Most reliable way to get Iridium without Skull Cavern?

[Hawk]

I'm at that point in my current game where the only thing I fully need to progress is iridium but I'm not having much luck with it. Even when I do go to the Skull Caverns (which I absolutely hate) I don't find much at all even twenty five levels down. Is there some other way to get the Iridium I need for upgrades and crafting?

[Včelí medvídek]

With bit patience you get enough iridium from grandpa reward statue or alternatively from fish ponds.

Or volcano cavern on new island.

Also consdier you dont need so much - spinklers can be bought and for upgrade all tools it is just some 25 bars - so if you get equivalent 1-2 bars per skull cavern visit it is still jsut matter of time. After that iridium has only minimal usefulness (unless you want crystallarium farm or things like that)

[Pixel Peeper]

Twenty-five levels down is when it stops being rare, but you won't reliably find it. You need to get there early (6:00), bring speed/luck consumables, a bunch of healing food, and a whole lot of bombs alone with a decent amount of stairs. You rush to level 50 without bothering to mine anything that isn't an Iridium Vein or Mystic Stone, then it starts showing up more regularly. A single trip to level 60 is way better than two dozen trips to level 25.

Without that, well, Ginger Island has some. You might only find two or three veins per 5 levels, but that's enough for a bar or two and you don't have to do anything special to get it.

[Katitoff]

I wouldn't call it fast or reliable, but opening magma geodes is also one way.

[happybjorn]

There are lots of ways, but none of them are particularly fast.

The most reliable is geodes (red and omni). You can optimize this further with meta-game cheating (stardew predictor), but it isn't necessary.

Some other reliable options are:

If you are doing Skull Cavern, but not making it particularly far down, kill purple slimes instead of focusing on mining.

Fish Pond with Super Cucumber.

There are more sources, check the wiki.

[Musa]

skull cavern is best if you don't have the iridium statue.

collect LOTS of stone over time, rush to lower levels by jumping in holes and using staircases, then get all the iridium.

[BCD]

20 levels down is not where you go to find iridium. Well prepared dives into the Skull Cavern should reliably, even easily, get into the triple digits. Common wisdom seems to be that you should rush to level 100 ASAP and only then start looking for iridium for max efficiency. You don't have to minmax it, but indeed you won't get much luck around level 20.
Honestly, the Skull Cavern really is the best bet. Do one good run into the low 100s and you could be set for iridium for the rest of the whole game. There are metas and strategies that make this perfectly doable but, if you do want to shun the Skull Cavern, you need the statue of perfection. It's the only other reliable source. It's not a very prolific one, it's only gonna give you a few ore every day, but it's probably the best alternative.
You can also save on iridium by buying your top tier sprinklers from Krobus. He sells them on Friday, I think? Maybe Sunday, not sure. Check on him if you can't get iridium though.

[ajfusch]

Since the Original Question was about the most reliable way without skull cavern, the answer is Grandpa's shrine, or rather the reward you get when he is pleased by you progress.
2 - 8 pieces of ore each day, no risk, no travelling, just picking it up at home.

I have no idea where you are time wise - it only becomes available at the start of year 3.

Other valid methods have been mentioned here, but none of them are really reliable (and neither is skull cavern).

[BCD]

Skull Cavern is very reliable if you're ready for it. OP wants nothing to do with it though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Keeper Of Monsters]

As others said - grandpa's shrine reward (starting year 3). You have to wait for it but i's worth it, imo.
Also if you have some spare Gs (1M to be precise) and access to Casino - buy yourself a golden statue from one shady dealer guy there: this one gives omni geodes or iridium bars from time to time. Not too often but still - slow progress, yes, but you don't need that much iridium after all if you aren't going after crystalarium farm.
I buy my sprinklers from Krobus (only one made myself for completion sake), and aside from fulfilling Qi's challenges I don't set a foot in Skull cavern. Yet between 3 statues (1 from Grandpa and 2 from Casino) I have enough iridium to start selling those bars some time in year 3.

[Hawk]

引用自 Keeper Of Monsters：

As others said - grandpa's shrine reward (starting year 3). You have to wait for it but i's worth it, imo.
Also if you have some spare Gs (1M to be precise) and access to Casino - buy yourself a golden statue from one shady dealer guy there: this one gives omni geodes or iridium bars from time to time. Not too often but still - slow progress, yes, but you don't need that much iridium after all if you aren't going after crystalarium farm.
I buy my sprinklers from Krobus (only one made myself for completion sake), and aside from fulfilling Qi's challenges I don't set a foot in Skull cavern. Yet between 3 statues (1 from Grandpa and 2 from Casino) I have enough iridium to start selling those bars some time in year 3.

I'm in Summer year two. I've done pretty much everything I really know to do (haven't played this far in awhile) and really just need Iridum for the tool upgrades and fancy new stuff they added. I'm on the beach map so the sprinklers don't matter too much.

For me I just dislike how the Skull Caverns is designed and I find mining and combat to be the worst aspects of Stardew. I don't like how out of the way it is, don't like that it resets, find the enemies super annoying, etc, etc. So I'll follow the suggestions to get what I need.

[BCD]

Then your best bet really is going for omni/magma geodes until the statue is available. Iridium is a rare mineral, unfortunately.
How do you go about the skull cavern, do you treat it as if it were the regular mines? Maybe you just will never ever like it no matter what you do, but do you think it could be more tolerable if you did one of the meta strats?

[RedViper]

You could try and save some of the iridium you collect to access Ginger island, the volcano is completely different from the mines, for starters it resets daily instead of every floor, there are fewer floors to reach the end, the way to the next floor its always on the map instead of having to find a ladder, and you can also find iridium there. And eventually you get to unlock special upgrades for your weapons and tools to make the skull cavern easier.

[BCD]

It goes without saying that an iridium pickaxe comes in handy in the Skull Cavern but, although I wouldn't recommend it, you could have a successful run without any tools at all if you really wanted to. Bombs bombs bombs bombs bombs bombs bombs...

[Pixel Peeper]

引用自 BCD：

It goes without saying that an iridium pickaxe comes in handy in the Skull Cavern but, although I wouldn't recommend it, you could have a successful run without any tools at all if you really wanted to. Bombs bombs bombs bombs bombs bombs bombs...

Yeah, a good Skull Caverns run will involve very little pickaxe use.

[fuqifan]

Keep killing iridium slime on 1st floor. With some luck you can get 5~20 ore per day.