A Tier List of Every Stardew Valley Mastery Reward

[@Storm-li1re]

A tip for those who don't want all the clutter coming out of the (golden) mystery boxes: you can also trade them for magic rock candy.

[@SimberPlays]

How do you do that?

[@Storm-li1re]

@@SimberPlays Raccoons

[@RMills646]

And I'm pretty sure you can trade regular mystery boxes for gold ones

[@tessmcc20]

To me this is the only use for them, by the time you get to golden boxes their contents are pretty useless

[@PsychTricks]

I will accept that clutter until every last one of my animals has eaten a golden animal cracker!

[@TheRandomGamer567]

Having a tiny frog companion will always be best in my heart

[@FelidaeEnjoyer]

Sebby fans are eating GOOD

[@Sillylilgooberdoinsillylilstuf]

I got it... and then i had to RESET THE DAY😭😭😭😭

[@Sam-lr9oi]

and you can put the extra ones in your fish tank!

[@TheSkungler]

Until it eats a prismatic slime 😭

[@diostaku2]

Personally I don't like the frog, and since Sebastian always talks about them I gave the trinket to him, imagine my surprise when I realized that it was in fact a loved gift for him.😵

[@80fajoogaloo80]

The parrot is still there during heart events. Having him squawk during what's supposed to be a very emotional scene is comedy gold. S tier

[@gargles5270]

i love my parrot so much, i just wish i could also bring a frog around at the same time lol. the parrot squawking 24/7 is a wonderful quality of life thing for me, especially bc i married emily so now we have two parrots lol

[@Aphelia.]

9:52 Fun fact, frogs can eat the traps in the Ginger Island volcano. Yep. The traps.

[@elizzzzzabitch]

what do you mean by traps? the wiki and google arent helping and ive been wracking my brain trying to figure it out lol

[@mateuszkus6302]

Scrumptious metal forged in the fiery pits of the volcano

[@pizzawithjalapenos7297]

Abagail has a new friend

[@HorizonOnDaHorizonYT]

Yummy metal

[@slwrabbits]

I need to see this. And then point at it and giggle like a maniac.

[@ignor_]

I can't believe he put Heavy Furnace on B, it's like the most useful thing after Iridium Scythe - it saves so much time (especially on skull caverns dives) - instead of taking like 10 seconds every time to smelt or collect 25 bars they make that you spend like 2-3 seconds instead. And it saves so MUCH space - no more dedicating sheds for only furnaces, which is crucial in my opinion. Maybe for casual players it's not that useful, but for more experienced players it's really-really great. Every time I've finished my skull caverns dives I've blessed Concerned Ape for adding them.

[@T101G]

Heavily agreed. His opinion was more based on what one you should go for first which is a little more understandable, but if we rate it on general utility its so helpful, it saves so much coal, gives you extra bars for free some of the time, and it smelts 5 bars in the time it normally takes to smelt 1.

[@chaosstripe9446]

Also he said he placed it based on his personal playstyle. The one where he regularly has tons of bee houses, kegs, and every profitable artisan machine by the end of the first fall. I think that led him to underestimate both when average players start focusing on making bars and on hw many bars they actually need.

[@stannumowl]

​@@chaosstripe9446or he just underestimates skull cavern. What is likely too. But from the other side if you can farm cavern for money efficiently you already know why you need furnaces and you don't need the tier list to explain that

[@88porpoise]

As he said, most of these are pretty situational. Most people don't do big skull cavern dives, in which case it isn't that good just a solid QOL thing. But if you do them, they are amazing (but still not S tier as that would have to be reserved for the Dwarf statue's chance for +1 ore). Similarly the fishing one varies from useless to moderately helpful by letting you use two trap bobbers on hard fish, to game changing if you just like fishing.

[@i_am_ergo]

"it's like the most useful thing after Iridium Scythe" I'd actually put the scythe in A, and the heavy furnace in S. Experienced players pretty much never go hard on crops in the mid- and lategame because at a certain point, it gets to a "I'd rather play a different game than plant and harvest and plant and harvest" level of boring. If you only have like 400 or 500 ancient fruit plants going year round, the scythe doesn't save you that much time or effort.

[@Masteredge3]

My Argument for the Mystic Tree is it a Cheaper and More Passive way to get Fairy Dust which is the main value for it in my eyes

[@apollo5251994]

Plus they’re good for mushroom farms

[@01101111011010110110]

It'd be neat if it could occasionally drop fairy dust like other trees drop seeds

[@rneumann7229]

I definitely think mystic trees deserved to be higher, they are still situational though. If you have a mushroom log farm they will be much stronger etc

[@dingding7289]

mystic trees 100% should atleast have a chance to drop back a seed 50% even 10% would be nice becasue unless your 24/7 cycling tree farms in your desert AND farming mahogany seeds in your free time you can't really move them ones they are placed down and chopping them down only gives hardwood and you lose mystic syrup, atleast how i play im sure if you dont care about making the most out of a day you can just plant sleep farm sleep

[@katuni08]

@@apollo5251994I came here to say the same. Purple mushrooms for health potions? VERY useful!

[@honigbienenblob]

The treasure totem is straight up S Tier. Use it on Ginger Island during the Qi Crops Quest and you never have to worry about Qi Beans anymore

[@nkoote]

Man, I just started this quest and was dreading it, but this tip is going to help so much!!

