Skull Cavern - Prep & Survival tips?

[Subpar_Nova]

Hey all,
I'm moving towards exploring the Skull Cavern more in my current play through and it seems to be WAAAAAY harder than when I first play (launch was my first play through). It seems I'm getting annihilated every time by dragons and mummys.
Right now I have Space Boots, Flame Katana, Glow and Magnet rings for equipment (which I think is very low quality overall).
What are some tips that you find work best for you when exploring the cavern to help you survive as long as possible and get the goods. :)
Thanks.

 

[Phate4569]

Get 2 ruby rings instead of the ones you have. Those are pretty much useless in the Skull Caverns. (You can get some in the Quarry Mine). Or Make at least 1 irridium Band.

Additionally, you should finish the Dust Sprite Eradication goal. That will give you a piece of equipment that will give you better drops from enemies.

Next you need food to regen your health. Salads are good as you can buy a ton of them, cheese (especially gold quality) is also very good.

Stock up on coffee so you can move fast and Spicy Eel (food) to get a speed and luck boost. Be sure that you are only eating these when you need the boost, otherwise eat the salads and cheese. Though before you get the BEST sword you may be better off eating Pumpkin Soup.

Next Bombs will help clear the levels of rocks, it is good to have a lot of these.

Finally there are stairwells you can use to go deeper faster. You can make these with 99 stone or trade 1 jade for 1 stairwell at the Desert trader. You should have crystalariums producing as much jade as you can.

Lastly you'll want to get the best sword eventually. I'm not going to spoil it but you can look it up on the wiki.

 

[imnvs]

Your rings are unimpressive, but you knew that. As suggested already, ruby rings or iridium bands (which function like a glow ring, magnet ring and ruby ring all combined) are where it's at. All that extra damage is glorious.

May I also suggest possibly coming back to the SC? If you're doing SC runs... you could be finishing up the CC or Joja bundles in order to get into the late game content added with 1.5, including a new location and new dungeon which has a means to get more rings on your fingers and to supe up your weapon so that you'll have an easier time in the SC.

 

[Worblehat]

Hey all,
I'm moving towards exploring the Skull Cavern more in my current play through and it seems to be WAAAAAY harder than when I first play (launch was my first play through). It seems I'm getting annihilated every time by dragons and mummys.
Right now I have Space Boots, Flame Katana, Glow and Magnet rings for equipment (which I think is very low quality overall).
What are some tips that you find work best for you when exploring the cavern to help you survive as long as possible and get the goods. :)
Thanks.

That's similar to my gear when I started doing occasional SC runs. You can easily get a glowstone ring at the Stardew Valley Fair. So that combines your current rings into one slot. The magnetism is definitely important for quickly sucking in the loot from a bomb detonation.

Until you have plentiful iridium, either from the Statue of Perfection in Year 3 or from being good at SC runs, your ability to do much is limited. Get what jade you can from your crystalarium to build up a staircase supply. Rubies seem to drop slightly faster than I use spicy eel, so that more or less takes care of itself. Remember to bring your stack of gathered quartz to trade for bombs (I kept forgetting for my first several Desert visits). If you planted a few coffee beans in Spring you should be well-supplied with espresso, otherwise you'll probably have to buy from Gus. The speed boost really is nice, and easily achievable.

Reaching level 25 for the quest is perfectly doable, but I wouldn't expect to make a serious attempt at reaching level 100 until the full setup Phate4569 described (lots of crystalariums getting you a ton of staircases; genuinely good rings, even better sword) is available.

The key point is to use your speed, and only fight if you absolutely have to - serpents mostly. Mummies are easy to dodge, as are big slimes. Little purple slimes are tougher than they look but you can beat them if you want to (they can drop iridium ore, though it's not terribly likely). Pepper Rex (probably the "dragons" you refer to) aren't too bad - just avoid the fire breath, and you can hack them down without too much trouble. Worth it for the dinosaur egg drop chance, and whatever fossil artifacts you might be missing.

Burglar ring would definitely be nice but getting it will take a long time (last I checked I was at 176/500, after a considerable amount of grinding...). And you can still do worthwhile SC runs without it. To clarify the ring advice above - ruby rings are purchased from Marlon. I would disagree with them being valuable in your situation - you don't want to be fighting things very much. The iridium ring (1) costs iridium, which someone starting SC does not have, and (2) requires combat 9, which you also probably don't have (I just hit 8 after almost a dozen SC runs and the aforementioned dust sprite grinding efforts in the Mines). The most useful effects are already present in the glowstone ring (iridium ring = glowstone ring + ruby ring).

Re: imnvs's advice to do Ginger Island instead, see the "needs iridium" point I keep making. Speaking for myself, the sole reason I'm doing SC runs is to get the iridium for Willy's anchor... If you're in Year 3, I completely agree with prioritizing Ginger Island over SC, however.

