(Tip) Gatherer Over Forester – Stardew Valley

When you hit level 5 foraging you have the opportunity to pick between two different skills. Forester makes it so wood is worth 50% more. While good, you will always need wood, and it is a very bad idea to sell it. Gatherer however gives you a chance to harvest double forage. If you pick up a hazelnut and it has a gold star, and the perk activates, you’ll end up with two of them. It’s a decent way to make a few extra bucks and it’ll go a long way, much farther than the forester perk will.

It is very much a pick-your-preference situation. Unfortunately, I’ve found most of the Foraging profession stuff to be very lack-luster. Gatherer is the most satisfying profession tree IMO, while Lumberjack is viable if you have shortages of hardwood.

At Level 5, the Forester profession perk is mostly useless, but gives you access to the Lumberjack or Tapper profession perks at level 10. You never really sell wood for profit except maybe in the first few days / weeks on your farm.

• Tapper is essentially useless as well, and should be redesigned, along with Forester IMO. This is one of the worst level 10 capstone abilities. +25% sell value on a very limited, poor profit resource that is mostly consumed in crafting? Horrible.
• Lumberjack is nice if you find yourself constantly in need of Hardwood. This is a very well conceived level 10 capstone ability. I would personally change it so that trees always gave 1 hardwood.

At level 5, the Gatherer profession perk is a nice little bonus. Doesn’t really amount to much added income, but getting double pick-ups on quartz’s / corals / mushrooms just plain feels good. As a PSA: The chance for a foraged item to be doubled when you pick it up is somewhere around 15% – 20%. Unlocks Tracker and Botanist at level 10.

• Tracker gives you small visual arrows indicating where foragable/gatherable items are. This is a nice little UI feature that many players enjoy, but I personally never really go out of my way to hunt down all foragables on a map, and just pick up the ones that are conveniently on my way. Mainly a matter of preference.
• Botanist makes everything you forage gold star quality. This includes quartzs/tears from the mines and all the stuff from the beach (corals, urchins, etc.). Also of note, makes the forage you grow from wild seeds always gold star quality, and stacked on top of the +15% chance for double harvest. This is a nice perk just from an inventory standpoint, but also is one of the few ways to have a decent planted farm during winter (via winter seeds).

Original Link – Continuation of discussion