Any Tips On Basing In Caves?

[InkArts]

Planning on basing in caves but the sanity drain is extremely annoying and it's winter. Any tips on how to construct it? Good places to make it? Playing as Wicker so I could always grow plants outside the godrays. I also would like ideas on how to light it/decorate so I don't have to have an ugly base or always have a light source on me in use

[Mike23Ua]

Mushroom planters, Wicker can pretty much just live off the green shrooms, it would also help if you get top hats or  a Tam’O.

For light sources (cheap ones that don’t require boss fights) you can use the ticket booth from midsummers Cawnival event it lights up when your near it, you can use Boat Masts, with the deck Illuminator upgrade- these will require refueling though.

If you were playing as Wurt you could just get a top hat and the StarSky storage container, StarSky counts as a “Pet fish” for Wurt.

[InkArts]

6 minutes ago, Mike23Ua said:

Mushroom planters, Wicker can pretty much just live off the green shrooms, it would also help if you get top hats or  a Tam’O.

I did get 2 spider nests. Planted one in a secluded area kind of close but not where they would wander to me.

I should get on the Tam'O soon since it's winter.

[DegenerateFurry]

When summer comes, fish in the oasis until you get a red crown, then give it to the Antlion. Make the humble lamb idol and fully upgrade it. It provides a strong sanity regen when you stand near it, as strong as a dwarf star when fully upgraded and the about the same as a Tam o' Shanter at its base level.

You can also give Hutch a one-man band to make him have a +40/min sanity aura, which, if you put him next to the fully built lamb idol and stand close to both of them while it's fueled, will allow you to get +65 sanity/min if you're standing in the right place (although that will cost you a one-man band after three minutes).

Wearing a Tam 'o Shanter and a thulecite suit next to music Hutch and the finished lamb idol will bring that up to +75 sanity/min, and you can bring it to +100 sanity/min with a polar light from a moon caller's staff. You may need a scaled furnace to keep yourself warm at that point, though. 

If you have a friend who's playing Wendy (or if you're willing and able to use the portal to swap briefly), you could add in a petal-filled Sisturn for another +25 sanity/min aura, but you'd need to position it just right and stand in the right place between the Sisturn and the lamb idol since you'd only be getting part of both of their auras (though it'd still add up to a higher number than just standing close to one). 

Once you've killed Fuelweaver and Bee Queen, you can add in an active Umbralla and wear the Bee Queen crown. The crown only inverts negative sanity auras, so that'll add an additional +12.5 sanity/min if you're standing basically inside of it. You're gonna be getting somewhere over +125 sanity/min with this setup fully in use, so that should be more than enough for you to use books to your heart's content, but it will cost you a one-man band every three minutes of use if you want it to be giving its maximum output. Without music box Hutch, it'll only be a still very respectable +85 sanity/min or so.

Worth noting: this same station works on the surface, but without music box Hutch. You can add in Glommer, a friendly fruit fly, and a pudgy beefalo to get about +19 sanity/min, and that doesn't cost you anything once you have it set up, so that's a plus. 

Alternatively, there's designs for mob-based sanity farms. You could befriend and trap a whole bunch of bunnymen and feed them carrots you farm to make them friendly, then stand very close to them. With enough bunnymen, you'd get a ridiculous amount of sanity very quickly, outpacing any structure-based sanity station.

Edited March 12 by DegenerateFurry
forgot crown gives half an inverted aura

[Cheggf]

Good cave base location follows the same rules as overworld base locations: being close to things that can't be moved is good, and being close to things that can be moved isn't important. Good sinkholes, muddy (ruins/snurtles/bosses), the archives (for living logs for mushroom planters), ponds (which never freeze over), light shafts, and mushrooms are pretty much all there is underground. Swamps tend to be particularly good since they're typically covered in a lot of light shafts. It's very common for essentially the entire swamps to be lit up.

The tam o'shanter will turn the caves' -5 sanity drain into +1.67, so as long as you're wearing it most of the time you can stay sane just from that. Before getting a tam you can fight shadows or eat cooked green caps.

