I got a statue of perfection from grandpa's shrine, it produces iridium ore every day. You get it once all the candles are lit. Put a diamond in the shrine to get reevaluated if they arent.

Thanks guys �� I love that even 400+ hours into the game I'm still finding out new stuff

You can take the ‘kill everyone’ approach and obtain the burgler ring, then farm the slimes for iridium bars.

iridium has an increased chance of spawning the further in skull cavern you go, i think the recommended is like floor 40+. Id suggest stockpiling on cheese for health/energy and bombs to clear the floors. Make staircases and skip the floors that are infested so you don’t waste so much time

Like another guy said: the statue of perfection from grandpa's shrine gives you 2-8 iridium ore per day. Apart from that you've just gotta go deep into the skull cave to bump up your chances for a drop.

Iridium nodes begin to show up on level 10 of skull cavern and every 10 levels after that the chances of finding iridium nodes increases significantly

I’ve collected like 30 pieces of iridium ore after reaching only level 40

You can mine it in the Skull Cavern in the desert, or from the statue Grandpa gives you (if you do well enough) at the start of year 3

Before I modded the game for an elevator I just went to the skull cavern everyday. I could get at least 2 bars worth of ore even if I didn't get that deep.

Then I would only crack my geodes in super lucky days with rabbits foot and food

Ah that makes so much sense ol

You can find a bit in the last few levels of the mines and from geodes but the best place to find it is Skull Cavern. The deeper you go the more likely it is to spawn. Extra lucky days help more appear in general as well.

Iridium is a bottleneck early on. But the process you're talking about - using Iridium to make Crystalariums for jade to be exchanged for staircases - is precisely how you alleviate the bottleneck.

With near infinite staircases, you can just make your way down past floor 100 where iridium is plentiful. Bomb out whole floors. Pick up treasures. Make more Crystalariums. Repeat.

Also diamonds can be used to craft fairy dust which is super helpful. Endgame I have a hundred or so crystalariums producing jade for staircases, ruby for spice eel, and diamonds for fairy dust. Yes the deeper you go the more frequent iridium shows up. Starts getting good around 40+

Definitely!

And you are also about to hit the point that >!you will get a random amount of iridium ore daily!<

Yes! I love my crystalariums!

Absolutely! So I put tons of Jade in the machines, and every Sunday you can trade in Jade for Staircases. I will rack up 300+ stairs and check the TV Fortune Teller Channel and if the luck is abundant, go use staircase after staircase in Skull Caverns and eat luck food/wear luck rings. Go rake in like 30+ treasure floors. Also this allows me to find certain floor types; Example: The Prehistoric Floors where you can complete your Dinosaur slaying quests for Gil. As well as being able to manufacture diamonds which sell for a bit, and you can trade in x50 to the Dwarf in the volcano for a book that makes finding Diamonds more likely permanently.

That too!

You also have a chance to find iridium ore when panning. Better odds the more upgraded your pan, plus or minus daily luck. That’s how I usually get some for crafting some things until I can get deep into the Skull Cavern or Statue at the end of Year 2.

You're just a loser.

That of course is a joke. In all seriousness, take some stairs to the skull cavern on a high luck day. The further down you get, the higher the chance of finding iridium

The desert mine is where you get iridium.

Get a bunch of stone, iron ore and coal. With this you can make stair cases and bombs (you can make mega bombs but I find regular bombs more efficicient, resources wise). Wait for a lucky day (watch the TV fortune teller). Get on the bus as 10am sharp and use your bombs and stairs to get really deep. You'll find the precious iridium.

Yeah, you probably just don’t remember because the cut-scene happens at the beginning of year 3. Go check out Grandpa’s shrine. If it has 4 candles, you will get a statue that spits out iridium every day. If it has fewer than 4 candles, put a diamond into the shrine and wait a day or two.

I never even tried to mine for iridium. I just waited till the first day on the third year, then Grandpa gave me my statue with my four candles lit. After that, it only took a couple of days playing to have all of my tools Iridium. Not that that helps you, skull Caverns the way to go LOL

If for whatever reason Grandpa was mad at you and you didn't get all the candles lit you can use a diamond to commune with him again once your farm is in better shape and then pick up the statue the next morning. The other thing you can do is pick up the statue of Endless Fortune. Available to buy at the casino is drops iridium bars among other things. Plus it generates favourite gifts on birthdays, which makes them easier to remember because the statues gives you a salad instead of a diamond. Plus you can have as many of them as you want. They are 1 mill apiece.

I forgot about this in my most recent playthrough and was SO iridium starved. 😭

It's basically a statue that gives you around 5 iridium ores each day.

Go to grandpa's shrine in the top left of your farm and you can claim the statue if you dont already have it.

Did you get the cutscene where Grandpa appears to you? Is it after the first of Spring on year 3? Then go to his shrine, and see what happens.

iridium in the regular mines is very very rare from the mystic stones (swirl pattern). The only reliable source of iridium is Skull Cavern at your point in the game.

