Meat Effigy Question

[Ebonblade7]

I have decided it's time for me to venture into the caves on one of my worlds. I have a meat effigy constructed to keep me safe, but I don't know if it will save me if I die in the caves. If someone knows the answer to this, that would be very helpful.

 

Thanks in advance.

[the truthseeker]

It will.

 

 

Just remember to actually place it before you go first though  

[jshhk]

Welcome to the forums!

 

The meat effigy will work fine.  Protip: if you have the ingredients, go ahead and make two, leaving one in the "built but not placed" state.  That way if you die you can immediately plop another one down.

 

Just lost a 98-day WX save in the caves because I didn't follow this advice...

[Ebonblade7]

Thanks!

 

I'll need to get more meat to make another one... I got the meat for my first one when 2 tallbirds ambushed the beefalo herd. Needless to say I ate well that night...

[jshhk]

It's so incredibly easy to die to stupid mistakes in this game.  Probably why I love this game so much.

 

The rule I'm trying to beat into my skull is: every time you think "Oh it'll be fine, I'll just go grab my stuff without a meat effigy/kill that mob with low health/etc" you are wrong and about to die.  But for me it's really easy to not follow that rule 

[jshhk]

Also, if you need meat follow the suspicious dirt piles... they're definitely worth the time.

[Ebonblade7]

Its winter and I don't want to stray to far chasing a koalaphant. Does cold still affect you in caves?

[Ebonblade7]

Entirely off topic from the main question,

I need extra wool to finish my warm clothes for winter. I can shave a beefalo by putting it to sleep with darts, but will this make nearby beefalo attack me?

[Deacon_Blue]

You cannot freeze in caves. It always stays a little above that point.

[hotflungwok]

Yeah, attacking with darts is attacking.  What will happen is the whole herd will start chasing you and after a second or two the one you hit will fall asleep.  But the rest of the herd won't. 

 

Best way I've found is to just hang around them before night falls, light up a torch and go nuts with the razor.  Then you can just stand in the middle of them and press space till you get all the fur.

 

Oh yeah, dont do this if they're in heat, they wake up and kick your ass.

[jshhk]

Entirely off topic from the main question,

I need extra wool to finish my warm clothes for winter. I can shave a beefalo by putting it to sleep with darts, but will this make nearby beefalo attack me?

Not sure.  But you can always do it while they're all sleeping.  Just make sure it's not mating season or they might wake up grumpy when you do it.

[Ebonblade7]

I am ready to enter the cave. I have made the following preparations

 

-Meat Effigy Built (but not placed)

-Touchstone Activated

-Light and Food near Touchstone

-17 Rocks (for firepit)

-8 Logs (fuel and firepit)

-5 Manure (fuel)

-15 Grass (torches, equipment, and walls)

-10 Flint (tools)

-10 sticks (tools)

-4 full torches

-opulent pick

-spear

-log armor

-backpack

-heat stone (last resort light source)

 

All I need is a ton of food (probably jerky) and I'll be ready to go. Is there anything else I should bring?

[Norman1346]

I am ready to enter the cave. I have made the following preparations

 

-Meat Effigy Built (but not placed)

-Touchstone Activated

-Light and Food near Touchstone

-17 Rocks (for firepit)

-8 Logs (fuel and firepit)

-5 Manure (fuel)

-15 Grass (torches, equipment, and walls)

-10 Flint (tools)

-10 sticks (tools)

-4 full torches

-opulent pick

-spear

-log armor

-backpack

-heat stone (last resort light source)

 

All I need is a ton of food (probably jerky) and I'll be ready to go. Is there anything else I should bring?

 

More flint. You can feed it to rock lobster to make awesome followers.

 

Just be careful as they may follow you to the surface, breed, and cause mass extinction of everything living on the surface.

[aredshroom]

All I need is a ton of food (probably jerky) and I'll be ready to go. Is there anything else I should bring?

Just to warn you, there are creatures in the caves who'll hate you for carrying meat.

[hotflungwok]

Youve got 4 torches, you dont need the heat stone.

 

Yeah, bunnymen will attack you if you have meat in any form.

