can plant grass on large swathes of the sand to keep their animals well-fed.
Stardew Valley can be played on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, and PC.