Stardew Valley Best Rings Guide

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Monica Phillips

Monica is a writer, artist, YouTuber, modder, musician, and general doer of all things related to video games. She has been playing Stardew Valley on PC and Switch ever since 2016, quickly becoming a favorite game of hers. She's sunk hundreds of hours into the title and makes an effort to play through the entire game again at least every few months.

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While many games take an approach to accessories that give the player only a few options and little freedom in customizing their build, Stardew Valley opts to provide you with a bunch of different rings you can have equipped at any time that all offer a wide variety of effects, and can even be combined for a total of four unique effects.

This means you might come across tons of these rings and feel choice paralysis, overwhelmed by the variety of valuable options available.

But fear not, because I’ve assembled a list of my personal choices to go for after playing Stardew for hundreds of hours. If you want to know the best picks for the four rings, I’d put on a layout and a few others that might tickle your fancy, then read on.

Bottom Line Up Front

In terms of one of the best, most essential rings for anyone, the Iridium Band gives you many buffs, and the Burglar’s ring will double your drops sometimes. However, these rings are usually all you’ll need until you get the ability to combine rings.

Selection Criteria

While the first four rings are my absolute picks for the best rings in the game, I’ve included a few others that you may prefer depending on how you play the game.

Rings may be primarily for combat, but everyone approaches combat differently, and sometimes rings have auxiliary functions that help outside of fights. So for this guide, I’ve chosen rings based on the following:

• Combat Utility is a very general term, but essentially, it only asks, “does it make enemies easier to fight or make me have to fight fewer enemies?”
• Non-Combat Utility counts as anything the ring can do for you outside the mines. Does it help you on your farm? While fishing? Maybe out in the fields?
• Niche Excellence means the ring will perform better than any other in a very niche playstyle or scenario. Some people down 200 coffees daily, while others don’t even use one.
• Ease of Obtaining is lower on my priorities since you want the best rings above anything else. This category mostly comes into play when one of two rings of equal value is more accessible to obtain than the other.

My Personal Build

If I had all the time in the world and could get any four rings in the game I wanted, I’d choose four different ones. While you can double up on certain ones for more significant effect (which I’ll point out if it’s something I’d recommend trying out), I have unique ones that I’d instead put on above all else.

• The Iridium Band for its variety of effects.
• The Burglar’s Ring makes grinding and mob drop collection far easier.
• The Lucky Ring makes most RNG-based events far more manageable.
• And The Soul Sapper Ring for a bunch of extra energy whenever I dive into the mines.

These are the four that I’d recommend to anyone were they to ask me what four rings they should try and grab above all else. While some may be easier to get than others, and these certainly aren’t too easy, I do think their effects are pretty much all I need on any standard playthrough.

The rest of this guide is the worst-to-best ranking of what I believe to be the top 15 rings in the game. If I didn’t mention a ring, it’s usually because either the effect it gives is not really impactful, or it just gets replaced by an objectively better ring later, so how about we rank some rings?

While some of these rings aren’t my personal choices for the best possible ring build, I do think they have their niches or are just plainly not as helpful as the highest up. So you should go for them if they stand out to you more than the others and you want a bit more quirky and unique setup.

Ring of Yoba

• Primary Effect: Occasionally dodge an attack
• Stackable: No
• Method of Obtaining: Combat Level 7, Crafted with 5 Iron Bars, 5 Gold Bars, and a Diamond
  

Have you ever been playing Stardew Valley and just wished you could have the Black Belt from Terraria? Well, you’re in luck because the Ring of Yoba acts precisely the same, occasionally giving you 5 seconds of invincibility whenever you get hit.

Of course, this does depend on your health and luck stat (meaning it’s even better combined with the luck ring), but it can get you out of tight spots.

This one is also pretty easy to craft, only taking 5 Iron Bars, 5 Gold Bars, and a diamond, all of which can be handily obtained before even going to the Skull Cavern. The only issue is the Combat Level 7 requirement, which could take a while if you’ve been speedrunning the mines instead of clearing out every floor.

Napalm Ring

• Primary Effect: Enemies explode upon death
• Stackable: No
• Method of Obtaining: Killing 250 Serpents
  

Insert the stock explosion used in Deltarune here. I think it should be easy to see the value in a ring that makes every enemy you slay explode upon death; this just does a ton of area-of-effect damage and is excellent for when you’re getting ganged up on by a ton of different enemies, especially since it knocks back the flying ones.

