How to Get Nautilus Shell in Stardew Valley?

The Nautilus Shell is an ancient shell found in Stardew Valley with important uses in quests, tailoring, and crafting. Often, players confuse the Nautilus Shell with the Nautilus Fossil, which is similar in appearance. While a fossil is useful for fertilizers, a Nautilus Shell has unique uses in the Community Center Quest and other small adventures. Before discussing its uses, let’s take a look at how to get a Nautilus Shell in Stardew Valley.

A Nautilus Shell is a part of 1000+ items available in the Stardew Valley universe. You can’t craft it or craft with it. You can forage it and produce it.

While you can try buying it from the rotating stock at Stardew Valley Travelling Cart on Fridays and Sundays, there’s a high chance you might not get it. Let’s look at the easiest ways:

Forage in the Beach

You can get a Nautilus Shell in Stardew Valley through foraging on the beach during the winter. As for the other seasons, you won’t find this shell as one of the items that washes up on the shore. Hence, I recommend you forage as many Nautilus Shells as you can in the winter and store them in your chests, in case the need for one comes calling soon. You can also store items in the Shed once you have made one.

Go foraging on Saturdays, as it’s the last day before the Stardew Universe is reset. Hence, you’ll be able to find the highest number of items that have spawned throughout the week.

There’s almost a 50% chance that you’ll find a Nautilus Shell washed up on the shores in winter. You can find them on the west and east sides of the beach in Stardew Valley. To go forage on the east side, you have to repair the little broken bridge that connects it by completing a Community Center bundle.

Collect Nautilus Shells in the Mines of Stardew

You can also get your hands on Nautilus Shells in the Stardew Valley mines between floors 1 – 69. However, there’s a catch! You can forage Nautilus Shells in the mines only when the Shrine of Challenge is active.

➡️ What’s the Shrine of Challenge?

The Shrine of Challenge is an effect that’s unlocked after a player in Stardew Valley has completed the Danger in the Deep Quest and Qi’s Walnut Room quest. In fact, it’s located on floor level 120 of the mine, and you can use the toggle switch to increase the difficulty level.

You can only do that the next day, and you’ll be able to mine rare radioactive nodes and get radioactive nodes from them while the setting is active. This is also a time when you’ll be able to forage rare items in the game.

Get Nautilus Shell Produce from the Fish Ponds

You can get a Nautilus shell from a fish pond in Stardew Valley. Once you add a fish pond to your farm, and add up to 9 fish in it, the fish will be producing an item every day. There’s a good chance they might produce Nautilus Shells from time to time. These are the fish that have a 1% chance of producing a Nautilus Shell:

• Cockle
• Crab
• Lobster
• Mussel
• Oyster
• Shrimp

You might also need to complete new quests to have the fish produce newer items every day.

➡️ How to Add a Fish Pond to Your Farm in Stardew Valley

A fish pond is a farm building you can buy from Robin’s Carpenter Shop in Stardew Valley. To build a fish pond in Stardew Valley, here’s a comprehensive idea of what you need:

You can get seaweed by fishing in the ocean. There’s a high chance of players ending up with seaweed every time they fish. As for green algae, you can get them when you’re mining, and you kill green slimes found between floors 1 – 29 in Stardew Valley mines. You can also fish out green algae when you’re fishing in freshwater locations.

Receive a Nautilus Shell as a Gift from Demetrius

You can also get a Nautilus Shell as a gift from Demetrius, Robin’s husband. He studies local plants and animals as a hobby. You can also receive a rainbow shell or amethyst from Demetrius.

You should have a friendship level higher than 1. In fact, we recommend you speak to him daily and give him his favorite gifts: Bean Hotpot, Rice Pudding, and Strawberry to increase your chances of receiving a gift.

Spawn Nautilus Shell on Your Farm

You can also get a Nautilus Shell on your farm if you have chosen the Beach Farm layout. As you know, the Beach Farm Layout is perfect if you want to focus on two professions: foraging and fishing. It’s one of the layouts recommended for pro-level players.

If you opt for a beach farm layout, Nautilus Shells can spawn on your farm in any season. No longer should you wait for this item to spawn in winter only. Go around your farm every day to look for items that might have washed up, or collect supply crates.

Receive a Christmas Gift

Christmas, or the 25th of December, is celebrated as The Feast of the Winter Star in Stardew Valley. You can receive a Nautilus Shell as a gift on the Feast of the Winter Star from Elliot, Alex, Harvey, Pierre, Sebastian, Shane, Abigail, Demetrius, or others.

