Lothengriol
Farmhand
Disclaimers:
1. This entire post is about a post-Community Center item.
2. None of the Spoilers are actual content Spoilers, they are just a means of shortening the post length into something more manageable.
Deconstructors are a great item. Many know them for their vaunted utility in cheesing one's way past Robin's Resource Rushes, but the Automate Mod allowing absentee input/output management opens up some truly game-changing processing routines. The Stardew Valley Wiki has an excellent starter guide on Deconstructors, but they don't cover profitability and cost-saving as I will here. Definitely read it first; it has fun images while this guide doesn't! The general findings and numbers calculated will all be summarized in short(ish) form at the end. Feel free to skip ahead to that if you'd like.
This post will be on the case I discovered first: metal ores. For ease of calculation, I assume the use of the Regular Furnace. Bombs (I will use "Bombs" to refer to all three, and "Regular Bomb" to refer to the unique item named "Bomb") can be bought from dwarves. These Bombs can also be deconstructed into their most valuable ingredient, which for each is four metal ores.
Cherry Bomb Processing: Deconstructs to 4 Copper Ore at T&M (Time & Material cost) of 1 hour and 450 g
Regular Bomb Processing: Deconstructs to 4 Iron Ore at T&M of 1 hour and 1,000 g
Mega Bomb Processing: Deconstructs to 4 Gold Ore at T&M of 1 hour and 1,600 g
It is worth noting that deconstructing adds another machine step, where depending on your setup you may need to manually move items from Chest A to Chest B. You can safely attach furnaces to your Deconstructor setup without causing issues, since Deconstructors will not deconstruct any furnace output. A general word of caution: if you aren't careful with sticking multiple machine types onto the same chest, you can absolutely cause issues further down the line. Thinking about this sort of thing is an important part of using the Automate Mod. The Machine Control Panel mod helps with this as it shows you all of a device's inputs. This includes modded items, so in some cases that mod will be more helpful than this guide here!
These all follow two generic formulae:
Buying Ore: Cost = 5 Ore + 1 Coal + Furnace Time
Buying Bombs: Cost = (5/4 * Bomb) + 1 Coal + Deconstructor Time + Furnace Time
For Year 1, it's cheaper to buy all the ores themselves.
Year 2 is a different story. Here is the breakdown:
7. Buying Copper Ore: 150 g * 5 + 250 g = 1,000 g + 30 minutes
8. Buying Cherry Bombs: 5/4(450 g) + 250 g = 812.5 g + 90 minutes
9. Buying Iron Ore: 250 g * 5 + 250 g = 1,500 g + 2 hours
10. Buying Regular Bombs: 5/4(1,000 g) + 250 g = 1,500 g + 3 hours
11. Buying Gold Ore: 750 g * 5 + 250 g = 4,000 g + 5 hours
12. Buying Mega Bombs: 5/4(1,600 g) + 250 g = 2,250 g + 6 hours
Per-bar Cost Differences (Ore Purchasing - Deconstruction):
Copper: +187.5 g, - 1 hour (Cost-saving!)
Iron: ±0 g, - 1 hour
Gold: +1,750 g, - 1 hour (Cost-saving!)
More Profitable* Means of Getting Ore Without Mining
*(not as scalable due to items not stacking)
Interestingly enough, Regular Bomb deconstruction isn't profitable when buying them with money. Fortunately for us, Regular Bombs are tradeable! We can repeatably trade 5 Quartz for one Regular Bomb with the Desert Trader any day of the week. This means using Crystalaria to produce Quartz (to trade for Regular Bombs to deconstruct to Iron Ore) is a profitable endeavor. A Crystalarium can duplicate 3 Quartz per day (1 every 7 hours). 5 Quartz can be exchanged for 1 Regular Bomb. 1 Regular Bomb can be deconstructed into 4 Iron Ore. 5 Iron Ore and 1 Coal can be smelted into one Iron Bar.
Final Equation: 25 Crystalaria + 12 Coal -> 12 Iron Bars per day
But is this more cost-effective than producing Diamonds and buying Iron Ore from that money? (Yes, and below is why)
Now let's consider another case: Iridium
You can't buy Iridium from Clint, but the Deconstructor can process one mass-tradeable item into Iridium: The Desert Warp Totem, which is deconstructed into 4 Iridium Ore.
There are several other items which are processed into Iridium items, which all have limitations:
The Desert Warp Totem can be traded for from the Desert Trader for 3 Omni Geodes. As far as I am aware, the two best ways to farm Omni Geodes are mining in the Skull Caverns with the Geode power from the Statue of the Dwarf King, and farming Octopus. Mining is higher-yield while farming Octopus is more passive. For some context, the Magic Turban and Magic Cowboy hat both cost 333 Omni Geodes. These 333 Omni Geodes, traded for 111 Desert Warp Totems which are then deconstructed into 444 Iridium Ore, would yield 88.8 Iridium Bars in a regular Furnace (or 97.68 with a Heavy Furnace).
