Reaching floor 100 of the Skull Cavern does not by itself bring Mr. Qi. The encounter depends on a quest state: you must find and read Secret Note #10, which adds the Cryptic Note quest. Only after that note has been read does reaching floor 100 trigger Mr. Qi’s cutscene. If you reached floor 100 and saw nothing but a chest, the usual cause is that the note was never read.
What triggers the Mr. Qi meeting
Three conditions have to be met, in order. Skipping one of them is the most common reason the encounter fails to appear, and the Stardew Valley Wiki’s Secret Notes and Skull Cavern pages describe the same chain.
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- Obtain the Magnifying Glass. Secret Notes only begin appearing after you get the Magnifying Glass through the Winter Mystery sequence.
- Find and read Secret Note #10. The glass lets you discover notes while digging, chopping trees, mining, fishing, and killing monsters. Open your inventory and read Note #10 directly from there so the game registers it. Reading it adds the Cryptic Note quest, whose objective is to reach floor 100 of the Skull Cavern.
- Reach floor 100 of the Skull Cavern after reading the note. Floor 100 triggers Mr. Qi’s cutscene only in this state.
The note’s in-game text reads: “Someone is waiting for you on level 100 in the skull cavern…” That line is the clue that the floor matters, but it does not say the note itself must be read first. The sequence above is what the wiki documents.
Why reaching floor 100 early changes nothing
Players often hit floor 100 before they have any Secret Notes, sometimes while progressing through the mine for ore or Qi’s Challenge. The game does not record that visit as the special event. Floor 100 is only the objective of the Cryptic Note quest, so the floor has to be reached again after the quest exists. If you have already been to floor 100, plan a return trip after reading Note #10.
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Qi’s Challenge is a separate quest
Qi’s Challenge is easy to confuse with the floor-100 meeting because both involve Mr. Qi and the Skull Cavern. It arrives by mail after your first visit to the Skull Cavern and asks you to reach floor 25. According to the Stardew Valley Wiki’s Skull Cavern entry, you are paid 10,000g by mail the day after completing it. Finishing Qi’s Challenge does not start the Cryptic Note quest, and it does not replace reading Note #10.
Other floor-100 content that does not count
The Walnut Room’s repeatable Special Orders also use floor 100. Qi’s Hungry Challenge and Skull Cavern Invasion are separate challenges, and completing them will not trigger the original Mr. Qi encounter. Floor 100 also contains treasure chests that open without any cutscene, which is why a chest on floor 100 is not proof the event has fired.
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| Item | Trigger | Objective | Reward or result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qi’s Challenge | Mailed after first Skull Cavern visit | Reach floor 25 | 10,000g by mail, the day after completion (Stardew Valley Wiki) |
| Cryptic Note quest | Reading Secret Note #10 from inventory | Reach floor 100 of the Skull Cavern | Triggers Mr. Qi’s cutscene at floor 100 |
| Qi’s Hungry Challenge and Skull Cavern Invasion | Repeatable Special Orders in the Walnut Room | Floor 100 related | Separate challenges; do not trigger the Mr. Qi encounter |
What you get at floor 100
When the encounter fires, Mr. Qi gives you Iridium Snake Milk, which permanently raises maximum health by 25 points. His dialogue depends on how many staircases you used to get down: 10 or fewer earns congratulations, while 11 or more earns the remark that you were “clever” but “not honorable.” The staircase count is the only variable the wiki lists for the dialogue, so the reward itself does not change.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.If the meeting still does not appear
- Confirm the Winter Mystery sequence is finished and you have the Magnifying Glass.
- Check that Secret Note #10 has been found and read from inventory. Open the journal to see whether the Cryptic Note quest is listed.
- If the quest is missing, keep looking for notes using the actions above until you locate Note #10.
- If the quest is listed, return to floor 100 and reach it again.
- If you obtained and read Note #10 on the same in-game day, the Secret Notes page records a save-state issue that can prevent the encounter. Its recommendation is to try again on a later day, when the note can be obtained and read again.
These steps reflect the Stardew Valley Wiki’s documentation through Stardew Valley 1.6. The sources do not establish whether the trigger behaves differently on any particular platform, so if the steps above do not work on your setup, the wiki’s version history for these pages is the best place to check for changes.
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