Stardew Valley: Brute or Defender – Which Profession Is Better?

Stardew Valley is not a game oriented toward combat, it is present but to a smaller extent with only the basic mechanics implemented. Since you will be forced to brave the mines at one point in the game, you will become aware of the combat skill. Combat skill like plenty of other skills in Stardew Valley has its own professions. As soon as you reach level 5 you will be able to choose between a fighter and a scout, and at level 10 if you’ve decided to go down the path of a fighter, brute and defender professions will unlock. Now, both professions add something to your combat abilities, but if we have to choose between brute or defender, which profession is better in Stardew Valley?

With Brute profession you deal 15% more damage

The brute profession is one of the choices you get as soon as you reach level 10 in combat skill in Stardew Valley. The brute profession is going to be one of the choices if you’ve previously, at level 5, decided to choose the fighter profession.
The brute profession offers a straightforward bonus, you deal 15% more damage and this bonus can stack with the bonus that the fighter profession provides.

While it doesn’t sound too elaborate you need to understand that Stardew Valley was never imagined as a combat game, and the only areas where you will primarily encounter something to fight are mines and Skull Cavern.

Brute is the safer choice of the two, especially since the defender doesn’t offer that much more health. Another good thing about this profession is the fact that you will be able to clear waves of enemies much more quickly, especially when the profession is paired with Infinity Blade. While brute doesn’t give you extra attack speed, it gives you extra damage, this translates to killing enemies more quickly and efficiently due to fewer strikes needed.

The Defender profession gives you 25 extra health points

The defender profession is the other choice you get when you reach level 10 in combat, under the condition that you’ve chosen the fighter profession at level 5. When it comes to the bonuses that the defender offers, they are pitiful at best.
The defender gives you 25 extra health points. As you can see this amount of extra health points is so small it’s not worth it.

As you probably know you have two defense-related attributes in Stardew Valley, the first being total health points and the second being defense points. Defense affects how much damage you will receive from the monsters, if you have +1 extra defense point it means that damage taken from monsters will be reduced by 1 point. Imagine how much more awesome would this profession be if it offered +25 defense points, leading to a 25-point decrease in damage taken.

This profession would benefit more from either more defense points or significantly more added health. Since it offers neither of those I recommend you completely ignore it.
I’ve mentioned before combat is not that hard, and even if you do manage to get in sticky situations, you’re not going to benefit from those extra health points, especially in the late game.

If you struggle with survivability, the defender profession won’t do you much good, it would be far wiser to invest in food, clothing, and other gear that restores your health and offers defense bonuses. Even though this is the only defense-oriented profession in the game, as you can see it will not have much impact on the outcome of the fight. Any other combat profession is more useful than the defender.

Brute or Defender which profession is better in Stardew Valley?

Since brute profession offers a flat damage bonus, it’s more worthy of attention. Flat damage will always amount to the overall survivability of character and paired with the right items you will be able to clear out certain areas more quickly. You can’t imagine a scenario in which you wouldn’t benefit more from the damage bonus.

On the other hand, the health bonus that the defender provides is negligible, it would be different if 25 defense points are on the table. This bonus is just too small to even consider.

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