[@nannybells]

omg thank you

[@spaek-x9b]

Also the sheer amount of golden coconuts when you use it in conjunction with a hoe with the generous enchantment

[@dingding7289]

honestly i wish i had the moss for it, im in winter so none of it grows and i already used every piece i had to make totems for the museum, so now im stuck with the qi bean hoping i can somehow make it workout

[@mushollow]

This is such a good idea! Thank you!!!

[@Ianips-f1z]

Mining gang!!!! also heavy furnaces are absolutely broken with iridium and statue of dwarf +1 ore per node is going to make SC runs crazy money

[@chaosstripe9446]

B tier for the heavy furnace feels absolutely criminal. Then I remember your playstyle has you stockpiling kegs and bee houses from super early in year 1. I still don't get why the dwarf king statue is in B tier either. the flat buff to stair/shaft chance in Skull Caverns is super handy, unless you have hundreds of staircases.

[@BeyondBrii]

also +1 for ore and bombs don’t damage (they don’t that much anyway with the dwarf book but nice if you put a bunch down), so good!

[@PsychTricks]

@@BeyondBrii I love bombs not doing damage - then I don't have to actually be careful around them!

[@chaosstripe9446]

​@@PsychTricks "I have a slingshot full of explosive ammo and I'm gonna make that everyone else's problem" Definitely me too. It's so silly, but so fun.

[@laurazepam69]

By the time I unlocked mastery at the end of year one I just didn't need any bars anymore. I had a stack of 2000 iridium bars just sitting there, it's useful for processing all that damn ore, but it doesn't really change anything other than making things a little less tedious. Could be good if you're the kinda person that sells their bars, but still not that amazing.

[@remmoze]

"By the time you've unlocked all of the masteries you probably already enchanted your tools" Not me unlocking all masteries before completing community center (completed it in spring of year 2)

[@Estarile]

I think all the expert players need a casual player to look over their tier lists and scripts to give their opinion too lol. Not me forgetting my food which makes infinite energy really nice.

[@iveedoodle]

exactly what i thought,,, plus going to the island to use the forge is so expensive

[@Intrafacial86]

Same here. Players like us are probably why CA later nerfed the amount of mastery XP that farming contributes.

[@DZK312]

yeah i had my mastery done year 1 (kinda shocked myself how fast that was) and i hadnt even unlocked the island (cc was done but i couldnt get a freaking storm for batteries) and so it took even longer to get to the forge, much less get enough cinder shards for everything, and i afforded to craft the mini forge like a couple days after i was ready to enchant everything so i made damn good use of it

[@connorbranscombe6819]

@@Estarile Why though? Its an expert players tierlist, whats the point in taking someone elses opinion into account on a personal rating?

[@laurenmulligan5322]

Mystic Tree: you completely ignored it's interaction with Mushroom Logs. Having a solid supply of purple mushrooms is really nice

[@LeonaDwoske]

I have been making a bundle between the mystic syrup selling at 1000 each x 126 trees once a week and the purple mushrooms from the logs placed beside them that are ready every 3 days, you are right people seem to be overlooking this.

[@Priscabc]

God I want 1.6 for mobile so hard. I want to make so many life elixirs, but I'm always short on purple mushrooms.

[@AlienGurke]

​@@Priscabckeep in mind that they only restore health after 1.6, no energy anymore

[@Priscabc]

@@AlienGurke I'm fine with that. I'm much better at losing hp than energy, and I've got my trusty berries, pile of common mushrooms and my omelets to keep me up.

[@AlienGurke]

@@Priscabc alr, so hopefully update arrives asap for you so you can start your life elixirs imperium. ^^

[@mehiskortel6435]

I honestly like the fighting mastery the most. Having access to the fairy box is game changing. You cant die, it's impossible. Not having to eat a single time in the skull caverns or hardmode mines is so useful.

[@xelnia2383]

Agreed. It makes Qi's hungry challenge laughably easy.

[@orionstokesweiss2344]

How does one ever die outside of multiplayer? The game freezes when you eat. You have a minimum of 5 hits until death with that number only increasing. If you aren't panicking you literally cannot die. If you are, considering panic munching literally any food, as even the lowest health options will keep you alive

[@dante9090]

@@orionstokesweiss2344 my skill issue is doing runs half asleep + having the audacity to think i can survive at 30hp + forgetting to eat 🤩🔥

[@Coccinelf]

@@orionstokesweiss2344 When I first entired the volcano dungeon I died litterally 4 tiles away from the lava river at the entrance. I didn't panic, I just didn't know you could die so fast so I was focussing on trying to kill monsters, not checking my health bar every second. I had a galaxy sword too!

[@NetheriteBunny]

@@orionstokesweiss2344 maybe you don't have food, or the food you have is inadequate enough so you can't escape the mines/caverns before dying

[@vanillajellyfish]

5:31 you're technically right, but they're also your best bet for mushroom logs if you have enough of the trees near said mushroom logs

[@GeraltofRivia22]

The Iridium Scythe is game changing for me honestly. Its such a great quality of life upgrade.

[@xelnia2383]

YES!! If that were the only thing that came with Farming mastery I would still take it first, every time.

