Stardew Valley: Mastering Enchantments and Weapon Forging

At the end of Ginger Island's Volcano Dungeon, players can discover a unique forge that offers magical enhancements for tools and weapons. This Volcano Forge is a game-changer, allowing players to boost their gear using valuable gemstones and crystals. While the process might seem daunting at first, it's actually quite straightforward once you grasp the effects you can apply. This guide will walk you through each possible enhancement, helping you decide which upgrades will best enhance your Stardew Valley experience.

Updated January 6, 2025, by Demaris Oxman: With Stardew Valley's 1.6 update, the game has evolved significantly, introducing new features like the Mastery system and enhancing existing elements, including weapon forging. Now, players can enchant the Pan along with their other tools and explore innate enchantments for weapons. This guide has been updated to reflect these changes, ensuring you can optimize your tools and weapons to suit your playstyle.

Obtaining Cinder Shards

All functions of the Volcano Forge require Cinder Shards, which can be found throughout the Volcano Dungeon. To enchant and fully forge a tool or weapon, you'll need at least 65 Cinder Shards per item, so prepare to spend some time gathering these mysterious crystals. Here are the methods to obtain them:

• Mine a Cinder Shard node in the Volcano Dungeon. These nodes resemble other mineral nodes but with pink-orange specks, as seen circled in the image above.
• Collect them as drops from certain enemies in the Volcano Dungeon. Each of the following enemies has a specific chance of dropping Cinder Shards:
  • Magma Sprite: 50% chance to drop
  • Magma Duggy: 40% chance
  • Magma Sparker: 50% chance
  • False Magma Cap: 50% chance to drop
• Harvest them from a fishing pond with 7 or more Stingrays. The pond may produce 2-5 Cinder Shards, with a 7-9% daily chance to occur.

Note that Cinder Shards are classified as a resource, not a gemstone, so they cannot be replicated in the Crystalarium.

The Mini-Forge

With the introduction of Combat Mastery in the 1.6 update, players can now craft a Mini-Forge, which functions identically to the Volcano Forge but can be placed anywhere on your farm. To craft it, you'll need:

• 5 Dragon Tooth
• 10 Iron Bar
• 10 Gold Bar
• 5 Iridium Bar

Weapon Forging

With enough Cinder Shards, you can enhance your weapons using gemstones, boosting their stats. Each weapon can be forged up to three times, with increasing stat boosts at each level. The cost in Cinder Shards also increases with each forge: 10 for the first, 15 for the second, and 20 for the third. Each gemstone corresponds to a unique enhancement:

• Amethyst: Increases knockback by +1 per level.
• Aquamarine: Boosts critical hit chance by 4.6% x forge level.
• Emerald: Increases weapon speed by +2, +3, and +2 across three forges.
• Jade: Enhances critical hit damage by 10% x forge level.
• Ruby: Boosts weapon damage by 10% x forge level.
• Topaz: Increases defense by 1 x forge level.

Alternatively, you can use a Diamond to apply three random upgrades at once, costing 10 Cinder Shards.

Best Upgrades To Pick

When choosing gems for weapon forging, consider your playstyle and goals. For those focused on slaying monsters, combining Emerald and Ruby for increased speed and damage is highly effective. Adding Aquamarine or Jade can further enhance critical hits. For survival-focused players, like those tackling Qi Challenges, Topaz and Amethyst are beneficial, boosting defense and knockback respectively.

Unforging Weapons

If you wish to reset your weapon to its original state, simply place it in the left square slot of the forge and select the red X symbol. This will remove all forging and restore the weapon's appearance, recovering some Cinder Shards but not the gemstones used. No additional materials are needed for this process. Note that while this removes forged upgrades, it does not affect enchantments, which are covered in the next section.

Infinity Weapons

If you possess the Galaxy Sword, Galaxy Dagger, or Galaxy Hammer, you can transform them into Infinity Weapons at the Volcano Forge. This requires three Galaxy Souls, each needing 20 Cinder Shards. Once upgraded, the weapon becomes significantly more powerful, retaining any previous upgrades or enchantments.

Galaxy Souls

Obtaining Galaxy Souls is challenging and involves completing some of Stardew Valley's toughest tasks. Here are the basic methods to acquire them:

• Purchase from Mr. Qi in Mr. Qi's Walnut Room for 40 Qi Gems each.
• Defeat a Big Slime with a Galaxy Soul inside in the Dangerous Mines, Mr. Qi's "Danger in the Deep" quest, or his "Skull Cavern Invasion" quest.
• After killing at least 50 Dangerous Monsters in the Dangerous Mines or the above quests, you can:
  • Buy them from the Island Trader on the last day of the season for 10 Radioactive Bars each.
  • Occasionally obtain them as drops from Dangerous Monsters.

Enchantments

Enchantments add unique effects to weapons and tools, enhancing their functionality. Any tool or melee weapon can be enchanted using a Prismatic Shard and 20 Cinder Shards. The enchantment applied is random, but you can re-enchant if you're unhappy with the result, though this will consume more materials.

Weapon Enchantments

When enchanting a weapon, you might receive one of these effects:

• Artful: Halves cooldown for special moves.
• Bug Killer: Doubles damage to certain bugs and allows killing of Armored Bugs.
• Crusader: Doubles damage to specific undead enemies and permanently kills mummies.
• Vampiric: 9% chance to regain health upon killing a monster.
• Haymaker: Increases fiber and hay drops from weeds.

Bug Killer and Crusader are generally the most useful enchantments, aiding in combat against tough enemies. Haymaker is considered less beneficial due to the ease of obtaining fiber and hay.

Innate Enchantments

Innate enchantments, similar to stat improvements from weapon forging, can be applied using a Dragon Tooth. There are two sets of enchantments, and a weapon can have one from each set. The first set guarantees an enchantment:

The second set may or may not be applied:

Tool Enchantments

There are twelve tool enchantments, each specific to certain tools:

Best Enchantments For Each Tool

While all enchantments have their uses, preferences may vary based on playstyle. If you're unhappy with an enchantment, you can always re-enchant at the Volcano Forge with the necessary materials:

• Axe: Shaving for resource gathering, Swift or Efficient for faster, energy-efficient chopping.
• Watering Can: Bottomless for an endless water supply.
• Hoe: Generous for steady clay and artifact finds, Archeologist for museum completion, Reaching or Efficient for large-scale farming.
• Pickaxe: Swift and Powerful for efficient mining.
• Fishing Rod: Preserving to conserve bait and tackle, though Master can be useful for increasing Fishing level.
• Pan: Generous and Reaching for better treasure and artifact hunting.