First Iridium and use thereof

[hexnessie]

What do you do with your first iridium bars you get on a new save? I'm torn between building the desert obelisk and repairing the ship...

 

[Hill Myna]

Great thread!

I typically finish the Vault late Summer. I like to head into Skull Cavern whenever I've got a free afternoon, killing lots of Big Slimes with my Burglar's Ring and ending up with 10ish Iridium Ore each time. I'll go on any daily luck, that doesn't matter.

After a few trips of this, I have enough to upgrade my Pickaxe to Iridium. Then I craft an Iridium Band.

My next goal is to make more Jade-filled Crystalariums. Soon I'll have enough to bring ten Staircases along with me every time. I'll start working on finishing Secret Note #10 the hard way, focusing on mass Iridium collection along the way.

Once I've finished Note #10 I'll be able to craft heaps of Crystalariums, so I'll have as many Staircases as I could ever use.

Every Very Happy day I get, I'll be in Skull Cavern. Now I can work on finishing my tool upgrades, and I'll still have excess Iridium to sell.

Typically it's about mid-Winter now, so unless my Remixed Community Center bundles were especially easy, I'll still have a ways to go before even thinking about repairing Willy's ship or building the Obelisks.

I'm torn between building the desert obelisk and repairing the ship...

I'd definitely go for the ship. While the Desert Obelisk is great, I personally think 3 Omni Geodes or 500G whenever you want to head to the Desert isn’t such a high cost.

 

[Laissez_Faire_Farming]

Please remember that we all have strengths and weaknesses. – We all have a different strategy. I am good at mining and slaying monsters for loots. Sometimes, I do not recommend people to follow my advice because everyone is not the same. But you can use some of my ideas. Here is my strategy that works for me.

> Make more Crystalariums to replicate jade for staircases?
It depends on the person's ability and confidence. Psychologically, I am confident enough to go to the skull cavern without staircases—no need to go to use my first iridium to make more crystalariums.

>Save up and buy the Desert obelisk?
Honestly, I think it is cheaper to buy a desert totem with 1 ruby than a desert obelisk...
The only crystalariums I have were given by Gunther. Yes, you can clone as many rubies as you want.
I don't want to waste my time collecting items and money for Desert obelisk...

Correction: My bad. get ruby for eels and geodes for totem

>Save up and repair the ship?
I think it is too early to go to Ginger Island without having an upgraded pickaxe or *******y Sword.
Even though I have the ability to go to the Volcano Cave without ******* Sword, I do not recommend it to people who are not feeling confident in combatting.

>Upgrade pickaxe to iridium to be able to break up rocks in Skull Mine?
I usually use the bomb to clear huge numbers of rocks. Yes, I need my Irridium pickaxe to clear few rocks to economize my bombs.

I'm torn between building the desert obelisk and repairing the ship...

I sense that the Volcano is harder than the Desert. Desert is the WAY.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Iridium Sprinkler or Iridium Band, but usually the Sprinkler as it only takes one bar and it goes right into the Greenhouse to keep the Ancient Fruit company. See, all those other things are associated with more effort and the Sprinkler is unabashedly about less effort. Yes yesyes the tool upgrades allow you to save energy and time which nominally is good, but are you really doing that to get your day done sooner? If so, then bravo! Because some misguided people actually do that so they can do more things. The horror!

More things just make me think sleepy thoughts of cuddling up next to a warm alpaca.

Zzzzzzzz......

 

[Salty1]

I'm so used to just going straight for the iridium pickaxe that I haven't even considered going for the boat repair first in the latest version of the game. Might have to give it a go some time, just to see, but I feel like rushing the iridium pickaxe is still best if you're experienced in diving skull cavern. Makes it that much easier to get more iridium for all the other things.

 

[imnvs]

I'll usually have 8 iridium sprinklers (at least 1 crafted, the majority bought from Krobus with the lot of them encircling a Junimo Hut) before I'm putting iridium toward anything else.

