[Spoiler] Quest after 100 golden walnuts

[Pangaearocks]

Never played with Ginger Island before, so it's all new and exciting. Was finally able to get 100 golden walnuts yesterday and open the door, where it turns out an old friend resides. Qi pointed me towards a board with challenges, which includes getting to level 100 of Skull Cavern. Very tricky on its own. But to do this in only two days, and without any sort of food or drinks? WTF? In reality I suppose that means you have to use 100 staircases. Is that how people are pulling this off?

Even so, at some floors serpents are spawned virtually on top of you, or you are surrounded by rocks (and therefore can't move).

I have never done the mass-stairs thing, and got to level 100 earlier "legitimately". And usually fudge up the placement of stairs or bombs when I try. The pointer keeps being red because it is under my feet, or because it's slightly too far away (say I'm standing between two squares).

 

[Lew Zealand]

Never played with Ginger Island before, so it's all new and exciting. Was finally able to get 100 golden walnuts yesterday and open the door, where it turns out an old friend resides. Qi pointed me towards a board with challenges, which includes getting to level 100 of Skull Cavern. Very tricky on its own. But to do this in only two days, and without any sort of food or drinks? WTF? In reality I suppose that means you have to use 100 staircases. Is that how people are pulling this off?

Even so, at some floors serpents are spawned virtually on top of you, or you are surrounded by rocks (and therefore can't move).

I have never done the mass-stairs thing, and got to level 100 earlier "legitimately". And usually fudge up the placement of stairs or bombs when I try. The pointer keeps being red because it is under my feet, or because it's slightly too far away (say I'm standing between two squares).

Yes, this is a tough one but I think I did it (lol I can't even remember any more). IMO you need a few things:

Mega-healing (Iridium Cheese / Fruit Salad / your favorite), take 100+ and use liberally
Stack O' Stairs, take 100+
Pickaxe to quickly clear closeby rocks if your stairs don't fit
All the Defense you can muster (Dragonscale Boots or Cinderclown Shoes, Crabshell and Protection Rings, other rings forged with these)

Bombs for the party on Levels 101+ after you finish the Challenge 'cuz it's lootin' time!

 

[Pangaearocks]

But it says I can't use any food or drink, so no healing and no boosts. That is rough.

Have cindersap shoes, so that helps a little.

 

[Lew Zealand]

But it says I can't use any food or drink, so no healing and no boosts. That is rough.

Have cindersap shoes, so that helps a little.

That would be because I'm thick. And forget my focus by the end of a post.

Rings, shoes, stairs, pick. And luck.

And restarting your day maybe a whole bunch of times.

 

[ThePerfectGarden]

Mega-healing (Iridium Cheese / Fruit Salad / your favorite), take 100+ and use liberally

I think what Pangaearocks is talking about is the "Hungry Challenge" where you have to make it to SC 100 without consuming food or drink items.
I didn't do this challenge, because I can't be bothered to do so. You can get enough Qi Gems from other callenges that are less stressful.
But, yes, if I would do it, I would take 100+ staircases with me, plus cinderclown shoes, plus two of my combined rings: slime charmer + iridium band & vampire + crabshell. And the best sword I can muster, of course! E.g. the infinity blade, previously forged up three times.

 

[Pangaearocks]

I think what Pangaearocks is talking about is the "Hungry Challenge" where you have to make it to SC 100 without consuming food or drink items.

That is the one, yes :) Suppose this board is like the one in town that changes challenges every so often, and you get to pick one of two each time. Don't recall what the other one was, but might have been something impossible to do, due to stuff not unlocked yet or something. Or kill an obscene amount of annoying enemies.

I have bought the Cinderclown shoes, so that should help a little vs the +4/+4 shoes I had before. Also have the Galaxy sword, with three rubies in it. No enchantment, though. Have forged two rings, but not like the recommended setup. I have Burglar's ring + Iridium band and Napalm ring + Lucky ring (when that one landed, I knew what to fuse with the napalm). Not a terribly defensive setup, but I suppose you'll get mauled to bits without any food anyway if you start tussling with enemies.

Suppose I can't even eat e.g. Epicy Eel beforehand and hope it lasts long enough? Can't have any food/drink, and it won't qualify if I don't eat in the mine itself?

 

[Lenora Rose]

You can eat something just before you enter so you start with a buff. You just can't add to it or heal.

And I believe that with the exception of the legendary family quest which is always 3 days, if you pick the board on a Monday, you have the week (or longer in the case of some really tough ones) to complete the quest. It resets weekly.

