Best approach to farm design for a first time player?

[Faux]

I'm on my first playthrough right now, and while there are plenty of guides on the best way to handle making money and managing time/resources, I feel less clear on how to approach building my farm. I don't have the insight yet to know best placement, how many of each building, etc., so it is a bit difficult for me to know how to plan it out.

Any advice for doing this? I am aware of the farm planner website. Is it best to just use a premade design from someone else first and get a feel for it?

[-Na Shagul-]

Farm expansion and layout planning is one of the more enjoyable aspects for me and something you can put your personal flair on and tuned around how efficient you want it to be/how much raw dough you want to rake in. In the first year or so you'll be expanding slowly, so don't worry about trying to make everything perfect; you can always rearrange during the winter.

What farm are you using?

[Clovis Sangrail]

Just build some stuff. If you don;t like it, you can change it. You can move buildings. You can chop trees, and you can replant trees. You can develop cropland, and you can let it go back to grass.

Me -- I like bees. There's good money with very little effort in bees and honey and mead. So whatever you do, leave lots of room for the apiary.

[Maya-Neko]

There's no actual way how you should always build your farm, as it depends on what you want to do. I for example doesn't care about good space management, but rather on good looking landscapes. This might not be the most ideal way to build the farm, but i eventually will also get into the endgame like everyone else. It just might take some more years, but at least i won't get tired of things, i don't want to do every single day.

But if you want the most ideal way to get money, then you propably should watch some videos about speedruns. Most of the time, you'll find the most effective designs there for achieving various goals.

[SenMithrarin85]

the woodland farm allows earlier and more convenient access to hardwood.

[Faux]

Originally posted by Clovis Sangrail:

Just build some stuff. If you don;t like it, you can change it. You can move buildings. You can chop trees, and you can replant trees. You can develop cropland, and you can let it go back to grass.

Me -- I like bees. There's good money with very little effort in bees and honey and mead. So whatever you do, leave lots of room for the apiary.

Wow, I did not even realize you could move buildings. Don't know how I missed that. Thought I had read somewhere that you couldn't, maybe that was in a previous version?

[Deadbubble]

Originally posted by Who Is The Drizzle?:

Originally posted by Clovis Sangrail:

Just build some stuff. If you don;t like it, you can change it. You can move buildings. You can chop trees, and you can replant trees. You can develop cropland, and you can let it go back to grass.

Me -- I like bees. There's good money with very little effort in bees and honey and mead. So whatever you do, leave lots of room for the apiary.

Wow, I did not even realize you could move buildings. Don't know how I missed that. Thought I had read somewhere that you couldn't, maybe that was in a previous version?

Moving buildings is completely free, in gold, resources, and time. Just head to the Carpenter, ask to buy a farm building, click "move buildings" on the lower right, and move that ♥♥♥♥ around to your liking.

Just remember to clear the area you want to move your building to ahead of time. If there's any obstructions, it won't let you.

Likewise, if an animal decides to nap on the space you want to move your building, you're ♥♥♥♥ out of luck.

Also, to answer the question, if you're a new player, I would not worry about it too much.

I'm new too, and all I have is 2 barns all the way to the left of the farm, rows of cheese makers and ♥♥♥♥ slapepd somewhere in the middle, plus a big-ass field in front of my house extending nearly to the bottom. You need sprinklers to make that work.

I also have a small grove where I planted 1 of each of the fruit-producing trees, near the bottom-right of the farm.

Everything else is wild farmland. Nothing but grass, rocks, logs, and trees.

This setup works fine enough, and I make a decent profit per day, as far as I know. At least, I rarely struggle to buy stuff. Far from efficient, but oh well.

[I Kinda Fail]

Spring: Typically, only plant what you can water. Try to get a silo built and upgrade your tools.

Summer: You should have a few normal or quality sprinklers by now. Begin expanding your crops by placing as many sprinklers as possible down, along with whatever you can water comfortably. Invest in a coop or barn, keep it about halfway between your house and the greenhouse - enough space for them to be let out every day without them getting in the way of your crops.

Fall: By now, you should have begun laying down pathways, fences, and have a good number of quality sprinklers. You should probably get a horse and upgrade your coop/barn. I like to have the horse "connected" to the house - if you place it right, the stable roof matches up with the house roof.

Winter: Here's where you do all your planning. While you have no crops, figure out your plan. Focus first and foremost on your crops: How big is your field going to be? Do you want paths going between them? Do you have extra space, for lightning rods, bees, trees? Secondly, decide whether you want to do more animals in year 2, or keep them where they are and focus on crops instead. Make sure by the end of winter, you've: put down paths, got your sprinklers lined up for Spring, got your animals where you're happy with them, get either the horse or mine carts, and look towards expanding.

[I Kinda Fail]

I made some examples of what I mean by splitting the Wilderness farm in 2 for each season.

Here's a doable plan for Spring: Several sprinklers, 2 silos, a chicken coop and some crops.
https://upload.farm/static/renders/1FGn0F/1FGn0F-plan.png

And then Summer, expanding upon what you already have: https://upload.farm/static/renders/1FGn8u/1FGn8u-plan.png

And then in Fall, you should be adding more buildings and expanding your crop field: https://upload.farm/static/renders/1FGn8u/1FGn8u-plan.png

Again, these are just a visual aid - get creative!

[Killerqueen]

You can plan your farm here: https://stardew.info/planner/