You won’t know which of the villagers will be giving you a gift. It’s a secret that isn’t unveiled until the moment when you receive the gift at the Festival. This is totally random, and there’s no way you can guarantee this outcome in the game.

Uses of Nautilus Shells in Stardew Valley

Nautilus Shells don’t have many uses in Stardew Valley. But, they have some critical uses which must be completed. Let’s take a look at the places where Nautilus Shells are important:

➡️ Complete the Field Research Bundle

You need a Nautilus Shell to complete the field research bundle as part of the Bulletin Board quest in the Community Center. Other items required to complete the Field Research Bundle include:

• a purple mushroom (found in mines or farm caves)
• a chub (found in rivers and mountain lakes)
• and, a frozen geode (found in mines between floors 41-79).

When you complete this bundle, you’ll receive a recycling machine as a gift. It’ll allow you to turn trash into useful items. For example, you can turn a soggy newspaper into a torch or a piece of cloth using a recycling machine in Stardew Valley.

➡️ Sew a Strapped Top

Once you have adequate friendship points with Emily in Stardew Valley, you’ll be able to use her sewing machine in her living room in her Willow Lane 2 home. In fact, you can also receive a sewing machine as a gift from Emily after completing her special order: Rock Rejuvenation in Stardew Valley.

You get her different types of crystals: amethyst, topaz, jade, emerald, and ruby for her quest.

Note: Rock Rejuvenation Quest will be available only when you have access to her living room sewing machine.

Now, using a Nautilus Shell can be combined with a piece of cloth to produce the Strapped Top in Stardew Valley.

➡️ Get Orange Dye from Nautilus Shell in Stardew

You can also get to use the dye pots at Emily’s Willow Lane home in Stardew Valley to produce different dyes. Using a Nautilus Shell will get you the orange dye.

To dye something, you have to be wearing it in Stardew Valley’s universe. You can’t carry a different piece of cloth to be dyed. You can hover over each dye pot to see its color.

Likewise, you can use any Nautilus Shells for dyeing. The game doesn’t reward higher-grade shells and treats all as equal.

➡️ Sell a Nautilus Shell & Earn Gold

You can also sell Nautilus Shells in Stardew Valley. This is an option you can explore if you have foraged too many Nautilus Shells in the winter, or you have a beach farm where they keep spawning, or you have installed a fish pond to produce Nautilus Shells.

You can sell them at Willy’s Fish Shop, or put them in the shipping bins sent by Pierre, or the one outside your home that has space for unlimited to-be-sold items.

➡️ Gift a Nautilus Shell to Leo in Stardew

You can also gift a Nautilus Shell in Stardew Valley. However, it won’t be very useful. That’s because it’s no one’s favorite, and most villagers have a neutral reaction to Nautilus Shell.

Avoid giving it to Harvey, as he simply hates it. Only Leo in Stardew Valley likes Nautilus Shell as a gift.

➡️ Who’s Leo?

Leo is a little boy on Ginger Island, who lost his parents at sea, and you can meet him once Ginger Island has been opened for you. To go to Ginger Island, go to Willy’s Fish Shop and take the boat.

He’ll speak to you only when you have made friends with the parrots he considers his family. You can do so by collecting ten golden walnuts. Moreover, Leo will shift to Stardew Valley’s main island once you reach 6 friendship hearts with him.

➡️ Complete a Fish Pond Quest to Increase Population

If you have constructed fish ponds on your farm, you’ll need to complete certain quests from time to time to increase the population of fish in these ponds.

You’ll be asked to bring a Nautilus Shell and drop it into the fish pond to increase fish strength from 7 to 10 by Sturgeon.

Nautilus Shell Isn’t Nautilus Fossil

As the two look very similar, there’s a chance players often confuse one with the other. They have minor differences in appearance. Plus, a nautilus fossil is an artifact item that can be washed up on shores but is an ancient fossil from a coral reef.

Both might be required to complete quests, but a nautilus fossil isn’t necessary to complete Gunther’s Fragment of the Past Quest. It can be completed with any bone fragments that drop from killing skeletons between levels 65 – 75. However, having a nautilus shell is absolutely crucial to completing the Community Center Quest.

You can also find the Nautilus Shells for sale in the Travelling Cart in Stardew Valley.

While Nautilus Shells are usually foraged at the end of the year, summertime in Stardew Valley brings something quite special. Check out all that you need to know about the Luau Festival in Stardew Valley, and why it’s crucial to the overall gameplay!