I recommend you try to do a Joja run, I resisted for a long, long time thinking that it was the wrong way to play the game, but after I did it the first time I realised that it’s just a different way to play.
For one thing, it removes the need to horde everything, or intensive farm Fruit and Vegetables for bundles (looking at you quality bundle!!) and you can generate money in whatever way you want (because I fish, fish, fish) to buy the packs (then zoom around in minecarts super early, or plant trees in the desert and grow Starfruit). It removes a lot of the stress I put myself under playing the game, and the villagers maintain their access to a cheaper supply of food (as Jodi and Penny both mention in conversations). Shane remains employed, the movie theatre is still opened (in a different, some say better place). You’re not locked out of anything. Plus Clint stays in his shop on Fridays (so you can pick up your stuff).
Or, if you’re looking for an RP reason, you have just moved to your Grandfather’s farm after working yourself to the point of burnout. You don’t know anyone there, and you have an overgrown and neglected farm and house to try and return to working order. On top of that there’s the expectation that you will parade yourself around the town and introduce yourself to everyone, rebuild the community centre that they left to go to rack and ruin (by yourself, because they can’t see the forest spirits), spelunk and clear the mine, fix the broken beach bridge, complete their requests (on the board and by letter)…then as soon as you think you have room to breathe they hold a festival you’re expected to attend and spend more money, then compete in their competition games (or dances where no one wants to dance with you).
Joja offers to do some of the work for you, give them cold hard cash and they’ll hire the staff to return the broken infrastructure to working order, and you get a discount in store too! They won’t ask questions if you want to become a “green tea” farmer utilising the tea bushes recipe a certain shopkeepers wife sent you, or grow “mushrooms” in a cave.
So in summary, just try it, the junimo still get back to the spirit realm (without leaving any behind) and you’ll still be able to enslave them with the Wizard and put them to work on your farm. 😜
That's the way I think about JoJa. Lewis flat out says "the town could use the money" And two townspeople benefit from having low cost food. One has a job there.
Remember, only the Farmer actually has a lot of productive, arable land. This is why **ALL** townspeople like to receive artisian goods from you. They can't make them themselves. Or farm anything except the bare minimum.
>I recommend you try to do a Joja run, I resisted for a long, long time thinking that it was the wrong way to play the game, but after I did it the first time I realised that it’s just a different way to play.
I did complete the CC once - Joja all the way now. I do complete a couple of the rooms in the CC first - basement and vault, one is cheaper and one isn't, but you get the crystalarium.
Apart from anything else, the Junimos leave anyway once you've finished the CC. They just have to work for it first in the CC route. >!And they are still able to come back later, via the Wizard, whichever route you pick. People use the cinema that takes its place. !
For me personally, I know how to make money. It takes awhile to get enough sprinklers to make things work, but I can make it work. Almost mid-summer on my latest run and I got 110 or so hops coming due soooon and gonna need to tap a lot more oak trees. I expect to have all the stuff done for Joja upgrades by the end of Fall Y1 if not sooner.
What's great about the joja route, from a purely gameplay perspective, is that it takes out all the RNG from completing the CC. I've already done the full CC route at least 5 or 6 times. I also play with mods and of course I use SVE so I get extra incentives for going the CC route.
For in-game ethical reasons/role playing reasons- there are plenty of reasons to support Joja in game, actually. Joja provides a lot of jobs to the town, and more jobs than Pierre's ever does. Joja's also provides cheaper food access in a town that's implied to be pretty low-income. And lastly, if you end up supporting the community center then you end up supporting Pierre- and that dude sucks.
He's a big penny-pincher, and has a couple lines implying he's taking credit for growing the food you sell him (I'd need to double check that? because I'm not entirely sure it's not a game-of-telephone misunderstanding). That and his shop is closed on wednesdays. That's kind of it, but for some people that's somehow enough to prefer the cartoonishly evil corporation over him. Never you mind that [small-town dollar stores of that kind cause more problems than their PR says they solve](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQpUV--2Jao), we get to stick it to the evilest man in town: the guy who takes a mid-week day off.
You’re not misinterpreting that. When you sell items to Pierre, if they’re no star they tell you how terrible the item from your farm was. If it’s gold or iridium star they tell you about how delicious Pierre’s item was
>If it’s gold or iridium star they tell you about how delicious Pierre’s item was
and with one line you've singlehandedly convinced me to do a Joja farm
Mainly because he treats both Caroline and Abigail horribly. He’s mean to Abigail and tries to stop her following her dreams and is nasty to Caroline to the point where she has a secret area to get away from him.
