Should You Pick the Rancher or Tiller Passive in Stardew Valley?

In Stardew Valley, players level up various skills by performing multiple actions as they go about their in-game day-to-day. Each of these skills let them specialize into a specific profession once they reach level five with additional specializations at level ten, awarding players with special passive abilities. These abilities range from increasing the amount of ore you can receive for breaking rocks in the mines, to removing the bait requirement for crab pots. The farming skill offers two different professions at level five: Rancher and Tiller. Both of these professions will greatly influence what you focus on in your playthrough, and it’s important to choose the one that works best for you. Let’s break down both professions, explain the benefits of both, and provide some insight into which one you should take.

The Rancher Passive in Stardew Valley

Although Rancher’s initial passive only gives a 20% selling bonus to animal goods, the passives you’ll get to choose from at level ten are much more enticing. Coopmaster will help you befriend coop animals faster, and halves the time it takes for eggs to incubate. Shepherd will help you befriend barn animals faster, and sheep will produce wool faster. Both of these options will also increase the likelihood of better quality animal goods from your coop and barn animals respectively, synergizing well with the level five passive.

Rancher is a profession better suited to players who want to accelerate their animal production. Coopmaster will drastically cut down the time it takes to hatch new animals, and the friendship bonuses from both it and Shepherd will make generating higher quality animal goods take less time. However, in the long-term, all of Rancher’s passives wear out their usefulness. There’s a finite amount of friendship you can earn with your animals, and once you’ve maxed out all the animals you own, either level ten passive is worthless. Coopmaster’s incubation bonus stops being useful once your coops are full. Rancher’s passive bonus to the price of animal goods is great in the early-game, but by the time you get it, you’re already converting them into artisan goods which don’t receive the bonus at all.

The Tiller Passive in Stardew Valley

Tiller’s 10% bonus to your crop sales is nice, but like Rancher the real decision is between its level ten professions. Agriculturist will grow your crops 10% faster. Artisan makes all your artisan goods sell for 40% more than their base price. One of these clearly stands out more than the other. Tiller has a balanced progression serving players well across their playthrough. In the early-game, the bonus to your central source of income is most welcome! In the late-game, Artisan is a no-brainer. You’re most likely producing wine, cheese, and other artisan goods that will greatly benefit from the huge boost in value. Agriculturist is fine to take if you really don’t like waiting for your crops to harvest, but there’s so much to do in Stardew Valley! You won’t be itching to see them grow.

Which is Better: Rancher or Tiller?

Between the two, it’s difficult to recommend Rancher to anyone. If you’re exclusively ranching and filling your farm with as many barns and coops as you can, Rancher still has its limits on how much it’s going to help you. Coopmaster can cut down your incubation timers, but in the mid and late-game, you’ll have an easier time buying new animals from Marnie instead. The quality and selling bonuses from any of the Rancher professions pale in comparison to the bonus Artisan provides to the Artisan Goods you’ll make from your animal goods. Rancher’s short-term gains are overshadowed by Tiller’s excellent end-game.

If you truly want to optimize your ranching-centric playthrough, it’s possible to pick up Rancher first. Then use the statue in the town sewers to respec into Tiller and Artisan once you’re done boosting the friendship levels of all your animals. Otherwise, Tiller and Artisan are the evergreen options. They will always provide a huge advantage as you work towards advanced production.

Hopefully this guide helps you choose your farming profession in Stardew Valley. You’ll need to raise your farming level to ten before you can truly enjoy the benefits of the Tiller profession. You’ll be growing lots of crops! It might help to know the Best Sprinkler Layouts in Stardew Valley. You should also check out our guide on the Best Spring Crops in Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley is available on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, Windows, MacOS, Linux, and mobile devices.