At the end of Ginger Island's Volcano Dungeon, players can discover a unique forge that offers magical enhancements for their tools and weapons. This forge, unlike any ordinary one, allows Stardew Valley players to significantly upgrade their gear using valuable gemstones and crystals. The enhancements are well worth the cost, opening up new possibilities for gameplay.
Though the Volcano Forge may initially seem complex, it becomes straightforward once players grasp the effects they can apply to their items. This guide will detail how to achieve each effect and highlight the most beneficial choices for enhancing your Stardew Valley experience.
Updated January 6, 2025, by Demaris Oxman: Stardew Valley's 1.6 update introduced numerous changes, including small quality-of-life improvements and significant new features like the Mastery system. The update also expanded existing mechanics, such as weapon forging, allowing enchantments to be applied to the Pan and introducing innate enchantments for weapons. This guide has been updated to reflect all the new changes and additions to the Volcano Forge in Stardew Valley 1.6, ensuring players can continue optimizing their tools and weapons.
Obtaining Cinder Shards
To utilize the Volcano Forge, players need 
Cinder Shards, found throughout the Volcano Dungeon. Enchanting or fully forging a single item requires at least 65 Cinder Shards, so players may need to spend time farming these crystals. Here are the ways to obtain them:
- Mining Cinder Shard nodes in the Volcano Dungeon. These nodes are recognizable by their pink-orange specks, as shown in the image above.
- Dropped by certain enemies in the Volcano Dungeon, with specific drop rates:
- Magma Sprite: 50% chance to drop
- Magma Duggy: 40% chance
- Magma Sparker: 50% chance
- False Magma Cap: 50% chance to drop
- Produced from a fishing pond with 7 or more Stingrays, with a 7-9% daily chance of yielding 2-5 Cinder Shards.
Note that Cinder Shards are classified as a resource, not a gemstone, so they cannot be replicated in the Crystalarium.
The Mini-Forge
With Combat Mastery, players can craft a 
Mini-Forge, allowing them to forge weapons and enchant tools without visiting the Volcano Dungeon. The mini-forge operates identically to the larger version and can be placed anywhere. Crafting it requires:
- 5
Dragon Tooth - 10
Iron Bar - 10
Gold Bar - 5
Iridium Bar
Weapon Forging
Players can enhance their weapons' stats using gemstones and Cinder Shards. Each weapon can be forged up to three times, with increasing stat boosts at each level. Forging applies only to weapons, not tools like the Axe, Hoe, Watering Can, or Pickaxe.
The cost escalates with each successive forge: 10 Cinder Shards for the first, 15 for the second, and 20 for the third, alongside a specific gemstone for each desired enhancement:
Amethyst: Increases knockback by +1 per level.
Aquamarine: Boosts critical hit chance by 4.6% x forge level.
Emerald: Enhances weapon speed, adding +2 for the first forge, +3 for the second, and +2 for the third.
Jade: Increases critical hit damage by 10% x forge level.
Ruby: Boosts weapon damage by 10% x forge level.
Topaz: Increases defense by 1 x forge level.
Alternatively, a 
Diamond can add three random upgrades at once, costing 10 Cinder Shards.
Best Upgrades To Pick
Choosing gemstones for weapon forging should align with your play style and objectives. For players aiming to maximize monster slaying, combining Emerald and Ruby for increased speed and damage significantly boosts DPS. Adding Aquamarine or Jade can enhance critical hits further.
For those focused on survival, especially during challenging tasks like Qi Challenges, Topaz and Amethyst are beneficial. They increase defense and knockback, allowing more room to maneuver and absorb hits.
Unforging Weapons
To reset a weapon to its original state, place it in the left square slot of the forge and select the red X symbol. This process recovers some Cinder Shards but not the gemstones used. No additional materials are needed, and while it removes forged upgrades, enchantments remain intact.