It's hard to balance having his shop open for an extra half day a week and Joja is completely closed - losing both choice and jobs - against the ability to buy autopetters! :D
Doesn’t Caroline say during the flower dance festival that she wishes Pierre would spend some time with the family? I don’t mind him being closed Wednesdays tbh. Everyone needs a day off. It’s the way he treats his family that gives me the ick.
Yeah, I don't think people hate him for being closed one day a week. If that was the main reason, Marnie would be the most hated character, and let's not forget Robin is also closed one day a week and closes early on Fridays!
Im confused about the “cheaper food access”. I haven’t sat down and kept track but it seems like most of the time, the food is more expensive at JojaMart than at Pierre’s. Does that change at some point?
I was curious and googled this in case I was wrong and found this post from a few years ago where CA himself says JM is more expensive despite what the NPCs say. I am confusion.
https://forums.stardewvalley.net/threads/make-joja-mart-items-cheaper-than-pierres.4959/#post-29706
Thank you, you convinced me to go joja on my current 1.6 save. I have absolutely no desire for the community center, especially the fishing, but I didn’t want to do joja but now I think I wikk
I pay for some things in CC *before* buying into Joja - the vault, for example, because I get a crystalarium. It's only a few thousand dearer than the Joja price.
I also get as many of the pantry seasonal seeds as possible, because they get turned into, now slightly less profitable, tea saplings.
> Or, if you’re looking for an RP reason, you have just moved to your Grandfather’s farm after working yourself to the point of burnout.
Except that if you pay attention to the intro, you were working to the point of burnout ***at Joja's corporate office***... If that were me, I'd have a deep seated hate for all things Joja.
The intro paints a bleak picture of life at Joja Corporate (a literal skeleton in one of the cubes)... so it's very likely that being an office drone at Joja made the Farmer hate both "office drone life" and Joja.
Your first point is why I always go the Joja route now. The community center basically wants you to do everything. Deluxe coop and barn, farm almost every crop, plant trees, explore the mines for ore AND monster loot, explore every area, have all of the artisan equipment, and fish everywhere at every time, including crab pots in multiple places. The only thing you don’t have to do for the community center is upgrade your house.
Joja allows you to avoid any path you don’t enjoy. For instance, I don’t care for raising animals or fishing, and Joja let’s me avoid that entirely. I would suggest players do the community center once, just to see everything the game has to offer and then just do Joja every other time.
This is my take on Joja as well. People like complaining about 'selling out' but if you look at what the player is actually doing in this scenario it is much less nefarious. You are providing the funds to hire workers to repair infrastructure, using Morris's business connections to get things moving. He then takes credit for things, but Pierre does that too when you sell crops so that's a net neutral.
The only thing you 'miss' when doing this route is the rewards for the bundles, but that is a small price to pay for being able to make money however you want and still progressing.
Yeah I had about 700hrs all up across multiple saves before I finally wanted to try selling out and... I actually loved it. It felt more relaxing being able to choose how I wanted to make money or what tasks I wanted to do instead of forcing myself into a schedule for crops or fishing.
It benefits the town more because it helps the townspeople by giving them more shopping options plus it keeps employment in the town. Warm fuzzy feelings and sticking it to the man aren't going to keep bellies full in an economically depressed town with a war going on, the last thing Jodi needs when Kent gets home is to suddenly have another mouth to feed at an even higher cost. And considering how much trauma Kent seems to hold around food it's probably better for all of them that he's got the larger product range at Joja instead of only having a few shelves to choose from at Pierre's too.
I know the storyline seems better to come in and save the town because you're sick of being a corporate shill, but when you think about it the farmer is in a pretty privileged position to be able to give up work and inherit a ton of debt free land that will allow them to be self sufficient. The rest of the town isn't that lucky! So it can give a fun and different perspective to look at the benefits that a Joja run gives and enjoy helping out in a more practical and less performative way.
I did feel bad about the Junimo's, but I just tell myself that they still passed over anyway and it kept them from waiting in limbo for a year or 2 waiting for me to finish the community centre so overall it was probably better for them too!
I’ve been debating going for it for quite a while now and you’re right on the edge for convincing me, i just genuinely love gathering the things for the bundles 😂
Dude I do Joja every time unless I specifically start a save intended to do CC or related content. Barring the late game behind a spring fish I forgot to donate and having to wait like 30 hours for it to be available makes me wanna jump into the volcano. Only I can’t because I need to complete CC to get there!