Despite the usefulness of this ring, the reason you won’t see people using it much is the incredibly high requirement of killing 250 serpents in the Skull Caverns. If you play the game long enough, you’ll hit this naturally, but if you want the ring anytime soon, you need to be willing to put in a ton of time.

Thorns Ring

• Primary Effect: Enemies take damage when they damage you
• Stackable: No
• Method of Obtaining: Combat Level 7, Crafted with 50 Bone Fragments, 50 Stone and 1 Gold Bar
  

If you’ve ever used Thorns as an effect in any game, really, then you’ll pretty much have the gist of how this one works already.

Every time you take damage, your attacker will have all that damage reflected at them. This is especially handy when dealing with enemies that can deal much damage, making them lose most of their health by attacking you.

This ring, besides being generally pretty nice to have, is also really inexpensive. Only 50 Bone Fragments, 50 Stone, and 1 Gold Bar at Combat Level 7, which you could easily acquire in the lower parts of the regular mines if you’re willing to grind for combat levels.

Emerald Ring

• Primary Effect: Swing weapons faster by 10%
• Stackable: Yes
• Method of Obtaining: Adventurer’s Guild after reaching Mines Level 80
  

This ring is straightforward; its only purpose is to give you 10% extra weapon speed, which, combined with the +4 speed of the Galaxy/Infinity blades, means you can attack continuously, and nothing can even touch you. This gets incredibly broken using something like the Dwarf Dagger, which is already fast.

This gets even better taking into account the fact that this ring is super easy to get. You can buy it from the Adventurer’s Guild for 5000 G after reaching level 80 in the mines. You can also get it from Treasure Chests if you’re fishing, as long as you’re at least fishing level 2.

Warrior Ring

• Primary Effect: Short bursts of high damage
• Stackable: No
• Method of Obtaining: Combat Level 4, Crafted with 10 Iron Bars, 25 Coal, and 10 Frozen Tears
  

This ring says it “Infuses the wearer with warrior energy” whenever you kill something. But a more accurate description is that it randomly gives you a +10 attack buff for 5 seconds. So if you have a decent weapon, this pretty much guarantees an instant kill on any enemy you hit with this buff active, which in my opinion, is pretty great.

This ring is one of the easiest to obtain of any I’ve featured in this guide. It only requires Combat Level 4 and 10 Iron Bars, 25 Coal, and 10 Frozen Tears.

Although the combat level is pretty lax, you’ll definitely reach it by just going through the regular mines, and the only problematic thing is the frozen tears, but you’ll probably find enough by grabbing them as you go through floors 40-79.

Jade and Aquamarine

• Primary Effect: Increased rate and damage of critical hits
• Stackable: Yes
• Method of Obtaining: Adventurer’s Guild after level 40 in the Mines
  

These two do almost the same thing, so I’m highlighting them together. The Aquamarine Ring will increase your critical strike chance by 10%, and the Jade Ring will increase your critical strike power by 10%. Both of these combined means you’ll be hitting criticals way more often, and when you do, you’ll get a ton of damage from them.

You can get both of these from the Adventurer’s Guild after passing level 40 or from fishing them up through treasure chests.

These work best when combined with the Crystal Dagger for many hits with extra power and can occasionally instantly kill things. The way crits work is complicated, but you’ll get them about 20% of the time, and they should kill things almost instantly.

Hot Java Ring

• Primary Effect: Enemies drop Coffee upon death
• Stackable: Yes
• Method of Obtaining: Chests in the Volcano Dungeon
  

This is a great, niche, and fascinating ring. You’ll get some cups of Coffee or Triple Shot Espresso every time you kill a few enemies, making it great for people who love the speed buff.

Of course, this can fill your inventory up more, but it may be worth going for if you find coffee your primary food source. (Hopefully, not in real life, that’s unhealthy!)

This one is another one you’ll simply find by looting chests in the Volcano Dungeon, making it not too difficult to find. I’ve not had much luck getting it in playthroughs, but if you do a few runs of the dungeon exclusively looting as many chests as you can, you should definitely get one.

Vampire Ring

• Primary Effect: Steal health from Enemies
• Stackable: Yes
• Method of Obtaining: Kill 200 Bats
  

This one is pretty underrated, in my opinion. It gives you two health back every time you slay a monster, but as someone who usually loses half my health off one interaction then doesn’t get hit for the entire rest of my mines trip, that ends up being incredibly useful and nullifies me needing to eat to restore health almost all the time.

