Joining the Joja Family - Stardew Valley 

Its truly amazing how ConcernedApe captured the soulessness of megacorps via the joja route. Not only in dialogue and artstyle, but the gameplay itself. The community centre bundles are like quests, making you do a wide variety of activities and exploring the whole map. Bundles corresponding to seasons, areas, and activites gives the centre more personality. By contrast, you can complete the joja route by only engaging in a couple of activities, barely leaving a couple screens, engaging with no one, and checking off numbers on a bland sheet of paper. In the end celebrating with nameless nobodies you dont even know, someone else taking credit for your work and getting a promotion. You dont just see the message in art and dialogue, you feel it. Something most games really fail to capture, even if they are trying to portray a similar message.

Normally I hunt for all them achievements. But the one achievement I will never EVER go for is the Joja Membership one. I mean the Farmer came to Pelican Town to get AWAY from JoJa.

You were the chosen one! It was said you would destroy JoJa Corp, not join them!

Correction: I am playing the Joja run and I have the junimo hut. I think so long as you learn the language and do that cutscene you'll still get the Junimo Hut.

I’ve never messed w the joja route not for any moral reason but just because I literally always forget about it. It’s just more out of the way than Pierre’s shop.

You forgot about the most important thing you lose by going the Joja route, tho. Your soul.

One big pro the joja route has over the community center that I don't see many people talking about is that how once you finished the community center, certain people on different days will hang out there during their usual store hours. The worst though is Clint where on multiple occasions Ive wanted to crack some geodes/upgrade a tool and he just simply wasn't there! I don't think I could ever do a full farm with the joja route though. Only speed ran through it for the achievement Lol

The auto petter does raise friendship hearts with the animals and you can still get the junimo huts after getting the talisman as well.

To be fair. When you give the Joja route bothe Shane and Sam get to keep their jobs. They don't really have jobs after you complete the community center.

The joja route is not as bad as people say it is, you dont get really get locked out of any content, the route is much easier to do than the quest like system of the community center route, you can buy seeds from the joja mart any day unlike pierre and having the same price as Pierre's with the exception that the sunflower seeds are cheaper, you can buy auto petters which is normally a very hard and annoying thing to get, you get there version of a trophy the vending machine that basically gives you money everyday via the joja cola it produce, you can still buy the junimo huts, the location of the theater is better, you can easily complete the route in year one, sam and shane don't lose there jobs, the villagers schedules will remain the same unlike the CC route which changes the schedules of the villagers, and the only true cons of the route is you're morality and losing out the free 3 points you get from completely the community center route, the points are a part of grandpa's evaluation

Whenever I do the Joja route, I complete all but a single bundle and then buy the membership. That way I get all the rewards and don't have to spend a ton of gold. EDIT: Probably should mention that I also only do the Joja Route in the Stardew Valley Expanded mod because it has so much more content. Oh, and Morris becomes Mayor and, well, that would be telling.

Love that joja route requires straight gold. Many hours speedrunning joja route. I usually do in this order: minecarts, greenhouse, bus, bridge, then panning last. There's always a small chance you'll get a prismatic shard from a mystic stone in the quarry -- makes it a better choice than panning for me.

Honestly, Joja route really need more love. I mean Morris and those workers literally worked overnight on all the constructions, pure physical labor with no magic involved.

Minor correction - The Wizard will still sell you Junimo huts if you go the Joja route. I have done a pure CC run, a hybrid CC/Joja and a pure Joja run and have the huts on all three saves. :)

I've never done it myself, but apparently watching at least two other videos of Perfection runs on RU-vid shows that the end cutscene on the cliff changes depending on if you do Joja route for Community Center or not. It was very interesting to see the difference, especially considering that I've only recently gotten back into Stardew after not having played it since before Perfection and Ginger Island were added.

I just did a Jojamart run, and got that sweet sweet achievement. It took me one in-game year. I imagine I could have done it sooner if I had put more effort into it, but I still did it in two real-world days, and that is good enough for me.

To be honest, movie theater in the uphill is the best location. Shorter from farm and it fit perfectly with the village. I hope 1.6 Dev make more update for Joja route

Joja is useful for a challenge run. Imagine: Evil Joja has imprisoned you on your farm. They will give you one day out if you bribe them by buying a membership or one of the form upgrades. And they'll let you out for one day to celebrate their Warehouse Opening. But they only free you from your prison once you buy them the Movie Theater!

