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Despite its easy-going presentation, Stardew Valley is a game filled with mysteries. One of the biggest mysteries is the true identity of the elusive Mr. Qi. This stranger barely looks human and seems to be constantly tracking the player's progress. How or why he does this is unknown, and there are fan theories that attempt to explain it, but the game itself describes him as "mysterious," so it is perhaps something not meant to be solved.
Thankfully, though, he seems to be friendly to the player, and if they can collect all 100 Golden Walnuts on Ginger Island, he will start to offer challenges. These challenges earn the player Qi gems, which can be spent on a wide array of rare and valuable items.
15 Cosmetic Items – 5-50 Qi Gems
Mr. Qi offers a few items which are purely cosmetic and cool to have around. The first is a replica of his own hat, which players can wear if they want to look as mysterious as the man himself. It costs just 5 Qi Gems.
For 20 Qi Gems, players can buy the Aquatic Sanctuary, which is essentially an indoor Aquarium that players can place a select number of fish inside. They don't produce anything, and it is purely to look cool, but it's a unique and rare item that players may value. Similarly, for 50 Qi Gems, there is the Exotic Double Bed for those who like to sleep in luxury.
14 Deconstructor – 20 Qi Gems
There are many things to do in Stardew Valley, and they all require different types of items. However, players may find themselves crafting too many of a particular item or preparing for a scenario that never arises, meaning their crafting materials have gone to waste.
The Deconstructor solves this problem, as crafted items can be placed inside. Out of the Deconstructor will come the most valuable item that went into the recipe. For example, if players were to put in an Iridium Sprinkler, they would lose the Gold Bar & Battery Pack, but they'd get back the Iridium Bar.
13 Mushroom Tree Seed – 5 Qi Gems
Mushrooms are a useful tool in Stardew Valley. They are used in the Life Elixir, which is a potent health potion, making them essential for adventuring. Unfortunately, they don't usually grow on trees, but they can grow into a tree with this item.
Players simply have to plant this seed somewhere, and it will slowly grow into a full-sized tree in the shape of a mushroom. Players can cut these down for mushrooms, however, more useful would be placing a tapper on them, as it will slowly produce a Common, Red, or Purple mushroom.
12 20x Magic Bait – 5 Qi Gems
There are tonnes of different fish around the world in Stardew Valley. Which one players catch depends on the weather, time of day, season, and even what body of water they're fishing in. If players are on the hunt for a specific type of fish, they will need a strong knowledge of every fish's habits.
Magic Bait helps significantly with this issue. Using Magic Bait when fishing means that players won't have to worry about any conditions except the body of water. This means that, when fishing in a river, for example, players can catch any type of river fish, even if the weather, time, or season is wrong.
11 10x Qi Seasoning – 10 Qi Gems
Cooking dishes is a great way to replenish Health & Energy for whatever tasks the player wants to complete. Not to mention, many dishes rank among villagers' favorite items, making them perfect for winning friendship.
Some dishes can even be sold at a greater price than their raw ingredients, so a talented chef can make real money that way. Qi Seasoning is a little way to guarantee every dish is a masterpiece, as cooking while some are in the player's inventory or fridge will cause all dishes to come out at Gold quality. This means that not only do they sell for more, but they replenish more Heath & Energy, too.
10 2x Qi Gems – 1 Golden Walnut
There are a total of 130 Golden Walnuts hidden on Ginger Island. However, only 116 are needed to fully unlock and upgrade everything around. With the 14 Walnuts players have to spare, they can convert them into 28 Qi Gems using this method.
They're not going to earn the player a fortune, but it's a nice little perk for players who went out of their way to find all 130. Having just a few extra gems in their pockets might be helpful when they're between requests, which are the primary way to earn Qi Gems.
9 2x Junimo Chest – 30 Qi Gems
Another one of Stardew Valley's mysteries is precisely where the Junimo come from and what their desires are. It makes sense, then, that Mr. Qi has some secrets of their technology. On the surface, the Junimo Chest is a unique-looking chest that has just nine spaces to store items.
It is much more than that, though, as every Junimo Chest in the world shares the same inventory. This means any items placed in one Junimo Chest will be accessible from any other Junimo Chest anywhere else in the world. Those familiar with Minecraft's Ender Chests will recognize just how useful this can be.
