Stardew Valley: Should you choose Forester or Gatherer?

Leveling up your skills in Stardew Valley grants you access to all kinds of amazing new equipment, but it also unlocks some special buffs you can choose between. One of these choices occurs at level five of the Foraging skill and is the decision between Forester and Gatherer.

While the other levels of the Foraging skill grant you multiple items to collect and have no tough choices involved, level five has a difficult decision between two powerful buffs. There’s a lot to consider when making this choice, so here’s what you need to know to decide whether you should choose Forester or Gatherer in Stardew Valley.

Forester in Stardew Valley

Forester grants you the ability to collect 25 percent more wood when chopping all items that drop this material. This includes the chopping of trees, stumps, and logs, which are all of the ways you can obtain this resource.

Wood is one of the most essential crafting materials, so having a lot ready to go at any moment is crucial, especially if you’re trying to progress to the point of making important items like Kegs for Wine and a Barn for your animals. You need a lot of wood and you need it all the time, which likely makes the Forester path seem quite appealing.

Gatherer in Stardew Valley

Gatherer gives you a 20 percent chance of finding extra items every time you pick up one forageable item. Forageable items are found in the wild all around the world and even over on Ginger Island, so picking them up as you work on other tasks is a super easy way to gain some extra gold for almost no effort.

The types of forageable items you can collect vary depending on the season and what part of the world you’re in, but they’re all pretty valuable. All of the items you can pick up to receive the Gatherer bonus are as follows.

• Spring items
  • Leek
  • Daffodil
  • Wild Horseradish
  • Morel
  • Spring Onion
  • Dandelion
  • Common Mushroom
  • Salmonberry
• Summer items
  • Sweet Pea
  • Grape
  • Common Mushroom
  • Spice Berry
  • Fiddlehead Fern
  • Red Mushroom
• Fall items
  • Blackberry
  • Common Mushroom
  • Wild Plum
  • Hazelnut
  • Red Mushroom
  • Chanterelle
  • Purple Mushroom
• Winter items
  • Winter Root
  • Snow Yam
  • Crystal Fruit
  • Holly
  • Crocus
• Beach items
  • Clam
  • Rainbow Shell
  • Coral
  • Mussel
  • Nautilus Shell
  • Sea Urchin
  • Cockle
  • Seaweed
  • Oyster
• Mine items
  • Cave Carrot
  • Red Mushroom
  • Purple Mushroom
• Desert items
  • Coconut
  • Cactus Fruit
• Ginger Island items
  • Magma Cap
  • Ginger
• Other items
  • Sap

Should you pick Forester or Gatherer in Stardew Valley?

When choosing between the Forester or Gatherer paths at level five of the Foraging skill, Gatherer is always the overall best endgame choice in Stardew Valley. Forester likely seems more useful, especially if in the early game, but the better choice for the long game is Gatherer.

While Forester is a guaranteed increase to the amount of wood you collect while Gatherer only grants a small chance of obtaining extra items, choosing Gatherer at level five followed by Botanist at level 10 is the best means of earning gold and collecting high-quality items. With these two choices combined, every forageable item you collect will be the highest quality and you have a chance of collecting multiple each time. This quickly becomes a superb means of earning a ton of extra gold without having to do anything other than pick up items you walk by.

You can always plant more trees to gain extra wood as needed, but you can never increase the number of forageable items you find unless you choose Gatherer. Being able to gather extra items is also helpful for working through Community Center bundles to restore this building.

If you feel like you really need Forester early on because you’re struggling to gather wood, then you might consider choosing it and using this option until you reach level 10 of the Foraging skill. Once you do, visit the statue in the Sewers to change your choice from Forester to Gatherer. This costs you 10,000 gold, which is quite a lot, but it’s worth doing if you’re determined to choose Forester since it’s only really useful in the early game and becomes quickly overshadowed by Gatherer later on when you combine it with Botanist.