Enchantments & Weapon Forging Mastery in Stardew Valley

This guide details the Volcano Forge in Stardew Valley, explaining how to enhance tools and weapons with enchantments and forgings. The 1.6 update added significant changes, including the Mini-Forge and innate weapon enchantments.

Obtaining Cinder Shards:

The Volcano Forge requires Cinder Shards. These pink-orange crystals are obtained by:

• Mining Cinder Shard nodes in the Volcano Dungeon (pictured above).
• Receiving them as drops from Magma Sprites, Magma Duggies, Magma Sparkers, and False Magma Caps (with varying drop rates).
• Harvesting them from a fishing pond containing seven or more Stingrays (a low daily chance).

Cinder Shards are a resource, not gemstones, and cannot be duplicated in a Crystalarium.

The Mini-Forge:

After achieving Combat Mastery, craft the Mini-Forge:

• 5 Dragon Teeth
• 10 Iron Bars
• 10 Gold Bars
• 5 Iridium Bars

It functions identically to the Volcano Dungeon forge.

Weapon Forging:

Gemstones enhance weapons (up to three times). Each forge requires Cinder Shards (10, 15, then 20) and a gemstone:

• Amethyst: +1 knockback per forge.
• Aquamarine: +4.6% critical hit chance per forge.
• Emerald: +2/+3/+2 speed per forge (stacks).
• Jade: +10% critical hit damage per forge.
• Ruby: +10% damage per forge.
• Topaz: +1 defense per forge.
• Diamond: Three random upgrades (10 Cinder Shards).

Optimal Weapon Upgrades: Emerald and Ruby maximize damage per second (DPS). For survivability, Topaz and Amethyst are beneficial.

Unforging Weapons: Place the weapon in the forge's left slot and select the red 'X' to remove all forgings (recovering some shards, but not the gemstone). Enchantments remain.

Infinity Weapons:

Upgrade Galaxy Sword, Dagger, or Hammer into Infinity versions using three Galaxy Souls (20 Cinder Shards each). Forged upgrades and enchantments are retained.

Galaxy Souls:

Obtain Galaxy Souls by:

• Purchasing from Mr. Qi (40 Qi Gems each).
• Killing Big Slimes in the Dangerous Mines or during specific Mr. Qi quests.
• Purchasing from the Island Trader (10 Radioactive Bars, unlocked after 50 Dangerous Monster kills).
• Dropping from Dangerous Monsters (unlocked after 50 Dangerous Monster kills).

Enchantments:

Enchant tools/weapons (excluding slingshots) using a Prismatic Shard and 20 Cinder Shards. Effects are random.

Weapon Enchantments:

• Artful: Halved special move cooldown.
• Bug Killer: Double damage against bugs, kills Armored Bugs.
• Crusader: Double damage against undead, kills mummies permanently.
• Vampiric: Chance to regain health upon killing a monster.
• Haymaker: Double fiber/hay drop chance from weeds.

Bug Killer and Crusader are generally the most useful.

Innate Weapon Enchantments: Use a Dragon Tooth for guaranteed enchantments like Slime Slayer, Crit Power, Attack, and Speed boosts, with a chance for Slime Gatherer, Defense, and Weight reductions.

Tool Enchantments: Twelve enchantments exist, each tool-specific (see table in original text for details).

Recommended Tool Enchantments:

• Axe: Shaving (increased resources), Swift, or Efficient.
• Watering Can: Bottomless.
• Hoe: Generous (increased item drops), Archeologist (artifacts), Reaching, or Efficient.
• Pickaxe: Swift or Powerful.
• Fishing Rod: Preserving (conserves bait/tackle).
• Pan: Generous or Reaching.

This revised guide provides a clearer, more concise explanation of the Volcano Forge's mechanics and optimal strategies.