Advice and help with mining, please!

[BringsTheSnow]

I have a few different save files, the oldest of which is in Fall Year 4. I have yet to get to level 100 of the Skull Cavern in any of my saves. I mostly have been working on farm improvements (buildings, walkways, etc.) and run out of stone constantly! Staircases that use a lot of stone are not ideal...

General advice and help would be appreciated!

Things I already know:

• Bring food. What kinds are best?
• Go on a lucky day
• Get special charm for luck bonus, although my rabbits are not cooperating with this one
• Bombs (this is very, very recently acquired knowledge)

I also am trying to finish the museum collection and the bundle to unlock the Movie Theater so those dino eggs are also something I need.

 

[Ereo]

Food: I use cheese (bring at least 40) for health. if you don't have cheese, you can also buy salads. Anything without a bonus will do.
I use either crab cakes (speed + defence), spicy eel (speed +luck) or lucky lunch (luck). You need 2 or 3, and eat a new one once the buff runs out.

Drink: either espresso (4 or 5 last a day) or in 1.5 ginger ale for luck

Get the best sword you can, either galaxy or lava katana.

You can exchange jade for stair cases on Sunday and ruby for spicy eel, so get some crystalariums going.

Eat cheese as soon as you reach half energy. Always eat before going down stairs because you might get attacked immediately.

Bombs are very useful, I usually bring at least 100.

The warp totem gets you there almost three hours early. On days you consider skull cavern, prepare the inventory the night before and warp to the desert if the day is lucky. Or keep a chest next to the TV.

Never take any tools you don't need, you want all inventory space you have.

 

[BringsTheSnow]

Food: I use cheese (bring at least 40) for health. if you don't have cheese, you can also buy salads. Anything without a bonus will do.
I use either crab cakes (speed + defence), spicy eel (speed +luck) or lucky lunch (luck). You need 2 or 3, and eat a new one once the buff runs out.

Drink: either espresso (4 or 5 last a day) or in 1.5 ginger ale for luck

Get the best sword you can, either galaxy or lava katana.

You can exchange jade for stair cases on Sunday and ruby for spicy eel, so get some crystalariums going.

Eat cheese as soon as you reach half energy. Always eat before going down stairs because you might get attacked immediately.

Bombs are very useful, I usually bring at least 100.

The warp totem gets you there almost three hours early. On days you consider skull cavern, prepare the inventory the night before and warp to the desert if the day is lucky. Or keep a chest next to the TV.

Never take any tools you don't need, you want all inventory space you have.

Thanks! I will need quite a bit of time to prep before my next run, I can tell.

Yes, already using a lava katana. I have never ever found a Prismatic Shard so no Galaxy Sword for me yet.

Also, so, so looking forward to 1.5 content! I play on PS4

 

[Elenna101]

IMO speed is better than luck in Skull Caverns, because you can dodge the enemies with +2 speed which is much more efficient than fighting them. Any time you spend fighting is time you're not spending going down.
Therefore, I usually go with triple shot espresso (+1 speed) and spicy eel (+1 speed and +1 luck). Conveniently, both of these can be gotten from the desert trader by trading diamonds and rubies, respectively.
Other useful desert trades are jades, as @Ereo said, and warp totems. Trading three omni geodes for a warp totem is much cheaper than crafting it, especially since you'll get plenty of omni geodes in Skull Caverns.

I agree, bring plenty of bombs. You should be mostly using bombs, and only supplementing with the pickaxe while waiting for bombs to blow up if you can't find a good spot to put another bomb. The bombs for the first run (either crafted or bought from the dwarf) can be a big investment, but after that you should be making back most or all of the bomb materials from Skull Caverns itself.

The other option is to craft explosive ammo for your slingshot, and use that instead of or in addition to bombs. It has the advantage of exploding immediately so you don't have to wait, although it's a smaller radius and the aiming can take some getting used to, especially in 1.4.

For your weapon, lava katana is pretty good as swords go. You can also take a club and hit the special attack, then mash the regular attack (not sure what the buttons are on PS4), this will get you a big area-of-effect attack which basically repeats the special attack multiple times in quick succession. Unfortunately the best club you currently have access to is probably the lead rod, which isn't great damage for stuff in Skull Caverns, but once you get a prismatic shard, buying a galaxy hammer can be really helpful.

 

[BringsTheSnow]

IMO speed is better than luck in Skull Caverns, because you can dodge the enemies with +2 speed which is much more efficient than fighting them. Any time you spend fighting is time you're not spending going down.
Therefore, I usually go with triple shot espresso (+1 speed) and spicy eel (+1 speed and +1 luck). Conveniently, both of these can be gotten from the desert trader by trading diamonds and rubies, respectively.
Other useful desert trades are jades, as @Ereo said, and warp totems. Trading three omni geodes for a warp totem is much cheaper than crafting it, especially since you'll get plenty of omni geodes in Skull Caverns.

