Stardew Valley on iOS may be the best way to enjoy the farming simulator

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Stardew Valley has quite a fan base here at KnowTechie and with so many options for playing, almost anyone can give the Harvest Moon-ish title a try.

Available on PC/Mac/Linux, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Vita, Nintendo Switch, and iOS, it’s convenience factor is a huge selling point. However, having played on PC and Nintendo Switch, I think my favorite way to consume the title is on my iPhone.

Stardew Valley on iOS

Let me start off by saying that I love phone games. The convenience and the ingenuity to make games work on a touchscreen device is amazing to me. Sadly, many games resort to the gacha form of monetization in order to progress past a certain point. This quickly becomes a monetary drain and one that turns me, and many others, off from the experience. I’ve been hurt before (looking at you Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes), and now tread carefully in the free-to-play mobile market.

With Stardew Valley, however, there is none of that, you pay $7 and that’s it. You’re done. No skins for money, no upgrades or fast-tracking for real cash, just good, old-fashioned, virtual farming like your grandpa used to do. Heck, I’ve even seen it on sale for as low as $4 which is a steal for the amount of game you get.

Is it really better on mobile?

Well, that depends a bit on how you value things. For me, absolutely. On PC, even with my multi-year farm, sometimes I don’t feel like sitting at the computer I’ve been working at for 8 hours. Mouse and keyboard, however, is arguably the best way to enjoy the title.

The Nintendo Switch is a great way to play it, as well, and I have a multi-year farm on there too, but I’m not one of those people to take my Switch with me on the go, never have and probably never will. Also, not totally in love with the Switch controls for the game, but half of that comes from my low-key hate of Joy-Cons.

Which brings us to the phone. Stardew Valley has done a great job of making the controls work really well on a touchscreen. Farming feels natural, traveling around the cute-as-hell map is easy, and surprisingly, descending into the game’s mines and fighting the various monsters all works really well. I would recommend turning on auto-fighting in the options menu, as this will make the experience much better when in the mines.

Also, unlike the other options for playing, playing on mobile gives you the added convenience of saving anywhere. With other versions, you have to sleep to save (there could be a mod for this on PC, I’m not positive), but on mobile, if you close the game, you’ll get an autosave at that point in time. It really adds to the convenience of playing the game at your leisure, wherever you are.

In a time where so many mobile games use gimmicky tools and loot boxes, Stardew Valley feels like a pure gaming experience, and that is worth the price of admission.

Currently, Stardew Valley is only available on iOS, but Android is supposedly still in the works. Hopefully, that happens soon, as it really is a great experience.

What do you think? Do you play Stardew Valley? How do you play it? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Josiah Motley

Former KnowTechie editor.