Best Enchantments in Stardew Valley Ranked

Highlights

• Enchant your tools for extra perks, like double artifact chances or infinite water.
• Combat gets a boost with enchantments like Crusader for more damage to specific enemies.
• Increase productivity on your farm with Reaching enchantment for a larger tile-range.

Stardew Valley is the game that keeps on giving. Despite being around for nearly a decade now, it remains one of the most popular games on Steam and a beloved title within the indie community. Thanks to Eric Barone’s constant updates, it keeps bringing fun little surprises with each replay.

However, one thing that has remained constant is how simple and intuitive the combat within this game is. But, when the player visits the Volcano Dungeon for the first time, the Forge will open up a whole new lane of possibilities, with enchantments being one of the coolest on offer.

Players can add magical qualities to their weapons and tools, but that begs the question: which enchantments are best? Well, we aim to answer that question once and for all.

We will include a mix of weapon enchantments and tool enchantments to give you a full flavor of what’s on offer at the Volcano Dungeon Forge.

10

Archaeologist

Fill Up The Museum Fast!

We kick things off with an enchantment that will appeal to anyone on the hunt for those last few artifacts needed to complete your Museum collection. This enchantment, when used on a Hoe, gives you double the chances of finding artifacts in digging spots, and when used on a Pan, you’ll have more chance of finding Artifact Troves, Bone Fragments, and Artifacts along with any ore you pan in the water.

This isn’t quite as lucrative of an enchantment as another compatible option, ‘Generous,’ which we will get to later. But if you are struggling to pull up some rare Artifacts like a

Dinosaur Egg

, for example, this can be a great way to reduce your search time considerably.

9

Bottomless

It’s Not Quite As Good As Bottomless Mimosas, But Still…

Anyone that has played even one day in Stardew Valley will know that having a limited supply of water in your watering can is a pain in the butt. One moment, you’ll be soaking your field of crops, and the next moment, you’ll run dry and need to trek across your farm to the nearest water source. Which, if you haven’t installed a Well, can be some distance away.

Well, the solution to this is to equip your watering can with the ‘Bottomless’ enchantment, which will ensure that you never have to fill your watering can ever again.

Granted, by the time you reach Ginger Island and gain access to the forge, you’ll be reliant on

Iridium Sprinkler

anyway, but this is a good option if you’re someone who likes manually watering crops to maximize growing space. Plus, you’ll always have some water to ensure your dog or kitty is hydrated.

8

Auto Hook

Hook, Line & Sinker

Any keen fisherman in Stardew Valley will know that you can’t ever truly switch off when fishing, as you need to be alert and listen for the audio cue that indicates a fish is on the hook.

However, if you equip your fishing rod with the Auto Hook enchantment, you’ll be able to cast a line, zone out, and the fishing rod will hook the fish for you, meaning all you have to do is reel that sucker in.

It’s not the most remarkable enchantment on this list, but it is a very convenient one that ensures that you won’t let any fish get away without at least putting up a fight first.

7

Shaving

All Bark and No Bite

If you want to get anywhere in terms of progression in Stardew Valley, you need to chop trees, obtain lots of wood, and give

Robin

, the town carpenter, a lot of business. However, it can take a lot of time to chop down these trees and regrow them when the supply runs low, and it also costs a lot of energy, which could be used on other activities in the game.

So, you can equip your Axe with the ‘Shaving’ enchantment, which offers 3x extra wood as standard from normal trees and also gives you more produce from Mushroom Trees, Giant Crops, and

Hardwood

from Stumps and Mahogany Trees.

The latter is very welcome, as Hardwood can be tough to acquire consistently, especially if you didn’t select the Forest Farm at the beginning of the game. So, if you’re someone who uses

Wood

to craft a lot of items, this is a must-have enchantment.

6

Crusader

The Undead’s Undoing

Next, we have our first combat-related enchantment that you can apply to almost any weapon. The Crusader enchantment is very useful when taking on specific tasks for the Adventurer’s Guild or grinding through the lower levels of the Mines. As this weapon enchantment allows players to kill Mummies without the use of

Bomb

, and also does 50% more damage to Ghosts, Void Spirits, and Skeletons.

