If you want to find Stardew Valley golden walnuts then you’ve found Ginger Island, a new location added to Stardew Valley in 2020 full of wonders like a pirate cove, a dungeon, and even a mermaid. Across this island though are 130 Golden Walnuts that you might want to find. That’s right, 130. As if you needed more to do in Stardew Valley, you’ve now been tasked to hunt down and find these cheeky golden nuts. Thankfully, we’ve done a lot of the work for you and hunted down all the locations you need to visit in order to collect all the Golden Walnuts. Of course, some are harder than others to retrieve so we’ll start you off slow with the easy ones and then it’s up to you to explore Ginger Island.
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What do Golden Walnuts do in Stardew Valley?
Golden Walnuts have multiple purposes in Stardew Valley. First off, you’ll need to spend them with the parrots scattered around the island to unlock new additions like the farmhouse and beach resort. To unlock everything, you’ll need to find 116 Golden Walnuts. We’ll outline some suggested priorities in the guide below as to what you should focus on first. Just know that it’s going to take some time. This isn’t going to be one trip out to the island on Willy’s boat.
As well as letting you unlock new parts of the island, Golden Walnuts will also let you into Qi’s Walnut Room. You’ll need 100 to get inside and it’s in here where serious end game content lies. You’ll find it hidden behind a curtain and cut into a cliff on the far West of the island.
Once you have found 100 Golden Walnuts - it’ll let you know your current count when you try and get in - you can head inside and the mysterious Qi will unveil what’s known as the Perfection Tracker, a board of special requests, and a vending machine with exciting items such a flute to summon your horse. You’ll earn Qi Gems to spend at the machine by doing the challenges on the board. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Here’s where to find the Golden Walnuts in Stardew Valley.
Easy Golden Walnut locations
- Fishing - You’ll find 5 Golden Walnuts fishing around the island.
- Golden Coconut - Your first Golden Coconut will yield a Golden Walnut when you take it to Clint the Blacksmith to crack at his anvil. Coconuts after this will contain useful Ginger Island drops such as Banana Saplings and Taro Tubers for planting.
- Mussel Nodes - These are on the beach once you have unlocked the West side of the island and can yield up to 5 Golden Walnuts so keep whacking them with your pickaxe when you see them.
Golden Walnut locations Ginger Island East
You’ll first arrive on the dock at what we’ll be referring to as Ginger Island South but the area you’ll probably explore first is the East of the island as a boy called Leo scuttles away into the trees. Here you’ll find your first Golden Walnut growing on a tree in the clearing. Feed it to Leo’s parrot in the treehouse and he’ll start teasing where to find even more. While you’re in the treehouse, hit Leo’s tree with an axe and another Golden Walnut will fall out.
In the clearing before the treehouse, you’ll see an altar. If you pop a banana on here, a gorilla will shuffle out to give you three Golden Walnuts in exchange for the banana. Given that bananas only come from trees which take 28 days to grow from Banana Saplings, you’ll want to speedily plant the first one you get from a Golden Coconut.
To the right of the treehouse clearing, through a hidden entrance in the trees, you’ll find a puzzle with various stone plinths. The only thing you can do here initially is grab the hidden Golden Walnut to the south of the altars. To solve the puzzle, you’ll need to wait for rainy days on Ginger Island. It’s entirely random but on four different rainy days a bird will appear in one of the four zones - North, South, East and West - and drop a gem when you scare it away. All you need to do is bring that gem and pop it on the corresponding plinth. Once you have all four, you’ll be given 5 Golden Walnuts.
While it won’t net you a Golden Walnut, keep using your scythe to weed in Ginger Island East. It will give you useful resources like Fiber but you’ll also find Journal pages which will unlock corresponding puzzles to find Golden Walnuts underground. You’ll also find plenty of seeds for planting Taro Tubers.
Golden Walnut locations Ginger Island North
You’ll find that Ginger Island North is open to you immediately as you follow a flamey enemy up the stairs. This area has a stack of Golden Walnuts on trees and underground. You can unlock the Island Trading Post here too but save that for a little later once you have everything up and running on the Island.
It’s here that you can find the Field Office and unlock the Dig Site for 10 Golden Walnuts. You’ll want to do this early as Professor Snail is hidden behind a rock in the Dig Site. To get him out, craft a bomb and use it to blow up the rock. Just make sure you’re clear of the blast. Once he’s free, he’ll head to the Field Office and let you exchange fossils for Golden Walnuts.