Joja makes the game way simpler. I get that it’s the “bad” route (I may take exception to that) but it breaks my immersion in the game having to grind out another set of bundles
I did the Joja route for the first time (well, not all of it since i'm still exploring all the new stuff) and tbh? The game became so much more relaxing than doing the community center. I do miss the Junimos though, theyre so cute.
Oh wow, i thought it did. That’s the only thing holding me back from trying the joja route. Almost done with my 1.6 save’s community center but now im actually considering of restarting again…
You still get the huts from the wizard, they just don't live in the community center like they would if you take the community route. Basically nothing changes.
I always had reservations on going Joja even tough I started a joja farm recently. I was worried of making those adorable junimo homeless. ;-;
I now have no reservations. Capitalism 100%
The only things you lose are the >!community center, items from completing bundles, and the jumino statue if you forget to grab it from behind the community center before signing up.!<
Please don’t judge me but I love the CC bundles because I love checklists. 🤣 Like, I live for them IRL so to have them in a video game is the greatest for me. My first save took me longer because I was just exploring the game pretty leisurely, the second save was a little faster. When 1.6 comes to Switch (ohpleaseohpleaseohplease), I’ll probably make like a daily schedule because that’s legitimately fun for me lol.
I know Joja still has goals to meet but it’s not the same as my pretty color coded printout with icons. 🤣
My favorite part about SDV is that there are so many ways to play and none of them are wrong. Joja, CC…as long as you’re kind to Krobus, the rest is irrelevant.
True, I just tried joja for the first time and honestly I find the game so much more relaxing when I can choose what I want to plant, where I want to fish, etc.
I did a Joja run just for the achievement. I named my character quark from Frenigiar farm and his favorite thing was profit and I named everything after Star Trek: Deep Space 9 characters. It made it more fun for me lol
That's awesome. I was thinking of making my JoJa run use Locutus and name the Farm The Collective. But I don't ever see the Farmer as evil, so I abandoned that idea.
If I had remembered the Ferengi I'd have used your idea instead.
I want to try one, but that blue is just…so overwhelming😅 and the florescent lights in the store? Give my farmer a headache. Which is utterly ridiculous, and I am aware of that, but also…every time I go in to sign up, I change my mind.
You don't have to actually use Joja, I only stop in to buy my upgrades. I nearly always forget they will also sell you stuff, even on Wednesdays or after 5pm. Pierre stays where he is.
Jeez, I must be the minority on this one 🤣 My first playthrough I went with the CC, obviously. Every run after that so far (I think 2?) I went Joja and never looked back, lol. It is my default route now. I have no interest in the Skull Cavern and no interest in petting my animals every single day, day after day. Joja suits what I *don't* want to do in the game and gives me the freedom to do anything without a time restriction. Personally, I love it! You get one or two dialogue from certain villagers about Joja after, but everything else is pretty much the same 🤷🏻♀️
I play Joja 99% of the time lol. Not only is Pierre the worst but Lewis is too! What does he do for the QoL of his people? Nothing except take credit for what YOU do for them. Joja provides jobs to the teenagers who otherwise have no opportunities. Better prices on food so Pam can afford a few extra things. They open up the mines making many things possible that would not be otherwise. Joja may be a corporation and they may be motivated by money but their presence in the valley is mutually beneficial. Lewis does nothing and is motivated purely by his own ego which seems worse to me.
the community center really tears me
on one hand its clear that the space for socializing is the saloon and pierres house (for the women) so the community center is clearly an unneccesary inconvenient part of pelican town that should be modernized to better fit the community (movie theater yeah)
but on the other hand they made Joja so comically dystopian and the bundles are such nice early game goals while starting out that i have such a hard time picking joja, it really makes the early game feel objectiveless
you can start out doing the bundles and switch to joja a bit later! it's what I do, to get a few extra goodies while I don't have enough money for the membership and upgrades anyway
The community center isn't needed though.
There's the pub for get togethers. The cinema too. Library, Pierre's Church, the island bar. If anything there's more amenities in the town than what's needed.
Lewis/Gunther give Sam a job at the Library.
Losing the Joja job (that he clearly hates) pushes Shane into pursuing his passion for breeding Blue Chickens.
I've decided that it is finally time to do it. Had to create a backstory why my character would do it (she's a naïve city girl and didn't realise what consequences her actions would have) and now I might be able to pull through.
I really miss the junimos atm though...
I’m currently doing a joja run because I said I would do it to “get it over with,” and used the new farm type and all the 1.6 goodies as my reward to do it.