So Octopus is a bad way of obtaining Iridium Ore, even if it outperforms Super Cucumber's Iridium Ore production and Rainbow Trout's Prismatic Shard production. If you want Iridium Ore, the highest-yield way is probably still going to the mines. Trading Omni Geodes for Desert Warp Totems is a good way to supplement this though.
Summary (Verbal only, see below for numbers):
1. Deconstructing any of the three Bombs doesn't save money compared to buying ores in Year 1.
2. Deconstructing Cherry Bombs and Mega Bombs saves money compared to buying ores in Year 2 (but not Regular Bombs!).
3. Deconstructing Tackle is always the most cost-effective option for Copper, Iron, and Gold Bars, but production doesn't scale as well due to items not stacking.
4. Iron Ore can be farmed through Quartz-producing Crystalaria and deconstructing the traded Regular Bombs.
5. Both Quartz and Jade-producing Crystalaria are more cost-effective than having those same Crystalaria produce Diamonds and buying the materials (Iron Ore and Stone) with that money.
6. The most cost-effective way to craft Crystalaria is with Gold Bars from Treasure Hunter Tackle and Stone from Jade Staircases.
7. Iridium Ore can be farmed through trading Omni Geodes for Desert Warp Totems. Octopus Ponds are the most efficient Fish Pond at producing both Iridium Ore and Prismatic Shards if you break the Omni Geodes open yourself, but this results in lower Iridium Ore output relative to trading the Omni Geodes for Desert Warp Totems. Even with opening the Omni Geodes, you will still get more Iridium Ore than you would with an equal number of Super Cucumber Ponds.
Deconstruction Savings in Year 1 (per bar):
Deconstruction Savings in Year 2 (per bar):
Crystalarium Prices Year 1:
Crystalarium Prices Year 2:
Please respond with any questions or corrections you have to offer! This was a very long post and I ran through it with a lot of corrections, so I wouldn't be surprised if I missed something here or there.
1. This entire post is about a post-Community Center item.
2. None of the Spoilers are actual content Spoilers, they are just a means of shortening the post length into something more manageable.
Deconstructors are a great item. Many know them for their vaunted utility in cheesing one's way past Robin's Resource Rushes, but the Automate Mod allowing absentee input/output management opens up some truly game-changing processing routines. The Stardew Valley Wiki has an excellent starter guide on Deconstructors, but they don't cover profitability and cost-saving as I will here. Definitely read it first; it has fun images while this guide doesn't! The general findings and numbers calculated will all be summarized in short(ish) form at the end. Feel free to skip ahead to that if you'd like.
This post will be on the case I discovered first: metal ores. For ease of calculation, I assume the use of the Regular Furnace. Bombs (I will use "Bombs" to refer to all three, and "Regular Bomb" to refer to the unique item named "Bomb") can be bought from dwarves. These Bombs can also be deconstructed into their most valuable ingredient, which for each is four metal ores.
Cherry Bomb Processing: Deconstructs to 4 Copper Ore at T&M (Time & Material cost) of 1 hour and 450 g
Regular Bomb Processing: Deconstructs to 4 Iron Ore at T&M of 1 hour and 1,000 g
Mega Bomb Processing: Deconstructs to 4 Gold Ore at T&M of 1 hour and 1,600 g
It is worth noting that deconstructing adds another machine step, where depending on your setup you may need to manually move items from Chest A to Chest B. You can safely attach furnaces to your Deconstructor setup without causing issues, since Deconstructors will not deconstruct any furnace output. A general word of caution: if you aren't careful with sticking multiple machine types onto the same chest, you can absolutely cause issues further down the line. Thinking about this sort of thing is an important part of using the Automate Mod. The Machine Control Panel mod helps with this as it shows you all of a device's inputs. This includes modded items, so in some cases that mod will be more helpful than this guide here!
These all follow two generic formulae:
Buying Ore: Cost = 5 Ore + 1 Coal + Furnace Time
Buying Bombs: Cost = (5/4 * Bomb) + 1 Coal + Deconstructor Time + Furnace Time
For Year 1, it's cheaper to buy all the ores themselves.
1. Buying Copper Ore: 75 g * 5 + 150 g = 525 g + 30 minutes
2. Buying Cherry Bombs: 5/4(450 g) + 150 g = 712.5 g + 90 minutes
3. Buying Iron Ore: 150 g * 5 + 150 g = 900 g + 2 hours
4. Buying Regular Bombs: 5/4(1,000 g) + 150 g = 1,400 g + 3 hours
5. Buying Gold Ore: 400 g * 5 + 150 g = 2,150 g + 5 hours
6. Buying Mega Bombs: 5/4(1,600 g) + 150 g = 2,150 g + 6 hours
Per-bar Cost Differences (Deconstruction - Ore Purchasing):
Copper: -187.5 g, - 1 hour
Iron: -500 g, - 1 hour
Gold: ±0 g, - 1 hour
Thus we find that deconstructing bombs in Year 1 is a net loss in both money and time for all Ores except for Gold, for which money breaks even and it's only a waste of time.
