Which do you prefer: fruit bats or mushroom caves?

[Sigrah]

I pick fruit bats because the artisan ones can help me finish the kitchen sooner and can have different quality levels that make excellent gifts for some of the villagers. But the main reason I pick fruit bats? Because I can not check them for 1 or 2 weeks and know I’m not losing anything.

 

[NTTL]

Definitely mushroom cave cause mushroom is really hard to find, plus it sells a lots of G

 

[Odin]

I noticed that we have 24 votes so far-- 12 for mushrooms and 12 for bats! That's pretty interesting. A while ago, mushrooms would have won without a second thought. Seems it's evened out some, but I know the bats received a buff in one of the later updates. It's cool to see how it worked out

Yeah, I'm surprised how even the voting is as well! I feel like I hear a lot of people talking about how much better mushrooms are.

 

[TheBookDragon]

Bats, because it helps with the CC and it's so hard to get fruit trees at the beginning of the game

 

[imnvs]

health elixirs aren't particularly amazing, you won't have them in any substantial quantity at any rate.

I have 51 elixirs in storage in my current game, Spring 1 Year 4. Is that not substantial enough for you?

 

[Sigrah]

I have 51 elixirs in storage in my current game, Spring 1 Year 4. Is that not substantial enough for you?

The thing is is that I can get that much gold quality cheese in 5 days, and gold quality cheese restores slightly more health and energy per use. Plus, like I said in an earlier post, I don’t check my cave daily, so I miss out on making use of mushrooms.

 

[Neverbell]

I’ve never done a mushroom cave and I realize now that it might have been more profitable in some ways. However, having a wide variety of fruit regularly without dropping thousands on individual trees is a big get.
1. It makes wines and preserves much easier to manufacture since you always have a base product on hand
2. If a certain villager likes a type of fruit that you’re not growing then you can just check the cave and hope for the best

I’m I’ll probably try mushroom cave in the future, but I really like my fruit bats :)

 

[Lady Laurus]

Fruit Bats. I love giving the fruits away as well as using them for wines and jams

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I have 51 elixirs in storage in my current game, Spring 1 Year 4. Is that not substantial enough for you?

And I have 12 gold-star cheese coming in *every day* from my cows. Which are a better health and energy restoration item. By Fall of Year 1, certainly before the end of the first year at the absolute latest.

So... no. No it really isn't.

 

[imnvs]

The thing is is that I can get that much gold quality cheese in 5 days, and gold quality cheese restores slightly more health and energy per use. Plus, like I said in an earlier post, I don’t check my cave daily, so I miss out on making use of mushrooms.

And I have 12 gold-star cheese coming in *every day* from my cows. Which are a better health and energy restoration item. By Fall of Year 1, certainly before the end of the first year at the absolute latest.

So, this is what we're doing? Okay.

I get 8 gold cheese and 6 gold goat cheese per day (14 total per day which 70 in 5 days; continuing: 98 per week, 392 per month), and I have a cellar packed to the brim with casks (not filled, I still have room to get to everything) so some of that is aged to iridium per month too, leaving me with 125 iridium goat cheese, 43 gold goat cheese and 224 gold cheese per month ...AND I have that many life elixirs just laying around.

So... what's next? Pull them out and measure? Come on.

And seriously, back to my cellar, cheese is worth too much to be eaten. It should be aged and sold. You want "better" health and energy restoration? Learn to cook and get some buffs too. Better food isn't defined by the HP and Energy restored, imho, it is the buffs. The HP/Energy restored is a small concern when you can bring a stack of 50. Every piece of cheese you eat is money down the drain imho.

My point was that having that many (51, or 17 per year, or just over 4 per season and thus about 1 purple mushroom per week) means that the rarity isn't as bad as folks make it out to be. That you can amass a significant enough quantity for use, not that it's the best thing ever, but it's the best thing you can get as soon as you've earned your first 5k, because you ain't getting that much milk that early.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

So, this is what we're doing? Okay.

I get 8 gold cheese and 6 gold goat cheese per day (14 total per day which 70 in 5 days; continuing: 98 per week, 392 per month), and I have a cellar packed to the brim with casks (not filled, I still have room to get to everything) so some of that is aged to iridium per month too, leaving me with 125 iridium goat cheese, 43 gold goat cheese and 224 gold cheese per month ...AND I have that many life elixirs just laying around.

So... what's next? Pull them out and measure? Come on.

And seriously, back to my cellar, cheese is worth too much to be eaten. It should be aged and sold. You want "better" health and energy restoration? Learn to cook and get some buffs too. Better food isn't defined by the HP and Energy restored, imho, it is the buffs. The HP/Energy restored is a small concern when you can bring a stack of 50. Every piece of cheese you eat is money down the drain imho.

My point was that having that many (51, or 17 per year, or just over 4 per season and thus about 1 purple mushroom per week) means that the rarity isn't as bad as folks make it out to be. That you can amass a significant enough quantity for use, not that it's the best thing ever, but it's the best thing you can get as soon as you've earned your first 5k, because you ain't getting that much milk that early.

