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

[Lew Zealand]

OK I tried this today.

umm, well...

OK I intended to try this today.

High Luck day, got everything ready, cleared unnecessary things from Inventory, grabbed a Desert Totem, visited the Desert Trader lady to unload all my Quartz, drop excess Jade and Rubies in Chest just outside SK and...

Forgot the Iridium Cheese.

Now, let's be clear. Everyone has the same mid-game goal: the rush to 2M g to buy the Return Sceptre because we're all playing Return Sceptre Valley here. So of course I have one. I also have another Desert Totem. And it's still early, so the day can just be restarted.

Fat chance I'm gonna do that. While I love it when a plan comes together as much as the next cigar chomping Type-A out there, it's gotta be someone else executing that flawless plan thing. There's a reason I don't work for NASA.

I headed down to see if Bombs alone could do the trick and the easy answer is a fat 'no'. I did have a ton of Spicy Eel but they really don't Heal that much and it felt like a waste. I only got to about Level 40 before running for the ladder just as yet another Flying Serpent was about to ironically hammer me yet again, as this was my first trip with the Galaxy Hammer. I'm not super good with it yet (or super not-good, take your pick), to which my leg bruises and flattened toes will attest.

And...

fumbly hands

...what hexnessie and Tom said. I have exactly ZERO capability to execute this Pause Buffering technical maneuver as I need that second or two of sweet, sweet blackness to reset my head, ready my weapon, and ponder the value of trading the vicissitudes of pastoral life for subterranean atomic bomb testing.

Instead I left SK, chatted up Sandy, bought a bunch of Starfruit seeds, and foraged a half dozen naturally Desert-baked Coconuts for Haley. Tonight will be a pants and socks evening so I don't get too many questions about the condition of my lower extremities.

"Hi Bobbi, ready for a snuggly evening... what's that mark on your le— oooOOOOOoooo Coconut!! You shouldn't have, dear!"

Never forget the Coconuts.

 

[MissDandy]

Now, let's be clear. Everyone has the same mid-game goal: the rush to 2M g to buy the Return Sceptre because we're all playing Return Sceptre Valley here.

Also, lets take a moment to appreciate how difficult it was to part with that first 2M. Hard times! But worth it. To keep on topic first day I had that puppy I was int he skull cavern until 1:50. Brilliant? Nope. I didn't make it to bed... all for five iridium ore. To top it all off, a certain homeless man mugged me. (At the same time, gotta respect that. I would mug me too if I saw me lying lifeless on the ground with diamonds falling out of my pockets.)

And I agree.

Never forget the Coconuts.

Ever.

 

[Elenna101]

Also, lets take a moment to appreciate how difficult it was to part with that first 2M. Hard times! But worth it. To keep on topic first day I had that puppy I was int he skull cavern until 1:50. Brilliant? Nope. I didn't make it to bed... all for five iridium ore. To top it all off, a certain homeless man mugged me. (At the same time, gotta respect that. I would mug me too if I saw me lying lifeless on the ground with diamonds falling out of my pockets.)

And I agree.

Never forget the Coconuts.

Ever.

To be fair, 5 iridium ore, when smelted with the Blacksmith perk, sells for 1500g, and the max you can lose for passing out is 1000g (unless you're on Ginger Island), so depending on your perk you may have come out ahead?

 

[hexnessie]

To be fair, 5 iridium ore, when smelted with the Blacksmith perk, sells for 1500g, and the max you can lose for passing out is 1000g (unless you're on Ginger Island), so depending on your perk you may have come out ahead?

Do you lose more when on Ginger Island? I sometimes get the message about parrots going through my pockets but I've never checked WHAT they took...

 

[hexnessie]

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.

I tried it today, or intended to, and... um... at the risk of sounding like a complete, utter noob, HOW do you pause SDV?

I've realized I had never used any specific pause function other than opening my inventory...

 

[Lew Zealand]

I tried it today, or intended to, and... um... at the risk of sounding like a complete, utter noob, HOW do you pause SDV?

I've realized I had never used any specific pause function other than opening my inventory...

I assumed it was the Inventory open as that's what pauses the game for me. It was just too much for me to keep track of on the run I tried yesterday but I'm going to try again today.

With cheese.

Anyone got the office pool together yet about what I'm gonna forget this time?

 

[Cptldsilver]

I use E to pause on the PC. Timing is key though. You have to pause at the right moment or you lock yourself out of pausing until the screen fully loads. It's very finicky.

 

[Elenna101]

Do you lose more when on Ginger Island? I sometimes get the message about parrots going through my pockets but I've never checked WHAT they took...

I think you can lose 2500 or 0 on Ginger Island? Everywhere else is 10% of your cash up to a max of 1000.

I tried it today, or intended to, and... um... at the risk of sounding like a complete, utter noob, HOW do you pause SDV?