[Frosty_Mentos]

Tam'o'shanter for sanity, Varg farm upstairs for teeth, pillar to protect from debri, shovel for digging any cave shrooms in other biomes you can dig, saltbox for keeping those shrooms fresh and the meat you'd get. 

You could get into farm plants in lit natural light areas in caves to possibly get enough plant variations for all stats. Or you can just invest into potatoes heavily for how busted they are for all sanity, heath and food wise.

Cave basing is a LOT of preparations, but it keeps you safe for a very long time.only issues would become are acid rains and worms, but those can be prevented already and items for that are provided later on.

Could try investing into getting plentiful of marble and maybe tropical plants if you want more color to your base, or if you like there's gothic skinset in the game. Pearl's furniture will make cave base neat and vased flowers will keep vegetation up. Plants make bases feel less boring and with vegetation will keep you stimulated.

[Retepeter]

personally I see cave bases as a latergame thing

having an enlightened crown totally removes the annoyance of light and sanity so what I like to do is kill cc plus dfly for the furnace in winter with a temporary base on the surface and then after I'm done with that I build a cave base

I'd also like to point out if you like farming consider basing in the marsh(swamp) the amount of light is insane and there is a good chance that a tentipillar is there that goes somewhere near a cave exit

[GenomeSquirrel]

Bee boxes are great if you’re living close to a caves entrance, antlion and needing sunlight for flowers is their biggest weakness.

[prettynuggets]

i usually love to base in cave where it got that cave light with pond .. its pretty spacious fit for starter cave base also usually near cave entrance. usually only consist of couple of trees sapling grass and berry around the one pond . small base is really nice there .. u can fish u can get water for farm. constant day light source.. also less stuff to clean so can start building earlier .. 

[Maxil20]

As Retepeter said, cave bases become a little cumbersome to stay in long term unless you have the enlighted crown, where it easily manages the 2 main aspects of the caves (sanity/darkness).

Until then, sanity clothing/mushroom planters will work to starve off the insanity issues. If darkness is a concern, your best bet without fighting toad/doing the moon caller staff event is getting the stagehand blueprint and putting lightbulbs in the tables. They won’t provide a lot of light, but it’s better than nothing, last awhile, and are easy to replace. Notably, doing Pearl’s chair quest will allow you to get table vases, which makes this much more effective as you can leave them on the ground, are considerably cheaper, and don’t take up nearly as much space.

Be sure to find a good spot to setup for the caves. Good candidates include the usual slimy entrance biomes, the mushroom forests, the muddy biome, and (if you put some work into it) the ruins. These areas often have wide open spaces, and don’t usually have a lot of unbreakable obstacles in the way. Ruins gets by with the style, but you need to be sure to pen up/contain problems like the splumonkeys or the shadow creatures.

[Ryusuta]

I base in caves as basically anyone apart from Wurt and Wes (and Wilba, if we count Hamlet characters), and I definitely have some thoughts.

First, have an attic. A little mini-base just outside the cave entrance can be handy for if you need to do something specifically on the surface and/or don't want to pop back into the cave for something you forgot. Obviously this means you should always base directly next to an entrance. No reason not to.

Second, Berry Bushes, Juicy Berry Bushes, and Stone Fruit Bushes grow perfectly fine in the caves. Even better, Gobblers are afraid of the dark, so they'll never steal from you. This COULD be a down side if you want to hunt them, but that's another thing you can use the attic for.

Cave basing is easier in the summer, but a little harder in the winter. Summer is effectively the same as fall in the caves, whereas winter in the caves has the cold of surface winter combined with the rain of spring. Thermal Stones are you best way to keep warm, since they'll keep you hot even at 100% wetness.

Tam O'Shanter is your best friend. With it, you can completely negate the sanity drain of cave basing. And since you'll never overheat, there is no reason not to always have it on hand once you get it.

Next, just like on the surface, keep your cave base location in mind. having a base near a muddy biome will give you all the Lesser Glow Berries and Light Bulbs you could want. And Lesser Glow Berries grow year-round, making them a substitute for normal berries in a pinch. Plus, it will likely be near a Ruins or other important biome, which is handy for errands you might want to run there.