2. Buying Cherry Bombs: 5/4(450 g) + 150 g = 712.5 g + 90 minutes
3. Buying Iron Ore: 150 g * 5 + 150 g = 900 g + 2 hours
4. Buying Regular Bombs: 5/4(1,000 g) + 150 g = 1,400 g + 3 hours
5. Buying Gold Ore: 400 g * 5 + 150 g = 2,150 g + 5 hours
6. Buying Mega Bombs: 5/4(1,600 g) + 150 g = 2,150 g + 6 hours
Per-bar Cost Differences (Deconstruction - Ore Purchasing):
Copper: -187.5 g, - 1 hour
Iron: -500 g, - 1 hour
Gold: ±0 g, - 1 hour
Thus we find that deconstructing bombs in Year 1 is a net loss in both money and time for all Ores except for Gold, for which money breaks even and it's only a waste of time.
7. Buying Copper Ore: 150 g * 5 + 250 g = 1,000 g + 30 minutes
8. Buying Cherry Bombs: 5/4(450 g) + 250 g = 812.5 g + 90 minutes
9. Buying Iron Ore: 250 g * 5 + 250 g = 1,500 g + 2 hours
10. Buying Regular Bombs: 5/4(1,000 g) + 250 g = 1,500 g + 3 hours
11. Buying Gold Ore: 750 g * 5 + 250 g = 4,000 g + 5 hours
12. Buying Mega Bombs: 5/4(1,600 g) + 250 g = 2,250 g + 6 hours
Per-bar Cost Differences (Ore Purchasing - Deconstruction):
Copper: +187.5 g, - 1 hour (Cost-saving!)
Iron: ±0 g, - 1 hour
Gold: +1,750 g, - 1 hour (Cost-saving!)
More Profitable* Means of Getting Ore Without Mining
*(not as scalable due to items not stacking)
These items don't stack. It will make pursuing these savings more time-intensive. Regardless, the savings are phenomenal so I'll probably end up doing this too.
Per-bar Savings:
Trap Bobber: 500 g -> 1 Copper Bar
Year 1: 525 g - 500 g = 25 g
Year 2: 1,000 g - 500 g = 500 g
Spinner: 500 g -> 2 Iron Bar
Year 1: 900 g - (500 g / 2) = 650 g
Year 2: 1,500 g - (500 g / 2) = 1,250 g
Treasure Hunter: 750 g -> 2 Gold Bar (Barbed Hook: 1,000 g -> 1 Gold Bar)
Year 1: 2,150 g - (750 g / 2) = 1,775 g
Year 2: 4,000 g - (750 g / 2) = 3,625 g
The Sonar Bobber and the Barbed Hook also yield metal bars, but are straight downgrades from the Spinner and Treasure Hunter above. Don't waste your time buying them instead of the higher-payoff items.
All of these are cost-saving when it comes to money, with only buying Trap Bobbers resulting in lost time (because the smelting time for Copper bars is so low). The only downside is that you have to go to Willy's shop to buy them, and tackle is not stackable, meaning you can only fit in a maximum of 36 into your inventory at any given time. You could try setting up Deconstructors at the Beach for this, but be careful of NPC paths!
Per-bar Savings:
Trap Bobber: 500 g -> 1 Copper Bar
Year 1: 525 g - 500 g = 25 g
Year 2: 1,000 g - 500 g = 500 g
Spinner: 500 g -> 2 Iron Bar
Year 1: 900 g - (500 g / 2) = 650 g
Year 2: 1,500 g - (500 g / 2) = 1,250 g
Treasure Hunter: 750 g -> 2 Gold Bar (Barbed Hook: 1,000 g -> 1 Gold Bar)
Year 1: 2,150 g - (750 g / 2) = 1,775 g
Year 2: 4,000 g - (750 g / 2) = 3,625 g
The Sonar Bobber and the Barbed Hook also yield metal bars, but are straight downgrades from the Spinner and Treasure Hunter above. Don't waste your time buying them instead of the higher-payoff items.
All of these are cost-saving when it comes to money, with only buying Trap Bobbers resulting in lost time (because the smelting time for Copper bars is so low). The only downside is that you have to go to Willy's shop to buy them, and tackle is not stackable, meaning you can only fit in a maximum of 36 into your inventory at any given time. You could try setting up Deconstructors at the Beach for this, but be careful of NPC paths!
Stoichiometry (an important part of Chemistry) tells us that balancing these equations via Least Common Multiple math gives us this final equation below.
Equation 1: 1 Crystalarium -> 3 Quartz
Equation 2: 5 Quartz -> 1 Regular Bomb
Equation 3: 1 Regular Bomb -> 4 Iron Ore
Equation 4: 5 Iron Ore + 1 Coal -> 1 Iron Bar
We start by multiplying each term in the first equation by 5/3 to get:
5/3 Cr -> 5 Q
Now for the first three equations, the right side (products) of these equations matches with the left side (reactants) of the next, meaning we can string these three together like this:
5/3 Cr -> 5 Q -> 1 RB -> 4 IO
Since we only really care about the first and last terms, we will simplify by removing the middle stuff (the intermediate products):
5/3 Cr -> 4 IO
Now we just need to multiply each term by 5/4 in order to balance it with Equation 4.
