Earn a million without leaving the farm?

[Snowy Sprout]

Inspired by DPadGamer, who was inspired by CallMeKevin, I'm going to see how far I can get on this challenge.

[Snowy Sprout]

In his recent video (https://youtu.be/YQtvF0qmcgg) DPadGamer chose the 4-corners farm to try this challenge, and he succeeded in seven years.. But one of his great bottlenecks was gathering enough metal for sprinklers. So I'm choosing the Hilltop farm instead.

I'm playing this challenge straight, no cheats. I'm never setting one foot off the farm for any reason.

[Snowy Sprout]

First Spring:

The first thing I did was scythe all the grass I could. Since no silo or animals will ever happen, grass is just a nuisance.

Carefully gathered resources without eliminating ones which can regrow.
Weeds are very important for the potential mixed seeds they can give.
Rocks are important for rock, coal, and even copper ore sometimes.
The mine is the most important factor, with upgrade-able ore nodes as your mining skill increases.

I have farmed trees carefully, saving and replanting seeds in tight rows around the edges, to give more space in the center for rocks and weeds to continue to grow. I also have allowed many original trees to stay where they are, to get them to spawn new seeds around, which I harvest and move towards my designated tree areas.

Planted, harvested, and saved my first 15 parsnips, as well as 5 rice seeds I got from an artifact spot.

Did not sell anything. There is no benefit to holding cash in my bank account, and I want to have access to as many resources as possible in my storage chest. I know this challenge basically hinges on finding an ancient seed, which can only happen from a seed maker, which can only happen after I reach farming level 9.

When I think I might have $25,000 I will sell things, because that would open the farm cave from Demetrius. I'll choose bats when I get that chance.

All the mixed seeds I gathered in spring I saved to plant in summer. Some of these will be corn and pepper plants, which have multiple harvests and will help increase my farming xp a lot. It might make sense to always only plant mixed seeds in summer, for the chance of getting corn, which lasts two seasons.

Forage skill is rising steadily, from all the tree chopping. I'm going to choose Forester and Tapper as my career path when the time comes, because selling wood, sap, and syrups are my best way to make money reliably, until I ever get that ancient seed.

Right now it is the beginning of first summer, and I just reached Forage level 3, so I can make tappers. I have 5 copper bars, so I can make 2 tappers. I'm putting them on maple trees, because maple syrup sells for the most, and is also my only reliably renewable food source at this point.

Oak resin will be valuable someday to make kegs, but that's far in the future.
Mushroom trees would be very welcome, and tapping them would be very profitable. I hope I can get some to appear in the fall.

[Snowy Sprout]

Something I've noticed about how game play feels different is that instead of filling my days with work and running around from 6am to 2am every day, I only have one circuit around my farm to make, which is complete before noon usually.

I break up any groups of rocks or weeds until they are spaced at least one space apart, so each can grow in any direction.

I chop any trees that look crowded, and replant their seeds around the edges of the farm.

I mine anything that appears in the mine. Except for the damned meteorite, which landed at the end of spring, right in my mine, and does nothing for me at all except take up space.

I water any crops that may be growing, and also water the cat's bowl and pet the cat, and go to bed. That's all there is to do every day.

As such, the challenge doesn't seem that hard. It's just a matter of doing what makes sense, and staying regular about it. There isn't much intellectual challenge. It is grindy, but not unpleasant. I do a few days worth of work every once in a while as I find time in my real-life day. It provides a rather pleasant meditation.

[PickleRick]

i have recently started playing have under 10 hours so far. All I can say is I like what you are doing. It only made me play my game even more. i agree with you in one respect, it feels like a meditation. I am enjoying it a lot.

[Nakos]

Hmm... sounds like an interesting challenge. Lot's of limitations on what you can make and grow though. Also ... no Greenhouse or Fruit Trees. I think it would get to me not being able to go places.

I think one of the farms has a bonus to how frequently you can get seeds from weeds ... might be the Foraging one? Not sure.

Although now that I think of it, having some source of metals is essential, so ... yeah, Hilltop was probably the right choice. I guess Four Corners might have worked too.

[Snowy Sprout]

Originally posted by PickleRick:

i have recently started playing have under 10 hours so far. All I can say is I like what you are doing. It only made me play my game even more. i agree with you in one respect, it feels like a meditation. I am enjoying it a lot.

I'm so happy to have a new game fan to share with! I agree it can be very meditative. There is no wrong way to play this game.

[Snowy Sprout]

Originally posted by Nakos:

I think one of the farms has a bonus to how frequently you can get seeds from weeds ... might be the Foraging one? Not sure.