Even if you do complete the community Center, it's still gonna be empty and soulless.

Oh that sucks they must have changed it. You used to be able to buy the membership right away and then you could do the cutscene with Mary Lewis but the community center would be transformed into a warehouse it's kind of funny

man i really love your content, you filled the place of DF since he no longer made stardew valley content

It makes no sense to leave a soul-crushing job at Joja just to work for Joja elsewhere.

I can't believe that on my first ever playthrough I did the joja route. I think I was just overwhelmed by how difficult the community center looked but now I've completed the cc twice

Thanks for covering this so I didn't have to dirty my hands and my switch w the joja route lmao

You don’t have to lose out on all those bundle rewards. Just do the ones that you want.

this is basically like the spongebob episode with the golden spatula. while spongebob makes one burger that everyone would love to eat, Neptune massproduces trash to feed to people.

To give this route some credit, Joja does improve the town. The things they fix have varying importance, but they do fix them. Without the junimos, literal magic, nothing otherwise gets done either because of Lewis or what we can assume to be local politics

You need to do this route for a trophy on PS4 (and presumably an achievement on other systems) so I do think a fair few have seen it. Plus I'm playing co-op right now with a newcomer to the game and they chose exponential profit growth and Joja as our path. Thank for the video though your videos are always the most thorough :)

love the joja route in gameplays after my 1st one when pierre closes i can still get seeds from joja as well as the movie theater is in a better spot

I never go the Joja route unless I'm trying to go fast. in my mind, since the farmer is seen working for Joja at the start of the game and then leaving because the conditions are bad, why would we go back?

This feels like the Sith version of Stardew Valley.

I would honestly go for the bulletin board completion before starting on joja because then you get friendship! yay

Hi you might see this with the video is older but found your videos , working my way through them, this playlist is soooooooooo helpful thank you , I'm not a major achievement hunter , but i do achievements on some games, i would do this jojo thing just to get the achievements i wouldn't make my farm special or fancy I'd just throw the farm together so i can get this achievement , then I'd delete the save , hope you do more Stardew Valley content , or walkthoughs on different farms maps.

You forgot the very best reason to sell you soul to Jojo Mart: the achievement!

I tell you what, going the Joja Route was one of the best things I did, I already completed the game before and wanted to see what was different. I will say however that I still utilize the Junimos despite going this route, I made sure to translate the text and get the essence of the forest before I got rid of the CC. Now I have forest fairies while also being a capitalist

Can you still get shortcuts and Pam a house upgrade through Joja? I know those are normally Robin upgrades to town after the CC is done

I am part of the small minority who prefer the Joja route simply because I am a minmaxer at heart and the community center is way too frustrating

your joja loving character in this video reminds me of Lou in Nightcrawler ... o_o (amazing video)

I just got perfection on my initial playthrough (community centre route) and I have just started the joja playthrough on a new farm to get the achievement. It's so.....directionless....you just wake up, try and earn money, sleep. Admittedly I'm just going for the achievement so I'm not even really romancing anyone or donating to the museum etc, but it's just such a lifeless way to play the game. I'm looking forward to another playthrough of the CC with remixed bundles :)

The first run I did was the CC route for the satisfaction, but I’ll only do JoJa from now on for one big reason, JoJa has the auto petter for sell

I haven’t done a Joja Run yet, I’m big on getting money as fast as possible so idk why I haven’t tried it yet tbh seems like it fits lol

I just need to correct this so 1. You do get the junimo hut. i can't remember how, but you definitely do get ot and 2. You would gain 3 grandpa points from completing the community center AND seeing the cutscene.

you can still buy the junimo huts on a joja run

12:03 i chose joja and i have junimos!! You just need to read the scroll and go to wizard. Then go to joja ^^

This would actually be great for speed runs though, not mentioning the moral implications.

In SP I do community center, I like the incentive to engage with all the game systems but in MP we do joja because my friends are stupid and organizing them into some semblance of a well-oiled machine is easier if I tell them to just grow a fuckton of parsnips and live in the mines while I fish and carry most of the weight.