Skull cavern can have iridium show up at any level, but it's only common on the deeper floors. My current challenge run has me going up and down the first floor ladder all day and I see floor 1 iridium about every other good luck day.

At the begining of year 3 grandpa will visit you and if you've done enough he will give you a statue that gives you iriduim every day. Dupe the statue a few times and you will have more iriduim than you know what you do with.

Skull Cavern. You can try going deep to find nodes or just farm purple slimes since they drop it too.

Grandpa’s shrine.

go to the mines on a good luck day and bring a lot of bombs/buy them from the dwarf and blow up everything lmao. this is a good way to get prismatic shards too

You can get 2-8 ores daily from the statue of perfection given by grandpa's shrine for earning 4 candles in his evaluation.

There's a bug where you can place the statue, use a tool to knock it off the tiles but not pick it up, and go to the shrine again to get another one. You can do this infinitely but it just makes the game not fun so I wouldn't recommend it if you want to keep the game challenging.

You can use crystalariums to make jades, take 50 to the dessert trader and get staircases, use the staircases to get to level 50 in the skull cavern, and start farming from there. You get about 10-20 per level from lvl 50. That goes up to 30 per level from 100. You can do the same to start from level 200 to get one prismatic shard per level also.

Insane mode: build some slime hutches and fill them only with purple slimes. Kill purple slimes for a chance to get iridium.

Also if all of those are out of reach, collect magma geodes from the mountain caves levels 85+. They drop about 5 iridium ores among other things.

If you do a deep dive in the skull cavern on a best luck day you’ll probably find some. Also keep improving your farm and you can >!redo grandpa’s evaluation with a diamond, if you get all four candles he’ll give you a statue that generates iridium!<

You can purchase another pan at Willy’s.

Iridium ore spawns in the cavern in the desert, which you gain access to after compmeting the mine.

You will need to get deep into it to start finding Iridium. My first run was wirh stairs and lost of bombs to get down to lvl 100 asap then go from there

Pan = unlock glittering boulder bundle of the community center.

Iridium ore = quarry, skull cavern. You'll have an unlimited supply if you pass grandpa's assessment.

Skull cavern is far and away the best way to get iridium ore. I’ve gotten maybe 5,000 in year 2 from there. I don’t even go all that often.

It does require a bit of effort (buying explosives, trading jade for staircases, not dying) but a single run can get 1000+ ore.

If you want an easier but slower way, getting 4 candles in grandpas evaluation and interacting with the shrine gives you a statue of perfection, which gives you 2-8 ore (enough for 1 bar on average) every day. Not much but that’s 660 ore over the course of a year- enough for 50 sprinklers and 31 crystalariums.

You find most iridium ore in the skull cavern in Calico desert, and prismatic shard is kinda hard to find since its rare, numerous ways to get that, mining, fishing etc but you gotta be real lucky.

Both are most common in the skull caverns

Another is a statue for getting 4 candles on Grandpa’s evaluation, just make sure to click on the shrine when you do.

You can find Iridium ore in the regular mines, the quarry, the Meteor that lands on the farm, and the desert. It's rare though.

you start smallish and scale it up as you go.

This was my yr 1 set up

https://preview.redd.it/b3q3skjjiqcf1.jpeg?width=1111&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=40a3a36ded997d7e7f48b4ae98bffa58d37a80cd

By summer yr 2 I had over 50ish crystalariums and going deeper was super straight forward.

One of the keys here is having as many lighting rods as you can craft before storms so you can escale up the crystalarium situation as you start getting more and more iridium ore.

That said, there’s no rush ? Don’t go in expecting to get to floor 100 or below from the get go.

Early game, without many bombs or stairs I can reliably make it to 45-60ish depending on luck. You’ll start seeing more iridium nodes after floor 40ish, so again, luck depended, I usually finish a run with about 20 to 60 pieces of ore. Not a lot but enough to start building up a steady stream.

I prioritize upgrading the pickaxe all the way, though once I can afford bombs (>100 per trip) I seldom use it.

Also, you want to make life easier by grinding for extras — i.e. slime charmer ring, burglar’s ring, unlock Ginger Island to enchant your weapon etc etc. All these things make SC runs easier and much more fun imo!

ETA: heck yea, I leave all chores behind if there’s a perfect luck day! lol 🤣 I really enjoy a good SC run so I prioritize it over most other things 😅 you CAN trade for the desert totems. Just save up a few Omni geodes! Good luck!

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is starter iridium ore from the statue of perfection. The one you get from Grandpa's shrine after year two. Just a bit per day, but it helps you get started.

(I think you use a diamond on the shrine to get another evaluation, if you weren't there by the end of year two. I know I wasn't, my first run.)

