Stardew Valley: Blacksmith or Prospector – Which Profession Is Better?

Stardew Valley has several skills that when leveled enough, open a ton of useful bonuses. We’ve previously covered the farming skill professions and foraging skill professions and today we’re going to focus a bit on mining skills professions. As you know mining is a vital core part of Stardew Valley that provides you with the necessary resources to upgrade your farm and thrive in Stardew Valley economies. As soon as you reach level 10, if you went with the miner profession a choice between blacksmith and prospector will become available to you. Both professions are useful when it comes to resources but which profession is objectively more useful? Between blacksmith and prospector, which profession is better in Stardew Valley?
Blacksmith profession makes your metals worth more
The blacksmith profession is one of two choices you get as soon as you reach level 10 in mining skill. In order to have blacksmith as a choice you will need to pick the miner profession when you reach level 5. Blacksmith unlocks a special bonus that makes your metal bars worth 50 % more.
The blacksmith profession is where the money is at, at least when it comes to late game when you’re no longer in need of so many bars and you can sell them freely.
The bonus that the blacksmith profession provides applies to Copper, Iron, Gold, Iridium, and Radioactive bars.
Even though you will be able to sell the ores eventually and earn a ton of money off of them, that moment might be far away, and bars hold more worth to you as resources to use than to sell. Taking that into account, depending on where you are in the game currently blacksmith profession might lead to a lot of money or no money at all. Once you’ve upgraded the farm though your output of other goods should be high enough that all the profit that you earn from bars could be negligible.
Prospector profession gives you more coal
The prospector profession is the other choice you get when you reach level 10. Prospector basically gives you higher chances to find coal while you’re mining. The chances are doubled and that means if you’ve previously struggled with getting coal your prospects should drastically improve.
Coal is used to craft a ton of tools, weapons, and other useful items and a lot of players struggle to find coal. For example, a bee house and preservers jars are vital if you’ve decided to go for the artisan profession. Both jars and bee hives require a lot of coal. That means that your income directly depends on the amount of coal you can gather. No matter where you are in the game you will always be able to make progressively more money but you won’t be able to mine more coal just as easily.
There’s always an option of buying coal, but I wouldn’t recommend that especially if you don’t have extra money lying around. Smelting metal bars also depends on the coal you have, this means that even if you take the blacksmith route you might struggle to smelt all metal bars due to a lack of coal.
Some players might come across coal easily enough, and some truly struggle. I guess your choice of profitability in the prospector profession depends on whether you’re lucky when it comes to finding coal or not.
Blacksmith or Prospector which profession is better?
As we’ve already said, if you have trouble finding coal and you notice that you run out of coal from time to time, go with the prospector. Buying coal directly from a blacksmith is an unnecessary cost that you can avoid, especially if you haven’t reached the late game yet and haven’t maximized your farm profits.
If you don’t struggle with finding coal and would like to add some extra income then go with the blacksmith. Finding ores was never a problem, and they are quite pricy as is especially iridium ones. With the blacksmith profession, you will be able to maximize those profits further. If you struggle with upgrading your farm and consistently find yourself lacking metal bars, know that the blacksmith profession will be useless to you. Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!