Mastery is Too Easy - Stardew Valley Hot Takes

[@callmealx]

My hot take is just that the new crops should be used more. Like, I was legitimately disappointed that there were no new recipes. No carrot cake? Baked squash? Powdermelon pie?? Hell, have the stable require carrots, just *something*.

[@LukasJampen]

Oh yeah I'm always fir having a bit variety on my farm as after year 1 I don't care as much about profit and just having a few more crops is always nice. But it would have been great if a character loved them, they were in some recipes or you just could do something interesting with them. Maybe make a special recipe that gives buffs that uses all 4 or one for recipe for each skill. Or maybe special orders/quests for them specifically.

[@yakobsoulstorm5187]

I like this idea, but the recipes were already the worst part of Perfection and I think adding even just 4 more would be met with... _criticism_ \.

[@darknesswave100]

I think they should have added the ability to feed your horse like the dog and once you get it to a certain I guess heart level then your horse is permanently faster since it likes you more. Having to give it a carrot every time you want it to go faster for that day could turn into a pain

[@Adir-Yosef]

​@@yakobsoulstorm5187i would give that to the money, not the recipes. us horders know how to deal with shit

[@supaygato]

Dont make perfection hardwr man 😭

[@Paperbag34]

I 100% agree with buffing everything else instead of nerfing Artisan. Nerfing Artisan is just a pain in the ass for us Artisan lovers, while buffing everything else lets those who want to use other stuff join us in the joy of Big Funny Numbers.

[@starplane1239]

I hear your point, but hear me out: you can make a scale weigh 500lb on both sides, but by then the scale will probably break. Making everything too powerful would just replace the problem with another problem.

[@imapopo2924]

Artisan is really good because of how much you can scale it up. You cant really fill a shed up with crab pots, after all... But you can bury several shed, your farm, and every available tile on the map that doesnt get walked on in kegs. So, yeah. I say buff everything else to make them competitive.

[@Adir-Yosef]

i kind of wish the crab pot profession in fishing would boost the reproduction rate of fish in fish ponds, could increase the money from Lava eels and blonfish

[@timohara7717]

crop spell gives 33.3~ more speed animal spell gives 33.3~ more speed tree spell gives 33.3~ MORE SPEED

[@RainAngel111]

Plus creating artisan goods kind of always needs to make more money than the raw materials because otherwise what is the point in doing the extra work? Creating artisan machines, putting ingredients in, waiting for them to finish, if the increase in profit was tiny then why bother?

[@cyrusbrown8454]

All stardew hotakes are lukewarm.

[@FelidaeEnjoyer]

It's simply too chill of a game - once you've memorised the wiki, at least

[@cinarynroll]

y’all are so real for this

[@timohara7717]

coold take

[@grittykitty24]

Some are hot but not usually the gameplay-related ones bc that's a solid aspect of the game. A hot take would be something like "concernedape cannot write a complex character to save his life and falls back on tired tropes and overdone clichés for practically all of stardews characters and it makes chosing between the marriage candidates a chore" or "it's weird that there are only two black people in this video game" or "tons of people have spoken out against the luau and how culturally insensitive it is but it has yet to be addressed even though changing it to something like a Community Cook Out would be incredibly easy" or "concernedape clearly doesn't want there to be a gender neutral player option even though being gay and transing your binary gender is as easy as paying 500 gold, and it's weird he won't make the change when his game is already queer and the dwarf is a gender neutral character" Hot takes are supposed to like. Make people mad. So you're right lmao a lot of them are just tepid opinions.

[@rich3836]

This is a cold take

[@murph3292]

"moss is useless" me making 400 thousand gold per week with mushroom logs and preserves jars: I have three tree farms dedicated to making moss, when you need it you NEED IT.

[@rmzing]

Oh yes. Mushroom Logs make all other ways of farming mushrooms obsolete. The Mushroom Cave is so underpowered now. ... come to think of it, the bat cave wasn't powerful, either. Both of those need a buff.

[@dingding7289]

@@rmzing honestly with mushroom cave coming with free dehydrator it helps make money early game, and fruit cave is just y1 bundle cope.

[@yakobsoulstorm5187]

@@dingding7289 It's good for kegs before you start farming in earnest.

[@xxleoproxx7495]

@@dingding7289the fruit cave is just half of CC is free and the Mushroom cave is just „you can get a few mushrooms and a free dehydrator but you have to go there daily, waste your time and much more“

[@Haexxchen]

@@rmzing Do the NEED to be powerful? For me they are early to mid game pushs to help you along and at some point they get decorated and forgotten.^^

[@roondar6141]

Honestly the salmonberries overlapping with the Desert Festival is fine with me, mostly because unless you are hyperfocused on unlocking the bus you're not getting to the Festival in Year 1, and by the time year 2 rolls around salmonberries don't have much use, you'll either have a stockpile of blackberries or have enough money to just buy salads or something

[@mirjanbouma]

Exactly. 👍🏼👍🏼

[@kateb6699]

counter-argument: hehehe picking salmonberries fun

[@evilgeniusha01]

Salmonberry jelly is a super cheap item that is at least liked by every villager except one.

[@ArdentMoogle]

Yep, getting it Y1 is insanely hard, unless you're clay farming with the legacy randomization. I found the overlap to be a non-issue.

[@AeonKnigh432]

Also the desert festival kinda sucks and is useless

[@jmtradbr]

I think he did that to artifact spots to make the artifact totem more appealing

[@gamingtime9716]

I don't think that's a bad idea, but the fact that it messes with the amount of mud the player gets can then become a problem. If the seed spots give you seeds *and* mud (much the way ginger island artifact spots often give you taro tubers or omni geodes in addition to something else) then I think they'd be more defensible

[@JechtNH]

And you also have the artifact loot boxes

[@anikadaimaginative3020]

My hot take is that min maxers have infested the internet and most of us irl play the game to have fun so we don’t care. I chose agriculturalist because I actually like all the other crops so I want to grow them faster to cook or decorate tables or roleplay being an actual farmer. My friend loves animals, and likes tailoring outfits for both himself and me (bro was literally panicking before the luau because he couldn’t make me a new bikini), so he chose shepherd. My sister just likes to decorate and doesn’t like working, so when I play with her, we’ll mod in millions of gold and items so she can decorate to her heart’s content.

[@authenticbaguette6673]

An actual hot take, at least.

[@ecamville2928]

RIGHT! It's not ABOUT making the maximum possible g/day. Maybe that's how SOME people play the game, but it seems like the min-max content is the only stuff that gets major views online, so that's the style of gameplay that's all over the internet. It's all about what's "better" and not what each person ENJOYS or finds fun. Yes, I know that technically, numerically, cranberries are the cash crop of fall. But buddy, I'm gonna have every crop on that little farm because I WANT to! I LIKE having a wide variety! It feels more fun that way!

