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Anyone who plays Stardew Valley probably owes their virtual life to Stardew Valley Wiki. For a beginner, or honestly anyone, all of that information can be a little overwhelming. Like many others, my biggest question was always ? what to keg? And what to jar?
For the first virtual year and a half on my farm, I basically chose at random. I remember reading about the algorithm (preserves jars multiple the base price of an item by 2 then add 50g, kegs multiply the base price of a fruit by 3 and the base price of a vegetable by 2.25), but who has the energy to stop and calculate the profits for every item?
Unless you?re a super serious gamer, you probably play Stardew Valley to enjoy a peaceful atmosphere, beautiful color palettes for each season, and that satisfying clickity-clack of your controller vibrating when you ride your horse around town. Doing math and memorizing lists of products? Not so much.
That?s why I?m writing this super quick and easy guide to jars and kegs. I?ll outline a few simple tricks to the trade so you can close that wiki tab and get back to the game.
The simplest answer: Jars outpace kegs. If you have a surplus of products and jars, you can just jar everything to maximize profits.
Most of us don?t have the capacity (or the desire) to simply jar everything. Why not? Maybe we have a limited number of jars. Maybe we have a limited amount of produce for the season. Maybe we just enjoy a little variety! It is a game after all. So, we?re back to the question? what to keg? And what to jar?
Let?s get to it.
The General Rule: Juice your fruits and jar your veggies.
In other words, put fruits in kegs and vegetables in preserves jars. The basic logic here: since kegs multiply fruit values by 3 and vegetable values by only 2.25, kegs are way more profitable for *most* fruits and somewhat less profitable for *most* vegetables.
The Exceptions
As with all rules, there are exceptions. I finally went through the list of all fruits and vegetables, marking which exact items made more money in kegs versus jars. The General Rule held up around 80% of the time, with a few notable exceptions.
To remember these exceptions, you can use this little poem I wrote (sung to the melody of the ABC?s song):
?Basic Berries, Salmonberries,
Hot Peppers, Hops,
Orange Pumpkins, Red Cabbage,
and what? what? WHEAT!?
To go into *slightly* more depth on this, I?ll outline each exception:
- You should jar normal and silver quality blackberries, but continue to keg gold and iridium quality blackberries
- You should jar normal quality red peppers (which, apparently, are a fruit), but continue to keg silver, gold, and iridium quality red peppers
- You should jar all salmonberries
- You should keg hops
- You should keg pumpkins
- You should keg red cabbage
- You should keg wheat
Closing Thoughts
This guide presumes equal availability of kegs and preserves jars, which most likely won?t be the case. If you have limited keg space, save your kegs for your highest base value items. If you have limited jar space, use your jars for your next highest base value items.
Sure, you can increase the value of a salmonberry by 1,000% by jarring it, but you?re only making an additional 50g. Jarring corn, for example, yields an additional 100g.
Happy Farming! And always ? thank you Stardew Valley Wiki for your useful, if somewhat overwhelming, info.
