In real-world farms, people raise pigs primarily for their meat products. However, meat animals don't exist in Stardew Valley, so many players may wonder why pigs are in the game and how they can contribute to the farm. On top of that, pigs are the most expensive animal in the game, so what justifies that?
The answer to that question comes from another use people sometimes have for pigs: truffles. Unlike other mushrooms, there's only one way to spawn truffles in Stardew Valley, and that's to have a 
Pig roam around and nose them out of the soil. Truffles are extremely profitable, and players with the right professions will pay for their pigs sooner rather than later.
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How to Buy a Pig in Stardew Valley
Like other basic livestock, Marnie sells pigs from her ranch south of the farm. However, players can only house pigs in a deluxe barn. The total cost of a deluxe barn, including the cost of a barn and a big barn, is 43,000g. The barn comes with other perks, like room for 12 animals, animal pregnancy, and an autofeeder, but players must have a deluxe barn if they want to even consider buying a pig.
Next, players must buy the pig. A new pig costs 16,000g, which is over 10 times the price of a new cow. Players can place the baby pig in any deluxe barn they own. A baby pig takes 10 days to mature into an adult pig, assuming they eat every day, and once they grow up, a pig can start hunting for truffles.
How to Make Money From Truffles and Truffle Oil
When a pig is outside on the farm, they have a high chance of creating a truffle at some point during the day. This truffle can only appear on an empty square. The pig must also have a chance to feed that day, and the truffle can appear at any point during the pig's stay outside. If a pig spends their day inside the barn, either thanks to rain or winter, they won't find any truffles.
Closing the barn door, even for part of the day, also lowers the odds of a pig finding a truffle. Ideally, players should keep the barn door open and create a fenced area in front of it. This will let pigs leave the barn immediately in the morning while keeping their movement restricted enough to make it easy to spot the truffles they spawn.
Happy pigs can often find more than one truffle in a day. The first one is almost guaranteed to appear at some point during the day, while the odds of a second and third truffle increase based on the pig's friendship rating. A pig with five friendship hearts has a 66 percent chance of finding an extra truffle, so on average, they'll find three truffles per day.
However, pig friendship has no impact on the truffle's quality. Instead, the rules for truffle quality are based on the player's Foraging rank. Sold truffles add to Farming sales, but picking them up provides Foraging XP. This also means that Foraging professions improve truffle quality and quantity. Gatherers can sometimes get two truffles at once, and a Botanist will always find iridium-grade truffles. On the other hand, the Rancher profession adds nothing to a truffle's value.
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Players can also convert truffles into truffle oil using the oil maker, which unlocks at Farming 8. The price of truffle oil is 1,065g, which is more than a gold-quality truffle but less than an iridium truffle. A player with the Artisan profession can boost this value up to 1,491, which is even more than the price of an iridium truffle. In other words, a Botanist should always sell truffles, but an Artisan Botanist should always produce truffle oil.
Players can use truffles and truffle oil to create clothing and dyes, and truffle oil is an ingredient for rain totems, but they don't appear in any cooking recipes. Aside from quests and bundles, players can treat truffles (and therefore pigs) as nothing more than profit makers.
Stardew Valley
- Released
- February 26, 2016
