Highlights
- Save building materials like wood and stone for crafting rather than selling for quick cash in Stardew Valley.
- Cooked meals may not be profitable, but they make great gifts and health items for mining in the game.
- Keep ore, geodes, raw ingredients, and monster loot for crafting valuable items rather than selling them off.
Stardew Valley is one of the most successful indie games of the last decade, often regarded as the ultimate cozy farming sim. It has a plethora of activities to keep players engaged, from farming to foraging to mining and more. With so much to do, players will quickly find their pockets filled with more stuff than they know what to do with.
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So, what should players do with all their hard-earned spoils? Plopping them all in the Shipping Bin at the end of a long day seems like the obvious solution. However, an item’s worth in Stardew Valley is not always measured in gold. Here are some that should never be sold, and can be put to better use.
8 Building Materials
The Early-Game Cash Grab Just Isn’t Worth It
In that first Spring, players will spend a good deal of time clearing their farmland while waiting for their first batch of crops to grow. In that time, they’ll collect plenty of Wood, Stone, and Fibres. It can be very tempting to immediately sell off those materials for some quick cash, but it’s best to craft a Chest and store them.
The need for building materials ramps up very quickly. Wood and Stone are expensive, and things like Fibres and Hardwood can’t be bought at all. So keep those materials around, and stick to foraging for easy money.
7 Cooked Meals
Great For Gifts Or Energy Refills, But Terrible For Profits
In Stardew Valley, cooking is not a profitable pastime. The fixed selling price of each meal is always less than the sum of its parts (i.e. ingredients). Most players only use their kitchens for purposes of cooking one of every recipe, or to load up on health items for mining.
Cooked meals also make for some of the best gifts for the local townsfolk. Everyone’s got a favorite dish, after all. Giving food away may not be a sound way to recoup the money lost on procuring ingredients, but leveling up a friendship is its own reward.
6 Ore
Made For The Forge, Not For The Shipping Bin
After a long hard day’s work in The Mines, the last thing players want is to waste all their efforts on meager profits. Mining is one of the most lucrative practices in the game, and turning ore into bars is a huge part of that.
Unlike with cooking, smelted items are always worth more than their base components. Even if players don’t have the five ore or coal necessary to put in the furnace right away, it’s best to keep them in a chest for later.
5 Geodes
The Real Money-Makers Are Hidden Within
Geodes are super valuable, just not in and of themselves. Each one contains a little goodie, be it a rare mineral, gems, or other resources. Clint the Blacksmith can open each one for 25g, so taking a bunch over on a lucky day is a great way to make some money or fill up the local library.
Stardew Valley: How to Get Geodes
Unearth various kinds of geodes in Stardew Valley to collect rare treasures and valuable resources.
Keep in mind, though, not everything that comes out of a Geode is worth a lot. Some items don’t even cover Clint’s fee, but overall, the gamble is always worth more than selling the Geodes straight out.
4 Raw Ingredients
If It Ain’t Artisanal, It Ain’t Profitable
As players level up their farming, they’ll learn how to craft several maker items that turn regular items into artisanal goods that they can sell for a fortune. Preserves jars, kegs, casks, and the newly-added dehydrator from the 1.6 update all take profits from crops to the next level.
The name of the game here is star quality. Artisanal goods don’t have star qualities (except for wine aged via casks), so any crops that are silver or gold-star quality can go straight in the Shipping Bin. The run-of-the-mill low-quality stuff is another story.
3 Bone Fragments And Bone Items
Their Only Worth Is As Mulch
It's unclear who goes around buying bones anyway, which might be why they don’t sell for much. Artifacts as a whole sell for way less than gems and minerals, but after they’re donated, there’s not much else to do with them, but bones are different.
After completing Gunther’s “Fragments of the Past” special order, players unlock the ability to craft the Bone Mill. Simply load in some Bone Fragments (or other bone-related items), wait a bit, and get some fertilizer! It's way more cost-efficient than buying it from Pierre’s.
2 Monster Loot
There’s Just No Market For Adventurers Anymore
Similar to artifacts, monster loot just doesn’t sell for very much. After all, the real profit in mining is the ore and minerals; monsters are just an obstacle. They’re not worthless, per se. They can help pay for that shiny new sword in the Adventurer’s Guild, but there’s a smarter way to put that loot to good use.
Monster loot is used a lot in higher-level crafting, so it’s good to stock up on them instead of selling them off. Slime makes Oil Makers. Void and Solar Essences create powerful bombs. Bug meat is essential for bait, and Bat Wings create Lightning Rods to create Battery Packs.
1 Prismatic Shards
Their Other Uses Vastly Outweigh Their Price Tag
“Never sell Prismatic Shards” feels a bit strong. “Not yet” feels more accurate. At 2000g, these babies are one of the highest-selling items in Stardew Valley. They’re also incredibly useful, so it’s important to have one’s priorities in order.
The first Prismatic Shard obtained should always be used to obtain the Galaxy Sword in Calico Desert. The rest ought to be donated to Gunther, given to the Missing Bundle, or used to enchant tools in the Forge on Ginger Island. Players will have use for about nine Prismatic Shards before they should even think about selling one.
