Luck In Stardew Valley – Everything You Need To Know

Do you sometimes feel like you’ve had a very lucky day in Stardew Valley? You’ve found a lot of gems, discovered treasure while fishing, and harvested more grapes off your vine? That’s because there’s a hidden mechanic in Stardew Valley called Luck! To learn all about it, read on!

What Is Luck?

Luck is an elusive statistic in Stardew Valley that tracks… how lucky you are! It functions exactly the same as in the real world. If you’re lucky on a given day, good things happen to you. If you’re having an unlucky day, some mildly annoying things happen to you. Translated to Stardew Valley, on a better day you may get more crops from a single harvest, higher quality fish, treasure, more gems and Ore; and more!

Although this may sound like a big deal, luck only influences your activities in a mild way. You’re either a tiny bit luckier, or a tiny bit unluckier. You’ll never have to worry about having an awful day in Stardew Valley where everything goes wrong just because your Luck on that particular day is low.

Luck is measured on a day-to-day basis. When you wake up in Stardew Valley, a randomly generated number will determine your Daily Luck on that day. The number will be between -0.1 and +0.1. This means that there’s basically no such thing as a lucky or unlucky character; every day will be different.

Daily Luck

Your Luck stat is hidden from plain view, but you can get an approximate understanding of how lucky you are on any given day by watching the “Fortune Teller” on television. This is one of the several TV channels you can watch in Stardew Valley, and possibly the most important one!

Upon turning the TV on and selecting the correct channel, you’ll see an old lady wearing a blue robe. She will tell you one of the following things, indicating your Daily Luck (D. L.) for the day:

As you can see, there are six possible levels of luck in Stardew Valley. Use this info to plan your day! Make it a habit to check the “Fortune Teller” TV channel every time you wake up. This will help you plan your daily activities around how lucky you are on that day. For example, if you’re extremely fortunate, you can plan to take the bus to the Calico Desert and spelunk the Skull Cavern. If, on the other hand, the spirits are very displeased, you may want to save time and money and travel to the desert tomorrow.

What Does Luck Affect?

1. Mining

When it comes to Mining, higher Luck means…

• Higher chance to find ladders – This is the most important thing when it comes to the relationship between Mining and Luck. In Stardew Valley, each time you use your Pickaxe, there’s a small chance that there is a ladder hidden beneath the rock you mine. You need to find ladders to get deeper into the mines; something that is especially important in the Skull Cavern for two reasons. One, you can’t save your progress in the Skull Cavern. Two, the lower levels of the Skull Cavern contain far greater treasures.
• Higher chance to find Coal – There’s a chance you’ll acquire a bit of Coal whenever you mine a piece of Stone. This chance increases the happier the spirits are on that day. There’s no such thing as too much coal.
• More Geodes, Mystic Stones, Gems, Crates, Barrels – More, more, more is the moto of mining when the spirits are happy. You’ll find more Geodes, Mystic Stones, and Gem Nodes when you’re having a good day. You’ll also find more various containers in the mines – crates and barrels – which you can destroy for a chance to find a special item. Finding Gem Nodes can be extra profitable for a Geologist.
• Less money and items lost when dying – Passing out in the Mines, and especially in the Skull Cavern, can be quite costly. However, the costs are much lower on a good day than on a bad.
• Chance to find a “treasure room” – Special, small rooms akin to those that appear every ten levels in the Pelican Town mines can appear in the Skull Cavern as well. These rooms contain a single treasure chest in the middle and nothing else. The more fortunate you are, the more likely you are to find such a room, once you’ve surpassed floor level ten in the Skull Cavern.
• Chance to find a Prismatic Shard – One of the rarest and most precious items in the game.

2. Combat

There are four main types of weapons in Stardew Valley: Swords, Clubs, Daggers, and Slingshots. Daggers are of interest to us here. When you choose to use a Dagger, you’ll be hinging on critical chance – the chance that your next attack will deal bonus damage. This percent chance is affected by Luck. Every point of it increases your farmer’s critical strike chance by 2.5%.

For best results, choose the Scout and Desperado professions as well!

