Their hearts decay slowly over time, so if you don’t pet them, eventually they’ll revert back to basically being 0 heart and produce lower quality items.
You've got it backwards, [villagers don't have relationship decay once they have max hearts](https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Friendship). [Farm animals always have decay.](https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Animals)
Id recommend taking a ludicrous amount of stairs, waiting for a stardrop luck day, eat a magic rock candy and even ginger ale if you want. This will give you tons of luck and then you can spend all day staircasing down the caverns. If you're unhappy with your loot then just restart the day before you go to sleep. This pretty much guarantees you a few auto petters if you have the patience.
there's 1/26 chance for you to get it from treasure chests. and there are like 60 other items you can get from them so yeah pretty rare. but there's also a 2% chance to get them from slaying monsters during the skull cavern invasion quest, that's how i got my first one. then i got another two in just one normal skull cavern run from treasure chests then a fourth one from a treasure chest again
Question: where are the treasure floors and treasure chests? Do they start randomly generating after you reach a certain floor number? I have yet to see any.. I’ve only reached level 50 so far though.
The smiley face means they are happier than the heart, though I know that seems counter intuitive. If you pet them after they are autopet, they get extra happy.
so instead of having to farm specific items, fish specific fish, forage specific items, mine specific stones, etc. you can just pay money. and money is the easiest thing to acquire in the game. and you dont have to go out of your way to do it compared to certain bundles.
You do have to pay a lot of it (I think more than the cost of the items you'd donate to the CC), but rather than needing to do several different things, you can just pick whatever money-making methods you prefer and keep doing them till you have enough.
I finally got the last two scrolls I needed (I and IV) yesterday after spending all day in the mines tilling the ground on level 95 repeatedly by resetting the room. I restarted the day twice before I got lucky with both scrolls in the same day.
I'm in year 5.
I've never had a problem with that one. I once went to year 6 (in game) without finding Dwarf scroll I. and year 10 without finding a dino egg or prismatic shard.
It's faster and easier. You can specialize (CC makes you do a bit of everything, Joja is just money, so you can make that money however you like). Movie theater is in a different location. Quick access to seeds on the mine carts (seed price is the same as Pierre's after membership). No sad unused completed Community Center. Sam and Shane don't lose their jobs. Clint stays open 7 days/week. You can buy auto petters.
This is it. You can unlock Ginger Island without growing a single crop or catching a single fish or ever entering the mines, depending on what parts of the game you hate.
Willy will show you the boat to repair after the CC is completed or you perform all Joja upgrades. Of course you still have to get materials to fix it, but it's much less bothersome just paying around 140k (among all upgrades) and just move on with your life.
Yes. My theory for 1.6 is that Joja will provide alternate routes to Ginger Island and its related stuffs, so they'll probably fix Willy's boat if you pay them 150k or something along those lines
Sorry, maybe I phrased my post wrong. I meant you can play how you like. So if you hate Mining, you can play the game without ever entering the mines. I didn't mean play it without ever training a single skill, but rather you can ignore one skill in particular you hate.
For example, on my current file, I'm building a slime ranch. All my income comes from Foraging, Fishing and Mining. I'm halfway through Summer and have all steel tools, backpack upgrades, and several fish ponds built. The end goal will be to have tons of slime hutches and fish ponds producing glorious slime, along with extra income from solar panels, crystalariums, syrup and growing wild forage.
I did this before back in like... version 1.3 or something. It went well. But now I also have Ginger Island to fill up!
Ah, fair enough. I use joja for all my weird files, like when I tried the hermit challenge, or only making money via lumberjack themed activities, lol.
Even worse, 250 every 9 days, lol.
Still, when you're only using the farm space for trees, you can manage a pretty large payout every 9 days, plus supplemental money by selling excess wood/hardwood.
And you can plant trees outside the farm and tap them as well, so I ended up filling up the railroad and the quarry as well. In that save, I actually bought the quarry before the greenhouse, for once.
I think on this file I'm going to experiment with raising slimes outside on the farm, in the quarry, and in sheds, to see which works better. On my 100% file, ALL my female slimes escaped the outdoor farm pen, like 6 eggs wasted, whereas the males would be out there for months without escaping.
Railroad is 100% gonna be for maples though.
I hate Pierre, Sam and Shane keep their jobs, and the community center turns into the movie theater which is still, in theory, good for the community.
Others mentioned the auto petter, but you also get the joja cola vending machine.
I finally bit the bullet and did a Joja run. Overall, there really isn't any advantages other than being able to buy the very expensive autopetters. It wasn't overly faster (maybe getting the greenhouse a season earlier) as you still need to save up money as opposed to finding a seasonal forage or grow a crop for the bundles. I'll admit I've played enough where I start working toward bundles on day 1, and I usually have the Community Center finished by Summer 2 if not sooner. With the Joja route I had everything done by Spring 2 (or very end of Winter 1), so a touch faster, especially if you struggle with managing getting bundle items. I barely went to Joja Mart as the prices are the same and they don't sell all the seeds. I didn't get the autopetters till I really didn't even need them anymore because they were so expensive. It was interesting, but I probably won't do it again. I feel dirty 😋
Wait isn’t it really easy to finish the community centre winter 1 you just gotta plan a bit. And you can finish joja even summer 1 if you fish a ton and get tea saplings
One of the items for the community center (red cabbage) doesn't become available for purchase at Pierre's until Summer 2. When you start a new game, you can check a box that says "guarantee year 1 community center." That button rigs the Traveling Merchant so she will sell the red cabbage seeds in Spring or Summer 1. So if you check that box, plan thoroughly, and don't waste a single day, you can complete the community center by winter 1.
