Combat

Combat is the skill associated with fighting monsters, such as in The Mines or the Skull Cavern. Combat experience is increased by killing monsters, with more difficult monsters granting more experience. It can also be gained by reading the Combat Quarterly or Book Of Stars.

Each increase in Combat Level adds 5 HP (health points) to the player's health meter, with the exceptions of levels 5 and 10. Health points are only increased when levelling up to levels 5 or 10 if the Fighter and Defender professions are chosen. Level-ups may also add Crafting or Cooking recipes. Unlike other skills, there is no proficiency effect from this skill since weapons do not require energy.

During the first few days in Stardew Valley, the Mines are closed due to an accident by Joja Corporation. On or around day 5, the player will receive a letter in the mail from Joja Corp, explaining that the landslide blocking the mines has been cleared, and the mine entrance will be open. At this point, combat becomes available to players. An exception is those who chose the Wilderness Farm, which starts with monsters at the first night.

As with other skills, experience level is increased immediately upon slaying a monster, but the "level up" window doesn't appear until the player sleeps (or until all players sleep in multiplayer).

Note that killing monsters on the Farm grants only 1/3 of the standard amount of experience.

Combat Skill

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5
Crafting Recipes:	Crafting Recipes:	Cooking Recipes:	Crafting Recipes:	Choose a Profession:
Sturdy Ring Bug Steak	Life Elixir	Roots Platter	Warrior Ring	Fighter All attacks deal 10% more damage. (+15 HP)	Scout Critical strike chance increased by 50%. (+0 HP) (Note that the increase is multiplicative. The formula is: critChance = critChance * 1.5)
Level 6	Level 7	Level 8	Level 9	Level 10
Crafting Recipes:	Crafting Recipes:	Crafting Recipes:	Crafting / Cooking Recipes:	Fighter:	Scout:
Slime Egg-Press Oil of Garlic	Ring of Yoba Thorns Ring	Slime Incubator Explosive Ammo	Iridium Band Squid Ink Ravioli	Brute Deal 15% more damage. (+0 HP) (Stacks multiplicatively with Fighter)	Acrobat Cooldown on special moves cut in half. (+0 HP)
				Defender +25 HP.	Desperado Critical strikes are deadlier. (+0 HP) (2x Critical strike damage)

Experience Points

250 Combat XP is gained for reading a copy of the Combat Quarterly or Book Of Stars.

The following table lists the experience points gained for killing the indicated monster.

Monster	Experience (XP)
Green Slime	3
Dust Sprite	2
Bat	3
Frost Bat	7
Lava Bat	15
Iridium Bat	22
Stone Golem	5
Wilderness Golem	5
Iridium Golem	15
Grub	2
Cave Fly	10
Frost Jelly (i.e., Blue Slime)	6
Sludge (i.e., Red, Purple, Copper, or Iron Slime)	10
Ghost	15
Carbon Ghost	20
Duggy	10
Rock Crab	4
Truffle Crab	4
Lava Crab	12
Iridium Crab	20
Squid Kid	15
Shadow Brute	15
Shadow Shaman	15
Skeleton	8
Metal Head	6
Bug	1
Mummy	20
Big Slime	7
Serpent	20
Mutant Grub	6
Mutant Fly	10
Pepper Rex	7
Haunted Skull	15
Tiger Slime	20
Lava Lurk	12
Hot Head	16
Magma Sprite	15
Magma Duggy	18
Magma Sparker	17
False Magma Cap	14
Dwarvish Sentry	15
Putrid Ghost	25
Shadow Sniper	20
Spider	15
Stick Bug	4
Royal Serpent	20
Blue Squid	15

Substats

Consuming certain foods or drinks, wearing particular Footwear or Rings, and choice of Weapon can all give Stat Bonuses that affect the player's Combat ability.

Attack affects how much damage the player does with each weapon strike.

Crit. Power adds additional damage when hitting a critical strike.

Defense affects how much damage the player takes from enemy strikes.

Immunity affects the chance to be afflicted with certain debuffs.

The Weight of a weapon affects how far an enemy will be knocked back when struck with the weapon.

Weapon Speed and Player Speed are also a factor in successful Combat.

Critical hit chance

Critical hit chance is computed in the following order:

1. Start with the weapon's base critical hit chance. For example, the Galaxy Sword has a critical hit chance of 2%.
2. Add Aquamarine forging bonus. In 1.5, the Aquamarine forging increases weapon critical hit chance by 4.6%. For example, a weapon with 3 Aquamarine forges would have its crit chance increased by 13.8% (4.6% x 3). If applied to the Galaxy Sword, this would result in a critical hit chance of 15.8%.
3. If the weapon is a dagger, critical hit chance is set to (critical hit chance + 0.005) × 1.12.
4. Apply aquamarine ring and innate enchantment bonuses.
   1. Each aquamarine ring equipped gives a 10% bonus..
   2. If the weapon has a "+X Crit. Chance" innate enchantment, then each enchantment level adds 2% to the percentage (up to 6% for a level 3 enchantment).
   3. So for a sword with 2% base critical hit and 3 Aquamarine forging, 1 Aquamarine ring increases critical hit chance by 10%: 15.8% × 1.1 = 17.38%.
   4. Two aquamarine rings increase critical hit chance by 20%: 15.8% × 1.2 = 18.96%.
   5. A level 3 Crit. Chance innate enchantment increases critical hit chance by 6%: 15.8% × 1.06 = 16.75%
   6. Two aquamarine rings and a level 3 Crit. Chance innate enchantment increase critical hit chance by 26%: 15.8% × 1.26 = 19.91%.
5. If the Blessing of Fangs buff from Statue Of Blessings is active, Critical hit chance gets an additive increase of 10%.
   1. A player using a Galaxy Sword that is triple-enchanted with Aquamarine and equipped with 2 aquamarine rings has an 18.96% + 10% = 28.96% critical hit chance with the Blessing of Fangs buff from the Statue Of Blessings,
6. The Scout Profession further increases critical hit chance by 50%.
   1. For the galaxy sword with 2 aquamarine rings, 3 aquamarine forging, the Blessing of Fangs buff from the Statue Of Blessings, and the Scout profession, the critical hit chance is: 28.96% × 1.5 = 43.44%.
7. Finally, every point of Luck from food and rings increases critical hit chance by: LuckLevel * critical hit chance / 40.
   1. This bonus scales with critical hit chance, so a higher critical hit percentage benefits more from increased Luck.
   2. So starting with 28.96% critical hit chance and 2 points of Luck, critical hit chance is 28.96% + 2 × 28.96% / 40 = 30.41%

The Desperado profession increases the damage of critical hits again by 2x after all bonuses are applied. Further information about this is discussed in Crit. Power.

History

• 1.0: Introduced.
• 1.6: Monsters defeated on the farm now grant 1/3 the normal amount of XP, instead of no XP. Combat Experience can now be gained by reading the Combat Quarterly or Book Of Stars.