Fastest place to gather stone? (1.5 spoilers)

[I Kinda Fail]

I'm on the Beach farm and need TONS of stone for the deluxe retaining soil. My crop field is ~400 crops big. So this means every season I need 2 stacks of stone. It's currently Winter 26, and just from various crafting projects, despite mining all Winter, I'm low on stone. I'm confident that a day blast mining can get me at least 800 stone, but I'm not so sure I can get 2 stacks in 1 day... and I also need a day to recuperate. So is there a floor in the normal mines that's best to farm stone on? Or is it best to just mine normally in the skull caverns, without bombs?

I'm about to do the "Hungry Challenge" so I'll be using a lot of staircases anyways... thereby skipping a lot of stone. Worst case scenario, I'll just put down fertilizer for half my crop field. But best case, I'll have enough so I only need to water my fields on day 1, then I'll have 4 weeks to gather another 2k stone.

[Xpliciit]

Fastest way is to straight buy from Robin. Otherwise, Quarry Mine. Lastly if you are doing Skull Caverns properly you will be trading all Jade for Staircases and should get 800-1000 stone per run at least level 120+

[Omegatherion]

If you have the Qi missions unlocked, i assume you are already pretty far into the game. Don't you have money with harvests that big? So why not just buy the stone from Robin? A stack is 100k.

[I Kinda Fail]

Originally posted by Omegatherion:

If you have the Qi missions unlocked, i assume you are already pretty far into the game. Don't you have money with harvests that big? So why not just buy the stone from Robin? A stack is 100k.

I guess that's an option, it just seems wasteful... I probably earn 100k per week consistently, and every so often I'll earn a lot more. But I can do that as a last resort, I guess.

[Dutria]

I'm on the beach farm aswell but I only use the ~100 plot for crops that can be used with sprinklers + the greenhouse
ginger island farm is the farm for me for quest & money I make with pigs
seems like alot of work having to keep it watered with retailing soil

to answer your Q: I would suggest go mining and break the big rocks make some bombs and just blow things up thats the fastest way if you dont want to buy

[RedViper]

Isn't it better to just use sprinklers? I personally only use the 100% retaining water fertilizer for the indoor crops.

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by RedViper:

Isn't it better to just use sprinklers? I personally only use the 100% retaining water fertilizer for the indoor crops.

The Polluted Beach farm doesn't have much space for sprinklers.

Though if you're far enough into the game that you can access Qi quests, you could simply use the island farm. It's got well over 700 tiles and sprinklers work just fine there. In addition you can grow anything anytime and there are no crows.

[RedViper]

Originally posted by Tripoteur Ventripotent:

Originally posted by RedViper:

Isn't it better to just use sprinklers? I personally only use the 100% retaining water fertilizer for the indoor crops.

The Polluted Beach farm doesn't have much space for sprinklers.

Though if you're far enough into the game that you can access Qi quests, you could simply use the island farm. It's got well over 700 tiles and sprinklers work just fine there. In addition you can grow anything anytime and there are no crows.

I keep forgetting there is an actual beach option for your main farm, I thought OP meant the island farm. I didn’t know that sprinklers don’t work on the sand of the beach farm.

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by RedViper:

I keep forgetting there is an actual beach option for your main farm, I thought OP meant the island farm. I didn’t know that sprinklers don’t work on the sand of the beach farm.

That whole farm option is nonsensical, really. You'd think it would be a fishing/foraging map, but it's a farming map where you can't use sprinklers.

Insanity.

[Maya-Neko]

Originally posted by Tripoteur Ventripotent:

That whole farm option is nonsensical, really. You'd think it would be a fishing/foraging map, but it's a farming map where you can't use sprinklers.

Insanity.

Well, all maps other than the standard map offer only small advantages, which can't really compensate the disadvantages overall. That's why you actually pick one of the other maps^^

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

Well, all maps other than the standard map offer only small advantages, which can't really compensate the disadvantages overall. That's why you actually pick one of the other maps^^

I don't particularly mind that it's a weak map, I just hate that its mechanics don't match its theme at all.

If I'd designed it, I would have made it so you can't grow crops in sand aside from the few things that can actually grow in sand, like cacti and maybe palm trees. There would have been a small tillable area closer to the exits, as far away from the actual beach as possible. There would be a good amount of forage and the beach wouldn't have been polluted as it currently is. And you'd have to have a well or small pond of freshwater next to the tillable area because watering plants using salt water is unusually not the smartest idea.

That's what you'd do if you needed to to produce on a beach. Fish, forage, maybe grow a few things on a patch of actual dirt if it's there.

[Vimpster]

Originally posted by Tripoteur Ventripotent:

That whole farm option is nonsensical, really. You'd think it would be a fishing/foraging map, but it's a farming map where you can't use sprinklers.

Insanity.

