Charcoal kilns are a good way to make up for a coal deficit. It's a bit wood-expensive, but wood is really easy to get and it's so much more convenient than trying to farm it all off sprites.

You should get the crafting recipe for the kilns at Foraging level 4.

Go into the mines and hit all the rocks. You’ll get a fair bit of coal that way.

In the later years, get a kiln(?) and it will produce coal from wood.

If you havent already click on the mine carts as you see them- theyll drop some( but usually only once).

In the first couple of years, farming dust sprites is my default solution.

Opening a batch of geodes often gives you some, so if you have Clint open 100 magma geodes or frozen geodes, you are apt to get 10-15 pieces of coal.

The coal Ore shows up regularly at Kristoff's Stall, pretty cheap. :)

hopefully you have kristoff’s stall if not work on getting it you can buy unlimited coal when he has it for sale 😎

You can buy a shit ton from kristoffs shop. I stock up and it lasts a while

Do you need some?

Coal only shows up when you need a specific gem

i second the dust sprites. easiest way for me to get coal. eventually you can get a lot at the skull cavern since the levels reset everything but for earlier game, i would just grind the mines levels 40-79. you can reset them by waiting in the main area of the mines where the dwarf is until 10 in-game minutes have passed.

I'll use wood I've harvested and put it in my charcoal kiln or I'll just buy it from Clint.

You can buy it from Clint if you can spare the gold. Farm dust sprites in the frozen mine levels and there's the option when you level up your mining skills for more coal

Every time I start a new file, I save up as much cash as I can and spend everything except spring's seed money on buying wood from Robin. Both for future construction and to turn into coal. Her year 1 wood prices are crazy low.

After year 1 it does get trickier; Clint's coal prices become better but still pricey in large quantities. At that point I just grind the caves. Skull Cavern is my preference. I dunno that it's faster than killing dust sprites but it's more fun and you still get occasional coal carts.

All trees outside of your farm will regenerate in the same place. Go lay waste to all trees in SV and then drop tree seeds everrrywhereeee on your farm. Then go nuts on the trees in your farm. Wood for days!

My way is if you have fishing leveled up pick crab pots don’t require bait and cover the entire beach with crab pots and selectively recycle trash and drift wood.

just buy it from Clint, it's really cheap

Maybe you could go to mine floor 40~60? the dust spirits there have quite a high chance to drop a coal, if you have a burglar's ring, they also will have the chance to drop 2, I guess it's a great use of your free time and it do not waste resources as making preserve jars and kegs require LOTS of wood.

Coal is the rarest thing in the game and you always need more :D

One option for later parts of the game is to have mahogany/normal trees planted at the train station, desert, quarry, then bomb/cut down and dump wood into charcoal kilns. Or monster musk and iron-level mines for the sprites :)

I used to pre 1.6 but the quarry is a game changer

I usually just buy 500-1000 of it in winter or fall before the prices rise.

Until you have the funds, just farm dust sprites I guess, but buying it saves time and time is money in this game

They’re not different in those seasons but that’s when I usually start getting rich. You just want to buy it before year 2 or coal shoots up to 250g

Farm dusbrites

I do a lot of mine/cavern runs, so I generally have a steady supply. Farming either dustsprites (levels 40-60) in the mines or specifically the right side/path of the quarry mine (it has a lot of coal nodes)

Open up the Quarry and it solves that problem.

You know those rocks that you try to avoid early on because they take two hits to break? Once you've upgraded to a copper pickaxe they only take one, and they're fairly good about dropping coal (as well as guaranteed stone). They're also good for mining experience, since regular rocks don't give any unless they drop something. Mining level has a small effect on coal drop rates (small as in 4% of the max boost from daily luck per level).

There's also charcoal kilns, of course.

Go for lumber jack perk in foraging skill tree then buy 7 wood chipper then those 7 can convert 7 hardwood to at best 80-72ish wood then convert to coal, I have gathered 500 hardwood so when I need wood or coal then I just convert since they're fast enough

Mine? I get like 200 pieces per good mining day

Keep killing dust sprites until you get the reward from gil, which will help you get more monster drops. Then use it while killing more dust sprites to get more coal. Coal deficit is so real though, especially when you're trying to craft things with it.

Buy it from Clint for 250.

by Year 2 Fall 1 you should be flush with cash.

Also, when you're in the mines, some of the minecarts contain coal, as do the coal bags (the things that look kinda like guitar cases). It's not a huge boost but it's like 5 pieces or so every time you find one that does.

The lighter colored rocks in the mines usually drop a few Stone and sometimes a coal but never geodes. When I want coal I break those light flat looking rocks.

You can craft a ciln, which produces coal out of wood. Also mining rocks on lucky days can bring a lot of coal.

I definitely suggest hunting for dust spirits, and once you get bugler rings for hunting 500 dust spirits, you will get usually 40+ coals in a day. I probably would not suggest using clin, because woods are also very valuable commodity, and spending 10 woods to get one coal doesn't sit well with me.

At the end, coal/wood/stone will always be a bottle neck for making something. The best way to go is to make tons of money and just buy those materials.

I recommend the Burglars Ring as it gives you double the chance of monsters dropping loot as well as a chance of them dropping more than one item. I used to have an issue with running out of coal until I got the ring. Now I just go through levels 40-60 and farm dust sprites.

Yeah I usually just end up buying from Clint when I get some money.