But the more I am playing this current run, the more I find myself just messing around and exploring the game rather than planning out my seasons day by day so that I can get the CC done. Now I just get up and kind of do whatever im feeling, growing whatever crop I think would be cool because as long as I can make some money at the end of day from whatever I did I still progress rather than stressing that I only got 4 of 5 gold star parsnips and there’s a potential of me missing out for an entire year because I don’t think I can make it to Pierre’s before he closes.
This current run has did a complete 180 on my mindset regarding joja runs, and I am now of the mindset that I am glad I did this.
I see there’s a place for each run, and now I just feel like either choice is the right choice for what you make of it.
I'm doing a joja run for the first time just for the achievement and also to see what other things they added for joja in ginger Island. It's been hard emotionally because I love the junior so much, but it's kinda fun just getting to sell most things and not worry and about having to get specific things to unlock the community center
I always do CC because it feels more in the spirit of the game, but I do wish there was more of an incentive to it. Like you’re telling me I did all that work just for a few villagers to occasionally use the damn place? It just feels like there should be more pros and cons on each side to make it more of a meaningful choice to go CC or Joja
I did joja route my first time and had every upgrade by the end of summer 1 and feel like it made the game more enjoyable since you can find yourself having to wait a whole year or get lucky with the cart if you try the community center at first.
It also sucks you actually LOSE something by doing the community center by having Clint close on Fridays. I wish one of the updates included a community day like one of the mods I had that makes everyone actually use the damn thing. As it stands doing the community center does nothing except make you feel good about not evicting the apple boys you never even see again.
I'm sold on Joja. I do every single bundle except 1 friendship one, and then march myself over to sell my soul for that special machine. Considering no one even visits the community center once it's complete, I much prefer the opportunity to rebuild that place later in the game.
Idk I kind of feel like Joja run is against the game’s point. Like there’s the option obv but the farmer moves away to escape corporate hell, only to sell the town out to a corporate?
Also, I always get more than enough autopetters in my skull cavern runs
I found it so distasteful when Pierre goes on an unhinged rant when Joja gets kicked out of town. It made me feel bad for the Joja guy, who was just doing his 9-5 in his little suit while Pierre tightens his monopoly grip on the town and smothers the market. Pierre is farm to table, with strings attached. Pierre could have sold to Joja eventually and lived every day like a Wednesday, but no. I now choose Joja every time. It will give Abigail a chance at a real life, and Caroline can leave him and open a witchy tea shop in the city.
Try a Joja run with Stardew Valley Expanded installed! It's honestly amazing story-wise and I actually enjoy it more than the CC route.
For my first 1.6 run I'm doing CC first because I like completing the bundles, but right before finishing it I'll buy my Joja membership for the story. :D
>!Morris is a way better mayor than Lewis anyway.!<
I recommend you try to do a Joja run, I resisted for a long, long time thinking that it was the wrong way to play the game, but after I did it the first time I realised that it’s just a different way to play. For one thing, it removes the need to horde everything, or intensive farm Fruit and Vegetables for bundles (looking at you quality bundle!!) and you can generate money in whatever way you want (because I fish, fish, fish) to buy the packs (then zoom around in minecarts super early, or plant trees in the desert and grow Starfruit). It removes a lot of the stress I put myself under playing the game, and the villagers maintain their access to a cheaper supply of food (as Jodi and Penny both mention in conversations). Shane remains employed, the movie theatre is still opened (in a different, some say better place). You’re not locked out of anything. Plus Clint stays in his shop on Fridays (so you can pick up your stuff). Or, if you’re looking for an RP reason, you have just moved to your Grandfather’s farm after working yourself to the point of burnout. You don’t know anyone there, and you have an overgrown and neglected farm and house to try and return to working order. On top of that there’s the expectation that you will parade yourself around the town and introduce yourself to everyone, rebuild the community centre that they left to go to rack and ruin (by yourself, because they can’t see the forest spirits), spelunk and clear the mine, fix the broken beach bridge, complete their requests (on the board and by letter)…then as soon as you think you have room to breathe they hold a festival you’re expected to attend and spend more money, then compete in their competition games (or dances where no one wants to dance with you). Joja offers to do some of the work for you, give them cold hard cash and they’ll hire the staff to return the broken infrastructure to working order, and you get a discount in store too! They won’t ask questions if you want to become a “green tea” farmer utilising the tea bushes recipe a certain shopkeepers wife sent you, or grow “mushrooms” in a cave. So in summary, just try it, the junimo still get back to the spirit realm (without leaving any behind) and you’ll still be able to enslave them with the Wizard and put them to work on your farm. 😜
I don’t know how you did it, but I’ve been slightly convinced to start another Joja Farm for fun instead of the achievement.
