What floor do people start at in skull cavern when looking for iridium?

[NullObjects]

Here's a question: What floor do people start at in skull cavern when looking for iridium?

Right upon entering I'll jump to floor 150-200 and start there. I always contemplate upon going deeper but this usually eats up a good potion of time. Lately, I've been wondering though where people tend to start at when looking for iridium and if there is some balance between the "best" floor to start at vs the time you have left actually mining.

Setup-wise, I always use the same setup: bombs, staircases, spicy eel, espresso, farm warp totem, and waiting for a good luck day.

To try and maximize time spent, I also tend to skip single iridium nodes and bomb areas where there are at least 3 'interesting' nodes (say two iridium and a diamond). The only single node that make me pause are the mystic ones. This usually nets me around 300-400 iridium. I may have hit high 400's on a good run, but it's uncommon. I warp back home just past 1am. I know I could squeeze out a bit more time, but I've passed out right at the bed once when I warped back home at 1:40am due to my cat blocking the bed. Not risking that again. =_=

 

[Boo1972]

Well, in theory I would wait until floor 100 or 150 before I started actively looking for iridium. In actuality, I get bored of just descending down and start gathering iridium around floor 70. I am easily bored.

 

[Hill Myna]

Great question!

The answer: it depends.

When I first reach Skull Cavern (late-Summer), I don't typically make it past Floor 40 on any given trip. So, I'll be taking out any Iridium Nodes I see. I'm also normally trying to up my Combat Level, so I like to kill the Big Slimes, which slows me down.

But later in the game, when you have a big project or you're trying to beat a PB, I'd say start taking out any spots of 3+ "special" nodes from Floor 75 onwards. And once you've reached Floor 100, any groups of 4-5 "special" nodes are worth taking out.

Note that I play on Switch, so despite employing the pause-after-taking-the-ladder tactic and spamming Staircases, it still takes me most of the morning to get to Floor 100 (because of how hard it is to place/plant things). After that point though, I'll be planting bombs in any shiny patches, gathering as much as possible in the Floor 100-200 phase.

Once I've reached into the 200s, then I start to be a bit picky. This is where I'll bring up Explosive Ammo.

See, Explosive Ammo has the same range as a Napalm Ring (a 2-block radius), but it explodes as soon as it comes into contact with a monster or a wall. This means you can snipe any nodes that are near the entrance to the Floor, and then continue down (with a Staircase it this doesn't provide a Ladder). So it changes the game in terms of what's worth it, because you're looking for very dense clusters of ores.

After Floor 100, there isn't such a significant increase in Iridium. But there is so much that I can almost always find some nodes right at the entrance.

I still bring regular Bombs with me, for when there is a 7-8 node patch or for when Explosive Ammo's limitations get in the way. But generally speaking, Explosive Ammo is the way to go.

It's worth noting that Explosive Ammo doesn't fit everyones play styles. For a long time I couldn't understand why people were suggesting it.

But it is now an essential part of my build, that gets me in between 700-800 Iridium per trip.

Also, I made a guide about Skull Cavern. I think you might find it useful!

I know I could squeeze out a bit more time, but I've passed out right at the bed once when I warped back home at 1:40am due to my cat blocking the bed. Not risking that again. =_=

As long as you're in your house, you won't be fined. So although you might lose a bit of energy, it's ok to push the limit. In fact, you can even pass out (not the same as dyeing) in Skull Cavern and you'll be ok, it'll only cost you 1,000G (IIRC). But I don't like to sleep in the caves, so I bring my Return Scepter!

Anyways...I've rambled on for long enough. So, I hope this helps, have fun!

 

[Cptldsilver]

Depends how good you are at pause buffering the load in too new levels. If you're damn near perfect you can go all the way too 1250 before you start farming iridium. Myself, I usually start looking after floor 100 but start to take more floors around 300+. I think if you're not using pause buffering that you should look at every level but only gather iridium that's right in front you until level 200 or so.