[dancness]

I am ready to enter the cave. I have made the following preparations

-Meat Effigy Built (but not placed)

-Touchstone Activated

-Light and Food near Touchstone

-17 Rocks (for firepit)

-8 Logs (fuel and firepit)

-5 Manure (fuel)

-15 Grass (torches, equipment, and walls)

-10 Flint (tools)

-10 sticks (tools)

-4 full torches

-opulent pick

-spear

-log armor

-backpack

-heat stone (last resort light source)

All I need is a ton of food (probably jerky) and I'll be ready to go. Is there anything else I should bring?

Bring lots of dragon pies. They heal a lot of hp if you are in a pinch, which is pretty much all the time in the caves and below.

Also bring a tam o shanter and lots of logs and grass. You will use up log suits fast.

Finally, a miner hat or lantern are a necessity for exploring. Those 4 torches won't last long and have a poor light radius.

[Rosten]

Bring lots of dragon pies. They heal a lot of hp if you are in a pinch, which is pretty much all the time in the caves and below.

Also bring a tam o shanter and lots of logs and grass. You will use up log suits fast.

Finally, a miner hat or lantern are a necessity for exploring. Those 4 torches won't last long and have a poor light radius.

This guy has it right, before you go, try and have a steady dragonfruit farm, and for the love of god, go out in the dead of night and catch some fireflies for a miners helmet, in the caves, they are much more useful then a football helmet, a shanter isnt required, since you wont be using it to often due to having the miner hat on, but some taffy or pumpkin cookies wouldn't hurt.

[the truthseeker]

This guy has it right, before you go, try and have a steady dragonfruit farm, and for the love of god, go out in the dead of night and catch some fireflies for a miners helmet, in the caves, they are much more useful then a football helmet, a shanter isnt required, since you wont be using it to often due to having the miner hat on, but some taffy or pumpkin cookies wouldn't hurt.

The Shanter restores 6.7 sanity a minute making it THE highest sanity-restoring wearing item so you don't have to run back to base for a tent or carry a bunch of rolls/extra food for post sleep hunger/sanity restoring food with you. Of course if not meeting Bunnymen, a stack of jerky does work, but it would be a lot easier to make them above ground for that when first cave starting.  

 

Miner hats can be useful, but burn through durability too quickly when you are in a permanent darkness situation and refill using the exact same duration-restoring percentage items as the Lantern does without having to get fireflies in the first place.  

 

(The Lantern is prototyped and crafted from 2 light bulbs, 2 twigs and 2 rope in an Alchemy Machine and does not use any non-renewable resources to make since light bulbs regrow eventually. It refills using slurtle slime/light bulbs/fireflies. It's a hand item and can also be dropped while remaining lit for combat situations. Make one ASAP.)

 

 

 

But if you don't see light bulbs immediately in reach, use that miner helmet until you get the lantern. 

 

 

 

I'd also recommend pre-building an Alchemy Machine for inside the cave once you find a nice resource base which can be a "forward operating base" unless you wish to permanently settle in the caves. 

 

 

 

And while it's not mandatory (you could leave food at base or elsewhere,) consider if you're visiting the land of the Bunnymen a lot, making something like a cold box, chest, or dropped backpack near there where you can swap out/swap back your meat items if not doing long term work there. If doing long term work, then either only use a cold box or leave your meat foods at base on the drying racks/crock pots/cold boxes.  

[Rosten]

This is a pretty long quote so i'd like to take it step by step with the reply

 

The Shanter restores 6.7 sanity a minute making it THE highest sanity-restoring wearing item so you don't have to run back to base for a tent or carry a bunch of rolls/extra food for post sleep hunger/sanity restoring food with you. Of course if not meeting Bunnymen, a stack of jerky does work, but it would be a lot easier to make them above ground for that when first cave starting.  

The problem with the shanter your first couple of winters is 

A - The walrus camp could be pretty hard to find, and far away from your base, so freezing will be a huge issue

B - as mentioned before, freezing is a huge issue while fighting, especially because, you cant wear any winter clothes else youll die fighting, i dont generally use jerky or sanity restoring items because, simply put, sanity monsters arent a problem for me.

They dont do much damage (to my knowledge atleast), are very easy to kite, and just killing one puts your sanity high enough so they wont attack you anymore, granted ive never been to the ruins, so it could be a compeltely different ballgame there,

 

 

Miner hats can be useful, but burn through durability too quickly when you are in a permanent darkness situation and refill using the exact same duration-restoring percentage items as the Lantern does without having to get fireflies in the first place.  