[@mikaeruu0309]

a lot of these "x ruins the game!" takes can only happen if you're a minmaxxer. I'm approaching year 3 and I'm not even halfway done to perfection.

[@Huntanor]

​@@mikaeruu0309 A long time ago I was playing molded Mixcraft with a friend. He told me he hated computer craft and it made him want us to go back to vanilla. I said use other mods. He said I write code for a living. If I know one mod will make everything better, but I have to do work in the game to use it I'll always feel like I have to use it and the game will become work. Running every game like a economic simulator were buzz terms from buisness school matter makes the game work. I'm already doing cost return analysis in my real life to find time to play. I Don't need to do the same in a cozy farming game when I just want to plant broccoli because I like broccoli.

[@darkenedvision4709]

Agreed

[@Capybara982]

You can use vinegar on trees to stop moss growing on trees if you don't like moss on trees.

[@TheHumanPerson9753]

Didn’t know that cool

[@digifreak90]

And, you can actually make vinegar now. If you put rice in a Keg you get 2 vinegar.

[@dullicecream]

Omg thank you for this. I have a mod that changes how the trees look but it hasn’t been updated to account for trees with moss, so it always clashes…

[@idlegameplayer3756]

⁠@@digifreak90why on earth would he add that it's relatively cheap year-round from pierre, you need to grow rice which like nobody does, and you use kegs which would be better used on crops just to make something with like 3 uses total

[@Maru-et6of]

oh thank you so so much for that info, i really dont like the visual of moss

[@Maybe614]

How do people say a certain crop is useless? i don't get it, is it all about money? it's so nice having new crops in the game, they do not need to be op

[@darknesswave100]

Especially ones you don't even have to pay for

[@Emma-rw8yo]

I think part of it is more opportunity cost. It's nice they're free but you still make more money with a lot of paid seeds. Why plant these ones when my farm space, amount of time spent harvesting and potentially watering, resources for sprinklers and such, are limited? To be completely fair I would like if more crops in general had a reason to choose them over the good money crops

[@MissRora]

I just wish I could cook with them. Tempura broccoli, carrot cake, squash noodles, powdermelon sorbet... It would be nice if they got to be more than just selling fodder.

[@Kidneyjoe42]

Crops don't need to be OP. But they should serve a purpose. Like being used in a useful dish or being a loved gift for someone or something like that. That said, these being free, available year 1, and providing good energy already makes them more useful than stuff like artichokes.

[@theblackwidower]

I'm baffled too. Why I don't like min-maxers. They suck all the fun out of a game.

[@sihyunnie]

the seaniedew drive-by at "cindersnap" absolutely sent me LMAO 2:09

[@HeroGamingFan]

Can you explain it? I don't know who he is and I've heard him brought up in some stardew content before

[@perrydaplatypus2667]

@@HeroGamingFanhe makes a lot of good stardew content, the jab is that it’s Cindersap Forest not CinderSNAP, which lots of people it cindersnap cuz of seanie

[@wonderlandzer0]

5:40 I don't think Artisan should be nerfed per say, I think Rancher needs to be SEVERELY buffed. Even with the new animal focused farm, the Meadows Farm, Rancher still holds no merit to Artisan when all animal products sell for more with Artisan and you get better crop profit anyway. Personally, I think to make Rancher better, Animal Products should be worth 30-40% more for the initial choice. Then for the second part, Coopmaster and Shepherd should be combined into 1 and be called Animal/Beast Master and then a new Choice that would be maybe called Farm Hand or Carpenter and the recipes to make artisan goods from animal products materials are cut in half. Or, like you said, the second choice is specific to animal artisan goods and the Artisan Profession only affects kegs, preserve jars, and the fish smoker. Idk, just some thoughts and I would love to hear what other people think!

[@slwrabbits]

That's a nicer way to put it! I take rancher exclusively to pet bunnies. Everyone nods and just says, but you'd make more money with artisan. If I wanted to just make money, I would not be playing this game.

[@washuai]

Eh, fish are an animal, if you're gonna split it, the smoker should go that way.

[@rainsparks29]

Agreed! The best use of animals atm is pigs for truffle oil, which, you guessed it, is buffed by artisan. Giving other animal products way more mileage with rancher and its branches, and maybe making truffle oil only benefit from it and not artisan, would help the issue. (And yeah, we did get golden crackers which helps the animal balance eventually! But not sure it's quite enough)

[@wonderlandzer0]

@@washuai fair, but fish are also their own category, and honestly, I was surprised the extra buff didn't go to overall fishing. The artisan buff just felt like a bonus

[@orionstokesweiss2344]

@@rainsparks29 That is not...at all true actually. If you use animals efficiently Ostriches outcompete ancient fruit, and basic chickens are incredibly close per tile used(including more than enough space to access buildings) even before using animal crackers. Golden chickens are 3x as profitable as ancient fruit even before golden crackers. Rancher is more than balanced if people who don't know what they are talking about stop pushing pigs

[@minkmania12]

I absolutely agree with the golden joja bird being an accessibility feature. I'm never doing the simon says puzzle ever egain !

[@sheepgrass500]

Same omg!! I always film it on my phone because theres like no other way i'm completing it 😭😭😭

[@spellbinder3113]

@@sheepgrass500 lol I do the same.

[@kaoru9829]

oh my god thank you for saying the ginger island walnuts and perfection skips are accessibility options!!!! I have really bad short term memory and in the hundreds of hours ive played stardew for, ive never been able to complete the simon says crystal minigame in the hidden cave. I was SO happy when i found out you can now just buy any leftover walnuts!!!

[@SunsetTwist]

I mean you can just record it with your phone and replay it, but honestly I’d be shocked to find other people can actually do it without recording 😭

[@NotAFanOfHandles]

@@SunsetTwist TIL people record it and replay it... why didn't I think of that? 🤦 I always relied on replaying it until it slowed down and then eventually got lucky with simpler patterns. I've played Simon mini-games in other games before (ex: WoW has two versions - one in the Outlands from the Burning Crusade xpac and one from The Darkmoon Faire's Dance game to get the Dance Dance Darkmoon) but Stardew Valley's was much, _much_ harder than them.

[@theactualrocketonin]

i also need the perfection skips because i refuse to kill shadow monsters for krobus. i learned he said “you haven’t killed any of my friends, have you?” if you kill any of them so i’ve basically been dodging them ever since 😭 but perfection requires the monster eradication goals so i’m glad he added the perfection skips

[@Khaizen10]

@@SunsetTwistwell I did it without recording and with practice it isn’t too hard.

