Dwarvish Safety Manual

Dwarvish Safety Manual

Type	Book
Location	Dwarf; Bookseller
Sell Price	1000g

The Dwarvish Safety Manual is the book that makes bombing safe to be careless with. Reading it cuts a quarter off the damage a farmer takes from their own explosives, which sounds modest until a Skull Cavern run turns into a row of Mega Bombs dropped at close range. The Dwarf sells it from his cavern beside the mine entrance for a few thousand gold, which is a fraction of what the Bookseller later asks for the same thing, so it is one of the easiest power books to pick up early. Each later copy read drops a block of mining experience as well. For anyone who clears rock with explosives rather than a pickaxe, this is the first book worth owning.

The in-game description reads: Bombs deal 25% less damage to you.

Overview

Bombs in the valley do not care who set them. A Cherry Bomb, a Bomb or a Mega Bomb will take a slice off a farmer standing too close just as readily as it shatters the rock, and the usual answer is to run, wait and then come back for the ore. That costs time, and time is exactly what a Skull Cavern descent is short of. A quarter less damage does not remove the hazard, but it turns a careless detonation from a serious wound into something a Life Elixir can shrug off, which in practice means dropping the next bomb sooner.

Getting the book means getting into the Dwarf's room first. The passage east of the mine entrance hall is sealed by a glittering boulder, and breaking it open takes either a steel pickaxe or any bomb set beside it. Behind it lives the Dwarf, who stocks the things a miner cannot buy anywhere else: explosives in every size, Oil of Garlic, Life Elixir, a Rarecrow and the safety manual itself. There is a catch on top of that, because he speaks only Dwarvish until the Dwarvish Translation Guide has been earned by handing all four Dwarf Scrolls to Gunther at the Museum. Until then his shop is unreadable, which makes this book a reward for archaeology as much as for mining.

Anyone who gave up on the cavern has a second chance from the third year, when the book joins the Bookseller's rotation at many times the Dwarf's price and turns up on only about one of his tables in ten. It is a poor deal in gold terms and a sensible one for a farmer who simply wants the Well-Read achievement finished.

The first reading hands over the power and files it on the Special Items and Powers tab. Every copy read after that pours a hundred points of mining experience in instead, which pairs neatly with the subject: a farmer who keeps buying the manual from the Dwarf is levelling the very skill that makes the bombs worth throwing. The reduction applies to the reader alone, so on a shared farm each player needs their own copy before they can stand in their own blast.

Notes

Kent likes being given this one, which is fitting for the one villager who came home from military service and knows what an explosion sounds like. Penny loves it as she loves every book, Elliott is glad of it, and Alex dislikes it.

The manual works as a red colourant, both in the dye pots at Emily and Haley's house on 2 Willow Lane and through the spool of the Sewing Machine with a dyeable garment in the feed.

All Books

Every entry in this group, with its key details.

Name	Image	Price
Animal Catalogue		2000g
Bait And Bobber		500g
Book Of Stars		2500g
Book of Mysteries		3000g
Combat Quarterly		500g
Dwarvish Safety Manual		1000g
Friendship 101		3000g
Horse: The Book		1000g
Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Thick		500g
Jewels Of The Sea		800g
Mapping Cave Systems		4000g
Mining Monthly		500g
Monster Compendium		2000g
Ol' Slitherlegs		1000g
Price Catalogue		1000g
Queen Of Sauce Cookbook		10000g
Raccoon Journal		1000g
Stardew Valley Almanac		500g
The Alleyway Buffet		3000g
The Art O' Crabbing		1000g
The Diamond Hunter		1000g
Treasure Appraisal Guide		500g
Way Of The Wind pt. 1		5000g
Way Of The Wind pt. 2		10000g
Woodcutter's Weekly		500g
Woody's Secret		500g