any tips?
- Thread starter mothman
- Start date
Lew Zealand
Helper
The easy way is to use 99 Staircases, but take at least 10 more just in case. The easiest way to make Staircases is to put Jade in a Crystalarium or 5 and harvest and then sell those for 1 Staircase each at the Desert Trader on Sundays. You can also buy the Stone from Robin to craft the 'Cases. but that is expensive. The Staircase technique works pretty much every time. Practice once or twice with this method just to get the timing down, you can be there before Noon.
You can also use fewer Staircases and supplement with Bombs, which have multiple sources including the Desert Trader. Higher Luck can help here so choose a high Luck day and use Luck Food buffs like Spicy Eel and Ginger Ale. Bomb big Stone and Ore node concentrations to uncover Staircases and even better, Shafts, which you can use to skip 3-15 Levels! I did one Level 100 run with about 70 Stairs and 60 Bombs (did not have to use them all) and was able to skip about 25 Levels total with Shafts. But Stairs alone are quicker and easier.
You can also use fewer Staircases and supplement with Bombs, which have multiple sources including the Desert Trader. Higher Luck can help here so choose a high Luck day and use Luck Food buffs like Spicy Eel and Ginger Ale. Bomb big Stone and Ore node concentrations to uncover Staircases and even better, Shafts, which you can use to skip 3-15 Levels! I did one Level 100 run with about 70 Stairs and 60 Bombs (did not have to use them all) and was able to skip about 25 Levels total with Shafts. But Stairs alone are quicker and easier.
Pangaearocks
Planter
As @Lew Zealand said, using staircases is the easy way out (or down). The.. hmm.. feedback once you get to level 100 is cooler if you get there the "honest" way with under 10 staircases, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter.
Go on a max luck day, and have 2-3 Spicy Eels and a handful or so of Triple shot espresso (both can be traded for in the desert). Use a desert totem to get to the desert 4 hours before Pam. You can buy them from the desert trader on any day for 3 omni geodes each. It's definitely possible to get to level 100 without staircases (or very few) while taking the bus there, but it's easier if you have 4 extra hours. High luck from a max luck day and luck food means you will more frequently find ladders, holes and treasure rooms, all of which make the descending easier, especially the holes you can jump into. Make sure you have healing food too, that does not overwrite your speed and luck boosts. An Iridium pickaxe is basically twice as good as a golden one, but if you don't have that, a golden one is okay too. You're bound to find some iridium ore while going down, even if you fail to get to level 100, and that will soon enough enable you to upgrade to an iridium pickaxe.
The reason I prefer speed from both coffee and spicy eels (they don't overwrite each other, because they come from two different categories: food and drink), especially when mining a lot with the pickaxe, is that then you can move around much faster, and even largely ignore enemies. Sometimes you can even outrun serpents, but in general you need to kill off those. Just be aware that their "hitbox" is larger than you think, so it's possible to swing the sword earlier than you think, and still hit them. And conversely, they can hit you before they really "should". I find it easier to attack upwards (with the serpent above you), so try that if the situation fits. The reach of the sword appears to be less if you swing downwards for some reason. Possibly because the serpent can nibble at your ankles, while your sword is higher up, and therefore you have more reach if swinging upwards.
Whenever you find a ladder or a hole, go down ASAP. No need to wander around for ore when the main goal is reaching level 100. Try to keep your health topped up, because a couple of serpents can make quick work of you if given a chance. In single-player the time stops while eating, so it's safe to gobble down a cheese or sashimi while a serpent is bearing down on you. May just save your life. Plus, it gives you time to get your bearings, with time in practice stopped for a few seconds while you eat.
Bombs and mega bombs help a lot when trying to find ladders/holes, and also for mining purposes, but they're also expensive, so perhaps you want to be conservative. Use them on big clusters of rocks, and not in narrow hallways.
Good luck!
Go on a max luck day, and have 2-3 Spicy Eels and a handful or so of Triple shot espresso (both can be traded for in the desert). Use a desert totem to get to the desert 4 hours before Pam. You can buy them from the desert trader on any day for 3 omni geodes each. It's definitely possible to get to level 100 without staircases (or very few) while taking the bus there, but it's easier if you have 4 extra hours. High luck from a max luck day and luck food means you will more frequently find ladders, holes and treasure rooms, all of which make the descending easier, especially the holes you can jump into. Make sure you have healing food too, that does not overwrite your speed and luck boosts. An Iridium pickaxe is basically twice as good as a golden one, but if you don't have that, a golden one is okay too. You're bound to find some iridium ore while going down, even if you fail to get to level 100, and that will soon enough enable you to upgrade to an iridium pickaxe.
The reason I prefer speed from both coffee and spicy eels (they don't overwrite each other, because they come from two different categories: food and drink), especially when mining a lot with the pickaxe, is that then you can move around much faster, and even largely ignore enemies. Sometimes you can even outrun serpents, but in general you need to kill off those. Just be aware that their "hitbox" is larger than you think, so it's possible to swing the sword earlier than you think, and still hit them. And conversely, they can hit you before they really "should". I find it easier to attack upwards (with the serpent above you), so try that if the situation fits. The reach of the sword appears to be less if you swing downwards for some reason. Possibly because the serpent can nibble at your ankles, while your sword is higher up, and therefore you have more reach if swinging upwards.
