Should you choose Mushrooms or Bats in Stardew Valley?

Stardew Valley is a small farming simulator game loved by many. Developed by a studio which started as a one man show, ConcernedApe, (Eric Barone). The game takes elements from similar casual farming games such as Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing. Although the game shares similarities to both of these titles it adds a great deal of new systems and features which cemented its place in the hearts of many. Stardew Valley can be played on PC, PS4, Xbox One, Android, iOS and Switch.

In Stardew Valley the player is tasked with rebuilding their grandfathers farm and trying to restore the farm to its former glory. The player can do this by constantly making a profit from selling items through means such as, collecting things found in the world, growing crops and buying animals and selling their products. There is one area on the farm that can also be a decent source of income once you unlock it. That is the cave, found to the north west of the house on the regular starting farm.


Contents – Stardew Valley: Mushrooms or Bats?

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What is the cave?

When do you unlock the choice between Mushrooms or Bats?

Pros and Cons for picking Mushrooms

Pros and Cons for picking Bats

What should you choose?

Conclusion


What is the cave?

On your farm, if you travel to the North end you will find a pathway that leads up towards the mountain. If you walk to the left of the pathway you will see a small cave. This cave will, to begin with be completely empty in Stardew Valley. You can enter the cave even before you have reached the point where you can have bats of mushrooms inside of it.

The cave in stardew valley which can be filled with either mushrooms or bats
The cave is located to the north on the farm

When do you unlock the ability to have Mushrooms or Bats in the cave?

Throughout regular playing of Stardew Valley you may find this event happen automatically and not realize that you had to reach a specific point in order to unlock the choice between having bats or mushrooms in the cave. The reality is, that once you reached a total amount of 25,000g sold on the farm that is what started the event. Once you have reached that point in your farming career a Stardew Valley resident known as Demetrius will approach you the next time you leave your cottage.

Demetrius asking the player if they would like mushrooms or bats in the cave in Stardew Valley

Demetrius will tell you that he wishes to conduct an experiment in your unused cave on the farm. He will then give you a choice between two options, to either attract Bats to the cave, which will randomly give you fruit from time to time, or to grow mushrooms in the cave. It seems like 2 pretty basic choices and you may think that it doesn’t really matter what you pick, but in fact it does! Once you have made your choice with Demetrius there is no going back. You can’t decide you want to exchange your mushrooms for bats later on in your game. Once you have made a decision about what is going in the cave, the decision is final.


Picking the Mushrooms for the Cave

If you choose the mushroom option your cave will be immediately filled with 6 planters that grow mushrooms. This will spawn all different kinds of mushrooms. You will be able to get 6 mushrooms every two days from the save.

The mushroom cave in stardew valley

Pros of choosing the mushrooms:

  • Mushrooms are relatively hard to find. (more so than fruit anyway)
  • Mushrooms can be used in a large array of recipes including life elixirs
  • You are guaranteed to get 6 mushrooms every 2 days
  • Worth more to sell

Cons of mushrooms:

  • Nothing great for the community center bundles
  • Can’t produce mushrooms into anything else
  • Not all mushrooms are edible

Picking the Bats for the Cave

If you decide that bats are the best option for your cave on Stardew Valley Demetrius will attract some bats to the cave. Occasionally bats will then bring random fruit to your cave to find. The bats give a completely random chance to drop fruit. Some days there will be a lot of fruit and some days there will be none.

The fruit bat cave in stardew valley

Pros of picking the Bats:

  • A great source for cooking ingredients
  • Great for completing the community bundle early
  • You can get free fruit tree seeds by putting the free fruit in a Seed Maker
  • Can be processed to create more expensive products
  • Good source to income during Winter months on the farm
  • Better source of items that villagers will like

Cons of bats:

  • Random chance so you don’t have a guaranteed income
  • On average worth less money to sell fruit when compared to mushrooms
  • Fruit can be obtained fairly easily with enough time spent growing trees

So, should I choose the Mushrooms or the Bats for my cave?

You might still be wondering whether you should pick the bats of mushrooms. Really the choice is up to whatever you want to accomplish in Stardew Valley and what your personal preferences are. If you don’t think you’ll be making life elixirs and would rather have fruit then choose the bats! If you’re trying to make as much money as you can in Stardew Valley and want to pick the option that is the most profitable then definitely go with the mushrooms.

Whatever you decide the choice is up to you. You won’t have to maintain the cave whatever you pick, so no watering or bat feeding is necessary. Honestly Stardew Valley is about making your farm your own, so whatever you pick, (or have already picked) just be happy and roll with it. Both mushrooms and fruit can be obtained in other ways in Stardew Valley so don’t stress, you won’t be missing out on too much.


Whatever you choose you will have a nice little source of new items and income in Stardew Valley.
I hope you enjoyed this short guide about the mushroom or bat cave in Stardew Valley. Hopefully it gave you some insight and direction into what you will be picking. What kind of farm setup do you have? Let me know in the comments below.

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