[@Latronibus]

Basically the same thing has been an extremely popular mod, or rather class of mods, for a long time. I'm sure CA knows that. It seems like a super fair obstacle to getting that ability, compared to the mods which almost feel cheaty (though nothing compared to the tractor). Contrast that with hoppers, which are basically useless but are still crazy expensive and only unlocked super late.

[@lilyyoung1002]

Agreed

[@noah1535]

​@@Latronibus I was surprised that CA didn't make hoppers work like the Automate mod after seeing that harvest with scythe type mods were made possible in vanilla

[@Latronibus]

@@noah1535 I'm not at all surprised that he doesn't want the amount of functionality that Automate provides even in lategame...but the vanilla hopper doesn't even provide the functionality of both feeding a machine and taking its output out, even for one machine. Without even giving us that, it's not worth the space it takes up, much less the price it costs to craft.

[@parisheidi3119]

Also the parrot will land on your head when you stop moving. Its so cute!

[@i_am_ergo]

Holy crap, I don't think I've ever disagreed with Salmence so hard on so many things at once, haha.

[@kunichuck]

Agreed with most of your list, except I think you're selling Mystic trees short: They produce a very valuable resource, that's key to crafting treasure totems. They nearly double the productivity of mushroom logs (You can have a productive farm that's basically just trees and mushroom logs) The totem themselves are absolute moneymakers: Once you have the appraisal guide, all artifacts sell for 3x the price. Crafting a treasure totem, using it, then selling what you got will almost always net you more money than just selling the syrup. Plus, you get to complete the museum way faster. The kicker though, is they are FREE. When the game starts, just don,t cut your trees on your farm... harvest moss and seeds every day, and by the end of year 1 you'll have over 100 mushroom logs, and enough seeds to plant 20-25 mystic trees... Instead of making energy bars, save those seeds, then make mystic trees, tap them, put your logs next to them, and they will produce a lot of purple mushrooms and syrup with basically no investment (Compared to building barns or an army of kegs) , and almost instantly (Compared to the time it takes to get enough ancient seeds to start making wine.)

[@emurphy42]

I hadn't thought of using treasure totems for profit (I think I already had the museum completed by that point, and the usual big money strats up and running). I'll try it when my newer saves get to that point, though. The other thing there is, I'm used to taking the professions for more geodes / fishing treasure to finish the museum faster, and then never bothering to change professions later. So no I'm planning to try other options for once, and let treasure totems pick up the slack.

[@dingding7289]

the only problem is they are about the most permanent thing you can put on your farm if you ever want to move them you have to save up hundreds of seeds again and i really wish they had atleast a small chance to drop their seeds when they get chopped

[@emurphy42]

@@dingding7289 Hundreds? Thought it was just 5 of each of the wild tree seeds, if you plant lots of them with tree fertilizer and chop them down then you can build up plenty of seed stockpiles along with the wood.

[@dingding7289]

@@emurphy42 well mahogany is a little annoying you can't really farm it and also i just said hundreds becasue thats how much i needed, becsaue im making a giga mushroom log farm with them so i need me like 80 mystic trees or so which is like 400 of each seed, which also means i need like over a stack of tree fertilizer which is the easy party.

[@emurphy42]

@@dingding7289 You can sort of farm mahogany, depending on how much patience you have for grinding the Secret Woods (and/or the west side of the Forest Farm). Definitely a pain to get enough for a *lot* of Mystic Trees.

[@juliakrystosek8003]

The statue of blessings was super helpful to me as a very poor fisher, I used the fishing blessing to get the Mutant Carp and the Lava Eel

[@noah1535]

2 tackle on the mastery rod is insanely useful for difficult fish. 2 trap bobbers reduces the speed that the bar goes down by *half* . Improved bait and a fishing food buff makes the bar big enough, so cork bobber isn't needed. Still slowly gaining bar progress even as a fish goes and in and out of the bar makes hard fish and legendaries so easy to catch

[@Corvuscorax4321]

I got the fishing buff from the statue of blessings and it made catching the legend easier than a catfish. I was shook lol

[@ericlegacy8834]

I didn't really do the math on it, but I actually use Mystic Syrups to buy Fairy Dust from the Racoon shop. I have that, plus a farm of Fairy Roses, and half shed full of Crystalariums with Diamonds to make more Fairy Dust. I save up enough Fairy Dust to make my casks go from silver to iridium quality in and instant. Kind of a fun way to use it and get that 10mill for the Gold Clock!

[@NetheriteBunny]

cool method but I think it has been proven that fairy dust isn't worth it - but the creator might have been talking about only the fairy rose method, so don't mind me :)

[@heartforpixels]

The heavy furnace is an easy S-tier for me personally. I love delving deep into the mines but never managed to get through my ore stacks. Always had an overflow of them. That's ancient history now with the heavy furnace. And you just need a fraction of them to make it work!! Easily on par with the iridium scythe.

[@orionstokesweiss2344]

This whole list is a bunch of shit takes =( Furnace alone is an extra 20% profit for the best active source of moneymaking, ignoring dwarf king giving a 33% boost regularly.

[@Latronibus]

I'm not sure it's consistent to put mystic trees all the way down at D while treasure totem is at A. Those two are coupled in a way that makes them hard to separately place in tiers unlike pretty much everything else. Mystic trees also have an interaction with mushroom logs which you didn't touch on, as well as the option to use them to get fairy dust. Edit: I appreciate the bump of it to C at the end there, seems fair.