 

[ThePerfectGarden]

Wiki advises:

Reach level 100 of the Skull Cavern without consuming any food or drink items. This can be done using Staircases. While this quest is active, Big Slimes will occasionally spawn with a heart in them that will recover 10 HP when dropped. Another strategy to regain health during the quest without eating food is to equip one or more Vampire Rings which restore 2 HP every time a monster is slain. Buffs from food or drinks (better prepared with Qi Seasoning) consumed before entering the cavern stay active for their normal duration.

I think it's doable that way. Vampire Ring, eating/drinking beforehand Qi-seasoned stuff - and indeed, I forgot the slimes with a heart in it, my daughter told me about them. They help some, too. If you've got the Slime Charmer Ring, you can freely approach them.

But honestly - you don't have to take on a Qi challenge every week. If you do Danger in the Deep once (with enough staircases it's a piece of cake, and you have a whole week to do it), you can reset the mines to this setting at any time to get a few additional Qi Gems for slaying monsters or so.

You're right, this board is like the large board below Lewis' house. You get two challenges per week to choose from. And there are a couple of quite nice challenges that aren't as stressful as this one, you only have to wait for them to show up.
My favs are Qi's Kindness, Qi's Prismatic Grange, Qi's Cuisine and Qi's Crop. The latter even earns you 100 Qi Gems at a stroke.

 

[imnvs]

See, the thing is... if you'd gotten there on a Monday, you would have had 7 days instead of 2. The quests he gives are like the Special Orders board in that they reset on Mondays and if you want the full time, you gotta pick them up then too.

 

[Hill Myna]

Qi's Order Board works the same ways as the Town's, no? I'm fairly certain; it's been such a long time.

In which case, it doesn't matter which quest you pick or how fast you complete it, there will always be two new/additional ones to choose from on Monday, and it is possible to have multiple at once.

About the Hungry Challenge – I have never done this quest. Personally I didn't think it was going to be a good use of time/particularly enjoyable.

This would change if I new whether or not the restriction runs out after Level 100 – does anyone have the answer? If it does, it could actually be one of the best Qi Quests for my endgame playstyle, since at that point I'm staircasing down to Floor 150-200 before I even think about collecting.

–––––

I would think that a Crab Cakes + Triple Shot Espresso before you go in would be the best combo, because then you get either +1 or +2 Speed all day, and you don't really need Luck if you're just Staircasing, unless you want increased Treasure Rooms.

Have forged two rings, but not like the recommended setup. I have Burglar's ring + Iridium band and Napalm ring + Lucky ring (when that one landed, I knew what to fuse with the napalm). Not a terribly defensive setup, but I suppose you'll get mauled to bits without any food anyway if you start tussling with enemies.

@Pangaearocks, that ring combo is the exact same as mine! :D Also, welcome to the Forums! I hope you have a great time here.

Next time, if I don't get a Lucky Ring early, I think I'd choose Napalm+Savage; the Savage Ring can be really powerful if used to full potential.

You could also argue that the Burglar's Ring doesn't have a place in a full-endgame setup, but I like having it for Slime Eggs if nothing else!

Also, I didn't know that the Big Slimes could spawn with hearts in them, that's really cool! Does anyone know how frequently they appear? Is it similar to Galaxy Souls, closer to Pink Cakes, or much more common?

 

[Pangaearocks]

You're right, this board is like the large board below Lewis' house. You get two challenges per week to choose from. And there are a couple of quite nice challenges that aren't as stressful as this one, you only have to wait for them to show up.
My favs are Qi's Kindness, Qi's Prismatic Grange, Qi's Cuisine and Qi's Crop. The latter even earns you 100 Qi Gems at a stroke.

See, the thing is... if you'd gotten there on a Monday, you would have had 7 days instead of 2. The quests he gives are like the Special Orders board in that they reset on Mondays and if you want the full time, you gotta pick them up then too.

Thanks. This is kinda anti-climactic now. Hauled ass over to the Island on a max-luck day to start the quest, but now it was gone. Had no idea about the Monday thing. Thought it was like the quests in town that appear to have set days to do them in, independent of when you formally accept them. Having a week for getting food-less to level 100 sounds more reasonable, then I can have more tries at least.

Given the list of favourable quests above, this looks more reasonable. Does the Grange thing include crops then? However, think I'll pick up the Danger in the Deep one and see how I fare. A bit more Qi coins, and I guess he refers to the regular mine there. I need to slay more of those funky level 80+ spirits anyway for the monster eradication goal.

Thanks a lot for the tip about Mondays. That is crucial information, fits well with the timelines above for a Tuesday, and means I ought to get into a habit of checking out this room every Monday :)

 

[Pangaearocks]

Qi's Order Board works the same ways as the Town's, no? I'm fairly certain; it's been such a long time.