This one is decently easy to obtain, only requiring 200 bats to be slain for the Adventurer’s Guild to sell it to you. But, of course, by the time you’ve gotten to the bottom of the mines, you’ve likely already gotten at least 50 bats killed just casually, so when you start to focus on them and grind, it won’t take too long at all.

Crabshell Ring

• Primary Effect: Extra Defense
• Stackable: Yes
• Method of Obtaining: Kill 60 Crabs
  

This ring is a bit of a pain but is, objectively, pretty good. It grants an extra five defense, nothing more, nothing less.

For reference, the highest defense stat you could get without this (excluding temporary buffs) is 13, so you essentially get another half of your defense by wearing this ring (and that’s using a dagger I’ve never seen anyone use, a more realistic number is 10 + the five from the ring.) You can also use two for an extra ten defense.

This is a massive boost to your defense, the only issue being that this ring is another pain to get. It requires killing 60 rock crabs, an uncommon enemy found on floors 1-29 of the mines. Of course, you could delve into the earlier floors with monster musk on, hitting all the rocks you see, but that still takes forever.

Soul Sapper Ring

• Primary Effect: Steal energy from enemies
• Stackable: Yes
• Method of Obtaining: Volcano Dungeon Chests
  

Have you ever wanted to go to the mines, but your energy bar was low, and you didn’t want to buy food? Well, this ring gives you energy for any enemy you have slain.

So this ring is super helpful for saving money on food and helping you get out of scenarios where you’re stuck in the middle of the floor and want to go down but doesn’t have the energy.

This one is simple, just being obtained in chests in the Volcano Dungeon. This is significantly later in the game than my other choices, but you could opt for the Vampire ring as an alternative if this being later in the game is a big dealbreaker for you.

Lucky Ring

• Primary Effect: Extra Luck and Good RNG
• Stackable: Yes
• Method of Obtaining: Panning or Skull Cavern Chests
  

This is potentially one of the most generally valuable rings in the entire game. It simply increases your luck stat, but luck can affect practically everything, from getting ladders when you break a rock to getting treasure from fishing, bringing more wood from trees, and even helping you cheat at gambling. So it’s great for any situation, all the time.

This one is probably the hardest to get in the game, though. Although true to its name, it can only be acquired through entirely RNG-dependant means; there is no consistent way of obtaining it. So while you could dig through hundreds of Skull Cavern chests for it, I prefer just waiting on Ginger Island and panning for it; either way, still slow.

Burglar’s Ring

• Primary Effect: Extra Enemy Drops
• Stackable: No
• Method of Obtaining: Kill 500 Dust Sprites
  

Potentially one of my favorite designed accessories in a video game, the Burglar’s ring doubles any item’s drop chances while also making most common items drop double what they usually would.

This is because every time you kill an enemy, the game drops its items twice, meaning you could even get two of a rare drop like a Prismatic Shard. Do note that this does not stack, so equipping two does nothing.

The only issue with this ring is the lofty requirement of defeating 500 Dust Sprites. This gets easier when you get Monster Musk from a quest, but it can’t be called anything other than a mind-numbing and tiring grind. However, once you have it, you can have a super essential item for any task involving killing an enemy.

Iridium Band

• Primary Effect: Ring of light around your character, magnetize items, and increased damage
• Stackable: Yes
• Method of Obtaining: Combat Level 9, Crafted with 5 Iridium Bars, 50 Solar Essence, and 50 Void Essence
  

The obligatory choice on any Stardew rings list, but for excellent reason. It’s essentially a Glow Ring, Magnet Ring, and a Ruby Ring all wrapped into one, with no fusion required.

It’s also the only one that doesn’t have a “ring” in its name. This gives you light around your character constantly, increases your item attraction range, and gives you 10% extra attack damage. Its effects also stack if you want to have two of them.

This ring can be crafted with five Iridium Bars, fifty Solar essences, and fifty Void essences. This may seem like a highly lofty cost, but you can obtain all of this relatively quickly by doing a few runs in the Skull Cavern. After you’ve been to that place long enough, I guarantee you’ll have a stockpile of all these.

Wedding Ring

• Primary Effect: Marrying another Player
• Stackable: Well, yes, technically
• Method of Obtaining: Travelling Cart recipe, 5 Iridium Bars and a Prismatic Shard
  

So this ring has zero effects when worn; by that, I mean it does absolutely nothing. This ring’s only advantage is that gifting it to another player will let you marry them, which means this ring enables me to kiss my girlfriend, so it deserves a spot on this list for that.