 

[Salty1]

Mummies are actually kind of fast if you don't have a speed boost, so if they're really giving you that much trouble then make sure to upkeep one so it's easier to break rocks and kite simultaneously. If you lack bombs then it's probably best to maneuver around them while checking for exits and get them to cluster before whacking the group down together.

If you're talking about the flying serpents as the "dragons", then I think the most important thing with them is to get the timing down right. They seem really fast at first, but if you take your time and really just focus on them (and only them) for a few runs whenever they appear, you'll get better at it. Try to time your swing so you'll hit the tip of their nose - they do have odd hitboxes as well that are slightly larger than their sprites, so this might help keep you safe if you find you get hit when you don't expect to be.

Be mindful of your full attack animation, too. If something is chasing you and directly above/north of you and about to make contact, it is almost never worth attempting to turn around to hit it. This is because when the farmer is facing up/northward, the swing animation starts up on their left before sweeping to the right. But if you're facing either west or east, the swing will start out coming up above you. If you're facing southward (toward the screen), then the first frame of the swing actually reaches -behind- you, and you can poke a serpent that's right next to your sprite using that without having to turn around. Learning how to abuse these early animation frames to the best of your ability can help an awful lot when you have several serpents zoning around you at once.

Also, sometimes we get hung up on doing things a certain way, like having all our tools arranged in just one setup. I don't know what your standard item set up is, but I'd recommend having your first three items be weapon -> pick axe -> food. You should be able to toggle back and forth between these very quickly, and can be especially helpful if you're trying to break an iridium node but also need to knock back an enemy, so you can swing your pick then immediately swap to your weapon. I also like to keep bombs/staircases on the other side of the item inventory, so it is easy to loop over but I am less likely to accidentally use them (or it helps me at least).

(also, reading this thread makes me appreciate how different my play style is to everyone else)

 

[Bananapaws]

One thing that can work to your advantage is grind the flying serpents in the SC until you've killed enough to get the Napalm ring. While it won't damage you, any enemies you kill while you have it equipped will explode and take out nearby rocks with them. It can take a while sometimes to break enough rocks until you find the staircase (especially if you're out of bombs). Whereas taking the time to kill an enemy or two can uncover a lot of ground. Like most people, I find the stairs and I go down. But I uncover a lot of pits this way that I otherwise would have missed. My record for getting to floor 100 without any stairs was 7:30PM (after using a warp totem to head to SC as soon as I woke up) and I never could have done it without that napalm ring.

 

[imnvs]

Also, sometimes we get hung up on doing things a certain way, like having all our tools arranged in just one setup. I don't know what your standard item set up is, but I'd recommend having your first three items be weapon -> pick axe -> food. You should be able to toggle back and forth between these very quickly, and can be especially helpful if you're trying to break an iridium node but also need to knock back an enemy, so you can swing your pick then immediately swap to your weapon. I also like to keep bombs/staircases on the other side of the item inventory, so it is easy to loop over but I am less likely to accidentally use them (or it helps me at least).

I always have weapon in slot 1, pickaxe in slot 2, food in slot =, bombs in slot -. That way a single tick of the mouse one way or the other from my sword is the pickaxe or food. My return scepter is slot 1 in the next row, so a simple "tab, click" means I'm on my way home.

 

[Phate4569]

I always have weapon in slot 1, pickaxe in slot 2, food in slot =, bombs in slot -.

In console I do:
Pickaxe in Row1: Slot 1, Sword in Row 1: Food in Row 1 Slot 3
Bomb in Row 2: Slot 2
Stairs in Row 3: Slot 2

This way everything is in a + shape with my sword at the center.

 

[Elenna101]

I always have weapon in slot 1, pickaxe in slot 2, food in slot =, bombs in slot -. That way a single tick of the mouse one way or the other from my sword is the pickaxe or food. My return scepter is slot 1 in the next row, so a simple "tab, click" means I'm on my way home.

I do pickaxe in slot 1 (rarely used), hammer* in slot 2, slingshot with explosive ammo** in slot 3, bombs in slot 4. Food is in slots = and -, and to get to it I pause, press the hotkey, unpause, and eat instantly before the enemies have a chance to move. Might be worth figuring out a setup using Tab, I got used to this one before you could use tab to scroll between rows on keyboard.
My stairs are in the third row, not particularly accessible, but I don't use many stairs. My spicy eels and espresso are also in the third row.