In which case, it doesn't matter which quest you pick or how fast you complete it, there will always be two new/additional ones to choose from on Monday, and it is possible to have multiple at once.

Sheesh. So the board in town resets on Mondays too? I had no idea lol. Just thought new ones would pop up a few days after completing the one I had done, or something to that effect. Must have accepted about 50 quests by now, but had no clue they reset on Mondays!

@Pangaearocks, that ring combo is the exact same as mine! :D Also, welcome to the Forums! I hope you have a great time here.

Awesome, and thanks for the welcome I had a regular Napalm ring for quite a while after having fused Burglar's and Iridium band. Don't know what type of rings can drop in the Volcano (but have two unused Coffee rings), so when a Lucky one dropped, it was time to visit the Forge again :P

Very good to know I can use food before going in the door. Crab cakes last a pretty long time, so that should suffice I would hope. Earlier I made some food to tick off more boxes, and then gulped down Fish Stew (iirc) when attempting the Legend. It lasted a crazy long time, the whole day, and I still went to bed with it active.

 

[Elenna101]

I've done this quest with only 10-20 stairs (more for personal challenge than because I think it's really worth the Qi gems). Some tips:

• For rings:
  • Crabshell is very nice, consider taking two, they make a significant difference.
  • You also definitely want a Burglar Ring since then you get two hearts from the slimes with hearts in them (you can buy a second one from the guild if you've already forged your first one with something and don't want to unforge).
  • Slime Charmer is also useful if you're not confident in killing slimes without getting hit.
  • Besides that, consider some combination of Vampiric Ring, Phoenix Ring, and maybe Ring of Yoba.
• Pay attention to the slimes, some are more opaque than others and it's not always obvious when they have hearts in them, at least to me.
• As others have said, you can eat and drink before entering - a Triple Shot Espresso won't last the whole time but it'll at least help for a while. Spicy Eel might last the whole time depending how fast you are (and the +1 luck will help in finding ladders and going down faster), but if you find the spicy eel is running out too soon crab cakes could definitely be a good replacement
• Run away from all enemies (except the big slimes with hearts), do not fight. The speed buff from the food you ate beforehand is especially useful here.
• Drop shafts won't ever kill you, but they might take you to 1 HP. Personally I found they were generally worth it, but YMMV.
• Also you want the best shoes and weapon you can, as well as plenty of bombs (probably regular bombs as it's more important than usual to get out of the way of the explosion). And prioritize going down over getting loot. But that's probably obvious.

That being said I do think this quest is the hardest one (besides maybe the Junimo Kart one, which is a different type of difficulty).

Also, I didn't know that the Big Slimes could spawn with hearts in them, that's really cool! Does anyone know how frequently they appear? Is it similar to Galaxy Souls, closer to Pink Cakes, or much more common?

Approximately similar to Pink Cakes in slimes IIRC.

 

[Pangaearocks]

Thank you, @Elenna101, that will be very useful once I get that quest again. However, I may cheese out by using 100 stairs instead, as I can't imagine going all the way down to floor 100 without any food is going to be feasible unless you are extremely good at combat. Just the lost HP from manholes will hurt and become dangerous over several jumps, and with only 1 HP left I'd be stressing like there was no tomorrow!

For what it's worth, I accepted the Danger in the Deep quest, which was indeed the regular mine. Got down to level 50 on the first day (but did nothing else really). The whole endeavor is very different! For once I left the axe and hoe behind, so when wooden floors popped up, I had no way to hack them up. Also, those new slimes and especially dust sprites were so cute I felt bad just for whacking a sword in their faces :D

Got a few Qi coins from random foes, and 30 radioactive ore, which I guess is important for something. Incredible how much new content that has been added since I played on 1.3 or 1.4

 

[Elenna101]

Oh, yeah, it's definitely a lot easier and less stressful to bring 100 stairs - I just didn't have mass amounts of stairs yet on that file and I was curious if I could do it.

 

[imnvs]

In just about every save I will eventually fill an entire big shed with crystalariums with jade in them. 130-ish jade every 1.7 days that can be traded to the desert trader for stairs... lemme tell ya, you can accrue a LOT of stairs. More than this quest could require even if it is rolled up every week and you accept it every week as well. In most of my saves I'll have TWO big sheds pumping out jade. I call it my "infinite staircases cheat"... even though I didn't cheat to do it.

 

[Pangaearocks]

My favs are Qi's Kindness, Qi's Prismatic Grange, Qi's Cuisine and Qi's Crop. The latter even earns you 100 Qi Gems at a stroke.