This lovely ring can be crafted by buying the recipe from the traveling cart and then preparing it with 5 Iridium bars and a Prismatic Shard, which in my opinion, is worth the effort and expensive material.

Incredible Combinations

Combining two rings is an ability you unlock at the end of the Ginger Island volcano dungeon. It becomes incredibly effective when you do specific combos for particular reasons. This is another chance to highlight some rings that weren’t useful by themselves but shine when combined with something else.

It should be noted that you can always vary these combinations however you see fit; these are just the combos I thought up to help you excel in one particular thing.

The Undying

• Ring Combo 1: Crabshell Ring and Phoenix Ring
• Ring Combo 2: Crabshell Ring and Ring of Yoba
  

Want to never have to be sent back to Harvey’s ever again? Then it would be best to try a combo of two Crabshell Rings, a Phoenix Ring, and a Ring of Yoba. This combo will give you +20 defense, revive you if you ever die, and occasionally let you dodge a hit (especially at low health)

This one guarantees you will never die in the mines again. Dying and getting sent back to the hospital when you’re in the middle of a skull cavern run, then losing a bunch of money and items, always sucks, so being able to avoid that pretty much always is a godsend.

Unstoppable Force

• Ring Combo 1: Soul Sapper Ring + Hot Java Ring
• Ring Combo 2: Soul Sapper Ring + Burglar’s Ring
  

Have you ever wanted unlimited energy without dropping a few thousand on salad? The combo of two Soul Sappers, a Hot Java ring, and a Burglar’s Ring will grant you pretty much that. You gain energy from killing enemies; everything drops coffee and falls about twice as much.

You’ll have to down coffee often, but the speed buff and constant stream of energy are incredible. This build guarantees you’ll never have to leave the mines as long as you don’t take too much damage, and it also saves you money on needing to buy a million food items for a ton of energy.

Raw Power

• Ring Combo 1: Iridium Band + Ruby Ring
• Ring Combo 2: Iridium Band + Emerald Ring
  

If you only care about maximizing your attack power, you should combine two Iridium Bands, a Ruby Ring, and an Emerald Ring. This gives you a total of +30% attack and an extra 10% weapon speed, which you could also switch to another Ruby Ring for +40%.

While I can’t say I recommend this one (I think maybe two iridium bands and an aquamarine and jade ring would be better for the crit chances), it is funny seeing dumb damage numbers. However, you should probably go for other options. Namely, a warrior ring can already instakill most things, which might be better.

Keeping Distance

• Ring Combo 1: Amethyst Ring + Hot Java Ring
• Ring Combo 2: Amethyst Ring + Savage Ring
  

Prioritizing knockback and movement speed is a great strategy to keep enemies from getting near you; this can be accomplished with two Amethyst Rings, a Hot Java Ring, and a Savage Ring; this will give you +20% knockback, a bunch of coffee to increase your speed and an extra speed boost when you kill an enemy.

This means you can hit an enemy, run away with your extra movement speed, and escape any bad scenario you find yourself in. No more having three enemies gang up on you and quickly make you lose your health, just running away and getting coffee for free.

Everything But Combat

• Ring Combo 1: Iridium/Glowstone Ring + Lucky Ring
• Ring Combo 2: Emerald Ring + Lucky Ring
  

If you want to maximize your accessories for anything but combat, combine Iridium/Glowstone Ring, two Lucky Rings, and an Emerald Ring. This will grant you some glow around your character, item magnetization, +2 luck, and extra weapon speed, which also applies to scythes!

This is useful for many things, namely farming or doing activities late at night; it also helps attract further away items and anything to do with luck (practically every random event in the game.) Using an iridium band is also not bad for mining, either.

Stardew Valley Best Rings Guide: FAQs

Conclusion

Rings are an advantageous asset, and I wish I could have more than 4 (even though that would be pretty broken.) However, I always find myself taking the sometimes excruciating amount of time to grab the Burglar’s Ring and enjoying working my way up to craft an Iridium Band.

While most of the best rings might seem like an absolute pain to acquire, usually, they aren’t too bad and give essential buffs. I can’t think of the last time I played the game without going after at least a few of the better (and harder to get) ones; they’re beneficial for every playthrough.