Stardew Valley professions can completely change what your farm is good at. There are five skills and thirty profession choices, but you do not need to overthink every level-up. These are the routes I usually take, the alternatives worth considering, and the point where changing your professions actually makes sense.
Watch my original YouTube video for the gameplay demonstration, or jump to the section you need. The written guide includes corrections and additions for Stardew Valley 1.6.
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Best Stardew Valley professions at a glance
My default choices suit a mixed farm that processes crops, fishes for income and mines for resources. A specialist farm can justify different choices; pick the benefit you will actually use.
| Skill | Level 5 → Level 10 | Why I choose it |
|---|---|---|
| Farming | Tiller → Artisan | Strong income from processed crops and animal goods |
| Fishing | Fisher → Angler | Reliable fish sale income; Pirate is the treasure alternative |
| Mining | Miner → Prospector | More ore and help with the constant coal shortage |
| Foraging | Gatherer → Botanist | Quality forage and valuable truffles |
| Combat | Fighter → Brute | A straightforward damage route for ordinary melee play |
Farming: Tiller, Artisan and the specialist alternatives
Farming is the backbone of most of my money-making plans. You get farming experience from harvesting crops and caring for animals, but not from planting or watering crops. Keep that in mind if you do play in co-op. Once you reach level five farming, you will get to pick between the Tiller profession and the Rancher Profession. At this stage in the game, I would always pick the Tiller Profession because you are less likely to be profitable with animals and instead are just selling crops to make money in the early game.
If you did pick the Tiller Profession then at level ten you will get to pick between the Agriculturist Profession and the Artisan Profession. I won’t lie, both of these are absolutely amazing, depending on what crops you are growing, pick the agriculturist profession so that your crops with long growing times can grow faster, like brand new ancient fruit, or sweet gem berries. After everything is ready and processed into wine, use the Artisan Profession.
A massive forty percent increase in sale price for eligible artisan goods is too good to pass, it will affect processed goods from crops, as well as processed goods from animals. It’s just worth it. If you picked the Rancher Profession, you will get two options at level ten farming, the CoopMaster Profession and the Shepherd. To be honest, I would not really pick these, unless you have a very good and very specific reason.
They will increase the speed that you befriend your animals, The coop master profession will reduce the time it takes to incubate eggs and the shepherd profession will cause you to get more wool. Tiller into Artisan remains my general recommendation. Shepherd deserves a closer look for a dedicated sheep farm, particularly with Golden Animal Crackers and an Auto-Petter.
Fishing: Fisher or Trapper?
Now onto something that you will either love or hate. Fishing. Fishing is important in this game, it's hard at first but it gets pretty easy once you get good at it. To gain fishing experience all you need to do is catch fish. Perfect catches and treasure chests provide bonus Experience. Once you reach level five fishing you will have two choices. The Fisher, or the Trapper.
Now I will be honest, the fishing profession is considerably better in the early game because a large majority of our early game money will come from fishing and a 25% increase is no joke. While the trapper profession will reduce the cost of crafting crab pots. If you picked the fisher profession you will get to pick between the Angler or the Pirate profession at level ten fishing.
To be honest both of these are pretty good, the Pirate Profession will double the base chance of finding fishing treasure which can be helpful if you stack it up with other increases. While the angler profession will increase fish sale prices to a total 50% bonus over their base value. Great if you often see yourself fishing and selling those suckers. If you picked the Trapper profession then at level ten fishing you will get to pick between the mariner and the Lure Master Profession.
Surprisingly both of these are good if you have many many crab pots. The Mariner profession will stop your crab pots from producing trash items, and the Lure Master profession will stop crab pots from requiring bait. Both are good, but I still prefer to go the Fisher and the Angler Route.
Mining: ore, coal or gem profits?
You are going to be doing a lot of mining in this game. Without mining for resources, there will be no sprinklers and Crystalariums and all of those cool things. To gain mining experience, just destroy rocks. Either with your pickaxe, with a slingshot or with bombs, all three work. At level five you will get to pick between the Miner and the Geologist profession.
The miner profession will cause one extra ore to drop per node that you mine. The geologist profession will give you a fifty percent chance to get an extra gem when harvesting a gem node. In the early game, I always pick the miner profession because it is more reliable. Picking the miner profession will give you access to the Blacksmith profession and the Prospector profession.