In what way is the beach not a fishing/foraging map? You can catch ocean fish there quite easily, including rare fish, and it has stuff to forage nearly every day. Including boxes that wash up on shore that you can bust open for loot. It has all the same foraging items show up that can show up on the beach area south of town, including the unlockable side, as well, in the south western corner of the beach farm map you can sometimes find any of the normal seasonal foraging items on the grass area.

[Pixel Peeper]

Originally posted by Vimpster:

Originally posted by Tripoteur Ventripotent:

That whole farm option is nonsensical, really. You'd think it would be a fishing/foraging map, but it's a farming map where you can't use sprinklers.

Insanity.

In what way is the beach not a fishing/foraging map? You can catch ocean fish there quite easily, including rare fish, and it has stuff to forage nearly every day. Including boxes that wash up on shore that you can bust open for loot. It has all the same foraging items show up that can show up on the beach area south of town, including the unlockable side, as well, in the south western corner of the beach farm map you can sometimes find any of the normal seasonal foraging items on the grass area.

The water is full of trash, fishing there is nowhere near as efficient as fishing elsewhere.

There's almost no foraging on that map, usually just one low-value shell per day (and I've literally never seen coral or urchins spawn there, not even once), or maybe a box of stuff that's somewhat useful but nowhere near as valuable as advantages you'd get on other maps.

In short, it has no value for fishing players and the forage is so poor it's not significant.

Again, I don't mind that it's a super weak map. But I'm very disappointing that it's utter nonsense. The water shouldn't have been polluted, there should have been way more forage, and you shouldn't be able to grow crops in sand.

[Maya-Neko]

Originally posted by Tripoteur Ventripotent:

I don't particularly mind that it's a weak map, I just hate that its mechanics don't match its theme at all.

If I'd designed it, I would have made it so you can't grow crops in sand aside from the few things that can actually grow in sand, like cacti and maybe palm trees. There would have been a small tillable area closer to the exits, as far away from the actual beach as possible. There would be a good amount of forage and the beach wouldn't have been polluted as it currently is. And you'd have to have a well or small pond of freshwater next to the tillable area because watering plants using salt water is unusually not the smartest idea.

That's what you'd do if you needed to to produce on a beach. Fish, forage, maybe grow a few things on a patch of actual dirt if it's there.

Sounds pretty much just like a variation of the river map.

But you shouldn't forget, that it's still Stardew Valley overall. Only allowing Cacti and beach trees to generate money doesn't really makes sense in terms of balancing (if the players only want to do that, they could easily challenge themselves with such limitations. There's no need to limit it through the map. And it's also up to you to avoid filling your watering can with ocean water as well).

The no-sprinklers-part is build in to counter the crop focused playstyle of many players, so that they've to either follow other path or to think about how much energy/money they're willing to sacrifice to maintain their old playstyle. And it also fits the theme of the map to put the dirt-area that far away from the farm house. That way they can't just start to build their farm from there (at least until the player is willing to invest into a steel axe) and have to deal with the challenge of the beach map right from the start instead of just doing their normal thing without any disadvantages until it doesn't really matter anymore.

So it's definitely a well thought map, which challenges old players into new playstyles without throwing casual players or even new players into a trap of tedious and boring limitations.

[Pixel Peeper]

The small plot of tillable land would allow players to grow everything they strictly need to (if they're going for Community Centre bundles, for example), but indeed wouldn't be a primary source of money. Fortunately it so happens that crops are a very, very poor way to make money in the early game, and other moneymaking activities, the best ones (fishing and mining), would still be available. For growing things en masse later in the game, the greenhouse and island are more than enough.

Because grass grows on sand and the Polluted Beach farm has so much land, it's actually ideal for raising animals. Ranchers don't typically bring their animals to a beach to graze, but apparently in Stardew Valley that's a thing?

I very strongly disagree that it's a well-thought map. Growing craps in sand? Watering them with salt water? Water so polluted it's not worth fishing in it? No significant forage? That's a terrible interpretation for a Beach map. Kind of insane, actually...

[I Kinda Fail]

I just consider it a challenge map. Like the sand encourages you to use fish ponds and animals, OR hand-water everything. The main downside, the hand-watering, gets "erased" sort of as you unlock the deluxe retaining soil. After that, you can make it a massive farm, if you want.

I do wish that fishing was a smidge better there, but at least it's very nice for crab pots. It's a great farm for people who like using fertilizer. Fish ponds growing coral for speed-gro, crab pots producing fish for quality fertilizer, and deluxe retaining soil negates the downside of the map.

Personally, I plan to keep farming in the sand with the water retaining fertilizer, but I also have 16 fish ponds, ~50 crab pots, a barn and a coop, 3 sheds, a slime hutch, and the greenhouse. The farm's kinda pretty. I think a lot of the tradeoffs of these farms is worth it to have something nicer to look at than the Standard farm. Even Riverlands is decent. Hilltop is gorgeous but sadly the layout is... a bit too much for me to play on.