Summary
Mining is one ofStardew Valley’s most addictive skills, with better rewards the deeper players venture. While some loot items are very valuable outside the mine, there are also many which can be used immediately to improve luck, health, energy, and speed. Not only that, items looted from the mine can craft lucrative and helpful items like the Mayonnaise Machine or the Galaxy Sword.
This article details some of the most useful drops available from monsters, which monsters drop them, and how best they can be used by players inStardew Valley.
9Bat Wing
A Useful Crafting Item
This common drop is not the most useful of all, but it does have one great crafting purpose: it can be used to make Lightning Rods, an invaluable tool that turns lightning into Battery Packs. The Lightning Rod is helpful for completing the Mr. Qi challenges further into the game.
Bat wings unsurprisingly emerge after the player kills any kind of bat. They can also be purchased fromKrobus in the sewers on Sundays. Sadly, you shouldn’t gift this item, as all villagers hate it.
8Slime
Surprisingly Versatile Uses
Although a relatively rudimentary bit of monster loot, slime is not to be sneered at. It features in great crafting recipes, like the Slime Incubator, the Oil Maker, the Cork Bobber, and Wild Bait. All of these are useful for developing other skills inStardew, like fishing, farming, and producing artisan goods. Slimes are also an ingredient in Slime Eggs, which can be used to develop aSlime farm.
Slime is dropped by all types of Slimes inStardew Valley, and it can also be purchased from Krobus on Mondays down in the sewers.
7Bug Meat
Useful For Mining And Fishing
Bug Meat doesn’t sound great. It’s super helpful though, so store it away and use it forcrafting different types of baitand the questionable-sounding Bug Steak — the carry-along snack of desperate miners. In the game, purchasing meals can be expensive, especially at the Stardrop Saloon, while crafting Bug Steaks means a cheap and replenishing food source that can keep mining sessions going a lot longer. What’s more, players can craft Bug Steaks on the go, from their freshly looted Bug Meat stash.
Bug Meat can be looted from all insects, including Bugs and Grubs.
6Solar Essence
A Gift For The Wizard
Solar Essence is dropped by all sorts of mine monsters, from Ghosts and Metal Heads to Squid Kids and Mummies. They have some great crafting uses, including the Glowstone Ring and Mega Bombs. The latter is great for getting out of sticky situations on tricky floors of the mine — just get out the way of it first!
5Void Essence
An Ingredient In Mega Bombs
This mysterious loot item comes from a few different mine sources: Shadow Brutes, Shadow Shamans and Haunted Skulls. In the Skull Cavern, they can be found after defeating Serpents too.
Krobus also sells 10 of these a day for 100g each. Void Essence is another integral ingredient in Mega Bombs, and like Solar Essence, they also make a good gift for the Wizard (if players wish tobefriend him).
4Earth Crystal
For Crafting The Mayonnaise Machine
Thisuseful mineralis dropped by only two monsters: Duggies and Haunted Skulls. Duggies are the creatures lurking in the soil sections of the mine, and the Earth Crystal isn’t the only great loot they drop.
An Earth Crystal is necessary forcrafting the Mayonnaise Machine, a lucrative bit of farming machinery that lots of players use in bulk. For each Mayonnaise Machine players wish to craft, they’ll need 1 Earth Crystal, alongside some other more common goods (wood, stone, and a copper bar).
3Strange Bun
A Rare & Helpful Snack On The Go
This relatively rare drop is made by Shadow Brutes and Spiders, and it’s another really useful item to find in the depths of the mines. A single bun offers +100 energy and +45 health — pretty good for free loot. It’s also worth quite a lot more than other loot items, pricing in at 225g.
Alternatively, the recipe for a Strange Bun can begiven to the player by Shane, when +7 friendship has been achieved.
2Spicy Eel
A Meal Full Of Perks
Spicy Eel is an intriguing dish dropped by Serpents in the Skull Cavern. While the Serpent is a formidable opponent and the cause of much stress when venturing into the Skull Cavern, this is one of their many great drops, and a fairly common one.
Spicy Eel offers +115 energy and +51 health, plus luck and speed buffs for the player. This is another drop that’s great for consumption while in the mine, improving a player’s chances of survival — and of discovering great loot. Players can also gift this item to Abigail to gain +80 friendship points, and if they befriendgrumpy villager George, he’ll provide the recipe too.
1Prismatic Shard
Super Rare & Super Useful
One of the rarest items inStardew Valley, the Prismatic Shard has loads of brilliant uses that benefit the player enormously. There arequite a few ways a player might find Prismatic Shards, including monster drops. They can be dropped by Serpents and Mummies (0.1%) and by Shadow Brutes and Shadow Shaman (0.05%).
What to do with the Prismatic Shard? Players should first use it in the desert to obtain the Galaxy Sword,one of the best weapons in the game, which makes defense in the mine a lot easier.