[@ecamville2928]

@@Khaizen10 That's very cool for you! As Kaoru said, though, some folks have a lot more trouble with short term memory. Some people will be able to practice and memorize, some people won't. Every player will play differently!

[@ecamville2928]

I think your note about messing up people's routines is key here. I haven't played the game in a couple of years. YEARS. I came back just this week, NUMEROUS updates later. I haven't done the min-maxxing, the perfection seeking, any of that. I'd never even heard of clay farming. I'm not here to crunch numbers til my jaw aches, you know? I'm here to play a silly little farming game. And because of that, because I'm not getting a wrench thrown into any routines I had established and I'm starting a whole new save file, it just feels like a really fun expansion on a game I already loved but had kind of stagnated a little. The first time I had a green rain event, for example, I just about lost my damn mind. I LOVED IT

[@rmzing]

The free machines are a neat little addition. The free fish smoker with the Riverlands farm legitimately makes it a great option for a strong Spring Year 1, while the free dehydrator with the mushroom cave is the only reason why it's not absolutely irrelevant anymore. But, come to think of it, both farm cave options now are underpowered. Bat cave is too inconsistent, and the mushroom cave is dwarfed by literally every other mushroom farming option in the game, blown way out of proportion by the new mushroom logs.

[@Sina-dv1eg]

How can two options that directly compete and have no cost *both* be underpowered?

[@rainsparks29]

Not underpowered in comparison to each other, but in comparison to everything else in the late game

[@nickbeckner2389]

Well they're both entirely passive so you could honestly just use the caves for kegs, furnaces, etc. That way you could just treat it as a separate shed room if you wanted, especially the mushroom one since you can also still farm it with machines covering tiles

[@orionstokesweiss2344]

@@rainsparks29 That's the sneaky part. They aren't a lategame thing. They give a little boost, especially to a newer player, for free. Iirc there are a total of 3 permanent choices the player makes. Farm type, Joja Vs. CC, and cave. Most of the options are meant to be a little different but not force a player to one or another option. This update put a lot towards balancing out CC and Joja. The farms are different but a lot more of a choice now than unique vs objectively correct. The cave should be underwhelming lategame. Everything is underwhelming before the raw power of a farm that takes hundreds of iridium bars, batteries, and millions in investment funds every season, plus several hundred casks crammed into every nook and cranny that can be found. Every low investment activity has a low return, just like nearly every high investment activity has a high return. That being said I would adore of the foraging mastery actually gave you the option to upgrade the cave, maybe put in bat feeders or seed exclusive mushroom types. But low reward for no investment seems perfectly fair for now

[@galappy]

I’m so happy you can get mastery unlocks without needing more XP in that specific skill once you reach 10. I mean leveling up foraging is already enough of a pain. Maybe I’m doing something wrong but I had several full 999 stacks of wood before I hit level 10 foraging and I didn’t even have the 25% extra wood profession. I’d much rather be fishing, mining, farming, etc. than chopping down 100 trees a day just to get access to mystic trees which I probably won’t even need at that point and will only be used for crafting for perfection.

[@animeotaku307]

I feel the same about combat. It’s already a chore to max out.

[@MissRora]

@@animeotaku307 On the plus side, Monster Musk makes that one much less painful than it used to be.

[@jason2mate]

I feel if you are getting level 10 foraging that late, it might be either not picking up foragables or not removing your Large Stumps/Large Logs and getting hardwood soon enough, each of these being a decent chunk of XP that can more quickly get you to 10 foraging (just the large stumps themselves in secret woods is 150 XP per day, the equivalent of about 11 trees)

[@jemsuper]

Foraging xp comes mostly from you know, foraging and collecting stuff from the ground. Not by mindlessly breaking trees

[@velvetbutterfly]

Trees are kinda a slow way to level up. If you want fast levels just plant seasonal seeds, harvest, make more seasonal seeds, plant those. You can reach level 10 in spring 1 if you get lucky enough

[@mertaksac9718]

Salmonberries being at the same time as desert festival is absolutely fine. You don't have access to the desert in Y1, and you don't need salmonberries after Y1

[@maudlife]

But what if I like gathering salmonberries and filling piles of barrels with them?

[@-Quseynnn-]

​@@maudlifewell like you said its probably just you

[@callmealx]

I think y2 isthe best time to get salmonberries! By that point, you've probably hit level 10 foraging, so that's at least 3 salmonberries instead of 1, and depending on the profession, iridium salmonberries are a legitimately good food.

[@emurphy42]

After y1, salmonberries are still great for Prismatic Grange. You can substitute strawberries or cranberries, though, as by that point your main income is probably from processing cauliflower and up.

[@-Quseynnn-]

@@callmealx For me personally I usually have enaugh food by year 2 (for example cheese, spicy meal etc.) but tbh you are right about that they're pretty good once you get iridium ones

[@Jhud69]

My SDV hot take is that whenever people act like some characters like Pierre, Lewis or Clint are like, Literally Satan I wonder how they handle characters in literally any other media.

[@LandOLakesYellowAmerican]

Not well, I’m sure.

[@mikaeruu0309]

Tbh I adjust my handling to what type of media I'm watching at the moment. In a game like Stardew, I will throw tomatoes at Clint for being weird and incel-ish. But in a show where there's exaggerate stuff going on left and right, I'm sometimes even found having googoo eyes for an animated serial killer. I assume for most people it's like this; how they treat "bad" characters is relative to the kind of show or game the series in question is. I don't treat Clint the same as I treat, say, Shidou from MILGRAM. And only one of these two is a murderer!

[@123890antonioj]

​@@mikaeruu0309 Seconded. Basically a thorn sticks out more on a sofa than it does on a pin-cushion

[@mikaeruu0309]

@@123890antonioj yup, it's all relatively compared to others. Series where everything in the world is outlandish = outlandish bad people can be cool Series where people are mostly realistic = realistic bad people stick out as sucking more I also figure that them sucking in ways real people suck plays part of it. A person who commits fictional mass murder by killing strangers on a street with outlandish superpowers won't strike you as negatively as Josh, from the corner, who acts eerily similar to that one horrible ex you had

[@m.ceniza4688]

I am still baffled that some players think Elliot, who is your fiancee at this point, committed sexual assault by kissing you. Sexual assault.

[@cat8324]

broccoli isn't pointless, because it's my favourite vegetable

[@mrcoldmiser]

Here here!