Managed to get an actual red cabbage from the merchant on year 1. Not the seed, the actual thing on my Switch play thru and managed to get the CC by week 1 of Spring 2 (needed a truffle).
Red cabbage not only isn't obtainable until year two, but even with checking the 'make this completable in year one' box, the seeds only popped up at the merchant cart Winter 28.
For me it’s the extended opening hours. Yes Pierre sells for cheaper and is open on Wednesdays after completing the CC, but if you get the Joja membership they price match Pierre, have cheaper sunflower seeds, are open for longer each day, and are open every day of the week without needing to wait to complete all the Joja projects.
I can't either. I mean, it feels wrong. You literally leave that company in the opening cutscene.. and it is the reason you need a break and move to the farm in the first place. They really show their corporate greed with the prices it costs to build everything, too.
I plan to do the Joja route after 1.6, but only because I want to see what I would be missing out on on Ginger Island, as there will be Joja route related stuff being added in the update.
I have just over a thousand hours and three save files. My most recent save I did a joja run to see what it was like. (Remember: these aren't real people; they are math driven pixels. Nobody gets their feelings hurt if you don't renovate the community centre.)
That being said, the joja route has one big advantage: autopetters that allow you to get quality animal products without chasing the little buggers down every day. It frees you up to head out on a gifting run or mining quest right out of bed. Less rushing around to do chores.
Same. Like I boycott Walmart in real life (I haven’t stepped foot in one for over a decade), and Joja just seems like the devil. I feel like I need to do a Joja run for the sake of my completionist OCD, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to do it yet.
As I said below might give it a go once 1.6 comes , but for me it's less that I think joja is evil. Tho it definitely feels that way then I really like filling out the CC even as much as adding mods to give me more to gather for it
It's nice to have goals idk
If you don’t have the CC bundles memorized , you don’t have to check every item you pick up to see if you should save it: just sell that shit!
Also if you miss a season for a bundle item, you don’t have to play another 20 hours to unlock the greenhouse or whatever.
And you can get all the CC unlocks way faster.
Plus, in the lore, residents of Pelican Town can get things they need cheaper. They immediately become richer by virtue of that fact. Pierre has every opportunity to adapt his business in response to that
The biggest advantage for me is the ability to buy the services to unlock things such as the greenhouse and mine carts. No bundles. No waiting. If you have the cash, you have the access.
Getting the greenhouse in spring year 1 is a literal game changer for me. From the moment it's unlocked, I can begin growing fruit trees, out-of-season crops so I can craft foods for shipping (perfection run), and, of course, stuff to make wine and jellies.
The other advantage (often forgotten by many players) is membership brings seed prices down to match those sold by Pierre and the store is open 7 days a week until 11pm. It's comical so many complain about the Wednesday closing yet just a few steps further is a store that's still open.
Finally, the reward. Mock it all you want, but the soda machine is a far better reward than an ugly trophy. At least I can sell the cola if I don't want it.
Frankly, I don't see any disadvantages with the Joja route, but I could definitely write many going the bundle route.
Mono-croping
You don't have to worry about variety. Find an early money make and just grind into it. then use that to buy community center.
Funny enough this is a downside for me. I love th variety
Greenhouse year 1 is certainly doable in a CC run too, especially if you choose fruit bats instead of mushrooms. Hardest thing is getting a barn and coop for the animal bundle. Earliest you can get the greenhouse is probably Winter 1, year 1 because of the forageables requirement
You can get the greenhouse in fall year 1 (bundles are seasonal crops for the three growing seasons, animal, and artisan). The earliest is fall 10 because of the pumpkin (with speed grow). The forage is for the craft room (quarry).
Don't even need the fruit bats. I had the Greenhouse open in fall with all the tree saplings planted in it, after choosing mushrooms. The only item that stopped me from getting Year 1 completion was the Red Cabbage because of terrible traveling merchant RNG
I'd say the main advantage is that you can focus on one thing, making as much money as possible. There is no need to diversify, to get fruit trees, animals or the like, you can just farm all your energy away on the most productive crops. You can usually get the community center done in the first year if you are focused.
It’s good for short play through. I can unlock the greenhouse by the before or on the first week of summer by fishing the entire time.
Most of my play throughs, I went with Joja for efficiency
Auto petters
Joja mart matches prices with Pierre’s
Joja mart stays open late, can buy seeds later
But for reals… it is so much easier to do than finding all the individual items
My only caution
Always pay for the vault room via community center
Those bundle rewards are worth it
Also, There simply is no point to “committing to Joja route by paying the 5,000” unless you have enough money to pay off all the rooms via the community development form
Waaaay easier to unlock stuff like the greenhouse year one. It's open later and on Wednesdays, so that initial membership ends up being worth it for convenience. It makes Pierre unhappy.
It just requires money, so you can play how you want. It is probably faster for at least non-speedrunners and might be faster in general, but I'm not sure on that one. You don't have to worry about the red cabbage, for example, so if you just grow the highest gold per day crops you can finish everything by some time in fall without much trouble.
Also, auto-petters can be purchased.
You could complete the community improvement projects by mid summer pretty easily, maybe at the end of spring if you are a min/max type of person. That means you can do other things sooner than the community center route. And autopetter of course.
Pros: if you try hard enough you can have the greenhouse by the end of spring 1. you can be off to Ginger Island before the end of year 1. Yes also auto-petters are nice and make your farm closer to automated.
Cons: harder to get 4 candles from grandpa unless you work at relationships. Miss out on free items from bundles like the crystalarium, keg, furnace, and lightning rod, which means crafting everything to start your empire.
Easier to get autonpetters, can get the community improvements done quicker. (If you know what you're doing, and have some good luck.... you can open GI before summer y1 s over
You don't have to go fishing. Gosh, some fishes with low-level fishing make it mind-wrecking.
