Intro
Clay is one of those resources in Stardew Valley that you never seem to have when you actually need it. You probably remember when you first started your farm and you got some clay when you went to plant your crops. You think it’s a common resource, you might of even just thrown it away out of convenience.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably struggling to get enough of it now, especially if you created your farm after patch 1.6 without Legacy Randomization enabled. The old clay farming method no longer works the same way, but there is still a reliable way to farm large amounts of Clay before unlocking Ginger Island.
Using the Mines method below, I was able to farm over 100 Clay in a single day using only an Iridium Hoe.
How to farm Clay with Legacy Randomization OFF (Quick Version)
The most reliable method to farm for Clay involves going to the mines, and repeatedly going to floor’s 15, 55, and 95. Here you will get a relatively large patch of tillable soil, where you can either use a Hoe or Bombs (bombs are way faster) to bring up clay from the soil. When you’re done with one floor, take the elevator to one of the other floors, and rinse and repeat until you have enough clay.
Below I will leave a quick video simply demonstrating how this method works. In this video I only use the Iridium Hoe, and still end the day with over 100 Clay.
The Fastest Way to farm Clay (post Patch 1.6)
What you need
All you need is access to The Mines, a Hoe (ideally an Iridium Hoe) or alternatively (and way faster), Bombs.
Other items that definitely help:
- Food Buffs and healing. I use Spicy Eel and Triple Espresso as it makes things faster, and you also get a bit of luck from the Spicy Eel.
- Rings. The most useful is the Iridium Band for it’s magnet, and the Slime Charmer Ring so the slimes don’t annoy you. Alternatively any magnet ring will be helpful.
- Luck. Ideally you will do this method on a lucky day for the best results. But even on an unlucky day it still works well.
How the method works
Make your way to the Mines with either your Hoe or Bombs (or both). Take the elevator to floor 15. Now if you’re using your Hoe, start tilling the soil. I have a pattern I use that I will show you later that is the most efficient for Iridium Hoe users.
With bombs all you have to do is put a couple down, and with good spacing you can easily clear it in a few seconds. This is way faster than using the Hoe, but of course you end up using your bombs, so it really depends on where you are at with your farm and money.
Once you have tilled all the soil, go to the elevator and go to either floor 55, or floor 95. They should have an identical patch of soil to the last floor. Repeat the above process, and then go to one of the other two floors again. That really is all there is to it, it’s a simple farming method that works.
I used an Iridium Hoe and I casually farmed for almost a whole day and made over 100 clay in a day on a neutral luck day.
Still had a few hours left in the day, and still made 100 clay
A Few Extra Tips
While the above method is the general idea, there are a few extra nuances to be aware of that will take this farming method a little further.
My Three Strikes Iridium Hoe Pattern
If you opt to use the Iridium Hoe, this is the pattern I find is best to get as much soil tilled, while also limiting waste through movement and the charging of the Hoe. I would avoid making sure every soil is tilled, as you get diminishing returns when compared to just switching floors and using max strikes.
Below is the Three Strikes for maximum coverage:
Strike 1
Strike 2
Strike 3, and you’re out
After these strikes with the Hoe, I would go to another floor rather than go for the remaining soil, it’s more efficient this way.
Focus on floors 15 and 55
While you can also travel to floor 95, cycling between floors 15 and 55 is the better option in my opinion. The main reason being that Floor 95 has a far tougher monster pool, including the Shadow monsters which have no knockback. They also hit like a truck. You can’t even rely on a trinket to knock them back while you focus on farming.
For this reason I recommend cycling between the two earlier floors, unless your planning to Multi Farm.
Multi Farming
Killing Dust sprites is one of the best methods to farm Coal in Stardew Valley. So while you’re farming for Clay, every time you go to Floor 55, it’s a good idea to see if there are any Dust Sprites worth taking a little detour to kill.
If you want to take this further, I have a full guide on how to farm Coal in Stardew Valley.
If you haven’t been focussing on your monster slaying challenges, this is also a good opportunity to tick some of them off when killing them is a convenience to you.
Now would be the perfect time to get some Coal from these Dust Sprites
Bring a Slime Charmer Ring
While going about making the content for this article, I forgot to put my Slime Charmer Ring on, and I can’t tell you how annoying it is when you have 3 or more of them bugging you. I generally avoid attacking monsters where available, as killing them takes time away from farming.
For this reason I highly recommend you bring your Slime Charmer Ring, that way you can go about your business worrying about one less enemy.
What About Bombs?
I know I haven’t gone into much detail about bombs, as truthfully, there isn’t much to say. It’s the same method, just way faster. It takes time to charge up the Iridium Hoe, where as bombs can be placed to quickly till a larger area. This means more clay per run.
The only downside is that you have to use bombs, and bombs can be an expensive use of resources unless your late game. Paying for bombs from The Dwarf when you have a bunch of money is certainly an option however.
Why shouldn’t I just till outside of the mines?
You might be wondering, why would I not just till the large amount of soil at the beach, or the rail road, or even on your farm. The mines have a higher drop rate than anywhere else in Stardew. 1-2% more per tile, which may not sound like much but it adds up in the long run.
The soil also doesn’t completely reset daily, where as in the mines they reset when changing floors.
Now what?
What About Other Ways to Get Clay?
While there are other ways to get clay, this method is definitely the fastest (unless you’re using Legacy Randomization of course). Some of the other ways include:
- Digging up artefact spots
- Clay nodes on Ginger Island
- Breaking open Geodes
- Vincent will sell 20 during the Desert Festival
Farming Clay in the mines is still the best method though, and unfortunately Clay can’t be purchased elsewhere for gold.
Now to talk about Legacy Randomization for those who want to know the absolute fastest method to farm Clay.
Legacy Randomization ON
Okay so pre patch 1.6 the common way of farming Clay was by exploiting the RNG in the game to know exactly where to get clay. If you’re creating a farm post patch 1.6, you will need to turn Legacy Randomization ON when creating your farm.
This article isn’t about this method, but I will show you how to toggle it on though, and I will also leave a great video by joetg that you can check out for this method too.
How to toggle Legacy Randomization on and off
NOTE: Once you have created your farm, there is no way to change this setting, at least not without mods.
How to Clay farm WITH Legacy Randomization ON
What Is Clay Used For?
There are a few reasons you may be needing a huge chunk of Clay at your disposal. My biggest reason, is brick floors. They are in my opinion one of the cleanest looking floors you can use on your farm. You need 2 Clay and 5 Stone to craft five of them.
If you plan on having a mushroom farm, and converting said mushrooms into Dried Mushrooms, then you’re going to need plenty of Dehydrator’s. You need 2 Clay, a fire quartz and 30 wood to craft one.
You can find other uses for Clay on the Stardew Valley Wiki if you’re interested in those.
Final Thoughts
The best method pre patch 1.6 is definitely still exploiting the RNG of the game, but as this got patched because it wasn’t the intended way to play, we found a new method.
After the patch, the best method is to go into the Mines and repeatedly clear the soil in Floors 15 and 55 (or 95 if you want to deal with hard monsters).
Using this method with an Iridium Hoe, and I can relatively easily farm 100+ Clay in one day.
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