Whenever you find a ladder or a hole, go down ASAP. No need to wander around for ore when the main goal is reaching level 100. Try to keep your health topped up, because a couple of serpents can make quick work of you if given a chance. In single-player the time stops while eating, so it's safe to gobble down a cheese or sashimi while a serpent is bearing down on you. May just save your life. Plus, it gives you time to get your bearings, with time in practice stopped for a few seconds while you eat.
Bombs and mega bombs help a lot when trying to find ladders/holes, and also for mining purposes, but they're also expensive, so perhaps you want to be conservative. Use them on big clusters of rocks, and not in narrow hallways.
Good luck!
Sinmenon
Rancher
If you have the beach farm, you can also save the triple expressos you get washed up to your farm along with the desert trader. Or you can learn the recipe eventually.
Max Luck and Max Food Luck is essential, maybe you'll want to also check your rings to help your survivability. The magnet rings are good to attract the drops from farther away, the vampire/soul sapper rings gives you a small health recover and the yoba shields from damage depending on your luck and the protection gives you an invincibility window after damaged; savage ring boosts your speed when you kill a monster. The burglar's ring increases drops. I remember there was one that gave coffee?
Oh, and the classic "eat food while the bomb explodes" is a good friend as usual
Other than that, @Pangaearocks and @Lew Zealand got everything covered
Max Luck and Max Food Luck is essential, maybe you'll want to also check your rings to help your survivability. The magnet rings are good to attract the drops from farther away, the vampire/soul sapper rings gives you a small health recover and the yoba shields from damage depending on your luck and the protection gives you an invincibility window after damaged; savage ring boosts your speed when you kill a monster. The burglar's ring increases drops. I remember there was one that gave coffee?
Oh, and the classic "eat food while the bomb explodes" is a good friend as usual
Other than that, @Pangaearocks and @Lew Zealand got everything covered
PoppyForPenny
Farmer
Lucky charm in your wallet, good luck day, food with luck buff. Space boots, lava katana or galaxy sword. Speed buff with food and coffee. Level 10 combat and mining. Bombs. Slingshot with explosive ammo. Desert totem, farm totem.
All those help but really, how you do it, is stairs.
All those help but really, how you do it, is stairs.
Lenora Rose
Farmer
Mods are very much a personal choice. I use some but others I see as cheating and ruining the joys of the game.
My main advice is do at least one full vanilla farmer run before you get into modding, because then you'll know both if you want to mod and what you want to do. (After all, there's no point in extra fish if you decide you don't like fishing, or more dialogue if you hate spending time on befriending villagers.)
Make sure you get them from one of the legitimate sites (Eg, Nexus, Naver, Moddrop, or here, or from the maker directly) and not from a place that steals others' mods, and make sure they're compatible with the version of Stardew Valley you're running and any other mods you have, and the rest is up to you.
Pangaearocks
Planter
In that case NexusMods cannot be recommended. But they're the big thug on the block, so can do what they want, with no real alternative around. In practical terms they have a monopoly. Which is why they do exactly what they want, even if that includes de facto stealing mods from the people who have created them, taking away control and claiming they own them. There has been a huge controversy over this over the last year or so. Well, they are pretty quick to close critical threads and publish outlandishly inaccurate articles, which... see above about "do what they want". Suffice to say, if I was a modder I'd never put a single file on that hellhole of a site, and would much rather go to open source sites like Github where modders can have real licenses to both protect the work and ensure others can help cooperate and suchlike.
Kind of a tangent, but I always get upset by great injustice and unfairness, and Nexus ticks all the boxes in that regard.
Elsewise I agree: try to play the game vanilla first, and after that perhaps look up mods you may like. Personally I like quality of life mods, which is why the only one I'm currently using is UI Info Suite 2. It's even available on github, so no need to feel dirty for having to download it off Nexus.
Lenora Rose
Farmer
I haven't seen Nexus post a mod written elsewhere as their own, and they tend to virus check. I know they have some incredibly dubious conditions about things they can do with mods once posted, but if it says someone made a mod, it's usually honest, and I've seen rip offs reported and vanished.
Should I make a mod, I'd go with Modddrop, probably. GitHub I find very nonintuitive and unfriendly as a site, even though it seems to be good from a developer's perspective.
Should I make a mod, I'd go with Modddrop, probably. GitHub I find very nonintuitive and unfriendly as a site, even though it seems to be good from a developer's perspective.
MissDandy
Farmer
I think it might have already been said on here but don't waste time collecting anything or going out of you way for an ore or crate or something. It's tricky to get all the way down there in one day, depending on if you use those staircases or not. Even if you do, it's likely that you'll still take damage and be in a hurry near the end.
It's also a good idea in any file to start making that jade with Crystalariums as soon as you are able, just so you have them right when you come to need them.
It's also a good idea in any file to start making that jade with Crystalariums as soon as you are able, just so you have them right when you come to need them.
Bluto Longneck
Tiller
Bombs and more bombs, and staircases. but first more bombs!
Or master slingshot with ammunition is quite fun too.
Or master slingshot with ammunition is quite fun too.