25/12 Cr -> 5 IO
Now we can string them together, like so:
25/12 Cr -> 5 IO + 1 C -> 1 IB
Now we can multiply each term by 12 in order to make this all balance out:
25 Cr -> 60 IO + 12 C -> 12 IB
Simplifying again will look different this time, because coal is not generated by the Crystalaria and needs to be considered as a separate reactant. The Crystalaria indirectly produce Iron Ore, but they don't produce coal. This causes our final equation to look like this:
25 Crystalaria + 12 Coal -> 12 Iron Bars per day
Equation 1: 1 Crystalarium -> 3 Quartz
Equation 2: 5 Quartz -> 1 Regular Bomb
Equation 3: 1 Regular Bomb -> 4 Iron Ore
Equation 4: 5 Iron Ore + 1 Coal -> 1 Iron Bar
We start by multiplying each term in the first equation by 5/3 to get:
5/3 Cr -> 5 Q
Now for the first three equations, the right side (products) of these equations matches with the left side (reactants) of the next, meaning we can string these three together like this:
5/3 Cr -> 5 Q -> 1 RB -> 4 IO
Since we only really care about the first and last terms, we will simplify by removing the middle stuff (the intermediate products):
5/3 Cr -> 4 IO
Now we just need to multiply each term by 5/4 in order to balance it with Equation 4.
25/12 Cr -> 5 IO
Now we can string them together, like so:
25/12 Cr -> 5 IO + 1 C -> 1 IB
Now we can multiply each term by 12 in order to make this all balance out:
25 Cr -> 60 IO + 12 C -> 12 IB
Simplifying again will look different this time, because coal is not generated by the Crystalaria and needs to be considered as a separate reactant. The Crystalaria indirectly produce Iron Ore, but they don't produce coal. This causes our final equation to look like this:
25 Crystalaria + 12 Coal -> 12 Iron Bars per day
But is this more cost-effective than producing Diamonds and buying Iron Ore from that money? (Yes, and below is why)
1 Crystalarium costs 99 Stone, 5 Gold Bars, 2 Iridium Bars, and 1 Battery Pack to craft.
Baseline Crystalarium Price (all purchased materials):
Year 1: (99 * 20) + (5 * 2,150) = 12,730 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack
Year 2: (99 * 100) + (5 * 4,000) = 29,900 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack
Let's assume you use the new way of obtaining gold, deconstructing Mega Bombs. It's only worthwhile in Year 2, so we'll only show that equation:
Crystalarium Price (Mega Bombs):
Year 2: (99 * 100) + (5 * 2,250) = 21,150 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack
Deconstructing the Mega Bombs saves us 8,750 g per Crystalarium, a 29.3% cost reduction! So when do we make our money back? Let's calculate the Break-even Point (BEP):
The Break-even Point will be the smallest integer for which Daily Savings * Number of Days is equal to or greater than the Crafting Cost. Mathematically, that is:
BEP = Cost_crafting / Savings_daily
If 25 Crystalaria produce 12 Iron Bars, they are saving us... hang on. What does it even cost to duplicate something? Opportunity! For every Crystalarium *not* producing the maximally-profitable mineral, Diamond, you are "missing out" on a maximum of 150 g per day, assuming you just left it empty. The particular opportunity cost per Crystalarium for other outputs is 150 g per day minus the profit (or savings, in this case: we aren't making money by doing this, only avoiding higher spending) for our current Crystalarium output. This means that because every 25 Crystalaria save us from producing 12 Iron Bars the more expensive way, buying ore, we save 1,250 g per bar. This makes our opportunity cost equation the following:
Opportunity Cost = [(150 g / 1 Day * 25 Crystalaria) - (1,250 * 12 Iron Bars / 1 Day)] / 25 Crystalaria
Opportunity Cost = -522 g per Day per Crystalarium
Since Opportunity Cost is negative, it isn't a loss, it's our Daily Savings:
Daily Savings = 522 g per Day per Crystalarium
Break-even Point:
Mega Bombs: 21,150 g / 522 g = 40.5 = 41 Days
Now we will consider additional ways to reduce Crystalarium cost, namely Tackle-derived Gold and Jade-derived Stone from Staircases. Again, these assume you're using the Crystalaria for Quartz -> Regular Bombs -> Iron Ore. Changing their mineral output changes how quickly they pay themselves off (if at all), and the generic formula for this, per Crystalarium, is:
Break-Even Point: Initial Cost / [(150 g / Day) - (Daily Earnings (or Savings) from Current Method)]
I will eventually make another post on the cost-effectiveness of Crystalarium outputs for resources/trading, but that might not be for a while.
