There are some items in Stardew Valley that you can go your whole farming career without ever obtaining, and your experience wouldn’t change too much. After all, in this game, rare materials aren’t always required for recipes or for quests. Such is the case with the Pearl, one of the rarest and most intriguing items in Stardew Valley.
However, that’s not to say it’s not desirable. Much like learning how to rotate furniture or remove bushes from your farm, some lessons pay dividends over time. So, with that in mind, let’s talk about where and how to obtain a Pearl, and why it might be worth your time.
From Artifact Trove
The best chance you’ve got for a Pearl is from the Artifact Trove. Artifact Troves can be purchased from the Desert Trader for 5 Omni Geodes, though it can be found as a random drop. It drops a random set of artifacts for you, one of which is the small, circular rock from the sea. Don’t get too excited, though, since it’s only a 4% chance to be in a given trove.
Artifact Troves are usually traded for. Once you get the Desert Trader, you need 5 Omni Geodes, a relatively rare rock that can be broken open for minerals. You can find these geodes from many, many, many different sources, from later floors of the Mines to Supply Crates. Digging them up on Ginger Island tends to be the least expensive and most consistent, though an Octopus Fish Pond is a good investment if you want many of them.
Other than trading, you can also find them by farming Haunted Skulls (post Vault Bundle), looting them from Supply Crates on the Beach Farm when upgraded enough, or by digging them up in the Dig Site on Ginger Island.
Cracking these open costs 25g at the Blacksmith. You’ll get some fun items for it, though most of them are Artifacts. Be ready to either sell or donate most of these!
From Night Market Festival
If you want to fish out some pearls, you have a chance during the Submarine Ride during the Night Market Festival. During the 15th to 17th of Winter, you can enter the Submarine for 1,000g and attempt to catch some rare fish, like the Super Cucumber. Keep in mind, however, that the Pearl has an agonizingly low 0.4% chance to be caught.
The sea treasure can be caught during this quest, though you are more likely to catch the rare fish that exist down here — The Blobfish, Spook Fish, and Midnight Squid. You have an exceptionally hard journey ahead of you if you want to hook a pearl.
However, there are ways to improve your chances! By attaching a Curiosity Lore — a lootable item from monsters and crates in the Quarry Mine, Skull Cavern, or Volcano Dungeon — to an Iridium Rod, you increase your odds of catching a Pearl or another rare fish up to a 0.9% chance. Ugh. Well, once per 100 casts isn’t too bad!
Bring a lot of Curiosity Lures, a Warp Totem or Return Scepter, and a lot of fishing food. You’ll be down here for a while, and you don’t have much time!
From Blobfish Fish Pond
Speaking of the Blobfish, this ugly fellow has a chance of producing Pearls in a Fish Pond. Once you have a Pond with two Blobfish, they can reproduce every four days. Once you upgrade their pond to a capacity of 9-10, they will start making Pearls. The chance that they give you a pearl instead of anything else is a measly 2%, but it happens automatically.
Catching a Blobfish is very difficult outside of the Night Market Minigame. They’re fairly common during that time, especially with a Curiosity Lure. Outside of that two day period, however, you’re left waiting.
If you’re a risk taker, you can take Magic Bait to the left-most pier, running to the bottom-left of it, turning to the west, and casting. This is a very low chance, so don’t expect a Blobfish on your first cast, but it is possible to fish them up out of season.
Once the Blobfish begin reproducing, you can increase the pond’s capacity with some of the following items:
- 1-3: 3 Coral, 2 Frozen Tears, 2 Sea Urchins
- 3-5: 5 Coffee Beans, 1 Mayonnaise, 1 Pizza
- 5-7: 1 Cookie, 1 Green Tea, 1 Wine
- 7-10: 1 Rainbow Shell, 1 Rice Pudding
Thankfully, you only need one group of a named item. For example, to unlock the 3-Size pond, you’ll only need three Coral or two Frozen Tears or two Sea Urchins, not all three types.
Other Ways to Get Pearls
There are a few other ways to get pearls, all of which are guaranteed to get you somewhere. The following methods are very viable:
- One Guaranteed from solving Journal Scrap #6 on Ginger Island
- One from Willy if you complete a ten-crab Fishing Pond
- One by performing the sequence 1-5-4-2-3 on the Mermaid Boat of Night Market
- Once you’ve activated the Shrine of Challenge, there is a small chance to get one in the Dangerous Mines.
Journal Scrap #6 is a fairly simple map. Head to the area southeast of the Island Farmhouse. The X on the map shows where the sand indents into the east side of the shore’s dirt. Dig there to get a Pearl and the Golden Walnut.
Making a Pond of ten crabs is fairly simple. You need five Clay, ten Bug Meat or five Quartz, and one Sea Urchin, five Solar Essence, or one Wild Bait. Crabs don’t exactly provide an insanely profitable output of goods, but they can spit out a fun variety of trash for recycling.
The 1-5-4-2-3 sequence can only provide one pearl per player. That means that, in a multiplayer world, you can get as many pearls as there are players guaranteed. Considering this is for free, this is a massive profit.
What To Do With Pearls
Pearls can be sold for a massive 2,500g. Every single NPC in the game loves pearls and will give the maximum number of friendship to you for giving them one. You can also make a Bridal Veil with one, if you like wearing your money on your head.
The two most potent uses of a Pearl is to turn a profit or to guarantee a love during a birthday. 2,500g for a single item is, frankly, extremely good. It’s almost always worth the headache of getting one!
However, if someone’s birthday is coming up and you can’t get their Loved gift in time, throwing a Pearl at them is very reasonable. No matter who it is, if it’s their birthday, this is an extremely good way to get into their hearts. Even outside of their birthday, it’ll provide a large bonus.
Otherwise, you can make it into clothing or trade it with the Desert Trader for a bed. If you value cosmetics, that’s fine and dandy! Just make sure it’s worth losing 2,500g for it.
