Stardew Valley: A Complete Guide To Enchantments & Weapon Forging

Stardew Valley's Volcano Dungeon holds a secret: a forge capable of magically enhancing tools and weapons. While it might seem daunting, mastering the Volcano Forge is surprisingly straightforward. This guide explains how to use each enchantment and forging option to maximize your Stardew Valley experience, updated for version 1.6.

Updated January 6, 2025, by Demaris Oxman: Stardew Valley's 1.6 update significantly impacted weapon forging, adding pan enchantments and innate weapon enchantments. This guide reflects these changes.

Obtaining Cinder Shards

The Volcano Forge relies on Cinder Shards (at least 65 per item). Acquire them by:

• Mining Cinder Shard nodes (pink-orange specks) in the Volcano Dungeon (see image).
• Defeating enemies: Magma Sprite (50%), Magma Duggy (40%), Magma Sparker (50%), False Magma Cap (50%).
• Fishing ponds with 7+ Stingrays (2-5 shards, 7-9% daily chance).

Cinder Shards, being resources, not gemstones, can't be duplicated in the Crystalarium.

The Mini-Forge

After achieving Combat Mastery, craft a Mini-Forge (5 Dragon Teeth, 10 Iron Bars, 10 Gold Bars, 5 Iridium Bars) for convenient forging anywhere.

Weapon Forging

Forge weapons up to three times using gemstones and Cinder Shards (10, 15, then 20 shards per forge). Gemstone effects:

• Amethyst: +1 knockback per forge.
• Aquamarine: +4.6% crit chance per forge.
• Emerald: +2/+3/+2 speed per forge.
• Jade: +10% crit damage per forge.
• Ruby: +10% damage per forge.
• Topaz: +1 defense per forge.
• Diamond: 3 random upgrades (10 shards).

Unforging (red X) returns some shards but not the gemstone.

Best Upgrades

For high DPS, combine Emerald and Ruby. For survivability (Qi Challenges), use Topaz and Amethyst.

Infinity Weapons

Upgrade Galaxy Sword/Dagger/Hammer using 3 Galaxy Souls (20 shards each) for enhanced versions retaining existing upgrades and enchantments.

Galaxy Souls

Obtain Galaxy Souls from Mr. Qi (40 Qi Gems), Big Slimes (Dangerous Mines, Qi quests), Island Trader (10 Radioactive Bars), or occasionally from Dangerous Monsters (after killing 50).

Enchantments

Enchant tools/weapons using a Prismatic Shard and 20 Cinder Shards. Effects are random; re-enchant for different results.

Weapon Enchantments

Random enchantments include Artful, Bug Killer, Crusader, Vampiric, and Haymaker. Bug Killer and Crusader are generally most useful.

Innate Enchantments

Use a Dragon Tooth for innate enchantments (Slime Slayer, Crit Power, Attack, Speed, potentially Slime Gatherer, Defense, Weight).

Tool Enchantments

Twelve random enchantments for Axe, Pickaxe, Watering Can, Hoe, Fishing Rod, and Pan. Examples include Auto-Hook, Archeologist, Bottomless, Efficient, etc. Best enchantments depend on playstyle.

This guide covers all aspects of the Volcano Forge, enabling you to optimize your tools and weapons in Stardew Valley.