[@makaylamari3641]

just from the amount of free summer squash seeds I can find I can use those as food for like my whole first year once I get them, I was so shocked when I found out people find the new seeds useless

[@derdork3233]

If people want a different parrot to appear when they took the community center route, the parrot(or junimo, whatever) should demand rare, hard to get stuff. Like a specific iridium quality wine, aged roe of a specific fish, a certain artifact etc. Because if people think just using money (the joja way) is too easy, they should work for it.

[@lilyyoung1002]

That would be interesting

[@kingchloris2]

I remember doing a really good skull cavern run and getting like 10000 mastery exp in one day, thinking it was easy, just to remember that’s probably not something everyone can do. Plus the amount of prep to get a skull cavern day like that isn’t small either so I like how mastery is

[@michaelhgravesjr9608]

It is absolutely bonkers to me that Artisan stacks with Angler when talkng about smoked fish. With that addition, it now requires more than fifty Ancient Fruit to equate to my profit from one day of summer fishing. Year 1. It actually gets WORSE year 2 and onward because I have reliable nigh-infinite access to crafted tackle by that point, which I generally don't in year one.

[@hallaloth3112]

I had a ton of fun with smoking fish when my husband and I played through the new update after it came out. I'm the fisher (he hates it) so it was easy to just portion out coal and drop my haul off each night (played with some mods, Automate helped with this a ton). While it obviously will never actual revial Artisan done all out, or farming done to the Max. . .its a nice little cash flow in the background. Especially if you're just finishing for quests/fish you don't have yet.

[@christina4914]

6:27 "Imagine you wanted to focus on crab pots, but instead of choosing the crab pots profession, you chose the fishing one. Insanity." This describes my playstyle, and I have a good set of justifications! The Trapper "price decrease" for crafting crab pots (3 iron ingots -> 2 copper) isn't actually helpful once you've put down dozens or hundreds of crab pots, since iron is one of the products you get from recycling trash. I use the recycled products (wood, coal, iron ore) to craft more crab pots. The Mariner removal of "junk" isn't helpful to me because one of the benefits of crab pots is renewable refined quartz, iron, wood, and coal. And the cost of bait (which Luremaster removes) is trivial compared to the Angler's 50% increase in fish sell price (which includes crab pot fish and snails).

[@chaosstripe9446]

The perfection waivers should not be locked to Joja route. That's because if it is, then the Joja route becomes way cheaper than the Community Center route, which is literally opposite the intention in game design. Allow me to explain further: FIt is cheaper to buy waivers than build the buildings from the wizard. More specifically, it is cheaper for the desert and island obelisks, as well as the golden clock. Each obelisk is worth 1% of perfection, but the beach and island obelisks each cost 1,000,000g. Two perfection waivers provide the same 2% of perfection as the obelisks, but for a total of 1,000,000g. The gold clock is even more noticable in difference, as it is 10,000,000g for 10% of perfection. Ten perfection waivers is only 5,000,000g. Basically, in all these cases, the waivers are a 50% reduction in price. Not to mention the savings on resources for the obelisks. To put this in reference: To complete the Joja Membership is 140,000g. The Vault CC bundle is 42,500g, making the Joja route 97,500g more expensive than the CC. The perfection waivers save a total of 6,000,000g. That would mean if perfection waivers were route specific, it would make the Joja route cost 5,902,500g *less* than the CC route.

[@irregularstuff5290]

About salmonberry season: good thing is that salmonberries don't despawn right after their season passes. They're still there, so you can easily get to the festival for three days and get salmonberries the next day. Did it first two springs, definitely recommend.

[@rmzing]

Salmonberry season lasts four days. Also, my game crashed on Spring 18 and I realized all the salmonberries that grew the first three days were gone. So I had a very pitiful salmonberry season my Year 2, being so focused on the Desert Festival.

[@irregularstuff5290]

@@rmzing oh. Thanks, I somehow thought it was only three days

[@meh8982]

"Mastery" to me just seems like a nice acknowledgement for all the work you will do anyway after achieving 10 in every skill.

[@sgtpaintbrush]

I'm so glad for the walnut bird. I have major problems with memorization so the ginger island puzzle is hell for me.

[@ladyofthewittyremark]

i cheese it by recording each one as a video on my phone and then rewatching over and over. takes a lot longer but it lets me actually complete the puzzle!

[@driverjayne]

I literally have to dedicate an entire in game day to it, sleep on the island, wake up, straight to the cave, play until it finally realized I'm an idiot and slows down enough for me to keep up. It takes all day. I hate it so much. It's the last thing I do for perfection.

[@percymarshall2479]

I think the walnut bird is a cheap shortcut but if it helps people have fun that would otherwise be rage-inducing or tedious, I'm glad people have an option

[@DarchrowTheEnigma]

Moss is overloaded because there isn't much use for it. YET. Maybe in the future we can do something with it. I just let it infest my trees, especially in the desert for some reason lol My desert is filled with mossy trees and its somewhat satisfying to see a greenish desert

[@Salty-lady-cakes]

Bahaha I didn’t know it grew in the desert!

[@youmukonpaku3168]

greening the desert, huh? Well I've done everything else, might as well go be Liet Kynes of Pelican Town.

[@DarchrowTheEnigma]

@@Salty-lady-cakes me either at first! I just started growing trees there for the syrups, then completely forgot about it after few days. When I get back to the desert, everything was mossified LOL

[@PeterTeal77]

Between treasure totems, mushroom logs, and blue grass it's crazy to me that people think moss is useless.

[@EspeonMistress00]

Was Deluxe bait not a thing yet?

[@aaronginsberg4993]

I have two lukewarm 1.6 takes: 1. Fiddlehead Fern trees shouldn't spawn in Summer 1 during the green rain event unless the log in front of the secret woods has been removed. 2. The iridium reward for SquidFest should be the fishing related Jewels of the Sea instead of the crab pot related Art O' Crabbing.

[@nyromath2195]

On the topic of Joja on Ginger Island, Joja being portrayed as the bad guys throughout the game also perfectly communicates to new players that you're not really supposed to use the Joja options, they're there as the kinda cheaty way, and you'll be missing the more complete experience by not doing it normally. It allows the option for players to do the walnut hunt/perfection differently, while still encouraging players to do them how they were originally intended.

[@aerialapexgamer3121]

I think it could be interesting if by taking the Community Center route, the Joja Parrot is replaced with a Junimo on a parrot or something, and you can fill out small bundles to get certain walnuts. Maybe not all of them, but some of them. Particularly the ones dropped at random from like fishing, the mussel stones, drops in the mines, etc. And each bundle would be kind of vague as to not immediately give away where the walnuts are gotten. It would be incredibly weird to implement, but I like how thematic it could be

[@88porpoise]

I think the mastery system is great. I just think it isn't what a lot of people were expecting / hoping to get. A lot of people (in particular, the people more likely to follow Stardew content and make comments) wanted a long term thing that keeps progression going well after the current main progression is done (unlocked the Walnut Room). But I also understand there is a balance of locking content beyond beedlessly excessive slogs for most players but being lasting for more serious players.