I did this just for the steam achievement, and i'm surprised by how little people did this.

This reminds me of a guide I read a VERY long time ago for one of the old school harvest moon games. Most of the guides were aimed at helping you experience as much of the game as possible, telling you about events and birthdays, and providing information on romanceable characters etc. This guide, however, was about pure profit. The sole focus was how to absolutely min-max your money generation to be absolutely filthy rich by the end of the game. Taking time out of your day to give a GIFT to someone? Wrong, sell that shit instead. Events going on in town? They're obstacles you have to plan around so you're not wasting a day without investing in new sources of money. The guide was so silly, but so serious about all of it. Every strat detailed was aimed entirely at making as much money as humanly possible. From the routes you took through the mountains to gather resources, to efficiently upgrading tools and energy so you could squeeze just a few more crops onto your field without passing out after watering them, it had it all. For those who have played harvest moon, it was also advocating for full 3x3 crops from the start, which added a ton of headache, but was the most lucrative strategy. I read quite a few guides for a lot of games back in those days, but this particular one stuck with me. It was such a silly way to play the game, because it actively spurned 80% of the content in favor of making the number go up. Except it wasn't even about that, because money in your wallet isn't making you more money! So you basically spent the entire game as absolutely broke as possible until the very end lol

I am doing the Joja way in my second playthrough where the farmer is kinda 'evil' (even named him Kai after Kai Parker from TVD 😅. I just want to see what happens when I choose all the 'negative' choices in cutscenes and questions. Probs would end up marrying the farmer to my least favourite NPC, have pixelated kids, divorce the npc, and move in with Krobus to start their illegal underworld empire hehehehehe ok.

you can still get jonimo hurts, just get voice of forest so you can read bundles. sell community center to joja, and you can now still get junimo hurts

I did Joja multiple times before. Now I'm finally doing the "normal" path in this last playthrough to 100% the game lol

Took me to year 3 to get green house you got it on the 25 of your first year and month 🙂

Correction: The total amount vs. the bundle is 5000 off, making getting the bus via the community cheaper because you never paid for the subscription. So you have some money left over. Honestly, such a small amount doesn't change in reality.

...although the one where you said the wizard will no longer sell the hut yes he does

To be honest, I much prefere this route. It's such a pain in the ass to remember to go out of my way to get cc items, and it just feels un-satisfying to have to store stuff that I could just sell instead. With the Joja route, I can focus on the main goal of the game, making money, without having to worry about anything else, especially animals, which I never engage with since they barely make you any money and are so expensive to get going.

honestly, combining 2 routes is the best for me. i usually end both minecarts and crafts room, aybe put a bit into greenhouse bundle, buy bus, and then, instead of doing fish tank and especisally bulletin board, i can make more fun from making gold

My first ever Stardew playthrough I took one look at the 'Quality Crops Bundle' and had already missed the deadline on spring forgeable bundle because of horseradishes, so I just went to Jojamart.

I would rather prioritise the bridge first because it unlocks the quarry which can give good ores and gems like iridium, diamond(for gift giving) and ofc, the prismatic shards

I dunno about anyone else, but pure cash bundles would take _infinitely_ longer for me to fill out than the base ones. I need that money for upgrading my farm.

After finally finishing my first community center run. Ill happily say joja will always be my choice to complete the cc from now on. Helping thr junimos was not fun or worth it

"what game are you playing at?" "CAPITALISM! where everyone wins. except you." -Tibbles, The Owl House, Hooty's Moving Hassle

does siding with Joja mess with the ending score you get with grandpa?

So my current playthrough I'm on the beach farm. I completed all CC bundles except the bulletin board, then proceeded to get my joja membership. And I'm not sure if its because I completed bundles before signing my life away to capitalism or what but, I have 2 junimo huts. For other info, I am playing on the switch.

u forgot to mention that joja corn gets sold if you go the community center path (which is weird cause ud expect it to appear if joja built it but whatever)

Everyone shall fall to the might of the Joja!

i cant wait for the day where more people have vector challenge achievement than joja route achievement

If you think about it the bus is actually more expensive.. you forgot to account for the Joja membership.