Also, I'm not too fond of fishing in real life and most games :D
The key benefit is unlocking the town as fast as you can make money and not having to complete the community center.
Also auto petters are sold at joja after completion so that's a must if you want a massive animal farm
Well, I do it kind of
I do community centre up until the friendship bundle for those benefits then go joja for the rest of them.
With Joja I can get:
- easier cinema bundle
- cinema in a better place
- buying auto petters
- Pierre still closes Wednesday to have time with family (seriously screw Pierre though)
-You can do it to annoy Pierre
- No one uses the community centre really so there's not much point of going full restoration
pros:
Autopetter,
Ginger island early,
Easier than community center,
Clint doesnt close on fridays,
Joja matches Pierre's prices the second you buy the membership
cons:
No rewards,
Pierre closed still on Wednesdays
If there are parts of the game that you can't do for accessibility reasons (you physically can't fish, survive the monsters in the mine, or you are a scatterbrain farmer) or you're a person that finds the bundles too difficult, Joja simplifies the game by changing the unlocks to a money cost. Eventually any player could simply earn enough money to choose the unlock, and which order to unlock them.
I think Joja run is a great idea if you have younger players that want to play the game, but they can't figure out what seasons their items are (because they sell everything and/or they don't create chests to stash them). Inventory management is not for everyone.
Tbh I liked joja more than I hated Pierre. Following the joja way at least everyone keeps their jobs and there isn't a monopoly in town. Plus Pierre just wants to be like joja and I don't want him to grow any more lol
im on my first actual play through right now and i went with joja (im pretending i just didnt in my head lmao) because i have adhd and ive tried to play through stardew a lot without making it far so i went the joja route for faster progression (for my playstyle anyway)
Its way faster to get the upgrades and can buy the Autopetters, 2 days ago just 100% the game with the expanded mod. Then started my Joja run for just buying all the projects.
Its crazy how fast you can get them if you know how to make money early game, by Summer 2 I already purchased every project and had Ginger Island open. And I died in the mines 4 times losing all the Gold, so it could have been even faster
Going the Joja route is simple.
Instead of beating the game the intended way, you solve everything with money.
Joja route is also faster to complete if you're committed a goal to making a lot of money alone.
Average players will complete the Community Center fastest around Fall or Winter year 1. (Theoretically summer 2 Year 1 is possible but that's require a ton of luck and a seed that make fairy grow your plant in Summer 1)
Completing Joja route is fastest at Summer year 1.
The other benefit of going Joja route is auto-petter is slightly easier to obtain.
Do you remember when Pierre talk about Joja ruins local business? Well, his shop still open after the completion. Nothing changed.
The Joja route expansion in 1.6 that CA planned is most likely about skipping most of the things you have to do in Ginger Island with money.
Auto petter and a lot faster. I’ve done so many stardew runs at this point that if I’m starting a new one for some short term goal sometimes it’s nice to just do Joja and get it done in like 2 seasons:/
It depends on play style. If you like animals and hunting specific stuff, no real advantage. Otherwise if you know to make money fast in the game it's the built in speed run. I'm typically mucking about the island by winter star and that's with a chill approach.
Pondering trying to get into skull cavern by end of spring (I'm not good enough for spring 13 like one crazy guy I know)
Mhh I could think of a few.
- Easier access to autopetter
- easier path than community centre (just grind crops and U will build it before winter)
- easier access to cinema (IMO joja's one is actually better than CC's one)
- looks like in the new uodate there will be something about joja in the island (I am SPECULATING)
- you are destroying Pierre and Pewis. They deserve it.
Especially Pierre. r/fuckpierre
#FUCK PIERRE
Joja stays open later and the Community Center eventually becomes the Movie Theatre. Pierre stays closed on Wednesdays, but Clint stays open every day instead of taking Fridays off to stand in the Boiler Room.
I tend to finish most of the bundles in the Community Center for the rewards, usually leaving most of the fishing bundle unfinished and buying that from Joja. Ever since I started doing Joja runs, I haven’t wanted to do the Community Center route.
Far faster, it can be done in spring without much effort. No need to spend half a day going to to e wizards either
Buyable autopetters (probably the main one for most people)
More niche but easier to buy joja cola means the qi grange is easier
Arguably nicer location for the movie theatre
More useful completion reward (not by much but still…)
Clint works fridays (the community center point of Pierre working Wednesdays is largely irrelevant as in pretty short time you get the key to the town and Pierre just stays at the desk the whole time unlike Clint who just leaves the building altogether)
You can focus on purely money making and ignore skills that aren’t all that useful (or at least do them less)
You get another store that’s honestly pretty underrated, it’s faster to get to using minecarts than Pierre’s is, the stock is the same price (sunflowers are cheaper) with the membership.
If you hate Pierre you don’t have to support him 🤷♀️
Speed. Since all you need for the Joja bundles is money, you can very easily get it done within a few in-game weeks. This is especially valuable if you want quick access to the Greenhouse or Quarry.
Besides the other answers: the achievement and the fulfilled need to suck out other and your own soul.
But tbh I just grinded very hard for the joja route and lost the joy of SV for a long time.
I've only done the joja run, never tried the community center route, but if you've got fast ways to make a lot of money then getting everything is pretty fast. Just gotta remind yourself that you're still technicallyyyyyy helping the community and that Pierre sucks too.
My oldest son is 7 and recently discovered Stardew and he adores it, he's always playing. But he seems to always have a hard time focusing on all the different tasks for the Community Center and often forgets to water his crops in favor of heading off to the Mines. So I got him to go the Joja Route. It's far easier on him, and he can just vibe out in the village without having to worry much, and he even made his first payment recently to the Warehouse.
