Stardew Valley: Everything You Need To Know About The Shrine Of Challenge

This article is part of a directory: Stardew Valley: Complete Guide Table of contents

There is a lot of late-game content in Stardew Valley. After completing Grandpa's evaluation and finishing the Community Center, there is still plenty to do. After the main story has wrapped up, you have an entirely new area to explore called Ginger Island.

In this guide, we are going to talk about the mysterious Shrine of Challenge, which first requires you to visit Ginger Island. Located in the Mines to the north of Pelican Town, it will take a while to be able to access this shrine. First, let's go over all the steps to do so.

Updated July 9, 2024 by Jacqueline Zalace: Unlocking The Shrine of Challenge and completing Danger in the Deep can be quite challenging to do in Stardew Valley. As such, we've added a few more tips to help you complete this challenge and unlock the harder version of the Mines, which holds radioactive ore.

How To Unlock The Shrine Of Challenge

To unlock the Shrine of Challenge, you will need to speak to Mr. Qi in Qi's Walnut Room. If you are new to your journey in Stardew Valley, this may sound out of reach. It will take a while to get here.

First, you will need to finish the Community Center and repair the boat to Ginger Island. Once on Ginger Island, you will then need to obtain 100 Golden Walnuts. With the Walnuts in hand, visit Qi's Walnut Room located on the left of the Ginger Island Farm (above Birdie's Shack).

How To Accept Danger In The Deep

Once you have access to Qi's Walnut Room, you will be able to view the special orders board. Each week, there will be two new quests added to the board. They are difficult but come with great rewards.

The Shrine of Challenge will be unlocked after completing the Danger In The Deep special order. Upon accepting this quest, the elevator in the Mines to the north of Pelican Town will be reset, and you will have just seven days to reach the bottom of the Mines. There will also be 'new dangers' added, making this quest a bit more difficult.

Danger In The Deep Completion Tips

This quest requires some preparation — make sure you have strong weapons, as well as a supply of food. You are able to use a Staircase (crafted with 99

Stone ) during this quest, so don't be afraid to skip any floor that seems too hard. Overall, you should bring stone/staircases, food, and bombs.

Putrid Ghosts may be the most challenging thing you encounter due to the Nauseated effect . This will prevent you from healing with food or drinks for two full minutes. Thankfully, this can be cured with

Ginger or Ginger Ale . As such, be sure to have a few of these items on hand.

After making it to floor 120 in seven days, you will complete the quest. The reward is 50 Qi gems and access to the Shrine of Challenge. The shrine will be located at the bottom of the Mines.

What Does The Shrine Of Challenge Do?

This shrine will increase the difficulty of the Mines, making them more dangerous, with stronger enemies. Located on floor 120, the Shrine of Challenge is essentially a switch. When you first interact with the shrine, you will switch the Mines to 'dangerous'.

This will take effect the following day, so you have to wait until you can go through the dangerous version of the Mines.

Additionally, the shrine will only affect the Mines in the Mountain area. If you have the Wilderness Farm map, the monsters that spawn there will not be affected.

Dangerous mode includes new enemies, which you can find listed below. In addition to these enemies, you will find dangerous versions of the enemies that usually spawn in the Mines.

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Changing The Mines Back To Normal

The Mines can be changed back to their normal mode. This is useful if you want to head down to do some resource farming rather than monster slaying.

To change the Mines back to normal, all you need to do is interact with the shrine again. The original quest from Mr. Qi resets the elevator, but it will remain the same whenever you interact with the Shrine of Challenge.

Rewards and Loot

When you toggle the Shrine of Challenge to make the Mines more dangerous, new items can be found.

With the shrine active, you will be able to find radioactive nodes. These are nodes that will reward you with

Radioactive Ore . Along with the ore, there are a few new items that drop from enemies while the Shrine of Challenge is activated. Below, check out the new drops you can find.

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Excluding the Iridium Needle, all of these items can also be obtained outside the Mines on dangerous mode. These are just new additions to the list of all possible mine drops.

Radioactive Ore

One of the main reasons to venture into the dangerous version of the Mines is to obtain Radioactive ore. Like other ore types, you can smelt five of them with one piece of coal to get a Radioactive Bar. This process will take around nine in-game hours.

Below, you can check out every recipe that uses Radioactive Ore and Bars.

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Best Way To Farm Radioactive Ore

If you are looking to efficiently farm radioactive ore, we have a few tips. Firstly, the further down you are in the Mines, the higher your chances are of finding the ore. We suggest heading down about halfway in the elevator and then clearing floors, taking ladders down when necessary.

Additionally, luck can determine how much ore is present. With this in mind, we highly suggest searching for radioactive ore on days when you have good luck. Overall, try not to spend too long on a floor; if there are no nodes in sight, head to the next floor (by either finding a ladder or using a staircase).

If you need a lot of ore, be sure to have the Miner profession selected !