caves and the perrils they hold!

[Grimr]

Right, I'm comming up on my 100th day in this world and figured its about time i take a look inside those caves, yet i have no idea what to bring, or even how long i should exspect to muck about in them.

 

Right now I'm going for about a weeks trip into them, so enough food with me to last atleast that long and som sort of healing from honny or other things and a range of items to make tools ofc, and a log suit and my spear.

 

But given that its my first time into those, I'd like to ask what you guys bring with you into the caves. Not for an 'all to the end run' but mearly for a 'let me just have a quick look as se what we have in here' run?

[NeoDeusMachina]

Your gear seem decent, be sure you have an efficient method to light you up while exploring. I suggest you go down there before anyone tells you what to bring, you will enjoy your experience much more! You will also be able to see if your preparations are enough and if not, you will be able to adjust. I suggest you don't try to do more than you can handle. It is not ''as bad'' as it seems, but if you feel you are about to run out of supply, well don't hesitate to go back up for another trip. You don't have to explore the whole cave in a single trip! =)

 

Hope you enjoy it! Cheers.

[Tumalu]

Just make sure you bring enough food and some protection! Keep in mind you'll want either a miner's hat, or to build a lantern as soon as you can inside, so that'll take an equipment slot. And that the upside's seasonal weather is, to a smaller degree, still there in the caves... as is the fact that you're always taking sanity loss whilst down there.

 

And that it's not always the best idea to carry meat around inside the caves.

[Grimr]

my plan was to grab a few meat, well jerky for healing really and for food i would use dragon pie, stuff them into chester... once i find him and also grab some of the 70-80+ honny i get each year and bring them too

[Materite]

my plan was to grab a few meat, well jerky for healing really and for food i would use dragon pie, stuff them into chester... once i find him and also grab some of the 70-80+ honny i get each year and bring them too

Don't bring meat to the caves. Rabbit-men live down there, and if you have any meat, they attack you as you are "Unclean."

If you put it in Chester, I think they attack him.

[Grimr]

bunny-men, rock lobsters and what ever else there is down there I'll deal with it, in one way or another, my main focus was just be able to survive the first few days while I exsplore a bit in the area I drop down in, if anything I can proberly outrun the verious things long enough to get back to the rope and come up with a new plan

[emerphish]

bunny-men, rock lobsters and what ever else there is down there I'll deal with it, in one way or another, my main focus was just be able to survive the first few days while I exsplore a bit in the area I drop down in, if anything I can proberly outrun the verious things long enough to get back to the rope and come up with a new plan

Miner hat, honey, something for sanity, possible walking cane, and you are all set to explore. If you want to fight, you can get spikes upon spikes down there, but bring a ham bat and (maybe) armor to fight for the snurtle armor.

[vimrich]

My caving gear, in priority order (does not include normal stuff like weapons and armor, etc.)

 

1. Mining Hat - pretty easy to make, lets you hold weapon or walking cane in later game

2. Taffy or Pumpkin Cookies (4 to 6) - mostly for sanity gain. Taffy is easier to make, but pumpkin cookies also do more hunger than taffy

3. Non-meat meals (3 or 4) - if you can go for dragonberry pie, but also stuffed eggplants, etc. good way to use up veg from farms

4. Healing items (8 to 10) - salves or polutice. I go for salves mostly because I seem to have the stuff for salves anyway and it seems the best way to use them up. Caves go from "wow, I've been down here a long time no problem" to "one more hit and I'm dead" VERY suddenly.

 

Be sure to max sanity as much as possible before going in. Sanity tends to be the bigger reason you have to leave the caves than hunger. One or two battles and the constant darkness and your down faster than you think.

 

Optional backup gear:

5. Lantern - lets you place on ground, so can swap to helmet for a battle. Also a good backup if your hat runs out.

 

Other Tips:

- First goal in cave exploration is to find light bulb sources to replenish your miner hat head lamp. Make sure the bulbs are circular, the other kind are NOT good.

- Second goal is to find Rock Lobsters and disperse them everywhere throughout the cave (feed them EARLY in the trip, then go where you want them so they'll stop following you there and settle in a new spot). A cave filled with Lobsters is easy to survive.

- RUN from worms. lead them to lobsters. Not worth fighting and the lobsters will kill them for you.

- Be VERY careful about meat. I picked up a monster meat and almost died to the bunnymen. You want to be able to run into bunny village w/o having to stop to move/drop your meat. Sure you can put meat into chester, or better yet, just let it rot if you're not sure where the bunnymen are yet. They aggo in mass like beefalo.

 

I do pure exploration first, following all edges as possible, avoiding ALL battles and any temptation to harvest, mine, etc. Nothing worse than being chased by worms into a dead end. Exploring first lets you know where to run/kite later on. Do go ahead and get lobsters to follow you when exploring, ideally the drop off as you go, populating all over the entire cave and generally keeping the worm population down. Also, grabbing the rope back up takes a half second or so, so try to lead whatever mob was there away from the entrance first.