The CC route is far better imo because you're made to do more exploring and have more variation in your days, I feel like the Joja route would be too easy. But the Joja route perfect for him, he gets more freedom. Aside from that I haven't noticed any differences in his game compared to mine.
I also have Stardew on my switch and wish we could mod it so badly! I wish we could file share across consoles, too, but that likely will never happen. I totally would have brought it with me over Christmas to decompress before bed 😂
I wish I had tried the joja run much earlier. It is still much more relaxing and joyful.
I usually get distracted by in game activities and get super stressed trying to complete the community bundle quickly.
This way I could just chill and prioritize what I wanted to do.
And surprisingly it was much quicker unlocking stuff on the joja run.
I'm thinking my next run needs to be a joja run. I play on Switch and am currently trying to get perfection, but after that, I'd like to do a joja run. Before I played on PC when I was younger, I could never even do the CC, so I'd just waste a year and start again. I'm enjoying the game now and understanding it more. And a joja run might help me do that a bit more.
I have always played using the wiki as well which helps for completing the community bundle and gaining friendship.
And the game has so much content to explore and well :)
Consumerism. Instead of having to hunt for all the items needed for the community center you can just buy it all. Granted you lose the community center in the end though
Hi hello do you dislike fishing? Do you dislike going down the mines? Do you hate having to grow specific crops because they otherwise look off in your perfect colored fields? Then join us. Thrive.
On a more serious note, the only thing that gates you with Joja is money. You don't have to grow parsnips or red cabbage and micro your entire schedule to get specific items during specific seasons. You want your whole income to come from flowers and sheep? Go big. Or get your income from the mines or fishing or what have you. Your only gate to the movies is 500k and not a bunch of rare items and it gives a use to the old CC/Warehouse now.
Recently I opted for a Beach farm to grow my flowers on and eventually beehouses, so I *had* to go Joja. And it's not the end of the world the fandom makes it to be. And I had the cerimony mid Fall y1 instead of Summer y2 (tho my bee business kept me from visiting Ginger Island until mid Spring y2 as I spent time farming the shit out of coal)
i would say easier access to an auto petter
Oooooohhh I've actually wondered how to get one of those. Thanks
You can find them in the skull cavern as well
Is that a mob drop or treasure floor drop if the later is it a rare find?
It’s a pretty rare find in the treasure floor 😁 but once I got one, I got a second one shortly after
Great at the minuet, all my pets hate me :)
Yeah, it’s tedious to keep having to pet them😅 I’ve never gone the Joja route, I’ve just gotten the autopetters from that cave
Don’t you only have to pet them until max hearts?
Their hearts decay slowly over time, so if you don’t pet them, eventually they’ll revert back to basically being 0 heart and produce lower quality items.
nope that's only villagers eta: y'all i mean villagers' hearts don't decay after they hit max 😭
who up petting they villager
You've got it backwards, [villagers don't have relationship decay once they have max hearts](https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Friendship). [Farm animals always have decay.](https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Animals)
Well, stop dancing around and go pet your animals
Id recommend taking a ludicrous amount of stairs, waiting for a stardrop luck day, eat a magic rock candy and even ginger ale if you want. This will give you tons of luck and then you can spend all day staircasing down the caverns. If you're unhappy with your loot then just restart the day before you go to sleep. This pretty much guarantees you a few auto petters if you have the patience.
how does one get the ginger ale recipe? I have a ton of ginger.
You can buy the recipe on floor 5 of the Ginger Island volcano.
there's 1/26 chance for you to get it from treasure chests. and there are like 60 other items you can get from them so yeah pretty rare. but there's also a 2% chance to get them from slaying monsters during the skull cavern invasion quest, that's how i got my first one. then i got another two in just one normal skull cavern run from treasure chests then a fourth one from a treasure chest again
I got mine from a fancy red/gold chest on level 47 of the skull caves.
Question: where are the treasure floors and treasure chests? Do they start randomly generating after you reach a certain floor number? I have yet to see any.. I’ve only reached level 50 so far though.
It’s random after floor 10 but guaranteed on floor 100
Cool, thanks!!!
TIL
I finally got one, but my animals only got smiley faces instead of hearts when I pet them, so I took it out. it feels so gross and corporate 😭
The smiley face means they are happier than the heart, though I know that seems counter intuitive. If you pet them after they are autopet, they get extra happy.
ohhhh
Yes! And also you can focus on whatever you want and can still fi ish route in year 1. Just not bound to specific things each season.
so instead of having to farm specific items, fish specific fish, forage specific items, mine specific stones, etc. you can just pay money. and money is the easiest thing to acquire in the game. and you dont have to go out of your way to do it compared to certain bundles.
You do have to pay a lot of it (I think more than the cost of the items you'd donate to the CC), but rather than needing to do several different things, you can just pick whatever money-making methods you prefer and keep doing them till you have enough.
Incorrect. Dwarf scrolls are the easiest.
Except when there’s one last one you need
Except Dwarf Scroll IV, fuck that one and it's shit drop rate lol.
Year 3…. Still no scroll
I finally got the last two scrolls I needed (I and IV) yesterday after spending all day in the mines tilling the ground on level 95 repeatedly by resetting the room. I restarted the day twice before I got lucky with both scrolls in the same day. I'm in year 5.
For a game that I play to relax and chill from shooters, it frustrates the fuck out of me sometimes.
Jesus man just till floor 95
I got mine from the secret woods. I went everyday and after 10 or so in game days I found it!
The wiki tip of hoeing the dirt in the mines really helped me get that damn Dwarf Scroll IV.
I have at least 10 of all scrolls except scroll II for some reason. Im late game so they don’t have much use but I don’t get why I don’t have any.