 

[Elenna101]

My first priority is generally iridium sprinklers and the boat repair (I've practiced enough at Skull Caverns that I can get enough for both on my first trip). Upgrading the pickaxe is pretty pointless for me since I pretty much exclusively blow up rocks in SC with explosive ammo and bombs, and it's easy to get enough omni geodes in Skull Caverns to trade for plenty of desert warp totems.
My next priority is crystalariums for rubies and diamonds so I can have constant spicy eel and espresso speed buffs, and then jades. Although I personally don't do a ton of jade crystalariums since I don't find Skull Caverns as fun if I'm spamming ladders, YMMV.

 

[Laissez_Faire_Farming]

My first priority is generally iridium sprinklers and the boat repair (I've practiced enough at Skull Caverns that I can get enough for both on my first trip). Upgrading the pickaxe is pretty pointless for me since I pretty much exclusively blow up rocks in SC with explosive ammo and bombs, and it's easy to get enough omni geodes in Skull Caverns to trade for plenty of desert warp totems.
My next priority is crystalariums for rubies and diamonds so I can have constant spicy eel and espresso speed buffs, and then jades. Although I personally don't do a ton of jade crystalariums since I don't find Skull Caverns as fun if I'm spamming ladders, YMMV.

Question how many bombs do you carry? I was curious because you didn't upgrade your pickaxe.

 

[imnvs]

Question how many bombs do you carry? I was curious because you didn't upgrade your pickaxe.

I'll go in with 50 bombs or mega-bombs, the same number of cherry bombs, and about 500 explosive ammo. I walk out with well over half of that left every time... but I'm probably a bit more generous with the stairs. Also, I buy a lot of my explosives with cash from the Dwarf.

 

[Laissez_Faire_Farming]

I'll go in with 50 bombs or mega-bombs, the same number of cherry bombs, and about 500 explosive ammo. I walk out with well over half of that left every time... but I'm probably a bit more generous with the stairs. Also, I buy a lot of my explosives with cash from the Dwarf.

Cause I buy and make 100 mega and 100 black ones... I need to re-evaluate my bomb usage.
Forgive my curiosity... What about the potions?

 

[Elenna101]

Question how many bombs do you carry? I was curious because you didn't upgrade your pickaxe.

I mostly use explosive ammo, except for large open areas where you can't use ammo to blow up the rocks in the middle. So I usually use 20-30 mega bombs, and maybe 5-10 cherry and regular bombs, as well as 300-400 explosive ammo. The bombs I just craft from materials gotten in Skull Caverns. On a decent run I'll make most if not all of the iron back so I can craft the ammo, but I pretty much always have to buy coal from Clint (as well as buying coal to smelt the iridium). The money from the iridium pays for the coal and iron as well as a nice profit, unless it's a ridiculously bad run.

Cause I buy and make 100 mega and 100 black ones... I need to re-evaluate my bomb usage.
Forgive my curiosity... What about the potions?

The life elixirs you can buy from the dwarf? Never really felt a need for those. I have a ton of extra food (mostly iridium-quality berries, as well as assorted sashimi, purple mushrooms, and magma caps) stocked up on my main file, but if I didn't have those I'd just buy salads from Gus, it's more health per g.

 

[Laissez_Faire_Farming]

@imnvs
@Elenna101
More questions!
How many floors can you survive? 150? 200?

 

[imnvs]

You want me to see? I'm not ready to go full bore on my newest Standard farm. I have my galaxy sword, forged it twice, have my iridium+burglars and my iridium+vampiric... but I still need to infinity my galaxy sword and forge one more ruby to it, get better boots. I could try but I wouldn't trust the result as definitive.

On my Beach farm, though? I regularly, on a casual run, got to the 90s... and that was without really trying.

Oh, and the potions? They're nice, if you have them. I don't buy them, though. I farm for ingredients, either for cooking or for processing... and I cook... a lot. I've got plenty of food for healing.

 

[Laissez_Faire_Farming]

You want me to see?

DO IT. Don't forget to screenshot before you die.

 

[Elenna101]

@imnvs
@Elenna101
More questions!
How many floors can you survive? 150? 200?