I agree, bring plenty of bombs. You should be mostly using bombs, and only supplementing with the pickaxe while waiting for bombs to blow up if you can't find a good spot to put another bomb. The bombs for the first run (either crafted or bought from the dwarf) can be a big investment, but after that you should be making back most or all of the bomb materials from Skull Caverns itself.

The other option is to craft explosive ammo for your slingshot, and use that instead of or in addition to bombs. It has the advantage of exploding immediately so you don't have to wait, although it's a smaller radius and the aiming can take some getting used to, especially in 1.4.

For your weapon, lava katana is pretty good as swords go. You can also take a club and hit the special attack, then mash the regular attack (not sure what the buttons are on PS4), this will get you a big area-of-effect attack which basically repeats the special attack multiple times in quick succession. Unfortunately the best club you currently have access to is probably the lead rod, which isn't great damage for stuff in Skull Caverns, but once you get a prismatic shard, buying a galaxy hammer can be really helpful.

Thank you!!! The specifics really help. I already have diamond and ruby in crystalariums on my Year 4 farm so I can just start saving more of them rather than gifting or selling for profit.

 

[Lew Zealand]

So I'm doing most of these (just got the Desert Warp totems!) but I seem to lose focus once I'm in the Skull Cavern.

Is it pretty much just Bomb the heck out of everything to get those stairs or shafts as quickly as possible? I find myself distracted by shiny things or monster play friends far too often. CA needs to add a Horse Blinders hat to the game for those of us afflicted with Ooooooo Shiiiiny!!!! Syndrome™.

 

[ISSsloth]

what are your guys' opinions on club weapons?
(Specifically the wooden mallet and lead rod)

 

[PoppyForPenny]

To make the quest, I replicate 100 jade in crystalariums, trade them for stairs on Sundays. I lay stairs one after the next all the way down. I only start mining or fighting after level 100. If you can get to 120 you'll probably get your prismatic shard. The quest reward makes continuing, or future deep dives, much easier.

 

[Kinorana]

The most key thing you need to know: you are on a time crunch. You don't have time to fully explore every level, or mine every node you find. Drop bombs as fast as you can, and get the hell out of there! It's tempting to grab that one Iridium node in the corner, or to clear out enemies so it's safer to drop bombs. YOU DO NOT HAVE THAT TIME. Don't fight every enemy you see, only hit them to push them away so you can drop bombs. Don't go out of your way to mine ores or break boxes, only grab them if you were already gonna be over there to drop a bomb. Don't get greedy, and you'll reach floor 100 with plenty of time to spare.

 

[BringsTheSnow]

So I'm doing most of these (just got the Desert Warp totems!) but I seem to lose focus once I'm in the Skull Cavern.

Is it pretty much just Bomb the heck out of everything to get those stairs or shafts as quickly as possible? I find myself distracted by shiny things or monster play friends far too often. CA needs to add a Horse Blinders hat to the game for those of us afflicted with Ooooooo Shiiiiny!!!! Syndrome™.

Yes, I have that problem so bad. Maybe you needed to see Kinorana's reminder to stay on task as much as I did!

The most key thing you need to know: you are on a time crunch. You don't have time to fully explore every level, or mine every node you find. Drop bombs as fast as you can, and get the hell out of there! It's tempting to grab that one Iridium node in the corner, or to clear out enemies so it's safer to drop bombs. YOU DO NOT HAVE THAT TIME. Don't fight every enemy you see, only hit them to push them away so you can drop bombs. Don't go out of your way to mine ores or break boxes, only grab them if you were already gonna be over there to drop a bomb. Don't get greedy, and you'll reach floor 100 with plenty of time to spare.

Ok... I needed to hear this. The truth hurts sometimes but I need to hear it as bluntly as possible. Thanks for telling it to me straight. Also, I am glad I am not the only one who struggles with this!

 

[Cococinel]

I personally don't use staircases for the first time reaching the 100th floor because Qi's compliment is a tad better that way.

My general strategy is making a few shallow dives first to get a stock of spicy eel (3 get you through a day), bombs, a prismatic shard, and a rabbit's foot (I prefer to not have animals until fairly late in the game). I like to pick the mushroom cave, so I usually have a nice supply of life elixer by now to keep my health up. After all that, I check the TV for a lucky day -- possibly do a run around the farm to see if I have no jobs open and reload to maximize my time -- and then just give it a try. I tend to need about three attempts before it's successful. Now with Ginger Island added, I also choose to forge my weapon and tools beforehand to make them a little more efficient, but I know it can be done without.

And yeah, eyes on the prize. All the shinies mean nothing compared to ladders and holes. Ignore everything to make it to the 100th floor before 2:00 am rolls around.