8 Key To The Town – 20 Qi Gems
One of the things that players love about Stardew Valley is how each villager feels like a real person. They have their daily routines and schedules that they stick to and change when things like bad weather stop them. This means players looking to visit certain people & shops will need to schedule their days accordingly.
The Key To The Town virtually erases this need, as it unlocks any door in the Pelican Town section of the map at any time of day. The villagers will still have their schedules; for example, Pierre will still leave his shop at 5 pm, but it gives players a few hours extra at the beginning and end of the day to visit their friends and do whatever they need to in the town.
7 Galaxy Soul – 40 Qi Gems
Players who have completed the Volcano Dungeon and discovered The Forge will be aware of its powerful potential. Combining their tools and weapons with items in this forge makes them more powerful than ever, but to get the very best, players will need Galaxy Souls.
Getting three of these from various sources and combining them with one of the Galaxy weapons (Sword, Dagger, or Hammer) in the forge will turn it into the Infinity version of that weapon. These weapons are the best in the game. They do more damage and have extra beneficial enchantments on them.
6 Horse Flute – 50 Qi Gems
The horse is a helpful tool for getting around the valley quickly, but it's easy for players to forget to bring it or for a journey to become longer than they initially anticipated. Qi has the solution to this problem, as the Horse Flute will summon the player's horse to them, as long as they are outside.
This also means the player can bring their horse to Ginger Island, as previously it had to wait outside Willy's house for the player's return. Players will now be able to get around Stardew's surprisingly expansive world faster than ever.
5 Hopper – 10 Qi Gems
Perhaps taking more cues from Minecraft, this item is a simple way to start automating various processes on the farm. The Hopper can be loaded up with different items, and it will automatically deposit it into a machine placed in front of it if there is space.
There are a few ways to make this useful. For example, players could load it up with Coal & Ores, and the Hopper would automatically place them both in a furnace. Players would still have to remove the resulting bar from the furnace manually, so the process isn't completely automated, but it removes a little bit of faff from the process.
4 4x Enchricher & 4x Pressure Nozzel – 20 Qi Gems Each
These two items, which players can buy in bundles of four, are attachments to sprinklers. Sprinklers are an essential bit of kit, saving the player from the monotony of manually watering all of their crops every day. These attachments further alleviate some of that effort.
The Pressure Nozzel is fairly simple, increasing the range of the Sprinker even further. When placed on an Iridium Sprinkler, it will water a whopping 7x7 area of crops every day. The Enricher does a different job for the player, as it will scatter Fertilizer on any crop in range. Players will need to load it themselves, but once that's done, they can stop worrying about placing it all manually.
3 Crafting Recipes – 20-50 Qi Gems
Mr. Qi is willing to share his knowledge for a price and will teach the player how to craft rare & useful items on the farm. For 20 Qi Gems, players can learn how to make the Deluxe Fertilizer to boost the quality of crops, or, for 30 Qi Gems, Hyper Speed-Grow, to cut down the time plants take to grow significantly.
There are also recipes for machines on offer too. 50 Qi Gems will earn players the recipe for the aforementioned Hopper, and 20 Qi Gems will teach the player a recipe for a Heavy Tapper, which harvests items from trees twice as fast as a regular trapper. Almost all of these recipes involve Radioactive Ores/Bars, so players will need to venture into the "Dangerous" Mines.
2 Pierre's Missing Stocklist – 50 Qi Gems
One of the store's unique items, only one can be bought per save file. It's little use to the player on its own, but give it to Pierre, and he will start selling all crop seeds, regardless of whether they're growable in the current season.
Out-of-season seeds will be 50% more expensive than usual, but for players who want to grow the most valuable crops possible all year round in their Greenhouse, it's a huge boon. With this shackle off of them, the sky becomes the limit for their end-game money-making potential.
1 Golden Egg – 100 Qi Gems
There are a surprisingly large number of different eggs that can be discovered in Stardew Valley. Players will find regular Eggs and Duck Eggs fairly early on in their farming life, but many players aren't even aware of the existence of things like Void Eggs, Ostrich Eggs, or even Dinosaur Eggs. However, this egg can only be bought once perfection has been achieved.
The Golden Egg is probably the last type of egg that players will come across, and for good reason. It's extremely valuable and produces three Gold quality Mayonnaise when processed. However, with their very first one, players should Incubate it in a Coop, as a Golden Chicken will hatch, which produces a Golden Egg every single day.
Stardew Valley is currently available on Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS Vita & Xbox One.