In Defense of the Beach Farm
I keep seeing it, “The Beach Farm is only good for repeat playthroughs”. “Sprinklers on the Beach Farm make it rough”. After spending more time with a wider variety of farms, I gotta say, I disagree. I believe it has the most managable downside, and some of the most powerful upsides. Of course, not everyone will have the same experience, but I think it’s a strong choice for beginners.
0:00 – Intro
1:39 – Easier Navigation
3:38 – Supply Crates are POWERFUL
6:04 – A Lack of Debris
8:25 – The Main Farm Repoll
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50 Comments
Beach farm is my current and first real playthrough. I played a file years ago where I got to fall year 1 and stopped playing. Almost on year 3 on beach now. I completed the community center in about a year, have max hearts on everyone but Leo, max house, married, and just really have a good progression to perfection. I really like the beach farm it was a nice aesthetic. The crates that wash up are a bonus when they do actually wash up lol. Using the farm screenshot in options is a good way to check for them early.
Id still say it is a challange farm, with a boat load of benefits to offset that glaring challenge
Sprinklers are such a big part of most people's game play, you really want to be willing to challange yourself just to take on that hurdel
Its not much of a challange, but it's enough for the casual player to maybe be dissuaded until they understand that game more
That was me for the longest time with the beach farm
Beach Farm! My favorite!â¨
I nearly always chose this map with mod or no mod.
Ooo I've been doing a beach farm with my spouse because we love the ocean and the coast but don't live there. I grinded to get that garden space and honestly it's pretty good. And it's very fun
"You're all being manipulated by big standard."
But if we don't work to a standard, it's just chaos.
Lmao wait it's crazy to hear that the Wilderness farm is for veteran players. I did my first playthrough on that one and struggled immensely now that makes a lot of sense..
You know what… I will still not use Beach Farm.
Imma stick with the Old farm layout you keep if you have an old save.
With 1.6 update specifically, i feel like the beach farm lost it's challenge title, since farming no longer dominate as hard as a money maker.
Mining is still viable, and the mastery perk just made it faster to process the ores.
Fishing got a major glow up, I'd say even becoming a decent contender for top dawg spot.
I've definitely seen myself not opting to mass production farms until much later, simply because mining/fishing(mostly fishing) is just better
The path argument doesn't quite sit right with me. A path is present in every farm albeit not up to the farmhouse door, but I feel the leap to the path is smaller than the leap to walking along the shore. However, I don't think that there is a strictly bad choice for someone's first farm. I'd say meadowlands is the weakest, as you aren't introduced to crops and farming as naturally.
While not everyone's cup of tea, I still very love that Beach farm existed.
Forest is my favorite as a Year One Completionist for sure, but I genuinely love the four corners one as a single-player as well since it has a little bit of everything and naturally blocks in farm animals. My first farm was the monster one though and I still have a soft-spot for it; it's my long-term 100% file to be clear.
I've done a run on the Beach farm but I could stand to try it again.
There was barely any defense here. The only point was "It's easier to walk around it".
The Beach Farm situation is crazy
"Your being manipulated by big standard" if i didn't know this was a SDV video id think this was some historical quote about Standard Oil.
but also yes, sprinklers aren't the end all be all (Fruit Trees my beloved, wish you were actually any good). especially if your playing on a farm that gives you other tasks out the gate, weather it be forage, crates animals ect.
i know most folks don't play with mods, but modded farm maps are a joy in this regard of actually making you play in a different way. (though the number of modded farms with tillable grass makes me sad.)
partial to one of my own creation though so any discussion about farm maps is gonna be biased, split in two by a river, scattered with fruit trees for wild forage start with a barn and a cow by default (configurable to be a sheep or goat because asthetic), forage mushrooms during and after rainy days, flowers in a specific part of the map when mushrooms don't spawn having only one sprinklerable area to farm in thats also you inital grass space for the animals is a neat challenge, and later on rice and other paddy crops become an option near the farms lake special paddy space that can't take sprinklers so you aren't fighting over space for animal grass or crops so much. any who i digress, down with big standard.
looked at the video title like ??? in defense??? of the best farm??? before remembering that ive been playing with a mod that enables sprinklers on the beach farm for the last like 4 years. guys its the best farm out there if you remove the challenge đ
youve convinced me. the next new playthrough i have will be beach.
I appreciate that someone else had the same problem I did with Harvest Moon 64. When I first got the game as a kid, I could NOT find the beach. So I would restart the entire game every time the Swimming Festival rolled around because I couldn't find the beach to participate. I remember, my father took me to Gamestop where we had bouhgt it to ask the people who worked there for help. Although they hadn't played the game, they were able to direct us to GameFAQS where my father was finally able to find a guide that TOLD me how to find it. He even printed that entire guide out for me and I kept it for many many years. But it just goes to show you how important small things can be. Its a nice touch that the sides of the beach farm in Stardew do allow for easy access and further help make the game easier – especially for newer players. Also, personally, its my favorite farm so I'm glad to see that it still has support – even if its a cult following. XD
Well now that i know there is a ptch of soil where srinklers can be used, i might give it a shot
7:13 Counterpoint, when I played SD for the first time it was completely blind without looking things up, and when I got that sprinkler unlocked and set up, it was such a dopamine rush.
I started a new farm on the Beach Farm lately, and I've been loving it. The sprinkler space in the bottom left is more than enough until you get access to Ginger Island, so the one downside of the farm doesn't really feel all that bad. I love how spacious the farm is since I can have as much space as I want dedicated to animals and a massive tree farm.