I've realized I had never used any specific pause function other than opening my inventory...

It's pressing E for the inventory, yeah. Or whatever button is used on the console to open inventory.

If it's not working you probably need to adjust the timing - you have to press it after the screen is completely black, otherwise the next floor won't load.

 

[MissDandy]

To be fair, 5 iridium ore, when smelted with the Blacksmith perk, sells for 1500g, and the max you can lose for passing out is 1000g (unless you're on Ginger Island), so depending on your perk you may have come out ahead?

I suppose if you put it like that, I did! :D

 

[Boo1972]

Well, I spent my first million on a warp obelisk to the Desert. I have decided just to pass out in Skull Caverns. Not because I keep leaving my farm warp totems at home. No, 1000g penalty for passing out isn’t that much. Heck, Willy charges me that much each time a go to Ginger Island. After I fixed the boat. With 200 hardwood. And, come to think of it, I must be subsidizing the whole town. Where is Shane getting 1000g? The illicit chicken market? I digress. I want to get to floor 100 using minimal staircases and Pam’s leisurely 10 am start time isn’t cutting it.

@Lew Zealand, on various runs I have forgotten my slingshot, explosive ammo for said slingshot, food with buffs, decent food for healing and bombs. The best I’ve done so far is floor 60-something. But I’ve got magic rock candy, ginger ale, salads, my slingshot shot and bombs in a chest by the entrance to my farm. The next best luck day I’m going all in- resetting the day until I succeed.

Of course I just realized, the Desert Obelisk is south of the farm house. Not at all close to the chest. And the mini-obelisk to get me there is on my front porch. I think I have some rearranging to do.

 

[Giant Octopodes]

Well, I spent my first million on a warp obelisk to the Desert. I have decided just to pass out in Skull Caverns. Not because I keep leaving my farm warp totems at home. No, 1000g penalty for passing out isn’t that much. Heck, Willy charges me that much each time a go to Ginger Island. After I fixed the boat. With 200 hardwood. And, come to think of it, I must be subsidizing the whole town. Where is Shane getting 1000g? The illicit chicken market? I digress. I want to get to floor 100 using minimal staircases and Pam’s leisurely 10 am start time isn’t cutting it.

@Lew Zealand, on various runs I have forgotten my slingshot, explosive ammo for said slingshot, food with buffs, decent food for healing and bombs. The best I’ve done so far is floor 60-something. But I’ve got magic rock candy, ginger ale, salads, my slingshot shot and bombs in a chest by the entrance to my farm. The next best luck day I’m going all in- resetting the day until I succeed.

Of course I just realized, the Desert Obelisk is south of the farm house. Not at all close to the chest. And the mini-obelisk to get me there is on my front porch. I think I have some rearranging to do.

Best of luck! For getting to 100 with minimal staircases, Lew Zealand's advice (possibly in another thread) really is best - chant to yourself "I'm not here to gather, I'm here to find staircases. I'm not here to gather, I'm here to find staircases." If you see a staircase down, Take It, regardless of what is around. (Unless, of course, that thing is like REALLY shiny) Objectives are:
1. Click on a shaft which is on screen
2. Click on a staircase which is on screen
3. Lay down a bomb near a big cluster of rocks to find a path down
4. Kill monsters which are attacking you (they can drop staircases)
Remember Oil of Garlic prevents infested floors, and infested floors = automatic staircases in my book, so if you want minimal staircases might be worth using / bringing. You also may want to bring the 10 staircases you can use, after all if you get to 1am and you're at 92 with 8 of them left there's nothing wrong with slamming down those 8 to make it there in time. Regardless, good luck and I hope you get it!

 

[Boo1972]

So I got a great luck day this afternoon. Farmer Willow grabbed her magic rock candy, slingshot (with ammo), bombs, 10 staircases, pumpkin soup, salads and life elixir. She warped off to the desert early in the morning and began her descent into the caverns.

Things seemed pretty good at first. Willow was finding staircases pretty quickly. Shafts were few and far between though. She used one staircase on a spiral level and one on an infested floor. But her descent slowed quickly. Stairs appeared less quickly and shafts were almost nonexistent. Even Willow’s lone treasure room failed to yield a shaft. Willow burned through all of her bombs and explosive ammo. By 1 am she had just made it to floor 70, one of the worst runs she’d done. Previously, Willow was making it to around floor 60, but starting the run 4 hours later (had to wait for Pam). Time to restart.

For her next attempt, Willow made 2 small changes. She took the time to make 40 extra mega bombs and grabbed gold-star cactus fruit. It’s her favorite food and she was hoping it would bring her luck.