I'm doing this one now, although it looks like I'm failing abysmally. 500 crops in only 14 days is a lot. Found 11 on the first day, from chopping down a bunch of trees and going to the Volcano for the rest of the day (but with time to plant them). Once those were done, I put them into seed makers, which returned 21. Have planted them now, but 500? Even 100 would be a challenge it seems. I've spent several days going through the Volcano over and over, and I'm getting some here and there, also from coconut trees (shake), the odd worm spot, and a few from breaking rocks at the dig site. But I'm getting maybe 10 a day, which isn't remotely enough to complete this task.

Are we supposed to simply ignore the challenge for now, put everything into seed makers, and then try to complete the full 500 at a later cycle?

I'm using deluxe gro fertiliser so they grow in 3 days instead of 4, but it doesn't look like I have any chance at all.

 

[Elenna101]

I'm doing this one now, although it looks like I'm failing abysmally. 500 crops in only 14 days is a lot. Found 11 on the first day, from chopping down a bunch of trees and going to the Volcano for the rest of the day (but with time to plant them). Once those were done, I put them into seed makers, which returned 21. Have planted them now, but 500? Even 100 would be a challenge it seems. I've spent several days going through the Volcano over and over, and I'm getting some here and there, also from coconut trees (shake), the odd worm spot, and a few from breaking rocks at the dig site. But I'm getting maybe 10 a day, which isn't remotely enough to complete this task.

Are we supposed to simply ignore the challenge for now, put everything into seed makers, and then try to complete the full 500 at a later cycle?

I'm using deluxe gro fertiliser so they grow in 3 days instead of 4, but it doesn't look like I have any chance at all.

The seeds will disappear when the quest ends, unfortunately.

That quest lasts from when you accept it to the end of the month, meaning you can have as many as 28 days to do it in. Personally, I find that 21 is fine (with seedmakers and deluxe speed-gro), but 14 is quite tight.

If you have a bunch of spare geodes, breaking those at the start of the quest can also help a lot - of course you want to do it as early as possible so they can double as many times as possible in seed-makers.
I got a bunch from a Skull Caverns run once but I'm not sure if that's just because I was bombing a ton of rocks and getting lucky, or if Skull Caverns actually has a higher drop chance. But regardless, bombing lots of rocks is decent.

Also you could use the sewers to switch from Artisan to Agriculturalist temporarily to get 2-day harvests, if you've got the cash.

 

[Pangaearocks]

Ouch, so I got the short end if the straw several times then. 14 days vs 28 is a big difference. But this time it was max as I got there on a Monday, but it happened to be the 14th. Can take it as a practise run then, and keep in mind to not take this on again unless I have max time.

 

[ThePerfectGarden]

Does the Grange thing include crops then?

It accepts all bold print items from the page about dyeing in Wiki. If you have a couple fruit trees, you can prepare for this callenge stockpiling all fruits instead of processing or selling them. Same as stockpiling coffee for Qi's Cuisine ...

For what it's worth, I accepted the Danger in the Deep quest, which was indeed the regular mine. Got down to level 50 on the first day (but did nothing else really). The whole endeavor is very different! For once I left the axe and hoe behind, so when wooden floors popped up, I had no way to hack them up.

Bravo! As I said, after making it to 120, you can reset the mines to this setting at any time (and for any time you wish), so there are still plenty of opportunities to take your hoe and axe with you.
But be prepared for VERY ANNOYING spiders at the lower levels! You better take a stack of staircases with you regardless.
And some ginger or Ginger Ale ...

Ouch, so I got the short end if the straw several times then.

Yep, it's good to know about that monday and that the challenges that give you more than one week are usually meant for the whole season.
14 days for the Qi Beans is quite tight indeed. I had nearly the whole season, and thought until the end that I wouldn't make it. But I made it. In the first two weeks, I turned all the harvested beans into seeds and sowed them the same day. From the third week on, I did it with only the half of the beans and sold the other half. This way I got even more than 500 at the end, because doing so the quantity increases exponentially.
My biggest problem was the plant space. I normally have 144 tiles for crops and 48 for flowers plus half of the greenhouse space (the other half is Ancient Fruit). So I picked all the flowers, chopped out all the crops, and by the skin of my teeth still managed to set up a 24 tiles planting site. I needed it!

In just about every save I will eventually fill an entire big shed with crystalariums with jade in them. 130-ish jade every 1.7 days that can be traded to the desert trader for stairs... lemme tell ya, you can accrue a LOT of stairs. More than this quest could require even if it is rolled up every week and you accept it every week as well.

That's exactly what I do too! It's the second to none way to acquire staircases.
But it's worth to add that the desert trader sells staircases on sundays only! So prepare in time!