 

[NullObjects]

Once I've reached into the 200s, then I start to be a bit picky. This is where I'll bring up Explosive Ammo.

Explosive ammo huh? I did craft 999 of them and stuck it on a master slingshot, but then left it as I found the delay between shots to be slightly annoying. But in theory, I imagine it would reduce/remove the wait time waiting for bombs to go off? Hm, maybe it is worth another look...

That's also a pretty extensive guide you've written. Thanks. I also just prefer sleeping in bed than on the floor. Just doesn't feel right. =b And 700-800 is double of what I can get. Looks like I have a ways to go.

Depends how good you are at pause buffering the load in too new levels. If you're damn near perfect you can go all the way too 1250 before you start farming iridium. Myself, I usually start looking after floor 100 but start to take more floors around 300+. I think if you're not using pause buffering that you should look at every level but only gather iridium that's right in front you until level 200 or so.

What's pause buffering? Never heard of it until now. If it's a platform specific thing, I'm playing on pc.

 

[Cptldsilver]

Explosive ammo huh? I did craft 999 of them and stuck it on a master slingshot, but then left it as I found the delay between shots to be slightly annoying. But in theory, I imagine it would reduce/remove the wait time waiting for bombs to go off? Hm, maybe it is worth another look...

That's also a pretty extensive guide you've written. Thanks. I also just refer sleeping in bed than on the floor. Just doesn't feel right. =b And 700-800 is double of what I can get. Looks like I have a ways to go.




What's pause buffering? Never heard of it until now. If it's a platform specific thing, I'm playing on pc.

Every time you load a new level of the mines you can pause the game when the screen is black and the game time will stop. The level will continue to load in as your paused. If you time it perfectly you can essentially stop time from passing, in game, as you ladder down the cavern. There's other pause buffering as well in stardew but that's the most prevalent.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Every time you load a new level of the mines you can pause the game when the screen is black and the game time will stop. The level will continue to load in as your paused. If you time it perfectly you can essentially stop time from passing, in game, as you ladder down the cavern. There's other pause buffering as well in stardew but that's the most prevalent.

Hey thanks for this, I hadn't heard of that strategy before. Time to practice it!

Based on my single run down to Level 100 so far and not gathering until Level 101+, it seems very efficient to skip down to at least there and then commence carpet bombing. Adding in pause buffering once you get the handle of that cadence should leave you with ample time to collect a lot of Iridium, shards, etc.

I think the common theme of Skull Cavern strategies is:

Retraining the monkey.

The funny-looking one with the KB&M or controller. The game initially trains you to Forage everything you can to stay afloat and progress on to the next set of quests or Farm strategies. Only by the time you get the Greenhouse full of Ancient Fruit do many players finally learn to ease off the *don't waste anything!* method of play.

Mmmm... well, some of us. This monkey has a real problem passing by things even with 2M in her possession. 'Cuz they're so shiny!

But you need to do this to get to the real good spawn and drop rates lower in Skull Cavern. Doesn't even matter what you see until triple digits, just keep Staircasing, maybe Bombing for Shafts if you are afflicted by that proclivity. I sympathize. But you must put off that initial satisfaction for greater returns on satisfaction past Level 100 (or 200!).

Your patience will be rewarded!

 

[Sophie]

Ok, now I am wondering, why the need for so much iridium? I mean, what do you do with it?

Mmmm... well, some of us. This monkey has a real problem passing by things even with 2M in her possession. 'Cuz they're so shiny!

Must admit to the exact same problem XD

 

[imnvs]

Ok, now I am wondering, why the need for so much iridium? I mean, what do you do with it?

At this level of iridium harvesting, the reason is to sell it.

 

[Lew Zealand]

I have 100s of unsmelted Iridium from my Grandpa Statue sitting in Chests as I have no use for it (yet??). However when creating havoc on the lower levels of Skull Cavern, there are a lot of other things that turn up, like Prismatic Shards, but here's the problem for me:

I don't remember what's good down there. Been there all of once.

