In real-world farms, people raise pigs primarily for their meat products. However, meat animals don’t exist inStardew Valley, so many players may wonder why pigs are in the game and how they can contribute to the farm. On top of that, pigs are the most expensive animal in the game, so what justifies that?
The answer to that question comes from another use people sometimes have for pigs: truffles. Unlike other mushrooms, there’s only one way to spawn truffles inStardew Valley, and that’s to have aPigroam around and nose them out of the soil. Truffles are extremely profitable, andplayers with the right professionswill pay for their pigs sooner rather than later.
How to Buy a Pig in Stardew Valley
Like other basic livestock,Marnie sells pigsfrom her ranch south of the farm. However, players can onlyhouse pigs in a deluxe barn. The total cost of a deluxe barn, including the cost of a barn and a big barn, is43,000g. The barn comes with other perks, like room for 12 animals, animal pregnancy, and an autofeeder, but players must have a deluxe barn if they want to even consider buying a pig.
Next, players must buy the pig. A new pig costs16,000g, which is over 10 times the price ofa new cow. Players can place the baby pig in any deluxe barn they own. A baby pig takes10 days to mature into an adult pig, assuming they eat every day, and once they grow up, a pig can start hunting for truffles.
How to Make Money From Truffles and Truffle Oil
When a pig is outside on the farm, they have a high chance of creating a truffle at some point during the day.This truffle can only appear on an empty square. The pig must also have a chance to feed that day, and the truffle can appear at any point during the pig’s stay outside. If a pig spends their day inside the barn, either thanks to rain or winter, they won’t find any truffles.
Closing the barn door, even for part of the day, alsolowers the odds of a pigfinding a truffle. Ideally, players shouldkeep the barn door openand create a fenced area in front of it. This will let pigs leave the barn immediately in the morning while keeping their movement restricted enough to make it easy to spot the truffles they spawn.
Happy pigs can often find more than one truffle in a day. The first one is almost guaranteed to appear at some point during the day, while the odds of a second and third truffle increase based on thepig’s friendship rating.A pig with five friendship hearts has a 66 percent chance of finding an extra truffle, so on average, they’ll find three truffles per day.
However, pig friendship has no impact on the truffle’s quality. Instead, the rules for truffle quality are based onthe player’s Foraging rank. Sold truffles add to Farming sales, butpicking them up provides Foraging XP. This also means that Foraging professions improve truffle quality and quantity. Gatherers can sometimes get two truffles at once, and a Botanist will always find iridium-grade truffles. On the other hand, the Rancher profession adds nothing to a truffle’s value.
Players can alsoconvert truffles into truffle oilusing theoil maker, which unlocks atFarming 8. The price of truffle oil is1,065g, which is more than a gold-quality truffle but less than an iridium truffle. A player withthe Artisan professioncan boost this value up to1,491, which is even more than the price of an iridium truffle. In other words,a Botanist should always sell truffles, but an Artisan Botanist should always produce truffle oil.
Players can use truffles and truffle oil to create clothing and dyes, and truffle oil is an ingredient for rain totems, but they don’t appear in any cooking recipes. Aside from quests and bundles, players can treat truffles (and therefore pigs) as nothing more than profit makers.
