Stardew Valley - Clubs

Clubs are slow and heavy, hitting hard and knocking monsters back. Their special move smashes the ground around the farmer.

Overview

Clubs are the valley's blunt instruments, and they play a different game from the other melee weapons. A swing is slow and wide, and it throws whatever it hits backwards, so a club spends monsters' time rather than trading hits with them. The special move is the clearest statement of that idea: instead of blocking or stabbing, the farmer slams the ground and everything in a ring around them is knocked away. The slam does damage of its own, though it never lands a critical hit.

What makes the branch worth learning is the knockback stat, written as Weight. A heavy club pushes a slime far enough that it has to cross the room again before it can touch anything, which turns a crowded mine floor from a fight into a crowd-control exercise. The same bluntness is the drawback: a slow weapon against a single fast monster leaves long gaps where nothing is happening.

The branch runs from a chiselled lump of wood found on the first few mine floors to the heaviest melee weapon in the game, and almost every step of the ladder is found rather than bought. A handful come off the shelf at the Adventurer's Guild, a handful come out of chests in the Volcano Dungeon, five are souvenirs from a festival stall, and the rest are simply lying in the dark.

Groups

Three shapes sit inside the branch. The plain clubs and mallets are the working weapons, from the wooden club through to the gavels, and they do the job the branch is named for. The oddities are the ones that break the pattern: a bone pulled off the tenth mine floor that is somehow quicker than it looks, and an iron rod so heavy it slows the farmer noticeably.

Order

The first club a farm owns is normally a Wood Club picked up somewhere in the top forty floors of The Mines, and it is a straight upgrade on the Rusty Sword the game hands out. A Femur from around the tenth floor is the better early pick, because the extra speed takes some of the sting out of the branch's main weakness.

The Adventurer's Guild opens the first real purchase once forty floors are behind the farm. A Wood Mallet from Marlon's shelf is light for a club and covers the middle of the mine comfortably. Deeper in, a Kudgel adds half again to critical damage and a Lead Rod offers raw weight at the cost of real sluggishness, which suits a farmer who intends to stand still and let monsters bounce.

The Slammer is the end of the ordinary road, turning up in the eighties and nineties of The Mines and again in the Skull Cavern and the Quarry Mine. Five festival clubs match it exactly, which matters for a farmer who reaches the Desert Festival in Spring before reaching those floors: seventy Calico Eggs at a friend's stall buys a weapon that would otherwise need a long descent.

After that the branch waits on gold and on the island. The Galaxy Hammer is a seventy-five thousand gold purchase at the Guild and a large jump. The Volcano Dungeon's chests hold the Dwarf Hammer and the Dragontooth Club, and the Forge at the top of that dungeon turns the Galaxy Hammer into the Infinity Gavel with three Galaxy Souls and a pile of Cinder Shards.

Best

The Infinity Gavel is the branch's answer and the heaviest melee hit in the game. It keeps the Galaxy Hammer's speed bonus, adds a point of defence and holds the full knockback, so nothing is given up for the damage. A farm that intends to fight at all in its late years should treat the three Galaxy Souls as earmarked.

Below that the choice is a real one. The Dragontooth Club trades defence for a large boost to critical damage, which suits a farmer wearing crit-chance rings, while the Dwarf Hammer trades that boost for defence and the heaviest push in the branch, which suits a farmer who would rather not be hit at all. Both come out of the same dungeon, so the usual outcome is owning both and picking by floor.

The Galaxy Hammer remains the most important club in practice, because it arrives from a shop rather than from luck. Any farm with a good Summer behind it can buy its way to a late-game weapon, and the same purchase is the first step of the Infinity ladder.

Locations

Most of the branch is found underground. The upper forty floors of The Mines supply the wooden weapons, the middle floors the Kudgel and the Lead Rod, and the deep floors The Slammer, which also appears in the Skull Cavern and in the Quarry Mine behind the repaired bridge. A save using the remixed mine rewards places The Slammer in the chest on floor one hundred and ten instead.

The Adventurer's Guild east of the mine entrance sells the Wood Mallet after forty floors and the Galaxy Hammer to anyone who can pay. It is also the one place in the valley that buys clubs back, which matters once duplicates start piling up.

Ginger Island holds the top of the branch. Chests inside the Volcano Dungeon yield the Dwarf Hammer and the Dragontooth Club, and the Forge in the caldera handles the final upgrade.

Prices

A club's resale value follows its level rather than its looks, at fifty gold a level, which is why the festival souvenirs and The Slammer all fetch the same price. The practical consequence is that selling old clubs at the Guild is pocket change, and the only club worth hoarding for money is one that was never needed.

Strategy

Pick the weapon type by the fight rather than by the damage number. Clubs are for rooms full of slimes and bats, where the ring slam buys space and the knockback keeps everything at arm's length. A sword is the better all-round tool and a dagger the better answer to a single tough monster, so the tidy loadout is a club and a sword in the same backpack.

The slam rewards good timing. Triggering the special attack and then pressing the ordinary attack straight away chains swings together faster than normal, which is how a modest club keeps up with a monster well above its level. Pressing too early simply produces a normal swing, so the timing is worth practising on something harmless.

Pair a club with defence rather than with speed. The branch's weapons already push monsters away, so boots and rings that cut damage taken turn a slow weapon into a safe one, and food that raises defence does more for a club run than food that raises luck.

Notes

The slam's damage is fixed at ordinary values because it cannot critically hit, so critical power bonuses on a club only apply to its normal swings. That is worth knowing before choosing the Dragontooth Club for a floor that will mostly be cleared with the special attack.

All Clubs

Every entry in this group, with its key details.

Name	Image	Type	Level	Damage
Alex's Bat		Club	7	40-55
Dragontooth Club		Club	14	80-100
Dwarf Hammer		Club	13	75-85
Femur		Club	2	6-11
Galaxy Hammer		Club	12	70-90
Harvey's Mallet		Club	7	40-55
Infinity Gavel		Club	17	100-120
Kudgel		Club	5	27-40
Lead Rod		Club	4	18-27
Penny's Fryer		Club	7	40-55
Sam's Old Guitar		Club	7	40-55
Seb's Lost Mace		Club	7	40-55
The Slammer		Club	7	40-55
Wood Club		Club	2	9-16
Wood Mallet		Club	3	15-24