The mines of Stardew Valley are fit to burst with random minerals that you may or may not need. One of those gemstones, the Amethyst, is one of little monetary value. This purple, lumpy stone would appear to be quite poor as a rock to locate and farm. However, you might want to know what it is used for before you start selling them willy-nilly. Gemstones almost always have a purpose, no matter the price.
The Amethyst is a mineral and gemstone type in Stardew Valley, like the Topaz. It is a lumpy, purple rock that has a relatively high spawn rate due to its low base price of 100g. With the Gemologist profession, this boosts up to 130g. That still makes it one of the worst selling gems in the game, just in front of the Topaz.
Where To Find Amethyst
Amethyst is most commonly located in its specific node, a rock with sharp purple spikes that is available on every floor of the dungeon. It can also be found from Gem Nodes, Dwarvish Sentries, Fishing, and Panning, much like other gemstone types. The Green Slime can uniquely drop the purple mineral, albeit at a very low rate.
Amethyst nodes, like pictured below, are the way to find this gemstone early on. You’ll encounter this node type often while you’re exploring the first 40 Mine levels, since it is one of the few gemstones that spawn this early. However, it can be found at any point in the Mines or Skull Caverns. It’s not too hard to find, but it can be inconsistent as you get deeper and deeper into the dungeon.
You can also find them through generic ways to farm Gemstones, such as cracking Gem Nodes, Fishing for treasure chests, panning in the River, or killing Dwarvish Sentries in the Volcano Dungeon. These all put the purple quartz in competition with most other gemstones, making farming through this method slow. Similarly, you can dig them out of Garbage Cans, though that fights against an absolutely absurd loot pool.
However, Fish Ponds offer another way. By putting Super Cucumbers in a Fish Pond and getting their population to 9, they can spawn a few Amethyst every day.
Different Ways To use Amethyst
Amethyst make for fantastic gifts, though be sure to save one for the Treasure Hunter’s Bundle if you have the Remixed rules. By putting one into a melee weapon in the Forge, you can increase the weapon’s knockback. Sewing one together with some Cloth can net you a slick purple shirt, or it can be made into purple dye. It is also used for a myriad of quests.
The knockback quality of the gemstone is perhaps the most critical aspect of it. Adding a level of knockback to any melee can make you almost invincible, as long as your timing is good. Investing in knockback instead of a damage quality on at least one melee weapon can help you in situations where you might otherwise be swarmed by small enemies, like Dust Sprites.
Expert Tip
This gemstone is used in more quests than most other gems. You’ll want to keep a stockpile of around 10 for safety purposes, as several fish ponds, random quests, and friendship quests will ask for one to three Amethysts. Once you’ve cleared the quests, you only need as many of the purple rock as you want to put knockback on weapons, since it is only used for gifting otherwise.
Fastest Way To Farm Amethyst
The fastest way to farm Amethyst is through Crystalariums, as they provide guaranteed drops of the purple mineral after a little less than a full day. However, early on, you can farm them from the first 40 floors of the dungeon before you hit the bottom of the mines. If you touch the bottom floor of the mines, most Gemstones cover the first 40 floors, making farming the purple stone less consistent.
Crystalariums are a late-game structure obtained after Mining 9. This recipe is expensive (99 Stone, 5 Gold Bars, 2 Iridium Bars, and a Battery), but provides consistent stone replication that you can do while mining other objects. A Crystalarium cloning Amethyst makes you over 100g per day, which isn’t terrible profit.
If you want to farm only Amethyst without cloning technology, you’ll want to do so before you touch the bottom of the mines. That spawns different varieties of nodes from level 1-40, keeping the purple nodes from spawning as much.
