In Stardew Valley, you can choose several professions when you level up skills; these professions will give great benefits, but some are ultimately better than others. 

The best professions for every skill in Stardew Valley

To start, let’s explain what professions are; professions are unique perks you get when you level up specific skills. You get two when you level up to five in a skill and four when you level up to ten. 

Each profession also gives you a unique bonus stat to a particular aspect of the game/skill. For example, the Marnier profession allows players to catch more creatures inside a crab pot. 

That said, if you keep reading below, we will cover the best professions in Stardew valley; we will also explain what each profession is good for and why you should choose it. Also if you there is a certain skill/profession you want to know about, feel free to use our handy table of contents below to jump to it. 

Best Farming Professions in Stardew Valley

Like all skills in the game, you get a choice of six farming professions total, two at level five and four at level ten. Below are the two professions you get to pick at level five in farming and then level ten. 

Level Five Farming Professions

  • Tiller Profession: Crops you plant (includes both fruits and vegtables) are worth 10 percent more; you should choose this if you intend to do more farming than animal husbandry.  Rancher Profession:  Items harvested from animals on your farm are worth 20 percent more; choose this if you want to go all-in with raising animals and producing milk, eggs, cheese, etc.

Rancher Level Ten Professions

  • Coopmaster: Befriend coop animals faster and cuts the incubation time to hatch eggs in half; choose this profession if you chose the level five rancher job, also choose this if you want to raise chickens instead of barn animals Shepherd: Befriend barn animals faster and produce wool more quickly with sheep; once again, choose this profession if you chose the level five rancher job, also choose this if you want to raise barn animals instead of chickens.

Tiller Level 10 Profession

  • Artisan: All artisan goods such as wine, oil, and jam will be worth 40% more; We highly recommend choosing this profession because you can make ridiculous amounts of money by selling artisan goods. Agriculturist: All of your crops grow 10 percent faster; This one is pretty straightforward; choose it if you don’t like waiting for crops to grow. However, we reccomend choosing Artisan over it, as the money you could be making with it is ridiculous.

Overall, your best bet is to go with the tiller and then the Artisan profession, as you can make tons of money selling Artisan goods due to the boost in worth to Artisan goods. 

Best Mining Professions in Stardew Valley

Like farming, you get a choice of six mining professions total, two at level five and four at level 10. Below are the two professions you get to pick at level five in mining and then level ten. 

Level Five Mining Professions

  • Miner: You will get one extra ore drop per vein; Choose this if you want to mine more ore like copper, iron, quartz. Overall probably not the best profession you can get as one extra ore doesn’t really help in the long run.  Geologist: Gems will have a 50 percent chance to drop in pairs; this also applies to geodes; Choose this one if you want gems like amethyst and geodes to drop more.

Miner level Ten Professions

  • Blacksmith: Metal bars will be worth 50 percent more. This profession would be good if you intend to make money by selling stuff like iron bars. We honestly don’t recommend it as there are better options out there.  Prospector: Your chances to find coal are doubled; Choose this if you want to find more coal, but it is really not worth it as you can craft coal to make up the difference.

Geologist level 10 professions

  • Excavator: Your chances to find geodes are doubled. Pick this one if you want to find more geodes, which can be broken at the blacksmith in town if you didn’t know already. Gemologist: Gems will be worth 30% more. This one is straightforward; pick it if you want gem items to be worth 30 percent more; it could be useful, but honestly, we would recommend choosing Excavator over it. This is because there are better ways to make money, and finding more geodes is far more useful than selling gems.

For Mining, we recommend the Geologist route as mining ore, creating metal bars like iron bars, is not an effective way to make money in Stardew Valley. There are far better options like making wine, and with Geologist, you get access to Excavator, which will allow you to find twice as many geodes that can contain valuable items. 

Best Foraging Professions in Stardew Valley

Leveling the foraging skill to level five will allow you to choose two skill paths, Forester and Gatherer. That said, below, like last time, is what you get with either of the level five professions and then the level ten professions later on. 

Level Five Foraging Professions

  • Forester: Gain 25 percent more wood when chopping trees or stumps and logs. If you want to maximize your ability for harvesting wood and make building jobs easier, pick this one. Still, probably not the more useful profession, but it’s a little more practical than Gatherer.  Gatherer: You will gain a 20 percent chance to harvest double the amount of forage items. Choose this if you like foraging fruits and mushrooms, but honestly, why bother? It’s not like these items sell for a lot or that you can find them regularly to make it even remotely worth it.