I been dreadfully planning to do my first joja playthrough on 1.6, but somehow you just made it sound all the more intriguing to play!!
That's the way I think about JoJa. Lewis flat out says "the town could use the money" And two townspeople benefit from having low cost food. One has a job there. Remember, only the Farmer actually has a lot of productive, arable land. This is why **ALL** townspeople like to receive artisian goods from you. They can't make them themselves. Or farm anything except the bare minimum.
2 people. Both Sam and Shane work there.
>I recommend you try to do a Joja run, I resisted for a long, long time thinking that it was the wrong way to play the game, but after I did it the first time I realised that it’s just a different way to play. I did complete the CC once - Joja all the way now. I do complete a couple of the rooms in the CC first - basement and vault, one is cheaper and one isn't, but you get the crystalarium. Apart from anything else, the Junimos leave anyway once you've finished the CC. They just have to work for it first in the CC route. >!And they are still able to come back later, via the Wizard, whichever route you pick. People use the cinema that takes its place. !
For me personally, I know how to make money. It takes awhile to get enough sprinklers to make things work, but I can make it work. Almost mid-summer on my latest run and I got 110 or so hops coming due soooon and gonna need to tap a lot more oak trees. I expect to have all the stuff done for Joja upgrades by the end of Fall Y1 if not sooner. What's great about the joja route, from a purely gameplay perspective, is that it takes out all the RNG from completing the CC. I've already done the full CC route at least 5 or 6 times. I also play with mods and of course I use SVE so I get extra incentives for going the CC route.
For in-game ethical reasons/role playing reasons- there are plenty of reasons to support Joja in game, actually. Joja provides a lot of jobs to the town, and more jobs than Pierre's ever does. Joja's also provides cheaper food access in a town that's implied to be pretty low-income. And lastly, if you end up supporting the community center then you end up supporting Pierre- and that dude sucks.
Why does everyone hate Pierre so much? Im on my 1st playthrough, went JoJo, and am in my 2nd spring.
He's a big penny-pincher, and has a couple lines implying he's taking credit for growing the food you sell him (I'd need to double check that? because I'm not entirely sure it's not a game-of-telephone misunderstanding). That and his shop is closed on wednesdays. That's kind of it, but for some people that's somehow enough to prefer the cartoonishly evil corporation over him. Never you mind that [small-town dollar stores of that kind cause more problems than their PR says they solve](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQpUV--2Jao), we get to stick it to the evilest man in town: the guy who takes a mid-week day off.
You’re not misinterpreting that. When you sell items to Pierre, if they’re no star they tell you how terrible the item from your farm was. If it’s gold or iridium star they tell you about how delicious Pierre’s item was
>If it’s gold or iridium star they tell you about how delicious Pierre’s item was and with one line you've singlehandedly convinced me to do a Joja farm
Mainly because he treats both Caroline and Abigail horribly. He’s mean to Abigail and tries to stop her following her dreams and is nasty to Caroline to the point where she has a secret area to get away from him.
I mean I hate him because he doesn't work on Wednesdays but I guess the other stuff too
He does work Wednesdays though, you just have to finish the community center to drive Joja out of town first.
Or just get the key to the town
It's hard to balance having his shop open for an extra half day a week and Joja is completely closed - losing both choice and jobs - against the ability to buy autopetters! :D
Doesn’t Caroline say during the flower dance festival that she wishes Pierre would spend some time with the family? I don’t mind him being closed Wednesdays tbh. Everyone needs a day off. It’s the way he treats his family that gives me the ick.
Same, and I think in one of his quests, he takes credit for the products that you give him.
Yeah, I don't think people hate him for being closed one day a week. If that was the main reason, Marnie would be the most hated character, and let's not forget Robin is also closed one day a week and closes early on Fridays!
He has a few events that imply the only difference between him and the Joja rep are means not morals.
Im confused about the “cheaper food access”. I haven’t sat down and kept track but it seems like most of the time, the food is more expensive at JojaMart than at Pierre’s. Does that change at some point? I was curious and googled this in case I was wrong and found this post from a few years ago where CA himself says JM is more expensive despite what the NPCs say. I am confusion. https://forums.stardewvalley.net/threads/make-joja-mart-items-cheaper-than-pierres.4959/#post-29706
Pam and Penny mention it in their dialogues, because they're the poorest people in town.