3. Farming

Farming is the very core of Stardew Valley, and there’s plenty to gain from being more fortunate when it comes to this aspect of the game. One better days:

• You’re more likely to gain extra crops.
• You’re more likely to find special animal products.

On a good day, you can find rare animal products such as Duck Feather and Rabbit’s Foot. Both of these items can spawn in place of the more common animal product of its kind; Ducks normally produce Duck Eggs, and Rabbits normally produce Wool. If you have a happy animal on your hands, and the spirits are in your favor, you’ll find the more coveted, Duck Feather and Rabbit’s Foot instead.

Furthermore, on a lucky day, you’re more likely to gain extra harvests from your crops. For example, instead of one Blueberry, Tomato, or Potato, you can collect two or three when harvesting the plant. If you’re thinking ahead, consider eating a food item that increases your Luck before you start harvesting a full field of crops. You’ll end up with way more crops, and way more money.

4. Fishing

When it comes to fishing, Luck has the most impact on Treasure Chests. With more fortune, you’re more likely to:

• Find Treasure Chests
• Find useful items in treasure chests

Each time you fish, there’s a 15% chance you’ll find a Treasure Chest, but you don’t have to be satisfied by such a low number! You can increase the probability of finding a chest by using a Magnet in your “bait” slot on the Fishing Rod. Further, you can select the Treasure Hunter and Pirate professions. With all that, you’ll have a 50% chance to find treasure. Your Daily Luck will have a small impact on this as well.

More importantly, your Luck has an effect on what’s going to be inside the treasure chests too. There are certain “special items” that will only appear if you’re lucky. Further, when the spirits are in good humor, they may increase the number of items you gain. For example, instead of two Geodes, you may find four, and instead of ten Bait, you may find twenty.

5. Foraging

When it comes to foraging, all this stat affects is the number of Wood your farmer gains from chopping down a tree. If the Fortune Teller’s news is good, take the day to chop up all the trees on your farm, and enjoy a stack of lumber that’ll last you for weeks.

6. Miscellaneous

More Luck also means…

• Your spouse is less likely to become jealous when you give another bachelor or bachelorette a gift. This allows you to build a friendship with others without worrying about your spouse’s feelings.
• You’re more likely to find useful items in garbage cans. No spoilers, but make sure no other NPCs are around to see you rummaging through their bins!
• There is a higher chance of lightning when it rains. This means you’ll be able to collect Battery Packs from Lightning Rods with more ease. Enjoy the storm!
• You’ll do better at slots in the Casino.
• You’ll get more stuff from panning. You’ll get a certain number of ore when you pan, but there’ll be a higher chance you get a second item as well. Usually, this second item will be a gem or an artifact.

How To Increase Luck

Permanently?

There are two ways to permanently increase your luck:

• Special Charm – increases your Daily Luck by +0.025
• Lucky Ring – increases your Luck by +1.

1. Special Charm

The Special Charm is a Wallet item that can be found upon unlocking the secret puzzle behind Secret Note #20. In order to acquire it, you’ll need to get the Magnifying Glass Wallet item first and find Secret Note #20. Once you’ve found the note, you’ll need to follow the map depicted on the note; it asks you to stand in the middle of the Pelican Town square and follow directional arrows until you reach the Jojamart parking lot. Then, the driver of a van will ask for a Rabbit’s Foot. In return, you’ll get the Special Charm! For more detailed instructions, read our article below

2. Lucky Ring

Although the path to finding the Special Charm is complex, it may in fact be harder to find the Lucky Ring. This is because it’s totally random if you’re going to find it or not! The Lucky Ring can be found as loot in the Skull Cavern or the Quarry mine. There is also a small chance you can find it by panning. Once you’ve got the ring, equip and enjoy a +1 to your Luck forever, unless you choose to remove it.

Temporarily?

You can temporarily increase your Luck by eating some of the cooked dishes that grant a buff to your Luck. These dishes will increase your luck by between +1 and +5, and the buff will last between five and 11 minutes. A day consumes about 14 minutes (from 06:00 AM to 02:00 AM) so some of these dishes will have you buffed for nearly the entire day.

