benjellyman
Planter
Also I know this is belated, but thank you everyone here who has posted a tip here.
What's the best way to reach level 100 in skull caverns?
- Thread starter benjellyman
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- skull cavern
EventuallySloth
Greenhorn
So everyone (on the first page, at least) is saying to use jade to buy the staircase, but I made staircases. I mined my little butt off and used 10,000 rocks to make 100 staircases. I made sure to keep an eye out for mining challenges because that way I was able to keep my relationships with NPCs up. I also saved up raw mined materials (and some money) to collect as many bombs as possible. That way, when I hit a level that was iridium ore-full, I could cash in a bit.
Jayamos
Farmer
Definitely not slothful. That is a lot of mining!
Operator CT02
Tiller
If you only care about how far you can go, then a ladder is a definite and efficient solution. This allows you to continue advancing deeper without the need to engage in mining or hunting monsters.
S0urAc1dM1lk
Tiller
Best choice is to get a crystalarium from the community center and start making lots of jade to trade in the desert for staircases. Also bring lots of bombs to clear rocks and find the exit quickly
Lew Zealand
Helper
How many Days/Seasons/Years did that take?
How is it possible that you maintained your focus on the project when I can barely keep my mouse button held down while Robin shovels 10 stacks of Stone into my Hermione Brand™ Undetectable Extension Charm Backpack before I learned The Desert Trader Lady went to night school to learn the Alchemy of turning Jade into
AguynamedBurt
Farmhand
Mega bombs and a lucky day. I tried a few times and when I did get to level 100 my run ended at level 176. Way further then I’ve gone with staircases.
FilthyGorilla
Local Legend
Then you didn't bring enough staircases
Truthfully speaking though, your best bet is always with a mix of both. When the game doesn't restrict usage of two things that both work well, most times they work even better when paired. Bombs are of course essential for resource gathering and exposing ladders, but the ability to place your own ladders saves a lot of time on useless floors, infested floors, etc. when you'd otherwise be toiling away for no real benefit without them.
AguynamedBurt
Farmhand
I didn‘t bring staircases on purpose. I also play on switch and feel spamming staircases is basically a waste. I was never able to make it this far with spamming staircases. Since that las post I made it down past 200, which was by far my best run. I see people online getting down like 300-600+ floors in a single run but I think the limitations of being on console stop me from reaching those numbers.Then you didn't bring enough staircases
Truthfully speaking though, your best bet is always with a mix of both. When the game doesn't restrict usage of two things that both work well, most times they work even better when paired. Bombs are of course essential for resource gathering and exposing ladders, but the ability to place your own ladders saves a lot of time on useless floors, infested floors, etc. when you'd otherwise be toiling away for no real benefit without them.
Giant Octopodes
Farmer
Could well be, haven't played on switch. On my endgame farm I typically effectively start my runs on floor 200 for a 'normal' dive (bring 250 staircases, use 200 right away, then transition to using bombs and stuff and gathering resources while you make your way down). That provides a nice level of profitability and a good amount of resources without having to go crazy with stuff, which given the 100+ crystalariums pumping out Jade represents just a few days worth of resources to pull off. But when I was testing going *DEEP*, I have on multiple occasions brought 1100+ stairs, used 1000 right away and started my run there. When doing that for comparison I would be done laying staircases and kicking off actually mining somewhere like 8pm, but that deep easily 70%+ of the nodes are ore, with more iridium than anything else. Once you get down past 1500 at least in the past it was basically all iridium (can't guarantee that's still true on current patch) but with my skillset of pause buffering and laying staircases that takes basically the whole day to get down to, leaving you no time to actually gather stuff, making 1000 a better balance for me.
On console if it's super slow to lay down stairs I can see it being a net hindrance vs going for shafts, but yeah on PC at least staircases let you go down *way* further. My current farmer isn't doing anything nearly on that scale - they're currently mining the iridium for the crystalarium empire to start growing, but it reinforces itself. Even 10 of them and starting on floor 20 instead of floor 1 makes a big difference in the amount of iridium you'll end the day with based on how it scales, and as long as you always reinvest that iridium into more crystalariums you'll build them up quick.
chaskuchar
Planter
my mind is filled to overflowing. i have used the staircases but still learning to use them fast. sometimes the stones get in the way so i have to pound the stone first. do the bombs affect your health? i try to get distance between me and the bomb before it explodes. if i just use staircases i could skip the spicy ell? or the speed helps in using the staircases? i have never gotten past 40 in scull cavern.
Lew Zealand
Helper
Yes, I usually need to set up my tools so I can pickaxe the occasional Stone quickly to place the Staircase. Bombing will hurt you (unless you have a particular late-game buff) so yes you still need that distance. And FYI Bombs still need an open tile to place them just like Staircases so I don't usually use them purely to go down Levels. I don't eat or drink any Buff foods if I'm just using Staircases to get down levels quickly, they don't help anything for that. Save the Buffs for when you get to Level 60 or 100 or whatever you choose.