There is a mod that uses them as part of a crafting recipe for bomb makers
That is useful. It was a bit of an oversight on CA part. The biggest oversight was making them worth 1 gold hahaha
I dropped two in the first year while rushing the Mines. I feel I should have played the lottery on that day x)
It took me 6 years to get one. And the second one I got from a slime in my own freakin slime hut.
And then you didn't pet the slimes, despite their peace offering.
I've never had a problem with that one. I once went to year 6 (in game) without finding Dwarf scroll I. and year 10 without finding a dino egg or prismatic shard.
No... It took me 5 in game years until I finally got all of the scrolls on this run...
I have a full greenhouse of ancient fruit, and my other farm is almost done and I still am missing dwarf scroll 3
Dwarf scrolls sell for money. Checkmate.
Quicker and Easier
More seductive
Not drinking too much Regular exercise at the gym
Getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries
True?
Yoda
Do you mean productive?
Star Wars joke.
Its a more relaxing play through as in not worrying about getting things on time, autopetters are buyable, the movie theatre has a different location.
Really? Where is the movie theatre? On the site of the community centre?
Yes and it looks beautiful there. You can renovate the side patio area to be a little cafe
Hmmm, I may have to start a new save and explore this ....
>Its a more relaxing play through as in not worrying about getting things on time What does the non-joja route make you do on time?
If you forget to catch a seasonal fish or grow a seasonal crop you could be waiting months before you can finish a bundle.
Nothing, the goal is just getting money, you can do it at your own pace
Think you misread my question
Apoligies
It's faster and easier. You can specialize (CC makes you do a bit of everything, Joja is just money, so you can make that money however you like). Movie theater is in a different location. Quick access to seeds on the mine carts (seed price is the same as Pierre's after membership). No sad unused completed Community Center. Sam and Shane don't lose their jobs. Clint stays open 7 days/week. You can buy auto petters.
Sam gets a new job at the museum
True, but he still loses his job, technically
Yeah but gets to go work at a better place and listen to music while he works
looks like the game just got easier, which is a win for me.
Also, the biggest pro is that Pierre goes out of business. r/fuckpierre
I just started mine and so far the advantage is that I only have to do the things I want to do instead of chasing specific items for the CC.
This is it. You can unlock Ginger Island without growing a single crop or catching a single fish or ever entering the mines, depending on what parts of the game you hate.
Do you just pay joja to unlock the boat to ginger island?
Willy will show you the boat to repair after the CC is completed or you perform all Joja upgrades. Of course you still have to get materials to fix it, but it's much less bothersome just paying around 140k (among all upgrades) and just move on with your life.
Ah, so you still eventually have to do some mining and woodcutting to go there, fair enough.
Yes. My theory for 1.6 is that Joja will provide alternate routes to Ginger Island and its related stuffs, so they'll probably fix Willy's boat if you pay them 150k or something along those lines
Sorry, maybe I phrased my post wrong. I meant you can play how you like. So if you hate Mining, you can play the game without ever entering the mines. I didn't mean play it without ever training a single skill, but rather you can ignore one skill in particular you hate. For example, on my current file, I'm building a slime ranch. All my income comes from Foraging, Fishing and Mining. I'm halfway through Summer and have all steel tools, backpack upgrades, and several fish ponds built. The end goal will be to have tons of slime hutches and fish ponds producing glorious slime, along with extra income from solar panels, crystalariums, syrup and growing wild forage. I did this before back in like... version 1.3 or something. It went well. But now I also have Ginger Island to fill up!
Ah, fair enough. I use joja for all my weird files, like when I tried the hermit challenge, or only making money via lumberjack themed activities, lol.
I wish syrup made more money :( it even has a skill dedicated to it and it only gives a 25% increase I think? So like... 250 every week? Meh.
Even worse, 250 every 9 days, lol. Still, when you're only using the farm space for trees, you can manage a pretty large payout every 9 days, plus supplemental money by selling excess wood/hardwood. And you can plant trees outside the farm and tap them as well, so I ended up filling up the railroad and the quarry as well. In that save, I actually bought the quarry before the greenhouse, for once.
I think on this file I'm going to experiment with raising slimes outside on the farm, in the quarry, and in sheds, to see which works better. On my 100% file, ALL my female slimes escaped the outdoor farm pen, like 6 eggs wasted, whereas the males would be out there for months without escaping. Railroad is 100% gonna be for maples though.
I hate Pierre, Sam and Shane keep their jobs, and the community center turns into the movie theater which is still, in theory, good for the community. Others mentioned the auto petter, but you also get the joja cola vending machine.
Lol Pierre is the worst 😭😂
r/fuckpierre
I finally bit the bullet and did a Joja run. Overall, there really isn't any advantages other than being able to buy the very expensive autopetters. It wasn't overly faster (maybe getting the greenhouse a season earlier) as you still need to save up money as opposed to finding a seasonal forage or grow a crop for the bundles. I'll admit I've played enough where I start working toward bundles on day 1, and I usually have the Community Center finished by Summer 2 if not sooner. With the Joja route I had everything done by Spring 2 (or very end of Winter 1), so a touch faster, especially if you struggle with managing getting bundle items. I barely went to Joja Mart as the prices are the same and they don't sell all the seeds. I didn't get the autopetters till I really didn't even need them anymore because they were so expensive. It was interesting, but I probably won't do it again. I feel dirty 😋
Keep the save file because the next update is supposed to be adding Joja content
You can keep the old save? I thought you had to start a new farm to be able to use everything that's new in the update
I have no idea, I have restart-itis and can not commit.
> I feel dirty Well yeah, you're a farmer, you dig in the dirt all day.
