Mushrooms or bats cave ?

Hi everyone! I've just started playing Stardew Valley again after a while and made a new file.
It's Spring 24 and Demetrius is already asking wether I'd like to experiment the mushrooms or bats cave. On my previous file, I chose the mushrooms and it was nice to see them grow every two days. However, little bats would definitely be cute, but I've heard you don't get fruits that often.

Which one do you prefer and why would you recommend it ? Is one better than the other to complete the Community Centre faster ?

 

I always take the bats because they help a great deal with the greenhouse room of the community center. Later in the game it serves only as a source for gifts if you got the iridium quality perk in the foraging tree.
The mushroom cave enables you to constantly produce health potions.
As a source of income both options aren't that good.

 

My only real "Hard" goal is to complete the Greenhouse before the end of fall 1. The bats usually are crucial to this as I can count on them to drop 2-3 fruit to help the artisan bundle.

Mushrooms can be picked up relatively easy if you knew when and where to look.

 

I always go for mushrooms, mostly due to the regularity and because getting the fruit elsewhere isn't really an issue for me (but I'm not hurried to unlock the greenhouse either).

 

I can't speak for anybody else, but mushrooms are my choice. Once you can afford the outlay for trees, fruit are plentiful, if linked to season. A couple of the mushroom types are pretty hard to acquire, if you don't have the cave.

 

If you like going to the mines a lot, go for the mushrooms to make health potions.

If you want your greenhouse as early as possible, go for the fruit bats to help finish the artisan bundle.

 

I tried both, first was mushrooms which worked fine, but on one game I did the Bats, hoping for a faster access to tree fruit to get the CC done sooner. I don't know if this is normal, but they only ever dropped forage fruits which made, for me, bats a complete waste of time.
Of course, 2 seasons AFTER I finished the CC and I finally had my own fruit trees, they decided to drop a couple tree fruits... stupid little flying rats!

 

Mushrooms for reliability; bats for atmosphere.

In other words, mushrooms are /far/ better for a consistent, reliable source of both general snacks (as common mushrooms can be eaten by themselves for energy) and specialty mushrooms for crafting life potions. Bats are very RNG dependent and you'll be lucky to get more than one or two orchard fruits in a single season-- most of what they drop is wild forage, and isn't very useful.

On the other hand, having a fun little cave with bats flitting overhead can be very entertaining, especially if you decorate it up spookily and raise slimes inside it. I even pretended my farm was a bat sanctuary in one save and had a little fun putting up bat-themed decorations. (Which I made by editing the graphics of some furnishings and farm crafting items.)

Honestly neither one is likely to help you finish the CC faster. Potentially you can get orchard fruits from the bats quite readily-- but in practice the RNG never seems to come through on that.

 

I always take mushrooms. After all, do you really want to be know as the guy who resells lightly gnawed fruit?

 

Use it to bake a cobbler and give it to your least-liked townsperson.

 

I personally opt for bats, since I tend to make it down into the mines fairly easily and get mushrooms rather readily. Besides, the Artisan bundle is fairly easy to complete without orchard fruits, and you really only need the apple tree to get the fodder bundle complete. But it depends on your own personal choice of "do I want to spend money on fruits or risk going deep into the mines?"

 

When you put it that way... Yes. Yes, I do.

Do you know how much Kopi Luwak (Fecal Civet Coffee; look it up.) sells for? There has /got/ to be a market for Chiroptera-bruised fruit out there.

And I'ma gonna corner it.

 

People put the weirdest stuff in their mouths....

 

I take mushrooms for variety. Also because I barely find chanterelles or morels in the secret forest.

 

They are extremely rare. While you can grow fruit on your own, getting a supply of chanterelles and morels is problematic without the mushroom cave. Which isn't to say that they pop up frequently, but nothing else seems to replicate them with the same frequency. (As it should be--or the choice would be rendered useless.)

 

I don't need mushrooms because later in the game i prefer Spicy Eel (Dropped by Serpents) or Lucky Lunch for eating. So i take fruit bats normally.

 

Thanks for all your advices. Seems like it's a difficult choice and it really depends on what you're planning to do.
Since I've already had the mushrooms in a previous games and since I'm on the forest farm, meaning some mushrooms do appear sometimes, I decided to go for the bats for the atmosphere. I love autumn/spooky things, so little bats are a nice addition. I'm also hoping to get the Green House quite soon

 

Oh, the Forest Map definitely makes a difference, you'll find every type of mushroom there, and unlike the mushroom boxes, your foraging skill level will actually come into play. Mushroom boxes are unaffected by foraging skill, but with the Botanist perk, foraged mushrooms on your farm will be Iridium starred. (And by the same token, so will the fruit you gather in the cave-- that counts as 'forage' as far as the skill is concerned, too!)

 

Y'know, if you're fine with cheating and mods you could choose bats and then item spawn the mushroom thingies and place them elsewhere (or if you have the 2cute farm cave, then down 1 level.) Be careful where you place them though, they can't be destroyed without map editing which is tedious and long.

I might do this on my next save, but I already chose mushrooms soooo yeah, lol.