Why Stardew Valley Players Should Hold Off on Making Dinosaur Mayo

07.04.2024 - 20:30 / gamerant.com / Dominik Bo / Nintendo

Stardew Valley update 1.6 has introduced a way to make Dinosaur Eggs more valuable than Dinosaur Mayonnaise. While doing so requires some legwork, Stardew Valley players may still want to hold off on making any more Dinosaur Mayo if they're looking to maximize the fruits of their labor, profit-wise.

Dinosaur Eggs have been part of the hit farming sim since its 2016 release. However, they had initially only produced gold-quality Mayo when placed into a Stardew Valley Mayonnaise Machine. This all changed with the November 2019 release of the game's 1.4 update, which introduced Dinosaur Mayonnaise. Despite not having quality levels like its original counterpart, Dinosaur Mayonnaise sells for more than even iridium-quality mayo.

But even this valuable commodity has now been outclassed following the release of the game's latest patch. As recently noted by Reddit user jessipoo451, reading the Treasure Appraisal Guide permanently triples the price of Dinosaur Eggs, making even their worst-quality variants more valuable than Dinosaur Mayonnaise. Obtaining this Stardew Valley skill book thus essentially renders Dinosaur Mayo irrelevant for anything but completing specific (re)quests.

The difference is also fairly significant, as the Treasure Appraisal Guide makes regular Dinosaur Eggs sell for 1050 gold, nearly 32% more than Dinosaur Mayo. Meanwhile, selling iridium-quality eggs is 162.5% more profitable than turning them into mayonnaise after obtaining the skill book. Doing so isn't particularly difficult, as the guide can be found in both Artifact Troves and Mystery Boxes. But the easiest way to procure it is to simply purchase it from the Stardew Valley Bookseller, which appears twice a season.

Regular

Silver

Gold

Iridium

Treasure Appraisal Guide

Dinosaur Egg

350g

437g

525g

700g

❌

Dinosaur Egg

1050g

1311g

1575g

2100g

✅

Dinosaur Mayo

800g

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Though the store's schedule is random, it's also rather simple to keep track of, as the game will mark the dates when the Bookseller is in town with a balloon icon on the player's calendar. The Treasure Appraisal Guide is priced at 20,000 gold, so players can make their money back after selling their 29th Dinosaur Egg in Stardew Valley.

While the 1.6 update is currently only available on PC, Eric «ConcernedApe» Barone has repeatedly said that the new patch will also be coming to both consoles and mobile devices «as soon as possible.» In light of that pledge, even non-PC players may want to hold off on making any more Dinosaur Mayonnaise if they are interested in maximizing their profits. As for regular mayo, that artisan good remains more valuable than its ingredients. Namely, the Treasure Appraisal Guide only affects artifacts, which Dinosaur Eggs are, but