The easiest way to earn Qi Gems in Stardew Valley is to prepare before the right quest appears. These challenges can look ridiculous when you accept them with empty chests. With a few supplies ready, several become much more manageable. Here are the methods I use, refreshed from the original video.
Watch my original YouTube video for the gameplay demonstration, or jump to the section you need. The written guide includes corrections and additions for Stardew Valley 1.6.
In this guideOpen contents
Unlock Qi’s Walnut Room and check the deadline
Qi’s Walnut Room is on the west side of Ginger Island. Reach its Golden Walnut discovery requirement to enter, then check the Special Orders board. Two choices appear each Monday.
Accepting later in the cycle can leave less time than the maximum listed for a challenge. Read the actual countdown before committing. You are choosing a task your current farm can finish, not automatically picking the largest reward.
| Challenge | Maximum time | Qi Gems |
|---|---|---|
| Qi’s Kindness | 7 days | 40 |
| Danger in the Deep | 7 days | 50 |
| Skull Cavern Invasion | 7 days | 40 |
| Qi’s Hungry Challenge | 7 days | 25 |
| Qi’s Prismatic Grange | 14 days | 35 |
| Qi’s Cuisine | 14 days | 25 |
| Qi’s Crop | 28 days | 100 |
1. Qi’s Kindness: stockpile loved gifts
This requires fifty loved gifts in one week. Without preparation it becomes a tour of the valley with the wrong presents. With preparation, it is one of my favourite options.
Rabbits are useful because Rabbit’s Foot is loved by almost everyone, with Penny as the important exception. An Auto-Grabber makes collecting the produce easier, but you do not need fifty Rabbit’s Feet specifically: use any correctly matched loved gifts you already have.
Make a route and check each person’s weekly gift allowance. Normally you can give one gift per day and two per week, with the weekly allowance resetting on Sunday. Accepting on Monday gives you room to plan. Stardrop Tea does not count for this challenge.
Keep Penny’s gift separate so you do not hand her a Rabbit’s Foot by mistake. A chest of prepared gifts is far cheaper than scrambling around town on the final afternoon.
2. Use Jade Staircases for the mine challenges
Danger in the Deep asks you to reach the bottom of the dangerous Mines. Skull Cavern Invasion asks for floor 100 with dangerous enemies. Qi’s Hungry Challenge also asks for floor 100, but you cannot eat or drink inside.
I would try these properly at least once because the challenge is fun. When I mainly want reliable Qi Gems, I prepare Jade in Crystalariums and trade it to the Desert Trader for Staircases on Sundays. Staircases are allowed for these objectives.
Carry enough for the depth you need, plus a margin for mistakes. Take a weapon, organise the hotbar before entering and keep an escape option ready. A Staircase plan reduces fighting; it does not make opening your inventory beside a serpent a good idea.
For Hungry Challenge, eat and drink before entering if you want buffs. Passive healing equipment can help inside, but you cannot rely on your usual stack of food. Read the quest name carefully so you do not prepare for the wrong restriction.
3. Prismatic Grange: save six colours in advance
You need one hundred eligible items in each of six colours. These items can be collected before accepting, so a prepared chest turns a potentially annoying quest into a short delivery.
The colour rules are stricter than simply choosing an item that looks right. Save known qualifying materials, and verify that the collection box accepts your chosen item before gathering a full stack. Deposited items are consumed.
Use cheap surplus before buying everything. Sap and Fiber are much easier to justify than feeding the box valuable Iridium Ore. If you need to shop, buy the shortfall rather than treating the entire quest as a gold sink.
| Colour | Practical stockpile or purchase |
|---|---|
| Red | Spaghetti from Gus if you lack suitable surplus |
| Orange | Copper Ore |
| Yellow | Sap, or Hay as a purchase option |
| Green | Fiber, or Salad |
| Blue | Blueberries, or Joja Cola |
| Purple | Void Essence; Krobus has a daily purchase limit |
4. Qi’s Cuisine: calculate the loss before cooking
This quest asks you to ship 100,000g of freshly cooked food. You must cook it after accepting the quest, and the items are marked Fresh. Food already sitting in your fridge does not qualify.
Two simple approaches are Bread and Triple Shot Espresso. At ordinary sale values, 1,667 Bread sells for 100,020g. Alternatively, 223 Triple Shot Espresso sells for 100,350g and needs 669 Coffee. You also need the Espresso recipe.
Buying all the ingredients loses money: 1,667 Wheat Flour at 100g costs 166,700g, while 669 Coffee at 300g costs 200,700g. This is a deliberate exchange of gold for twenty-five Qi Gems, not a money-making trick. Growing or brewing your own ingredients changes the cost.
Check the final shipping value, cook after accepting and use the Shipping Bin before the deadline. Those details matter more than how quickly you can click through the crafting menu.
5. Qi’s Crop: multiply the first seeds
Qi’s Crop rewards one hundred Qi Gems for shipping five hundred Qi Fruit. It can be excellent, but only when you have enough time and growing space. Accept early, read the countdown and clear the planting area before you start.
While the quest is active, collect Qi Beans through your normal activities. Stored geodes are a useful way to get an opening batch. Plant the Beans, then put early Qi Fruit into Seed Makers to expand the crop. Reinvesting the first harvest is what makes the later harvest large enough.
Agriculturist and suitable Speed-Gro can shorten the growth cycle. Ginger Island is a convenient growing space, but any valid prepared planting area can help. Work backwards from the deadline so you know when to stop making seeds and start shipping the final five hundred fruit.
Ship through the Shipping Bin; selling to Pierre does not count. Ordinary leftover Qi Beans and Qi Fruit do not provide a permanent stockpile after the quest ends. Do not spend your entire time allowance building a beautiful field that never gets its last harvest.
6. Pick the specialist quests when they fit your strengths
Four Precious Stones asks for four Prismatic Shards collected while the quest is active. I usually value my shards too much to prioritise it, but a strong mining setup can make the trade reasonable.
Extended Family is much more attractive if you enjoy difficult fishing. You have three days to catch the five required relatives of the legendary fish. The Junimo Kart challenge is the opposite for me: if you struggle with the minigame, a small reward does not justify a miserable week. Its reward is twenty Qi Gems.
Choose based on your equipment, stored supplies and what you enjoy. The easiest challenge for a fishing specialist may be a terrible choice for a player who mainly farms.
7. Exchange spare Golden Walnuts after finishing the island
Once every parrot upgrade is purchased, remaining Golden Walnuts can be exchanged for Qi Gems. That is a finite bonus from completing the island, not an endless income source.
The older video ends with a recountnuts exploit. I would not build an evergreen progression plan around a bug or a version-dependent command. Use the current quests and preparation methods above for repeatable progress.
My practical setup is simple: a gift chest, some Jade Crystalariums, a colour-supply chest and enough spare gold to choose Cuisine when it suits me. That gives me options when Monday’s board refreshes.
Watch the original video
Keep exploring the valley
Browse more secrets & late game guides, or continue with one of these related guides:
- Best Rings In Stardew Valley 1.6
- Ultimate Stardew Valley Fishing Guide [1.6]
- How to Farm Thousands of Iridium Ore Fast in Stardew Valley (1.6 Guide)
Game-mechanics references: Qi's Walnut Room, Quests, Golden Walnut. Screenshots and video by MGaud.