Stardew Valley: Pro Tips For Farming Iridium | Game Rant
Stardew Valley is beloved for many reasons. One of those reasons is the opportunity that the game gives the player to accomplish great tasks through meaningful work. You farm, you mine, you fish, and you live life in this simulator while having great fun all along the way. Players also have the opportunity to craft and upgrade items using the skills, knowledge, and materials that they collect along the way.
Iridium is one of the most valuable crafting materials in Stardew Valley. It is necessary for upgrading your tools fully and for making extremely useful items such as the Iridium Band or Iridium Sprinklers. Let's take a look at where to find Iridium and discuss a few pro tips to doing it efficiently.
Skull Cavern is the primary place where you're going to find Iridium Ore. Every 10 floors, the rate at which Iridium Nodes spawn goes up, making reaching the later floors of the cavern more than worth the time. Skull Cavern is deadly, however, and without the proper means of survival, you might end up dying there without the opportunity to save progress first. So, let's go over the best ways of going deep into Skull Cavern.
Traversing Skull Cavern does not require the use of the Watering Can, Hoe, Scythe, Axe, or Fishing Rod. Just bring your Pickaxe and your weapon of choice.
The Infinity Gavel is the best weapon in the game, with the Galaxy Hammer being right behind it. These weapons are not only useful for their strength but also their "special" action when pressing the Space Bar. Due to them being categorized as a club, the hammers will pound the ground when the Space Bar is pressed, causing any nearby enemies to be sent flying, giving you some breathing room. However, these weapons are not easy to obtain. You need a Prismatic Shard to even have access to either of these, and those are incredibly rare outside of Skull Cavern.
If you don't have access to the hammers, then the Obsidian Edge obtained from floor 90 of the regular mines is your next best option. While not as strong as the hammers, it does get the job done.
The Space Boots found on floor 110 of the regular mines will probably be the best shoes you have at this point in the game unless you have access to Ginger Island, where the Cinderclown Shoes found in the Volcano Dungeon Shop are better.
The Iridium Band and Burglar's Ring are both extremely useful, though the Iridium Band is expensive to make, and the Burglar's Ring requires you to kill 500 Dust Sprites. The Crabshell Ring gives great defense at +5 points, and its goal isn't too bad, as you only need to kill 60 Rock Crabs/Lava Crabs/Iridium Crabs.
If you have access to the Forge on Ginger Island, combing the Slime Charmer's Ring with an Iridium Band is incredible, as you not only get the effects of the Iridium Band but also complete immunity to any and all slime enemies.
Using specific kinds of food can give you a huge advantage during deep Skull Cavern runs. Salad is the most cost-effective food for general healing, as it only costs 220 gold, and it's also easily accessible, being sold in the Stardrop Saloon daily. Stock up on around 300-500 Salads.
Don't forget to bring along some "big" healing items for bringing your health up in a pinch. Purple Mushrooms and Magma Caps the most recommended items for this, although Energy Tonics from Harvey's Clinic are also useful. I'd only bring 10-20 of these.
Since you're timed by how long the day in Skull Cavern, Coffee and Triple Shot Espresso are extremely useful in allowing you to move faster, cutting down the time it takes to navigate each floor. Bring 300-500 of these.
Banana Pudding and Spicy Eels both give you an increase in your Luck stat, making ladders and shafts spawn more often, so it's best to have these as well. You only need about 10 of either, as they have long-timers and don't need to be refreshed much.
The key to everything in Stardew Valley is preparation. It's best to enter Skull Cavern on a "best" luck day, as told by Welwick's Oracle TV channel. "The spirits are very happy today!" is the message you're looking for.
Buy a lot of Bombs from the Dwarf to the left of the floor of the main mine, as there are a lot of rocks in Skull Cavern you need to destroy, and Bombs are the most efficient way to do so. Buy around 250-300 or more, and make sure they're *regular* Bombs, as Cherry Bombs are a bit too small, and while the Mega Bombs are useful, it's really easy to get caught in their blast range. It's also best to eat a healing item before the bomb actually detonates, to keep your health in good condition.
If you want to maximize your time in Skull Cavern as much as possible, it might be in your interest to get a few Desert Warp Totems or the Desert Obelisk, although these both require Iridium, so these might be considerations for later.
Having a lot of Stones is something to consider, as 99 of them make a single staircase, which is very valuable in skipping floors full of monsters, "spiral" shaped floors, and floors you just don't want to deal with. Bringing a full stack of Stones (999) is recommended.
You'll also want to keep your toolbar organized. If you have the Return Scepter or a Warp Totem of any kind, *do not* have them in your toolbar, to make sure you don't accidentally use them. Your toolbar should look something like this:
Bombs, Weapon, Pickaxe, Salad, Big healing item, Stones/Staircases, Speed Boosting Food, Luck Boosting Food
The enemies you find in Skull Cavern are similar to the ones found in the later floors of the regular mine, although there are 3 I want to highlight.
Mummies: These can *only* be killed by knocking them down and then using a Bomb on them, so keep this in mind.
Slimes: The "Slimed" status effect can be devastating, as it makes you move incredibly slowly for 3 seconds.
Serpents: These are by far the deadliest enemy in Skull Cavern. They're green dragon-like creatures that fly. They move extremely fast, hit hard, take multiple hits to kill, and several of them can spawn at once. You can hear when one is about to spawn when you hear the specific sound effect (it sounds like a bit-crushed "takeoff" noise). The best way to deal with them is to let them come to you, take a swing at them, then repeat. Although this can get extremely hectic as the run goes on.
You can open your inventory to pause the game and give you some time to think, although this only works in Single Player.
To summarize this strategy, you want to use your Speed and Luck increasing foods either before or on the 1st floor, and refresh them whenever they run out, using Bombs and your Pickaxe to take out the rocks and find either ladders or shafts (shafts are preferable), making sure you eat food before the Bombs detonate to keep your health up, use Staircases to avoid floors you don't want to bother with, use a "big" healing item when you're very low on health if you need an instant full recovery, pause the game when you need to, and most importantly, do all of this while watching your health bar like a hawk, as death is the #1 thing you want to avoid here.
The Statue of Perfection and Statue of Endless Fortune are great ways to receive Iridium passively after they're obtained.
The Statue of Endless Fortune can be bought at the Casino from a shady dealer for 1 million gold. Yes, it is extremely expensive, but it's worth the price, as every single day it spawns either a Gold Bar, an Omni Geode, a Diamond, a loved gift if it's someone's birthday, or (most importantly) an Iridium Bar, making it one of the best ways to get Iridium Bars. It's also worth noting that you are not limited to just one of these statues, you can buy as many as you want, provided you have the gold for it.
The Statue of Perfection is obtained from passing Grandpa's Evaluation from year 3 onwards.
Starting from year 3, you can put a Diamond on Grandpa's Shrine in the corner of your farm and he will evaluate your progress. He will give you points for accomplishing major feats in the game and when you have 12 or more points, you can then check his shrine the next day for the statue.
The easiest points to obtain are the following:
- Earn a million gold in lifetime earnings (7 points)- Reach level 10 in every skill (2 points)- Get married and own a house that has been upgraded twice (1 point)- Have a relationship of 8+ hearts with at least 5 villagers (1 point)- Make your dog/cat love you (Pet them every day until you get the "[pet name] loves you!" message. (1 point)- Donate at least 60 artifacts to the museum (1 point)- Finish the regular mines (1 point)
Once you have the Statue of Perfection, it will produce 2-8 pieces of Iridium Ore *daily*, making the best way to get Iridium with the lowest amount of effort.
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