Stardew Valley is a life/farming simulator that will allow you to find love and become rich while doing manual labor. The main focus of the game will be on planting and growing crops.
However, there are many other tasks you will need to complete to learn some of the secrets that Pelican Town hides. One of them is mining. You will need to mine for rare ores, such as copper or iron, to unlock more powerful tools and buildings.
Recommended Read: What to Do With Prismatic Shard in Stardew Valley
Luckily, Iron Ores are relatively easy to find if you know where to look for them. Unfortunately, the best methods to get this resource will require quite a lot of time and energy from your character.
To get Iron Ore in Stardew Valley, you need to use your pickaxe on Iron Nodes in the Mines or in the Quarry, buy it from the Blacksmith, or use a Copper Pan in the rivers.
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How to Get Iron Ore in Stardew Valley
Iron Ore is the mid-level ore in Stardew Valley, between the puny Copper and expensive Gold. Luckily, there are a few ways you can get Iron Ore in Stardew Valley:
- From Iron Nodes in the Mines between levels 41 to 79.
- From Iron Nodes in the Quarry.
- Buy from the Blacksmith for 150 g Year 1, then for 250 g Year 2 onward.
- Buy from the Traveling Merchant for 100 to 1,000 g.
- Loot from Stone Golems in the Mines between levels 31 and 39.
- Loot from Metal Heads in the Mines between levels 81 and 119.
- Loot from Iron Slimes in the Quarry Mine.
- Harvest from Ice Pip Fish Pond with a population of at least 3.
- Use Copper Pan in rivers.
Mining to Get Iron Ore
Mining is the simplest method to get Iron Ore in Stardew Valley. Since you obtain the ore straight from the source, it is also the most effective method of doing so.
The only problem with mining is the constant fighting and energy used to create a path through all the rocks.
Though this will usually stop you from doing other chores during that day, you should be able to get a decent amount of Iron if you spend your time on the right floors.
Iron Ore Nodes often spawn on floors 41 – 79, with the latter floors having a larger number of nodes.
Although the game will also provide you with other resources and the percentage of Iron Ore Nodes will decrease, Iron Ore still spawns on higher levels above 79.
On the specified floors, there is also a high chance that normal rocks will drop Iron Ores when destroyed. This can be very useful when you’ve looted all the Iron Nodes and want to advance to the next floor.
Players can mine Iron Nodes with the simple pickaxe from the start of the game, and they will get between 1 to 3 Iron Ores per node.
Another place where you can find Iron Ore Nodes is the Quarry, which you can unlock by completing the Crafts Room Bundles in the Community Center.
Unfortunately, there is no way to complete all of those bundles until Winter, so you won’t have access to the Quarry until then.
However, once you do, you can check the Quarry every day to see what type of nodes you can find, including Iron ones. This is the safest way to get Iron Ores in Stardew Valley and the least time-consuming.
Purchase Iron Ores
Players who prefer farming and making a lot of money will likely prefer a solution where they don’t spend so much time in the Mines.
The second-best way to get Iron Ore in Stardew Valley is to purchase it from Clint at the Blacksmith.
In the first year, Clint will sell you an endless amount of Iron Ore for 150 g a piece. This is a really good price if you managed to make most of your money from farming or fishing.
The most common things you will build with Iron Ores are Bombs and the upgraded steel tools. For the Bomb, you will need 4 Copper Ores, which would cost 600 g at the Blacksmith in the first year.
All of the tool upgrades cost 5 Iron Bars, which require 25 Iron Ores.
So, to upgrade a tool using only gold, you will need 3,750 g for the Iron Ores and another 25k g for the upgrades themselves, resulting in a total of 28,750 g, considering you got the Coal for free.
This price might seem extremely high in the early to mid-game if you haven’t farmed some of the best Spring and Summer crops in Stardew Valley when you had the time.
The Traveling Cart also occasionally sells Iron Ores, but the minimum price is 100 g, which is better than Clint’s price.
Since the price ranges between 100 g and 1k g, you would likely have to be very lucky to buy cheap Iron Ores from her.
Looting Iron Ores
There are only three enemies in Stardew Valley that drop Iron Ores:
- Stone Golems (levels 32 – 39)
- Metal Heads (levels 81 – 119)
- Iron Slimes (The Quarry Mine)
The Stone Golem is the first enemy you might find that drops Iron Ores. Each time you defeat one between floors 32 to 39, you have a 10% chance to get an Iron Ore.
Unfortunately, this is a low chance compared to the other two monsters, but you will find this monster much faster than them.
Players have a 20% chance to get Iron Ore from the Metal Heads that spawn between floors 81 and 119.
However, most players that tend to get that far in the Mines don’t need Iron Ores anymore since you start seeing Gold Ore Nodes on those floors.
Once you unlock the Quarry, you can also enter the adjacent Quarry Mine, which spawns a lot of Iron Slimes.
These Iron Slimes have a 33% chance to drop Iron Ores. However, you can only restart the Quarry Mine by starting a new day, so if you don’t find any when you enter, you will need to check again the next day.
You also need to be careful since there are a lot of Haunted Skulls that appear on the northern side of the Quarry Mine. They can be very annoying, and there are a lot of them.
There are also quite a few Iron Nodes in the Quarry Mine as well, so going in there once you unlock it should yield quite a few Iron Ores.
Fish Pond for Iron Ore
For Stardew Valley fishermen, we have the best passive solution to get a lot of Iron Ores on your farm: Ice Pip Fish Ponds.
The Ice Pip is a fish you can only catch on floor 60 of the Mines. As opposed to some other fish in the game, the time and season does not matter when you try to get it.
You can make the Fish Pond on your farm at Robin’s shop. Once you have it, just drop a few Ice Pip in it and then start doing quests to increase the population cap.
The moment you reach a population of 3 Ice Pip in the Fish Pond, you will have a 4% chance to get 5 Iron Ores every day when you interact with them.
Your best chance is when you reach a population of 10 Ice Pip in the Fish Pond when you have a 7% chance of getting 5 Iron Ores every day.
Pan for Iron
Once you get rid of the Glittering Boulder next to the Mines, you will unlock a cutscene with Willy, where you will get a Copper Pan. You can use this item to collect various minerals and ores from moving bodies of water (rivers).
You will have a general 36% chance to get Iron Ore each time you use a panning spot. However, getting rid of the Glittering Boulder requires you to complete the Fish Tank Bundles at the Community Center.
Luckily, you can complete these Bundles by Fall if you aggressively level up your Fishing skill.
That’s everything you need to know about how to get Iron Ore in Stardew Valley!
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