Mining in Stardew Valley is one long progression across four places, and most frustration comes from doing them out of order or going in unprepared. The Mines teach you the basics and supply copper, iron and gold. The Skull Cavern is where iridium and the real money are. The Quarry Mine and the Volcano Dungeon are side areas you open later.
What to do at each stage
| Stage | Where | Main goal | Bring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spring, year 1 | Mines floors 1-39 | Copper ore, first weapon upgrades, reach floor 40 | Food that heals, a pickaxe upgrade as soon as you can afford it |
| Summer-Fall, year 1 | Mines floors 41-79 | Iron ore, Aquamarine and Jade, reach floor 80 | Better sword from the Guild, Cherry Bombs |
| Fall-Winter, year 1 | Mines floors 81-120 | Gold ore, the floor 100 Stardrop, the Skull Key at 120 | A 20+ damage weapon, plenty of healing food |
| After the Skull Key | Skull Cavern | Iridium ore, Prismatic Shards, floor 100 | Luck food, a speed drink, bombs, staircases |
| After the Community Center | Quarry Mine, Volcano Dungeon | Skull Cavern-type drops; the Forge on Volcano floor 10 | Your best weapon, a watering can for the Volcano |
The Mines open on Spring 5 of year 1, after Morris's letter about the cleared landslide. Every multiple of 5 is an elevator floor, so a day in the Mines only has to end on a 5 to be saved. Push to the next one before you go home.
The Mines floor by floor
The 120 floors are three 40-floor sections with their own look, ore and monsters. The ore start floors below are what decide where you farm.
| Floors | Ores and gems that start appearing | Monsters |
|---|---|---|
| 1-39 (brown earth) | Copper Ore from floor 2 | Green Slimes, Duggies, Bugs, Rock Crabs; Grubs and Cave Flies from 11; Bats and Stone Golems on 31-39 |
| 41-79 (frozen) | Iron Ore, Frozen Geodes, Aquamarine, Jade from 41 | Frost Jellies, Frost Bats, Dust Sprites; Ghosts from 51; Skeletons on 71-79 |
| 81-119 (lava) | Gold Ore, Magma Geodes, Emerald, Ruby, Fire Quartz from 81; Mystic Stones from 101 | Red Sludge, Lava Bats, Lava Crabs, Shadow Brutes, Shadow Shamans, Metal Heads; Squid Kids from 91 |
Where to farm each ore: copper on any floor below 40, iron on the floors you can clear comfortably between 41 and 79, gold from 81 down. Because you can only return to multiples of 5, pick the elevator floor just inside the band you need (40 for iron, 80 for gold).
Reward floors
Floors that are multiples of 10 have no monsters and usually a single chest. The defaults are:
| Floor | Chest | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Leather Boots | First defence boost |
| 20 | Steel Smallsword | A free upgrade over the Rusty Sword |
| 30 | No reward | Just an elevator stop |
| 40 | Slingshot | Ranged option for flying enemies |
| 50 | Tundra Boots | Better boots |
| 60 | Crystal Dagger | Fast dagger |
| 70 | Master Slingshot | Stronger slingshot |
| 80 | Firewalker Boots | Boots for the lava section |
| 90 | Obsidian Edge | A strong free sword for the last 30 floors |
| 100 | Stardrop | Permanently raises maximum energy |
| 110 | Space Boots | Best boots in the Mines |
| 120 | Skull Key | Opens the Skull Cavern (and the Junimo Kart arcade game) |
If you chose remixed mine rewards when creating the save, floors 10, 20, 50, 60, 80 and 90 give a random item from a pool instead; floors 30, 40, 70 and 120 stay the same.
How ladders appear
Each floor has a 95% chance to try to spawn a ladder when it loads. Breaking a rock has a small base chance (2%) of revealing one, which daily luck and luck buffs push up, and every monster you kill has a 15% chance to drop a ladder. So on a floor with few rocks, fighting is the faster way down.
Two floor types change the rules:
- Infested floors (full of slimes or mixed monsters) only give a ladder once every monster is dead. They never appear on elevator floors or floors 1-5, and the Oil of Garlic buff prevents them.
- Mushroom floors (81-119, 3.5% chance) have few rocks but many red and purple mushrooms — worth picking up.
Just inside the Mines entrance, a passage to the east is blocked by a rock you cannot break at first. A Steel Pickaxe or any bomb clears it; the Dwarf behind it runs a shop.