[@supervisedchaos]

I love the golden spur. With the iridium needle maxed on crit chance with 2 aquamarine rings. Chefs kiss

[@EAlexandra3]

Great list! I think the mystic syrup is definitely useful, I've been mostly using it to craft blue grass starters and treasue totems!

[@nathanielarterberry]

Mastery is so quick that it almost doesn’t matter the order in my eyes.

[@SoulDuckling126]

My ancient fruit ginger island farm literally gave me a level of mastery every harvest. I was pre nerf tho, not sure if it's better now even after CA nerf it.

[@PeterTeal77]

⁠@@SoulDuckling126 was the nerf halfing farming xp's contribution to mastery? Because I only played after that and completed mastery in less than a season, mainly from ancient fruit farming

[@PrincessFelicie]

for real... Sal talking about "oh mastery is so late game that you won't have time for golden crackers and the statue of blessing and getting value out of the heavy furnaces" meanwhile it's hard _not_ to get the iridium scythe before the golden scythe. At least if the mastery door was located on ginger island there'd be that fundamental barrier keeping the system to late game, but as is it's so effortlessly accessible that it hardly poses a challenge to get all masteries relatively early

[@gonathi117]

Disagree

[@Wappl26]

One skull cavern run can give SO MUCH exp, 50 points per iridium node is absolutely insane

[@RMills646]

When using the anvil for the trinkets, you can reset the day and try again to avoid wasting too much iridium when re-rolling Also, mystic trees, you need the syrup for blue grass and treasure totems, and you can trade the syrup for fairy dust with the raccoons

[@Sofia-ts6gy]

the treasure totems are SO good for the qi beans quest…. get a bunch of beans directly as well as a ton of geodes you can open to get even more beans if you use them on the island… actually in general using them on the island is almost addicting bc you get so much stuff 😭

[@96Grayman]

Syrup from Mystic tree became one of my favourite things 'cause you can trade it one for one for fairy dust at the raccoon fam. I personally find it *very* useful, even if it's pretty lategame. EDIT: the forge in F-Tier is extremely warranted imo. You gotta go to the volcano for shards anyways, so might as well go to level 10 which doesn't take a whole lot of time. The Forge is the worst mastery reward imo. (Also, ConcernedApe allow us to dupe Cinder Shards in Crystalariums pls, thx)

[@orionstokesweiss2344]

Even worse, the first time you unlock the volcano forge you get the backdoor. My time from anywhere in the world to the forge without any buffs is 40 seconds....and you end up never needing to forge anything more than once anyways

[@Sofia-ts6gy]

add an animal cracker into your stingray fish pond, closest thing

[@silverjetplane]

The treasure totem made it soooooo much easier to complete the island field office quest

[@nursevenkopuz5610]

I can't do without the iridium sychte as if it was always there and the trinkets add too much to game, great vid sal !!

[@Kasiarzynka]

Iridium Scythe being able to harvest any crops is functionally the same as a mod that you can get that was already available pre 1.6. I used it in a modded save. I think I remember there being more moments where I went "oh it's like in that one mod" but can't think of any specific instances now. Maybe the animals tab, in a way, since I used to play with one that allowed you to inspect animals and crops and such and I think it showed if the animal was pet already. Bottom line is, I don't know if CA came up with it on his own or if he looked at the mods that are already out there and picked some that he found useful to implement, but I love it when game creators incorporate mod functionalities into their games. Paradox did it with several things in their Cities: Skylines 2. They incorporated things like parallel road mode and the ability to quickly convert an intersection into a roundabout, which were lacking in the first game but were available as mods.

[@BeyondBrii]

@@KasiarzynkaCA defo contacted modders about it (as some had their mods ready for 1.6 release), as it felt like majority of the QoL stuff was from mods - and amazing for those of us who play on consoles and can’t get mods! (i play on PC with mods too but portability of switch is my preference)

[@KyleZonePlus]

@@BeyondBrii The creator of Stardew Valley Expanded actually helped make the 1.6 update possible so yea CA contacted modders.

[@lol-rl4wq]

1:49 actually fish ponds are affected

[@opiebob]

thats what he sai

[@soaringje9]

@@opiebob the order of his list is a lil' ambiguous

[@opiebob]

@@soaringje9 ah

[@pemanilnoob]

I’m actually shocked I got all legendary fish ponds, and they give insane money, you’re saying I can get double???

[@lol-rl4wq]

@@pemanilnoob yes sir it’s really op

[@lachouette_et_le_phoque]

I'm gonna say that for people who struggle with fishing, the mastery fishing rod can still be really useful because it makes it easier. If you want to get perfection or otherwise want to still fish sometimes, that is.

[@agatheringofbees3490]

In my playthrough where I got to mastery, I really enjoyed the golden treasure chests. I had the pirate profession and as such, got them pretty frequently and it was the thing that finally netted me the dinosaur egg (that I had been looking for for literal ages and was the last thing I needed for museum completion) I ended up getting 3 of them within a 2 day span in game, all from golden chests.

[@ceonixx2924]

The golden fishing treasure chests were pretty helpful during the Qi’s crop quest

[@VampyTheVampire]

I personally love the fishing mastery and the golden treasure chests. If taken before the farming mastery I found it to be a decent source for stardrop tea. In 1 season I once got 7 stardrop tea from golden treasure chests alone.