[@suspecm6316]

My first thought is that the seed spots replace artifact spots as a sort of shortcut to program them in. If you don't think much about it it'd be wild to think that it's a good thing but thinking about it a bit deeper, it shortcuts having to program another system that's basically identical to the current artifact spot system and they'd have to deal with edge cases like what happens when an artifact and a seed spot spawns on the same tile. It's a good shortcut that probably saved tens of hours of headache for the team but the artifact spots should have definitely been made more common.

[@NebulaIsMundane]

Wonderful video! I’m at the end of Summer in Year 2 in my 1.6 play through. I’ve already unlocked two of the five mastery slots, and I’m excited to get the rest!

[@Smulenify]

I think seed spots should be removed completely. I think the seeds should be exclusive to the racoon wife shop, or a drop in the mines (fishing, trash, etc.). I also think a package of carrot seeds could be sent to the player after buying the horse stable, as a way of showing the player that carrots + horse = awesome. I got so many seeds early on in the game and I didn't even have proper time to plant them because I'm busy with the crops I actually need first year anyways. Buying them instead of being bombarded with them might make them feel more worthwhile getting too.

[@Quintingent]

Oh wow, wasn't expecting to see my comment *again* haha! Already said my piece in the previous vid, but just wanna reiterate that my point was not that the crops themselves are useless (they're *free* after all), but that their role in the game already existed via mixed seeds. Regardless, great video as always! :)

[@Adder6112]

Anyone else just use tea saplings as Indestructible fences?

[@MsLinaTina]

Yes. I find it very handy.

[@orionstokesweiss2344]

Isn't that what lightning rods are for?

[@driverjayne]

​@@orionstokesweiss2344lightening rod, machines, kegs, random crap Gunther gives me. There's no shortage of stuff to use as fences that don't break down

[@orionstokesweiss2344]

@@driverjayne I just hit year2 a couple days ago and am hurting for batteries so bad lol. Suddenly every fence on my farm has been replaced with em' and it still just isn't enough. Machines I can fit in sheds, but there's no way I want to let a single lightning strike slide

[@nanami464]

what is wrong with you

[@jidem4495]

to be fair i think that the 25% replacement of artefacts spots by seed spot synergize REALLY well with the foraging mastery. that totem is really worth it

[@driverjayne]

Is it? By the time it's unlocked you've probably already completed the museum and the artifact spots are useless anyway.

[@jidem4495]

@@driverjayne i feel like you are really underestimating how difficult finishing the museum can be

[@driverjayne]

@jidem4495 I generally finish it right after the community center, first year. Sometimes you get one item that is difficult but you just brute force it with artifact troves from the desert trader

[@animehuntress9018]

I'm happy for the parrot. I can't beat the rhythm game and that is the only walnuts I can't get. I CAN'T get those walnuts because of how the game works. The tones are hard for me to discern and the crystals don't light up enough so I've never gotten perfection after the islands update because of that 1 thing. It a FUN thing so I'm happy that it's in both routes. I'm far from the only one who has that issue as well.

[@aarondavid826]

Yeah I hate that mini game too, my memory sucks.

[@nathanblackburn1193]

I mean Salmonberries are near worthless anyway and the odds of the average player getting access to the desert year 1 (when Salmonberries are most useful) is extremely unlikely, it's not a problem. Here a kinda hot take, the mushroom cave is objectively worse than the fruit bat cave, you get 6 always basic quality mushrooms every other day and a dehydrator compared to the fruit bat cave which with the Botanist profession gives iridium quality fruits (and sometimes double fruit) which aside from salmonberries, blackberries and apricots all sell for more than every mushroom other than purple mushrooms, the addition of mushroom logs pretty much invalidates the cave entirely and you HAVE to collect the mushrooms every other day or else you lose profit whereas the fruit bat cave you can just check after a few weeks, and 1 free dehydrator is not enough to change that.

[@mpbMKE]

Yep, I'm a salmonberry vinter. My father was also a salmonberry vinter. My grandfather was a salmonberry vinter, as well. I bet you can't guess what my great-grandfather was...

[@PejorativeDaedal]

People complain about the dumbest things that they got essentially for free. Hats costing 20k is too expensive? Thats like a few smoked fish worth tho.. All the complaints felt like they only tried the new update for a few ingame days and have not actually tapped into the potential of it. Didnt even bother to test with due diligence. Especially the "Moss" part being useless, just clearly shows they have not tried using mystic tree setups in the quarry and/or train tracks, with sheds full of dehydrators, whilst having the tapper skill and selling mystic syrup on the side, its low maintenance due to only requiring to be harvested every now and then. No need for resupplying. These and the smokers are my top earning goods right now.

[@emma-janeulmer438]

I think with hats the issue is that the only reason they exist is for fun. So why make the for-fun thing that doesn't have any impact on the game otherwise more expensive?

[@PejorativeDaedal]

@@emma-janeulmer438 its not like you can only get hats from the hat shop. Its a gold sink for a reason. And not even much of a sink. By the time you unlock the most expensive hats from the npc, you can already comfortably afford it or own some other hats that you can wear before you can buy them. Its a cosmetic item that does nothing other than vanity. Its the players choice either to spend it on seeds for practical use or indulge on a new hat and having a sense of accomplishment by being able to finally afford it.

[@Vinyl_DjPon3]

I actually came up with a balance suggestion for the Artisan part not too long ago, because people on the Discord server were talking about. My Take: The issue isn't that the 40% on artisan is too strong, it's that it impacts too much. Solution: Remove all animal related products from artisan (cheese, cloth, mayo, etc) and give the level 10 Animal related perks a 40% Animal Product value increase.

[@gregariosity]

I feel like all that would do is prevent people from dealing with animals at all. Making wine would still be the most efficient moneymaker, so you’d just change the animal products from a supplementary option to a waste of time and space in comparison. Even if you also buffed rancher to compensate, you’d end up being forced to focus on only crops or animals instead of a mixture of both

[@saram404]

I didnt notice the giant trees werent there before until now lmao i thought they always were and i just didnt see them.

[@thecataking6933]

The big issue i have with the new crops falls mainly on the squash and broccoli. I dont need another regrowable crop that pales in comparison to blueberries/cranberries, on top of that isnt loved by anyone in the game, isn’t even included in the polyculture achievement (it's really weird, you only have to ship one of the new crops), and it isn't used in any food recipes. Carrots are good for eating and powder melons are good for winter, but the other 2 just take up space in my opinion.

