Stardew Valley character growing Ancient Fruit
Screenshot by Dot Esports

How to get Ancient Fruit in Stardew Valley

While the fruit isn't as big as modder MelindaC shows it to be here, it is still a rare and valuable crop.

One of the many crops that helps develop your farm in Stardew Valley is the Ancient Fruit, one of the rarer items to obtain. The Ancient Fruit helps ensure a thriving economy for the player to keep expanding the farm, so here’s how to get it.

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How to get Ancient Fruit in Stardew Valley

A player holding up an ancient fruit in Stardew valley
Watch them grow. Screenshot by Dot Esports

To get Ancient Fruit, you must first get your hands on Ancient Seeds. You can find these via the Travelling Cart. If you don’t get the seeds there, you can journey to locate the Ancient Seed artifact. The artifact is in the mountains of Cindersap Forest. After finding the artifact, donate it to the Museum. Gunther will then give you the seeds.

How to get Ancient Fruit Seeds in Stardew Valley

You can get Ancient Fruit Seeds by buying them from the Traveling Merchant, using a seed maker on Ancient Fruit, defeating bugs in mines, and donating an Ancient Seed artifact to the Museum in Pelican Town:

  • Purchase at the Traveling Cart from the Traveling Merchant in Cindersap Forest—an extremely rare chance to appear.
  • Obtain a seed maker by completing the Dye Bundle in the Bulletin Board section of the Community Center. Use a Seed Maker on an Ancient Fruit. Ancient Seeds also have a meager chance to appear when using the Seed Maker on other fruits.
  • Head out to mines or sewers and defeat different bugs there.
  • Donate an Ancient Seed artifact to the Museum in Pelican Town to gain a packet of Ancient Seeds as a reward from Gunther. A crafting recipe to create Ancient Seeds from Ancient Seed artifacts is also given.

Purchasing from the Traveling Merchant in Stardew Valley

The Traveling Merchant appears every Friday and Sunday at the north end of the Cindersap Forest, which lies to the left of Marnie’s Ranch. The Traveling Merchant also shows up at the Night Market every year during winter from 15 to 17.

Defeating bugs in the mines and sewers in Stardew Valley

You can simply defeat bugs in the sewers and then later in the mines to get Ancient Fruit Seeds. Definitely start with the mines and farm there the first 30 levels. Then, head to sewers and farm bugs there. Each bug has roughly 0.5 percent chance to drop the seeds.

Using the Seed Maker in Stardew Valley

This method involves a lot of luck. The seed maker produces different seeds depending on the type of crop put in. 99.5 percent of the time, you receive the seeds of the crop placed, but in the extremely rare 0.5 percent event, you have a chance to receive between one and three Ancient Fruit seeds.

Donating the Ancient Seed Artifact in Stardew Valley

Finally, after donating the Ancient Seed artifact to the Museum, Gunther will reward players with a pack of Ancient Seeds and the recipe. The artifact can be found in any of the following locations:

  • Cindersap Forest
  • The Mountain
  • Fishing Treasure Chests
  • Artifact Troves
  • Various Monster Drops (Bug, Cave Fly, Grub, Mutant Fly, Mutant Grub)
Tip: Low chances

While any of these methods yield a very low chance of spawning Ancient Seeds, the reward is worth it for one of the rarest items in the game.

Easiest way to get Ancient Seeds in Stardew Valley

The easiest way to get Ancient Seeds in Stardew Valley is to use Seed Maker on Ancient Fruit. This method is the most reliable, even though the seeds are quite rare. This way, you won’t spend too much time on chasing down the Traveling Merchant or farming bugs. Again, the odds to get Ancient Seeds are 0.5 percent. If you don’t get Ancient Seeds, you might get other seeds. Bear in mind this only works when you already have Ancient Fruit.

If you still need Ancient Fruit, the best way to get the seeds is to farm your little heart out in the mines and sewers until luck smiles upon you.

What is Ancient Fruit used for in Stardew Valley?

The Ancient Fruit is a unique fruit crop that grows from Ancient Seeds. The crop fully ripens after 28 days. After the initial ripening, the mature Ancient Fruit crop yields an additional Ancient Fruit every seven days. While Ancient fruits aren’t used in any quests or recipes, they can be used in the spool of the Sewing Machine to create the dyeable Genie Pants and change your look. These are blue dyes in the dye pots in Emily’s and Haley’s house.


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Anish Nair
Freelance gaming writer for Dot Esports. An avid gamer of 25 years with a soft spot for RPGs and strategy games. Esports writer for 2 years and a watcher for 12 years. Aspiring author. Dad to a host of animals. Usually found trying to climb ranks in Dota 2, plundering the seas in Sea of Thieves, hunting large monsters in Monster Hunter World, or mining rare minerals in Deep Rock Galactic.
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Izabela Tomakic
Staff Writer & World of Warcraft lead. Izabela has a long history with writing and games like World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Fortnite, and The Sims. Before finding her home at Dot Esports in 2021, Izabela was an English teacher and a freelancer at Hotspawn, GGRecon, and Gameranx. In her free time, you’ll find her writing novels, wandering Azeroth, or inting on Summoner’s Rift.