Help with staying alive in the mines please!

[alykinz]

Hiya!

I've made it to level 85 in the mines, and I'm finding that I'm losing health faster than ever before and even dying in the mines. I only have the small magnet ring (haven't come across any others) and I have a level 5 bone sword. What else can I do to survive longer in the mines? Of course, I'm bringing as much food as I can but still, I'm dying!

Update: I have the obsidian sword now...and with your tips, I think I'll be okay

 

[Lew Zealand]

The Bone Sword is pretty good but you'll get the better

Obsidian Edge soon on Level 90! Wear your

FireWalker Boots (from Level 80) for good Protection and start swinging when the baddies are farther away? You might also be getting bad luck in finding Stones that uncover ladders/stairs down. I've been there many times.

One other Sword option for a small Buff is to spend a buncha time on the upper Levels to kill 80 Insects and then collect my favorite reward from the Adventurer's Guild: the

Insect Head! It does the same Damage as the Bone Sword but it has double the Critical Strike chance and every little bit helps.

Wait!

What have you upgraded your Pickaxe to? I really need at least the

Steel Pickaxe and then I prioritize the 1-hit gray rocks as the other ones need 2 Pickaxe hits to break. 2 hits really takes a lot of your time away from fighting the Monsters and that's where I get bogged down on these Levels. If you have the Gold Bars (and the g), upgrade to the

Gold Pickaxe and now all rocks become 1-hit, that's a huge help!

And maybe "waste" the 99 Stone each for a couple of extra Staircases to get you down from Level 88 to 90 if you make it that far pretty unscathed.

 

[DOBITEUS]

How much money do you have to spend? Do you have access to the desert? Cause I made it with A LOT of Mega bombs (nothing that a big BOOM doesn't solve), fruit salads to recover almost all the energy and the galaxy sword...I guess (I complete it long time ago). I suggest collect more resources to get A LOT of food, for me food is the key if you don't have much resistance or power to beat the creatures, they can smash you all they want but if wouldn't matter if you have nice hmm objects to recover your energy and health. Or just explode anything in your way. No pressures.

 

[MogBeoulve]

If I find that I'm having trouble progressing deeper into the mines, I consider that time to go repeat earlier levels. You'll need the ore and monster kills anyway, and extra combat levels definitely help. If you're lucky, a monster or crate will drop a better weapon (the bone sword is fine for lower levels, but isn't enough once you hit 80).

While you do that, sort out a way to accumulate a renewable stack of food for healing. I like to use gold cheese because I'm honestly too lazy to collect anything better. But many other options exist.

You could also just cheese your way down. Have you got jade, a crystallarium, and desert access? You'd only need 35 staircases.

 

[DOBITEUS]

How much money do you have to spend? Do you have access to the desert? Cause I made it with A LOT of Mega bombs (nothing that a big BOOM doesn't solve), fruit salads to recover almost all the energy and the galaxy sword...I guess (I complete it long time ago). I suggest collect more resources to get A LOT of food, for me food is the key if you don't have much resistance or power to beat the creatures, they can smash you all they want but if wouldn't matter if you have nice hmm objects to recover your energy and health. Or just explode anything in your way. No pressures.

That's not best answer I could make haha, maybe with a little more context I can hmmm elaborate a better advice; do you have any problems with and specific creature? What kind of food and minerals can you get? What are your average incomings? Do you have access to hmmm special places or stores? (I'm not telling more details just to avoid spoilers :P)

 

[VampireCake]

While you do that, sort out a way to accumulate a renewable stack of food for healing. I like to use gold cheese because I'm honestly too lazy to collect anything better. But many other options exist.

Sashimi is an early favourite for me - since you only need fish and any type works. Once I have crab pots and basic bait, I'll put a bunch somewhere convenient and check them daily. Those snails and periwinkles add up!

(You can actually fit quite a lot of crab pots in the sewer... it counts as freshwater, apparently. And Krobus doesn't seem to mind.)

 

[Yvi]

I eat hops a fair bit early game - decent healing and easy to grow. I don't have the cash to buy food, and at that point I'm selling any cheese for cash, but hops doesn't sell for much and it produces fast so when I'm very strapped for cash I do that.

If you're not strapped for cash, check out the adventurers guild (I think it's called?). They have weapons, though I'm not sure if anything better would be available, and rings for sale.

 

[Antsy]

I agree, gold hops especially is a great food for the mines. The new vegetables are good too, especially gold summer squash and broccoli. Bug steaks have a higher healing-to-energy ratio than most foods, but they are better for earlier in the game. If you are buying food, salads give a lot of energy and healing for the price. Use something that provides a good amount of energy and healing so you don't need to eat a ton of it at a time. And remember, in single player all the enemies will pause when you start to eat, so you can refill your health even when under attack if you have to. Above all, keep a close eye on your health and don't let it drop below halfway. If you do that, no matter what else happens you should be okay in the mines.

 

[Quirinea]

My staple for mines is Roots platter. Cave carrots and winter roots are easy to get and it's a booster food. Yeah, also grinding down slowly so that you get your fighting level up. If you haven't encountered good weapons, check what adveturers' guild has to offer.

