Stardew Valley: How to Farm Iridium
We'll show you all the ways you can get Iridium ore and bars for your farm as fast as possible.
One of Stardew Valley's most prized resources, Iridium is a valuable metal that can be adapted into some of the game's best items. In this guide, we'll show you how to get iridium ore and iridium bars as quickly as possible, at least without hacking the game.
How to Farm Iridium
Farming Iridium isn't really possible in the early game, not without huge amounts of money and resources. However, there are ways to procure it fairly fast by going through the lower levels of the mines, though this is a dangerous and time-consuming practice. Still, we'll go over the basics of what you'll need here:
- Play the game until you unlock the Mines (Day 5 of Spring on Year 1).
- Raise your Mining Level as high as possible. Once you've reached level 5, pick the Geologist skill. If you've reached level 10, pick Excavator.
- Bring as much food and as many bombs as you can carry, as well as a good weapon and pickaxe.
- Go to the Mines as early as possible and get to floor 115. Don't bother dealing with enemies if you don't have to, instead destroy every rock around you with bombs, then a pickaxe when you run out. Collect all the Geodes and Omni Geodes, then repeat this process until floor 119.
- Take them all to the blacksmith so he can crack them open. You'll probably get a lot of money from the gemstones inside, but there's also a good chance at least some of them will have iridium in them.
How to Get Iridium Without Going into the Mines
If venturing into dangerous areas isn't your thing, there are other ways to procure iridium, though none that are quite as efficient.
- Iridium ore in the Skull Cavern in the Desert becomes more common the deeper you go. It should become a regular drop around level 70.
- Purple Slimes, Bats and Crabs have a chance to drop Iridium when killed. You can find all of these in the Skull Cavern.
- After you complete the Crafts Room in the Community Center, the Quarry will unlock East of the Mines. There's a chance to find small amounts of Iridium here.
- If you can get a Fish Pond and put Super Cucumbers in it, it'll start to generate Iridium every few days.
- The Travelling Cart will occasionally sell it.
- If you have a lot of money to burn, you can go to the desert and speak to Sandy, who will sell you Omni Geodes, which you can take the Blacksmith to see if they have iridium in.
- The Statue of Perfection grants you 2-8 Iridium ore everyday. You can unlock it by being evaluated by Grandpa's Shrine and getting a good result, then interacting with the shrine itself.
What Does "An Explosion Was Heard in the Night" Mean?
If you get the message "An explosion was heard in the night..." it means a meteorite has landed on your farm. Find it and break it open with a gold pickaxe or better to get some iridium ore, stones and Geodes.
How to Craft Iridium Bars
Most items you'll craft with Iridium as a component need Iridium bars rather than Iridium ore. If you have ore, you'll need a furnace, which you can build that in the crafting menu. Place five iridium ore and one piece of coal inside, and after eight in-game hours, you'll be able to retrieve one iridium bar from it.
What Should I Use Iridium For?
Iridium is used as a high-tier metal for most of the game's best or most valuable items, but some of the items its used for are better than others. Iridium is used to make all the final upgrades for your tools, as well as the Iridium Sprinkler, which can water 24 tiles automatically. We'd also suggest building a Crystalarium early, a device that can make copies of any gem you put inside it. It's useful for crafting resources and for making money in the background.
If that was helpful to you, why not look at some of our other Stardew Valley guides? We've got the secret to catching every fish, even the legendary ones, at our page here. Or follow this link to find out the easiest way to romance any NPC in the game.