Although now that I think of it, having some source of metals is essential, so ... yeah, Hilltop was probably the right choice. I guess Four Corners might have worked too.

Yes, DPadGamer did choose Four Corners, and it was successful for him. The foraging quarter does give more of those "guaranteed seed weeds", and I think he went every day to chop only those, and got double the seeds I'm getting. But I'm hoping the extra metals I get will balance out the seed thing.

[Snowy Sprout]

by the end of First Summer:

Farming Skill raised to 2, thanks to mixed seeds which included corn and peppers. I could make simple sprinklers if I wanted, but that's silly with less than 15 crops to water.
Mining Skill is up to 3. This does nothing useful for me.
Forage Skill has hit 5, and I chose Forester as the profession to get more wood per tree.

Got bored saving everything, and my chest was getting too full, so I sold all the geodes and artifacts and two stacks of wood, and a few dozen pinecones. Got $5436 for all that.
This does me no good at all because I cannot spend it. But it does free a little space in the chest.

I've made five tree tappers, which are all on maple trees now. Maple syrup would be valuable if I want to sell it, and it's worth 50 hp if I want to eat it. Someday maybe I can make bee houses out of it.

[Snowy Sprout]

I'm debating whether it's worth it to try planting my nine mixed seeds now, on fall 1. I could get corn, eggplant, pumpkins, or artichokes. The corn from last season will still produce. But my real goal is to reach farming level 3, so I can make bee houses. If I get four eggplants, I'll make that goal.

How cheaty is it to plant the seeds, see what they are, and restart the day and plant the seeds somewhere else if I didn't get enough eggplants?

Edit: Actually, it doesn't matter. I've got seven corn plants from last season, which will produce seven harvests each, so that's 490xp on top of the at least 380xp I had to get to reach level 2, so together that is 870xp. That's way more than the 770xp I need just to reach level 3. So I'm good. I don't even need to plant seeds this season.

[Snowy Sprout]

I guess my strategy right now is to reach farming level 3 this fall, make bee houses, and set as many of them around as I can. I'll only ever get wild honey because I can't buy flower seeds.

I'll make $100 per honey produced, every 3 days or so except for winter.

But it takes 40 wood, 8 coal (80 wood in charcoal kiln), 1 maple syrup, and 1 iron bar per bee house. I haven't gotten up to iron level yet in my mine but hopefully I'll be there in another season or so.

I'll need 2 copper bars and 20 wood to make a charcoal kiln. I'm regretting now that I sold all that wood, because it takes 10 wood just to make one coal. That's what impatience gets you. But I'll be able to chop more wood, no real problem.

One bee house, producing maybe 25 honeys in a year, is $2500. So I'd need 400 bee houses to make a million dollars in a year. So yeah, this is just a side business to keep me occupied.

Of course, once I can turn the honey into mead (in a keg) it goes from $100 each to $200 each, or $280 each if i'm artisan. But it's still just a side business. I doubt I'll ever be able to make 20 bee houses, let alone several hundred.

Probably I'd rather spend the iron to make sprinklers, once I get a seed maker to be able to plant large crop fields.

[Snowy Sprout]

I just realized that the one type of seed I can create on-farm is going to be Summer Seeds, by putting a spice berry into a seed maker. I could find a spice berry in the cave. Then i could grow spice berries, grapes, and sweet peas. Summer seeds have the highest return of any wild forage crops (once you make them into seed packets). That could be a path towards getting rich faster.

[Snowy Sprout]

In order to grow a mushroom tree this fall, I just realized I need to stop cutting trees down. Mushroom trees only happen when a regular (full grown) tree is randomly changed into a mushroom tree, which only happens in the fall.

I hope i get lucky. Putting a tapper on a mushroom tree would be very lucrative. And I could also make Fall Seeds from putting the brown mushrooms into a seed maker.

[Snowy Sprout]

Holy Shucks! It's only Fall 4, and I just hit Farming level 3! I guess I was right on the brink of it at the end of summer. I wish Stardew had an in-game mechanic to know how close you are to the next level of something, without a mod.

[Snowy Sprout]

Wrapping up blackberry season, I did really well and got 24 berries just from the few bushes on this farm. It helped that I get double berries at this forage level.

[Snowy Sprout]

Allowing monsters to spawn on your farm might be a way to increase seeds.
You can get mixed seeds or even rice seeds from wilderness golems.
But you will never have access to any weapon stronger than your starting tools, and
swinging those could damage valuable weeds or saplings you want to keep on your farm.
Plus, as your combat level rises the golems will become stronger... but your tools will not.