 

[HaleyRocks]

Postpone your mine adventures, until:
a) you have cows that yield you gold star quality cheese (some of the cheapest and most effective healing, you can amass in bulk)
b) you find or buy a better weapon
c) you equip space or emily's boots
d) you unlock trinkets (not time or cost effective, though)
e) you amass lots of bombs and visit mines on very lucky days

Doing one or more of the above, will literally guarantee you breezing through the lower levels.

 

[MateoOfRiverwood]

The critters in lvl’s 80+ hit like a truck compared to mobs in 1-79. Bone sword will do the job as long as you can fight them 1-2 at a time. Don’t swarmed by 5 unless you really want to say Hi to Doc Harvey.

For combat, I found it helpful to leave a couple of rocks un-mined, so i can run around them. Some of the Shadow People can get caught on them and give you 2-3 free hits. The helmet guys, too.

Once you get a stronger weapon (galaxy, lava katana, etc), you can tear through some critters faster. But being able to control how many you fight at once will serve you well in the Skull Caverns, too

 

[MogBeoulve]

For combat, I found it helpful to leave a couple of rocks un-mined, so i can run around them. Some of the Shadow People can get caught on them and give you 2-3 free hits. The helmet guys, too.

Wow, never thought of doing this! Thank you, I'm going to give it a go next time I have trouble.

 

[alykinz]

I agree, gold hops especially is a great food for the mines. The new vegetables are good too, especially gold summer squash and broccoli. Bug steaks have a higher healing-to-energy ratio than most foods, but they are better for earlier in the game. If you are buying food, salads give a lot of energy and healing for the price. Use something that provides a good amount of energy and healing so you don't need to eat a ton of it at a time. And remember, in single player all the enemies will pause when you start to eat, so you can refill your health even when under attack if you have to. Above all, keep a close eye on your health and don't let it drop below halfway. If you do that, no matter what else happens you should be okay in the mines.

I've been eating food as soon as my health is halfway down and that alone has been really helping!

 

[alykinz]

Sashimi is an early favourite for me - since you only need fish and any type works. Once I have crab pots and basic bait, I'll put a bunch somewhere convenient and check them daily. Those snails and periwinkles add up!

(You can actually fit quite a lot of crab pots in the sewer... it counts as freshwater, apparently. And Krobus doesn't seem to mind.)

Is it worth it to make cookout kits to cook foods like sashimi, or should I wait til I have a kitchen?

 

[Lew Zealand]

Is it worth it to make cookout kits to cook foods like sashimi, or should I wait til I have a kitchen?

If you have a lot of inedible/low-quality Fish to convert to Sashimi:

Periwinkle

Mussel

Oyster

Cockle

Clam

the Cookout Kit could be a good thing if you do them all at once. What are you currently using for food in the Mines?

All I use my Cows for is to make Milk for Cheese as once they're happy enough, they'll produce Large Milks to be converted in the Cheese Press to Cheese. That heals 3x as much as Hops or Sashimi and you get 1 per Cow per day! 4 happy Cows gets you a ton of quick & easy Healing. It's pretty great stuff and more valuable to use for Food in the Mines/Caverns/Volcano than it is to sell for g.

 

[VampireCake]

Is it worth it to make cookout kits to cook foods like sashimi, or should I wait til I have a kitchen?

Excellent question... which has made me realize I've been in laaaaate end-game since before cookout kits were a thing, so I haven't actually used any. So I'll second what Lew says, if you can make them and have a bunch of fish you can use all at once, go for it.

There's really not much that's the 'wrong' way to do things. 'More efficient' if you want to min-max, maybe, but as long as you're having fun then you're doing it right.

 

[Quirinea]

I find Shadow shamans worst, as they can shoot you (the most difficult is having one behind rocks, that you should break first (meaning you cannot fight at the same time). Using bombs can help so you can rush at them before they jinx you.
Yeah. I'm usually descending the mines slowly, even grinding the levels 41-80 until I get the dust sprite quota filled, so I have high fighting level before the lava levels. And getting good rings, good boots, a decent weapon. Hopefully even the galaxy sword.
My character usually ends at Harveys (or saved by Robin, Clint or Linux) when I either forget to notice that health is dangerously low or sometimes when the game (or my coordination) glitches and I'm desperately trying to grab my weapon, instead waving with a cave carrot or the like.

 

[alykinz]

If you have a lot of inedible/low-quality Fish to convert to Sashimi:

Periwinkle

Mussel

Oyster

Cockle

Clam

the Cookout Kit could be a good thing if you do them all at once. What are you currently using for food in the Mines?

All I use my Cows for is to make Milk for Cheese as once they're happy enough, they'll produce Large Milks to be converted in the Cheese Press to Cheese. That heals 3x as much as Hops or Sashimi and you get 1 per Cow per day! 4 happy Cows gets you a ton of quick & easy Healing. It's pretty great stuff and more valuable to use for Food in the Mines/Caverns/Volcano than it is to sell for g.

Smart! My favourite food for the mines so far has been summer squash and hops, but I really want to get cows asap and start making cheese