So what I want to do is follow this Pause Buffering strategy to get down to 100+, or 200+ if it really saves a lot of time, and just clear away those floors in a satisfyingly incendiary manner. Just to see what's down there.

Shiny stuff only of course, gotta have your standards. I'll be tossing Cave Carrots at the Flying Serpents to knock them outta the air, though that then poses a threat to unprotected ankles...

 

[FairyRing]

employing the pause-after-taking-the-ladder tactic

What is this tactic? And how does it benefit? Been having trouble in skull cavern.

 

[FairyRing]

What is this tactic? And how does it benefit? Been having trouble in skull cavern.

I saw the answer already sorry

 

[FarmerJoJo]

so despite employing the pause-after-taking-the-ladder tactic

I've seen this tactic mentioned a few times before. Is there an equivalent for mobile? I play on an iPad.

Ok, now I am wondering, why the need for so much iridium? I mean, what do you do with it?

Have to agree with this question. Yes, can be sold. And, judging from other threads, can be quite lucrative if you go fast and deep enough. I do the occasional Skull Cavern dive when I need the adrenaline rush. Otherwise I stick with mellow days of collecting truffles and chatting with the neighbors.

 

[Giant Octopodes]

Ok, now I am wondering, why the need for so much iridium? I mean, what do you do with it?

For me the main purpose is to hoard it like a dragon, so that when I show my friends a chest with multiple stacks of Iridium Bars, they shout out in surprise "what the [heck]!"

Typically, once available resources are no longer a limiting factor, I'll stop and gather only if there are huge clusters before level 100 (and even then only if they catch my eye before I've clicked on that next staircase), and after 100 I'll more closely assess what I'm looking at rather than just spamming them down ASAP. It's not like I stop slamming down staircases on floors which aren't interesting though, so it's not too unusual for me to get down to 250ish on a run. Sometimes though it's fun to just throw blinders on and spam down to 500 and then proceed from there. I don't believe it to be superior from an efficiency standpoint but the amount of iridium and nodes down there is just fun to walk around in. I don't typically go past 500 as a start point unless the goal is specifically "let's see how far down we can go" rather than gathering large quantities of anything.

 

[Elenna101]

I don't usually use a ton of ladders in Skull Caverns, not because I think they're bad, just because I find placing 100+ ladders less fun than blowing stuff up to get down. But I won't go out of my way for iridium until I see several nodes close to each other, which generally happens around the 70-100 range. Usually I end up with 250-350 iridium.

Explosive ammo huh? I did craft 999 of them and stuck it on a master slingshot, but then left it as I found the delay between shots to be slightly annoying. But in theory, I imagine it would reduce/remove the wait time waiting for bombs to go off? Hm, maybe it is worth another look...

The delay between shots is a lot less if you go into options and change the slingshot fire mode from "hold and release" to "Pull in opposite direction". The downside is that "pull in opposite direction" makes aiming a lot less intuitive. This is more of a problem if you're aiming at enemies than if you're aiming at walls.

The other thing to note with explosive ammo is that it only goes off if it hits a wall, enemy, or ladder. If the stuff you want to blow up is next to a wall, that's pretty simple. Otherwise, if you can lure an enemy near it reasonably quickly (and if you can hit the enemy with a slingshot, easier said than done sometimes), you can use that. If you've come in with plenty of ladders, you can technically place a ladder next to an iridium clump and use that to blow them up, it's still faster than waiting for a bomb. But sometimes bombs are still the best way to blow stuff up, if it's in the middle of a large open area.
If you're using explosive ammo as your main mining tool, I find ammo+a few bombs works better than just bombs, but you do have to retrain yourself to look for groups of rocks near walls that you can hit with ammo - good ammo placement will not necessarily be the same as good bomb placement.