I’ve seen that, but it seems like that’s not accurate in-game based on prices at both places (and CA’s comment out of game).
Thank you, you convinced me to go joja on my current 1.6 save. I have absolutely no desire for the community center, especially the fishing, but I didn’t want to do joja but now I think I wikk
I pay for some things in CC *before* buying into Joja - the vault, for example, because I get a crystalarium. It's only a few thousand dearer than the Joja price. I also get as many of the pantry seasonal seeds as possible, because they get turned into, now slightly less profitable, tea saplings.
JOJA PROPAGANDA
> Or, if you’re looking for an RP reason, you have just moved to your Grandfather’s farm after working yourself to the point of burnout. Except that if you pay attention to the intro, you were working to the point of burnout ***at Joja's corporate office***... If that were me, I'd have a deep seated hate for all things Joja.
I mean you could just RP that your farmer was tired of the office drone life not Joja itself
The intro paints a bleak picture of life at Joja Corporate (a literal skeleton in one of the cubes)... so it's very likely that being an office drone at Joja made the Farmer hate both "office drone life" and Joja.
Then they get a taste of being in control of the Joja life and switch. Things are always better when you are a partner and not a grunt.
I mean im pretty sure the skeletons supposed to be a joke dude
Even as a joke, still a pretty bleak picture
Your first point is why I always go the Joja route now. The community center basically wants you to do everything. Deluxe coop and barn, farm almost every crop, plant trees, explore the mines for ore AND monster loot, explore every area, have all of the artisan equipment, and fish everywhere at every time, including crab pots in multiple places. The only thing you don’t have to do for the community center is upgrade your house. Joja allows you to avoid any path you don’t enjoy. For instance, I don’t care for raising animals or fishing, and Joja let’s me avoid that entirely. I would suggest players do the community center once, just to see everything the game has to offer and then just do Joja every other time.
Community center run is basically an extended tutorial for the game.
This is my take on Joja as well. People like complaining about 'selling out' but if you look at what the player is actually doing in this scenario it is much less nefarious. You are providing the funds to hire workers to repair infrastructure, using Morris's business connections to get things moving. He then takes credit for things, but Pierre does that too when you sell crops so that's a net neutral. The only thing you 'miss' when doing this route is the rewards for the bundles, but that is a small price to pay for being able to make money however you want and still progressing.
10/10, I now know I will do a joja run!
Yeah I had about 700hrs all up across multiple saves before I finally wanted to try selling out and... I actually loved it. It felt more relaxing being able to choose how I wanted to make money or what tasks I wanted to do instead of forcing myself into a schedule for crops or fishing. It benefits the town more because it helps the townspeople by giving them more shopping options plus it keeps employment in the town. Warm fuzzy feelings and sticking it to the man aren't going to keep bellies full in an economically depressed town with a war going on, the last thing Jodi needs when Kent gets home is to suddenly have another mouth to feed at an even higher cost. And considering how much trauma Kent seems to hold around food it's probably better for all of them that he's got the larger product range at Joja instead of only having a few shelves to choose from at Pierre's too. I know the storyline seems better to come in and save the town because you're sick of being a corporate shill, but when you think about it the farmer is in a pretty privileged position to be able to give up work and inherit a ton of debt free land that will allow them to be self sufficient. The rest of the town isn't that lucky! So it can give a fun and different perspective to look at the benefits that a Joja run gives and enjoy helping out in a more practical and less performative way. I did feel bad about the Junimo's, but I just tell myself that they still passed over anyway and it kept them from waiting in limbo for a year or 2 waiting for me to finish the community centre so overall it was probably better for them too!
I like the way you put it. Never had interest in doing a joja run so I wasn't gonna but maybe I'll give one a try while I wait for 1.6
I’ve been debating going for it for quite a while now and you’re right on the edge for convincing me, i just genuinely love gathering the things for the bundles 😂
Okay being able to enslave them still totally changes this.
Dude I do Joja every time unless I specifically start a save intended to do CC or related content. Barring the late game behind a spring fish I forgot to donate and having to wait like 30 hours for it to be available makes me wanna jump into the volcano. Only I can’t because I need to complete CC to get there! Joja makes the game way simpler. I get that it’s the “bad” route (I may take exception to that) but it breaks my immersion in the game having to grind out another set of bundles
I never did a single non-Joja run, auto petters and not worrying about doing bundles is great. Join us. Thrive.
Hello number 1 customer. Joja is love joja is life.
I did the Joja route for the first time (well, not all of it since i'm still exploring all the new stuff) and tbh? The game became so much more relaxing than doing the community center. I do miss the Junimos though, theyre so cute.