To grab the sneaky Golden Walnut that you can see from the beach but seems inaccessible, go up the stairs to the north area and immediately turn right. There’s a hidden entrance in the tree line that means you can go back through the trees to collect the one on the cliff. Most of the buried Golden Walnuts are indicated by markings on the ground and you’ll unlock more locations once you have found and read Journal Pages that are scattered around the island.
The stone circle to the left of the entrance will yield a Golden Walnut and a circle of flowers to the right has one in the center, as does another smaller stone circle as you head north from the entrance.
Also, to the left of the entrance, there’s another hidden path past a curved palm tree to a clearing with a Golden Walnut on a tree.
Keep an eye out for strange markings on the ground throughout the North area. There are shapes in the sand slightly south east of the Field Office that hide a Golden Walnut and you’ll find one to the right of the entrance to the Volcano Dungeon in a semi-circle of rocks. Another stone circle in the top left of the map also hides a Golden Walnut.
There are also a number of hidden passageways. While the Golden Walnut up the stairs of the Dig Site and to the left is easy to spot, you can reach the second tree on the right by going through a hidden tunnel. There’s also a hidden tunnel through the trees to the left of the Volcano Dungeon’s entrance that will hand over a bonus walnut too. Another easy win to the right of the Volcano Dungeon entrance is a Golden Walnut in a high tree that you just need to shoot with a slingshot.
Golden Walnut locations in the Field Office
Once you’ve saved Professor Snail from his diet of mushrooms in the cave, you can start handing over fossils in exchange for Golden Walnuts in the Field Office tent. Talking to Professor Snail will bring up a screen where you can donate sets of bones. These are made up of four different animals.
- Large Animal (6 Golden Walnuts) - Made up of a Fossilised Skull, Ribs, Spine, Tail and 2 Fossilised Legs. These can be found by breaking Golden Coconuts, breaking Bone Nodes at the Dig Site, digging artifact spots, and using your Copper Pan at the Dig Site river where the water sparkles.
- Snake (3 Golden Walnuts) - Made up of a Snake Skull and 2 Snake Vertebrae. Again these can be found by digging the wiggling artifact spots on Ginger Island as well as fishing on the West side of the island.
- Mummified Frog (1 Golden Walnut) - Can be found by cutting weeds across Ginger Island
- Mummified Bat (1 Golden Walnut) - This can be found only through breaking rocks in the Volcano Dungeon.
At the back of the Field Office tent is a very quick way to get 2 Golden Walnuts. All you have to do is answer two survey questions. The answer to the flowers survey is 22 and there are 18 starfish. Voila. Two very easy Stardew Valley Golden Walnuts.
Golden Walnut locations in the Volcano Dungeon
Just what you needed. Another Stardew Valley dungeon challenge. Inside the Volcano Dungeon are 17 Golden Walnuts so you’re going to have to get fighting if you want to grab them all. There are a couple of easy ones though if you don’t want to go straight inside. Instead of crossing the lava river with your watering can, pour yourself a path to the left. This will eventually come to a platform with breakable cinder shards and a cave exit to two Golden Walnut trees. The rest you’ll find by killing enemies, mining rocks and opening chests. There are also 2 Golden Walnut trees when you eventually find your way to the Forge on the 10th level.
The best way to succeed in the Volcano Dungeon is to wait until you have unlocked the farmhouse in the west of the island. This means you have a base to work from, load up on the best foods from the kitchen, and you can start early from first thing in the morning. As usual, you’ll have the best chance with the most powerful weaponry and armour. If you haven’t already got a Galaxy Sword, follow our guide to finding a Prismatic Shard to make sure you can then unlock the Galaxy weapon set.
If you don’t have a Galaxy Sword, load up with plenty of defensive food and keep dodging the flame attacks from the lava pools. You’ll hear the noise of the monster’s fireballs before you see them. While you’re in there, keep mining rocks to try and find the Mummified Bat for the Field Office.
Golden Walnut locations in Ginger Island West
You’ll want to unlock the delights of Ginger Island West early as this is where you’ll be able to unlock a farmhouse for sleeping so you can stay on Ginger Island overnight. This costs 20 Golden Walnuts. Thankfully there are a stack of easy access Golden Walnuts so you can unlock the farmhouse fast.
A secret pathway into the wrecked ship on the beach yields a Golden Walnut, an X on the sand on the left hand side of the beach is another, there’s a diamond of markings on the left hand beach with a Golden Walnut in the middle, and you’ll find two separate markings with blue starfish that both have a Golden Walnut in the centre. Staying on the beach, there’s also a hidden tree to the left of the entrance of Qi’s Walnut Room. Just keep walking up the sand.
