Mining is one of the most fun and dynamic activities in Stardew Valley.
Nurturing relationships and tending to your farm is nice and cozy, but sometimes you crave the adrenaline-pumping action of slashing bats with a rusty sword down in the Mines.
It’s also one of the most profitable activities. Gemstones and ore are just waiting to be freed from their stony prison.
If you plan on spending a lot of time crawling through tight spaces in derelict mining shafts, you need to stock up on mods first.
These add-ons will make your underground adventures more fun and convenient.
Going into the mines in Stardew Valley changes the game’s genre from a farm simulator to a roguelike.
It’s all about trying to make it as far as you can, getting good at the game, and earning some minor persistent rewards that help you make it farther next time.
The most important of these is the elevator, which lets you go down to any floor ending on 0 or 5 once you’ve reached them at least once.
The Better Elevator mod is a highly convenient alternative that’ll let you go down to any previously-reached level regardless of whether it ends in 0 or 5.
Just press Left Shift while clicking the mine’s entry ladder, and you’ll be able to input your preferred floor via the keyboard.
Some of my favorite roguelikes are those that let you customize your experience.
I’m talking about features like increasing the difficulty in Hades (2018) with Heat, or even the Challenge and Turbo modes in Enter the Gungeon (2016).
You can do something similar in Stardew Valley through the Mine Changes mod, which enables you to create your own perfect mining challenge.
Through this mod’s extensive Config file, you can tweak everything from monster spawn rate to what breakable stones spawn in each level.
It takes a while to set up, but it’s a powerful tool.
When faced with the amount of customization awarded by something like Mine Changes, some people just freeze.
How are they supposed to know how to make it better?
They’re not game designers, and there are so many choices to make…
A great alternative is to let someone else do it for you.
The creator of Balanced Mining spent hours reflecting deeply on the ins and outs of mining in Stardew Valley so they could try to improve it.
The result is an excellent re-balance that makes mining a little less random and more profitable. It also gives you more reason to fish underground through better rewards.
Sometimes, we don’t have time to head down to the mines for ore or gemstones.
We have other things to do, such as participating in the town’s many festivities or convincing Emily to marry us instead of Clint.
I hope he doesn’t raise the geode opening price out of spite…
Alas, I digress. If you’re too busy to risk your life for precious metals and gems, you can just use these custom Mining Drills to unearth them for you.
They look incredible when running – especially the Prismatic Miner – and will make your life much easier. To hell with the environmental impact!
Maybe your problem isn’t that you don’t have time to go to the mines.
Perhaps you’re just scared of the monster-infested caves?
If that’s the case, Mining at the Farm is the convenient mod that’ll let you get the geodes and ores you need without leaving the farm.
This mod lets you set up a perimeter where previously mine-exclusive items like geodes and ore can spawn above ground. It doesn’t even have to be inside the farm!
An even better way of combating your phobia of mines is to make them more visually appealing.
Thanks to Cuter Mines, the different environments you find underground don’t have to be so dank and somber. Instead, you’ll explore subterranean gardens and beautifully-constructed ruins from ages past.
This change applies to the Mines, the little Farm Cave, the Witch Cave, and the Skull Cavern.
It doesn’t stop at changing the environment, though. This mod makes even the monsters a lot cuter; however, you still need to kill them, which feels cruel when fighting fairies and living berries.
Alternatively, pair Cuter Mines with Harmless Monsters, so you don’t have to murder the nature sprites.
Better Gems and Minerals takes the cake for the most detailed and unique gem and ore retexture available online.
This sprite pack aims to tone down the sparkly and colorful mining resources to reflect real-life gemstones and ore. If you have an eye for detail, this might make the game more immersive.
I recommend this map to those who really care about the Museum. These less cartoonish sprites look incredible in an exhibition.
Check out this mod if you like the detailed and realistic style of the Better Gems and Minerals but don’t want to make mining any more somber than it already is.
Better Gems and Minerals Animated does just what the title promises: it adds movement and dynamism to your custom mining sprites.
Specifically, it makes them delicately sparkle in the light, like a vampire from Twilight but less cringe.
The fine-grain sparkles match these sprites’ realistic style and constantly remind you of their great value.
If you’ve ever been in a mine – or played Minecraft (2011) – you know it’s nothing like Stardew Valley’s fields of neatly-aligned individual stones waiting to be smashed.
Instead, ores and valuable crystals are found in veins and clusters that miners seek out so they can dig in that direction.
The Flowing Mine Rocks mod won’t transform Stardew Valley into Minecraft. But it does change how gems and minerals spawn in underground maps.
Now, you’ll find large multi-tile rocks – sometimes even housing several different materials in the same boulder.
At the very least, it’s a nice visual change that’ll make the mines feel fresh again.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