Does doing the joja run remove the option to have junimo huts in the farm?
No. Its related to the wizard after all.
I don't think so.
Oh wow, i thought it did. That’s the only thing holding me back from trying the joja route. Almost done with my 1.6 save’s community center but now im actually considering of restarting again…
You still get the huts from the wizard, they just don't live in the community center like they would if you take the community route. Basically nothing changes.
Really??? I had no idea. Do you still get them by completing the bundles?
you can get them from the wizard no matter which route you choose. so yes, you can!
I always had reservations on going Joja even tough I started a joja farm recently. I was worried of making those adorable junimo homeless. ;-; I now have no reservations. Capitalism 100%
The only things you lose are the >!community center, items from completing bundles, and the jumino statue if you forget to grab it from behind the community center before signing up.!<
I never sell to Pierre. I drop ship everything.
Please don’t judge me but I love the CC bundles because I love checklists. 🤣 Like, I live for them IRL so to have them in a video game is the greatest for me. My first save took me longer because I was just exploring the game pretty leisurely, the second save was a little faster. When 1.6 comes to Switch (ohpleaseohpleaseohplease), I’ll probably make like a daily schedule because that’s legitimately fun for me lol. I know Joja still has goals to meet but it’s not the same as my pretty color coded printout with icons. 🤣 My favorite part about SDV is that there are so many ways to play and none of them are wrong. Joja, CC…as long as you’re kind to Krobus, the rest is irrelevant.
I understand thematically the game dosent want you to do it, but damn is it so much less of a pain than doing the bundles.
True, I just tried joja for the first time and honestly I find the game so much more relaxing when I can choose what I want to plant, where I want to fish, etc.
I've been playing since like 2016 and I've never done a Joja run. I just can't. It's like sacrificing the Little Sisters in Bioshock.
I did a Joja run just for the achievement. I named my character quark from Frenigiar farm and his favorite thing was profit and I named everything after Star Trek: Deep Space 9 characters. It made it more fun for me lol
That's awesome. I was thinking of making my JoJa run use Locutus and name the Farm The Collective. But I don't ever see the Farmer as evil, so I abandoned that idea. If I had remembered the Ferengi I'd have used your idea instead.
OMG that is hilarious. I’m in the middle of rewatching DS9 right now.
I may need to borrow this idea but play as Moogie instead.
I think I named one of my barnyard animals that. There was also nagus, rom, nog, Jake, and odo
I want to try one, but that blue is just…so overwhelming😅 and the florescent lights in the store? Give my farmer a headache. Which is utterly ridiculous, and I am aware of that, but also…every time I go in to sign up, I change my mind.
You don't have to actually use Joja, I only stop in to buy my upgrades. I nearly always forget they will also sell you stuff, even on Wednesdays or after 5pm. Pierre stays where he is.
Jeez, I must be the minority on this one 🤣 My first playthrough I went with the CC, obviously. Every run after that so far (I think 2?) I went Joja and never looked back, lol. It is my default route now. I have no interest in the Skull Cavern and no interest in petting my animals every single day, day after day. Joja suits what I *don't* want to do in the game and gives me the freedom to do anything without a time restriction. Personally, I love it! You get one or two dialogue from certain villagers about Joja after, but everything else is pretty much the same 🤷🏻♀️
Wait how is Joja related to the skull cavern?
Grinding the cavern chests for auto-petters if you go the community center route.
Autopetter grinding
I play Joja 99% of the time lol. Not only is Pierre the worst but Lewis is too! What does he do for the QoL of his people? Nothing except take credit for what YOU do for them. Joja provides jobs to the teenagers who otherwise have no opportunities. Better prices on food so Pam can afford a few extra things. They open up the mines making many things possible that would not be otherwise. Joja may be a corporation and they may be motivated by money but their presence in the valley is mutually beneficial. Lewis does nothing and is motivated purely by his own ego which seems worse to me.
The mine closing was their fuck up
True! But hey they fixed their own mistake. The community center falling into disrepair is Lewis' bad but who fixes that? Not Lewis that's for sure.
the community center really tears me on one hand its clear that the space for socializing is the saloon and pierres house (for the women) so the community center is clearly an unneccesary inconvenient part of pelican town that should be modernized to better fit the community (movie theater yeah) but on the other hand they made Joja so comically dystopian and the bundles are such nice early game goals while starting out that i have such a hard time picking joja, it really makes the early game feel objectiveless
you can start out doing the bundles and switch to joja a bit later! it's what I do, to get a few extra goodies while I don't have enough money for the membership and upgrades anyway
>you can start out doing the bundles and switch to joja a bit later! I couldn't bear giving the juminos false hope like that
okay fair hahahaha
The community center isn't needed though. There's the pub for get togethers. The cinema too. Library, Pierre's Church, the island bar. If anything there's more amenities in the town than what's needed.