The biggest annoyance for me when just using Staircases to descend is too many monsters (usually those dastardly Flying Serpents) which always make me nervous and I misplace Staircases too far away or I need to pick a stone to create a spot. Usually I'll just chop them with my Sword but if you've brought a load of healing food (I use
Giant Octopodes
Farmer
They do, but that doesn't mean it's worth it to avoid them. Especially if you're stacked up on defense and have plenty of health recovery items you're far better off just laying them wherever and accepting the damage, healing it back up as needed. Given that it's 1000G for a bomb (thus making each iron ore worth 212 gold in money saved for bombs, and each iron node on average only a bit less profitable than a diamond node) the amount spent to heal is not going to contribute significantly to your expenses. If you're just starting out, here are the top 5 tips for early skull cavern runs:
1) Don't buy bombs, make them! Farm the regular mines levels 41-79 for iron; personally when farming iron I have the most success taking the elevator to 40, going down the stairs, and if it's got lots of nodes sticking around and mining it, and if not heading back up, rinsing and repeating. It's a very small map and it's not uncommon for it to look something like this:
To be clear that's quite lucky, but also it was literally the first time I went to 41 when I loaded up and ran there to provide an example. So those results are not typical, but not super rare either. Mining any iron (and copper) found there, I'll pop down to 42 if I get an entrance, and if there's a ton of nodes on screen I'll keep it going, otherwise I'll go back to 0 to reset the mines and start at 40 again. I usually get like 250-400 ore with that method depending on how lucky the day is and how lucky I happen to be personally. So 50-100 bombs, which is enough for a skull cavern run if you don't go crazy with them. Almost certainly better than spending 50k-100k on bombs from the Dwarf!
2) Only go on a very lucky day! There is a *massive* difference in how often ladders and especially shafts appear from a day where "The spirits are very happy! They'll do their best to shower you with good fortune!" vs days where they're feeling neutral, or worse yet displeased. This means more time and resources wasted per floor finding exits, and that's especially bad because the rewards scale so heavily with depth. Floors 1-40 in the skull cavern give you barely anything at all, compared to floors 80-120, and those can't begin to compare to floors 200-240, etc. So don't waste bombs, spicy eels, coffee, and more resources like that on a day where you'll barely get anything in return, save it for days where they'll be most effective.
3) Come Prepared, but not overburdened! Specifically I bring a weapon, the pickaxe, a stack of bombs, a stack of staircases, a stack of items for healing, coffee (or better yet triple shot espresso so you have to drink less often), spicy eels, and a way to get back home ASAP (warp totem: farm or the return scepter). The rest of my inventory I ensure is totally *empty* to give space for all the loot. But yes, speed is hugely impactful and hugely important. So is luck, the higher your luck, the higher your chance of getting a treasure floor, which not only gives you loot but also has a guaranteed immediate staircase to the next floor. Spicy Eels are thus the perfect food and you should absolutely save all your rubies to trade for them, and only use them on skull cavern runs unless you've got plenty to spare. The way home isn't strictly necessary, but it saves you 1000 or 2000 you'd otherwise pay passing out. Speaking of...
4) Don't cut your runs short! On days you're going to the Skull Cavern, have emptied your inventory the night before, or do it quickly first thing. Ideally, skip all your normal chores, including tending to your animals (they'll get over it) and anything else you do, just use a desert totem 1st thing and head right in. Time = Depth, and Depth = massive increase in profits. Similarly, the worst thing to do is head out of there at 10pm when you're deep in there, as the deeper the floors the more you get out of them, making those floors wildly better return on time than the first floors you were on. If you don't have a warp totem: farm or a return scepter, just pass out, I promise it's ok and you'll earn way more than you lose doing so vs cutting yourself short on time.
5) ALWAYS have staircases in reserve. Even when you have like no Jade and no resources, bring 10. Buy the stone or farm it if you have to, but you always want to be able to skip infested floors and nightmare fuel layouts which are excessively constrained, tough to navigate, and scarce on resources. If you're bringing staircases, don't use them all! Use an amount to where you've got at least 10 and ideally more like 20 in reserve for when you really need them.
Do that and you should reliably even without any staircases be able to get to somewhere between floor 50 and 80, and come home with at least 40 iridium. Which should immediately be converted into crystalariums for jade, and then the more staircases you bring, the more iridium you come back with, until your bus stop tunnel looks something like this:
I hope it helps!
chaskuchar
Planter
your pix helps!!! sheesh, i just checked. i never knew there was a tunnel there. i know where i can put stuff now.
Ereo
Helper
Bring a battery the first time you explore it. There’s a box in the wall between the two lamps, it is hard to see. Put the battery there to start a quest.
FilthyGorilla
Local Legend
Even on console it's absolutely possible and worth it to staircase at least a few hundred levels.
Pause buffering is rather difficult and less fruitful than on pc, but even without you can descend about 7-8 floors per in game tick, that's easily enough to descend a few hundred floors before 12pm, and have 14+ hours to bomb away with much higher rates than if you were merely bombing your way down (even accounting for the ore you get while doing so, though with the minimized early rates it's comparatively low). Just getting to floor 100 alone is generally worth it if you want to avoid many staircases, as you get through the zone where iridium rates increase the most before being dampened, while only taking a couple hours on any platform.
Do what you wish, but do try it out, you may be surprised
AguynamedBurt
Farmhand
Oh don’t get me wrong, that’s all I did before 1.6. I’d have like half a big shed full of jade crystalariums, so when I went skull caverning I’d have 300+ stairs… still never got to floor 200.
MateoOfRiverwood
Sodbuster
All of this.... and, if you realize you're not going to make it, consider resetting the day, to preserve the good luck day, preserve all of your equipment etc.
As long as you do not pass out or die, you can always exit back to menu, and start the whole day over again.