Best weapons at each stage
Weapons in Stardew Valley come from three places: the fixed chests above, the Adventurer's Guild (Marlon's shop next to the Mines), whose stock grows with the deepest floor you have reached, and later the Desert and the Forge.
| Stage | Weapon | Damage | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | Rusty Sword | 2-5 | Given at the Mines entrance; 250g at the Guild |
| Floor 20 | Steel Smallsword | 4-8 | Floor 20 chest (750g at the Guild) |
| Floor 25 | Cutlass | 9-17 | Guild, 1,500g |
| Floor 45 | Claymore | 20-32 | Guild, 2,000g (slow, heavy knockback) |
| Floor 75 | Bone Sword | 20-30 | Guild, 6,000g (fast) |
| Floor 90 | Obsidian Edge | 30-45 | Floor 90 chest (9,000g at the Guild) |
| Floor 120 | Lava Katana | 55-64 | Guild, 25,000g after reaching the bottom |
| Prismatic Shard | Galaxy Sword | 60-80 | Three Pillars in the Calico Desert |
| Forge | Infinity Blade | 80-100 | Galaxy Sword + 3 Galaxy Souls + 60 Cinder Shards |
The practical route: take the floor 20 chest sword, buy the Cutlass as soon as floor 25 opens it, then either the Claymore (more damage, slower) or wait for the free Obsidian Edge at 90. Spending 25,000g on the Lava Katana is only worth it if you do not have a Prismatic Shard yet — the Galaxy Sword is stronger and costs only the shard.
Weapon types
- Swords — the all-rounders. The special move (right click) is a block that negates damage and knocks back flying enemies.
- Daggers — the fastest, but they only hit the tile in front of you. The special is a flurry of stabs.
- Clubs (hammers) — slow and wide. The special slams the ground for area damage, useful against groups of slimes.
- Slingshots — ranged; damage depends on the ammo (stone, ore, explosive ammo). Good for picking off flying enemies, weaker as a main weapon.
For most players, a sword is the right main weapon all game. The Galaxy Sword also unlocks the Galaxy Dagger (35,000g) and Galaxy Hammer (75,000g) at the Guild if you prefer those types.
Rings worth wearing
You can wear two rings, and at the Forge you can combine two different rings into one (20 Cinder Shards), so the endgame limit is four effects.
| Ring | Effect | How to get |
|---|---|---|
| Ruby Ring | Attack +10% | Guild, 5,000g after floor 80 |
| Aquamarine / Jade Ring | Crit chance +10% / crit power +10% | Guild, 2,500g each after floor 40 |
| Vampire Ring | Restores 2 health per kill | Kill 200 bats (Guild eradication goal) |
| Napalm Ring | Defeated enemies explode | Kill 250 Serpents |
| Burglar's Ring | Monsters roll their drop table twice | Kill 500 Dust Sprites |
| Crabshell Ring | Defence +5 | Kill 60 Rock Crabs |
| Ring of Yoba | Chance of a damage shield after being hit | Craft at Combat 7: 5 Iron Bars, 5 Gold Bars, 1 Diamond |
| Iridium Band | Glow, item magnet and attack +10% | Craft at Combat 9: 5 Iridium Bars, 50 Solar Essence, 50 Void Essence |
Early on, the Vampire Ring is the most useful because healing on kill saves food. For Skull Cavern runs, the Burglar's Ring raises loot and the Iridium Band replaces a light ring and a magnet ring while adding damage. The Phoenix Ring (Volcano Dungeon chests) restores you to 50% health once a day after being knocked out — a safety net for deep runs.
The Skull Cavern
The Skull Cavern is behind a locked door in the northwest corner of the Calico Desert. You need the Skull Key from Mines floor 120 and access to the desert: repair the bus through the Vault bundles (or 40,000g through Joja), then ride Pam's bus for 500g. She arrives at the Bus Stop at 10:00am.
How it differs from the Mines:
- No elevator. Every visit starts at floor 1. The ladder at the start of each floor takes you out.
- Shafts. When breaking a rock reveals a way down, 20% of the time it is a shaft instead of a ladder. A shaft drops you 3-9 floors (occasionally 11, 13 or 15), and the fall costs health equal to three times the floors skipped (it never takes you below 1 HP).
- Iridium ore becomes more common the deeper you go, rising quickly between floors 10 and 100. This is why depth, not time spent per floor, decides a run.
- Time runs slower. An in-game hour lasts 54 seconds here instead of 43, so you get about 25% more real time per hour.
- Passing out at 2:00am costs 1,000g or 10% of your money, whichever is less.
How to prepare a run
-
1
Leave as early as possible
A Desert Warp Totem (or the Desert Obelisk) gets you to the desert about four hours before Pam's bus. Every hour matters because depth is what pays.
-
2
Eat a luck food and drink a speed drink
Only one food buff and one drink buff can be active at a time. Good pairs: Lucky Lunch (+3 luck) or Spicy Eel (+1 luck, +1 speed) with Coffee or Triple Shot Espresso (+1 speed). Magic Rock Candy gives +5 luck and +1 speed.
-
3
Carry bombs
Cherry Bombs (Mining 1: 4 copper ore + 1 coal, 3-tile radius), Bombs (Mining 6: 4 iron ore + 1 coal, 5-tile radius), Mega Bombs (Mining 8: 4 gold ore + 1 solar + 1 void essence). One bomb into a rock cluster finds a ladder faster than swinging a pickaxe.
-
4
Carry staircases
Crafted at Mining 2 from 99 stone each, and they stack to 999. Place one when a floor has no obvious way down. Stone is the one thing you collect anyway, so turn it into staircases between runs.