Crystalaria with Tackle-derived Gold:
Year 1: (99 * 20) + (5 * 750 / 2) = 3,855 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack, 69.7% cost reduction
Year 2: (99 * 100) + (5 * 750 / 2) = 11,775 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack, 60.6% cost reduction
Break-even Points:
Year 1: 3,855 g / 522 g = 7.4 = 8 Days
Year 2: 11,775 g / 522 g = 22.6 = 23 Days
Deconstructed Staircases (bought with Jade) allow for further optimization of Crystalaria crafting. Here's a strong (but not best-case) scenario assuming each Crystalarium was crafted with stone derived from 1 Jade-producing Crystalarium, adding 150 g to the opportunity cost. If you crafted 10 Crystalaria from the Deconstructed Staircases of 1 Jade Crystalarium, the opportunity cost would be increased by (150 g / 10) = 15 g instead. We will have a VERY different Opportunity Cost equation here, because the Opportunity is 150 g / day while the production (0.6 Jade / day) saves us from buying...
0.6 Jade * 1 Staircase per Jade * 99 Stone per Staircase = 59.4 Stone per day
Year 1 Opportunity Cost (with Jade Staircases) = (150 g / 1 Day) - (100 * 59.4 Stone / 1 Day)
Year 2 Opportunity Cost (with Jade Staircases) = (150 g / 1 Day) - (20 * 59.4 Stone / 1 Day)
Year 1 Opportunity Cost (with Jade Staircases) = -1,038 g per Day per Crystalarium
Year 2 Opportunity Cost (with Jade Staircases) = -5,790 g per Day per Crystalarium
This seems high but is correct, and shows that using Crystalaria to produce Jade for Stone (instead of buying it) is enormously cost-effective.
Crystalaria (with Jade Staircases):
Ore Year 1: (5 * 2,150) = 10,750 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack, 15.5% cost reduction
Ore Year 2: (5 * 4,000) = 20,000 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack, 33.1% cost reduction
Mega Bombs: (5 * 2,250) = 11,250 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack, 62.4% cost reduction
Tackle: (5 * 750 / 2) = 1,875 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack, 93.7% cost reduction (Y2, Y1: 85.3%)
Break-even Points (with Jade Staircases):
Ore Year 2: 20,000 g / 522 g = 38.3 = 39 Days
Mega Bombs: 11,250 g / 522 g = 21.6 = 22 Days
Ore Year 1: 10,750 g / 522 g = 20.6 = 21 Days
Tackle Year 1: 2,750 g / 522 g = 2.7 = 5.3 Days
Tackle Year 2: 2,750 g / 522 g = 0.65 = 5.3 Days
The daily savings of 522 g is used here because this is evaluating the cost-effectiveness of Crystalaria producing Quartz for Iron Ore, not for the cost-effectiveness of the Jade Crystalaria. Adding Jade Crystalaria into the calculations would be difficult to cover comprehensively, because while a Jade-producing Crystalaria produces enough Stone for a Crystalarium every 1.67 days, this cost-effectiveness depends on how many Crystalaria you craft with that Jade, or more generally how much of that Stone you utilize. It is enough to know that producing Jade for Stone is extremely cost-effective, and leave more personalized math to the individual players who wish to figure it out for their own unique cases.
Baseline Crystalarium Price (all purchased materials):
Year 1: (99 * 20) + (5 * 2,150) = 12,730 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack
Year 2: (99 * 100) + (5 * 4,000) = 29,900 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack
Let's assume you use the new way of obtaining gold, deconstructing Mega Bombs. It's only worthwhile in Year 2, so we'll only show that equation:
Crystalarium Price (Mega Bombs):
Year 2: (99 * 100) + (5 * 2,250) = 21,150 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack
Deconstructing the Mega Bombs saves us 8,750 g per Crystalarium, a 29.3% cost reduction! So when do we make our money back? Let's calculate the Break-even Point (BEP):
The Break-even Point will be the smallest integer for which Daily Savings * Number of Days is equal to or greater than the Crafting Cost. Mathematically, that is:
BEP = Cost_crafting / Savings_daily
If 25 Crystalaria produce 12 Iron Bars, they are saving us... hang on. What does it even cost to duplicate something? Opportunity! For every Crystalarium *not* producing the maximally-profitable mineral, Diamond, you are "missing out" on a maximum of 150 g per day, assuming you just left it empty. The particular opportunity cost per Crystalarium for other outputs is 150 g per day minus the profit (or savings, in this case: we aren't making money by doing this, only avoiding higher spending) for our current Crystalarium output. This means that because every 25 Crystalaria save us from producing 12 Iron Bars the more expensive way, buying ore, we save 1,250 g per bar. This makes our opportunity cost equation the following:
Opportunity Cost = [(150 g / 1 Day * 25 Crystalaria) - (1,250 * 12 Iron Bars / 1 Day)] / 25 Crystalaria
Opportunity Cost = -522 g per Day per Crystalarium
Since Opportunity Cost is negative, it isn't a loss, it's our Daily Savings:
Daily Savings = 522 g per Day per Crystalarium
Break-even Point:
Mega Bombs: 21,150 g / 522 g = 40.5 = 41 Days
Now we will consider additional ways to reduce Crystalarium cost, namely Tackle-derived Gold and Jade-derived Stone from Staircases. Again, these assume you're using the Crystalaria for Quartz -> Regular Bombs -> Iron Ore. Changing their mineral output changes how quickly they pay themselves off (if at all), and the generic formula for this, per Crystalarium, is:
Break-Even Point: Initial Cost / [(150 g / Day) - (Daily Earnings (or Savings) from Current Method)]
I will eventually make another post on the cost-effectiveness of Crystalarium outputs for resources/trading, but that might not be for a while.
