How low is it realistic to expect to get in the Skull Cavern? I've never made it past level 26 and it's kind of frustrating.
I think Skull Cavern is one of those places you need to prepare a good bit for beforehand. Definitely take advantage of crafting your own way downwards, as well as bombs/food.
That depends on your gear and luck. On a good luck day, useing luck boosting food and with around 100 regular bombs, plenty coffee and salads, a gold+ pickaxe, a stack of rocks for the occasional staircase and of course a good sword you should easily be able to reach level 100 if you spend the entire day down there. But if you go in unprepared or not prepared well enough, then level 26 is more than a decent run. And then you can go in prepared for a deep run, where you stock your entire inventory with stone and a stack of bombs, then just use all your stone on staircases until you run out. Haven't tried it myself (buying stacks and stacks of stone is ridiculously boring xD ) but people can go crazy deep this way.
It work very well. I've gotten to 300 level easily using that method. Made a ridiculous amount of iridium. At those levels it's almost as common as seeing regular rocks. Use bombs to mine em quick, staircase, repeat. Sold some of the iridium I processed and made a great deal of gold.
I usually only got to the desert to buy seeds or give Sandy a gift. But while I'm there I will forage and mine. Usually just go in with a pick and a sword, thanks to the vampire ring. The serpents drop food and bombs if i need them, and I make enough iridium to make it worth my time.
I have an iridium pickaxe and I've been going in with a stack of Harvey's energy drinks. I have to admit I haven't really been using bombs at all. Finding staircases/holes down is the hardest bit.
Another good way to get a crazy amount of iridium, if you'd like to avoid dungeon crawling altogether, is to start a purple slime colony somewhere outside your farm. If you leave a pair of them there long enough they will breed like crazy and you can periodically go through and cull a few out, I've done it and come out with over 100 iridium ore with barely a dent in my slime population. As long as you have the Slime Charmer ring and a space you don't mind dedicating to a slime colony you can probably build up a decent amount of iridium without having to go to the desert.
Outside your farm? I wasn't aware you could do that. Would have to be somewhere none of the NPCs moved, though, or you'd end up with it vanishing. At least you wouldn't have to worry about the witch showing up.
Bombs are definitely the way to go. Picking your way down is way too slow, even with an iridium pickaxe. Put down a couple of bombs, if a staircase/hole appear drop down, if not craft your own staircase. Rinse and repeat Zombies? You mean mummies? I personally deal with mummies by not dealing with them. I just run away from them and if there's enough of them to overwhelm me, then I craft a staircase and skip the level
We literally have an entire thread devoted to slime breeding off-the-farm. Feel free to take a browse. ;D http://community.playstarbound.com/threads/the-magical-thread-of-slimy-awesomeness.127962/
Thanks. I never read it, because I set aside slime breeding after I dropped my last game. That was when CA added the new maps. I'll check it out.
<mumbles> Mummies. Was writing a review of a mouse earlier today, and made a reference to zombies while testing it out. Funny how that sticks in your mind. Or maybe, it's eats your mind.
Yeah I perform the run away solution as well. If I drop a bomb I always find that they're too busy chasing me to stay in the bomb's area of effect.
Or you could eat something. I am serious. On YouTube someone made a video of 40 things you might not know about SV. In that Video he planted a bomb and just ate something right next to it. The world froze for all entities but the bomb still exploded and destroyed everything while the eating animation went on. I didn't try it myself because I usually don't use glitches. Just wanted to mention it.
I watched a YouTuber get past level 1000 in the Skull Cavern by using the food exploit and the journal exploit that lets you stay up past 2 a.m. I don't use such exploits myself, but there it is for those interested...
I was originally planning to never bother with Skull Cavern, but I'm trying to finish the community center and the rabbit's foot is the last thing I need. I have about two weeks left before Grandpa's evaluation, and while I have four rabbits in a delux coop they don't seem to want to shed any feet for me. I'm actually considering heading for Skull Cavern just to farm flying serpents as an additional way of possibly getting one before the end of the year.
I've done it the old school use up your time and for the day bomb/staircase method. But I may use this one. I'm on year 5 and pretty much completed a lot of things. Almost maxed EVERY villager out with hearts. So this should be fun.
I guess the game takes a completely different perspective when I'm using the forest farm map. I haven't even upgraded my tools past iron since fruit trees don't require any tools.