[@AquamentusZero]

I thoroughly enjoyed pretty much everything about the 1.6 update. New crops are always welcome - and be it just for the sake of variation on your farm. New raw materials to work with - Yes, please! Let me explore the world of crafting again! New festivals (and the old ones getting remixed every 2nd year) - Sure, why not! I love festivals! I'm a bit disappointed that the player still not allowed to cook a steak at home or make hot dogs, but that's my personal portion of meh about this game. And one thing I would really, REALLY like to see is something perhaps very minor: The player can have a telephone! Allow the player to call mom or dad! You only ever hear of them in a precious few letters and then never again! Let the player call their parents!

[@violet7773]

My hot take is that mystery boxes are too common and way too OP. I have so many that whenever I make a geode-opening trip to Clint's, even after a skull caverns trip, I have more mystery boxes than geodes. I now have hundreds of deluxe speed gro that I got exclusively from mystery boxes (and its easier to craft anyway because of the recipe change) along with hundreds of quality fertiliser (whose recipe now gives 2 per fish/2sap instead of 1)

[@JoyceW-Art]

I find the new crops very useful in the mines, they heal up a lot of energy and health! Especially helpful when you just start with mining.

[@ry3bread35]

THANK U FOR MENTIONING HOW SEANIE SAYS CINDERSNAP INSTEAD OF CINDERSAP I H8 IT SM ITS NOT A GINGERSNAP COOKIE ITS SAP LIKE TREE SAP DUH

[@ecamville2928]

The funny thing is, I've never even heard of Seanie, I just misread the map. I thought it was CindersNap because I'm dumb, apparently, lol

[@nickcampbell5626]

My hot take is that the prices of Joja and Pierre should be swapped. Everyone keeps talking about how cheap Joja is, but there's no reason to shop there expect maybe Wednesday when your farm is new.

[@sharievans2247]

I love that you spoke about Pomni when seeing the jester hat. Love that show

[@XMeister5]

Concerning hats, don't forget all the new free hats added in 1.6, also you can get free furniture and shirt drops too! I'm just doing a playthrough to see how much freebies I can collect!

[@fgvcosmic6752]

3:20 Carrots are _overpowered_ in Spring 1. They make energy management _trivial_

[@zumgvaclwngmepfn3066]

9:07 Sir, I kindly request that you click on the grass in your menu and summon your junimo instead of forcing it to stay a ghost like some kind of monster.

[@llukelcs]

My hot take (not that hot, but oh well): As a huge Terraria fan, I wish the meowmere was available much earlier, because getting it at floor 100th of the mines makes the sword almost useless for most playthroughs as you'll probably get the galaxy sword right after.

[@the_rabidsquirel]

I think the method of obtaining is fine, it fits very thematically, but what could be done is just buffing the sword's stats. A 20 damage sword at floor 100 and requiring an ancient doll is just pathetic.

[@1ben994]

I just use it to transmog over my infinity sword. but yeah I would have also preferred it to be more useful than an easter egg

[@llukelcs]

@@the_rabidsquirel yeah, I think that would be better, because thenatically it is perfect haha the sword could just be stronger

[@jamesdinius7769]

Here's what I'd do with the issue of Artisan vs Coopmaster/Shepard. 1) The Artisan nerf: Artisan only boosts Jelly, Pickles, Juice, and Wine/Alcahol. No Animal products. 2) Coopmaster increases the value of all Coop animal products, including artisan versions. 3) Shepard does the same for Barn animal products, including Truffles and Truffle Oil. Make all value increases 40% (in line with Artisan). This way the professions actually encourage you to specialize. Also, buff Tiller to give a reduced growth time on crops, so the power of that path is more in line with the existing Shepard/Coopmaster bonuses.

[@Anska5126]

These sound like good ideas but I do have a few questions and pointers: - What about the fishing buff with Artisan Aged Roe and Artisan Smoked Fish? I've gotten really attached to Smoked Fish as a money maker even if it does eat all my coal within days - If Tiller gets the Agriculturalist 10% growth speed reduction when what will the other Level 10 Crop related skill be? - Where would Honey come under from bees? Flower Honey is also an Artisan Good and my Ginger Island farm with over 400 beehouses is making me a killer fortune every 4 days Which leads quite nicely into my own hot take: You can use Golden Animal Crackers on Fish Ponds so we should be able to use them on Beehouses too for a Double Honey Harvest

[@Yenly4game]

having Salmon berry season on the same date as Calico fest is fine tbh. Berries are important in Y1 but not the following years. Then there are not that plenty of people unlocking the bus on Y1 spring. Those who can are already proficient minmaxing that they wouldn't even need salmon berry

[@izelthewashbear]

Wow, having my hot take in a video made me feel kinda silly about it xd I agree with what you mean, and despite what I said I still think mastery is a really good addition. The only issue I really have with it, which I don't think was adressed here, is not with how quickly you unlock them - more so with how quickly you complete them. Having the exp requirement get bigger and bigger made me expect that getting new mastery levels would take a lot of time, while it really didn't. Even so, I still really like this system ^^

[@craftypacaderm2095]

I honestly adore the new green sprouty spots! The treasure totem seems like it justifies the change honestly, though I have never been a fan of the artifact spots. Now they actually feel fun to find lol

[@Phatnaru0002]

I don't mind clay farming being removed as a glitch, but we need an alternate source of clay

[@purpleberry3564]

Ginger Island? You can farm clay in there.

[@driverjayne]

I don't understand what everyone uses their clay for. I always have so much of it from artifact spots. I get like a full stack my first year and then never go through it

[@Nocmora]

with the mastery system (the artifact spot summoning thing in particular), you can just go to the desert and get insane amounts of clay (especially with generous enchant on the hoe!). I get around 200 clay per every 15 of those totems and that is more than enough (if you use SVE, this becomes even easier due to all the extra desert space)

[@Nocmora]

@@driverjaynei personally use a ton of clay on pots (for hops and pineapples in sheds) and the deluxe retaining soil (for ginger island, the greenhouse and the pots), and that requires a looot of clay farming

[@mycraftdiaryy]

We already do have alternate source though, there’s clay nodes on ginger island at the dig site and they fill up every few in game days. Of course depending on how long you take to unlock ginger island, that can take a while..

[@elirdz05]

If you plant the summer squash on Day 1 and you're lucky enough to get a gold quality one... that's the one thing you have to bring to Luau

[@ThatDiabeticChemist]

I was annoyed about the artifact spots changing to seed spots too, but weirdly enough I completed the museum faster than I ever have and with very few artifact troves. Maybe I just got lucky?