I usually don't bring return scepter and just stay until 2am. If I could consistently scepter home right before 2am it would probably be worth bringing it. The problem is even if I notice that it's 1:50 (which I often don't), I can't be sure if there's 9 irl seconds or 1 irl second left in the day - and usually I can get more than 1000g worth of iridium ore in 9 seconds. Now that I'm typing this, I kinda wish there was an animation showing when it hits 1:50 am, like the ones that appear at 12am and 1am...

*You can get a multi-hit area of effect attack by right clicking and then immediately mashing left click with a hammer. That being said, good hammers are hard to get early if you don't have a shard & money for the galaxy hammer, and the cooldown is quite long - I use the Acrobat perk and the Artful enchant on the hammer to shorten it. The lava katana should be plenty strong enough, you just need to get used to the timing on serpents. Swing a bit earlier than you think you need to.

** I like explosive ammo for going deep, since it explodes immediately so you don't waste time waiting for a bomb. However, aiming it is rather tricky to get used to, and it only explodes off of walls or enemies so it can be hard or impossible to hit rocks in the middle of a large room. You can definitely get to floor 100+ with just bombs and <10 ladders although it does take practice.

 

[Worblehat]

That way a single tick of the mouse one way or the other from my sword is the pickaxe or food.

I had no idea the mouse wheel can be used to cycle through inventory slots! That looks really handy, thanks! I have almost the same setup as Elenna101, so this should work without any significant reorganization.

The tab thing seems like it would be handy but I got used to my current setup before I knew tab had a function in this game. And muscle-memory from MMOs years and years ago still thinks tab = cycle through targets...

explosive ammo

Just noting that the OP probably doesn't have access to it, since it requires Combat 8. Definitely handy for scoring the kill on mummies after you hack them down, though.

 

[Subpar_Nova]

Wow, thank you all so much for all this info! It's a lot to digest. I did get he ruby rings as suggested and I will work towards level 25 in SC first before going down further.
I've started harvesting coffee beans in my greenhouse (potted planters) and I was also gifted a coffee machine from Evelyn (best Granny ever<3) so my stock pile of Espresso is increasing. I should be able to foray in to SC more successfully than I have before, especially with all this great advice. Thank you all so much!

 

[Phate4569]

Wow, thank you all so much for all this info! It's a lot to digest. I did get he ruby rings as suggested and I will work towards level 25 in SC first before going down further.
I've started harvesting coffee beans in my greenhouse (potted planters) and I was also gifted a coffee machine from Evelyn (best Granny ever<3) so my stock pile of Espresso is increasing. I should be able to foray in to SC more successfully than I have before, especially with all this great advice. Thank you all so much!

I wouldn't count on the coffee beans being viable.
You need 4 Triple-Shots to span 1 day in the SC.
You need 3 Coffees to make a Triple Shot
You need 5 beans to make one Coffee

This means you need 60 beans to have 1 day in SC

Fully grown plants produce 4 beans every 2 days, meaning you will need 30 days worth of beans from one plant just to spend 1 day in Skull Caverns when growing from beans.

Just using the coffee maker means you get 1 SC run every 12 days.


You best bet is to just buy coffee at the Saloon for 300 gold, or trade 1 diamond at the Desert Trader for 1 Triple Shot.

3 crystalariums growing diamonds will let you do 1 SC run every 5 days.

 

[imnvs]

If you do not have a napalm ring, crusader weapon or explosive ammo... use cherry bombs to finish off mummies. Don't waste bigger bombs just to finish those walking trash zombies.

And as to coffee in the greenhouse versus buying it?

First thing's first, I don't go to the SC super often. I do it semi-regularly, and I only do a serious SC run when I have loads of stairs to waste.

Next, I had 24 and just recently updated to 25 coffee plants in my Greenhouse. That's 100 coffee beans every 2 days, or 20 coffee every 2 days or 10 per day, or 3.3 espressos per day.

If you're not going to the SC every day 1 iridium sprinkler's worth of coffee plants in your greenhouse will provide all the coffee you need, especially if you get a free coffee every day. With the coffee maker that comes out to 3.6 espressos/day and at 4 espressos needed per day in the SC, that comes out to 9 out of every 10 days you can spend all day in the SC.

I think that'll work for most folk.

 

[Phate4569]

Yeah, but the greenhouse can be used for much better things like ancient fruit.