[@corvidwrangler]

Doing that now on a 14 day limit. I got 7 beans from 1 chest.

[@danielthompson392]

I would like to offer a different perspective on the Mystic Tree/Syrup: for me, it isn't so much for profit. It can be used as your emergency rations for Skull Cavern deep dives if you still need to do them, whether that's for restocking iridium reserves or getting those elusive Auto Petters. Granted, it does produce syrup slowly, once every 7 days (3-4 with a Heavy Tapper), but this is probably one of the laziest "full heal" items you can get your hands on (or if you don't have a stockpile of purple shrooms for Life Elixirs). It also requires like....no real maintenance beyond the initial setup. Just check it occasionally when your staircase Jades are done duping, get your supplies ready for a good luck day, and dive to your heart's content with little fear of death.

[@albbb96]

About mushrooms: with how absolutely broken Mushroom Logs are you are guaranteed to get a TON of those. Now there is no point taking mushroom cave instead of bat cave just because its not worth it. Yeah, dehydrator, but it's quite cheap anyway so you can have a lot of mushroom and therefore a lot of elixirs anyway. Using Mystic Syrop is kinda bad for this IMHO.

[@danielthompson392]

@@albbb96 not gonna lie, as far as the mushroom caves go, it feels VERY front-loaded as of 1.6 Getting a small stock of dehydrated Common Mushrooms (along with the odd Carrot Seed) by late Spring/early has helped ease the early game energy management on my latest file....but the fruit cave just helps hammer out the bundles so much quicker.

[@nataliejacomini2660]

Having a tiny frog follow you around for me it makes the game better. I love frogs so much, this feature is so great. I really like the fairy to though. Really loved the content sooo much. I love stardewvalley ❤❤😊

[@pokadotplot]

I love combining challenge bait with the statue of blessings fishing buff. Just go pull 9 iridium lava eels for smoking. Nice money maker for the fishing blessing day.

[@Pirokh]

Frog egg is good for skull caverns because it kills Mummies and those invincible bugs if you somehow don't have explosive ammo or bombs with you.

[@crabulonbestgirl9130]

Or just use crusader? Lol

[@Dafins100]

I really enjoyed the mystic trees. I like being able to consistently get lots of purple mushrooms from the logs and the sap is cool.

[@eddy796]

Honestly baffled why the statue of blessings dosent have a pick two option, would make it way better even if you get stuck with the fish/energy ones

[@TiaKatt]

The energy one is so useless by that point in the game. At least on the fishing day I can go snag some lava eels to smoke.

[@appleschloss]

I do wish the blessing statue had choices like the mining one but i find the friendship buff and the speed buffs to be so good. I do think that *most* people when they hit mastery have *not* finished the max friendship requirement for perfection.

[@drhouse6165]

I often used the statue of blessing to decide what I do that day. If I get a mining buff then I'll do that. If I get the friendship buff I'll do a day of gifts.

[@gretcheningram2136]

The friendship buff is the one I find least useful- by that time I have almost everyone at max hearts anyway and only lack Leo and maybe Krobus (who doesn't like movies)

[@dakotakreh6123]

I love the magic hair dye that you can buy from the calico desert event.

[@dedlynightshade]

this is such a solid tier list for a balanced play through, like if you're not doing a challenge and don't dislike any of the skills

[@melit.]

See the reason I love the Frog Egg so much (even though I use the parrot egg the most cause it really does make a ton of money for you, at least from my time playing with it) but back to the frog, i love it so much because there’s different colors and it’s so cute. I wish you could give them little hats

[@erik.isomer]

My gripe with the Ice Rod is when it freezes rock crabs and lava lurks when they’re hidden, or just when it freezes flying enemies when they’re off screen. If it (and the quiver) couldn’t hit invincible enemies it would honestly get so much better

[@noah1535]

Freezing rock crabs is good though? Just break the rock with a pick or bomb. The ice rod exposes them a lot

[@sylvanassith3475]

Another game changing use for the treasure totem - When you're on Ginger Island and doing the weekly Qi Special Orders, for the quest that you need to grow Qi Beans, using the treasure totems is AMAZING! There is no other more efficient means to get a ton of those beans on the first day of the quest. Line the treasure totems along the beach below your ginger island farm. After you dig up the treasure, use the pickaxe on tilled soil to untill it, then you'll be able to place another treasure totem in the same spot.

[@davidchidester5463]

Underated the statue of blessing. Adapting your day around the blessing keeps things exciting. I was doing the hard Skull cavern Qi quest to floor 100. Got a max luck day + luck blessing + magic rock candy + dwarf statue buff to find more stairs. It was so sick. Plus the blessing to boost hearts for talking is a life saver for me who is terrible about staying on top of gifts.