As an addendum, when you find the Ruins area, set up a Shadow Splumonkey arena. You'll get all the morsels, Beard Hair, Nightmare Fuel, and Bananas you could possibly want.

Bananas in particular are INSANELY overpowered. Combined with Ice, you can make extremely powerful Sanity and Health foods like the Banana Pop and the Banana Daiquiri, dirt cheap. Once you have this arena set up, Health and Sanity should never be an issue again. Banana Daiquiri is especially noteworthy since it falls under the category of "Goodies," meaning even Wigfrid can consume it.

The Night Light is also very, very nice once you've accumulated a lot of Nightmare Fuel. It burns bright and for a long time. Don't worry about the negative sanity aura. While it DOES have one, the area of effect is absolutely negligible. You basically have to be overlapping the Night Light to notice any appreciable effect.

By toppling the Ancient Guardian, you can make a support pillar, which I suggest doing sooner rather than later. If you're afraid to fight Ancient Guardian, one of the best ways to take him out is to lure him into the webs of the maze and let Depths Dwellers do your work for you. Just make sure you're the one that finishes him off so they don't eat his horn. (If you're Webber, the fight is absolutely free. Bring a bunch of mea and recruit all the Depth Dwellers out there. Just be sure to blow the Webby Whistle when the boss is killed so they don't eat the horn.) Even if you don't kill the Guardian the first time, he doesn't recover between fights, so you can just revive and brute force it if needed.

You can always sleep in the caves, regardless of the time of day. So keep a Tent at the base (or even better, if you're Webber you can have a decorated level 3 Spider Den), and grab a snooze if your stats get low. And if you activate Year of the Bunny, you can win a Night Cap. Why is that valuable? Because the Night Cap will boost your sanity restoration while sleeping by a massive 50%. It's worth activating the event just for this one thing.

Don't worry too much about Depths Worms. They can hit extremely hard, but unlike Hounds, they can be led away from your base with ease and then escaped because they are incredibly slow and get stuck a lot. Set them up somewhere convenient and come back to face them when you're better prepared.

A good source for Living Logs are the Mush Gnomes in the Lunar Biome. Once you activate the Archives, this biome is also great for Nightmare Fuel. Let the Nightmare Beaks get hit by the Gestaults twice, then finish them off with a Tentacle Spike or greater. Easy-peasy.

Well, those are the main things that come to mind. Once you get established and get through your first winter, cave basing is by far one of the safest, easiest, and most comfortable ways to live in DST. Hope this helped!

Edited March 13 by Ryusuta

[Jakepeng99]

16 hours ago, InkArts said:

Planning on basing in caves but the sanity drain is extremely annoying and it's winter. Any tips on how to construct it? Good places to make it? Playing as Wicker so I could always grow plants outside the godrays. I also would like ideas on how to light it/decorate so I don't have to have an ugly base or always have a light source on me in use

Use a tophat, and upgrade it to a tamoshanter eventually.

Use lightbugs once you have pillars so they dont die from earthquakes.

The mud biome is the most interesting place to base, i reccomend it the most if you find a spot without any intrusive nightmare fissures.

 

The mixed mushtree biome is good for megabases because of how cool the terrain is generated. You can basically have little rooms.

[Cheggf]

7 hours ago, Maxil20 said:

As Retepeter said, cave bases become a little cumbersome to stay in long term unless you have the enlighted crown, where it easily manages the 2 main aspects of the caves (sanity/darkness).

Until then, sanity clothing/mushroom planters will work to starve off the insanity issues. If darkness is a concern, your best bet without fighting toad/doing the moon caller staff event is getting the stagehand blueprint and putting lightbulbs in the tables. They won’t provide a lot of light, but it’s better than nothing, last awhile, and are easy to replace. Notably, doing Pearl’s chair quest will allow you to get table vases, which makes this much more effective as you can leave them on the ground, are considerably cheaper, and don’t take up nearly as much space.

The swamp's the best way to fight against darkness, it's basically not even in the caves at all with how bright and large it is. Look at these pictures of something I started setting up on a public server, look how big & lit up everything is.

Edited March 13 by Cheggf