Another battle of the professions when it comes to the game of Stardew Valley: Artisan vs Agriculturist, which Level 10 profession should you take? The professions of Stardew valley are an interesting twist on the leveling up system and can radically effect the game’s mechanics. Whether you’re looking to rush a gold challenge, complete everything there is to complete, or buy those expensive late game buildings that drastically increase quality of life, choosing right between the professions is crucial, and I’ll tell you right now you should take Artisan.
Players should take the Artisan Profession at level 10 as this is a huge money maker that affects all Artisan goods while Agriculturist is a nominal boost that most players won’t even notice. Bear in mind these are only Level 10 profession choices if you picked Tiller at Level 5.
And if you didn’t you’re either playing a weird niche challenge to Stardew Valley or you really messed up.
So why is the Artisan profession in Stardew Valley not only better than Agriculturist but also one of the best professions in the entire game? Let’s dive in and find out!
Level 10 Stardew: Artisan Vs Agriculturist, Which Is Best?
Experienced Stardew Valley players aren’t going to have a hard time making the case for Artisan. I’ve heard one one our Patrons describe it as the most broken, overpowered aspect of the entire game. And I have to agree with her!
Here’s the comparison chart between the two:
| Profession | What It Does | What Does This Mean In-Game? |
|---|---|---|
| Artisan | All artisan goods are worth 40% more | An absolute ton of money as your main income sources like wine, preserves, cheese, truffle oil, goat cheese, mead, cloth, etc are now worth 140% of their original value. |
| Agriculturist | All crops grow 10% faster | Crops grow slightly faster, generally saving you 1 day with most crops. |
Despite being a farming upgrade, Artisan dramatically increases your income because it affects not only crop-based artisan goods, but ALL artisan goods.
While wine, mead, and preserves are likely your biggest moneymakers by this point in the game, and they all get a 40% boos which is crazy, keep in mind that other non-crop Artisan goods include:
- Cloth
- Cheese
- Goat Cheese
- Mayo
- Honey
- Truffle Oil
- Caviar
- Aged Roe
That’s a lot of goods coming from the animal side and truffle oil getting a 40% boost? Yes, please!
The sheer amount of income jump makes that a clear win, and if you’re that impatient, you can mass buy Speed-Gro or Deluxe Speed Gro with the extra profits and still have more left over.
The Case for the Stardew Artisan Profession
The Stardew Artisan profession adds a stunning 40% value to EVERY Artisan product. This includes both crops and animal based products, so it affects wine, cheese, all of it. When you look at how big a jump that is, especially once you get kegs to age those items, and that money jump is huge.
Artisan goods represent a huge jump in value from the base item to the refined item, and to add 40% to that refined item is just crazy good.
A few examples of the gap between a base item and an Artisan boosted Artisan item:
- A large egg is 95g an Artisan Mayo is 399g
- A blueberry is 55g w/ Tiller (50g otherwise) but an Artisan blueberry wine is 210g
- A starfruit is 825g w/ Tiller but a base Artisan Starfruit Wine is 3,150g
- Wool is 340g while Artisan cloth is 658g
- A truffle is 625g while Artisan Truffle oil is 1,491g
Every other example is along these lines with 100-400% jumps in profit being common from the base item to the base Artisan version.
This is an amazing jump, and it’s worth noting that Artisan boosts on animal products that are made into goods is even better than the Rancher boost would be for those same items.
The Case for the Stardew Agriculturist Profession
Not to be a downer, but there really isn’t one. This is one case where one profession is clearly better than the other and the winner is Artisan. While faster growing crops can be nice, it’s not like a 50% boost – it’s only 10%. For a crop that takes a month like an Ancient Fruit or a Sweet Gem Berry that only saves you 3 days or so.
But wait, you may say, for a repeating crop like strawberries maybe, maybe that’s an extra harvest if you perfectly optimize the season, right? NOPE!
That sounds good in theory, but it doesn’t work that way. This boosts how fast the initial plant grows but it doesn’t speed up how quickly crops crow from harvest to harvest. So that green bean plant might grow in 9 days instead of 10, but then it’s a new green bean every 3 days like normal. Never 2.
Even if the Agriculturist profession did work that way, the extra crops get their value from artisan goods – which become massively more valuable with the Artisan profession it’s competing against!
Does Agriculturist Stack with Speed-Gro?
Yes, the Agriculturist profession and Speed-Gro effects do stack in Stardew Valley, which has been confirmed by the Wiki. Combined this does mean a 20% faster crop growth, but there are very few crops where that makes a notable difference with only ones like Sweet Gem Berries that come from Rare Seeds in Stardew Valley or Ancient Fruit
Even if the two did stack, there’s not a lot to gain here. A player who is that interested in faster crops can just spend the extra money they make from Artisan and buy Deluxe Super Gro for all their crops and still likely have money left over.
Leapalot’s Video As A Temporary Agriculturist
When making the decision between Artisan vs Agriculturist in Stardew Valley, the choice for most players is clear. A 40% boost in profits gets you that much closer to a return scepter, obelisks, and of course the Golden Clock.
Now that you know, you can take the Artisan profession in peace, knowing this is by far and away the most overpowered profession and you’re not missing out on some secret use or benefit that comes from the Agriculturist profession. Truth is, that one is as bad as it looks. Pick the Artisan profession. You’ll be much happier because of it.
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Proud to embrace the locally created moniker of “Corrupt Overlord” from one of the all time great Lords of Waterdeep runs, Shane is one member of the Assorted Meeples crew and will be hard at work creating awesome content for the website. He is a long-time player of board games, one time semi-professional poker player, and tends to run to the quirky or RPG side of things when it comes to playing video games. He loves tabletop roleplaying systems like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Werewolf, Fate, and others, and not only has been a player but has run games as DM for years. You can find his other work in publications like Level Skip or Hobby Lark.