[@Alabastorskyline]

I think the heavy furnace is S tier! Idk about everyone else but for me the late game grind is getting enough materials to make some 550 - 1k kegs (550 is roughly 1 ginger island of crops) for ancient fruit and star fruit, IE a full stack of Iron and Copper on top of the cost of everything else you end up making (tappers, jars, etc) so the furnace is super nice. Its a straight upgrade to the regular furnace, cuts down on the coal cost by 40% (which adds up a lot when your smelting hundreds of bars) AND gives on average 2.5 extra ore for free. It has basically no downside and I got plenty of use out of it well into my 2nd year (mastery at winter 1, year 1)

[@dontknoww8939]

Something you didn’t mention that actually makes the golden mystery boxes even better: once you complete most of the raccoon quests the raccoon’s wife will start trading you 20 golden boxes for a magic rock candy. Absolutely S+ tier mastery reward

[@LeonaDwoske]

Thanks for this info I have given the raccoons so much and mostly only gotten seeds from them so i had stopped . with the option of rock candy i surely will trade with them.

[@anika2238]

I would put statue of blessing higher purely because it has made it possible for me to finally catch the legendary fish without cheats for the first time ever. Yeah it’s gotta line up time wise for the legend with rain in spring but oh boy it saved me so much pain.

[@ascendedsaiyan1804]

I love the Zelda windwaker outset island theme in the back 🥰 great video ❤️

[@cinnamoone3553]

i found the treasure totem to be even more insane on ginger island, where you'll get a MASSIVE amount of omni geodes, artifact troves, and golden coconuts just from one ring

[@illiengalene2285]

On the gems: 4× the tripleshot espresso, 4× the spicy eel, 4× the staircases! YES PLEASE!

[@nimrodyt8359]

This is good. Its a showcase and a rating at the same time. I love it

[@tritan20]

As a player who isn't bad at skull cavern, only taking occasional dings and scrapes; the fairy box was fantastic. Never did I have to consume food for healing specifically. Instead of levels 75-100 I would reach levels 150-200. You can play MUCH more aggressively with combat since you aren't afraid of getting hit as your trusty fairy will heal you for 25 every 3 seconds. The parrot is also great, though, the fairy makes combat fun again, which is invaluable. The anvil should be the last tier. I have yet to get a level 4 anything through this method, even after using well over 400 iridium bars to quell the gambling addiction it causes.

[@Botruc]

Mystic trees are great in combination with the mushroom logs and dehydrators! Also, the quiver is great to push ennemies away from you (bats and serpents for exemple) which makes the dangerous skull cavern super easy.

[@AwkwardBirb]

Mystic syrup is also used for crafting the blue grass starter but by that point in the game the blue grass is pretty much just for aesthetics, as your animals are probably all leveled up.

[@queenevilfluffy]

You know what's handy for getting iridium for the anvil. That heavy furnace you put in B. The heavy furnace is easily S tier. Iridum bars sell for a lot and the furnace allows you to get a ton of it.

[@balta8520]

Personally I find that a couple of mystic trees with heavy tappers make for a really good source of fairy dust. Now I don't even grow fairy roses anymore

[@raxnn]

can someone help me? what was the song used at 2:22 ? is it from dk 64? it sounds so familiar. thanks.

[@ThineHolyBacon]

I love the mystic tree seeds. Love the fairy dust to boost the gold caskets to iridium while working on the gold clock, and the mushrooms mostly being purple was some great income from dehydrators while waiting for the big payoffs of wine each week

[@stretchmtsa5106]

Boy hearing the n64 Pokemon Snap music in the background takes me back. Good background music choice!

[@IncredulousPasserby]

Watching this made me realize how very different your gameplay and the gameplay of others watching these videos is from mine. The playthrough that I started when 1.6 came out is hitting fall year 2 right now. I have 4/5 masteries. I haven’t gotten to Ginger Island yet because I’ve been focusing on special orders & finishing off gaining friendship with everyone. I just got the movie theater. Still haven’t filled out my basement with casks and am still trying to get my animal setup going. I like fishing, and am pretty decent at it, but challenge bait would screw me out of the more rapid fish just by virtue of I’m not a literal robot. Meanwhile, I’m set on copper - gold bars but I still need to go iridium mining so heavy furnaces are GREAT for me. I’m not saying I really disagree with anything you said here, it all makes sense given the playstyle you talk about, just that it’s like looking into a foreign world.

[@Polarthief]

Assuming you are playing 100% unmodded and you don't really "specialize" at all, IMO this would be the order to get them: 1a. Farming - Iridium Scythe is too good for improving harvest speed and the animal cracker just doubles animal money, it's a no brainer. The scythe loses a lot of power if you play with stuff like the Tractor mod or use a ton of Junimo Huts though. 1b. Foraging - All 3 are great. The boxes just give you more good stuff that you will use, the trees are great, especially when combined with the Mushroom Logs, and the Treasure Totem is so good if you still need things from Artifact Spots. I could easily see arguments for making Foraging your first, especially if you do use Junimo Huts for your farm (or as said earlier, use the Tractor mod). You really can't go wrong with either or. I would definitely recommend both for your first two masteries. 2. Mining - Coal is always a bottleneck and this helps to alleviate that headache, not just with the heavy forge, but with the dwarf king statue too. Both are really good for mining. The bonus gems is very meh by the time you have mastery. Even double diamonds isn't that big a deal. Unless you've stopped mining completely, I would take Mining third (possibly even second) just for the boost to coal and/or ores. 3. Fishing - #1 if you love to fish, but otherwise it's alright. As someone who relatively doesn't like fishing, I'm kinda sad there's no Crab Pot benefit in the Fishing Mastery. The double-tackle rod is neat, but something you don't actively use that much if you don't go nuts for fishing. 4. Combat - The mini-forge is basically useless (small QoL buff so you don't have to go to the actual forge), the anvil does nothing on its own and is just for trinkets. That said, trinkets are "fun", but I didn't really find any of them to be too useful. The amount of money you get from the parrot isn't that huge by the time you're doing Mastery unlocks. Don't get me wrong, it's nice, but it's relatively small. I ended up going with the Fairy just so I could bother less watching my HP, which was nice, but not nearly as impactful as the other masteries IMO. Of course, YMMV, but this is my recommendation if you're kinda lost.