-
5
Descend, don't clear
Kill only what blocks you or what you need for a quest. Eat healing food early instead of at the last moment — Serpents fly at you fast and hit hard.
Why the luck food matters more than the fortune
The chance of a treasure room on a floor is 0.01 + daily luck / 10 + luck buffs / 100. Daily luck ranges from -0.1 to 0.1, so the best possible TV fortune adds only 1 percentage point. A Lucky Lunch (+3) adds 3 points and Magic Rock Candy (+5) adds 5. Check the fortune if you like, but the food is what moves the number. Treasure rooms are worth it: each has about a 1 in 26 chance of holding a Prismatic Shard, and floor 100 always has a chest.
Luck also raises the chance of ladders from rocks, so on a bad-luck day a luck food partly cancels the penalty.
Which floors to aim for
- Floor 25 — completes Mr. Qi's "Qi's Challenge" (10,000g). A good first goal.
- Floor 50+ — iridium ore is regular enough to be worth the trip.
- Floor 100 — a guaranteed treasure chest, and the target for Qi's Walnut Room special orders later (one asks for it without eating food, another in dangerous mode).
The enemies to respect
- Serpents (150 HP, 23 damage at base) appear on every floor and fly straight at you. Block with a sword or strike first.
- Mummies (260 HP, 30 damage) appear on Egyptian-tomb floors. A normal kill only knocks them down; they get back up at full health after about 10 seconds. Finish them with a bomb (a Cherry Bomb is enough), or use a weapon with the Crusader enchantment or the Holy Blade, which kill them permanently.
- Pepper Rex live on rare prehistoric floors (around a 2.2% chance per floor from floor 7 down).
Quarry Mine and Volcano Dungeon
Quarry Mine. Unlock the Quarry by finishing the Crafts Room bundles (or buying the bridge from Joja for 25,000g), then enter the cave on its left edge. It is one long floor with Haunted Skulls and Copper and Iron Slimes, and its monsters, crates and barrels can drop the same special items as the Skull Cavern. It resets at the end of the day, not when you leave, so it is a once-a-day detour. The statue at the end gives the Golden Scythe. Staircases do not work here.
Volcano Dungeon. On Ginger Island, which opens after the Community Center (or Joja) is done and Willy's boat is repaired with 200 Hardwood, 5 Iridium Bars and 5 Battery Packs (tickets 1,000g). You reach the volcano through Island North (opened from Leo's hut) and need a watering can to cool lava paths. It has ten floors: a Dwarf shop on floor 5 and the Forge on floor 10. Floors are stocked once per day — leaving and re-entering does not respawn them. The Forge is where you:
- enchant a weapon (1 Prismatic Shard + 20 Cinder Shards) — e.g. Crusader for mummies, Vampiric for healing, Artful for faster special moves;
- combine two different rings (20 Cinder Shards);
- turn a Galaxy weapon into an Infinity weapon (3 Galaxy Souls + 60 Cinder Shards). Galaxy Souls cost 40 Qi Gems each in Qi's Walnut Room.
The Volcano's chests also hold the Dwarf Sword and Dragontooth Cutlass, plus the Phoenix and Soul Sapper rings.
Common mistakes
- Ending the day on floor 34. Progress is only saved at multiples of 5. Five more floors before you leave saves you repeating them tomorrow.
- Going into the 80s with a 9-17 damage sword. The lava section's Shadow Brutes and Metal Heads take a long time to kill with a Cutlass. Buy the Claymore or Bone Sword first, or push to the floor 90 Obsidian Edge.
- Selling every stone. Staircases need 99 stone each. A stack of 10-20 staircases turns a bad Skull Cavern floor into a free one.
- Entering the Skull Cavern at 4pm. Without a warp totem you arrive after 10am anyway; spending the morning on the farm and leaving at noon leaves very little time for depth.
- Treating mummies like normal enemies. If they keep getting up, you are not using a bomb or Crusader.
- Only checking the TV fortune. As shown above, a luck food adds more to treasure rooms than the best fortune does.
Combat levels also add health: each combat level gives +5 HP, except levels 5 and 10, where you pick a profession instead. Which combat profession to take for the Skull Cavern is covered in Skills and Professions. To turn iridium and gems into money, see the Money Making Guide; the Crafts Room and Vault bundles that open the Quarry and the bus are in the Community Center Guide, and how to fit mine days into your first year is in the Beginner Guide.
★Honest Take: the Mines are a chore, the Skull Cavern is the game
The first 120 floors are the least interesting part of Stardew Valley's combat. Fights are simple, the layouts repeat, and the main question each day is whether you can reach the next elevator before you run out of food. They are worth doing early mainly because the rewards — the floor 100 Stardrop, the Skull Key, iron and gold for tool upgrades — gate so much of the rest of the game.
The Skull Cavern is different. A good run is planned: the right food, a stack of staircases, bombs, an early start. When that comes together, it is the most exciting thing the game offers and the best source of iridium. When it does not, it is a punishing way to lose a day. The weakness is that preparation matters far more than skill, so players who skip it often conclude the cavern is "too hard" when it is really under-supplied.
