Entering the Mines of Stardew Valley is one of the most overwhelming parts of the game. On each floor, you’ll encounter dozens of materials, from monster drops to minerals in each rock. One such mineral that you are going to encounter quite often is Fire Quartz, a material that you can pick off of the ground on the later floors of the game.
Accessing this rock will be a crucial part of end-game farm setups, due to how critical Refined Quartz is in building. Needless to say, there’s plenty to learn with this mineral. This guide will explain everything you need to know about how to get it and how to farm it!
Fire Quartz Locations
Fire Quartz is found on the later floors of the Mines and in all of Skull Cavern. It is a spiky, red rock that is found on lava levels. You have a chance of acquiring it when opening Magma and Omni Geodes. You also have a chance to find it when you fish up a Treasure Chest, Pan for loot, or look inside of a Garbage Can once you’ve reached Floor 120.
The end-game levels of the Mines are when you’ll normally find Fire Quartz for your first time. Floor 81 is when you can start finding them for yourself, and they can spawn on floors until floor 119. Since you can’t mine them out of nodes, you will be able to see if a floor has any Fire Quartz — or regular Quartz — quite quickly. Thankfully, its only real competition on that front is its non-fiery sibling.
The Skull Cavern also has a chance to spawn this mineral. As Skull Cavern is post-Mine in terms of difficulty, you will find Fire Quartz on the earlier floors, rather than later. The spawn rate seems rather inconsistent due to the increased competition of rare ore. Still, you should see it as you travel down towards the bottom of the desert cave.
Cracking either a Magma or Omni Geode has a chance to get you a Fire Quartz. A Magma Geode has a 1/16 chance to give you one, making it one of the more consistent resources from the item. Since Omni Geodes have many more items and all Foraged Minerals — such as the Earth Crystal and Frozen Tear — within them, the chance goes down drastically.
Maximizing your Magma Geode farm also means checking the Hill-Top Farm type or Four Corners Farm quarries, and checking the Railroad Train when possible. Lava Eels, when put into a Pond, can produce a ton of Magma Geodes at maximum population: 5-10 per day, with a low chance of actively doing so.
Since Garbage Cans are not a consistent source of farming any item, you can turn to panning or fishing. Panning — unlocked by clearing the Fish Tank Bundles — offers a 4.2% chance to gather a Fire Quartz. Fishing up a treasure chest will grant you around the same chance to pick up the mineral. Panning is definitely the better option of the two if you’re looking for the fiery mineral.
How to Farm Fire Quartz
While the Skull Cavern is a decent place to farm Fire Quartz, floors 80-120 of the Mines are much more consistent. While you can still mostly only pick up the Quartz on your way down, its much easier to find Magma Geodes on these floors, since they’re in well-defined Nodes instead of random barrel drops.
For consistent farms, ensuring that you have a chance to see both the on-the-ground Fire Quartz and Magma Geodes is important. You won’t get many of the red mineral, so maximizing your odds to both crack some open from Magma Geodes and pick them off the floor is a good idea.
If you aren’t in the mood to go spelunking, then Panning is the next best thing. Since each successful pan gives you around a 4% chance, you can expect to find one Fire Quartz every 20 pans. This is not exceptionally high odds, but you don’t need too many of the mineral. And, if you pan, you’ll also be getting high quality ores for your trouble! Since panning doesn’t take any energy, you can theoretically do it all day!
Other Uses For Fire Quartz
Fire Quartz can be refined in a Furnace to make Refined Quartz, a recipe for many different automation inventions, like the Lightning Rod or Farm Computer. By itself, it is a well-liked gift for townsfolk that is used in both the Geologist’s Bundle and the recipe for the Slime Egg-Press. It can be tailored into a Shirt or Red Dye, and can be requested randomly at the Help Wanted board.
Fire Quartz can be sold for 100g. With the Gemologist profession, it can instead be sold for 130g. This is significantly more than selling Refined Quartz, but it still makes a poor profit-maker.
By far, the most impressive thing about this fiery mineral is making three Refined Quartz a pop. This is a relatively important crafting material, used to make items like Solar Panels and Slime Hutches. If you want Batteries, it’ll probably require some of this!
But, that’s far from all. If you don’t refine it, it can be used in the Geologist’s Bundle. It is required, as are all Forageable Minerals. Make sure you save one for that pack! Completing the bundle rewards you with five Omni Geodes and gets you a step closer to clearing the Boiler Room. That unlocks Mine Carts to let you fast travel between the Bus Stop, Mines, Quarry, and Town.
The raw form of Fire Quartz is needed for a Slime Egg-Press. This brilliant device makes Slime Eggs, another method to make money from Combat. Since you’ll need Refined Quartz for the Hutch as well, you’ll need quite a lot of the Fiery mineral to make your Slime Empire! You’ll need to be at Combat Level 6 for the recipe.
If you’d like, you can always throw one in the Sewing Machine alongside some Cloth! It’ll make a spiffy Red Shirt that can’t be dyed. Alternatively, it’s a very red object, making it red dye. Nice and simple, really.
Expert Tip
Once you reach Fishing level 4 and the Crystalarium, the Recycling Machine becomes the most consistent source of Refined Quartz in the game. So, you can instead turn Fire Quartz in for a profit, or use it as a hyper-consistently Liked gift. Since it sells for 100g, it is actually one of the cheaper options for Universally Liked.
