Stardew Valley Radioactive Ore: Where to Get & How to Use

Of all the ores and resources that you can gather in Stardew Valley, few are as ominous as radioactive ore. While it isn’t actually dangerous to handle, you can use it for some nifty things. Here’s where to get radioactive ore in Stardew Valley and what to do with it.

Where to Get Radioactive Ore in Stardew Valley

If you’re looking to get your hands on some radioactive ore, you’re going to need to be ready for a challenge. You get the ore from mining a Radioactive Node, but those only spawn when the mines or skull cavern are in their “dangerous” mode, and there are two ways to do this.

You can activate the Shrine of Challenge, which will increase the difficulty of the mines and the skull cavern, but also allow radioactive nodes to spawn. However, two of Qi’s special orders will also have this effect, one being the “Danger in the Deep” quest which will make the mines dangerous and the other being the “Skull Cavern Invasion” quest which will make the skull cavern dangerous.

The chances of finding a radioactive node increase as you go further down in whichever cave you choose. However, the most effective way to ensure you get some on your journey is by making sure to go on a lucky day, as the daily luck will have the greatest impact on your chances.

What to Do With Radioactive Ore in Stardew Valley

While you can smelt it down into bars just like any other ore in the game, radioactive ore can be used for a couple other things in its raw form. You can use it to make magic bait which will allow you to catch any fish from any season from wherever, or you can use it to make some Hyper Speed-Gro to really boost your farm’s production.

If you do feel like smelting it down, radioactive bars are also pretty useful. It’ll take a little over nine hours to smelt five radioactive ore into one bar, but you can use them to make heavy tappers or hoppers, depending on your farm’s automation needs. Clint will also buy them off your hands for 3000 gold, unless you’ve got the Blacksmith profession, in which case he’ll give you 4500.

One other handy thing to use them for is for buying Galaxy Souls from the Island Trader. You have to go to them on the last day of any given month, but you also have to have slain at least 50 dangerous monsters in order to get it. It’ll take 10 radioactive bars for one galaxy soul, which you can use to make some pretty impressive pieces of kit down the line.

If you’re into tailoring, you can use your radioactive substances for some new clothes too! Put radioactive ore into the sewing machine for a turtleneck sweater, and if you put a whole radioactive bar in there, you can make some sweet radioactive goggles.

That’s about it for where to get radioactive ore in Stardew Valley and how to use it. It’s definitely one of those late-game kinds of resources, but you’ll be able to farm it to your heart’s content when you’re ready to. For more guides like how to plant coffee beans or where to catch an octopus, be sure to check back here.