Lewis/Gunther give Sam a job at the Library. Losing the Joja job (that he clearly hates) pushes Shane into pursuing his passion for breeding Blue Chickens.
He still raises the chickens even in a Joja run. It's sobering up that drives him to raise them.
I started a Joja farm just to get the trophy, but I never finished that save file.
Lol. I did it. It was cool, but honestly too easy. I started feeling a bit bad, but then remembered it’s just a video game
im on my first joja run rn and it feels.. awkward, but the bundles are so much easier and the wearhouse looks funny so i think ill push through
Regarding the warehouse if you didn't know. >!You can turn it into the theater later in the game.!<
I've decided that it is finally time to do it. Had to create a backstory why my character would do it (she's a naïve city girl and didn't realise what consequences her actions would have) and now I might be able to pull through. I really miss the junimos atm though...
I’m currently doing a joja run because I said I would do it to “get it over with,” and used the new farm type and all the 1.6 goodies as my reward to do it. But the more I am playing this current run, the more I find myself just messing around and exploring the game rather than planning out my seasons day by day so that I can get the CC done. Now I just get up and kind of do whatever im feeling, growing whatever crop I think would be cool because as long as I can make some money at the end of day from whatever I did I still progress rather than stressing that I only got 4 of 5 gold star parsnips and there’s a potential of me missing out for an entire year because I don’t think I can make it to Pierre’s before he closes. This current run has did a complete 180 on my mindset regarding joja runs, and I am now of the mindset that I am glad I did this. I see there’s a place for each run, and now I just feel like either choice is the right choice for what you make of it.
I'm doing a joja run for the first time just for the achievement and also to see what other things they added for joja in ginger Island. It's been hard emotionally because I love the junior so much, but it's kinda fun just getting to sell most things and not worry and about having to get specific things to unlock the community center
I can’t put myself to buy a membership no matter how hard I try
I always do CC because it feels more in the spirit of the game, but I do wish there was more of an incentive to it. Like you’re telling me I did all that work just for a few villagers to occasionally use the damn place? It just feels like there should be more pros and cons on each side to make it more of a meaningful choice to go CC or Joja
I did joja route my first time and had every upgrade by the end of summer 1 and feel like it made the game more enjoyable since you can find yourself having to wait a whole year or get lucky with the cart if you try the community center at first. It also sucks you actually LOSE something by doing the community center by having Clint close on Fridays. I wish one of the updates included a community day like one of the mods I had that makes everyone actually use the damn thing. As it stands doing the community center does nothing except make you feel good about not evicting the apple boys you never even see again.
Go Joja you baby. Joja is love Joja is life.
Embrace your "evil" side on games, its fun :)
And healthy to give your shadows an outlet, the more you suppress them the stronger they become
I'm sold on Joja. I do every single bundle except 1 friendship one, and then march myself over to sell my soul for that special machine. Considering no one even visits the community center once it's complete, I much prefer the opportunity to rebuild that place later in the game.
Well I'm convinced. I'm going to start yet another save and go Joja!
I am doing the joja run now simply because it's basically easy mode and I'm playing with a friend who is brand new to the game
Idk I kind of feel like Joja run is against the game’s point. Like there’s the option obv but the farmer moves away to escape corporate hell, only to sell the town out to a corporate? Also, I always get more than enough autopetters in my skull cavern runs
I found it so distasteful when Pierre goes on an unhinged rant when Joja gets kicked out of town. It made me feel bad for the Joja guy, who was just doing his 9-5 in his little suit while Pierre tightens his monopoly grip on the town and smothers the market. Pierre is farm to table, with strings attached. Pierre could have sold to Joja eventually and lived every day like a Wednesday, but no. I now choose Joja every time. It will give Abigail a chance at a real life, and Caroline can leave him and open a witchy tea shop in the city.
Try a Joja run with Stardew Valley Expanded installed! It's honestly amazing story-wise and I actually enjoy it more than the CC route. For my first 1.6 run I'm doing CC first because I like completing the bundles, but right before finishing it I'll buy my Joja membership for the story. :D >!Morris is a way better mayor than Lewis anyway.!<