Community Centre or Joja?

The age-old question: community or capital?

For the SDV player community, few questions are as divisive as which route to take through the game’s story. Do we restore the beat-up old community centre to its former glory? Or do we sell it to JojaCorp, making easy money but sacrificing the heart of our little town? Well, both routes are valid – and you’ll need to complete both if you want the Platinum trophy - so much of this decision is down to your preference and the kind of story you want to tell with your farm.

Normally, I only ever go for the Community Centre. After all, we left our JojaCorp job in the big city behind because it burned us out - and that’s a feeling so many of us can relate to so well! Where I have started playthroughs with the intention of following the Joja route, I’ve always caved in and switched to the community centre. But I’ve made an exception on one of my more recent farms. This farm is an experimental project to generate as much income as possible, such as growing as many crops as I can, including as many strawberry seeds as I can afford from the Egg Festival each Spring. It’ll be a while before this farm is ready for me to write about it, so look out for that in a future post!

Mechanically, the major difference between the two paths is how you complete the community centre/JojaMart warehouse. The community centre will need you to harvest specific items for completion, most of which are locked to each season. Meanwhile the Joja path asks you to spend money to fill each slot. So if you’re playing a multiplayer farm you may be more interested in the Joja route. Making money on a farm with more people can be a bit broken: each player on a farm starts with 15 parsnip seeds, so a farm with the full 8 players on it can have a starting harvest of 120 parsnips! And that’s before considering dividing all the work on the farm between multiple farmers. While your outlay for upgraded backpacks and tools will cut into your farms shared profits, you can offset that with greater production - because you don’t have to worry about a single farmer’s daily energy bar! With all the money your farm can make with the many hands of you and your multiplayer friends, combined with not having to worry about the seasons as you complete it, the Joja path can be a strong choice for a multiplayer farm.

Fundamentally your choice will reflect the story you’re trying to tell through your farm. Do you want to dive deep into the story, atmosphere and environment of Stardew Valley; get to know the place where you live and the people you share it with? The Community Centre is your ticket. Would you rather put all your attention into making your farm as wealthy as possible as fast as possible, without worrying about the rhythms of the seasons in the valley? Joja may be for you.

As with everything in Stardew Valley, there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong in-game answer to these questions – your own ethos can freely shape how you approach this. I find the Community Centre route so much more fulfilling personally; and I prefer the in-game benefits it provides, like improved relationships with your neighbours in Pelican Town. Plus, remixed bundles mode will always give you new challenges for your community centre collections, to spice up your playthrough.

As always, the most important thing with Stardew is to have fun with what you are doing!

Enjoy!

Jas.