[@empzxz]

i think the seed drop chance should change based on artifact completion. early in the game, artifact spots are v useful. i’m in y4 at this point and only take the seed spots because i like growing different crops. make it scale from like 10-30% during progression

[@_frogerino]

with the desert festival, the issue is that any character can have a stall at random, so it cannot fall on anyone’s birthday or you could miss the chance to give them a gift

[@KudaKeileon]

My hot take: don't act like completing the Community Center in Year 1 is a good thing, let alone a goal. The reason is simple: Kent isn't there yet, and you miss out on a HUGE friendship buff with him.

[@maribunns1619]

as a newer player who was unfamiliar with things before the 1.6 update and didn't know clay farming was removed UNTIL NOW 5 MONTHS LATER I DO NOT KNOW HOW I MISSED THIS

[@jmtradbr]

Perfection is more annoying than hard. Crafting and cooking especially.

[@jmtradbr]

I only did perfection once when 1.5 released. Tried again in 1.6 and I got bored.

[@emurphy42]

​@@SimuLordI've done it a few times, I think it depends how much grinding you incorporate early. Planting extra trees for wood and oak resin. Stockpiling stuff for a while and then burning through a bunch of crafting/cooking at once. (Or if you prefer, doing one or two a day; I keep meaning to try that approach, and then never actually getting around to it.) On my Meadowlands save, by the time I had nothing left but the clock, I think I could've just finished with waivers right away (but I didn't).

[@emurphy42]

@@SimuLord Ideally, you set up the money engine(s) early enough and fast enough that the late game grind (for the clock, or whatever else takes you the longest) lasts a minimal amount of time. I'm still not an expert at striking that balance, but I've gotten somewhat better at it. Failing that, once you're in that grind, there's probably something you can do to speed it up a little. Craft more kegs/jars, replicate a bunch of diamonds, etc., or collect more resources to be able to do those things at greater scale. If you're not into flooding the island farm with ancient fruit, then maybe it's time to buy a few more barns and flood the main farm with truffles. Some people don't bother with oil makers (especially with Botanist), but with Artisan it's still like a 15% buff, and that adds up if you're cranking out dozens of bottles a day.

[@sqrrl]

broccoli catching unwarranted strays, respect the GOAT. the my only grievances with broccoli are that it wasn't included until now and that it didn't get more utilized. i friggin love broccoli

[@SweetLittleBecky101]

For me, who is still to this day not particularly good at SkullCaverns I can't stress enough how much I love the Mastery System. For me it always felt like a loooong stretch to get to Ginger Island (which I consider the late-game content) and I'm so happy to have this filled with the Mastery System as a very fun and rewarding mid-game thing. It filled the year two-void for me, the time where it always a bit felt like "just another year one" but without the goal to collect all CC items, so even a bit more boring. All the other new content helped to ease the dull feeling too, for sure, but this was a new goal to work towards while waiting to get to the late game. And it does it perfectly. Something for everyone and you can choose the order to unlock it.

[@yumekoslefttoenail6746]

my stardew hot takes r: - lewis is a FUN character, i like this grubby politician!! (still wish u could run against him for mayor tho! maybe the election could take place during summer so u could hurt his campaign by embarrassing him at the luau) - robin and demetrius are still a good couple! they have some difficulties but every marriage does ! - maru, penny, shane, and elliot are the worst bachelors.. sorry not sorry. - fishing and mining are fun - u dont need to finish the community center before year 1. its ok to finish it at like year 5!!

[@themisfitowl2595]

Artisan takes the most patience to profit from. All the stuff you get from artisan takes at minimum a day to complete and at worst the entire season to get that Iridium quality wine. Plus it's pretty true to life that making products out of materials will always net you more than selling base materials. Nerfing artisan would seriously hurt! Boosting the other professions is fine, I'll still want my wine and jelly and truffle oil!

[@authenticbaguette6673]

Artisan is simply too powerful, though. I have always resorted tp the "spam kegs and wake up every tuesday to harvest ancient fruit and refill my kegs" strategy and I don't see any reason for that to change now that 1.6 is out. The other methods require more effort and more resources for less profit, plain inferior.

[@Nickle_King]

The only thing I kinda think is weird is the ticket win system. I do like it, but it has some, I feel, unintended consequences. Like how I've only moved into the valley a month ago, and I'm already in a position to marry Emily. On one hand, neat. I'm marrying best girl really early. On the other hand, that kind of speed kinda takes the romance out of the relationship. Which brings me to my hot take. The relationship requirements for marrying someone should be just as long as the requirements to get someone to be dateable. Also, there should be another set of post marriage goals you can/have to meet to keep your spouse happy, or just have some post-marriage content. Make more romantic interactions with your loved ones. It would be so sweet.

[@Bloodglas]

could make it more interesting by making each capture target become dateable/marriable at different levels. maybe some want to start dating early and take longer to get married, or maybe they could feel like if you're already dating you may as well just get married.

[@Nickle_King]

@@Bloodglas Capture target?

[@Bloodglas]

@@Nickle_King sorry, it's a term for the love interests.

[@Nickle_King]

@@Bloodglas Lol! But I agree with you. Having each individual have different views on what marriage is would also be a nice touch.

[@hallaloth3112]

Admittedly, we were playing with a couple minor mods (mostly automate is relevant to this anecdote) Mushroom logs are fun. We kept a small tree farm for resin/ect and shoved a handful of mushroom logs in between them. Every couple days would walk that haul over to the mushroom cave where I had put done a few extra dehydrators. Its not a TON of money, but like the Fish Smoker, its something different, and thats what I like about them.

[@Achelus]

Carrots are such a great addition early. I started a run where I wanted to mine, and carrots give so much energy to do so.

[@Anska5126]

I've been playing around with the 1.6 update for a while and I've got a few hot takes of my own - The Dehydrator is useless. It may take less time than a Preserve Jar or Keg but profits are generally far worse. Unless you have a super surplus of spares like from 300+ Blueberry crops or something and you don't have enough Preserve jars around the Dehydrator doesn't have much use. Even with Mushrooms and Mushroom logs and Mushroom caves. You can't input a variety of different things it all has to be all the same thing. And usually everything you get aren't all the same and the ones that are are too rare to spawn consistently like Magma Caps and Pickling them in Preserves Jars is just generally better anyway - Golden Animal crackers should be used on beehouses. As animals themselves I find it strange they got excluded from the Golden Animal cracker Buff but Fish in Fish Ponds didn't. We should be able to get Double Honey harvests we can stack off of Flower Honey Artisan prices

[@Iceecat123]

Finally someone else mentioned the capabilities of the Jester hat, you called exactly what I was gonna do

[@danielthompson392]

Regarding the new crops take Carrots: take 3 days to grow, and while you COULD sell them, a normal quality carrot is equivalent to a River Jelly in energy and health. Great for Y1 and the early game energy management Summer Squash: reharvestable, good to sell raw or pickled....and if you dont wanna fork over 5k for a Starfruit at the Luau for the "loved" response, it can be added for a "liked" response. Broccoli: havent tested it myself yet, but based on what Ive read, it could stand for some tweaks in either monetary value, energy/health value, or growth time. That said, it's a free crop, so if you wanna fill out field space.... Powdermelons: one of the lowest maintenance crops available, it doesnt even require watering (I think). Good to add some steady income through winter if you dont have a backlog of crops to process throughout the season.