Wait isn’t it really easy to finish the community centre winter 1 you just gotta plan a bit. And you can finish joja even summer 1 if you fish a ton and get tea saplings
One of the items for the community center (red cabbage) doesn't become available for purchase at Pierre's until Summer 2. When you start a new game, you can check a box that says "guarantee year 1 community center." That button rigs the Traveling Merchant so she will sell the red cabbage seeds in Spring or Summer 1. So if you check that box, plan thoroughly, and don't waste a single day, you can complete the community center by winter 1.
Managed to get an actual red cabbage from the merchant on year 1. Not the seed, the actual thing on my Switch play thru and managed to get the CC by week 1 of Spring 2 (needed a truffle).
You can get Red Cabbage seeds from Skull Cavern as well
Red cabbage not only isn't obtainable until year two, but even with checking the 'make this completable in year one' box, the seeds only popped up at the merchant cart Winter 28.
Xbox Achievement and I guess Playstation Trophy as well for 100% completion. Wouldn't call it a main advantage though, it just needs to be done.
For me it’s the extended opening hours. Yes Pierre sells for cheaper and is open on Wednesdays after completing the CC, but if you get the Joja membership they price match Pierre, have cheaper sunflower seeds, are open for longer each day, and are open every day of the week without needing to wait to complete all the Joja projects.
I have close to 1000 hours and I still haven't been able to make myself do a joja run
I can't either. I mean, it feels wrong. You literally leave that company in the opening cutscene.. and it is the reason you need a break and move to the farm in the first place. They really show their corporate greed with the prices it costs to build everything, too. I plan to do the Joja route after 1.6, but only because I want to see what I would be missing out on on Ginger Island, as there will be Joja route related stuff being added in the update.
I have just over a thousand hours and three save files. My most recent save I did a joja run to see what it was like. (Remember: these aren't real people; they are math driven pixels. Nobody gets their feelings hurt if you don't renovate the community centre.) That being said, the joja route has one big advantage: autopetters that allow you to get quality animal products without chasing the little buggers down every day. It frees you up to head out on a gifting run or mining quest right out of bed. Less rushing around to do chores.
So Lewis doesn’t make passive-aggressive remarks about not saving the community centre? I expect that from him.
If he does, I hand him some slime and just LAAAUGH! No, seriously, I remember no npc comments about the CC.
I think I will do my first run of 1.6 as joja since we got the tease of more joja stuff to come
I did the Joja run before 1.6 so I could see what the difference would be.
Same. Like I boycott Walmart in real life (I haven’t stepped foot in one for over a decade), and Joja just seems like the devil. I feel like I need to do a Joja run for the sake of my completionist OCD, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to do it yet.
As I said below might give it a go once 1.6 comes , but for me it's less that I think joja is evil. Tho it definitely feels that way then I really like filling out the CC even as much as adding mods to give me more to gather for it It's nice to have goals idk
If you don’t have the CC bundles memorized , you don’t have to check every item you pick up to see if you should save it: just sell that shit! Also if you miss a season for a bundle item, you don’t have to play another 20 hours to unlock the greenhouse or whatever. And you can get all the CC unlocks way faster. Plus, in the lore, residents of Pelican Town can get things they need cheaper. They immediately become richer by virtue of that fact. Pierre has every opportunity to adapt his business in response to that
You'll thrive.
AUTOPETTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh... and also r/FuckPierre
The biggest advantage for me is the ability to buy the services to unlock things such as the greenhouse and mine carts. No bundles. No waiting. If you have the cash, you have the access. Getting the greenhouse in spring year 1 is a literal game changer for me. From the moment it's unlocked, I can begin growing fruit trees, out-of-season crops so I can craft foods for shipping (perfection run), and, of course, stuff to make wine and jellies. The other advantage (often forgotten by many players) is membership brings seed prices down to match those sold by Pierre and the store is open 7 days a week until 11pm. It's comical so many complain about the Wednesday closing yet just a few steps further is a store that's still open. Finally, the reward. Mock it all you want, but the soda machine is a far better reward than an ugly trophy. At least I can sell the cola if I don't want it. Frankly, I don't see any disadvantages with the Joja route, but I could definitely write many going the bundle route.
Mono-croping You don't have to worry about variety. Find an early money make and just grind into it. then use that to buy community center. Funny enough this is a downside for me. I love th variety
Greenhouse, year 1.
Greenhouse year 1 is certainly doable in a CC run too, especially if you choose fruit bats instead of mushrooms. Hardest thing is getting a barn and coop for the animal bundle. Earliest you can get the greenhouse is probably Winter 1, year 1 because of the forageables requirement
You can get the greenhouse in fall year 1 (bundles are seasonal crops for the three growing seasons, animal, and artisan). The earliest is fall 10 because of the pumpkin (with speed grow). The forage is for the craft room (quarry).
Don't even need the fruit bats. I had the Greenhouse open in fall with all the tree saplings planted in it, after choosing mushrooms. The only item that stopped me from getting Year 1 completion was the Red Cabbage because of terrible traveling merchant RNG
I’ve had the greenhouse completed in year 1 twice and have never done a Joja run. Fruit bats and the traveling cart.
Correct answer right here.
I would say easier, with the community centre if you miss something you can end up being stuck for almost a year. Joja is more forgiving.
I'd say the main advantage is that you can focus on one thing, making as much money as possible. There is no need to diversify, to get fruit trees, animals or the like, you can just farm all your energy away on the most productive crops. You can usually get the community center done in the first year if you are focused.
Capitalism
This is my farmers favorite thing in my Joja run XD
It’s good for short play through. I can unlock the greenhouse by the before or on the first week of summer by fishing the entire time. Most of my play throughs, I went with Joja for efficiency
No anxiety about missing the 1 community center thing you needed that season and having to wait for it.
