Stardew Valley: How to Pick Between the Mushroom and Bat Cave

• Once you choose between mushrooms or fruit bats, the decision is permanent. You can't switch between cave types.
• Mushroom caves are the overall best for new players or players that want to focus on mining and exploration.
• Fruit bat caves are best for players who want to befriend villagers faster, as fruit and artisan items make great gifts.

Which cave to pick?

For new players, mushrooms are the better pick. Mushrooms are rare finds, especially during the early part of the game, and having access to Life Elixirs is very important if you want to explore the mines. Even if you don't want to mine, you can always use mushrooms to craft Life Elixirs to sell. Mushrooms are a more consistent source of income if you want to sell them instead of craft elixirs with them, as they show up with more regularity than fruit.

If you're interested in befriending villagers, you may want to pick bats. While you may not get fruit as consistently as mushrooms, fruit and fruit-based artisan goods are very good gifts. Fruit can sell for more than mushrooms, and you have a chance of getting higher-quality fruit from the cave. If you make artisan products like wine or jam with your fruit, they sell for more gold than the base fruit.

Ultimately, the choice is personal preference. Both caves have benefits and it comes down to your playstyle and what you want to get out of the game.

Mushroom Cave: Pros and Cons

Choosing mushrooms adds six boxes to the farm cave. Five different kinds of mushrooms will grow overnight in these boxes at random. The mushrooms will always be normal quality, even if you have the botanist profession. The mushroom types and their spawn chance are as follows: Common Mushroom: 69.8% Red Mushroom: 12.3% Morel: 8.1% Chanterelle: 7.3% Purple Mushroom: 2.5%

Mushrooms are essential for creating Life Elixirs. If you plan to go into the mines a lot, Life Elixirs are very important, as this potion will restore your health to full. The four mushrooms needed to craft Life Elixirs all have a chance of spawning in the mushroom cave.

Some Community Center bundles also use mushrooms. Most of the mushrooms that spawn can be used in a number of different bundles, as described below: Common Mushroom: Fall Foraging Bundle Red Mushroom: Dye Bundle, Exotic Foraging Bundle Morel: Exotic Foraging Bundle, Field Research Bundle Purple Mushroom: Exotic Foraging Bundle

Mushrooms don't make very good gifts. The Wizard is one exception—Purple Mushrooms are one of his most loved gifts, so if you want to befriend the Wizard, mushrooms could be a good option for you.

Normal-quality mushrooms sell for a decent amount of gold. Some fruits sell for more, especially if they are higher quality, but as you can collect mushrooms from your cave with more regularity than fruit, you can earn gold more consistently.

Fruit Bat Cave: Pros and Cons

Choosing fruit bats will cause random fruit to spawn in your cave. Every night there is a chance of fruit spawning, but it depends on how many fruit are already in your cave. The average spawn rate is about 1 fruit per night. Fruit will remain in the cave until you collect it. However, if you have uncollected fruit it will increase the chance that no new fruit will spawn, so you should collect it immediately.

Both tree fruit and foragable fruit will appear in the cave. These fruits can be normal to gold quality, but will be iridium quality if you have the botanist profession. The list of fruits you can collect broken down by spawn chance are listed below: 20% chance: Spice Berry, Wild Plum, Blackberry, Salmonberry 3.6% chance: Cherry, Pomegranate, Peach, Orange, Apricot 2% chance: Apple

Some Community Center bundles also use fruits. Most of the fruits that spawn can be used in bundles, which are listed below: Summer Foraging Bundle: Spice Berry Fall Foraging Bundle: Wild Plum, Blackberry Artisan Bundle: Cherry, Pomegranate, Peach, Orange, Apricot, Apple Enchanter's Bundle: Pomegranate

Fruit are universally-liked gifts by Stardew Valley villagers. You can either gift the plain fruits, or turn them into artisan goods like wine or jelly. However, some fruits are especially loved by certain villagers. Elliot loves pomegranates, Robin loves peaches, and Gus loves oranges.

Fruit sells for a decent amount of gold. However, as you aren't guaranteed to get a fruit every night, it might be difficult to earn a decent amount of early-game money by selling fruit.

How to Unlock the Farm Cave

Once you've earned 25,000G, you can pick what to put in your farm cave. Demetrius will visit your farm and ask whether you'd like to put mushrooms or fruit bats in the cave on your farm. After making the decision, you aren't able to switch between cave types. Make sure you're certain what you want to put in your farm cave before you make the choice between mushrooms and fruit bats.