[@Katiedid2040]

I would encourage you to take a second look at the parrot pet; it has consistently rivaled and on some days even beaten a full ginger island field of starfruit in terms of g/day for me. It’s definitely better (and easier, imo) than challenge bait fishing. Level 4 parrot pet + monster musk + luck buffs + floors 50-70 in the dangerous mines (bonus for infested floor) and You also get a ton of golden mystery boxes, animal crackers, coal, and because you’re running the jungle floors you also benefit from the most effective hardwood farming method that I’m aware of.

[@Polarthief]

@@Katiedid2040 That's fair; I guess I'm just kinda put off by how much effort you need to make the parrot really good, and Combat Mastery comes with two *basically useless* other things while stuff like Farming/Foraging/Mining come with 2-3 good to great ones. Combat is literally just the trinkets.

[@nonamewriter7950]

For me, the mastery system is a nice bridge between the era of completing the community center and then being obscenely wealthy to have the perfect farm, completing ginger island, etc. For me I'd always lost interest in a save in that between era and to get to that final 'perfect save' felt like a huge grind... to have 'task' to do such as completing masteries bridges what felt to me like 'down time' where I end up slogging through repetitive days or even skipping days to get to what I need, but the mastery objective makes it more purposeful somehow, idk. I do like it even if it's not always completely epic.

[@andyl8055]

Healing fairy is mega powerful. Almost eliminates the need for food unless you’re absolutely gung-ho.

[@dullicecream]

Hey, what’s the music for the Mining Mastery section? It’s not in the description :’)

[@supervisedchaos]

During the mystic tree section you forgot to mention the syrups can be traded.for fairy powder at the raccoon shop... Gather your syrups trade for fairy powder bam casks full of wine are finished

[@riverroad1083]

Something else to consider for the Mystic Trees is that you can trade any excess syrup for fairy dust, giving a steady supply of that without feeling that you're actively losing money from crafting it.

[@DawitZeratsion]

I really liked ur explanation keep it up🔥🔥🔥

[@proud.delusion.enjoyer]

I know it may not the the most practical but fishing is my favorite thing in this game and as soon as I heard about the new rod I FLIPPED😆!!

[@ashurredly7994]

Statue of the Dwarf king is easily an A for me. It makes skull caverns and certain Qi challenges so much easier.

[@CATLOAFMAN]

Stardew with splatoon music is doing something to my brain that I cannot comprehend

[@Nathanael_Forlorn]

A tier list for these individually is a great idea! Though I would disagree on pretty much every rating here, personally. :D

[@alicjak700]

Controversial take: the Iridium Scythe isn't as good as it seems. Sure, it allows you to gather crops faster in real time, BUT! in game time, you actually loose time - especially with single grow crops. Time stops when you gather by hand and plant a new seed - which is huge on mega farms. Even with multiple grow crops, gathering by hand still saves you in game time.

[@T101G]

Yeah I think its a nice QoL thing but I don't think its actually extremely helpful. Id probably put it in B tier.

[@Hs-wl3mn]

Iridium Scythe allows to harvest two rows of trellis plants.

[@T101G]

@@Hs-wl3mn If you're late enough into the game to have mastery, you probably have more profitable crops available than green beans, grapes, and hops.

[@orionstokesweiss2344]

@@T101G In Hops defense, you never have anything more profitable than hops other than golden animal crackered animals or golden chickens. Even ancient fruit must bow it's head before the might of the daily hop harvest

[@alicjak700]

@@orionstokesweiss2344 still, you have to admit that it's a niche usefulness. Just like the Rod from Fishing mastery 🤷‍♀️

[@annbee8903]

i was just thinking i need a new 15 minute salmence video!!!

[@siscokidder]

i wonder how the blessing statues work in multiplayer. does they grant a blessing to any player who uses them, or do they need to have unlocked their respective masteries?

[@spoopgeist7512]

I like the mystic trees for the aesthetic, but i also love the advanced rod for argons price of perfection challenge. Its a free upgrade

[@wolfsraynefan]

For the Mystic Tree Seed, I would have added an argument for mushroom log farming since the Mystic Tree gives the highest rate for Purple Mushrooms so it can be extra lucrative to take the time to take your tree seed stockpile and make a small forest and add in a bunch of logs to get them every few days.

[@zaphenath5915]

The scythe is definitely the best. I did like the Dwarf statue. I was struggling with the scull cavern when I started getting the masteries, and it was a nice boost to finally get to floor 100. Now later in my play through the golden boxes are nice for a consistent way to get rock candy..

