Starting anew on Luma Island after arriving at the beach, you’ll find the friendly locals in the nearby town welcoming you. The Town Hall recommends obtaining a Profession Permit, which will give you something to do other than just wander around while also allowing you to earn some money.
To thrive on the island, you’ll need Gold to purchase various drawings, additional materials, and specific items for quests. Selling off small junk items won’t earn you much, so it’s best to take Herbert’s advice, get a permit, and explore your interests.
What Are Professions?
Professions are your main way to earn Gold, and they also provide you with various crafting recipes that don’t involve building. Each profession comes with its own unique quest line to help teach you how it works, unlock relevant crafters, and open up new recipes for you to create and sell.
You can choose from seven different Professions, and the items produced from your chosen profession generally sell for significantly more than the raw materials, except for particular treasures that are meant to be sold.
You can hold multiple Profession Permits at once, allowing you to access all job quests and crafters with a single character.
Once you complete the tutorial, your first quest will have you meet Herbert at the Town Hall to obtain a free Profession. The fee for changing your second Profession is 500 Gold, and any further changes will cost 15,000 Gold each.
Cook Profession
- Difficulty: One Star
- Profession Mentor: Enzo
- Best Profession Pairing: Brewer
The Cook Profession is one of the most straightforward professions to adopt. It’s ideal if you want to focus on farming and growing a variety of fruits and vegetables, as that’s essential to this profession.
Your main crafting tools will be the Flour Mill and Stove, and the introductory quests will guide you to plant your first seeds—Wheat and Grapes—and use them to whip up meals for sale at local shops.
Given its simplicity and the relative abundance of crafting materials, you’ll find that many of the initial recipes don’t yield high profits. For instance, Bread sells for only 663 Gold, which is the least rewarding among the first items available from any profession.
However, the advantage is that you can produce a significant amount of food recipes at once, particularly if you focus on one or two specific dishes, allowing you to accumulate a good amount of gold. If you also choose the Brewer profession, you’ll be able to make drinks using many of the same ingredients.
Brewer Profession
- Difficulty: One Star
- Profession Mentor: Bill
- Best Profession Pairing: Cook
The Brewer Profession closely resembles that of the Cook, but this one centers around crafting beverages. You still need to farm various vegetables and fruits like Grapes, but you’ll use the Farm Cask to create your drinks.
This profession will also require you to forage for several materials, including Sand and Farm Mushrooms, as ingredients like Farm Color and Bottles are crucial for making many drinks. So, if you enjoy farming or exploring, this profession might suit you well.
Since drinks take a long time to brew, it’s advisable to pair Brewer with any other Profession, allowing you to work on different crafts while your drinks are being made.
Brewer beverages typically sell for about 701 Gold, which is comparable to many other beginner recipes. The ingredients for these drinks are not hard to gather, but you’ll need large quantities of vegetables such as Wheat for a steady supply, as even the very first drink requires ten Wheat.
For those pursuing this Profession, combining it with the Cook role is a smart choice since many recipes utilize the same ingredients. If you need a break from brewing, you can quickly switch to preparing food.
Treasure Hunter Profession
- Difficulty: One Star
- Profession Mentor: Captain Quincy
- Best Profession Pairing: Fisherman
As a Treasure Hunter, you’ll gain access to the Treasure Hunter’s Sink and Treasure Hunter’s Workbench, enabling you to collect a wide variety of materials using the Fishing Rod. Additionally, you’ll utilize materials obtained from scavenging through debris piles around the island.
Instead of using bait for your Fishing Rod, you’ll employ various types of magnets to pull treasures from bubbling spots in the water while also gathering pirate-themed materials to craft replica Pirate Gear, such as eyepatches.
One unique feature of the Treasure Hunter profession is receiving a dog to assist you after meeting Captain Quincy. This dog helps sniff out treasure chests, providing additional loot and a chance to find relics early in your game journey.
While the dog is useful for locating treasure, it’s advisable to acquire a Luma as soon as possible, since Luma Energy is essential for many recipes.
This Profession can be quite profitable; however, it does require substantial effort to gather materials from debris piles and randomly spawned chests, meaning it may take time before you can produce significant quantities of items for sale. Additionally, mining is necessary to gather resources for crafting Copper Magnets.
Blacksmith Profession
- Difficulty: Two Stars
- Profession Mentor: Sylvia
- Best Profession Pairing: Jewelrycrafter
With the Blacksmith Profession, your main focus will be mining for materials, especially in the Abandoned Farm Caves. Your primary crafting stations will be the Blacksmith’s Forge and Rubble Refinery.