[@authenticbaguette6673]

RE: The luau try gold quality sturgeon thank me later ;)

[@danielthompson392]

@@authenticbaguette6673 also a good choice, but depending on fishing level, not readily available. I personally go for something cheap but good quality (I.e. mayo)

[@IndiaHamilton445]

My body was not ready for the amazing digital circus reference 😂 I got to mastery somewhere in year 2 and was expecting a hard grind with those numbers...I hit all 5 mastery shortly after because I had a ginger island full of ancient fruit.

[@Snow146]

100% agree with the new crop worms replacing artifact spots. It's taken me so much longer to do the museum.

[@CynthiaMcG]

Pickled broccoli isn't too shabby as a health/energy supply. And I love freeze-dried powdermellon since the health and energy tonics became completely separate items that have to be taken together. Just don't freeze-dry the lava mushrooms. Just not worth the tradeoff.

[@christopherroberts2902]

I love how I knew exactly what you were referencing when you brought up seanie's degenerative influence 😅

[@ShadY94TV]

damn, I didn't know about the carrot making your horse faster. you said that like its a fact everyone has to know while I never even thought about it

[@frog_pogs]

i absolutely know i don’t need to pick salmonberries after year 1, but it really itches a part of my brain that makes it difficult to ignore for the desert festival

[@XMeister5]

I saw a comment about the berries staying on the bushes the day after, haven't confirmed myself yet but sounds interesting...

[@RainAngel111]

Dude I totally agree about the artifact spots. I usually don't care much at all about the extra crops, i just want to finish the museum. Just like you said it took me way longer in 1.6 to complete the library collection.

[@krystelbeaulieu-thibault3621]

i think the point of the new seed spots replacing the artifact spot is for us to use the treasure totem more often.

[@KayrBayr13]

The artifact spot one is interesting to me, since I feel I've been finding more artifact spots since the update. I guess I'm just bad at fi ding them...

[@SquareDarian]

I loved the addition of the mastery to the game cause it made me excited to work more on skills I love and make me get better at ones I hate. I am not a fishing girlie, but because of the mastery grind, I finally pushed myself to go and catch the legendary fish. Only 1 more to go

[@GameJam230]

For people who think Mastery was too fast, I have a feeling you’re also the kind of person to go on a several week long Minecraft binge with friends, get endgame gear and beat bosses and build farms to automate everything within 5 days, then complain that there’s nothing left to do and there’s no progression. And trust me, that’s not a criticism of you, it’s what I do too, but a game being played casually is VERY different from a game being played optimally. We’ve become complacent with just doing it fast because we’ve experienced everything so much that any progression added is just too easy for us, rather than playing the way we did at the start, making plenty of mistakes, exploring new lands, discovering new things constantly. Minecraft used to be a mysterious adventure before all else, and Stardew Valley was a slow and quiet comfort game. They still are, but we’ve begun to shortcut everything in the name of getting the satisfaction of completion sooner and sooner, and now they’re designed to be too slow for us to play the way they were intended.

[@Dojibu]

I'm curious about powder melons. Would using mixed seeds guarantee a free powdermelon if planted in winter? or would it die overnight?

[@zerikia1]

I kinda wish fishponds made the fish upgrade rarity now each year so you could combo with the fish smokers to make insane money from fish pond farms

[@adamori8207]

When i went to go for the "craft everything" part of perfection, I kept running out of moss, and I hadn't touched my stash since i started the file! It's one of those things that's there until you actually need it, then you can't find it anywhere.

[@shareb.8958]

salmonberry season and the desert festival overlapping is like a nonissue honestly. Unless you’re speed running the bus, none of us are getting to the desert spring y1. and what do you need salmonberries for y2?

[@travisretriever7473]

Re: rancher/coopmaster buffing all animal products by 50% so there is no question between that and artisan for farm animals. THANK YOU! Could not agree more.

[@DoesNotComphoot]

Broccoli, I found, fills the niche of pre-house upgrade food source fairly well, if you fall a bit behind on progression.

[@woodie232323]

I agree with the last one the nerf to artifact spots makes it so ridiculously hard and seeing the green tip spots just make me cry after the 2nd one I see in the new season

[@justlisa1599]

vinegar. CA heard my prayer and now i am free of that one cooking ingredient in the game that you had to purchase. thank you, CA but i was disappointed by how early in the game the mastery room was unlocked and the skills all accomplished. totally digging the iridium scythe, though. : )

[@buriedinbooks881]

I agree with the Joja bird and fizz should be joja specific when using money as the skipping mechanism. I believe that it could easily be done community center theme if the bird and fizz asked for greater amounts of resources instead of money if you shut down joja. Like instead of gold, the new parrot will go and find a walnut for you if you give it say 10 smoked fish, or 30 mangoes. Something like that

[@gbuttersland7757]

I managed to get mastery done by the end of year one(winter 16th or so), and I loved it for the most part. Foraging is still my bane

[@charmedrools1]

youtube really trying my adblockers patience rn. it's whitelisted but oh with two unskippable 30 seconds pre-rolls i'm so so tempted to black list it again

[@thedrawingquill2059]

My hot take is I'm sick of turning everything into an artisan goods. The smoker is probably my favorite addition as it cuts the "would it better to sell this as sashimi?" out of the question and also makes fishing as a viable money source way longer. But with everything that's a processed product being turned into an artisan good it pretty much means that even if you want to focus on fishing you have to pick the artisan profession to make it go hard. The suggestion of boosting rancher is good, but I also feel like tiller and agriculturist should also get a boost. Because kegs don't care about quality, it means you just produce as much of whatever you're making into wine as possible. Having the agriculturist branch focus more on making higher quality crops selling for more or something would encourage you to grow more vegetables since they generally have a higher selling price without processing. Choosing to dedicate the space on your farm to a bunch of buildings for kegs and preserves jars vs choosing to truly dedicate your farm to crop growth should be a big choice. Especially since so many farms make it a point that this one isn't optimal for crop growth as if just growing crops was a long term strategy