I also think that this playthrough might be blessed since, before even my first summer, I fished up two Neptune's Glaives, a Broken Trident, two Dino Eggs (one of the rarest items from fishing), a Treasure Chest, and an Ancient Seed.
Okay, but when can we pay Robin to upgrade the pathetic planks to actual bridges?
You should try play harvest moon mineral town
iâm one of the few hilltop warriors
4 years ago i was one of the many people that chose the beach farm as my first ever farm and it absolutely hooked me into the game to the point i played it for like 10 hours a day for a week straight (which thankfully was a school holiday)
Walking to the right was the main thing I did for quite a while. Farm, general store, blacksmith, mines, ocean. Literally over a (in game) year and a half of just those places.
After I got the invitation from the Wizard, I assumed "oh, quest to go the edge of a forest I haven't even discovered yet to talk about the mysterious abandoned building. Sounds like an advanced story thing. I'll want to grind up my Combat for a bit. Oh, but I also recently unlocked Sprinklers. I bet if I do more farming, I can then get better sprinklers, and they can manage the farm while I'm on this presumably several days long trip. I'll want to stock up on fish so I have enough energy too."
Lo and behold, after almost 2 years of leveling my skills and getting things on the farm automated, I began the adventure.
And discovered he was just Marnie's neighbor.
whether beach good or bad, at least we can all stay hating on the Wilderness farm, cause what even is that (also hilltop needs more love, it looks pretty, less flat, more character)
i first started playing in early 1.4 and i was so lost. didnât know the cindersap forest existed, had no clue who âAbbyâ was (couldnât put together that it was abigail LOL), and only thought you could sell one thing a day. wish i knew about your channel when i first started out, but sometimes learning the hard way is nice lol. thanks for your work!
At this point it doesn't really matter much to me as I usually use a modded farm in my playthroughs, but I did get auto assigned the beach farm in my archipelago run and it was super helpful for early checks. Also, I've never, not even once, played on the standard farm. I think the lack of grass patches makes it ugly.
I will say this, the downside of no sprinklers is no massive fields of cranberries/bluberries to turn into dried fruit…
When I first started playing Stardew Valley I knew nothing about it, and as I started, I chose the farm I thought was most beautiful, which was the beach farm. And I loved it ever since, the aesthetic, the atmosphere, everything.
I love the openness of the beach farm. I can fish right outside my door, Off you clear all the debris you don't have to leave the farm hardly at all during the green rain event. I get tons of fiber and moss without even going into the forest. I just like how light it is, even at night. Hands down my favorite farm!
I tried the beach farm for the joja run and actually it was very funny because I ended up with a farm with all except crops like leyend2 fishponds, barns with ostriches, lots of mystic trees with taps and more and for more money iâm trying a ginger island farm with fruit trees and deluxe retailing soil
my personal fave is the four corners cause i like the sections. However, i have been playing on the tiny farm mod. i do like how quant it is.
I only planted the multi harvested seeds in the beach farm… I was hoardering blueberries the first summer cranberries on my first fall. working my way up with the preserved jar and kegs until i get my green house, and after that,… life's a peach haha
For an absolute beginner I would pick the original farm, or the four corners farm. The four corners was intended for multi player, but it has a Quarry area, a respawning Hardwood stump, and a fishing pond, as well as several watering holes for your can.
I love the beach farm I think it's so pretty and I hate doing a ton of farming in general and prefer keeping it minimal until I have the greenhouse and island farm anyway. I don't think it's a challenge farm either it's just not the ideal farm to min/max on
it's always shocking to see how many people like the standard farm. Because to me it's the ugliest farm. It's also the most difficult to figure out a layout for because the whole thing is farmable.
Everytime i try to play on it i just give up and start on a different farm.
I still want a swamp farm
The beach and riverland farm are my two favorite farms. They both pretty much have one dedicated farming area that are the perfect sizes.
Also for the beach farm I like where the warp statue is because I can put the obelisks next to it isn't in the way.
I almost always pick the Meadowlands farm because i love animals and it feels more consistent than fishing or foraging as a steady money flow
I've got two late-game beach farms. One (the perfection farm) is trucking away beautifully with ostriches and pigs and cows and the seasonal crops patch on the soil area. The other – fruit themed – has fruit trees and sheds full of pineapples and preserve jars. I love the morning patrol for what the sea has washed up, and the hidden tunnel where you can catch that unique artwork. All of the SDV farms make you work with them one way or another, and the beach farm is a top-tier example ^_^
ima be honest, i've been playing stardew for like five years, and i've rarely used sprinklers. and it's really not that hard without them lol. like you said, you really only start having problems when you plant too many crops. you really only need sprinklers when you've got like a hundred crops, and there's a good chunk of players that have no desire to do that, myself included.
The beach farm is great if you don't really care about farming as the #1 priority. Which sounds weird to say, but is more a testament to how CA has expanded this game's scope into so many other things besides just farming. Like IDK fish ponds as an example.
Awesome video!
I uh… my main farm is Grandpa's farm eheh…
THANK YOU! Cant i just like my cute little farm? I dont care if its not optimal!!!
But every farm has a path that immediately goes to the right.
I've always used the Beach farm. The most space is the best option. The only reason to use Standard farm over it is if you're trying for a billion gold or something.
Great parting line, lol
mmmmm yummy intuitive game design
I always found it really interesting that with all the other unique and interesting layouts, the standard farm is still the most used.
Sure, it has the most space. But most of us aren't using all that anyway, and its just boring and ugly. So why, exactly?