An Ultimate Guide to Caves In Stardew Valley

The golden scythe is actually a LOT better than the regular one. Not only does it cut grass completely instead of half, but the chance for getting hay is raised from 50 to 75%.

Floors 11-29 are great for not just farming bug meat but completing the Adventurer's Guild challenge for killing cave insects. The reward, the Insect Head Sword, is viable for a long time if you get it early (10-20 damage.)

I must also point out the extremely niche use for the Excavator profession, which is to grind for Omni Geodes in the Skull Caverns to buy the rainbow cowboy hat from the desert trader

I used the transmute feature SO MUCH in my "no leaving the farm" run. Copper nodes spawned way more on the hilltop farm than iron or gold, so it was critical to my midgame

I would argue that Prospector is very much worth grabbing when you hit level 10 mining. For me at least it seems I still need to MAKE a ton more bars for sprinklers, tappers, kegs, crystalariums, etc. And also stuff like Preserve Jars that need a lot of coal to craft. And because of that I'm usually not selling bars for at least 2-3 more seasons after getting to mining 10. So rather than the profession that does nothing at all, I'd rather grab the one that saves me some money and time in the present, and just reset the skill when I do start getting more bars than I need for crafting purposes.

The easiest way to farm auto petters (imo) is by getting into the dangerous mines and finding infested floors, in which you'll find lots of slimes, they can drop auto petters (not only in the infested floors but these floors are full of slimes) AND infested floors will always be infested, if you find one, clear it up, and no auto petters were dropped, you can go out of the mines and tp to the infested floor so that you can try again, this allowed me to farm 2 auto petters in like a week, which might sound like too much time but trust me, they're so rare and worth it and will completely free you (when you have too many animals you can spend easily you entire morning just by petting them, which is a bit frustrating if you wanted to do something else)

Salmence uploaded so it is a good day :)

Finally, someone said it about Haunted Skulls dropping Skeletal Hands. The 1st drop I got from a Haunted Skull was a Skeletal Hand and I've just been so confused how that was even possible to get

In the ice levels of the mines you've also got those crystals you can break with a weapon and have a low chance to drop refined quartz

Yay a new video! Btw every gem node can be found on any floor after finishing the mines. Also all enemies have 2x health after finishing the mines.

This might be kinda weird but stardew valley is a big comfort game to me, and your videos are actually really really helpful for me. I’m struggling lately with some stuff and I don’t really feel confident at night so I try to keep my mind busy, and while I make my art and no one else is awake I just listen to your videos. Sometimes I hate peoples voices from some sound sensitivity but yours hasn’t bothered me. When I watch your videos at night I don’t feel as scared or alone. Apologies if that’s weird, I just wanted to try to show some appreciation for helping me cope through some stuff.

i like that salmence doesnt tell you what to do he just gives you litterally everything and anything you need to make ur own decision based on ur run or playstyle 🥰🥰🥰

There's also a small chance of getting an ancient seed if you cut the foliage on prehistoric floors! I often pick Prospector because I usually hit level 10 mining before I'm making a ton of money to buy coal and I'm always using so much wood for kegs that I don't use the charcoal kiln. I tend to make a ton of preserves jars for strawberries, blueberries, and cranberries and those require coal. So, that's why I often pick Prospector. Later game I would use the Statue of Uncertainty to change to Blacksmith to sell my bars since I tend to hoard. ^^;

The floors with the haunted skulls don't start appearing until after you unlock the bridge to the quarry

there's a reason i love the floors 11-29. they help me get bug meat and complete the adventurer's guild insect challenges

I now want to put a rug in the mines entrance. It looks like a portal! Great tutorial. Still adore that intro, too.

You never have enough coal (i usually get mining 10 pretty early) so i always choose prospector. Statue of uncertainty helps with changing profession and selling the bars if needed. In speedruns/min-max runs Blacksmith is better for sure.

These guide videos and the comments on them (and the whole community tbh) have been INSANELY helpful. I don’t get nearly as much time to play as I’d like and Sal and the comments have saved me soooo much time I would’ve wasted doing a lot of trial and error or just flat out wasted from doing things wrong or not at all. I love that this game can be played any way you want and I really just wanted a chill game to play after work before bed and I’ve been able to get that experience with you guys’ help. Thank you!! And and all newbie tricks are welcome! ❤

Someone else has probably said this but you can get an auto-petter very rarely from boss slimes in the dangerous mines (I think it's like a 2% chance) Edit: Also Geologist can double geodes too

11:27 I think it was worth mentioning that Iridium Bats have a 5% chance to drop a battery pack, which is insanely good if you got unlucky with rain storms during the first summer. For instance, on my most recent playthrough, I only had two stormy days in the entire season. The bats basically saved the run.