Here is a list of +Luck food items and how to acquire their recipes:

• Fried Eel: +1
• Spicy Eel: +1
• Banana Pudding: +1
• Ginger Ale: +1
• Shrimp Cocktail: +1
• Pumpkin Soup: +2
• Lucky Lunch: +3
• Magic Rock Candy: +5

It’s important to note that these effects do not stack. You won’t have +5 Luck if you eat one Fried Eel and two Pumpkin Soups. You can only have one single +Luck buff active at a time.

1. Fried Eel

This is one of the simplest dishes that you can cook to increase your Luck. You’ll get the recipe for Fried Eel once you’ve reached three hearts of friendship with George. To cook it, all you need is one bottle of Oil (purchased for 100g at Pierre’s General Store) and one Eel. You can fish Eels up at the beach when it’s raining, during Spring or Fall.

2. Spicy Eel

Spicy Eel provides you with another use for Eel. You’ll get this recipe from George as well, this time once you’ve surpassed seven hearts of friendship. In addition to an Eel, this recipe calls for a Hot Pepper – a fruit crop that grows in the Summer.

Additionally, you can purchase this dish from the Desert Trader in exchange for one Ruby, or find it in the rotating stocks at the Stardrop Saloon, or at Krobus’ shop on Saturdays. Finally, you can find Spicy Eel as loot when you kill Serpents in the Skull Cavern, or from Lava Eel Fish Ponds.

3. Banana Pudding

While this recipe is not complicated in itself, you’ll first need to acquire Bananas. These are grown from Banana Trees, which you can only acquire during the late game in Stardew Valley. You can purchase a Banana Sapling from the Island Trader for five Dragon teeth. You’ll find the recipe for this pudding at the Island Trader too, purchasable for 30 Bone Fragments.

Once you’ve acquired a Banana, the recipe is a breeze. Buy some Sugar from Pierre’s General Store, grab one bottle of Milk from your barn, and you’re set.

4. Ginger Ale

Another delight from Ginger Island. To create Ginger Ale, you must first purchase the recipe from the Dwarf Shop in the Volcano Dungeon for 1000 gold. After that, all you need is three Ginger and one Sugar. You can find Ginger growing all over the island, and it requires a hoe to be harvested. It can also be dropped as Loot when killing Tiger Slimes.

5. Shrimp Cocktail

You can acquire the recipe for Shrimp Cocktail by watching “The Queen of Sauce” on the 28th of Winter in Year 2. This is the last unique recipe you learn on the show. To cook it, you’ll need one Tomato (a Summer crop), one Wild Horseradish (a Spring forageable), and one Shrimp. Shrimps can be harvested from Crab Pots that have been placed in saltwater – either at the docks in Pelican Town or nearly anywhere on Ginger Island.

6. Pumpkin Soup

A comfort dish and one loved by Sebastian. You can get its recipe by reaching seven hearts of friendship with Sebastian’s mother, Robin. To cook it, all you need is one Pumpkin and one Milk. Pumpkins are a great crop to grow in the Fall; they provide a lot of farming experience and are quite valuable.

7. Lucky Lunch

Lucky Lunch is a fantastic dish, though its ingredients are a little hard to come by. You can learn its recipe by watching “The Queen of Sauce” on the 28th of Spring in Year 2. To cook it, you need to get one Sea Cucumber, one Tortilla, and one Blue Jazz. You can cultivate a Blue Jazz in Spring, and catch a Sea Cucumber by fishing at the Ocean during Fall and Winter.

Tortillas are a cooked dish in their own right. You’ll need one Corn (a Summer and Fall crop) and its recipe to make it. You can purchase the recipe for Tortillas at the Stardrop Saloon for 100g.

8. Magic Rock Candy

Finally, we have Magic Rock Candy, which provides the highest buff, and is consequently the hardest to obtain. Unfortunately, there’s no way for you to cook this dish on your own. You can instead get it by:

• Killing Haunted Skulls – These are dangerous flying enemies found in the Quarry Mine. There’s a 0.13% chance they’ll drop one Magic Rock Candy upon death.
• The Desert Trader – The trader will offer one Magic Rock Candy for three Prismatic Shards. A steep price! Note that this offer will only be available on a Thursday.
• The Museum – You’ll get one Magic Rock Candy for donating 90 items to Gunther and the Museum in Pelican Town.