Are Crab Pots worth it? Stardew Valley

I only have a few that I’ve received from rewards, placed them in the Ocean and have been checking on them for the last month. The thing is, they collect so much trash and are so out of my way that I don’t know if it’s worth it. I don’t mind having a few here and there, but it’s hard to see the rewards so far.

Should I set up more and “play the numbers”? Maybe the beach is a crappy place for them? Do you have some great use for them?

Place them in your farm pools, the trash recycles into very useful materials.

They are a long-term investment, I wouldn’t buy many early on. However, one player made a million in his first Summer by using them.

I focused on crab pots for my second playthrough so I could get plenty of lobster for Elliot. I have 100 crab pots and 24 worm bins to supply them. I have to say, unequivocally, that they are not worth it.

It took months of farming hardwood (600) and fibers (1200) to make all of those (even with the Lumberjack perk). And when you want to gather them all up, it takes like two hours of in-game time.

But it’s really twice as long (gameplay-wise) since it pauses for each pickup animation. It takes a long time. And the end result is roughly 6k gold per day. For all that effort, I could have focused on mining or farming and been much better off.

I’ve gone the fishing route and I’ve gone the crab pot route. Fishing is easier and more direct way to make money. Crab pots require a bit of upkeep + a lot of crafting or gold to purchase them.

If you choose to bait them – provided you placed a lot of them – you can earn a fair bit of money every single day because you can upgrade them to never catch trash. Plus, you’ll have tons and tons of fresh fish on hand for recipes. Downside is – baiting them is a pain in the butt. 5/10 times you’ll accidentally pick them up and have to rifle through your inventory to place them again.

If you choose to upgrade them so they don’t need bait, you’ll still earn a fair amount of money from the fish, they’re 50% less painful to deal with (accidental pickup is still a thing even when harvesting). If you invest in making a bunch of recycling machines, you will be swimming in refined quartz, you can get cloth early without buying a single sheep or rabbit (it’s rare-ish, though) and you’ll have a decent supply of coal. Personally, I find the no-bait route better for that reason than the no-trash route, if you’re going crab pots.

Overall, I feel like fishing and crab pots yield roughly a similar amount of money – one is probably slightly better than the other but I don’t think it’s a tremendous difference. For fishing you just need your rod and time and you’ll be making decent cash. For pots you need materials/gold + patience but you can “set ’em and forget ’em” and don’t have to sacrifice a whole day of farming/mining to go fishing and still get a bunch of fish.

Personally I’d suggest you go fishing but still buy enough crab pots to place them around the two pools in your farm – can fish normally and earn cash and treasures while always having all the loot you’d need from pots and recycling right on your farm.

Original Link – Continuation of discussion