And, as others have said, good weapons (via a prismatic shard), bombs, staircases, food... having good stuff lets you dive deeper, which gets you more good stuff, which lets you dive deeper still.

Edit: ah, not out of year two yet. Yeah, I'd just keep at other things, then, save up for cavern run support stuff.

I built 5 crystalariums so i can trade in bulk with the desert trader, so usually i go with 100+ stairs in there. You can get a desert totem for 3 Omni Geodes iirc. LUCK IS A HUGE BOOST try going to the skull cavern when you have a good luck day (check the Tv) And yeah if i go in the skull cavern, im normally there all day till 1:30 am.

Sorry ahead of time for the lengthy text. First off, it helps if you've already gotten at least quality sprinklers so you don't have to worry about watering your farm in the morning.  As for animals, if you've got the deluxe barn/coop and enough hay in your silos + autograbbers, you won't need to worry about feeding them and collecting their products.

Now that you don't have to worry about your farm and animals, here's some tips on how to cavedive!  

I NEVER waste my time cave diving the skull caverns if I don't have a good luck day, it's just not worth it in my opinion, just do your daily routine.  (Lucky days make it easief for ladders to show up) Check your fortune every day on the TV to check if you've got good luck, if it's good luck or higher, be prepared to go mining.   I like to get a head start as soon as possible with a warp totem. (you'll get desert warp totems easily from the desert trader by trading 3 omni geodes.  I dont even buy the totem recipe, I just trade with geodes)  You don't have to wait for Pam to get to the bus stop at 10 am.

For food, I like to carry cheese, salad, pumpkin soup, crab cakes, miners treat (anything with a buff is good tbh. I like speed and luck buffs, so spicy eel is great for this)  I always have triple shot espresso with me no matter what, as the speed buff you get from a drink will stack with buffs from food.  You can get spicy eels easily by trading rubies to the desert trader if you have any from the normal mines or previous skull cavern trips.  They also drop from the serpents ocasionally.  My favorite combo is spicy eel + triple shot espresso for luck and double the speed boost.  If I get hurt badly, I eat salad or cheese, since they don't have any buffs that will overwrite your current buff from the eel.

I like to carry 10 staircases with me (at least) every time, just in case I come across a floor that is a spiral, super congested with monsters (or becomes infested with fog) , or if I've just mined too much and can't find the ladder at all.  You can get stairs from the desert trader with jades (you should have at least one crystalarium from one of the community center bundle rewards at this point, I dont remember which one sorry!!)  

Bombs.  Bombs are SUPER important!  I go for the regular bombs or mega bombs typically, as they explode the most surface area.  The more skull cavern dives you do, the more ingredients you will have for mega bombs especially, as mummies will drop the necessary components.  Use bombs to blow them up after you've smashed them into the ground.  I especially love EXPLOSIVE AMMO!!! Do NOT underestimate it!  I used to absolutely hate the slingshot, I was terrible aim with it.  But I discovered explosive ammo + master slingshot combo and it was life changing.  You can easily blast through stone from far away with it (it won't work in close proximity, it has to hit a wall or an enemy to go off).  If you need explosive ammo, grind level 40-60? Of the regular mines for iron + coal from the dust sprites, you'll get plenty of it.  Each explosive ammo (bundle of 4) will require 1 iron bar and 2 coal I believe (can't remember off the top of my head, sorry!)  But overall, bombs + explosive ammo will help clear the stones as fast as possible for you to reveal the next ladder.  

You'll find more iridium ore the further you go into the caverns.  A lot of people like to just skip the first 10-20 levels with staircases if they have enough of them, as they're not super important nor have much iridium.  I usually just explore as normal and use bombs to clear the way, but I'll stop to mine rubies (to trade for spicy eels), emeralds(to trade for cheese), jade (trade for stairs), or gold (for mega bombs)  I'll also stop to fight mummies and explode them for their loot drops too.  You can get some good stuff from them!  

Also I forgot to mention your weapon.  Lava Katana is great, but you can get an even better weapon with a prismatic shard if you have one.  Hold it and walk to the little triangular shaped spokes in the top right area of the desert to get an amazing sword!  :) 

With all these tips and tricks, I manage to get to level 100 almost every time now!  I've managed to snag some great loot from treasure rooms too (auto petters!)  I hope this was helpful for you my dear friend! Happy mining! :) 

Edit:  I should mention, I keep a chest outside the caverns, or inside the cavern before you enter just to store the loot that I collect.  Store unnecessary items (tools besides your weapons, pickaxe, slingshot, bombs) in them.  It's probably better to keep it inside the cavern because the desert festival will cover up anything you put outside.

I still haven't gotten to level 100.

But for getting iridium, my suggestion is to first focus on getting down to at least level 10-20. (Like, don't engage the monsters in the top levels if you can help it, just blow up rocks to look for holes to jump in.) As you get further down, you'll be more likely to find iridium. Both in rocks/nodes and also when you kill the purple slimes.