10 Best Animals in Stardew Valley
When talking about growing and expanding a farm, the image that immediately pops up is a vast land with various healthy crops and animals. Having various types of animals living on your farm is an advantage as they can give you wide choices of their produce which you can use to your own advantage. But a player must know that some animals are more needed to be on your farm to get access to the best benefits an animal can give you in Stardew Valley. With that, we made this article to tell you the best animals in Stardew Valley.
Before anything else, new players might ask what’s the deal with picking the best animals when you can just have one of everything. It is as simple as this: think of it as your own children that you have to take care of every day. Each animal must be given enough care and food each day.
It is your goal to make each one of your animals feel loved enough with how frequently you pet and feed them. Once your animal feels satisfied, there will be a heart indicator on that particular animal. Once an animal has a heart indicator, there is a high chance that it will give you high-quality produce. By picking the best animals, it will be easy for you to have a source of high-quality products that can be helpful in many ways.
The most common way of obtaining different farm animals is by purchasing them from Marnie whom you can find in the northeastern area of the Pelican Town. There, you can find her ranch which opens from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. However, some uncommon animals will be available for keeping upon reaching certain places and events.
With that, here are the 10 best animals to have on your farm in Stardew Valley.
Ostrich
Starting off with an uncommon animal. As mentioned previously, this type of animal cannot be purchased from Marnie’s Ranch or anywhere else. In fact, ostrich is one of the hardest to get onto your farm.
In order for players to have an ostrich on the farm, you have to find an ostrich egg first. But the important thing here is that ostrich eggs can only be found on Ginger Island by solving the Journal Scap #10, and by exploring the chests inside the Volcano Dungeon.
After finally obtaining an ostrich egg, you cannot just wait for it to hatch like any other egg. You have to use an ostrich incubator which you can get by finishing the fossil donation and surveys in the Island Field Office.
You don’t have to worry even if you only have one ostrich in your barn as it will lay another egg after seven days. This ostrich egg can either be placed in the ostrich incubator to produce another ostrich or be placed in the Mayonnaise Machine to produce 10 jars of mayonnaise with the same quality as the egg.
Goat
A goat is one of the animals that you can purchase from Marnies Ranch for 4,000 gold. This animal can only give the player milk. But the goat milk is way better than that of a cow’s. Although goats do not produce milk every day, instead every two days, you can actually sell it or use it to make goat cheese which is the best gift for both Leah and Robin.
Pig
It is expected that pigs will actually be considered as one of the best animals in Stardew Valley.
To have a pig on your farm, you have to buy it from Marnie for 16,000 gold and you must have a Deluxe Barn. Although it has a high gold and facility requirement, you will later realize how worthy it is to have a pig on your farm.
Pigs dig up the soil and forage truffles. Each day, pigs can forage and give you three truffles a day. If you still do not know, truffle is a good source of income. So having plenty of pigs on your farm can make you a millionaire in days. However, pigs cannot produce truffles during the winter and rainy seasons.
Rabbit
Aside from pigs, rabbit is also another animal that most players expect to be hailed as one of the best animals in Stardew Valley. It is easy to obtain a rabbit. All you have to do is have a Deluxe Coop and buy it from Marnie for 8,000 gold.
The reason why most people think rabbit is a good investment in the game is because it can produce both Wool and Rabbit’s Foot. The Wool can be turned into a cloth while the Rabbit’s Foot can be gifted to most of the villagers.
Sheep
Sheep can also be purchased from Marnie’s Ranch. Just like rabbits, they also produce wool that can be harvested using Shears which you can also buy from Marnie for 1,000 gold. But with an Auto-Grabber, all the sheep inside the barn will be automatically sheared.
A sheep can produce a wool coat to be harvested every three ur days if it is matured. You will know if a sheep is mature if it is fed daily and four days have already passed.
Dinosaur
Who would have thought that dinosaurs could also be something you can take care of together with other animals?
In order for you to have a dinosaur on your coop, you just have to do a lot of artifact hunting and treasure chest investigation to find a dinosaur egg. It’s true that finding one needs a lot more hard work, but you just have to trust the process and wait until you have your own dinosaur on your farm.
Every seven days, a dinosaur can produce a dinosaur egg if it is well-fed. With this egg, you make a dinosaur mayonnaise or place it in an incubator to hath another dinosaur.
Ducks
Duck is another animal you can buy from Marnie for 1,200 gold once you have a big coop.
Every two days, each duck produces an egg which you can either turn into a duck mayonnaise or incubate to yield a new duck in your coop. Aside from its egg, a happy duck with enough friendship points can also produce a rare drop, Duck Feather.
Aside from depending on the duck’s drop, the player can also purchase a Duck Feather from the Traveling Cart, and give them to Elliott and Leo as gifts.
Chicken
Of course, chickens will always be present on every farm. Aside from the fact that each of them can give you an egg every day, these eggs also vary in size depending on your friendship with the chicken. Besides selling the eggs, you can also make mayonnaise out of them just like other eggs produced by other animals.
With that, chickens can be easily said to be one of the best coop animals in Stardew Valley.
Cat/Dog
Despite not being a farm animal, a cat or a dog can still be one of the animals you’ll see on your farm. At the start of the game, specifically during the character customization, you will be asked whether you want to have a cat or a dog.
On the farm, you can feed and pet it. Although there are no visible indications regarding the progress of your friendship, you still have to continue showing your love to your pet. The reason for this is that a loving pet will grant you an extra point during the Grandpa’s Evaluation.
What’s good about getting a high score from Grandpa’s Evaluation is that upon reaching 12 points, the player will receive the Statue of Perfection which gives an Iridium Ore daily. So, don’t miss this opportunity to raise your friendship level with your friend.
Horse
A horse is another animal that does not produce any resources for you. However, a horse is pretty useful for the player as a mount. By riding the horse, the movement speed will increase by 30%, which can still be increased by drinking coffee.
The player can only acquire the horse after buying and crafting a stable from Robin’s Carpenter’s Shop for 10,000 gold. Once it is fully constructed, the horse will automatically come with the horse.
Just like the cat and dog pets, the player can also name it by riding it for the first time. However, whatever its name must be final as it cannot be renamed after a while.
But since the horse only serves as an in-game mount and does not produce any resources, there is no need for the players to give special care like with the other animals since there will be no friendship points between you and the horse.
