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When a player reaches Level 5 in the Combat skill, they’ll be offered a choice between two Profession branches. It can be a difficult choice, so we’re here to help. This guide will outline all of the Profession choices, as well as which ones are the best.

Combat Professions Summary

The Combat skill comes into play any time the player kills monsters. It affects health, attack stats, and weapons. There is no tool proficiency earned by leveling up the Combat skill, but each level comes with a small bump to max health.

The Professions are summarized here:

Combat Professions, Explained

Fighter and Scout are the options at Level 5.

+15 max HP Attacks deal 10% more damage

Attacks deal 15% more damage

+25 max HP

Critical strikes are more likely to occur

Special move cooldown is halved

Critical strikes do more damage

Level 5 Choices

As with every skill, Combat offers two Profession branches at Level 5.

Fighter

This branch offers abilities that are a bit more direct. Choosing this Level 5 Profession will grant the player a nice little HP bonus of 15 points, while also increasing attack damage by 10%.

Scout

The Scout branch is concerned with special moves and critical strikes, making it a bit less straightforward. Scout itself offers an increased chance of critical strikes occurring when fighting enemies.

Fighter Chosen - Level 10 Choices

At Level 10, the Fighter branch offers more attack damage or more HP. The two Level 10 choices on this branch can be seen as offense versus defense.

Brute

The offense-oriented side of this branch is the Brute Profession. This ability increases the player’s attack damage by an additional 15%. Unlike the Fisher and Angler Professions in the Fishing skill, Fighter and Brute do stack.

Defender

This is the more defensive side of this branch. By choosing Defender, the player’s max HP will be increased by an additional 25 points. This also stacks with the HP bonus from Fighter.

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Scout Chosen - Level 10 Choices

Those who choose Scout at Level 5 will be given two Profession options that are a bit more specialized.

Acrobat

The Acrobat Profession is good for anyone who uses their special moves. It’ll cut the cooldown time for these moves in half.

Desperado

Live the life of an old west outlaw by choosing the Desperado Profession. This causes critical strikes to do more damage. The formula to calculate this increase is somewhat complex, but the official Stardew Valley wiki offers a good breakdown.

Best Combat Professions in Stardew Valley

Generally speaking, the Fighter branch has more utility than the Scouth branch. Which Profession is chosen at Level 10 depends on player preference.

> Fighter & Brute or Defender

Choosing the flat damage and HP increase offered by the Fighter branch is more generally useful across a wider range of situations than the increased-but-not-guaranteed chances offered by the Scout branch. As for the Level 10 options, it’s up to you. There are rings, meals, clothing options, and all types of methods for increasing attack power and restoring or increasing health, so you can fill in the other choice that you don’t select fairly easily.

For those who do decide to go down the Scout route, it is, again, a toss-up which Level 10 skill is better. Many will probably find the increased critical strike damage to be better, but being able to use a special move more often is also nice.

Stardew Valley is available on PS4, PS Vita, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Android, and iOS.

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