Beans are an average of 70 coffees per week (60 one week, 80 the next). (23.3 Triple Shots)

Even selling ancient fruit will average about 630g per fruit (factoring in all rarities) or 15,120 per week (1 irridium sprinkler = 24 fruit), which is 50 coffees. (16.6 Triple Shots)
However if you use Preserves Jars on the Ancient fruit, You'll get 27,600 or 92 coffees (30.6 Triple Shots)
Finally using Kegs you'll get 39,600, or 132 coffees (44 Triple Shots)

 

[rippytrippy]

ok so as someone who's looking to get himself in the sc too... i am wondering how to get the best defense?? I have some defense foods and uh purple boots but it doesn't seem to do much lol
also how often to ancient floors come about??? I need dino egggssss D:

sorry for asking a question on someone else's thread xD I just didn't feel the need to make another thread when there's one right here

 

[Elenna101]

ok so as someone who's looking to get himself in the sc too... i am wondering how to get the best defense?? I have some defense foods and uh purple boots but it doesn't seem to do much lol
also how often to ancient floors come about??? I need dino egggssss D:

sorry for asking a question on someone else's thread xD I just didn't feel the need to make another thread when there's one right here

IMO defense isn't that important. Sure, use the best boots you have, but there's no way to get enough defense that the monsters won't do a good chunk of your health. It's more important to bring a bunch of food to restore your health, and of course get a good weapon and practice with it. Speed and luck buffs are more helpful than defense.

Prehistoric floors aren't super common, but they aren't super uncommon either. Sorry, I don't have an exact probability. The Stardew Predictor website shows potential dinosaur levels, but keep in mind that some floor layouts cannot be prehistoric. (I think it's specifically the ones that correspond to floors 31-39 in the regular mines - @BlaDe , correct me if I'm wrong on that?) Judging by that website, it seems to be about one potential dinosaur level ever 60-70 floors. Plus you'll sometimes see a random dino on a regular floor.
Anyways, keep in mind that after you get one dino egg, you can hatch it in the incubator to get a dino which will give you one egg a week.

 

[Salty1]

I wouldn't count on the coffee beans being viable.
You need 4 Triple-Shots to span 1 day in the SC.
You need 3 Coffees to make a Triple Shot
You need 5 beans to make one Coffee

This means you need 60 beans to have 1 day in SC

Fully grown plants produce 4 beans every 2 days, meaning you will need 30 days worth of beans from one plant just to spend 1 day in Skull Caverns when growing from beans.

Just using the coffee maker means you get 1 SC run every 12 days.


You best bet is to just buy coffee at the Saloon for 300 gold, or trade 1 diamond at the Desert Trader for 1 Triple Shot.

3 crystalariums growing diamonds will let you do 1 SC run every 5 days.

Youch.

I usually just bring one espresso shot and not care when it runs out, and one spicy eel and then eat any more that drop and that's about it.

Does it make for mega-successful runs? No, but it's not unusual for me to still hit floor 100 on occasion that way anyways, and normally push to floor fifty unless I start after noon.

I think it's fine to work on baby steps when they're still working on the floor twenty-five questline.

 

[imnvs]

No, but it's not unusual for me to still hit floor 100 on occasion that way anyways, and normally push to floor fifty unless I start after noon.

Honestly, unless it's a "serious" run into the SC for me, I pretty much never start BEFORE noon. I get all my chores done, warp out there, suck down an espresso, eat a spicy eel, and I'm into the SC at about 4pm. Only when I'm like, "Okay, gotta get to 100 today," do I make sure to get there by noon, and I pretty much never do the "warp out to the desert as soon as I wake up" thing. I just make sure to bring lots of stairs when I need to get deep.

I think it's fine to work on baby steps when they're still working on the floor twenty-five questline.

This is very much a true thing too. Newer players don't have to go from bring Charlie Brown to being Sammy Sosa in a day, you know?

 

[Worblehat]

My approach to the coffee math:

I only visit SC when luck is at maximum, or if it's Sunday and luck is merely good (pyramid on TV). Like imnvs and Salty1, I don't do "full day" visits; I arrive in the early afternoon, and sometimes spend two espressos, sometimes bail when the first runs out.

So that's at most two visits a week, often one or zero. And the espresso use is 1-2/visit (call it 1.5). So the high end of usage is 3 espresso/week. Coffee planted outdoors in Spring gives 23 harvests. So for me, maintaining a year round pace of SC visits is (3 espresso/week)*(15 beans/espresso)*(16 weeks/year) = 720 beans/year. Or (720 beans/year)/(4 beans/harvest)/(23 harvests/year/plant) = 7.8 coffee plants, rounding to 8 since one can't have a fractional plant. And there are inefficiencies from the harvested beans being split over three qualities, likely leaving remainders of each. (A "mediocrity fertilizer" that would guarantee base-quality harvests would actually be handy here).

Easily manageable, even for very lazy farmers like myself.

 

[BlaDe]

The Stardew Predictor website shows potential dinosaur levels, but keep in mind that some floor layouts cannot be prehistoric. (I think it's specifically the ones that correspond to floors 31-39 in the regular mines - @BlaDe , correct me if I'm wrong on that?)

Correct. Layouts 31-39 are mummy floors in the caverns, and are ineligible to be prehistoric.