It seems like an enchantment that would be a nailed-on favorite, but we rank it rather low on this list for two reasons. One is that if you play on PC, the 1.6 Update introduced the

Holy Blade

, which offers the Crusader enchantment as standard, making it available much earlier in the game.

Plus, the types of enemies it helps kill aren’t those you will readily encounter in late-game areas like the Skull Cavern, which limits the scope of this enchantment. That being said, it’s still a good weapon enchantment to have on hand, just in case.

5

Vampiric

This is the sword of a killer, Bella!

If you want to live out your sparkly Twilight vampire fantasy, this enchantment will be right up your alley. The ‘Vampiric’ enchantment allows players to zap health from enemies when they deal damage.

This effectively means that if you’re a skilled warrior, you can replenish your health through battle rather than bringing a bucket-load of food items, which makes for cost-effective spelunking.

When this enchantment takes effect, it gives you roughly 10% of the monster’s health, which can add up, especially if you have a high-luck build to ensure it triggers often.

So, if you want to keep your food item consumption low, and use your combat prowess to make trips to the mines more lucrative, this is a brilliant enchantment to slap on a weapon and take with you.

4

Generous

Single Artifact Spot, Double Loot

As we mentioned earlier, Generous is the sister enchantment to the ‘Archaeologist’ enchantment, and the better-looking sister at that. This one allows the player to dig up double the items from dig spots when applied to your Hoe, and increases the amount of non-ore items you can obtain when using your Pan.

This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when you consider the things that can be dug up underground, the added 50% chance to double your haul becomes a very attractive notion.

You could dig up a

Golden Animal Cracker

, a skill book like

Mining Monthly

, or big-ticket Artifacts like

Strange Doll (green)

. So, if you want to get more out of every Artifact Spot, the Generous enchantment is a great option.

3

Efficient

Use Tools With Careless Abandon

As someone who has got deep into the Skull Cavern mines, and knows what it takes to reach the bottom, I can say with firsthand knowledge that needing to mine your way through mountains of debris is a run-killer, as swinging your Pickaxe will eventually tucker you out, and you’ll be forced to head home, or pass out from exhaustion.

Now, granted, Bombs and food items will help solve this problem, but if you’re running low on supplies, or just want to be a little more thrifty, then the ‘Efficient’ enchantment can be a brilliant ally.

When equipped to a tool, this will ensure that when using this tool you won’t expend any energy at all, which means you can smash rocks to your heart’s content.

It’s a great one to add to your Pickaxe, and also your Watering can if you don’t have access to a ton of Sprinklers.

2

Artful

Block, Stab, Or Slam At Will

Our runner-up is the ‘Artful’ enchantment, a magical weapon enchantment that allows you to lower the cooldown time of special moves. If you don’t know how Special moves work in Stardew Valley, it will allow you to either block incoming attacks, triple stab, or ground pound with more consistency.

This is an absolutely incredible enchantment as it makes you into a more well-rounded combatant who can fend off foes with ease, and this is only more apparent when this enchantment is combined with the Acrobat skill, which will lower your cooldown by a whopping 75%.

While some will prefer to avoid using special moves as they do require timing and practice to use effectively, if you’re a fan of these moves, then you simply have to equip Artful as your weapon enchantment.

1

Reaching

More Tiles Means More Time

Then, in our top spot, we have an enchantment that will send your productivity on the farm into the stratosphere. As you will likely know, upgrading your tools is essential to cutting down the amount of time each action takes, as this will allow you to effect more tiles per action. However, even with maxed-out tools, you’ll wish you could do more per action.

Well, that wish can be granted if you equip the ‘Reaching’ enchantment, which allows you to up your grid of effect from 4×4 to 5×5, enabling you to service 25 tiles simultaneously.

This is such a versatile tool enchantment, as it will allow you to water more crops, till fields faster, hunt for artifacts with more efficiency, and save on energy as you go. It’s my pick of the bunch and an absolute godsend to anyone who loves nothing more than min-maxing and getting the most out of every second of your day in Stardew Valley.