Mr. Qi's Special Orders in Stardew Valley: Complete Walkthrough for Every Quest

Once your farm is humming along and the seasons start blending together, Stardew Valley can feel a little too peaceful. That is usually the moment Mr. Qi enters the picture. His special orders offer a tougher class of side quest, packed with rewards no other vendor sells. This guide walks through how to unlock them and how to clear every order without wasting days.

Unlocking Mr. Qi's Quest Board

Before you can even look at the orders, you need access to Mr. Qi's room. The key is 100 Golden Walnuts collected across Ginger Island. Once you hand them over, the door opens and a quest board appears inside, similar to the one in Pelican Town. The catch is that this board only displays Mr. Qi's personal challenges, and the payout is always in Qi Gems rather than gold.

Every Special Order, Explained

As of Update 1.6, there are ten orders available. The list has stayed stable through patches, and most players agree these are some of the hardest content in the game. Several need careful prep, a couple need patience, and at least one needs the RNG gods on your side.

Danger in the Deep

• Objective: Reach the bottom of the regular Mines.
• Reward: 50 Qi Gems.
• Time limit: 7 days.
• Strategy: Stockpile 100 Staircases ahead of time (99 Stone each). Drop one on every floor and you will hit the bottom in a single in-game day.

Extended Family

• Objective: Catch Ms. Angler, Glacierfish Jr., Son of Crimsonfish, Radioactive Carp, and Legend II.
• Reward: 20 Qi Gems.
• Time limit: 3 days.
• Strategy: Each fish lives in a different spot:
• Ms. Angler is in the river north of JojaMart.
• Glacierfish Jr. is at the southern tip of Arrowhead Island in Cindersap Forest.
• Son of Crimsonfish bites at the eastern pier on the beach.
• Radioactive Carp swims in the sewers.
• Legend II is hooked at the mountain lake.

Four Precious Stones

• Objective: Drop four Prismatic Shards in Mr. Qi's collection box.
• Reward: 40 Qi Gems.
• Time limit: 28 days.
• Strategy: Shards in your inventory from before accepting the quest do not count. You must find all four after starting. The Skull Cavern, geodes, and panning are your best hunting grounds. The Prismatic Shard guide on the wiki has the full drop table if you want to plan routes.

Let's Play a Game

• Objective: Score 50,000 points in Junimo Kart endless mode.
• Reward: 20 Qi Gems.
• Time limit: 7 days.
• Strategy: Head to the arcade cabinet in the Stardrop Saloon and grind. Endless mode is the only one that counts, so pick it from the start menu. Practice runs help, since the controls take some getting used to.

Qi's Crop

• Objective: Ship 500 Qi Fruit.
• Reward: 100 Qi Gems.
• Time limit: 28 days.
• Strategy: Accepting the quest causes Qi Beans to start spawning in rocks, weeds, trees, garbage cans, artifact spots, and monster drops. Plant the beans and they turn into Qi Fruit in four days. Set up a dedicated greenhouse plot or a large stretch of farmland and keep the cycle running. 100 Qi Gems is the biggest single payout on the list, so it is worth the prep.

Qi's Cuisine

• Objective: Ship freshly cooked items totaling 100,000 gold.
• Reward: 25 Qi Gems.
• Time limit: 14 days.
• Strategy: Only items with "Fresh" in the tooltip count. The cheapest farm is Coffee: brew 669 cups and you cross the line. If you have a stockpile of Wheat, milling 1,667 of it into Wheat Flour also works. Toss the results in the Shipping Bin until the running total hits 100,000.

Qi's Hungry Challenge

• Objective: Reach Level 100 of the Skull Cavern without eating or drinking inside the dungeon.
• Reward: 25 Qi Gems.
• Time limit: 7 days.
• Strategy: Stack food buffs before you enter the cavern, since those carry over. Once the run starts, no eating, no drinking, no coffee, nothing. The full descent has to fit inside a single in-game day or you faint at 2 AM. Bring Staircases and bombs for speed.

Qi's Kindness

• Objective: Give 50 loved gifts to NPCs in town.
• Reward: 40 Qi Gems.
• Time limit: 7 days.
• Strategy: Vanilla Stardew has 34 giftable NPCs, and each accepts up to two gifts per week. That means you can theoretically finish the order in two days if your preferred-gift list is sorted. The community gift cheat sheets are useful here, since memorizing 34 favorites is not realistic.

Qi's Prismatic Grange

• Objective: Place 100 items of each color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple) in Mr. Qi's collection box.
• Reward: 35 Qi Gems.
• Time limit: 14 days.
• Strategy: The cheapest items per color are:
• Red: Spaghetti from the Stardrop Saloon, 250g each.
• Orange: Copper Ore from Clint, 150g each.
• Yellow: Hay from Marnie, 50g each.
• Green: Salad from the Stardrop Saloon, 220g each.
• Blue: Joja Cola from the vending machine at the Saloon or JojaMart, 750g each.
• Purple: Void Essence from Krobus, 100g each but capped at 10 per day. Start collecting early in the quest window.

Skull Cavern Invasion

• Objective: Reach Level 100 of the Skull Cavern.
• Reward: 40 Qi Gems.
• Time limit: 7 days.
• Strategy: Same constraints as Qi's Hungry Challenge minus the food rule. Eat anything you want, but the full run still needs to finish in one in-game day. Bring Spicy Eel for speed, plenty of bombs, and a healthy stock of Staircases for floors with no holes. A Crystal Dagger or Galaxy Sword makes life easier against the Serpents on deeper levels.

Final Notes

Mr. Qi's orders are not designed to be cleared in a weekend. Most accounts knock them out over multiple in-game years, especially the ones gated by RNG like Four Precious Stones or by long crop cycles like Qi's Crop. Plan around what the game already throws your way, accept orders that line up with your current build, and the Qi Gems will pile up on their own.