Key Takeaway
Plantable Ancient Seeds can be obtained by crafting them out of Ancient Seed artifacts, once you have the crafting recipe from Gunther in the Museum. Ancient Seed artifacts can be found in the following ways:
- Digging artifact spots in the Forest, Farm, Mountain, or Quarry
- Monster loot drops from bugs like Grubs, Flies, and Cave Flies
- Fishing Treasure Chests
- Cracking open Artifact Troves
Ancient Seeds take 28 days to mature into a grown Ancient Fruit plant, and produce fruit every seven days. They can only grow during Spring, Summer, and Fall, before dying in Winter. However, they can grow and produce Ancient Fruit all year round inside the Greenhouse.
A real money-maker crop is Ancient Fruit. However, obtaining an Ancient Seed in Stardew Valley to grow this rare, blue fruit can be incredibly time-consuming. If you’re up for the long grind, you’ll need to get in touch with our inner arborist.
Table Of Contents
How to Get Ancient Seeds
The easiest way of obtaining an Ancient Seed is through the Ancient Seed artifact. While both items share the same name, they couldn’t be more different.
Finding Ancient Seed artifacts in Stardew Valley is the best way to start growing your Ancient Fruit farm. You can find Ancient Fruit artifacts by:
- Digging them up at artifact spots
- Reeling in treasure chests while fishing
- Exploring artifact troves
- Looting them as drops from bug enemies
Once you’ve got your first Ancient Seed artifact, donate it to Gunther in the Museum. In doing so, he will give players their first plantable packet of Ancient Seeds, alongside the crafting recipe to make more. The kicker is that the only way of making more plantable Ancient Seeds with this recipe is by converting an Ancient Seed artifact.
How to Find Ancient Seeds From Artifact Spots
You can find artifact spots all over Stardew Valley, including the Cindersap Forest, Mountain, and Quarry. To find an artifact spot, all you need to look out for is the wiggly worms underground. Artifact spots tend to respawn daily, so make searching for them part of your daily routine.
Armed with your hoe, you have a 0.7% chance of getting Ancient Seed artifacts in the Forest, Mountain, and Quarry.
Monsters that Drop Ancient Seeds
Ancient Seed artifacts can also be dropped by several bug mobs, usually found in the early floors of the Stardew Valley Mines. Some of these creepy critters also make their home in the Mutant Bug Lair, found in the northwest corner of the Sewer.
Take a look at the table below for each monster, their spawning level location, and their drop rates.
| Monster Name | Spawning Floors | Ancient Seed Drop Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Bug | 1 - 39 (Regular Mines) | 0.5% |
| Cave Fly | 1 - 29 (Regular Mines) | 0.5% |
| Grub | 15 - 29 | 0.5% |
| Mutant Fly | Skull Cavern, Mutant Bug Lair | 0.5% |
| Mutant Grub | Mutant Bug Lair | 0.5% |
Other Ways of Obtaining Ancient Seeds
Some other great ways of getting Ancient Seeds include Fishing Chests, with a 0.8-0.9% chance. The base chance of getting a Fishing Chest is 15%. You can increase this with the Magnet bait and the Treasure Hunter tackle. Having the Pirate Level 10 Fishing profession also doubles your chances of getting treasure.
Ancient Seeds artifacts have a 3.7% chance inside Artifact Troves. You can get Artifact Troves from the Desert Trader for five Omni Geodes or dropped by Haunted Skulls once the Vault Community Center bundle is complete.
NoteOccasionally, a packet of Ancient Seeds will be available from the Travelling Cart in Cindersap Forest on Fridays and Saturdays. However, this isn’t a reliable method of obtaining more as only one can be bought at a time.
How to Plant and Grow Ancient Seeds
Ancient Fruits provide bountiful harvests throughout all seasons, apart from Winter. They take 28 days to fully mature but continue to produce fruit every seven days once fully grown. If you’ve chosen to plant the Ancient Seeds on your regular farmland, do so in Spring to maximize your profits. However, bear in mind that these plants will die every Winter and you’ll have to go through the full process of maturing the plant again.
The best way of growing Ancient Fruit is inside the Greenhouse. Getting the Greenhouse is unlocked by completing all the Pantry Community Center bundles or by purchasing it from Joja for 35,000g. In the Greenhouse, your Ancient Fruit crops will never wither, provided they’re watered daily, generating Ancient Fruit every 7 days.
The best way of maximizing your number of Ancient Fruit seeds is by using the Seed Maker, unlocked at Farming Level 9. It requires 25 Wood, 1 Gold Bar, and 10 Coal to craft. Once crafted, all you need to do is pop one Ancient Fruit inside. With that, the Seed Maker should create one to three new seeds, with a 1.99% chance of Mixed Seeds. We’ll take those odds!
Uses for Ancient Fruit
Ancient Fruits are by far the most profitable crop in Stardew Valley, whether you’re selling it raw or as an artisanal product. If you’re selling it as raw produce, we recommend going for the Tiller professional at Farming Level 5.
Below we have a table for profitability when selling your Ancient Fruit bounties, for each quality from normal to Iridium.
| Quality | Selling Price | Selling Price (with Tiller profession) |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | 550g | 605g |
| Silver | 687g | 755g |
| Gold | 825g | 907g |
| Iridium | 1,100g | 1,210g |
As you can see, selling Ancient Fruit is extremely profitable. However, if you see dollar signs in your eyes, you could process your Ancient Fruit into wine or jam for even more money. Ancient Fruit jam yields a base profit of 1,150g and 1,610g with the Artisan profession.
Ancient Fruit wine can range in quality, so take a look below to maximize your finances. You can increase the quality of your wine by placing it in casks in the cellar of your house following Robin’s expensive 100,000g upgrade. It’s a small price to pay for a lifelong investment!
| Quality | Selling Price | Selling Price (with Artisan profession) |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | 1,650g | 2,310g |
| Silver | 2,062g | 2,886g |
| Gold | 2,475g | 3,465g |
| Iridium | 3,300g | 4,620g |
Ancient Fruit isn’t an ingredient in any crafting recipes, although it does have some other uses. To complete the Missing Bundle in the abandoned JojaMart, you need to donate five gold-quality Ancient Fruits. It may also become an option in the remixed Community Center bundles, in the Rare Crops category.
If you use an Ancient Fruit and Cloth in the Sewing Machine, you will create the rare and fashionable Genie Pants. Ancient Fruit also acts as a blue dye for all clothing items, granting you fresh and new style options.
Gathering every Ancient Seed possible and harvesting Ancient Fruit are the best ways to make your Stardew Valley profits skyrocket! If you want to maximize your profitability even further, invest in increasing your inventory space and employ some friends to help you out in co-op!
