Stardew Valley: Fighter or Scout – Which is Best?

There are two ways to play video games with any skill tree. You can min-max every perk and constantly respec to have the best options or randomly pick fun ones. I like to mix it up, especially in Stardew Valley. However, I thought about my decisions carefully with combat professions, particularly with choosing between Fighter and Scout. If you want to learn more, continue reading to discover whether the Fighter or Scout profession is better in Stardew Valley.

Which Stardew Valley Combat Profession is Better – Fighter or Scout?

Generally speaking, Fighter will almost always be your best choice when picking your level five combat profession. While Scout’s 50% increase to critical strike is helpful, the default critical strike chance is so low that it won’t benefit you too often. Fighter, on the other hand, gives you an overall 10% damage boost and increases your HP by 15, making it a safer and more reliable option.

The Scout’s 50% increase is also multiplicative rather than additive, making it less impactful than it initially seems. To put this into perspective, if your current crit chance is two percent, it’ll only increase by an additional one percent.

Fighter Profession – Brute or Defender?

Once you reach level ten combat, you can pick between the Brute and Defender perks, which increase your damage and HP, respectively. Of these two, Brute’s 15% damage boost is more helpful in most cases, as it’ll help you defeat monsters faster. However, if you feel safer with a bit of extra HP, there is no harm in taking Defender instead.

Scout Profession – Acrobat and Desperado

When we compare these to Scout’s two perks, Acrobat and Desperado, you’ll find that they’re a bit underwhelming. Acrobat reduces your special mode cooldown, which is helpful if you remember to use special moves. Desperado is more useful, as it significantly increases your critical hit damage.

Like before, though, even when you boost your critical strike chances, they still won’t activate enough to make this worth it unless you dedicate your rings to it and use a decent weapon.

Related: Best Spring Crops in Stardew Valley

In short, not only is the Fighter’s 10% damage boost and 15 HP an improvement over Scout, but Brute is as well. That way, instead of trying to boost your critical chance, you can use those ring slots for the Iridium Band, Phoenix Ring or any other fun options out there. I’d only recommend Scout if you want to experiment with a critical strike build playstyle or test your combat RNG.

Stardew Valley is available to play on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android. To learn more, check out how to upgrade your farm and farmhouse in Stardew Valley, or click the tag below to explore our entire article collection!