Stardew Valley/Mining

Mining
Most of the tools you start the game with can be upgraded into more effective versions, which chop down trees or break rocks with fewer hits, or where you can long-click to water or hoe a larger area. This will help you get your farm moving faster, but you need the right metal. And many of the items you’d like to craft in order to build up your farm - like sprinklers, tappers and kegs - require metal. Until you are filthy rich, the way of getting this is to go Mining. Which also means Combat, although Combat is very simple in this game.

It’s possible to bypass the use of the Mining and Combat Skills by buying coal and ores from Clint the blacksmith. You would still have to put these through a furnace yourself, and you can’t get Iridium from Clint. And you’d probably be buying a lot of stone from Robin. And you won’t get the monster drops that are needed for the Community Centre - though Joja-Corp will be happy just with your money … seriously? Go mining!

You can’t get to the mines until the 5th of Spring, Year 1, when you will receive a letter saying that Joja-corp has cleared the path to the mines. When you do go to the mines for the first time an adventurer named Marlon will give you a Rusty Sword. This will suffice for combatting your first few slimes, but you’ll be given better weapons as you advance.

Rainy days are particularly good to go mining as you have not exhausted yourself watering plants.

You will be using your pickaxe to break rocks. Take food with you as even a full day’s energy doesn’t last long when you’re breaking rocks in the mines; it also restores your health after fighting with the monsters. In the early levels your energy is the main limitation, but as you get deeper the bigger risk is likely to be the monsters chewing through your health bar, in which case you want to eat something to top it up after every fight. Berries and mushrooms or high-energy crops like Kale and Hops are good for this but any food will do.

If the screen goes “glowy” then you’re going to come under attack by several air creatures, which is a good time to either eat to refill your health bar, or run for the ladder. Or just get ready with your sword.

If the monsters manage to ‘kill’ you then you will wake up at the top of the mines with minimal health, some items missing from your backpack, and having forgotten some levels of the mine. Effectively it sets you back one or two days worth of mining exploration.

If the missing items include your weapon, you can buy others from the adventurer’s guild. The Wooden Sword (250gp) is better than the Rusty Sword. If you haven’t even won access to the Adventurer’s Guild, you may be stuck beating on the enemies with your pickaxe or other tools; this does minimal damage but will eventually net you your 10 slimes.

Every 5th level in the mine, there is an elevator door, but the elevator will only take you to floors you have already visited. So your goal is usually to take the elevator down to the lowest floor it will take you to, and then get down another 5 floors during this visit. This means that if you uncover a stairway down, you may take a short look around for any particularly attractive rocks, but you probably don’t want to explore the full level. Staircases are more readily found on good fortune days - did you check the forecast on the TV?

You will not always succeed in finding a new elevator door - if you can’t get down far enough before you run out of time, food, or health. If you’re tantalisingly close (and have Mining Level 2), you can turn 99 stone into a staircase, which you can place to create a way down one level - however, stone is useful for a lot of other things, and this tactic should be used sparingly, at least until you have access to the Skull Cavern.

Some levels have a spiral configuration, and if you work your way right into the centre on your first visit you will find several crates in the centre.

Earth Crystals are found on levels 1-29. Copper is found most in levels 1-39; Iron is common from level 41-79, and Gold ore is found below that. Most levels are well lit but levels 31-39 are dark. The Mines go down to level 120 - at which point you gain a key to the Skull Cavern.

You will find when you go deeper that your pickaxe takes two or even three hits to break many rocks instead of 1. (Obviously ore-bearing rocks and big rocks always take more.) This problem usually goes away when you get Clint to upgrade your pickaxe using some of the ores that are common at this deeper level. This isn’t an issue in the first few levels, so going from the Copper levels (1 hit with a basic pickaxe) to the Iron levels (3 hits) is rather a shock. But a Copper pickaxe will break the frozen rocks with 2 hits … start upgrading! It’s much faster getting around the mines when your pickaxe will break the rocks in one hit. The Steel pickaxe will also let you clear large boulders from your farm. (If you’re lucky enough to have a Meteorite land on your farm, you’ll need a Gold pickaxe to clear it.)

Initially the fastest route to and from the mines is via the Backwoods path - north exit from your farm. This takes a bit over an hour. Once you have achieved the Minecarts Repair, via Community Centre or Joja-Corp purchase, you can get there and back a bit faster using the Minecarts to the Bus Stop. By contrast, routes through town take around 2 hours, and you want to allow this much time for your homeward trip until you’re sure of your navigation. So an early character wants to be in bed by midnight and should be leaving the mines around 10pm, but a well developed character wants to be in bed by 2am and can delay leaving the mines until 1am.