[@therudecanadian8068]

On the Ice Rod, the perfect rod actually freezes creatures longer than it takes to recharge. Meaning you can infinitely trap an enemy by making sure its the closest enemy to you. Oh and it hits every mob in a line (with some time lag) It never leaves my trinket slot.

[@natep6729]

I always go for the farming mastery first. That iridium scythe is a game changer.

[@Culturalpain]

Imagine if the frog eats a dust sprite that drops a prisi shard. And you don't get any of it. I've gotten a prisi shard twice from a dust sprite.

[@slwrabbits]

I got one from a green slime. Hard not to laugh at that.

[@joelbrookes351]

have to also remember that the mystic syrup is what makes blue grass, which while not necessarily vital late game is still incredibly useful, let alone just aesthetically nice imo

[@blitzwhitz5949]

mystic tree is actually my ultimate money maker in our multiplayer world, which made me the official money maker of the group. combining lots of the mystic trees with lots of mushroom logs and tappers, then put up dehydrators for the mushrooms that you get from the logs. With that profit, i can make over 40 dehydrated purple mushrooms in 4 days, 2600 per dehydrated purple mushroom, so that's like 100k+ per 4 days. But yes, it is a late game item. I started this mystic syrup/mushroom farm around start of year 3.

[@Aderon]

I think the really big thing for mystic trees once you finish the museum is the fact that with a heavy tapper, you can get a free fairy dust per tree about every 4 days from the raccoon family. I mean fairy dust isn't the most impactful item in the game, but it's nice always nice to have on hand for when you're just a few bars short and don't want to kill time waiting for bars to smelt; so being able to passively generate syrup to trade for fairy dust is incredibly convenient and means not needing to dedicate greenhouse/shed space to fairy roses and diamond crystallariums.

[@FunyunRob]

I wanna argue that you can use the mystic syrup to trade for fairy dust from the raccoons. I’m personally planning to make a large farm for the mystic trees on my farm so I can get tons of the syrup. Gonna use it to make iridium quality wines faster

[@pixel1858]

I did farming -> Forging -> Combat -> Fishing -> Foraging, the only difference I would make in retrospect is do combat before mining just so you have more odds of getting more trinkets while you're grinding out the other skills. I've gotten multiples of all but it'd be nice to have more chances at higher level trinkets.

[@Tippel3]

Two very big benefits from the treasure totems are 1. collecting Omnigeodes when used on ginger island. Skull Cavern can't do anything like that 2. collecting Qi beens, for most space also best on ginger island. You will come out with quite a lot when the quest is active

[@Fencer_Nowa]

Heavy furnice is truly a game changer so i always nab it first. Then farming

[@aimes_seagreen]

Not only are golden boxes versatile, they can also help you obtain magic rock candy!

[@observershroom]

im gonna say that furnaces are a bit underrated here since iridium bars are a pretty good moneymaker lategame esp with the profession that gives you 1,5x bonus for selling ore and it would speed up the process significantly+free up a bit of space edit: also one of the perks (the ladder one) that the dwarf statue gives you makes farming for chest levels in the caves sm easier which is so important for CC runs. Since yk chests are the only way to get one and you might need several depending on how much farm animals you have

[@aisadal2521]

Definitely unlocking the Iridium Scythe first - it'll make harvesting Hops and Coffee Beans much faster, since it takes ages to do so everyday (also will speed up my Pineapple harvests lol)

[@Grappha]

Spoilers: Treasure totem gives golden coconuts Which will help finish the island field office Which gives OSTRITCHE INCUBATOR FINALLY

[@emmerzleigh5540]

Will you still be doing your playthrough you had going before 1.6? I really enjoyed those :)

[@martonbenkovics5258]

A use for mystic syrup i'm not seeing anyone talking about (idk if its good or bad tho) is that you can buy fairy dust with it from the raccoons wife after finishing every quest

[@kim98677]

5 times? How about 10 times. The iridium scythe is literally a game changer. I could easily forego ALL other upgrades for only that one. God I love it.

[@Spencer_PK]

Mastery discussion is so interesting because everyone values each powerful part differently. Here's some of my thoughts and what I would change: Heavy Furnaces are so good as someone who ends up with a lot of ore from the occasional Skull Cavern dive. This item alone makes me want this mastery earlier and I would put it on the top of the tier list. Mystic Trees aren't very useful, but it is fun to plant a bunch of them and use mushroom logs with it. I would move it slightly up. I see Challenge Bait as really cool, but I would rather use targeted bait or deluxe bait instead to work with fish smokers. The only time I've really used Challenge Bait is when I've got the Blessing of Waters. It easily allows perfect catching lava eel in the caldera, so you get 9 iridium quality lava eel to throw into fish smokers. I didn't really see Golden Fishing Treasure Chests as useful until I found out this is basically the only way to "easily" get Stardrop Tea. Good luck days (for higher gold chest chance) can be spent trying to get the tea to either finish friendship cleanup or held onto for birthdays. I would move Challenge Bait down from not using it a lot, and Golden Chests up just because of Stardrop Tea. Combat is probably the mastery I would probably pick last every time because the Mini-Forge is cool but not needed, and the Anvil is basically useless. The Fairy Box trinket is very good though from not needing to to eat so much food to heal. I would move the Anvil to the bottom, and the Mini-Forge slightly up.

[@CyndaWott]

Treasure totem is so OP ESPECIALLY on Ginger Island.