Stardew Valley: Iridium Tools
I’ve been burning out on Stardew Valley lately and am nearing the endgame now so that means attempting to obtain the top tier tools. After upgrading a tool to gold tier, you will unlock the option to upgrade to ‘Iridium’ level. The upgrade costs 5 Iridium bars and 25,000 gold at the blacksmith. The problem is that Iridium is incredibly rare. I’ve managed to snag all the tools fully upgraded and hope to help you accomplish this as well.
FeelsGoodMan
Option 1:
1. Take the Excavator Perk
The leveling system in this game allows for certain specializations. When you reach level 10 in mining you are given a choice between Excavator or Gemologist. Excavator increases the chance of finding geodes. The perk greatly speeds up the grinding process, as Iridium is found most commonly within lower level(100+) mine geodes(I omitted meteorites, because it’s not really a farmable process).
2. Focus on Cash Crops
The Iridium farming method I utilize is a bit cash intensive. Now this won’t be the case for people with abundant amounts of iron ore + coal, but basically you want enough cash to buy as much iron ore and coal from the blacksmith as possible. These materials are needed for bombs. In terms of crops I focused on berries because they can be planted once, but yield multiple harvests. How you go about this is up to you.
3. Bomb Mine Levels 100 and Up(repeat)
Basically what you want to do is bomb every rock on each floor. More rocks, equals more geodes which equals more chances at Iridium ore. Once you have collected lots of geodes, hit up the blacksmith and have him break them open. I was too lazy to test how much luck impacts Iridium drops, but from what I experienced they appear to come in clusters of 1,3 or 6. Check the video below for an idea of the process.
Option 2:
1.Buy Omni Geodes in the Desert.
The market in the desert(unlocked after fixing the bus) sells unlimited Omni Geodes for 1000 gold on Weds. Buying as much as you can and having the blacksmith crack them open is another farming option. This is less grindy, but I have had way less luck with Omni’s yielding any really solid amount of Iridium Ore.
Basically with everything in this game it comes down to grinding it out. Once you do, you will find yourself as the proud new owner of highest level tools!
Enjoy Your Tools!
If you want to see these top level tools in action check the videos below. Thanks for reading!
Check out more Stardew Valley walkthroughs
Know an easier way? Let me know in the pit below.
As to grinding…. First buy a crapton of stones (some thousands) and bombs (about a hundered should be enough) and a truck of food, then travel to the desert and go to Skeletal caves. You do not even need to bring tools/weapon. Craft stairs until you reach level 100, then bomb the living hell out of that place and scavenge the loot (do not forget to eat often, as you WILL get hurt a lot). Depending on your speed and skill, you should earn 300-1000 iridium ore per day of doing this, so about 2 days this should see you with more iridium than you will ever need. Well, the initial cost for stones and bombs can be quite high, but who really cares about money with full greenhouse of ancient plants and kegs 😀
If only you knew this much about getting women…
… You’ll thank me when you need to chop a tree down in two swings
Women? Is that some kind of exotic crop? Are they even good for anything?
Haha. Do the sell for a lot of gold?
Nerd…