The run did not start well. She needed to use a staircase on the first level. But Willow soon found a good rhythm. Stairs and shafts frequently popped up near the entrance of every level. When she found a lucky ring, Willow knew this was the run. By 8:40 pm, having used only 2 staircases, she stepped into floor 100 and was rewarded with Mr Qi’s approval and iridium snake milk. Willow really needs to stop drinking strange concoctions given to her by random people.

 

[hexnessie]

I'm still trying to manage pause buffering, more out of sheer spite than actual need. I will learn. Never mind what for, but I will learn to do it!

So my question is, how can you TELL that you have successfully achieved pause buffering? And how long is the pause in effect? Is it spoiled when you move?

I managed to get to level 144 by placing staircases and hitting F for journal but I don't think that's really different than what can be done without any attempts at PB. ETA: Without trying to PB I got to level 203 so nope, I still can't do it :/

 

[Elenna101]

I'm still trying to manage pause buffering, more out of sheer spite than actual need. I will learn. Never mind what for, but I will learn to do it!

So my question is, how can you TELL that you have successfully achieved pause buffering? And how long is the pause in effect? Is it spoiled when you move?

I managed to get to level 144 by placing staircases and hitting F for journal but I don't think that's really different than what can be done without any attempts at PB. ETA: Without trying to PB I got to level 203 so nope, I still can't do it :/

If you pause while the screen is still black and then the floor finished loading while you're still paused, it's worked. But if you can't tell whether you paused while the screen was black or not, then I don't know how you would tell. You could check how many floors you can ladder in one 10-minute interval, I guess. Although if you're having trouble with the "unpause and quickly put a ladder down" part, that might also be part of the problem.

The pause only has to be in effect while the floor loads. It's just to avoid the small amount of in-game time that passes as the floor is loading. You can unpause at any point after that. (And yes, you do have to unpause to move, but you also can't move until the floor is finished loading in.)
I guess pressing F to pause should also work, but I've generally seen it done with pressing E to open the menu and pause. (Also, this is probably obvious but just to make sure - you're trying this in singleplayer, right? It doesn't work in multiplayer because, well, you can't pause in multiplayer.)

 

[hexnessie]

In singleplayer, absolutely.

Thanks for explaining. I will have to try it again.

My problem is that the floors load pretty fast anyway - like a blink of an eye fast. I barely have any time to pause before the level is fully loaded.

 

[MissDandy]

In singleplayer, absolutely.

Thanks for explaining. I will have to try it again.

My problem is that the floors load pretty fast anyway - like a blink of an eye fast. I barely have any time to pause before the level is fully loaded.

It's definitely a challenge, I'm really not that good at it. At all. I think it just takes some time to get into the habit of doing it at the right time, in no time you'll be a pro.

 

[hexnessie]

So the test results are in and I'm doing about 50 levels per ingame hour without pause buffering (or attempting it).

I descended to abt level 150 and grew bored with the test, but it still left me with enough time to slowly go down to 250 and get 500 iridium ore.

I will try to beat this by PB at some point.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

So the test results are in and I'm doing about 50 levels per ingame hour without pause buffering (or attempting it).

I descended to abt level 150 and grew bored with the test, but it still left me with enough time to slowly go down to 250 and get 500 iridium ore.

I will try to beat this by PB at some point.

Yeah, I can do 50 levels per ten minutes with pause buffering on a good day and a bit of rock spawn rng.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

It's definitely a challenge, I'm really not that good at it. At all. I think it just takes some time to get into the habit of doing it at the right time, in no time you'll be a pro.

The trick that people wh ojust start almost never get and then promptly give up is to press pause three times with the first two being relatively quick succsession (0.125 seconds) then the last being slower, about 0.23 seconds if there is no rock.
This might sound useless but this makes it so that if there is a rock under where you are pause buffereing, you will lose a lot of time pausing again before you get back in the inventory.
the way I do SC is to hold down the two mouse buttons on the tile in front of you as you descend, then press 'ee' if you do place a ladder you will go down and then you pause at the ealiest possible time with another 'e'.
If the two "e's" don't work and there is a rock there, the second "e" will make sure you are already paused and you will reposition your mouse pointer to the tile which you would have seen is empty around you in the 0.1 second rime frame you were unpaused.
This will maximise the amount of floors you can get to and while it does sound hard, it isn't as hard as it might sound and even with the bare minimum you can quite eaaily get 20 floors per in-game tick.
Please share this info with everybody you know who might benefit from this info as it is essential to buffering and many people don't know and give up because they cannot buffer properly.

 

[Tom]

My rule of thumb has been 50, then slow down. But I don't generally rely a lot on Staircases. I recently had a lot of fun on a very early visit just feeling rich and accomplished getting a little past 50 and coming home with a Prismatic Shard, "lots" (around 36) of iridium ore, cloth from the mummies, and running into more than enough gold, silver, and copper ore to sustain my bomb-making on the way down.

A counter question: What do you usually do with the iridium you get? Do you sell bars or make stuff?