🌱 Step 1: Getting Your First Ancient Seed
Ancient Seeds are rare. Here are all the ways to get your first one:
| Method | Details | Probability |
|---|---|---|
| Artifact Spot (Digging) | Dig worm tiles on farm, forest, mountains | 0.7% chance |
| Fishing Treasure Chest | Random treasure while fishing | 0.9% chance |
| Monsters (Bugs, Grubs) | Kill bugs in the mines (floors 1-29) | 0.5% drop |
| Seed Maker | Put ANY crop in Seed Maker | 0.5% Ancient Seed |
| Traveling Cart | Random stock, Fridays & Sundays | ~1.26% to appear |
💡 Pro Tip: Seed Maker Trick
Once you have the Seed Maker, process cheap crops (like Wheat) repeatedly. Every crop has a 0.5% chance to give Ancient Seeds. Mass processing 200 Wheat gives you roughly 1 Ancient Seed on average.
🏛️ Step 2: Donate First, Plant Second
When you find your first Ancient Seed artifact, donate it to the Museum. Gunther rewards you with:
1 Plantable Ancient Seeds Packet
Ready to plant immediately in any season except Winter
Ancient Seeds Crafting Recipe
Turn any Ancient Fruit into 1-3 plantable seeds using Seed Maker
⏰ Step 3: The First Harvest Cycle
Your first Ancient Fruit plant follows this timeline:
⚠️ Critical Decision
Do NOT sell or Keg your first few Ancient Fruits. Put them in the Seed Maker to multiply your seeds. Building inventory first = exponential growth later.
📈 Step 4: Seed Multiplication Math
The Seed Maker returns 1-3 seeds per fruit (average 2). Here's realistic scaling:
| Harvest # | Fruits | → Seeds (avg) | Total Plants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | - | 1 | 1 |
| 1st | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 2nd | 3 | 6 | 9 |
| 3rd | 9 | 18 | 27 |
| 4th | 27 | 54 | 81 |
| 5th | 81 | 162 | Full Greenhouse (116) |
From 1 seed to full greenhouse takes about 35 days of growth + 5 harvest cycles = roughly 2 seasons if planted in Spring Year 1.
🏠 Step 5: Greenhouse Setup
The Greenhouse has 120 plantable tiles (116 if using sprinklers efficiently). Once filled with Ancient Fruit:
💰 Full Greenhouse Income (116 Plants)
🍷 Step 6: Keg Infrastructure
Wine takes 7 days to process. Coincidentally, Ancient Fruit regrows every 7 days. Perfect match? Not quite.
⚠️ Keg Math
116 Ancient Fruits per week ÷ 1 Keg cycle (7 days) = 116 Kegs needed to process everything immediately.
Building 116 Kegs requires:
Oak Resin is the bottleneck. Each Tapper produces 1 Oak Resin every 7-8 days. Plan ahead: tap Oak Trees in Year 1 while building your Ancient Fruit stock.
📍 Keg Placement Locations
🏆 Cask Aging (Bonus Value)
The Cellar holds 189 Casks. Wine ages through 4 quality levels:
| Quality | Days | Base Value | With Artisan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | 0 | 1,650g | 2,310g |
| Silver ⭐ | 14 | 2,062g | 2,887g |
| Gold ⭐⭐ | 28 | 2,475g | 3,465g |
| Iridium ⭐⭐⭐ | 56 | 3,300g | 4,620g |
189 Casks × 4,620g = 873,180g every 56 days (~6.2 million annually). Add this to your Keg production for maximum profit.
📅 Complete Timeline: Year 1 to Empire
Realistic Schedule
Find/buy Ancient Seed. Donate to Museum. Plant on Day 1. Tap all Oak Trees you find.
First harvest Day 28. Seed Maker everything. You should have 9-27 plants by end of Summer.
Continue multiplying. Build first Kegs with Oak Resin. Work on Greenhouse bundles.
Complete Greenhouse. Transplant all Ancient Fruit inside. Start Kegging surplus.
Full Greenhouse producing 116 fruits/week. Build more Kegs. Get Artisan profession. Income: 50k-200k/week.
100+ Kegs, Cellar aging, 10+ million annual. You've won! 🎉
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
❌ Don't
- •Sell your first Ancient Fruits
- •Plant Ancient Seeds outdoors in Winter
- •Forget to water (use Iridium Sprinklers!)
- •Neglect Oak Resin collection early
✓ Do
- •Seed Maker all fruits until greenhouse is full
- •Use Iridium Sprinklers (never miss a day)
- •Start tapping Oaks ASAP for Kegs
- •Get Artisan profession at Level 10 Farming
🎯 TL;DR Summary
- 1Get Ancient Seed → Donate to Museum → Get plantable seed + recipe
- 2Plant and multiply using Seed Maker (don't sell!)
- 3Fill Greenhouse (116 slots) with Ancient Fruit
- 4Build 100+ Kegs, process into Wine
- 5Get Artisan profession (+40% to Wine)
- 6Age Wine in Cellar Casks for +100% value
- 7Profit: 10-15 million gold per year 💰
📚 Related Guides & Tools
Last updated: June 2025 • Verified for Stardew Valley 1.6