This wasn't a thing when I last played in 1.1, and getting to level 100 in Skull Cavern is quite the challenge allright. In truth I went to the desert to buy star fruit and pro grow for the summer, but then took a stab at the cave too. Brought with 25 bombs and a couple of spicy eels. Found a few rabbit holes early and actually dropped 13 levels in one of them, so got fairly far down quite fast. Farthest I've been before was level 73 (including last time), so when I got down to level 65-70 with quite a few hours left, I decided to go all out and start blowing bombs more frequently. Actually jumped into a rabbit hole on level 99, but it only took me to level 100 where a certain mystery man awaited. Gotta say that felt pretty damn good, with his nice praise (I only used one staircase, in that awful circle level). This was at 1:20am so very close call. And somehow I managed to get into bed before passing out, though it must have been by a second or two, with the clock at 1:50 Even found another prismatic shard in there. With 6-7 Prismatic shards, suppose I should spend some on magic rock candy. Nothing else to use them on really. Besides the museum and the sword. Those serpents sure can be nasty though, and when an iridium node starts attacking you. Argh! Went through quite a bit of cactus fruit, cheese and leftover blackberries (iridium quality). The Galaxy Sword makes such a huge difference over the Lava Katana though. Massive upgrade, which is mostly due to speed I think. The serpents are so fast, but with the galaxy sword it's possible to swing twice before they get 'through'. With the Lava Katana I often found that I wasn't able to hit them again (after the first swing), and even more so with multiple attacking. The bombs can be awkward to place though, because the tile gets red/illegal if you are a little too close. Try to move a little, and maybe you end up too far away. Easy to waste many seconds just to place a bomb in a non-dumb place. So I can see why people would use the explosive ammo instead, at least prior to the nerf.
Yeah, that's one of the 1.4 patches - I've jumped into a hole that took me from 78 to 103 and I was super pissed Of all the times to get a 15-level shaft...
Congrats! I'm not a fan of the increased difficulty of the caves but after a proper preparation I could reach lv100 as well (thanks for the salad Gus!). Not always I have prismatic shards and I think that they are very rare to find in the regular mines, Galaxy Sword makes a hell of difference but I never tried the hammer myself, people say that it is supperior in every way.
I stair'd my way down there, because I hate Serpents and want nothing to do with these abominations that shouldn't exist. Seriously, I really hate them^^
I can understand that. I had problems with them too, but found that the Galaxy Sword made a huge difference. Skull Cavern itself is really hard though, at least to get deep. I've been there quite a few times since that lucky level 100 run, and most often get between level 30-60. Not once have I been even close to getting as deep as 100 again. I know there is a mod for this, but I kinda wish the base game had an elevator system in the cavern as well, and that it got genuinely more difficult the deeper you went. Right now it seems like unless you staircase your way down to level 100-200 right away, you can pretty much forget about getting very deep, where the many iridium nodes are. There are times I haven't found a single one, and have only gotten iridium from slimes. All that said and done, it's at least a challenge to go there, and is different from the quite frankly somewhat boring stuff of refilling jars or kegs every X days. But I do wish it functioned a little differently, making it more accessible for people who don't want to spam staircases or hundreds of bombs. Honestly, getting to level 100 without that is far from an easy task.
It's crazy. I have over 1150 hours of SDV total. Years and Years in some files. Yet I might have 24 hours total in Skull Cavern. It's just not what I play the game for. I think that is pretty cool that the game provides something like this for folks who do want it.
Me too, I share the same thoughts of @Pangaearocks, I wish to fight my way to lv100 and beyond, not to randomly throw bombs to reach the botton.
Hmm, maybe it would be possible to try this, using that time control mod? I'm getting kinda jaded with the game again. Have almost 10 million and feel like there isn't much to do currently, besides refill jars and kegs, and the odd stab at Skull Cavern. Took about 20 artifact troves, but eventually I got the last artifact, the chipped amphora. Perhaps freezing or greatly slowing down time and see how far I can get would be fun? Though, as long as you don't actually die, it's not really that challenging to be honest. Not with the Galaxy Sword and ample supply of food (cheese and iridium blackberries in my case). The main constrain in going deep in the Cavern is time. Alternatively, do people have suggestions for late game stuff to do? This is a little outdated, but nothing has really changed, except some fences have been rebuilt after decaying. Probably looks pretty ugly, but it has done the trick so far. Been plotting some stuff in the farm planner, but kinda lacking motivation to carry it out, and can't decide what to do with all the mushroom groves. Have done just about everything. Missing the tea leaves for the ship everything achievement, and plenty of crafting and cooking, but I haven't bothered very much about that. Married to Leah with one kid, so need another one to tick off that box. 8-10 hearts with almost all villagers. Loads of fruit stored up for processing, but unsure if we can get through a good chunk of it before the next spring (early winter right now in-game). I'm missing some mummies and dinos, but other than that the monster eradication goals have been completed. Caught all legendary fish too.
