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Miner and Geologist Professions in Stardew Valley
You can collect and obtain only so many things in Stardew Valley. It may be for earning money, crafting or cooking ingredients, or even items needed to complete a bundle for a quest. Likewise, there are also several ways of acquiring such collectibles inside the game. On that note, mining is one of the most given activities if discovering such special items is the objective.
Mining is referred to as the act of breaking rocks in-game. For every rock you break, you gain points in your mining skills, and in turn, as you increase your mining skill level, you gain rewards and are given the chance to pursue a profession.
Upon reaching Skill Level 5 for any skills in Stardew Valley, you will have to choose a profession that comes with respective perks. Miner or Geologist in Stardew Valley professions are the two professions that you can choose from once you reach Mining Skill Level 5.
If you picked the Miner profession, you will eventually earn +1 ore per vein you mine. On the other hand, selecting the geologist profession creates a chance for gems to appear in pairs. To get to know more about the profession that suits you best, here is more information about mining.
Mining Skills in Stardew Valley
As mentioned earlier, the mining skills progress as you destroy more rocks. Depending on what you get from the rocks, you are granted experience points which add up for your mining skill to level up. Each time you level up, you are rewarded, mostly with recipes.
At Levels 1 and 2, you are rewarded with crafting recipes, Cherry Bomb and Staircase, respectively. On Level 3, you gain the cooking recipe for Miner’s Treat. Another crafting recipe would be received upon reaching Level 4, the recipe for the Glowstone Ring and Transmute for Iron.
For the remaining Levels, you would then receive the crafting recipes for Bomb, Transmute for Gold, Mega Bomb, and Crystalarium.
Miner Profession
Picking Miner as your profession has the advantage of receiving one more random ore for every vein you search. It is, needless to say, a great perk you can have since it would be very beneficial, especially in the long run, to have a chance to gather the rarest ores as soon as possible since they will be in demand for building items.
Blacksmith
After choosing a profession at Mining Skill Level 5, you will be presented again at Level 10 with two more professions that align with your prior choice.
One of the two professions under Miner is the Blacksmith. This comes with the perk of increasing the value of the metal bars by 50% more. This applies to Copper, iron, Gold, Iridium, and Radioactive Bars.
Prospector
Another profession that falls under Miner is the Prospector. If you decided to pursue this profession, you would then have twice the chance of finding a lump of coal when mining.
Geologist Profession
Moving on to the counterpart of Miner, Geologist. Once you take this path, there would be a possibility for the gems you find to come in pairs. Whether the gems originated from Nodes or rocks you broke, there is a 50% chance for this to happen.
Similar to Miner, you are also tasked to choose from two more professions as soon as you reach Level 10.
Excavator
Taking up the Excavator profession doubles your chances of unearthing more geodes which are commonly known as sources of valuable resources and minerals. This perk applies to all four types of geodes in Stardew Valley.
Gemologist
Meanwhile, the second specialization under Geologist, Gemologist improves the value of the treasures you find. Both gems and minerals would be worth 30% more given that you pick a Gemologist.
Miner or Geologist: Which Profession is Better?
Deciding what to choose from Miner and Geologist in Stardew Valley should not be done thoughtlessly because it could greatly affect how you would do in the game. That is why there is quite a debate about which of the two professions is more helpful and important in Stardew Valley. To somehow help you come up with your decision, here’s some iteration of what advantages each profession brings.
Miner profession opens the way for pursuing either Blacksmith or Prospector. It is true that the Blacksmith might seem a little focused on earning more money through selling metal bars. But, if you look closely, the Prospector increases your chance of getting more coal.
It is not beyond Stardew Valley players how important coals are especially in the latter part of the game especially when you are about to build and craft a Slime-Egg Press and Warrior Ring. So to say, Miner offers both early and late-game perks.
Conversely, the Geologist profession later offers a path for taking up Excavator and Gemologist. The perks of both specializations are more projected on the gems and minerals collected through mining. From a particular perspective, it could be observed that the Geologist is quite more inclined to earn money from the gems and minerals collected from ricks and veins.
Your choice of profession could really vary depending on your game strategy. But, given the above information, it is still worth noting that the advantages offered by each profession may seem useless for now and very handy later, or the other way around.