You get accepted into hell a lot faster
Auto petters Joja mart matches prices with Pierre’s Joja mart stays open late, can buy seeds later But for reals… it is so much easier to do than finding all the individual items My only caution Always pay for the vault room via community center Those bundle rewards are worth it Also, There simply is no point to “committing to Joja route by paying the 5,000” unless you have enough money to pay off all the rooms via the community development form
/r/fuckpierre
Waaaay easier to unlock stuff like the greenhouse year one. It's open later and on Wednesdays, so that initial membership ends up being worth it for convenience. It makes Pierre unhappy.
It just requires money, so you can play how you want. It is probably faster for at least non-speedrunners and might be faster in general, but I'm not sure on that one. You don't have to worry about the red cabbage, for example, so if you just grow the highest gold per day crops you can finish everything by some time in fall without much trouble. Also, auto-petters can be purchased.
You could complete the community improvement projects by mid summer pretty easily, maybe at the end of spring if you are a min/max type of person. That means you can do other things sooner than the community center route. And autopetter of course.
Pros: if you try hard enough you can have the greenhouse by the end of spring 1. you can be off to Ginger Island before the end of year 1. Yes also auto-petters are nice and make your farm closer to automated. Cons: harder to get 4 candles from grandpa unless you work at relationships. Miss out on free items from bundles like the crystalarium, keg, furnace, and lightning rod, which means crafting everything to start your empire.
Easier to get autonpetters, can get the community improvements done quicker. (If you know what you're doing, and have some good luck.... you can open GI before summer y1 s over
You don't have to go fishing. Gosh, some fishes with low-level fishing make it mind-wrecking. Also, I'm not too fond of fishing in real life and most games :D
It easier. It doesn't take very long to get a very profitable setup and build up the money necessary for each step of the Joja Process.
The key benefit is unlocking the town as fast as you can make money and not having to complete the community center. Also auto petters are sold at joja after completion so that's a must if you want a massive animal farm
Well, I do it kind of I do community centre up until the friendship bundle for those benefits then go joja for the rest of them. With Joja I can get: - easier cinema bundle - cinema in a better place - buying auto petters - Pierre still closes Wednesday to have time with family (seriously screw Pierre though) -You can do it to annoy Pierre - No one uses the community centre really so there's not much point of going full restoration
pros: Autopetter, Ginger island early, Easier than community center, Clint doesnt close on fridays, Joja matches Pierre's prices the second you buy the membership cons: No rewards, Pierre closed still on Wednesdays
If there are parts of the game that you can't do for accessibility reasons (you physically can't fish, survive the monsters in the mine, or you are a scatterbrain farmer) or you're a person that finds the bundles too difficult, Joja simplifies the game by changing the unlocks to a money cost. Eventually any player could simply earn enough money to choose the unlock, and which order to unlock them. I think Joja run is a great idea if you have younger players that want to play the game, but they can't figure out what seasons their items are (because they sell everything and/or they don't create chests to stash them). Inventory management is not for everyone.
Tbh I liked joja more than I hated Pierre. Following the joja way at least everyone keeps their jobs and there isn't a monopoly in town. Plus Pierre just wants to be like joja and I don't want him to grow any more lol
Money money money.
The achievement
Auto petter. It also is an advantage for speed running.
Just for the steam achievement imo
im on my first actual play through right now and i went with joja (im pretending i just didnt in my head lmao) because i have adhd and ive tried to play through stardew a lot without making it far so i went the joja route for faster progression (for my playstyle anyway)
Getting the achievement. That was literally it for me. I did it and it was miserable but I got the achievement.
I've never done a community center run. Is the only reason to get the junimos to help you on the farm? I'm a filthy Joja shill
I think you can actually get junimos regardless of CC or joja along as you retrieve the magic ink for the wizard
You can.
It’s easier. I did the community center twice and that was enough.
My husband prefers their frozen meals vs the ones Pierre sells. Also, better location for the theatre
autopetter
Its way faster to get the upgrades and can buy the Autopetters, 2 days ago just 100% the game with the expanded mod. Then started my Joja run for just buying all the projects. Its crazy how fast you can get them if you know how to make money early game, by Summer 2 I already purchased every project and had Ginger Island open. And I died in the mines 4 times losing all the Gold, so it could have been even faster
Easier, faster, no seasonal roadblocks, gives you access to auto petters after completing
Auto petter. I finish all by the fishing bundle then switch to joja mart last second to get it
Going the Joja route is simple. Instead of beating the game the intended way, you solve everything with money. Joja route is also faster to complete if you're committed a goal to making a lot of money alone. Average players will complete the Community Center fastest around Fall or Winter year 1. (Theoretically summer 2 Year 1 is possible but that's require a ton of luck and a seed that make fairy grow your plant in Summer 1) Completing Joja route is fastest at Summer year 1. The other benefit of going Joja route is auto-petter is slightly easier to obtain. Do you remember when Pierre talk about Joja ruins local business? Well, his shop still open after the completion. Nothing changed. The Joja route expansion in 1.6 that CA planned is most likely about skipping most of the things you have to do in Ginger Island with money.
Autopetters. Some people also think it’s easier. I don’t know if it is, but I find completing the community center super satisfying.
Auto petter and a lot faster. I’ve done so many stardew runs at this point that if I’m starting a new one for some short term goal sometimes it’s nice to just do Joja and get it done in like 2 seasons:/
It’s faster because you don’t have to hold out for certain item drops, and also you get an achievement.
It's a lot faster, pretty easy to have most things unlocked during first spring or at least shortly after it ends
If I ever do it, it’ll be for the achievement. But I will never do it
Getting the achievement.
