When to get animals?

[Raxo]

summer is approaching, it's day 20 now and dimitrius asked me to build a mushroom plantation in my cave, i don't have any animals and i'm relying all on potatoes at the moment.

i belive i choose 20% more effeciency from animals when i leveled to 5 in farming.

also, does winter make the game super hard like Don't Starve?

[Raxo]

and is it worth investing in sprinklers since watering manually usually depletes almost all of my energy before even the day starts and im done with the chores.

[Whirl]

Depending on your stuff, it's probably time to invest in Quality sprinklers.

[Nakos]

Get animals AFTER you've built and filled at least one silo.

Sprinklers are very helpful. Most people dislike the type 1 sprinklers, and advise going straight to the type 2's.

Personally, I think the type 1's fill a useful role. They do what they're supposed to: They reduce the amount you need to water. Additionally, I use mine for Trellis type plants (Beans, Hops, Grapes).

[Dave1029]

Animals should be the absolute last thing you worry about lmao.

[Bob of Mage]

You don't need a full silo before you start raising animals, just mkae sure you have some feed for rainy days. You need the feed before winter of course if you don't want to pay an arm and a leg for it from the shop.

The coop has a cheaper up front cost, and you can get more animals from eggs once you have the big coop. So the cost to get started is lower then the barn. However you will want both of them to complete all the bundles (unless you went the Joja Mart way and have no soul) for the greenhouse. The greenhouse isn't really that useful till the first winter, and can't even be completed until fall anyways (unless of course you grind for money and go the Joja Mart evil way).

In terms of sprinklers, I'd say it depends on how well you are doing in the mine. Iron appears from floors 40-80, and gold appears on 80-120. If you are no where near getting to gold yet I'd just go with the first tier of sprinklers. Sure they have less area, but they still save you a ton of time and effort.

Winter isn't that hard in Stardew Valley since it only prevents you from growing most crops (winter seeds from foraged plants can be grown) outside, and making honey. Pretty much everything else is doable. So if you don't have the greenhouse, there is still tons of stuff to do. Getting farther in the mine and fishing for example.

[abgrundtief]

Are potatoes good to conserve them into pickles? I made pickles from green beans and i am not really pleased about the low money i get from it when put it into shipping box. :s

You will not starve in winter, you just can't grow vegetables. I built a coop before winter and i at least have some eggs to eat. ^^

[I Kinda Fail]

Typically, I'd say get animals when you have a surplus of money - if you have 10k, and you're wondering whether to upgrade your pickaxe or not, consider buying a few animals then.

Animals are steady profit with a high start-up cost. For a coop and 4 chickens, it'll cost you 7,200g, and you'll be making 900g per day from mayonnaise - so it'll take a little over a week to pay itself off. But then you'll continue making 900g per day forever, granted you feed them. (The profit's cut down to 700g per day if you buy the hay.)

Early on, coops are pretty pricey to build, but the steady flow of money is very useful. Late game, though, animals get outclassed by crops and wine/jelly, once you've got a good setup.

I'd say try to get a chicken coop and/or barn before winter, because they'll continue to provide you income throughout the winter when you can't grow most crops.

On my current file, I have 3 big coops with 4-6 birds each. The money isn't amazing compared to growing crops, but the ducks are hella cute and it takes zero energy to profit off them.

[I Kinda Fail]

As for sprinklers, if you have a surplus of copper and iron bars, you can totally make sprinklers. Once you reach level 80+ in the mines, though, you'll have access to gold ore for quality sprinklers, assuming you have the Farming level. The normal sprinklers are decent if you have tons of iron but no gold yet, or if your Farming level's too low, but they become sorta worthless once you get better sprinklers.

EDIT:
a few screenshots of my farm in early Fall
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1384907321

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1384907303

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1384907270

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1384907126

[TequilaSunrise]

Originally posted by red255:

you are on summer 20 and still using potatoes? I'm confused, potatoes are a spring crop, did you grow nothing in summer?

He's on spring 20, summer approaching.
Not in summer yet.

[Mondai]

Originally posted by I Kinda Fail:

As for sprinklers, if you have a surplus of copper and iron bars, you can totally make sprinklers. Once you reach level 80+ in the mines, though, you'll have access to gold ore for quality sprinklers, assuming you have the Farming level. The normal sprinklers are decent if you have tons of iron but no gold yet, or if your Farming level's too low, but they become sorta worthless once you get better sprinklers.

EDIT:
a few screenshots of my farm in early Fall
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1384907321

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1384907303

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1384907270

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1384907126

...... I'm fascinated by yout river farm. I've never thought I could fit enough on it, but you managed to fit... a pretty decent amount, just in those screenshots there. Teach me, senpai.

... I should get back on-topic, huh? ... yeah...

Just for the sake of completing the bundles faster, I usually have my first coop before the end of summer at the latest in single player, and in multiplayer it seems like I can grab it before spring's out. And I tend to prefer starting with the coop because as people have said, the startup cost is pretty low, but also because the coop can get you (I think) more things you need for the bundles. (I haven't actually counted, but it feels like it to me.) The animal bundle, for example, you can get two types of chicken egg, the duck egg, and a wool from coop animals. Then you just need a large milk, and it's not hard getting a cow's friendship high enough for that. Of course, you can't get ducks until you've upgraded the coop, and you can't get rabbits until you've upgraded it even further... but again, the deluxe coop is cheaper than the deluxe barn. And it takes some time and luck to get a rabbit's foot (somehow, no rabbits were hurt in the making of this rabbit's foot... I'm confused, too) or a duck feather.

[Klrmebad]

upgrade your " HOE" so you go to the beach and find snow yams, and winter root, and find those crotus purple flowers, and crystal fruit - and make them to seed and either plant them with you r sprinkler, or after a week going the the beach hoeing the whole beach and find those other things, you have $$$.

https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Winter_Seeds

[Humanmonstergirl]

first get a silo then get animals

[Dave1029]

I only have 10 animals despite having space for 24. They're annoying to me, but in limited amounts they add to farm life and offer some nice QOL features. Cooking, gifts, role playing, Luau, cheese is an EXCELLENT mining food.

[I Kinda Fail]

@Mondai The Riverlands farm is all about wasted space, unfortunately. It's more of a challenge map, but if you aren't a min/maxer it's good enough. I have something like 500 hops saved up from summer, and only 12 kegs, so it's enough for a "decent" flow of money early on.

Later game it'll get annoying when I want to make the most of my space, and have to choose between having it look nice, cramming as much in as possible, or having to hand-water many crops for a mix of aesthetics and efficiency.

[Zenthar]

Originally posted by Chefen:

and is it worth investing in sprinklers since watering manually usually depletes almost all of my energy before even the day starts and im done with the chores.

Some advice I wish I knew early on was that you can take a nap in the Bed to get energy back. Just lay in the bed without sleeping and you slowly get energy back. Good for early on in the game where so much as sneezing depletes your energy bar.