I still think you miss the point entirely. The problem is reliability. Cheese has it, health elixirs from mushroom caves do not. When I'm diving mines, and I need health, I need it immediately, not next week. Also, your claim about 'you ain't getting that much milk that early' is... untrue. Basic barn with four cows down before the end of Spring is pretty typical for me. That's about four cheese per day starting, let's say first week of Summer since the cows have to grow up.

As far as cheese being 'too expensive to eat', it really isn't. I mean, sure, with Artisan (and who doesn't Artisan?) gold-star cheese goes for 482g/ea. Which, let's be fair, isn't bad, considering it's a daily production item. However, I consider it an investment in my infrastructure expansion, since it means avoiding the house upgrades entirely until you're done with your caving. However, if you're truly desperate to sell every last bit of cheese, you can just purchase Salads and have a reliable food source, assuming you run out of Salmonberries. They aren't quite as good, but they'll be a LOT more reliable than the health elixirs.

Here's the thing... once you've dived the mines and gotten enough Iridium for your needs... you never need to go into a dangerous area ever again, rendering food meaningless. Your boast about having just over 50 health elixirs by year 4? Falls kind of flat since I haven't gone underground since Year 1, except maybe some caving for copper and iron which, let's face it, are trivial at that point.

So the problem isn't just a lack of supply. The problem is that you quickly run out of demand for food. Once you have your sprinklers down, there's zero reason for food anymore. Which makes your stash of health elixirs basically a waste of space. Meanwhile, by going Bats instead of Mushrooms, I can get my Greenhouse unlocked sooner. And every week earlier I can get my greenhouse unlocked is a quarter million in my pocket. The number of health elixirs you can have in year four is meaningless since you'll never need them in year four. You only need food in your first year, maybe into your second at most. And you need something reliable and consistent, both things the health elixirs are not.

 

[Andrew]

I'll have to say mushrooms, mostly preference. Fruit bats are pretty good too though, especially early on when you're trying to complete the bundles

 

[imnvs]

I still think you miss the point entirely.

No, due, you're still missing the point about me bringing up why I have that many life elixirs. It's not about, "Look at how many I have!" It's about, "Purple mushrooms aren't as rare as people make them out to be."

About the rest, though?

I got my greenhouse Fall of year 1 without fruit trees because I wait to grow them inside the greenhouse around the exterior. A deluxe barn and big coop can get you the bundles necessary (artisan bundle being the difficult one).

And reliability? Cooking is just as reliable as cheese and comes with buffs, because as you said, the healing becomes trivial... which was what I said. You're literally arguing my point about the healing. That's why I have so many sitting around, because it's not about the healing. It's about the buffs, and go ahead and tell me you aren't going to eat some Lobster Bisque or Seafoam pudding when going for legendary fish. Tell me that the defense, combat, speed and luck boosts aren't useful when you're diving in the skull mines because you need to get to level 100 if you haven't yet (I won't say more because spoilers). Healing is completely secondary after year 1.

But it is the cheese that gives me the cash to keep upgrading my barn and coop as necessary to complete the bundles to get my greenhouse. Random fruit isn't a sure way to get the greenhouse quicker, because there's no guarantee of tree fruit... but you still need to get everything from the animal bundle, and while you don't need a deluxe barn (with sheep and pigs) to get the animal bundle, it's just one more step to go deluxe which means more animals, more product to process/sell AND also getting the artisan bundle quickly. You can't get the greenhouse before Fall anyway because you need the Fall Crops bundle. Without Agriculturalist, you can't get pumpkins before Fall 10, in fact. I had my Greenhouse Fall 18. If I'd really pushed, I probably could have gotten it earlier. What do I need the fruit bats for again? A difference of 1 week (maybe)?

I'll stick with getting life elixirs Spring of Year 1 (because they make a difference then), selling my cheese and still getting my greenhouse about as early as is humanly possible.

 

[DJModulo]

I've used Mushrooms for most of my playthroughs, but have recently swayed over to Bats.

Mushrooms mostly cut down your food costs - Common Mushrooms complement your diet throughout the first Spring and Summer nicely as another stackablle energy-recovery item, Purple Mushrooms are essentially free Salads and every Life Elixir you get from the cave you don't have to buy from the Dwarf. They're also decent emergency cash should the eext batch of seeds cost a little more than planned.

If you can handle your food supplies without checking the Mushroom Cave every other day, Bats are the more convenient option. Checking the cave once every two weeks or so is good enough for near full value, and if you want the Greenhouse in Fall year 1 they will save you trips to the Traveling Cart or rushing the Deluxe Barn for sheep and pigs during the already too busy Summer as long as they provide at least 2 tree fruit (1 if your Recycling Machine decided to get lucky off a Newspaper).

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

A difference of one week is a quarter million in my pocket, which far outweighs everything else you've mentioned, so don't knock it.

