Starting your journey in Stardew Valley involves several initial choices, but none are as impactful and permanent as selecting your farm layout. While character customization offers mostly aesthetic options, your farm type significantly shapes your gameplay experience and cannot be altered later. Many believe farm choice is purely personal preference, and while that holds some truth, certain farms offer distinct advantages over others. This guide ranks the Stardew Valley farm layouts, from most to least recommended, to help you make the best decision for your farming adventure. Remember, this ranking is based on gameplay benefits, but ultimately, your enjoyment is paramount.
Forest Farm
The Forest Farm stands out as a top-tier choice due to its unique and valuable bonuses. It provides:
- Renewable Hardwood Source: Eight Large Stumps respawn daily, offering a consistent supply of Hardwood. This resource is crucial for crafting advanced items and buildings, making the Forest Farm a significant head start.
- Foraging Advantages: Seasonal forage items, including valuable and non-standard items, spawn within the farm. This provides extra income and resources through foraging.
- Mixed Seed Weeds: Unique weeds on this farm always drop Mixed Seeds, aiding early crop diversity and experimentation.
- Woodskip Pond: A large pond allows you to catch Woodskip, a fish exclusive to this farm type. It can also function as a river for placing Crab Pots, expanding your fishing opportunities.
The main drawback of the Forest Farm is its reduced tillable land. It offers the fewest farming tiles of all layouts. However, the substantial benefits, especially the renewable Hardwood, often outweigh this limitation. Furthermore, you can eventually remove the Large Stumps to reclaim space if needed later in the game.
Four Corners Farm
The Four Corners Farm is exceptionally versatile, incorporating beneficial elements from multiple farm types, making it ideal for both solo and multiplayer experiences. It truly shines in multiplayer, but remains a strong contender for single players as well. Its advantages include:
- Forest Farm Features: The top-left quadrant replicates aspects of the Forest Farm, featuring one renewable Large Stump and the unique Mixed Seed weeds.
- Ample Farming Space: The top-right quadrant provides a large, open area perfect for extensive crop farming, conveniently located near your farmhouse.
- Cindersap Forest Pond: The bottom-left quadrant features a pond mirroring that of Cindersap Forest, suitable for catching specific fish and placing Crab Pots.
- Mini-Quarry: The bottom-right quadrant contains a small quarry that spawns Rocks, Ore, and Geode nodes based on your mining skill level. Notably, it can even yield valuable Iridium Nodes at higher mining levels.
- Second Largest Tillable Area: It boasts the second-highest amount of tillable land, just slightly less than the Standard Farm, offering plenty of room for various farm activities.
The primary disadvantage of the Four Corners Farm is the single renewable Large Stump compared to the Forest Farm’s eight. Its size and somewhat compartmentalized layout can also feel less efficient for solo players to manage initially. However, its diverse features and abundant space make it a top-tier farm choice, especially for multiplayer or players who desire a bit of everything.
Hill-top Farm
The Hill-top Farm caters to players who enjoy mining and resource gathering. Its key features are:
- Mining Hilltop: A dedicated, non-tillable hilltop area in the southwest spawns Stones, Ore, and Geode nodes. This provides a consistent source of mining resources directly on your farm. (Note: Access to this hilltop can sometimes be blocked by obstacles at the start. Resetting the game may be advisable if access is initially blocked to maximize the farm’s benefit).
- River Access: A river runs through the farm, enabling you to catch fish found in Cindersap Forest and utilize Crab Pots.
Similar to the Forest Farm, the Hill-top Farm’s main drawback is reduced tillable land, ranking as the second-lowest in available farming space. It’s best suited for players who prioritize mining and are comfortable with a smaller farming area.
Beach Farm
The Beach Farm offers a unique coastal experience with several appealing features, though it presents a significant challenge for new players. Its advantages include:
- Supply Crate Foraging: Supply Crates wash up on the shore, providing valuable foraging items and resources.
- Ocean Fishing Access: Direct access to ocean fishing allows you to catch ocean-exclusive fish directly from your farm. This is particularly advantageous for catching rare ocean fish with limited spawn windows.
- Diverse Forage Spawns: Both forest and beach forageable items can spawn on the Beach Farm, offering a wider range of foraging opportunities.
However, the Beach Farm has a major limitation: sprinklers cannot be used on the majority of the sandy soil. A small patch of 202 tillable tiles exists where sprinklers function, but the vast majority of the farm requires manual watering. This sprinkler restriction is a significant hurdle, especially for new players, and is the primary reason this farm is ranked lower despite its other appealing features.
Standard Farm
The Standard Farm is the most straightforward and basic option, living up to its name. It lacks unique features but offers one key advantage:
- Largest Tillable Area: The Standard Farm boasts the most tillable land of any layout (3427 tiles).
While the massive farming space might seem appealing, it’s often impractical. Managing such a large farm requires extensive time investment, and realistically, most players won’t fully utilize this vast area. The ponds on this farm are also unproductive for fishing, yielding mostly trash. While the ample space is technically an advantage, its practical benefit is limited for most playstyles.
Wilderness Farm
The Wilderness Farm presents a unique, and somewhat challenging, gameplay twist. Its defining features are:
- Mountain Lake Fishing: You can fish from the Mountain Lake on your farm, although the catch rate is reduced (65% trash). This is the only farm type offering on-farm Mountain Lake fishing.
- Nighttime Monster Spawns: Monsters, scaled to your combat level, spawn on the farm at night. While initially challenging, Wilderness Golems can spawn at any combat level and have a rare (1%) chance to drop valuable Iridium Ore.
The constant monster presence can be a significant drawback, especially for beginners. While monster spawning can be toggled off later in the game (or activated on other farms), the initial challenge and reduced fishing efficiency make the Wilderness Farm less appealing for most players.
Riverland Farm
The Riverland Farm, characterized by numerous rivers and islands, prioritizes fishing above all else. Its primary benefit is:
- Diverse River Fishing: You can catch both Pelican Town river fish and Cindersap Forest pond fish directly on your farm. The trash catch rate is normal for these areas, unlike other farm types where trash is more common.
However, this fishing advantage comes at a significant cost. The Riverland Farm suffers from:
- Severely Reduced Tillable Land: It has the most significant reduction in tillable tiles, losing over half the standard amount.
- Inefficient Layout: The fragmented, island-based layout is highly inefficient for both crop farming and animal husbandry, making farm management cumbersome.
- No Ocean Fishing: Despite its water-centric design, you still need to visit the beach to access ocean fish.
The Riverland Farm’s drawbacks, particularly the severely limited and inefficient farming space, outweigh its fishing benefits for most players. Even for fishing enthusiasts, the Beach Farm offers a more balanced and ultimately more enjoyable experience.
Conclusion
Choosing your farm layout in Stardew Valley is a crucial early decision that shapes your gameplay. While personal preference plays a role, understanding the distinct advantages and disadvantages of each farm type, as outlined in this Stardew Valley Guide, is essential. The Forest Farm and Four Corners Farm generally offer the most balanced and beneficial starting experiences, while other farms cater to more specialized playstyles. Consider your preferred activities – farming, mining, fishing, combat – and choose the farm that best aligns with your goals for your Stardew Valley adventure.
