Though there are many farming sims on the market today, Stardew Valley is generally considered to be one of the best and has influenced hundreds of games that have come since. In a way, Stardew Valley has helped to solidify what the subgenre of farming sim entails, with many of its key features carried forward to become staples in the cozy game community. As a game that is nearly ten years old, many players, like myself, may occasionally try mixing things up a bit to keep this cozy game as a fun experience to come back to.

One popular way to enjoy a new experience is to try some of the many community-created challenge runs for Stardew Valley. These can include everything from sleeping through the first two years to rushing to complete the Community Center bundles at record speeds. Recently, before I ever considered writing an article about it, I decided to try a "No Farming" challenge to see how well a farming sim would play without the farm. As a long-time Stardew Valley farmer, I know the game backwards and forwards, yet I found myself surprised by some of the results of this challenge.

What The No Farming Challenge In Stardew Valley Is

Can You Abstain From Farming In A Farming Sim?

There are many definitions of the No Farming challenge, with everyone having a slightly different take on what it means to them. For my game, I chose to define farming as anything that is planted. This means that I still foraged for berries and items that naturally occur, and I still raised animals in the barn and coop. Having animals is one of my favorite things in the game, and although they could be considered as farming, I made the choice to include them. I simply did not plant any seeds or cultivate any farmland.

Though many may consider the No Farming challenge to include not raising any animals, I chose to have animals in my game as a personal preference.

Stardew Valley is full of activities other than farming. Mining, fishing, building relationships, and more are all things that can take a lot of time and energy, particularly in the early stages of the game, and are very profitable. I already love fishing in almost any farming sim, so I expected that I would focus fairly heavily on the fishing aspect, which seemed to fall pretty low on the priority list while playing previously.

Things I Chose To Do For The Challenge

Beach Farm Is Perfect For This Situation

Typically, I have always avoided playing a game on the Beach Farm because I didn't like knowing that you cannot use sprinklers on the sand areas. Interestingly, you can still grow any crop on the sand, but anyone who has had a large farm knows that sprinklers play a valuable role. The Beach Farm sounded perfect for this challenge, however, with its plethora of fishing and foraging areas.

As I played through Year 1 without planting any crops, I found it nice to have the extra energy available to clear the land, fish, and tackle the mines. In fact, without the farming to get in the way, I reached the bottom of the mine in record time and maxed out my fishing skill early on. I also raised animals and somehow did a better job with my oft-neglected relationships with the NPCs.

Not having any farming to do was liberating.

I had expected to be able to have extra energy available for some of these things, but the difference was striking. Probably because I often make massive farms that take up every bit of space possible, even before I have sprinklers, I never had the energy or time to devote to other people or activities. In previous playthroughs, this farming sim was about farming, so that was the number one priority. Therefore, in a sense, not having any farming to do was liberating.

I Love The Idea Of No Farming In Stardew, But It Wasn't For Me

Perhaps I Am Too Much Of A Completionist

Playing Stardew Valley without doing any farming truly did make the experience a completely different one from how I normally play, and I can see why many people say to not have animals for this type of challenge either, as then you really would not be doing any type of farm or ranch work. Ultimately, this challenge of not farming is not something I would want to continue doing, though, and Year 2 will have a small farm section on my little Beach Farm. This isn't because the challenge wasn't fun, in fact, I had a good time with all of it. Yet, I also learned more about myself.

I guess I need my gold stars and validation too much.

I am a person who chases achievements and gold stars. I like crossing things off the list. When you aren't farming in Stardew Valley, it is incredibly difficult to complete many of the quests that you get from townsfolk or complete the Community Center bundles. Occasionally, the traveling cart will sell one of the crops that is needed, but in my experience it seemed like those offerings were few and far between.

Finishing up so many other areas of the Community Center while the section for crops just sat empty was frustrating to me. I also struggled with not wanting to cancel quests but also knowing that I couldn't get George that hot pepper for his knee or any of the other requests people made. Often the board in town with NPC requests were things I had to simply ignore, and I didn't like doing that. I guess I need my gold stars and validation too much.

Games Like Stardew Are About What Is Fun For You, It's Okay To Switch Gears

Year 2 And Beyond Will Not Continue This Challenge In My Game

I don't regret trying this challenge. In fact, I feel like I learned some important facts about my own preferences and what makes a game fun for me. After trying the game this way, I will put a much lower emphasis on farming for the first part of the game, and focus on creating a foundation for some of the other things as well. Perhaps I just feel like a farming sim needs farming, especially when all the NPCs seem to think you are putting in the work.

Although I'm certainly going to try some other challenges in the future, for now I think I'll stick to playing with mods for a bit again. For anyone who is even remotely considering trying Stardew Valley using some of the challenge guidelines, I would highly recommend it. It not only provides a fresh experience to the game, but can help point out to you what you like or don't like.

Always keep in mind that if you aren't having fun, you have full permission to go back to playing the way you like. Games like Stardew Valley are about fun, no matter what way you want to experience it.