Usually I get to maybe 150 or so (limited by time, not survivability). Also, if you check out TheHaboo or Cordite on twitch, they have some nice Skull Caverns runs that are way better than mine.
Also, this youtube video is, as far as I know, the iridium world record, but that's with 1000+ staircases. An explanation of the strats is here.

 

[Laissez_Faire_Farming]

@Elenna101
Thanks a lot.
I greatly appreciate it.

 

[hexnessie]

Great replies! Thanks everyone!

I can't believe I totally forgot to include Iridium Band in the poll. Would really help even in the early days of fighting.

I generally find Volcano Dungeon to be easier to manage than Skull Cavern because it's short, there are no issues with inventory getting overcrowded, you don't need to prepare by dumping your entire normal inventory in a chest (and then forgetting to pick it up...) and it's basically just 10 levels, not hundreds and hundreds of them.

As for Quality Sprinklers, by the time I decide to buy the Vault I'm usually well stocked on them from Krobus. It's only my third save so far, and the first one where I got the fruit bats instead of mushrooms so I was able to unlock the Greenhouse / complete the Center much earlier than usual.

Re coffee - I really really like making my own. I grow 10 coffee plants indoors, water them daily (it just takes 2 clicks) and brew into coffee in the kegs next to my bed. And my food of choice so far is either Escargot (very early on - no useful boosts for fighting but MASSIVE health and energy restored, and ridiculously cheap to make), Eggplant Parm (+3 defense) or Pumpkin Soup (also very cheap to make, boosts luck and defense).

I'm only using the Eels or Crab Cakes when I get to switch the town mines to dangerous mode; in the Cavern, I run on Espresso!

 

[Elenna101]

Great replies! Thanks everyone!

I can't believe I totally forgot to include Iridium Band in the poll. Would really help even in the early days of fighting.

I generally find Volcano Dungeon to be easier to manage than Skull Cavern because it's short, there are no issues with inventory getting overcrowded, you don't need to prepare by dumping your entire normal inventory in a chest (and then forgetting to pick it up...) and it's basically just 10 levels, not hundreds and hundreds of them.

As for Quality Sprinklers, by the time I decide to buy the Vault I'm usually well stocked on them from Krobus. It's only my third save so far, and the first one where I got the fruit bats instead of mushrooms so I was able to unlock the Greenhouse / complete the Center much earlier than usual.

Re coffee - I really really like making my own. I grow 10 coffee plants indoors, water them daily (it just takes 2 clicks) and brew into coffee in the kegs next to my bed. And my food of choice so far is either Escargot (very early on - no useful boosts for fighting but MASSIVE health and energy restored, and ridiculously cheap to make), Eggplant Parm (+3 defense) or Pumpkin Soup (also very cheap to make, boosts luck and defense).

I'm only using the Eels or Crab Cakes when I get to switch the town mines to dangerous mode; in the Cavern, I run on Espresso!

Oh right iridium band, that would have been my first thing for sure before the glowstone ring was added. It's still pretty high up, although the +attack doesn't help with the hammer smash I like using, so it's not that big of an advantage over glowstone.

I also think volcano dungeon is simpler (now that I've had some time to learn the attack patterns of the enemies, at least, it definitely felt way harder the first time I went it).

10 coffee plants isn't enough for constant coffee buff, is it? I tried that once and I ended up with like 20+ plants. (I also hated the manual watering lol, although deluxe retaining soil might have helped if I was doing it on 1.5.)
I personally prefer +2 speed to the defense buff, since I can dodge enemies easier and not get hit at all, but ymmv.

 

[One More Day]

Other than crafting a pair of Iridium Bands, I just straight up sell the early Iridium Bars. At 1,500g a piece, a good day in Skull Cavern can rake in over a quarter of a million gold

 

[Luceat]

Hm i'm playing STV now for ..pfff since it is available on PS4 .. and i'm also on my first and one save. So i couldn't say much.

As far as i can remember, i invested my first iridium(bars) into upgrading my tools.