How To Get Radioactive Ore in Stardew Valley

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Radioactive Ore In The Mines

Radioactive Ore In Skull Cavern

If you want to craft some of the indie darling, Stardew Valley‘s, most useful late-game items, you’ll need to find some Radioactive Ore. To find this resource while mining, you’ll have to first achieve some special conditions.

You’ve got three options to do so:

Accept Mr. Qi‘s special order Danger In The Deep for the Mines
Or head to Calico Desert for the Skull Cavern Invasion, also from Mr. Qi
Activate the Shrine of Challenge on Floor 120 of the Mines
Activate the Statue in the Skull Cavern entrance

Wherever you find it, you’ll spot this ore in a Radioactive Node covered in bright green spots. These nodes work the same as any other—give ’em a whack with your Pickaxe and you’ll get a few chunks of ore.

Radioactive Ore In The Mines

Radioactive Ore spawns when the Mines are considered “dangerous.” This happens if the Shrine of Challenge is active, or if you’ve accepted the quest Danger In The Deep.

The Shrine of Challenge is on floor 120 of the Mines. When you activate it, the Mines switch from “normal” to “dangerous.”

Don’t worry— the Shrine of Challenge can be deactivated to switch the danger level back to normal. However, the difficulty changes on the day after you use the shrine. Be prepared!

Not tough enough for the “dangerous” Mines? Pop down the elevator to Floor 120 and deactivate the shrine.

The first time you reach floor 120, the Shrine of Challenge is nowhere to be found. The Casino owner, Mr. Qi only installs it after the first time you’ve beaten his quest Danger In The Deep.

Danger In The Deep

To begin this quest, you’ll need to reach Ginger Island and find 100 Golden Walnuts. This allows you to enter Qi’s Walnut Room on the west side of the island.

Inside you’ll find Mr. Qi’s Special Order Board with two fresh quests each Monday. Check back each week until he offers you Danger In The Deep.

This quest’s objective is deceptively simple: reach Floor 120 of the Mines within 7 days. You’ve done it once before—a second time will be easy, right?

Well, to start off the elevator doesn’t work. You’ll have to get it running again while you descend.

Better yet, the Mines are filled with more dangerous monsters. Most of these are “dangerous” variants of familiar foes (like slimes), but a few new surprises lie in store.

Monster	Hit Points	Damage	Defense	Speed	Notes
Blue Squid	310	18	2	3	Charges up to inflict the Weakness debuff.
Stick Bug	700	20	2	3	Pretends to be a piece of Wood on the ground.
Spider	200	15	2	3	Spawn in large swarms, and immune to knockback.
Putrid Ghost	500	25	3	4	Attacks may inflict the Nauseated debuff.
Shadow Sniper	300	18	2	3	Attacks may inflict the Darkness debuff.

While exploring the “dangerous” Mines, you’ll be able to find Radioactive Nodes on any floor. They’re more common the further down you go.

Once you reach Floor 120, you’ll find the Shrine of Challenge in place. Reaching the last floor automatically finishes the quest and rewards you with 50 Qi Gems to spend in Qi’s Walnut Room.

120 floors in a single day—is Mr. Qi insane? I thought so too, but he’s not. Chip away at this floor by floor, and you’ll get there. When in doubt, build a bunch of Staircases to fly through the final floors.

Thirsty for even more challenge? Well, Danger In The Deeps is a repeatable quest. Try accepting it while the Shrine of Challenge is already active for a real combat workout.

Radioactive Ore In Skull Cavern

Fleeing serpents in the Skull Cavern while mining Radioactive Ore in Stardew Valley.

Run away!

The conditions for getting Radioactive Ore while in the Skull Cavern are pretty similar to the Mines. Make Skull Cavern “dangerous” and Radioactive Nodes will spawn.

Activate the statue at the entrance of Skull Cavern, and on the following day the dungeon will become “dangerous.” However, for the statue to work, you’ll first need to fulfill yet another of that eccentric fella’s requests…

Skull Cavern Invasion

Just like before, head on over to Qi’s Walnut Room on a Monday until the Skull Cavern Invasion quest spawns. If you think you’re tough enough to reach Floor 100 of Skull Cavern, go ahead and accept.

I find it’s handy to build up a Stone stockpile while waiting for the quest to spawn. Since it’s 99 Stone for a single Staircase, taking the easy route all the way down requires a whopping 9,801 Stone! However, 20 or 30 Staircases are usually enough to skip through the most annoying bits.

Unlike the Mines, this quest requires you to dig deep in a single day. That’s quite the task, so make sure to stock up on food to keep you healed up.

The quickest way down the Skull Cavern is dropping down a Shaft which spawns instead of a ladder. However, this never happens if you’re using Staircases.

A Shaft can drop you anywhere from 3 to 15 floors in one go. When you land, you’ll take damage based on how far you fell—make sure you’re healthy before taking the plunge!

Using Bombs and other explosives, it’s possible to clear a lot of stones at once, improving the odds a Shaft will spawn. To descend quickly, alternate between Shafts and Staircases.

Clear, open floors are great for explosions. Find a spiraling floor or monster-infested floor? Skip it.

A Luck buff improves the ladder spawn chance while mining. That’s why Pumpkin Soup is my preferred mining food—its +2 Defense and +2 Luck buffs are a big help. Tune in to the Fortune Teller on the television each morning to learn that day’s Luck.

During Skull Cavern Invasion you’ll also encounter buffed versions of familiar foes. However, there aren’t any new monsters to worry about.

Keep up your guard, and you’ll make it to Floor 100. Once you do, Mr. Qi rewards you with 40 Qi Gems you can exchange for prizes in his Walnut Room.

You’ll also be able to use the statue to turn Skull Cavern “dangerous” at any time. Just like Danger In The Deeps, this quest is repeatable too—take it while the statue is activated for an extra challenge.