Stardew Valley has a ton of skills, one of which is mining. Each skill comes with levels, experience, and the ability to choose a profession after reaching a certain level. The mining skill is associated with breaking rocks. You will encounter the majority of your rocks in The Mines which is blocked off during the first four days of the game. After four days you will get a letter saying that Joja Corp has cleared the landslide blocking The Mines, finally giving you access to it. After hitting level 5 in mining, you will be given a choice to make in Stardew Valley – miner or geologist? This can often be a hard choice for first-time players, so let’s go over what each profession entails!
What is a Miner in Stardew Valley?
The miner profession is quite simple. Every vein you mine will give you +1 ore. This can be quite useful for the early game and late game. You will need lots of ores and bars to build stuff early on and rarer ores such as Iridium won’t be a hassle to stockpile in the late game. (rentalsfloridakeys.com)
If you picked miner, at level 10 you will get to make another choice. Blacksmith or prospector. Choosing blacksmith makes your metal bars worth 50% more. While it is useful, it is not as useful as prospector which doubles your chance to find coal.
What is a Geologist in Stardew Valley?
The other choice you have is to pick geologist. Geologist quite simply gives you a 50% chance for gems to appear in pairs in nodes and also in geodes you get from breaking rocks. Gems are useful to make money or give as gifts. If you find yourself low on cash early in your playthrough, selling extra gems can make you quite rich.
At level 10, you can pick between excavator and gemologist. Excavator doubles your chance to find geodes and gemologist makes gems worth 30% more. Objectively excavator is the best one to take. Sure, gems being worth 30% more is nice, but not nearly as nice as a double chance to find geodes. Going with excavator makes it easier to fill out your library or museum with artifacts and minerals.
So, Miner or Geologist?
Well, this depends on one main thing – your playstyle. If you’d rather skip the early game ore grind you should pick miner. Some players find the grind to be boring while others enjoy delving into the mines and swinging away at veins. Other plays prefer having an abundance of gems to sell or give as gifts. This is one skill where neither option is inherently superior, it just depends on what you would rather have a surplus of – ore or gems!
To sum it all up, the question of miner or geologist in Stardew Valley can be simply answered with – depends on your playstyle.