Water your crops the easy way with this Stardew Valley sprinkler guide

If you're looking for a new Stardew Valley sprinkler, you're in the right place. Farming involves giving your crops the love and care they deserve, and one way to make that process much easier is by using sprinklers. In Stardew Valley, these are crafted items that automatically water your crops each morning, so you don't need to waste any more time tending to each individual square with a watering can. 

When you first start your farm, a watering can is all you'll need, but as you expand your agricultural empire, you're going to need some help. Sprinklers are key to having an efficiently working farm and, with the right Stardew Valley sprinkler layout, you won't need to lift a finger until your crops are ready to harvest. There are three types of sprinklers; The better the sprinkler, the higher its range. 

It can also be a headache trying to work out the best way to effectively group your crops. But don't fret: Here are the three types of sprinkler, the materials needed to craft them, and layout tips for each. 

Stardew Valley basic sprinkler ingredients

• Copper bars: 1
• Iron bars: 1

The basic sprinkler is the first one you'll be able to craft, and it unlocks at farming level 2. They have a reach of one tile and water four total spaces, directly above, below, the left, and to the right of the sprinkler. Although they are the first sprinkler you can craft, they are the most difficult to place given their cross shape. 

There are several different layouts for the basic sprinkler but all involve placing them diagonally, which is a bit awkward. If you wanted to place them in a neat square, there are always going to be gaps. Placing these sprinklers can be a little finicky but if you've put your sprinkler in the wrong place, don't worry, you can just hit it with an axe or pickaxe to return it to your inventory. 

However, I suggest saving your copper and iron bars and miss out on crafting these sprinklers completely to craft better tools.

Stardew Valley quality sprinkler ingredients

• Iron bars: 1
• Gold bars: 1
• Refined quartz: 1

The next sprinkler you can unlock is at farming level 6. The quality sprinkler is a massive step up from the basic one as it lets you water the eight tiles directly around the sprinkler. The 3x3 squares are much easier to plan and organise on your farm, too. Find a gold bar and some quartz in the mines if you're short of those. 

Quality sprinklers are a great investment: When you upgrade to Iridium sprinklers you can sell your quality ones for 450G per sprinkler. To get the best coverage, place them two spaces away from each other so they don't overlap. You can go for a huge area of the same crop or divide your farm into smaller sections of different crops.

Stardew Valley Iridium sprinkler ingredients

• Gold bar: 1
• Iridium bar: 1
• Battery pack: 1

Iridium sprinklers are one of the best farming tools of Stardew Valley. They water 24 spaces in a neat 5x5 square. That's a huge area of your farm for bulk watering. These sprinklers are the best in the game, but collecting the resources to make one takes work. Gold is not that difficult to find and can be found in the mines. The battery pack is also straightforward, you'll just need to place several lighting rods on your farm. 

But it's the iridium bars that are tougher to come by. To get them you'll need to go to the Skull Cavern located in the desert. To even get access to the cavern, you will have needed to reached level 120 in the mine and repair the vault in the community centre which will set you back a whopping 42,500G. Iridium is located in the lower parts of the cavern so make sure you're decked out in powerful weapons, stairs, and bombs to reach them. 

Even with the all the ingredients, you'll need to have reached farming level 9 to start crafting. With their 5x5 layout, planning an efficient layout is easy enough. They need to be placed four spaces away from each other to get the most efficient coverage. Columns of three iridium sprinklers will give you 72 watering spaces that you could dedicate to one crop, or you could go the whole hog and create a huge square of six sprinklers that would water 144 spaces.