Stardew Valley: Best Farm Maps

Image: ConcernedApe via HGG / Ethan Erekson

Human Made

Ethan is our resident Stardew Valley expert. He has also covered Genshin Impact, Animal Crossing, and LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.

Reviewed by Ashley Johnson

When you first start a new game of Stardew Valley, you’re presented with an important choice — which farm layout to go with. Do you choose the standard farm, or one of the more specialized options with unique layouts and special perks? These features can make a pretty big difference in both the early and late game, so it’s good to know which one will best help you achieve your goals. To make this easier on you, we’ve ranked the best farm maps in Stardew Valley from okay to all-around best!

Best Farm Maps in Stardew Valley, Ranked!

Enough dilly-dallying — let’s get started.

7/7

Wilderness Farm

First up, we have the Wilderness Farm. This layout offers a decent amount of space and a couple of ponds that can be used for fishing. However, what’s really special about this farm map is that monsters spawn at night.

On top of adding a little bit of challenge to the game, the monsters can drop a decent number of valuable items you can sell. Of course, it’s a little hard to get work done after dark with monsters around. Fortunately, the potential rewards are often worth the risk, especially once you get your combat level up.

However, the Wilderness Farm doesn’t offer much beyond that, and the monsters you kill on the Farm don’t even grant you any combat experience. If you really want monsters on your farm, just build a Slime Hutch and breed some slimes. Or, if you’re just starting a game, you can toggle on monster spawns in the advanced settings. You can also offer a Strange Bun to the Dark Shrine of Night Terrors in the Witch’s Hut, which has the same effect.

If you use these methods, you can have monsters on any farm. On top of that, you still get the perks that the other layouts offer. Try out one of the other farms, and if you need monsters, just toggle them on.

6/7

Hill-top Farm

Next up is the Hill-top Farm, which is mining focused. As the name suggests, this farm has several hills, offering all sorts of opportunities for creative farm layouts.

The main perk to this farm is the farm quarry, which is located on the southwest hilltop. This area spawns stone, ore, and geode nodes, and the types of ores and geodes it spawns corresponds to your Mining level. Being able to access all of these resources from your farm certainly is convenient, and can give you a decent head start on your Mining and resource gathering.

However, the farm quarry takes up a lot of space, which is already limited. And ultimately, it doesn’t offer that much. Chances are that you’ll just do your mining in the Mines, the Quarry, or Skull Cavern, especially since it takes a couple of days to regenerate.

Sure, it’s convenient to get your mining done on your farm, but if you’re going to have to mine somewhere else anyway, you might as well use that space for something else.

5/7

Riverland Farm

Then there’s the Riverland Farm, which is full of rivers and water. It’s honestly one of my favorite farm maps in Stardew Valley. The rivers and islands give it a nice aesthetic, and you can get some really cool farm builds out of it.

Of course, the water isn’t just there for show — the Riverland Farm map is also the best farm for fishing. It has the best fishing rates, with 70% of catches being town river fish and 30% being forest fish. Fishing is fairly profitable, and if you enjoy it, this might be the farm for you.

However, the Riverland Farm does come with a catch. All of that water means that there’s not as much space for farming and buildings. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, if you want a challenge. But if you want to make the most of your farm, then you’ll probably want more land than what the Riverland Farm offers.

4/7

Forest Farm

The Forest Farm may seem like it has less to offer compared to the other farm maps in Stardew Valley, especially when you look at the in-game descriptions. The Riverland Farm has fish, and the Hill-top Farm has a quarry with mineral deposits. What does the Forest Farm have? According to the game, it has less farming space, but in return, you get the bounty of the forest on your farm. However, that doesn’t mean much, especially since the Cindersap Forest is directly below your farm.

Despite that, the Forest Farm is actually one of the better farm maps in Stardew Valley. Sure, there’s slightly less tillable soil than the rest of the farm maps, but unlike the Riverland Farm, you keep most of that space, which you can still use for buildings.

What’s really special about this farm map is the western clearing, which has eight renewable hardwood stumps. This helps a lot with gathering hardwood, which can be hard to come by in the late game. Sure, you can always plant and grow mahogany trees, but those take a while to grow.

Something else that’s special about the western clearing is that it has unique weeds that always drop mixed seeds, which are great for farming. Seeds can be expensive, so it’s always nice when you can get some for free.

3/7

Standard Farm

The Standard Farm in Stardew Valley may not have quarries, renewable stumps, or special weeds, but it makes up for that with more space. This farm has 3,427 tillable tiles, which is more than twice as much farming space as the Hill-top, Riverland, or Forest farms. All of this space lets you make the most of your farm. Whether you’re planting crop or constructing buildings, there’s plenty of space to build your farm exactly the way you like.

However, there are a couple trade-offs. You can only fish up trash on the Standard Farm, so you’ll need to do your fishing somewhere else. And ultimately, this farm is just a bunch of land with trees, weeds, and rocks. You may get a bunch of land, but you don’t get any of the perks of the other farms.

2/7

Four Corners Farm

If you’re ever not sure which farm you should go with, the Four Corners Farm map is always a good option. It pretty much has a little bit of everything. Each quadrant corresponds to one of the other farm maps.

The top right corner functions pretty much the same as the Standard Farm, though all four areas have plenty of space for farming. As for the other quadrants — the top left area has the same special weeds as the Forest Farm, the bottom right area has a small quarry you can use for mining, and the bottom left area has a pond you can use for fishing.

You get most of the space that the Standard Farm has, along with the perks of the other farms, which is pretty nice. On top of that, you can also get the Wilderness Farm’s monsters if you toggle it on in the advanced settings. This farm also works great for multiplayer, as each person can essentially get their own area for farming.

There’s four quadrants, and Stardew Valley supports up to four players. So if you’re unsure which farm you should pick or want to start a game with family or friends, this is the map for you.

1/7

Beach Farm

Finally, there’s the Beach Farm. This farm is easily one of the best farms in the game, for several reasons. It works well for fishing and saves you a trip to the beach. You can find both forest and beach forageables. You also sometimes get supply crates, which have all sorts of useful items. On top of that, there’s more hardwood stumps and logs than any other farm.

Sure, none of them are renewable like the ones on the Forest Farm, but there’s enough to keep you going for a good while. This farm also has the most space out of any farm, with over 4,600 tiles (2,700 of those tiles are tillable). You get plenty of farming space, with even more space that you can use to place your buildings.

Now, as great as this farm is, you’ll want a little more experience under your belt, as most of the tillable soil is sandy. Sprinklers don’t work on sandy soil, so you’ll have to water everything manually, at least until you get Deluxe Retaining Soil fertilizer.

However, this farm is still worthwhile, even though it’s a little more challenging. You have plenty of space to work with, and you even get quite a few perks. The Beach Farm map in Stardew Valley also looks really cool.

And as far as your farming goes, there’s a 20×10 patch of soil that works with sprinklers that you can use until you get better fertilizer and unlock the Greenhouse and Island Farm. So give one of the other farm maps a go, and once you’re ready for a challenge, start a new save on the Beach Farm.

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Happy gaming!

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