Crystalaria with Tackle-derived Gold:
Year 1: (99 * 20) + (5 * 750 / 2) = 3,855 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack, 69.7% cost reduction
Year 2: (99 * 100) + (5 * 750 / 2) = 11,775 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack, 60.6% cost reduction
Break-even Points:
Year 1: 3,855 g / 522 g = 7.4 = 8 Days
Year 2: 11,775 g / 522 g = 22.6 = 23 Days
Deconstructed Staircases (bought with Jade) allow for further optimization of Crystalaria crafting. Here's a strong (but not best-case) scenario assuming each Crystalarium was crafted with stone derived from 1 Jade-producing Crystalarium, adding 150 g to the opportunity cost. If you crafted 10 Crystalaria from the Deconstructed Staircases of 1 Jade Crystalarium, the opportunity cost would be increased by (150 g / 10) = 15 g instead. We will have a VERY different Opportunity Cost equation here, because the Opportunity is 150 g / day while the production (0.6 Jade / day) saves us from buying...
0.6 Jade * 1 Staircase per Jade * 99 Stone per Staircase = 59.4 Stone per day
Year 1 Opportunity Cost (with Jade Staircases) = (150 g / 1 Day) - (100 * 59.4 Stone / 1 Day)
Year 2 Opportunity Cost (with Jade Staircases) = (150 g / 1 Day) - (20 * 59.4 Stone / 1 Day)
Year 1 Opportunity Cost (with Jade Staircases) = -1,038 g per Day per Crystalarium
Year 2 Opportunity Cost (with Jade Staircases) = -5,790 g per Day per Crystalarium
This seems high but is correct, and shows that using Crystalaria to produce Jade for Stone (instead of buying it) is enormously cost-effective.
Crystalaria (with Jade Staircases):
Ore Year 1: (5 * 2,150) = 10,750 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack, 15.5% cost reduction
Ore Year 2: (5 * 4,000) = 20,000 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack, 33.1% cost reduction
Mega Bombs: (5 * 2,250) = 11,250 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack, 62.4% cost reduction
Tackle: (5 * 750 / 2) = 1,875 g + 2 Iridium Bars + 1 Battery Pack, 93.7% cost reduction (Y2, Y1: 85.3%)
Break-even Points (with Jade Staircases):
Ore Year 2: 20,000 g / 522 g = 38.3 = 39 Days
Mega Bombs: 11,250 g / 522 g = 21.6 = 22 Days
Ore Year 1: 10,750 g / 522 g = 20.6 = 21 Days
Tackle Year 1: 2,750 g / 522 g = 2.7 = 5.3 Days
Tackle Year 2: 2,750 g / 522 g = 0.65 = 5.3 Days
The daily savings of 522 g is used here because this is evaluating the cost-effectiveness of Crystalaria producing Quartz for Iron Ore, not for the cost-effectiveness of the Jade Crystalaria. Adding Jade Crystalaria into the calculations would be difficult to cover comprehensively, because while a Jade-producing Crystalaria produces enough Stone for a Crystalarium every 1.67 days, this cost-effectiveness depends on how many Crystalaria you craft with that Jade, or more generally how much of that Stone you utilize. It is enough to know that producing Jade for Stone is extremely cost-effective, and leave more personalized math to the individual players who wish to figure it out for their own unique cases.
You can't buy Iridium from Clint, but the Deconstructor can process one mass-tradeable item into Iridium: The Desert Warp Totem, which is deconstructed into 4 Iridium Ore.
There are several other items which are processed into Iridium items, which all have limitations:
Crystalaria: These are what we're trying to craft here, so deconstructing them is a waste.
Iridium Sprinklers: Only 1 can be bought every Friday, and yields only 1 Iridium Bar for a 10,000 g price tag. Otherwise, they are found in the Skull Caverns rarely.
Slime Incubators: Found in the Skull Caverns rarely, or traded for with the Bookseller by giving him 2 Monster Compendia. These are not an easily-obtained resource, and I know of no method to farm them to any effective degree.
Mini-Forges: Only Craftable
Statues of the Dwarf King: Only Craftable
Iridium Sprinklers: Only 1 can be bought every Friday, and yields only 1 Iridium Bar for a 10,000 g price tag. Otherwise, they are found in the Skull Caverns rarely.
Slime Incubators: Found in the Skull Caverns rarely, or traded for with the Bookseller by giving him 2 Monster Compendia. These are not an easily-obtained resource, and I know of no method to farm them to any effective degree.