 

(The Lantern is prototyped and crafted from 2 light bulbs, 2 twigs and 2 rope in an Alchemy Machine and does not use any non-renewable resources to make since light bulbs regrow eventually. It refills using slurtle slime/light bulbs/fireflies. It's a hand item and can also be dropped while remaining lit for combat situations. Make one ASAP.)

Personally, i usually carry around both and a torch because im paranoid like that, the miner hat for roaming and exploring, the lantern for fighting, and the torch as a last-resort getaway option, and generally, since im usually running around i find a lot of the lightbulb orchards and i almost always have plenty of lightbulbs for refilling the hat/lantern if either gets low.

 

 

And while it's not mandatory (you could leave food at base or elsewhere,) consider if you're visiting the land of the Bunnymen a lot, making something like a cold box, chest, or dropped backpack near there where you can swap out/swap back your meat items if not doing long term work there. If doing long term work, then either only use a cold box or leave your meat foods at base on the drying racks/crock pots/cold boxes.  

At the point im at now, i dont find myself staying in caves for longer then 5-10 days at a time, I generally carry around as many dragonpies as i can, they restore quite a bit of health and hunger, and they dont upset bunnymen, although, ive yet to survive long enough to make a steady "base" in the caves. (this is probably due to the fact that everytime i post a base on the Show us your base thread i lose it 15 seconds later, im going to quit doing that.)

[hotflungwok]

The Shanter restores 6.7 sanity a minute making it THE highest sanity-restoring wearing item so you don't have to run back to base for a tent or carry a bunch of rolls/extra food for post sleep hunger/sanity restoring food with you. Of course if not meeting Bunnymen, a stack of jerky does work, but it would be a lot easier to make them above ground for that when first cave starting.  

 The shanter really just keeps the darkness insanity at bay underground, youre gonna run into nightmares and spiders & depth worms which drain sanity faster.  I always bring taffy or pumpkin cookies or green mushrooms.

 

 

Miner hats can be useful, but burn through durability too quickly when you are in a permanent darkness situation and refill using the exact same duration-restoring percentage items as the Lantern does without having to get fireflies in the first place.  

You know that miner hats can be refilled with light bulbs right?

[TeoSS69]

You know that miner hats can be refilled with light bulbs right?

You know he clearly states in that quote that he knows that right?

[the truthseeker]

The shanter really just keeps the darkness insanity at bay underground, youre gonna run into nightmares and spiders & depth worms which drain sanity faster.  I always bring taffy or pumpkin cookies or green mushrooms.

I was basing this on them first going into the cave, not ruins/long term exploration. If they plan on staying there beyond a few days or enter the caves late/multiple times (depths worms,) of course they will need other options. Taffy in this case is easier if they set up an underground base with bee boxes due to the farming being more difficult underground (but doable and much easier to grow {after building them using Manure} with Guano as long as you don't kill all the Batalisks) .

 

And it's recommended  taking a sewing kit and/or teeth to make a kit for long term living if not just a few days of course.  

 

 

If just visiting and popping back out though, Jerky is a much easier sanity manager (when not engaging the Bunnymen. Cooked Green Mushrooms work here as well if you do. Just remember to not plan that long-term around cave mushrooms as they cannot regrow there of course.) 

 

 

No matter which, highly recommended making a Ham bat (and 59 damage per hit unlimited for 10 days is ridiculously awesome for 2 meat a pigskin and 2 twigs.)

 

 

You know that miner hats can be refilled with light bulbs right?

 

And duhh

 

You know he clearly states in that quote that he knows that right?

 

And as said before, miner hats can be refilled with the EXACT same materials as Lanterns which are: Light Bulbs, Slurtle Slime and/or Fireflies

 

 

They no longer revert to straw hats (without using some item to deconstruct them) and exist as a "0% durability" item. I am simply stating their burning through their resources seems too quick based on the initial crafting requirements compared to the Lantern, but the playstyle of using the Miner Hats/lantern was explained by BlazingIce already.

[hotflungwok]

You know he clearly states in that quote that he knows that right?

Ah, I misread the statement, thought he was talking about refilling it with lightning bugs.

[TeoSS69]

 lightning bugs.

I like that better than "Firefly".

[the truthseeker]

I like that better than "Firefly".

Me too.