Infinity Weapons
Players with the 
Galaxy Sword, 
Galaxy Dagger, or 
Galaxy Hammer can transform these into Infinity Weapons at the Volcano Forge using three Galaxy Souls, each requiring 20 Cinder Shards. The upgraded weapon retains any existing forged upgrades or enchantments.
Galaxy Souls
Galaxy Souls are challenging to acquire and involve completing some of Stardew Valley's toughest challenges. Here are the primary methods to obtain them:
- Purchase from Mr. Qi in Mr. Qi's Walnut Room for 40 Qi Gems each.
- Defeat a Big Slime with a Galaxy Soul inside in the Dangerous Mines, during Mr. Qi's "Danger in the Deep" or "Skull Cavern Invasion" quests.
After defeating at least 50 Dangerous Monsters, two more methods become available:
- Purchase from the Island Trader on the last day of the season for 10
Radioactive Bar each. - Galaxy Souls may drop from Dangerous Monsters.
Enchantments
Enchantments add unique effects to weapons and tools, making them more efficient or resource-preserving. Any tool or melee weapon can be enchanted using a 
Prismatic Shard and 20 Cinder Shards. The enchantment applied is random, but players can re-enchant to try for a different effect, mindful of the cost in rare materials.
Weapon Enchantments
Possible weapon enchantments include:
- Artful: Halves the cooldown for special moves.
- Bug Killer: Doubles damage to specific bugs and allows killing of Armored Bugs.
- Crusader: Doubles damage to certain undead enemies and permanently kills mummies.
- Vampiric: 9% chance to regain health equal to 10% of the monster's max health upon killing.
- Haymaker: Increases the chance of dropping fiber and hay when cutting weeds.
Among these, Bug Killer and Crusader are typically the most beneficial, enhancing damage against challenging enemies. Haymaker is generally considered the least useful due to the abundance of fiber and hay.
Innate Enchantments
Using a Dragon Tooth, players can apply innate enchantments to melee weapons, which are similar to stat improvements from forging. Weapons can receive one enchantment from each of the following sets:
| Enchantment | Effect |
|---|---|
| Slime Slayer | More damage to Slimes |
| +25-75 Crit Power | Increases Critical Power |
| +1-5 Attack | Increases Attack stat |
| +1-X Speed | Increases swing speed |
| Enchantment | Effect |
|---|---|
| Slime Gatherer | More Slime drops from Slimes |
| +1-2 Defense | Increases Defense |
| –1-5 Weight | Reduces Knockback effect |
Tool Enchantments
Tools have specific enchantments tailored to their functions:
| Enchantment | Compatible Tools | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-Hook | Fishing Rod | Immediately hooks fish or junk |
| Archeologist | Hoe, Pan | Increases artifact find rates |
| Bottomless | Watering Can | Endless water supply |
| Efficient | Axe, Hoe, Watering Can, Pickaxe, Fishing Rod | No energy drain when used |
| Fisher | Pan | 10% chance to catch location-specific fish |
| Generous | Hoe, Pan | Doubles item find rates |
| Master | Fishing Rod | Increases Fishing skill by 1 |
| Powerful | Axe, Pickaxe | Adds extra power levels |
| Preserving | Fishing Rod | 50% chance to preserve tackle and bait |
| Reaching | Hoe, Watering Can, Pan | Increases area of effect to 5x5 tiles |
| Shaving | Axe | Increases drops from trees and crops |
| Swift | Axe, Hoe, Pickaxe | 33% faster tool use |
Best Enchantments For Each Tool
- Axe: Shaving for resource gathering, Swift or Efficient for energy efficiency.
- Watering Can: Bottomless for endless water.
- Hoe: Generous for resources, Archeologist for museum completion, Reaching or Efficient for large-scale farming.
- Pickaxe: Swift and Powerful for faster mining.
- Fishing Rod: Preserving for conserving bait and tackle.
- Pan: Generous and Reaching for better treasure and artifact hunting.
