Skull Cavern - Prep & Survival tips?

[Phate4569]

True, I do make the assumption that everyone has my SC habits. I setup my farm so it is mostly automated and don't start SC until year 3-ish. The chores I have are usually done before 9 (except Friday and Saturday which are all day, and Summer 7 and Winter 7 for casks), and I can spend the rest of the time diving.

 

[imnvs]

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

Okay, I was thinking about this...

And yes, I could get more cash out of ancient fruit... but having a reliable supply of coffee? I mean, it means I will NEVER run out when mining the Skull Cavern. Like... ever. It means I can suck down a triple espresso for just running around my farm getting chores done, and I can still have extra that adds up, creating a surplus of coffee just laying around waiting to be made into triple espresso (like srsly, I have over 900 coffee in my fridge waiting to be made into triple espresso and 50 triple espresso in a chest waiting for me to get down to under 5 triple espresso in my inventory from drinking what I carry around with me everywhere I go). So, anyway, I like having lots and lots of coffee around, because triple espresso is one of the more expensive things you can cook... and when you get that Qi quest to ship 100k in freshly cooked food, triple espresso makes that real easy.

And okay, I have 25 spaces in my greenhouse that could have ancient fruit... but I still have 94 spaces with ancient fruit. Soon I'm going to be adding garden pots with deluxe retaining soil and add more in that way too. I also have 192 ancient fruit out on the island, and 72 pineapple. I could replace the pineapple out there with ancient fruit too... but pineapples are still the next most expensive fruit (by far) after ancient fruit so wine made from them is almost as expensive as the ancient fruit wine, and it means I also can have a good stock of pineapples for making tropical curry, the best forage buff food in the game which is also really expensive, so it is also really good when you get that "gotta cook food now" quest from Mr Qi.

 

[Phate4569]

I just use the money and bulk buy a 999 stack of coffees from the Saloon and toss it in my fridge.

Since I have ancient fruit it is one less chore to harvest since they only come once per week and I time them all for a Friday harvest.

Currently I have 684 Ancient Fruit plants and 6 Keg Sheds. Debating adding another 570 fruit and 3 sheds next year.

I haven't gone to the island yet, I want to finalize my automation in this 1.5 save before going.

 

[Honeywell]

It's pretty satisfying to grow/harvest the things you need yourself so I understand growing your own coffee even if you could make more money growing something else and buying coffee.

My casual prep for early skull caverns includes getting the burglar ring to maximize the monster drops and to bring a cheap food (salmonberries, common mushrooms, sashimi etc.) to top off my health after any fighting--it has to be cheap so I'm not stingy about using it. Starting with full health it's pretty easy to survive no matter how bad my weapon/stats are but I also bring some "good" food that heals a lot and a couple of stair cases just in case.

 

[susb8383]

My tips are:

-I like spicy eel much better than coffee because the speed boost lasts a really long time. You can get it from the trader for 1 ruby or as a serpent drop. And you can drink coffee in addition to get a double speed boost.

-Any time you get a break from being attacked, eat if your health is even a little low. You want to be as close to full health as possible when a bunch of flying serpents come at you. The times I've died have been when I didn't want to waste food so I waited to eat until I got lower. Sometimes you don't get a chance.

I take two types of food. My regular food is in the same row as my sword. It's something I have a lot of, like iridium salmon berries. If I have a break in between monsters, I eat from that.

Then I have my panic food, something with high health like cheese, cactus fruit, or life elixir. I have my sword in row 1/slot 1 and my panic food in row 2 and row 3, slot 1. That way if I'm in trouble I can do Tab Right-click. For me that's the fastest way to eat without having to think about it. I find that faster than moving the mouse wheel to get to slot 2 because it's easy to overshoot it in a panic, and clicking takes longer. The only downside to my strategy is that you have to finish eating to tab back to the sword, whereas if the food/sword are on the same row you can click on the sword while you're still swallowing and time is frozen.

-I've never worn a ruby ring but I second the iridium band. Best ring in the game imo because it combines everything you need leaving another slot open for something else. I like the crabshell ring in the other slot because it gives you +5 defense. You get it by killing all the crabs which is doable.

-I second the tip on bombs. I hardly ever use a pick axe in SC. Too slow. And keep in mind you can craft them on the fly if you've picked up iron and coal, which you usually do in SC. (or copper and coal for a cherry bomb.)

--Try to make sure you're holding your sword when you go down a ladder because sometimes a flying serpent comes at you right away with no warning.

-If I'm trying to reach level 100 for Qi, I'll drop a bomb or two right at the beginning around as many rocks as I can. If I don't get a ladder right away, I'll drop a staircase I have ready. I'll also drop a staircase on an infected floor because killing all those monsters takes too long.

 

[susb8383]

food in slot =, bombs in slot -

Whoa...I think there's something here I don't know. What are slots = and -?

 

[BlaDe]

Whoa...I think there's something here I don't know. What are slots = and -?

Your hotbar can be selected using the number buttons. The rightmost slots are selected by hitting = and -

 

[susb8383]

Oh, got it.

Maybe the best of both worlds would be to keep my panic food in the same row as my sword but set up a hot key to access that slot. For me trying to press something in the number row of my keyboard takes too much thought, but if I made a hot key be right next to the WASD keys I could press it quickly the same way I do the Tab key. Hmmm, I'll have to think about that.

 

[Elenna101]

Okay, I was thinking about this...

And yes, I could get more cash out of ancient fruit... but having a reliable supply of coffee? I mean, it means I will NEVER run out when mining the Skull Cavern. Like... ever. It means I can suck down a triple espresso for just running around my farm getting chores done, and I can still have extra that adds up, creating a surplus of coffee just laying around waiting to be made into triple espresso (like srsly, I have over 900 coffee in my fridge waiting to be made into triple espresso and 50 triple espresso in a chest waiting for me to get down to under 5 triple espresso in my inventory from drinking what I carry around with me everywhere I go). So, anyway, I like having lots and lots of coffee around, because triple espresso is one of the more expensive things you can cook... and when you get that Qi quest to ship 100k in freshly cooked food, triple espresso makes that real easy.

I usually craft a bunch of crystalariums (using all that iridium from SC :D ) and stick enough diamonds and rubies in that I can trade for spicy eels and espresso 24/7, regardless of whether I'm in SC or now. That +2 speed is just really nice. I do get the appeal of growing things you need yourself, though.
(For the Qi quest I just buy a ton of wheat and bake bread. But I'm also at the point where I can throw away 66k without caring.)

 

[Salty1]

I'm starting to feel weird for leaning hard on iridium quality berries. If you use pancakes for a +2 foraging buff to go from level 10 foraging to level 12 foraging, each bush during salmonberry/blackberry season drops four berries. You do need to spend a few days just gathering, but the stockpile you get is so massive that I'll usually still have a couple hundred berries left by the next harvest. 29 health per iridium quality berry is usually enough for my purposes, but if you'd rather have access to tracker then I can see that diverting away from my strat.

 

[Lauren1593]

It didn’t take perfection-level preparation to do my own floor 100 run. Galaxy Sword, some Pumpkin Soup, some espresso (really easy to stock up once you’ve gotten the greenhouse), some warp totems (one to get there, one to warp back), stairs and plenty of bombs. Just prepare the day before, and warp as soon as you get up.

The stairs were only used for places with sparse rocks or infested floors. Otherwise, there was ample time for using the pickaxe, and even snagging some goodies.

 

[junimobrat]

The lowest floor I went to in the Skull cavern is floor 10.