You'll get maybe one or two life elixirs in Spring of Year 1, which isn't relevant amounts. Especially not if you've got plenty of Salmonberries. Life Elixirs are still entirely and completely useless to attempt. Heck, you'll get more purple mushrooms out of finding a single random mushroom level while delving than you would in probably a year of waiting for one to pop up in your mushroom cave.

Let's do the math on your anecdotal evidence, shall we?

Purple Mushrooms are a 2.5% chance to spawn, which is 1 in 40. Multiply by six, now you have 6 in 40 chance, which is 15% that on any given harvest, at least one of those mushrooms will be purple. With 3-4 per week... you're lucky to get around a fifty-fifty odds of getting a purple mushroom per week. Comes out to roughly 52% and change, if you do the multiplications out for graduating probability that you will see at least one. Sure, you can get lucky, but odds are against you seeing one before Summer.

Meanwhile, let's look at the math on fruit bats by contrast

Assuming no fruit at all, there's a 48% chance of no fruit at all, so slightly better odds that you will get at least one fruit per day than mushrooms, although the odds of more than that go down. The odds that the fruit in question will be one of the artisan bundle tree fruits is 20%. Even assuming a 52% chance of getting a single fruit (it's weighted higher because you can get up to four fruits, but let's simplify things conservatively), you're looking at just over a 10% chance *per day* of getting your tree fruit. At which point the cave has done its job, and you no longer need to bother with it anymore unless you want to rake in profits from either Botanist or by processing the fruits, which are going to be lackluster at best, but still roughly comparable to mushroom cave at that point.

As far as the Skull Cave? About the only buffs I need come from Coffee and maybe Pepper Poppers. But then, there's not much point in bothering with the Skull Cave to begin with. I mean... why? What do you gain from the Skull Cave? Iridium? Fine, but outside of the six iridium sprinklers for your greenhouse, what else do you want, practically, with Iridium? Tool upgrades are pointless by then. You've got all the sprinklers down on your farm, so watering can and hoe upgrades are pointless. You're not going to be diving skull caves so the mining pick is pointless. There's no need for chopping in bulk anymore so the axe upgrade is pointless. There's nothing to spend it on. Unless you're specifically trying to get some of the new 1.4 content stuff from the new Skull Cave floor generation for museum completion or the other thing that item (or rather, its processed version) is used for, there's no point in bothering with Skull Caves all that much.

Life Elixirs are simply not reliable at the point in the game where they are remotely useful. You'll never have more than a handful of them, and you'll already have superior options by the time they come online. Meanwhile, it's virtually a given that you will get at least one tree fruit to help unlock the Greenhouse, which will be making you a million and a half per season once it is completed and filled, so the sooner you can get to that, the better off you are.

 

[imnvs]

Um... the reason to dive the skull mines has nothing to do with something for processing. I will say Secret Note #10 and nothing more because of spoilers.

And just because I didn't get my greenhouse until Fall 18 doesn't mean on my next play-through I can't get it at Fall 10.

And what's this mushroom cave thing 3-4 times per day? If you do it right you can get 7 harvests per week.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Um... the reason to dive the skull mines has nothing to do with something for processing. I will say Secret Note #10 and nothing more because of spoilers.

And just because I didn't get my greenhouse until Fall 18 doesn't mean on my next play-through I can't get it at Fall 10.

And what's this mushroom cave thing 3-4 times per day? If you do it right you can get 7 harvests per week.

Secret note #10 is completely skippable and entirely meaningless. Trivial as well, if you are clever instead of honorable.

As of 1.4, you no longer are able to get harvests by going to sleep before 2 PM. That bug got fixed. Besides, that means you're losing half your day to get time, which is counterproductive anyway.

 

[imnvs]

Actually, the way the mushroom cave works is counter-intuitive. I'll quote the wiki so that it is explained in full:

Unlike other processing, the time when mushrooms are ready for harvest depends upon the time when the player goes to sleep: processing is faster if the player goes to sleep later. The earliest mushrooms can be ready is 12:40pm, if the player goes to sleep at 2am. If the player goes to sleep at or before 6pm, mushrooms will not be ready until two days later, resulting in a missed day of production.

In other words, the later you go to bed the sooner they will be ready, and you can harvest daily without losing any time. In fact, you're encouraged to use more of your time every day.

 

[pasta4zoe]

I just prefer the mushroom caves for profit, and because I can decorate it! (Putting pathing down or like decorations will block the space from getting fruit) But the fruit bats are super cute so I’m a little disappointed I can’t have both.

Oh my gosh I wasn't even aware you could decorate in there!!

 

[Rhiannon]

In my first save, I chose fruit. And that was great for the CC. But later, I had tons of useless fruit as I had a green house full of fruit trees. And then I ended up with a mushroom tree that ended up being a mushroom tree field. This time I chose mushrooms as I got lucky with carts on the fruit and finding what I needed for the CC early on. Good thing as I can't seem to get a mushroom tree after almost 6 game years. So I don't know which I prefer really. I guess early on, they each have benefits.