Some Qi items in Stardew Valley are incredible, and some are only useful for a very specific setup. Before you spend the gems you worked so hard to earn, decide what is actually slowing your farm down. These are my priorities, with the prices and newer options updated from the 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
What should you buy first with Qi Gems?
Horse Flute is my favourite convenience purchase if I already own a horse. Pressure Nozzles are excellent when expanding a crop field. The Key to the Town helps with errands, while a Deconstructor can solve resource shortages. There is no need to buy these in one fixed order.
| Item | Qi Gems | Best reason to buy |
|---|---|---|
| Horse Flute | 50 | Summon your horse outdoors, including Ginger Island |
| Pressure Nozzles, pack of four | 20 | Increase sprinkler coverage |
| Key to the Town | 20 | Enter many buildings outside ordinary hours |
| Deconstructor | 20 | Recover useful materials from crafted items |
| Pierre’s Missing Stocklist | 50 | Buy out-of-season seeds |
| Galaxy Soul | 40 each | Upgrade a Galaxy weapon; three souls are needed |
Horse Flute: stop leaving your horse behind
The Horse Flute is absolutely incredible. Use it and your horse appears beside you. It sounds minor until you start travelling between the valley, desert and Ginger Island.
It costs fifty Qi Gems and only works outdoors. You need your own horse first. If you are constantly warping away and then walking across the island, this is a purchase you will notice every single day.
Pressure Nozzles versus Enrichers
Both are sold in packs of four for twenty Qi Gems. Pressure Nozzles increase a sprinkler’s watering radius by one tile. An Iridium Sprinkler with a nozzle covers a 7×7 area around it, excluding the sprinkler’s own tile.
Enrichers automatically apply loaded fertilizer when you plant in the sprinkler’s range. That saves repetitive work, but I usually get more value from extra watering coverage. Choose Enrichers if replanting and applying fertilizer are genuinely the slow parts of your setup.
You cannot treat the two upgrades as interchangeable, and a sprinkler cannot wear both at once. Lay out the field for the upgrade you intend to use.
Key to the Town and Pierre’s Missing Stocklist
The Key to the Town costs twenty Qi Gems. I like it for gift routes and reaching some buildings before normal opening hours. It does not bypass every bedroom, festival or shopkeeper restriction, so do not assume the whole town becomes a twenty-four-hour shopping centre.
Pierre’s Missing Stocklist costs fifty Qi Gems. Give it to Pierre to unlock out-of-season seeds at a markup. That is useful for the island farm, indoor growing and filling gaps in your collection. It is less urgent if you already stockpile seeds at the end of every season.
Deconstructors and Hoppers: useful, but not full automation
A Deconstructor costs twenty Qi Gems and recovers the most valuable crafting material from an eligible crafted item. It does not return the whole recipe. Staircases into Stone, Grass Starters into Fiber and suitable fishing tackle into resources are examples worth checking.
That means you can sometimes turn a shop purchase into a material you would otherwise have to grind for. Compare the actual purchase price and recovered material before doing it in bulk.
Hoppers cost ten Qi Gems each, or fifty for the recipe. They load a machine in front of them, but they do not collect its finished product. You still have to remove the output before the next cycle can start. I like a Hopper beside a Deconstructor for a stack of awkward input items; I would not buy one expecting an entire keg shed to run itself.
Junimo Chests: a shared stash with limited space
Every Junimo Chest accesses the same nine-slot inventory. The first purchase is a pair for thirty Qi Gems; later chests cost fifteen each.
The small capacity is the limitation. My original idea was keeping catalogues accessible on both farms, but a shared stash of useful travelling supplies can also work. Decide what belongs in those nine slots before you buy a chest for every corner of the valley.
If you only need ordinary storage, a normal chest is the cheaper solution. Junimo Chests earn their place when you actually need the same items in distant locations.
Galaxy Souls: compare the alternative sources
A Galaxy Soul costs forty Qi Gems. You need three Souls and sixty Cinder Shards to turn a Galaxy weapon into its Infinity version, so buying all three costs one hundred and twenty Qi Gems.
The Island Trader has a Radioactive Bar exchange on the last day of a season once its unlock requirement is met. That is an exchange for Galaxy Souls, not Qi Gems. Dangerous-mine combat can also provide an alternative route.
I prefer saving gems when I already have the resources for another source, but buying Souls is perfectly reasonable if the upgraded weapon will make your next challenges much easier.
Magic Bait and Qi Seasoning
Magic Bait costs five Qi Gems for twenty pieces, or twenty Qi Gems for its recipe. It ignores normal season, weather and time restrictions, but the body of water and other fish-specific requirements still matter. It does not make every fish appear in your farm pond.
Qi Seasoning costs ten Qi Gems for ten. It improves eligible cooked food when you cook with it available, including stronger benefits and longer buff duration. It is one of my favourite ways to improve a serious mining meal. Do not expect it to increase a food’s speed buff, and do not confuse cooked meals with drinks.
Heavy Tappers and the crop recipes
Heavy Tapper costs twenty Qi Gems for the recipe and speeds up ordinary tree production. My older video was dismissive because you could plant more trees instead. With a focused Mystic Syrup setup, faster production can deserve a higher priority. Compare the recipe’s material cost with the value of the trees you already have.
Hyper Speed-Gro’s recipe costs thirty Qi Gems. It reduces the first growth period; it does not speed up every regrowth harvest. Deluxe Fertilizer’s recipe costs twenty and allows higher-quality crops, including Iridium quality. Choose between faster growth and crop quality based on whether you sell the crop raw or process it.
Decorations and the newer shop additions
Mushroom Tree Seeds cost five Qi Gems each. They are handy when you want a deliberate mushroom-tree area instead of waiting for a random tree conversion. Do not assume every tapped Mushroom Tree produces on the same schedule all year.
The Aquatic Sanctuary is twenty Qi Gems, Mr Qi’s Hat is five, and the Exotic Double Bed is fifty. I would buy the useful upgrades first, but decorating is a perfectly good goal once the farm is running.
Version 1.6 also adds purchases such as the Blue Grass Starter recipe for forty Qi Gems and the Mini-Shipping Bin for sixty. Fireworks are optional fun, while the Golden Egg is a post-Perfection purchase. These are reasons to revisit the shop after finishing the older video’s list.
Spend around your current bottleneck. Buying a flashy item that sits in a chest is less useful than a modest upgrade that saves work every day.
Watch the original video
Keep exploring the valley
Browse more secrets & late game guides, or continue with one of these related guides:
- From Broke to Rich: Stardew Valley Best Money Making Methods
- Best Crops In Stardew Valley 1.6 [ Every Season ]
- Ultimate Stardew Valley Fishing Guide [1.6]
Game-mechanics references: Qi's Walnut Room, Magic Bait, Deconstructor, Heavy Tapper. Screenshots and video by MGaud.