Farming simulator Stardew Valley begins with the player leaving their old life in a corporate office to take over the care of their late grandfather's farm. These new farmers are lucky, because they have some choice in the terrain that comes with their new occupation. Before beginning every game of Stardew Valley, players get to choose one of seven farm maps to start their new journey.
The Stardew Valley farm maps provide a variety of options: the standard farm, riverland farm, hilltop farm, forest farm, wilderness farm, beach farm, and four corners farm. These maps all focus on different in-game skills. For example, the riverland farm is great for fishing, the hilltop farm resembles a mountain quarry, the beach farm is sandy, and so on. However, many fans of Stardew Valley seem to agree that the forest farm offers the most utility overall.
The Forest Farm Specialties
It's common for new Stardew Valley players to choose the standard farm on their first playthrough. It offers a lot of useable land for crops and buildings, and doesn't do much else. But one of the most beloved things about Stardew Valley is its replayability, giving players the chance to start new save files and romance different characters, explore new friendships and skills, and test out different farm maps.
Many diehard Stardew Valley farmers have tried every map, and feel the forest farm is the most consistently useful thanks to a few special aspects. The first, and arguably most significant special trait of the forest farm is its stumps. In Stardew Valley, players can obtain wood and hardwood, the latter coming from large stumps and logs. While early game players won't have access to a strong enough axe to break these stumps, the eight hardwood sources on a forest farm are incredibly valuable after early game. These stumps renew every single day, providing an infinite source of hardwood which is otherwise hard to come by.
Not only is hardwood a helpful resource in finishing the Stardew Valley community center bundles, it is also required to craft some crucial items like the cheese press and oil maker. Hardwood is also necessary for farmhouse upgrades and building the stable that allows players access to horses. Hardwood is otherwise only accessible through four renewable stumps in Cindersap forest or disposable logs and mahogany trees, so these eight renewable stumps are incredibly valuable.
But the forest farm is also beneficial to farmers just beginning their journeys. Berry bushes grow on the forest farm, giving players access to seasonal berries. This map also spawns foraging items like mushrooms, fruit, berries, and flowers. This access to forage items is helpful for completing the foraging community bundle, quickly boosting the foraging skill, and giving early players something to sell as they wait for more lucrative crops to grow. Even the weeds on the forest farm are special and spawn Mixed Seeds when destroyed. These mixed seeds can be planted on a farm and grow into various forage items depending on the season they are planted. Players who start a new game with the forest farm map generally have foraging skills much more advanced because of this substantially higher access to forage items.
All that said, the forest farm is not the objective "best" because there is no true best Stardew Valley map. Players may want to focus on a particular skill or achievement in a given playthrough, and that can easily lead them to choose a different farm map. However, it's safe to say that hardcore fans generally agree the forest farm map provides a lot of great utility and materials for a standard Stardew Valley playthrough.
Stardew Valley is available for Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