Also on the beach is a strange green mole and a series of holes. The best way to grab a Golden Walnut is by watering him with an extended spray from your upgraded watering can.
Stardew Valley War Memento quest
It’s also on the beach that you’ll meet a character called Birdie. You’ll only see her on sunny days but if you chat to her, she’ll start you on the Pirate’s Wife quest to find a keepsake from her lost husband. She’ll hand you a War Memento to get you started. You’ll then need to head back to Pelican Town to do some deliveries:
- Kent will exchange the War Memento for Gourmet Tomato Salt
- Gus will exchange that for a Stardew Valley Rose
- Give this to Sandy at the Desert Oasis who’ll give you an Advanced TV Remote
- Take this to George and he’ll swap it for an Arctic Shard
- Hand that over to the Wizard and he’ll offer up a Wriggling Worm in exchange
- Give this to Willy and he’ll hand over the Pirate’s Locket
- Finally, bring that back to Birdie for 5 Golden Walnuts
Once you have unlocked the Farmhouse and you’ve got the relief of having a bed to sleep in on Ginger Island, a few new options will unlock. A cave at the top right of the Farmhouse area will appear and inside it lives the Gourmand Frog.
He wants you to grow a melon, garlic and some wheat. While he’ll only ask for one at once, you can plant them all in the area in front of your farmhouse and have him come out to see them once they are all grown. Don’t harvest them as he wants to see them still in the earth. Helpfully, he’ll hand over a lucrative 5 Golden Walnuts per crop.
One thing you don’t need to worry about on Ginger Island is crows so there’s no need to put scarecrows everywhere. Just make sure that you have set up a couple of Iridium Sprinklers and you won’t have to worry about watering the crops. Also keep planting and harvesting as you’ll get up to 5 Golden Walnuts just for tending to your crops on the Island.
There’s also a jungle section in this part of the island where you’ll find some Tiger Slimes. Killing them will drop a Golden Walnut and you’ll get plenty of slime and slime eggs too. In this area, there are a few hidden Golden Walnuts on trees. There’s one where you find the slimes behind a tree, and there’s a circle of flowers to dig in the middle of here too.
If you head past where the slimes lurk and go right, you’ll find a Golden Walnut half hidden in the trees at the bottom of the path. Before you cross the wooden bridge though, head up to a cave entrance hidden by a curved palm tree. Inside are crystals that will play a song. All you need to do is hit the crystals in the right order 5 times and you’ll get 3 Golden Walnuts for playing Simon Says.
Heading back outside and crossing the bridge will reveal a parrot transportation system around the island that you can unlock for 10 Golden Walnuts. This isn’t a big priority if you haven’t already unlocked the Beach Resort so leave it until last. To the right of the Parrot Express are some stones on the ground with a space in the middle. Dig here and you’ll uncover another Golden Walnut.
Once you’ve got it, head right again and you’ll enter a dark tunnel through the trees. Head all the way along, up and then right, and up again and you’ll reach a hidden Golden Walnut tree. Come back out again, head south from the parrot system and you’ll find a cliff edge path leading to another Golden Walnut tree.
Golden Walnut locations in Ginger Island South
There aren’t many Golden Walnuts on the beach where you arrive but after you have opened up the farmhouse, you will unlock the Beach Resort for 20 Golden Walnuts. This doesn’t just mean you get to see your villagers sunbathing - yes, it’s weird - but it also opens up the South East beach. Previously blocked by driftwood, this beach has a star shaped pool in the middle that will let you fish for a Golden Walnut, a triangle of yellow starfish with a Golden Walnut buried in the middle AND access to a secret pirate cove.
On a sunny day after eight at night, head along to the beach and you’ll hear pirate music playing. Head into the cliff and you’ll pass into a glorious pirate party where you can win 3 Golden Walnuts by playing darts. Once you get used to the floaty aim, it’s easy enough to get a score of 301 with an ever decreasing number of darts. There’s also a Golden Walnut lurking in some dirt amidst three barrels at the bottom right of the cave.
Just to balance out the weather options, on a rainy night if you head to the same beach, a mermaid will appear on a rock out on the water. All you need to do is play her a tune using Flute Blocks positioned on the beach and she’ll give you 5 Golden Walnuts. You’ll need to tune the pitch of each block to the number of stones above it. If you don’t have a Flute Block recipe, you’ll get one once you reach 6 hearts with Robin. If you’re not at that stage with the Carpenter just yet, we recommend lots of Goats Cheese and Spaghetti as gifts.
