Ways of Earning Money

[kate]

Can anyone tell me how to earn a good amount of money without not getting seeds for the farm? I only have $430. Every time i go into the mine, I barely escape with my life. I fish quite often and make a good amount of money, but i dont want to turn it into a boring fishing simulator. Crops take a while to grow, and after they do, i have to spend a ton of my money on seeds!!! Can someone please help me? I know im kinda a noob because i just got the game.

[SgtLlama]

One easy way is to get 300 wood and build the bridge in the southern area. Leads to an area with occassional good drops. I haven't played much yet, so someone may have another better answer.

[Mackenzie]

Get better from practicing to stay alive in the mines. The further you go into them, the more profitable mine trips become every day. Better weapons, free metal and coal = better tools = more farm production. Fishing is in my opinion more of a spare time luxury when farming and mining aren't options.

[p a p e s]

If you keep in the crop/seed rotation you make a lot over the first few seasons and exponentially through the rest of the game. Spending time in the mine is also really good, getting shells from the beach, buying animals doesn't make much at first but later it will.

[Saint Landwalker]

Ways to make money other than farming?

Well... fishing. Mining. Foraging. But farming is really the go-to.

Early on, focus on cheap seeds and fast grow times. Potatoes are a good starter-crop that don't take long to grow. Maybe some cauliflower if you can squeeze it in before the end of the season (they take longer to grow but are more profitable). In summer, blueberries are an excellent choice; they take some more time to grow, but once they mature they'll give you a great boost for the rest of the season.

[kate]

Thx for giving me some ideas, guys

[CatPerson]

It's a slow process in the 1st and 2nd seasons - waiting for crops and ability to make the items that can turn crops into higher priced goods (if you go that route), or having the funds to buy/make enough of the more profitable crops etc.

Anyway, very first chr. I didn't fish at all - I think I largely went in the mines and chopped a lot of trees and sold wood. Sure it's not a ton of money but there are so many trees/they grow back...

Don't go too deep into the mines, you can just enter, clear one or two levels, leave via the ladder, and reenter again. Sell some stone, sell wood/sap, fish if you're fishing etc. And of course do the little side quests if they're ones you can do.

Mostly tho...it's waiting for crops, initially.

[kate]

FYI im currently in Fall season and have the level "Bumpkin" my farm is incredibly microscopic. I'm really poor, and what really gets me nervous is that the garage display thing is in a week, and I only have one gold star item!

[kirreskald]

Originally posted by CatPerson:

Don't go too deep into the mines, you can just enter, clear one or two levels, leave via the ladder, and reenter again.

Just to piggyback on this, I found that only going 5 levels at a time works really well. The mine elevator goes by 5 levels so this way, you don't lose progress but it's easy to reach and still feel like you are accomplishing stuff every trip.

If you are really struggling with the mines, remember to take food! Those berries you can pick are pretty awesome and if you chop wood, making the Field Snacks is highly advisable.

[Dasani]

plant lots of crops that reproduce. you get a truckload of money. :)


(atleast i did!)

[CatPerson]

Originally posted by Killing Bunnies Is Fun. Period.:

FYI im currently in Fall season and have the level "Bumpkin" my farm is incredibly microscopic. I'm really poor, and what really gets me nervous is that the garage display thing is in a week, and I only have one gold star item!

Ah. Yeah, that's one "problem" if one is playing without constant wiki-planning and knowledge beforehand. :)

So you can take what you've learned from the 1st year and apply it to the next year/Spring 2, to make a lot more/be more efficient, or start over and with what you've learned, have a much better/faster start. My current chr. (of several) made something like half a million+ the first year. But that's with a lot of foreknowledge of what to plant and what to do with it all.

Because of quests/bundles, initially want to grow at least a little of everything, but focus on one or two main "cash crops." Don't do house upgrades the first season or three, maybe get a silo and chicken coop but don't upgrade coop yet...upgrade to copper tools but steel maybe not until fall or winter, etc.

Edit: and yes, plants that continue to produce are good because you end up with high numbers+they're usually fairly valuable. Crops that have higher sell-prices are better for things like preserve jar and keg turnaround, etc.

[nadata]

Originally posted by Mackenzie:

Get better from practicing to stay alive in the mines. The further you go into them, the more profitable mine trips become every day. Better weapons, free metal and coal = better tools = more farm production. Fishing is in my opinion more of a spare time luxury when farming and mining aren't options.

I didn't really have trouble with the mines until I got to the red slimes. Also, I rarely fish because I feel like I make more money from going into mines or working on farm :L

[Mackenzie]

Agreed Nadata. I only fish when either a) I'm rolling in tons of extra cash b) the mines have not opened yet or c) my pickaxe is in the shop being upgraded.

Fishing has a set limited income and expected outcome with a chance of wasting time by not successfully catching said fish. Mining has a wide margin of profit and a hugely diverse amount of different materials and item types that can be obtained. Plaster that with selling gems and you have yourself a clear winner, imo.

[Mythophile]

Get the 20 seed packets from the Foraging bundles. All you have to do is find a few wild herbs and it's the fastest way to get lots of crops.

[CatPerson]

I really haven't made much cash off of mining, either, personally. Gems and the like don't drop so often that I make loads of cash from it, especially when initially I'm donating to the museum. I guess I have poor mine-RNG, but still.

I just sell most early crops and dump all funds back into ever growing numbers of seeds/crops (and now tappers) the first couple of seasons, and use all other resources to start building up some Artisan products, so by fall I'm raking in relatively huge sums of cash.

[Mackenzie]

Originally posted by CatPerson:

I really haven't made much cash off of mining, either, personally. Gems and the like don't drop so often that I make loads of cash from it, especially when initially I'm donating to the museum.

Just some advice, early on you shouldn't donate gems. Minerals and artifacts yes, but gems it is more beneficial early on to receive the relatively large boosts in money. Gems are very very easy to obtain with time so they can easily be found and donated later.

Mining is a time returned investment, the deeper you go and more you level it up the more profitable it becomes. If you dedicate a day to gold mining even without the +1 ore perk and don't have the +25% bar value perk (meaning you took the gem perks), you can still pull out with 100 - 140 gold ore and every 20 ore equates to 1,000g so that's 5,000-7,000 just from gold spelunking PLUS all the mob drops, gems, minerals and other goodies you find in the mines.