How To Unlock the Improved Tools Ability in Spiritfarer

Improved Tools
Where to Acquire	Lost Shrine
Requirements	2 Obols “Saturday Night Shopping List” Errand Have Buck on the ship
Effect	Makes fishing easier and provides gem drops whenever you mine an ore.

Improved Tools is the last ability Stella can unlock in Spiritfarer. It’s only obtainable very late in the game. And while it’s not a required ability to finish your playthrough, it can help make things much easier.

The ability itself can be found via a Lost Shrine, which you can only get to as a reward from one of Francis the Wandering Merchant’s rewards.

Getting Improved Tools

You will need the Mist Cleaner 1000 boat improvement from Albert’s Shipyard.

Make sure you have two obols in your possession before going after the shrine.

Though since the Improved Tools ability can only be unlocked very late in the game, you should have obols in your inventory at this point anyways.

Getting Buck

Next, it’s time to recruit the spirit Buck if you haven’t done so already.

To do this, you will need to have unlocked these abilities beforehand:

Once you have these abilities, make your way towards the island of Hikarishima Lighthouse (X: -137, Y: -14).

From there, head left to find an umbrella with a spirit relaxing beside it. Simply bounce on top of the umbrella and do an extra double-jump mid-air to reach the landing up top with the lighthouse.

Once you arrive at the top, Buck will immediately wake up and join your ship automatically.

Once on the lighthouse, Buck will automatically join your ship.

After Buck gets on the ship, finish at least two of his requests. Namely:

The Silver Company
Demons of Light

Note: Our full spirit guide for Buck provides a more thorough and step-by-step breakdown of how to complete these requests.

The “Demons of Light” request will end with you unlocking the Lightburst Ability.

Francis Errands

Once you have that ability, visit Francis the Wandering Merchant and go to his errands list. There you should find the “Saturday Night Shopping List” errand – and you’ll need to complete this to get the Improved Tools ability.

To complete this errand, you will need:

“Saturday Night Shopping List” can be found under Francis’ errands.

Note: If the errand isn’t available yet in Francis’ shop, continue until at least the first part of Buck’s “The Fires of Tondor” request and simply check back on his shop right after.

Once you have completed the errand, Francis will give you a treasure map as a reward. This map contains the coordinates (X: 220, Y: 167), which leads to the Lost Shrine Island at the very top-right of the World Map.

Just keep in mind that if you don’t have the treasure map yet, you won’t see the island if you head towards these coordinates on your own. So you’ll need to get the treasure map first before the island will appear.

The lost shrine is located on the very top-right of the World Map.

Finding the Lost Shrine

Upon your arrival on the island, simply interact with the shrine and exchange your two obols to get Improved Tools – the last ability you can unlock for Stella.

How the Ability Works

All you can find on the island is the ability shrine.

Technically, Improved Tools is more of a booster than it is an ability. Because it just helps improve both your fishing and mining.

Once you get this ability, fishing becomes significantly easier.

And you will also get a gemstone whenever you mine different kinds of nodes – so this ability directly improves your results from fishing and from mining.

Here’s a quick cheat sheet of what to mine to get a specific gemstone:

You get 1 Diamond by mining coal nodes
You get 1 Opal by mining marble nodes
You get 1 Amethyst by mining limestone nodes
During the Quartz Dragon event, mining quartz might also get you 1 Citrine
You get 1 Citrine by mining quartz nodes via the Turtle Sisters
During the Aluminum Dragon event, mining aluminum might also get you 1 Hematite
You get 1 Hematite by mining aluminum nodes via the Turtle Sisters

With the improved tools ability, mining nodes like coal will get you gemstones.

BACK TO THE MAIN GAME Spiritfarer Full Strategy Guide

Guide Navigation

Spiritfarer
- How To Unlock the Improved Tools Ability in Spiritfarer

February Cortes

350 articles

Feb has been trying to speedrun Super Mario 64 since he was 10 years old, but doesn't have the hand-eye coordination for it. When not attempting that, he spends his free time playing Metroidvanias, platformers, and Resident Evil 4 on all available consoles. He also likes building Gunpla and writing music, and thinks bicycles are man's greatest invention.

View Writer's Posts →