Mini-Forges: Only Craftable
Statues of the Dwarf King: Only Craftable
But wait, Octopus? Why not use Super Cucumber instead and just get Iridium Ore that way?
An Octopus Pond (with 10 Octopuses in it) has the following chances to produce these quantities of Omni Geode each day[Note]:
1: 9%
3: 6%
10: 0.9%
These add up to: ((1 * 0.09) + (3 * 0.06%) + (10 * 0.009))*0.95 = 34.2%, which gives a long-term average of 0.342 Omni Geodes per day (per Pond)
0.342 Omni Geodes * 9 Ponds / 3 per Totem * 4 Iridium Ore per Totem = 9 Octopus Ponds give 4.104 Iridium Ore per day (trading for Desert Warp Totems).
Nine Super Cucumber Ponds (again, with 10 fish in them) will produce 0.855 Iridium Ore per day, making Octopus 4.8 times better at producing Iridium production once the player has access to Deconstructors and the Desert. If you break the Omni Geodes, you get approximately 0.333 Iridium Ore per one:
Iridium Ore probability: 1/20 (5%)
Chance for 1 Iridium Ore: 30%
Chance for 2 Iridium Ore: 30%
Chance for 3 Iridium Ore: 30%
Chance for 6 Iridium Ore: 9%
Chance for 11 Iridium Ore: 1%
0.05 * (1 * 0.3) + (2 * 0.3) + (3 * 0.3) + (6 * 0.09) + (11 * 0.01) = 0.333 Iridium Ore per Omni Geode. This comes out to 1.37 Iridium Ore per day, this is roughly 1/4 the efficiency (24.975%) of trading them for the Desert Warp Totems, and 1.6 times the efficiency of the same number of Super Cucumber ponds producing Iridium Ore. This means even without trading the Omni Geodes for Desert Warp Totems, Octopus Ponds are better than Super Cucumber Ponds at producing Iridium Ore.
And there's an additional bonus: Octopus Ponds can give Prismatic Shards too, through the 1/250 probability for an Omni Geode to have one:
1 Octopus Pond = 0.342 OG * 1/250 = 0.1368%
1 Rainbow Trout Pond = (0.95 * 0.09%) = 0.0855%
This means Octopus Ponds are 1.6 times better at getting Prismatic Shards than Rainbow Trout Ponds!
Regardless, let's get back on track. How many ponds for how many bars?:
9 Octopus Ponds -> 3 Omni Geode -> 1 Desert Warp Totem -> 4 Iridium Ore
9 OP -> 3 OG -> 1 DWT -> 4 IO
45 OP -> 5 IO + 1 Coal -> 1 Iridium Bar
45 OP -> 15 OG -> 5 DWT -> 20 IO
45 OP -> 15 OG -> 5 DWT -> 20 IO + 4 C -> 4 IB
45 OP -> 15 OG + 4 C -> 4 IB
45 Octopus Ponds + 4 Coal -> 4 Iridium Bars per day
Note: The Stardew Valley Wiki displays Fish Pond information oddly. Instead of calculating the odds of getting a particular item in a given day, it shows numbers for the odds of a day's item being a particular item. This is a subtle and frustrating distinction. To make things worse, they round all of the numbers so they don't add up to 100%, and don't explain how they got the numbers for drop rates of different items. To make a long story short, I think that you can convert those numbers to the odds of getting a single particular item on a given day by multiplying the drop rates (which again, assume the Fish Pond will produce a drop that day) by the number of items they contain, and then adding them together and multiplying that sum by the overall likelihood of the Fish Pond producing something on a given day, which for a full Fish Pond (unless Legendary) is 95%. That is that math I do here.
An Octopus Pond (with 10 Octopuses in it) has the following chances to produce these quantities of Omni Geode each day[Note]:
1: 9%
3: 6%
10: 0.9%
These add up to: ((1 * 0.09) + (3 * 0.06%) + (10 * 0.009))*0.95 = 34.2%, which gives a long-term average of 0.342 Omni Geodes per day (per Pond)
0.342 Omni Geodes * 9 Ponds / 3 per Totem * 4 Iridium Ore per Totem = 9 Octopus Ponds give 4.104 Iridium Ore per day (trading for Desert Warp Totems).
Nine Super Cucumber Ponds (again, with 10 fish in them) will produce 0.855 Iridium Ore per day, making Octopus 4.8 times better at producing Iridium production once the player has access to Deconstructors and the Desert. If you break the Omni Geodes, you get approximately 0.333 Iridium Ore per one:
Iridium Ore probability: 1/20 (5%)
Chance for 1 Iridium Ore: 30%
Chance for 2 Iridium Ore: 30%
Chance for 3 Iridium Ore: 30%
Chance for 6 Iridium Ore: 9%
Chance for 11 Iridium Ore: 1%
0.05 * (1 * 0.3) + (2 * 0.3) + (3 * 0.3) + (6 * 0.09) + (11 * 0.01) = 0.333 Iridium Ore per Omni Geode. This comes out to 1.37 Iridium Ore per day, this is roughly 1/4 the efficiency (24.975%) of trading them for the Desert Warp Totems, and 1.6 times the efficiency of the same number of Super Cucumber ponds producing Iridium Ore. This means even without trading the Omni Geodes for Desert Warp Totems, Octopus Ponds are better than Super Cucumber Ponds at producing Iridium Ore.