You also keep Shane employed if you do the Joja route.

i did the joja path with a farmer named Joja, farm named JojaMart, Joja shirt, blue skin, blue pants, blue hair, named my cat JojaPet and favorite thing was Joja.

I'm on my first playthrough and i chose the joja route. I think that i saw so many goody goody two shoes plays that i wanted to just pay it forward. I have now the bridge and panning left now. Still talked to all the villagers and all of them (minus pierre because i don't like him personally, i only buy his seeds and other stuff), i like that i can level up my mining and combat skills much faster. I mine gold ore and other gems into bars and occasional farming and forgaging for my money making needs.

the weird fact that I have junimo hut but I'm on the joja route (too lazy to complete community center)

"Make your transition a joyous one." Joja said trans rights???? lmao

At 2:23 there is a hello there there is another one later as well 😂

Also u miss out the points for grandpa's evaluation if u follow this path. Something that gives u iridium everyday. But this path looks simpler and better .

In my first stardew file I went Joja cause I thought getting money was easier than busting my ass for all these different items. Its only now, five years later and on a new save file that I realize that the community center is just better

That's interesting. I did the joja route and still got access to Jumino huts...

The wizard actually will sell you the Junimo huts with the joja route

I am doing my 2nd save and in my 9,999th save I might do this. Joining Joja. Then reform it into Jo-jo. If it were DangerouslyFunny's video: Lewis facing the abandoned Community Center: what an eyesore DF: yeah, but you are even worse with your forbidden love and corruption. Or DF: right next to me is someone even worse than that.

3:05 my heart sank

I’m actually doing a joja route right now

So, umm... No joke, this was the route I picked first playing the game. I didn't think it was a moral or ethical choice at all, I just went with a character I liked and related to.

I just started to play and I don't want to unlock the JojoMart because I don't want to disapoint Pierre 🤣I may try it on another save tho

How do you get the a crytalarium (not sure if I spelled that correctly) if you go the Joja route?

your character is exactly the same as my self character !!!

This was my very last 39/40 Achievement to unlock lol, doing that right now

“Way before you normaly would” oh how you don’t know

The only reason why I pick joja route is because I hate pierre so much

But you left out the most important thing; by going down this route you haven't made Shane and Sam (and the nameless female character) jobless.

I feel like Shane and Sam should be in the Joja completion cutscene

I think a better perspective for the value of the community center bundles would be everything you would need to craft them all (or gold cost if an item can't be crafted) as crafting is the most likely way a player would obtain the items outside of the community centre gifting them to you. Out of sheer boredom, I've broken down the items to craft all community center bundles: 355 wood 234 stone 15 hardwood 10 fibre 60 sap 4 copper bars 16 iron bars 7 gold bars 2 iridium bars 2 refined quartz 20 copper ore 25 gold ore 31 coal 5 omni geode 14 coral 30 fish (any) 10 sardines 6 bug meat 5 bat wings 5 oak resin 1 maple syrup 5 yam 5 pumpkin 5 potatoes 3 melon 5 oil 4 wheat flour 4 sugar 4 eggs 3 horseradish 3 leek 3 daffodil 3 dandelion 3 spice berry 3 grape 3 sweet pea 3 common mushroom 3 blackberry 3 wild plum 3 hazelnut 3 crocus 3 snow yam 3 crystal fruit 3 winter root 1 battery pack 1 cloth 2100 gold

I just went the Joja route for the first time on my beach farm on mobile and I have access to the junimo huts...

I honestly never really felt satisfied after finishing the joja route for me actually having to put in the work to rebuild the community center is more satisfying for me just having to pay for everything i don't fully feel satisfied

Technically, jojamart is corporatism and true capitalism is the standard playthrough

This may be an updated feature, but JUST TODAY I got a letter from Marnie saying she sells auto petters for 25k. Fall of year 1, right around the festival timeframe.

I just started the game. What happens to the general store?

I dont plant anything ever so I'm convinced joja it is. Yes I sell the beginning parsnips seeds because I don't plant anything

Clint would also be on the boil room and not do his job

considering the 5k start price the bus costs 2500 more

you forgot to mention that you wont be able to get the junimo statue to respawn every year behind the cc

Joja is Nestlé, and you feel it left and right.