Forester level Ten Professions

  • Lumberjack: All trees have a chance to drop hardwood. Hardwood is required for a lot of things in the game, so we recommend picking this over the syrup.  Tapper: Syrups are worth 25 percent more. Pick this if you intend to make and sell alot of syrup, but not worth it compared to the practicalness of the Lumberjack profession.

Gatherer level 10 Professions

  • Botanist: All foraged items you gather are at the highest quality. Choose this if you want gold tier forage items; however, you don’t even need that level of forage items. Along with this, they simply can’t compare to the amount of money you can make elsewhere.  Tracker: Locations of forageable items are revealed to you. In short, if you have a hard time finding forage items, choose this, and it will help you; however, compared to the other professions, this one is the least helpful and not worth it in the end.

In short, the best professions you can pick for foraging would be Lumberjack and Forester for the simple fact that more wood would be far better than extra foraging items. Along with this, you need hardwood for several things in the game, and choosing lumberjack will help you a lot in this respect. 

Best Fishing Professions in Stardew Valley

Leveling the fishing skill to level five will allow you to choose two skill paths, Fisher and Trapper. That said, below, like last time, is what you get with either of the level five professions and then the level ten professions later on. 

Level Five Fishing Professions

  • Fisher: Fish are worth 25 more. Pick this profession if you enjoy fishing and want to make a little bit more money from it.  Trapper: Resources to craft crab pots are reduced to two copper bars instead of three iron bars. Pick this one if you want to craft more crab pots and like using them more than fishing.

 Fisher Level Ten Professions

  • Angler: Fish are worth 50 percent more now. Again, like last time, choose this if you like fishing and want to make even more money from it.  Pirate: Your chances to find chests while fishing is increased. Pick this profession if you want to find more treasure chests during the fishing mini-game; honestly wouldn’t be a bad idea as you can find some excellent stuff in these chests.

Trapper Level Ten Professions

  • Mariner: Crab pots don’t produce junk items anymore. Pick this profession if you hate finding junk in your crab pots, however some junk items you get, you can always recycle using a recycling machine for refined quartz.  Luremaster: Crab pots will not require bait. This one is straightforward, pick it if you don’t want pots to need bait to use, but is it worth it? Bait only costs five gold in stores and is relatively easy to craft.

Choosing the best fishing professions is a no brainer; Angler and Fisher are your best options in the long run. With both professions picked, you can easily buy any amount of crab pots you could ever want and outperform and make more money to boot. 

Best Combat Professions in Stardew Valley

Leveling the combat skill to level five will allow you to choose two skill paths, Fighter and Scout. That said, below, like last time, is what you get with either of the level five professions and then the level ten professions later on. 

Best Level Five Combat Professions

Fighter: All attacks deal 10 percent more damage; along with this, fighter will give the player +15 extra HP. Probably the best one you can choose for combat as the additional damage will help you more in the long ran than criticals. 

Scout: Critical strike chance increased by 50 percent. Choose this if you want to deal more critical strikes; however, it’s not useful as you rarely deal critical strikes. 

Fighter Level Ten Professions

  • Brute: Deal 15 percent more damage. Pick this one if you want to deal an additional 15 percent more damage on top of the 10 percent.  Defender: Gain +25 more HP. This one is self-explanatory; choosing it gives you more health. However, we would recommend picking brute over it for the extra damage alone.

Scout Level Ten Professions

  • Acrobat: Cooldown on special moves is faster now. Choose this if you want to perform more special moves, probably not as useful compared to Desperado’s increased critical damage.  Desperado: Critical strikes deal more damage. This profession will make your critical strikes deal more damage; because of this, we would recommend choosing it over Acrobat.

In the long run, you are better off going with the Figher route and the brute, as critical strikes and special moves happen too rarely for it to be even remotely adequate. Plus, with Fighter and Brute, you can easily flay and destroy any monster that dare cross your path. 

For more on Stadew Valley, We at PGG have you covered with guides like how to get the recycling machine and how to get the mermaid’s pendant in Stardew Valley.