And there's an additional bonus: Octopus Ponds can give Prismatic Shards too, through the 1/250 probability for an Omni Geode to have one:
1 Octopus Pond = 0.342 OG * 1/250 = 0.1368%
1 Rainbow Trout Pond = (0.95 * 0.09%) = 0.0855%
This means Octopus Ponds are 1.6 times better at getting Prismatic Shards than Rainbow Trout Ponds!
Regardless, let's get back on track. How many ponds for how many bars?:
9 Octopus Ponds -> 3 Omni Geode -> 1 Desert Warp Totem -> 4 Iridium Ore
9 OP -> 3 OG -> 1 DWT -> 4 IO
45 OP -> 5 IO + 1 Coal -> 1 Iridium Bar
45 OP -> 15 OG -> 5 DWT -> 20 IO
45 OP -> 15 OG -> 5 DWT -> 20 IO + 4 C -> 4 IB
45 OP -> 15 OG + 4 C -> 4 IB
45 Octopus Ponds + 4 Coal -> 4 Iridium Bars per day
Note: The Stardew Valley Wiki displays Fish Pond information oddly. Instead of calculating the odds of getting a particular item in a given day, it shows numbers for the odds of a day's item being a particular item. This is a subtle and frustrating distinction. To make things worse, they round all of the numbers so they don't add up to 100%, and don't explain how they got the numbers for drop rates of different items. To make a long story short, I think that you can convert those numbers to the odds of getting a single particular item on a given day by multiplying the drop rates (which again, assume the Fish Pond will produce a drop that day) by the number of items they contain, and then adding them together and multiplying that sum by the overall likelihood of the Fish Pond producing something on a given day, which for a full Fish Pond (unless Legendary) is 95%. That is that math I do here.
Summary (Verbal only, see below for numbers):
1. Deconstructing any of the three Bombs doesn't save money compared to buying ores in Year 1.
2. Deconstructing Cherry Bombs and Mega Bombs saves money compared to buying ores in Year 2 (but not Regular Bombs!).
3. Deconstructing Tackle is always the most cost-effective option for Copper, Iron, and Gold Bars, but production doesn't scale as well due to items not stacking.
4. Iron Ore can be farmed through Quartz-producing Crystalaria and deconstructing the traded Regular Bombs.
5. Both Quartz and Jade-producing Crystalaria are more cost-effective than having those same Crystalaria produce Diamonds and buying the materials (Iron Ore and Stone) with that money.
6. The most cost-effective way to craft Crystalaria is with Gold Bars from Treasure Hunter Tackle and Stone from Jade Staircases.
7. Iridium Ore can be farmed through trading Omni Geodes for Desert Warp Totems. Octopus Ponds are the most efficient Fish Pond at producing both Iridium Ore and Prismatic Shards if you break the Omni Geodes open yourself, but this results in lower Iridium Ore output relative to trading the Omni Geodes for Desert Warp Totems. Even with opening the Omni Geodes, you will still get more Iridium Ore than you would with an equal number of Super Cucumber Ponds.
Deconstruction Savings in Year 1 (per bar):
(Copper) Trap Bobbers: 25 g
(Iron) Spinners: 650 g
(Gold) Treasure Hunters: 1,775 g
Deconstruction Savings in Year 2 (per bar):
(Copper) Cherry Bombs: 187.5 g
(Copper) Trap Bobbers: 500 g
(Iron) Spinners: 1,250 g
(Gold) Mega Bombs: 1,750 g
(Gold) Treasure Hunters: 3,625 g
Crystalarium Prices Year 1:
| Name | Cost (g) | Break-even Point (Days) | Cost Reduction (Percent) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | 12,730 | 25 | 0 (Relative to baseline) |
| Ore with Jade Staircases | 10,750 | 21 | 15.6 |
| Tackle | 3,855 | 8 | 69.7 |
| Tackle with Jade Staircases | 1,875 | 6 | 85.3 |
Crystalarium Prices Year 2:
| Name | Cost (g) | Break-even Point (Days) | Cost Reduction (Percent) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | 29,900 | 58 | 0 (Relative to Baseline) |
| Mega Bombs | 21,150 | 41 | 29.3 |
| Ore with Jade Staircases | 20,000 | 39 | 33.1 |
| Tackle | 11,775 | 23 | 60.6 |
| Mega Bombs with Jade Staircases | 11,250 | 22 | 62.4 |
| Tackle with Jade Staircases | 1,875 | 6 | 93.7 |
Please respond with any questions or corrections you have to offer! This was a very long post and I ran through it with a lot of corrections, so I wouldn't be surprised if I missed something here or there.