Ok, now I am wondering, why the need for so much iridium? I mean, what do you do with it?

Partly money, mostly just that Skull Caverns is fun.

 

[Hill Myna]

Ok, now I am wondering, why the need for so much iridium? I mean, what do you do with it?

Well...

...

...At one point I had over 4,000 Iridium sitting in my "shiny chest", so partly it's for that. But mainly, like I said, I'm trying to beat my PB. Did I get 820 ore last time? Go for 850.

But I find it so much FUN! Definitely my favourite activity in the game.

On my current save, I now have 116 Prismatic Shards, 431 Iridium Bars, with 1.5 stacks of Iridium Ore left over. I'm also at the point where I'm extensively decorating my farm, so it's nice to have a little side project: how fast can I smelt the ores with only a handful of furnaces? And when I run out, well, it's time to hit the Caverns again!

And, judging from other threads, can be quite lucrative if you go fast and deep enough.

It sure can!

If you say that on a typically mid-game run I'm getting 300 ore, that's (300 Ore/5 per bar * 1,500 Blacksmith sell price) = 90,000G per trip, assuming everything else pays for the explosives/food/coal for smelting the ore. Think of all the things you could do with that!

But part of it is the sheer amount of other ores you'll find. Even on a bad run, I'll be getting at least 100 in each, and they're really useful for Kegs, PJars, Worm Bins, Crystalariums, Sprinklers, Tool upgrades, and a whole bunch more.

Re: Pause Buffering (that's a fancy name!), I don't think it would be that effective on mobile. If you see folks that Staircase all the way down to anything above Floor 200, they're almost certainly on PC, because of how hard it is to place things on other platforms.

 

[hexnessie]

This monkey has a real problem passing by things even with 2M in her possession. 'Cuz they're so shiny!

Yeah, no, I don't think my inner magpie would be even physically capable of passing up the shiny.

Just... No. No. I would lie awake at night thinking of all the missed shiny opportunities. Copper ore. Clay. Cloth. And the whole rest of the alphabet too.

On a more serious note though, I have learned to actually like Skull Cavern after my initial trepidation. I now actually enjoy farming meals off snakes and getting all my ore types on a single floor. Plus, free crabcakes! Also starting with a C.


My forays into the lower levels have been exclusively aimed at chasing treasure chest levels, all hopped up on super meals and ginger ale. I got to about 250 with starcases but by that time it was already late night.

I have never heard of pause buffering, and I'm not sure I'll be able to apply it with my fumbly hands as I don't think my screen even goes dark for a milisecond between levels - it all happens pretty fast. It's not like there's a "load time". I will have to try.

 

[Tom]

My values may have changed after playing Stardew Valley a lot.

• I don't have much demand for iridium.
• I play the Skull Cavern for fun.
• I generally find plenty of iridium for my tastes by floor 50 or even sooner.
• When I am looking for prismatic shards later in the game, I like to use staircases a lot and be picky about what I bomb, but earlier, I enjoy bombing even copper and iron nodes.
• I get bored using all that Jade from my dozen crystalaria to dive really deep. In fact, for maximum fun, I intentionally delay insane riches in general.

 

[Tom]

fumbly hands

Yes! A fellow butterfingers.

 

[NullObjects]

Every time you load a new level of the mines you can pause the game when the screen is black and the game time will stop. The level will continue to load in as your paused. If you time it perfectly you can essentially stop time from passing, in game, as you ladder down the cavern. There's other pause buffering as well in stardew but that's the most prevalent.

Ah, I see. I had no idea; I assumed the world automatically paused itself during floors loads. Definitely need to try that.

Ok, now I am wondering, why the need for so much iridium? I mean, what do you do with it?

I just make bars out of it. Going for a stack of bars to go into my 'chest of nines'. Beyond that....maybe more stacks?

Spoiler

On a quest to find out how much I need to turn into a purple slime.