In my latest game I asked Demetrius to set the cave up for fruit bats, never having done that before. Now I know why I've never seen anyone else do this. I got some fruit the majority of spring days, but since then it's been mostly empty, and I'm getting nothing special even when there is something there. I think there's been maybe 5 or 6 drops in summer, and it's often something I can forage anyway. I was hoping for a tree fruit every few days at least. The only worthwhile drop has been one pomegranate. Is it always this hopeless? I want my mushrooms back (yes, I know it's too late).
Both caves are equally underwhelming in my opinion, by the time you get them they are of very little use and become even more useless as you progress into the game. I wouldn't really worry too much about the cave, it's not like the mushroom cave is a big deal anyway. I don't imagine anyone being like "Oh boy, after a couple days i got six whole common mushrooms, now i'm set."
I find it useful for making life potions, once I can get enough red and (especially) purple mushrooms from the mines. It's the contrast, though. Mushrooms might not be wonderful, but they're a steady supply. The fruit is almost non-existant.
I collect mine every week and usually get a nice cave full of fruit. If you go forest map especially there's not really a need for the mushroom cave as you can get EVERY shroom type on it.
I found that in order to get the Greenhouse built before Winter of year 1 the Bat Cave is the way to go.
The mushrooms give a decent background income every two days, but only if you harvest them regularly. If you forget about them for a week, that's a week's worth of potential mushrooms that are just gone. The advantage of the bats is that they slowly accumulate fruit over time. I'm not sure what the spawn cap is for the caves, but it's very high, and you only need to check in once a week or so to minimize losses. It's possible to change your choice with a bit of save hacking. With a little more hacking, you can get both caves and mushrooms at once. With even more hacking, you can make it so that the mushroom boxes can be harvested with your tools and moved elsewhere, clearing up more spawn tiles for the bats. EDIT: Basic instructions are here. Creating moveable boxes takes a little more creativity, but not much more. If you follow the directions in the post, it will show you how to locate the mushroom boxes in your savefile. There's a field there that governs the breakability of stuff. You can alter that field for the boxes. I don't remember the exact details anymore, but it wasn't hard to figure out.
The fruit bats helped me get a pomegranate and 3 apples for the CC. But now all it gives me are salmonberries, which are a whopping 5 gold. Talk about a cash crop.
For First time I get mushrooms, for second bat cave and You know what? I never use cave for making money. Im like hamster, collecting everything then (If I must) sell it. Cave give me everything from fruit trees, orange, pomegranade, apricot... Only thanks to bat cave I have done bundle. And I think this is for first one-two year. After that cave is useless (I have there that machine to copy diamond, I forget whats name of it). For first time I tho I can kill that bats to get bat wing, hah/
I've advocated the mushroom cave strongly before, on a couple of other similar threads, so I won't repeat the same here. But as the Forest map now allows for mushroom forage, the balance has shifted slightly. Mushrooms were once a steady, long-term advantage; they no longer have the same value with the Forest map in play. I do have one interesting question, though-- can Demetrius' offer be declined? Because honestly, the most useful purpose I ever got out of the cave was storage space. Even with the mushroom boxes there, there was room along the backs and sides to fit a few furnaces, some chests, and other crafting equipment. Without any boxes at all you'd get the space of a small shed in there. Second question: When 'every shroom' is mentioned as forage on the Forest map, does that include Purple Mushrooms? They are normally a Mines-only item, not Secret Woods forage. You can get them with the mushroom cave or (reportedly) tapping Giant 'Shrooms. Do they also spawn as Forest Farm forage?
"None of the above" is not a choice. You can have fruit, or mushrooms. I've seen another player's Forest map, and they had purple mushrooms popping up. I can't speak to their frequency, but it appears to be a perk of the map just as getting copper ore very early in the Mine is for Hilltop farms.
Much as I love seafood, there are times I finish playing with the thought that I could murder for a good chicken curry.
Yes, that would be the chicken's opinion on the event, too. (Full disclosure: Vegetarian in real life, and actually took a couple weeks of playing before I was able to overcome a personal aversion to fishing and accept that virtual fish are fair game.)
You get the Bat-Mobile, the Bat-Boat, the Bat-Plane, the Bat-Jet, the Bat-Scooter, the Bat-Hover Board, 2 Bat-apults, 4,612 Bat-arangs, Bat-Boy, Bat-Girl, Bat-Woman, Bat-Dog, Bat-Cat, Bat-Bat and the Bat-Pooper Scooper
Well, the only reason i got the bat cave (for the first time as well) was b/c the forest map im playing on spawns all kind of shrooms i need (*hehehe*) plus i wanted to have the greenhouse mid-fall 1st year to get myself going early on with Ale and Ancient Fruits. Later on you get plenty of good food that is as good or even better then life-pots, mainly b/c you nearly never need to use a life pot b/c one of your two bars is actually already full, and they are cheaper to make. Especially Escargot are great. Just keep some pots in the river for the snails and some garlic around. They refill 225/90. Or Fish Stew: 225/90 as well and you only need tomatoes and can use the rest of the sea food you catch in freshwater Or just go crazy on glazed yams. 200/80 for a yam+sugar... In that way i dont really miss the mushroom cave at all, i barely used it after the first year anyways either :/