Well you still have plenty of space to build, I will play one month with rancher and one month with artisan to see what is most profitable with the 1.4 changes on cloth, took me long to notice that reserve space for animals to graze don't worth at all, I will fill my farm with more barns and keep a coop and another barn to gather materials for cooking. I find enjoyment to try unorthodox ways of play, this farm for example I stopped using crops when I got my first barn, then I used cows to build my empire. Too bad that I'm on the winter
I've never hit level 100 in the skull cave. Then again, I've also never cared to bother with it, indeed rarely ever bothered sticking my nose in at all. It's nice for those who enjoy the mining content and the extra challenge, I suppose. But this challenge, like the one you get for completing the video game, is one that I simply shrug off and pretend doesn't exist. The game's combat mechanics and system are... crude and primitive. Which, mind you, isn't trying to be insulting to SDV. It's already an amazing farming game, it doesn't have to be an amazing roguelike dungeoneering game in addition. And frankly, the time and resource investment necessary to make it enjoyable is NOT worth it, from a developer's perspective. But it would take something like, say, the responsiveness and movement and 'control feel' of Undermine to really make it anything other than a slog to me. And what it would take to GET that is WAAAYYY beyond what CA can, or even should, focus on. Which makes challenges like these to be less entertaining and more punitively punishing, at least in my mind. Which... some people enjoy. Different strokes for different folks. One man's 'punitively punishing' is another man's 'refreshingly challenging' after all. But it makes it very much not my cuppa.
I agree with a stair system, even if it was only every 20 levels or so. I gave up on the Skull Caverns long ago, so if it's even harder now, I won't bother other than to get some supplies
I used this guide and made into the lv100 without stress, skipping the infested levels and not bothering with the enemies seems like the key. Reaching lv400 or more like some people do is unthinkable to me, I'm doing runs for kill the mummies because of the new adventure guild request and too bad that I sucks at using the slingshot, I miss all the shots. https://www.reddit.com/r/StardewVal...stpatch_13_skull_cavern_guide_floor_430_275k/
The first video just seemed to be him making stairs for 40 minutes, which isn't very interesting. The second, the budget run, was intriguing though. He skipped more enemies than I do, and uses coffee (I don't have it so haven't used it), but otherwise it's basically what I'm trying to do. Think it says a lot that such an expert can "only" get to level ~100 routinely using this method (the imgur album had levels 82-119, but mostly a little over level 100). No wonder it was really hard to get to level 100 to tick off this Qi quest. Are there any videos about of how it looks crazy deep since the iridium node nerf? Previous videos I've seen is basically iridium on every tile/rock, but I should think it's different now.
I used the budget method, its was hard to control my bloodthirst and don't start fights lol but I made into lv114 or 116 I think with ease, the tip to "wait until 2AM to faint" is also very good as we only lose money. You can make faster and cheaper using the slingshot and explosive ammo but I sucks at using the stilingshot.
"with ease"? Have tried myself now, and was lucky enough to get 3-4 top luck days in about a week. Went there 5 times. Got to level 97 one time, but other than that it was 60-70, and 80-ish one time. Nothing to write home about. Think I got 90-ish iridium from the best run, and only around 40-50 from the others. But did get a prismatic shard in that 97-run. Seems to be crucial to be overly lucky, at least based on my experiences. And by that I don't just mean daily luck, but getting holes, and the holes going far (had so many with only 3-4 levels). Plus *not* getting swarmed by serpents or slimes, and especially not getting swarmed by both. Gah! I was doing my best to avoid fighting as well, and running through where possible. But that isn't exactly an option if you get simultaneously assaulted by ~6 serpents/iridium bats/mega-slimes. Sometimes it seemed like every iridium node started attacking me as well, damn those crabs :-| My best run so far is 102. Think I actually got 4 prismatic shards in that one, so that was great, but in terms of getting deep I think it's very difficult to reach level 100 without spamming stairs or bombs. I probably have 25-30 attempts so far (before and after seeing that video), and have gotten level 100+ twice. That's without using coffee in fairness, but with spicy eels (so +1 speed instead of +2 with spicy eels + coffee).
lol it's the truth xD I also never noticed that I can create bombs, that made a huge difference. I entered on my luck day and I forgot to say that I used the luck eel dish (that I got from the serpents beforehand), just two can make the buff last the entire day. Before of that the maximun that I reached in the cave was the floors 60's, I also never have luck with those holes, I tend to fall 3~4 too but only once I lucked and fallen 8 levels, I only fought to open my way so even when I was swarmed I didn't chased the serpents, Iridium bats seems better for this regard despite the number of complaints that I see that the players have with them.
Yay! Got to level 110 Looked very unlikely at midnight because I was at 93, but then two good rabbit holes, some close stairs and a treasure room and I was suddenly well past 100. Good haul at 169 iridium ores, 2 iridium bars and 2 prismatic shards too (not that I need any of it). It's very hit and miss, however, as another run with the same approach got me to 60-ish. Using 75% zoom definitely helps though. Much easier to spot those pre-placed stairs, and good nodes a little further afield than with the normal screen. I miss a lot more rocks with the pickaxe, but it's worth it.
Time for another stab at this, though it's not a fair comparison since I was able to get there around 7:20 with the Desert totem. Very good early on with several rabbit holes, including a whopping 15-levels one, but the latter half had almost nothing of the sort (a few 3-4 levels only). For a time I thought it was possible with level 140-150. But 125 ain't bad either Didn't know you could get fruit tree saplings from enemy drops, but it came from something in there (maybe a treasure room?).