In the early game, pick the Prospector profession as you will always be low on coal and this helps quite a bit. The Blacksmith profession is pretty niche and you will most likely not use it unless you are trying to sell Iridium bars for gold. The Geologist path will give you access to the Excavator profession and the Gemologist. I won’t lie, the excavator profession will help you find more geodes, but you don’t need it.
Rather pick the Gemologist profession as you will always find gems, or you can duplicate gems with Crystalariums, and this will increase their value by a massive thirty percent. It makes a difference, trust me.
Foraging: Botanist is excellent, but Tapper has a use
You will find yourself foraging without even realising it. Foraging experience is gained whenever you chop down a tree, or pick up a forageable item off the floor. Reaching level five foraging will give you two very good options. The forester profession will simply increase the amount of wood that you will gain from chopping down trees. This is actually really good. The gatherer profession will give you a twenty percent chance to harvest double the forageables which is not that good, but it leads to something amazing.
If you went the forester route, then at level ten foraging you will get to pick between the LumberJack and the Tapper Profession. The Lumberjack profession can cause hardwood to drop from chopping down regular trees. This profession is pretty good. Tapper raises syrup sale prices by 25%. My older video dismisses it, but Mystic Syrup makes it a more credible specialist option in 1.6.
If you are building a syrup business, compare it with the value you get from Botanist. If you picked the Gatherer profession then you will get to pick between the Botanist Profession and the Tracker Profession. The botanist profession will cause qualifying forageables that you pick up to be Iridium quality. This has a couple benefits, first it will reduce the amount of inventory space that forageables can take up.
Second it will increase the sale price of these forageables, as well as their energy and health gain. And thirdly, this works on truffles. This will cause any truffle to be iridium quality, and those sell for one thousand two hundred and fifty gold. This profession is insanely good. The Tracker profession on the other hand will give you this little arrow to show you where forageables are, It does also work on panning spots but I don’t think this profession is that helpful.
Combat: reliable damage or a specialist build?
I know many of you hate the combat in this game, but it is still there. Gain combat experience by simply defeating enemies! Upon reaching level five in the combat skill, you will get to pick between the Fighter and the Scout Profession. The scout profession is deceptive, it will not increase your crit chance by fifty percent, instead it will increase the base crit chance by fifty percent, so if you had five percent chance to crit, well now you will have seven and a half percent.
The fighter profession is much more reliable. If you picked the fighter profession then at level ten combat you will get to pick between the Brute profession and the defender profession. The Brute profession will increase your base damage by another fifteen percent while the defender profession will simply increase your maximum health by twenty five points. I usually pick the Brute profession, as a 15% damage increase is much more valuable than a flat twenty five extra health.
If you picked the scout profession, well this is where things can get a little bit interesting. The scout profession is actually really good, but only with very specific weapons. If you are running around with a hammer of some sort, like the galaxy hammer or even the infinity hammer then pick the Acrobat Profession. The hammer’s special move is absolutely broken, and this profession will allow you to use that special move more often.
If you are running around with a dagger, like the Iridium Needle. Then the Desperado Profession is going to turn that little dagger into a killing machine. If you prefer a sword, just go the fighter brute route.
How to change professions at the Statue of Uncertainty
A wrong choice does not ruin your save. Unlock the Sewers, visit the Statue of Uncertainty and pay 10,000g for the skill you want to change. You choose the new professions when you sleep.
Plan the timing before a big sale. Your old bonuses are removed when you pay, and the new choice applies after the overnight selection. Keep the valuable goods in a chest until the new profession is active.
This is why I like using Agriculturist for a planned planting cycle, then switching to Artisan before a large wine sale. But do the maths: a 10,000g change needs enough extra income to justify it. Swapping back and forth for a tiny batch is just creating another expense.
When do profession bonuses start working?
Choose your professions on the overnight level-up screen. The benefit is available the following morning, so do not expect fish shipped before you selected Fisher to receive its bonus. Also remember that a higher sale price and a faster harvest are different benefits: Agriculturist affects crop growth, while Artisan affects qualifying processed goods.
For a first playthrough, use the table as a starting point and keep playing. Once you know whether you love sheep, fishing treasure, tapping trees or hammer combat, that is the time to customise the route.
Watch the original video
Keep exploring the valley
Browse more getting started guides, or continue with one of these related guides:
- From Broke to Rich: Stardew Valley Best Money Making Methods
- Ultimate Stardew Valley Fishing Guide [1.6]
- Best Rings In Stardew Valley 1.6
Game-mechanics references: Skills, Statue Of Uncertainty. Screenshots and video by MGaud.