Much of your time will involve collecting various ores and stones, such as Copper Ore or Bronze Rubble, and utilizing the Blacksmith’s Workbench to turn them into components for sale, or crafting them into more lucrative items.
If you enjoy mining and exploring the caves, this profession is an ideal fit. It yields a decent sum of Gold like other professions without requiring frequent trips for special materials.
Materials like Copper are essential for numerous recipes and upgrades, making it a good complement to the Jewelrycrafter profession, which also relies on Bronze Rubble found in various Blacksmith recipes.
Fisherman Profession
- Difficulty: Two Stars
- Profession Mentor: Pearl
- Best Profession Pairing: Treasure Hunter
In the Fisherman Profession, your primary responsibility involves catching various fish and sea creatures and preparing them into dishes specific to the Fisherman’s Gallery.
To gather bait, you’ll need the Bug Net to catch creatures like Caterpillars, and then employ your Fishing Rod in select locations. Additionally, you’ll need to gather ingredients from beaches and lakes, including Seaweed and Mussels.
Unlike other professions, the Fisherman’s Gallery is the sole crafting station needed to create your recipes, while most other professions require two crafting stations. The recipes from this profession offer some of the highest selling prices—even the earliest dishes.
This profession also invites exploration, as you’ll need to fish in various, specific locations throughout your farm, town, and other areas.
The Fisherman profession pairs nicely with Treasure Hunter, as both require the use of a Fishing Rod; you’ll find it easy to switch between the two and gather materials from similar locations.
Jewelrycrafter Profession
- Difficulty: Two Stars
- Profession Mentor: Milo
- Best Profession Pairing: Blacksmith
Much like the Blacksmith Profession, the Jewelrycrafter involves significant mining, but focuses mainly on gathering Bronze Rubble and glowing gem clusters found in the Abandoned Farm Caves.
You’ll have access to the Rubble Refinery and the Jewelrycrafter’s Workbench, where you will craft various jewelry pieces like Mountain Crystal Earrings.
Be cautious, as deadly enemies like Spiders, and later Ghosts, will spawn in the caves. Breaking a gem cluster creates noise that can attract these enemies to your location, so be prepared.
While dangerous, Spiders drop valuable items such as the rare Webbed Gems that sell for 750 Gold.
As you gather gems, you’ll likely encounter more Spiders than usual, and if you’re not careful, they can cut your mining trip short, forcing you to abandon areas rich in resources to avoid them.
Archaeologist Profession
- Difficulty: Three Skulls
- Profession Mentor: Arianne
- Best Profession Pairing: Jewelrycrafter or Blacksmith
The Archaeologist profession is similar to the Treasure Hunter, but instead of seeking pirate-related items, it focuses on discovering artifacts from ancient civilizations that once inhabited Luma Island.
Opting for this profession will grant you access to the Rubble Refiner and the Archaeologist’s Workbench, as well as exclusive areas that aren’t normally accessible, like a door in the Ancient Farm Temple. Inside, you’ll find special relics that you need to repair.
Materials such as Bronze Bars will also be required, making this profession a good fit with others that need ample resources from mining. Additionally, it provides a reliable way to earn Gold since you’ll continuously require ores while the relics themselves are rare.
As with the Jewelrycrafter profession, keeping your Copper Whip upgraded is crucial since some relics will need gems, and striking gem clusters is likely to spawn enemies nearby.
What Is The Best Starting Profession?
If you aim to accumulate Gold quickly in the early game, begin with the Fisherman Profession. Its first recipe, Penny Herring Soup, sells for an impressive 1,275 Gold, making it the most profitable option among all starting recipes.
The selling prices for the recipes increase significantly as you progress, and you can start generating good Gold without needing Luma Energy for many of the initial recipes until later stages, enabling you to make a profit from the start.
The Fisherman Profession is an excellent starting point if you’re looking to acquire other Profession permits early in the game.
Despite being more challenging, gathering materials is generally easier in large quantities compared to other professions, as many spawn frequently both day and night.
The availability of bait is also high, with various types constantly spawning in their respective locations, making it easy to stockpile fish. This becomes particularly advantageous once you upgrade your Fishing Rod, which enhances your ability to catch fish swiftly.
Each time you catch fish, there’s a chance of landing an extra fish, which slightly increases with each upgrade to your Fishing Rod.
As long as you’re content with fishing for a while, you can easily earn 10,000 Gold within just a few days—more than enough to cover most of the early-game designs and quest resources like Bridge Planks, plus have leftover funds for further crafting and usage.