How Does Luck Work in Stardew Valley
What Does Luck Do?
Luck has a minor effect on a ton of minor things in the game, this includes:
- Chance to discover ladders while Mining
- The spawn rate of crates, geodes, gems, etc.
- The chance to find coal and geodes from rocks
- The amount of wood
- Various actions/events in the game, like searching Garbing Cans, Panning, the Casino, number of lightning strikes during a storm.
None of these have a huge impact on the game but increasing luck makes positive effects more likely and makes the game more enjoyable (but in reality, probably less frustrating instead).
How does luck make the game less frustrating?
The most useful thing luck has an impact on is increasing the chance of finding a ladder while Mining. This makes diving deeper into the Mines or Skull Cavern much easier on days with higher luck and decreases the chance of having to break nearly all of the rocks on a floor in order to find a ladder.
The other noticeable thing luck impacts is what you lose when you get knocked out. You lose less items with higher luck, so you're less likely to reset the day if you get knocked out (or if you refuse to reset the day when you lose certain items).
How Does Increasing Luck Impact Luck?
The table below details how daily luck works with bonuses to luck:
| Daily Luck | +0 | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +5 | +6 | +7 | +8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.0 | 0.0% | 0.1% | 0.2% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.6% | 0.8% | 1.0% | 1.2% |
| 0.02 | 0.8% | 1.0% | 1.2% | 1.4% | 1.6% | 1.9% | 2.1% | 2.4% | 2.7% |
| 0.07 | 3.3% | 3.7% | 4.1% | 4.5% | 4.9% | 5.4% | 5.8% | 6.3% | 6.8% |
| 0.1 | 5.0% | 5.5% | 6.0% | 6.6% | 7.1% | 7.7% | 8.3% | 8.9% | 9.5% |
| 0.125 | 6.6% | 7.2% | 7.8% | 8.4% | 9.1% | 9.8% | 10.5% | 11.2% | 11.9% |
A few things to note here:
- If you can consistently increase your luck by +5, the value of increasing your luck after +5 is twice as effective. This means that if you want to focus on increasing your luck, make sure you have at least 5 luck -- use that Magic Rock Candy and when you use that Magic Rock Candy, drink some Ginger Ale and wear Lucky Rings.
- Base luck has a significantly higher impact on luck than increasing luck through rings and food. Basically, double down on lucky days instead of trying to make unlucky days more lucky.
How Should I use this Information?
The Lucky Ring is overrated, use and combine other rings instead.
You should still focus on diving deeper in the Mines on lucky days and only use things like Lucky Lunch and Magic Rock Candy on days that are already lucky -- never use them on unlucky days.