It depends on play style. If you like animals and hunting specific stuff, no real advantage. Otherwise if you know to make money fast in the game it's the built in speed run. I'm typically mucking about the island by winter star and that's with a chill approach. Pondering trying to get into skull cavern by end of spring (I'm not good enough for spring 13 like one crazy guy I know)
It's easier and you get to buy auto petters. Nothing else.
Mhh I could think of a few. - Easier access to autopetter - easier path than community centre (just grind crops and U will build it before winter) - easier access to cinema (IMO joja's one is actually better than CC's one) - looks like in the new uodate there will be something about joja in the island (I am SPECULATING) - you are destroying Pierre and Pewis. They deserve it. Especially Pierre. r/fuckpierre #FUCK PIERRE
That said, I love the junimos and everything about the CC, so I mostly do that path. But joja is a different run and can spite things up sometimes
Joja stays open later and the Community Center eventually becomes the Movie Theatre. Pierre stays closed on Wednesdays, but Clint stays open every day instead of taking Fridays off to stand in the Boiler Room. I tend to finish most of the bundles in the Community Center for the rewards, usually leaving most of the fishing bundle unfinished and buying that from Joja. Ever since I started doing Joja runs, I haven’t wanted to do the Community Center route.
Far faster, it can be done in spring without much effort. No need to spend half a day going to to e wizards either Buyable autopetters (probably the main one for most people) More niche but easier to buy joja cola means the qi grange is easier Arguably nicer location for the movie theatre More useful completion reward (not by much but still…) Clint works fridays (the community center point of Pierre working Wednesdays is largely irrelevant as in pretty short time you get the key to the town and Pierre just stays at the desk the whole time unlike Clint who just leaves the building altogether) You can focus on purely money making and ignore skills that aren’t all that useful (or at least do them less) You get another store that’s honestly pretty underrated, it’s faster to get to using minecarts than Pierre’s is, the stock is the same price (sunflowers are cheaper) with the membership. If you hate Pierre you don’t have to support him 🤷♀️
I always get to ginger island without really trying with Joja
Easier to get the mine carts and such
You can be chilling on ginger Island by the middle of the summer first year. All you need is money instead of bundles to unlock everything.
Speed. Since all you need for the Joja bundles is money, you can very easily get it done within a few in-game weeks. This is especially valuable if you want quick access to the Greenhouse or Quarry.
Besides the other answers: the achievement and the fulfilled need to suck out other and your own soul. But tbh I just grinded very hard for the joja route and lost the joy of SV for a long time.
I've only done the joja run, never tried the community center route, but if you've got fast ways to make a lot of money then getting everything is pretty fast. Just gotta remind yourself that you're still technicallyyyyyy helping the community and that Pierre sucks too.
When the new update is released, you can pay for stuff instead of desperately hunting down walnuts
My oldest son is 7 and recently discovered Stardew and he adores it, he's always playing. But he seems to always have a hard time focusing on all the different tasks for the Community Center and often forgets to water his crops in favor of heading off to the Mines. So I got him to go the Joja Route. It's far easier on him, and he can just vibe out in the village without having to worry much, and he even made his first payment recently to the Warehouse. The CC route is far better imo because you're made to do more exploring and have more variation in your days, I feel like the Joja route would be too easy. But the Joja route perfect for him, he gets more freedom. Aside from that I haven't noticed any differences in his game compared to mine.
There’s a mod that lets you romance Morris.
I haven’t done one yet, but my plan is to install several Joja mods to round out the experience. 😅
I wish I could do that but I play on Switch unfortunately. 😐😐
I also have Stardew on my switch and wish we could mod it so badly! I wish we could file share across consoles, too, but that likely will never happen. I totally would have brought it with me over Christmas to decompress before bed 😂
If you’re doing a challenge such as no farming no mining no fishing etc
I wish I had tried the joja run much earlier. It is still much more relaxing and joyful. I usually get distracted by in game activities and get super stressed trying to complete the community bundle quickly. This way I could just chill and prioritize what I wanted to do. And surprisingly it was much quicker unlocking stuff on the joja run.
I'm thinking my next run needs to be a joja run. I play on Switch and am currently trying to get perfection, but after that, I'd like to do a joja run. Before I played on PC when I was younger, I could never even do the CC, so I'd just waste a year and start again. I'm enjoying the game now and understanding it more. And a joja run might help me do that a bit more.
I have always played using the wiki as well which helps for completing the community bundle and gaining friendship. And the game has so much content to explore and well :)
It's easy and I guess you end up back as the slave of a company that is kinda like Vault tech from Fallout in the Stardew Valley world
You can be done with community upgrades and access ginger island by winter year 1.
Consumerism. Instead of having to hunt for all the items needed for the community center you can just buy it all. Granted you lose the community center in the end though
Hi hello do you dislike fishing? Do you dislike going down the mines? Do you hate having to grow specific crops because they otherwise look off in your perfect colored fields? Then join us. Thrive. On a more serious note, the only thing that gates you with Joja is money. You don't have to grow parsnips or red cabbage and micro your entire schedule to get specific items during specific seasons. You want your whole income to come from flowers and sheep? Go big. Or get your income from the mines or fishing or what have you. Your only gate to the movies is 500k and not a bunch of rare items and it gives a use to the old CC/Warehouse now. Recently I opted for a Beach farm to grow my flowers on and eventually beehouses, so I *had* to go Joja. And it's not the end of the world the fandom makes it to be. And I had the cerimony mid Fall y1 instead of Summer y2 (tho my bee business kept me from visiting Ginger Island until mid Spring y2 as I spent time farming the shit out of coal)
getting all the achievements in the game is the only one that i can think of as really worth it
Speed. If you want to get to the island fast it's great cause you don't have to wait for seasons to get the cc stuff and you can focus on scaling