 

Ruins

1. Walking Cane - not essential, but it makes running from the nightmarebeaks a lot easier. They're very fast and hit hard. My strategy is to run in circles dodging until the cycle ends killing them. Folks who are better at fighting might just kite them.

2. Thulecite medallion - One of the first things I make when I find an ancient crafting station. I used to just go by the lights and sounds, but then you're so near the places where shadows spawn that you waste time running from them. With this, you can find a nice place far off from everything and wait out the cycle.

 

Here, I explore first as well, but spend a lot more time early on getting lobsters everywhere. They're great against all the clockworks. Again, you feed them early on and walk where you want them then sit there until they stop following you and then they'll just start populating that area. I spend several "missions" just doing this. In particular, I get them into the labyrinth.

[Grimr]

@vimrich

wow! great list and rundown though the likelyhood of me  getting to the ruins, what ever that is, is quite slim i think then again, i might get really lucky.

 

anyway, my planed item/gear i want to bring looks like this

bit of grass, bit of twigs, logs, stone, flint just for the all around stuff to make on the go of basic items. 1 bagpack holding axe, hammer, pickaxe one of those eye plants things and some glommer gurp (the pink bubble stuff) in chester i have 10 honey, some jerky, couple of dragonberry pie, a spare miners hat (bringing two) a stack of spare logs, ill have my walking stick (my tallbird camp killed them for me) a log suit, miners hat, a spear and my freezing stick and 10 healing salve (those made from ash and stone and the spider thing)

 

My goal is just to look around and hope i can find something intresting

[vimrich]

@vimrich

wow! great list and rundown though the likelyhood of me  getting to the ruins, what ever that is, is quite slim i think then again, i might get really lucky.

 

anyway, my planed item/gear i want to bring looks like this

bit of grass, bit of twigs, logs, stone, flint just for the all around stuff to make on the go of basic items. 1 bagpack holding axe, hammer, pickaxe one of those eye plants things and some glommer gurp (the pink bubble stuff) in chester i have 10 honey, some jerky, couple of dragonberry pie, a spare miners hat (bringing two) a stack of spare logs, ill have my walking stick (my tallbird camp killed them for me) a log suit, miners hat, a spear and my freezing stick and 10 healing salve (those made from ash and stone and the spider thing)

 

My goal is just to look around and hope i can find something intresting

 

I do that too. However, I'd put tools in chester, put the food and health on yourself (except meat, leave that in chester!). Chester can die in the caves pretty easily if you get trapped in the wrong situations (worms). Also, in a pinch you want to be able to armor up (dropping pack) and still have food and heals on your person during the battle. If chester dies or you can't get back to your pack, you can still make it out and rebuild. Also, leave one open slot on your person for carrying light bulbs. Light, food and healing items should be on you at all times.

 

Ruins entrance will be a yellow-orange rock near the spilagmite things (rocks with webs on them). Ruins has the really neat stuff. Most of the rest of the caves is just a good renewable source of rocks and flint, plus gold gems, marble from time to time.  Also, once you get used to miner hat and light bulbs, you find yourself using them above ground at night and going back to the caves to get more bulbs.

 

One last warning, seasons (heat cold) take effect quickly once you emerge from the caves as whatever thermal stone you have will be out. Also the hounds will come. Try not to come out of the caves with nothing left to spare of health/etc. Seems lately that every time I come out now I instantly get the "did you hear that" warning.

[Grimr]

One last warning, seasons (heat cold) take effect quickly once you emerge from the caves as whatever thermal stone you have will be out. Also the hounds will come. Try not to come out of the caves with nothing left to spare of health/etc. Seems lately that every time I come out now I instantly get the "did you hear that" warning.

 

comming out i guess im lucky, the sickhole is just on the other side of my pig village (4-5 seconds run from my panic room with all my traps)

[Grimr]

update!

 

Yikes! everything down there is just out to get you, in every devious way you can think off. rocks filled with rockspitting spiders shadow things comming out of the ground, they are by far the worst, well so far, light bulb flowers i seam to have a gazillion of all over the place. even found one that wasnt, however that works. The small army of rock lobster i had with me went all bonkers and starting smashing things around them, figured I'll leave them there and come back once they are done.

 

as for the bunnymen, they dont seam to mind that i got meat in chester at all, they dont even attack him, though dont eat when the meat when they are around. also the snails things, geez! they take forever to kill.

 

All in all quite a challange to battle the sanity, wetness staying alive and having light, defently worth another trip into that place

[Hugos10]

Oh yeah, don't attack snurtles/slurtles when they're in their shells. Wait until they come out, else they're pretty much invincible

[Grimr]

Oh yeah, don't attack snurtles/slurtles when they're in their shells. Wait until they come out, else they're pretty much invincible

got a nice helmet from it though, was totally worth the time

 

and just beyond that snail thing, i found the spiders and the ruins entrance, figured i pop down for a quick look with my 4 rocklobsters i had with me... you know, just a quick look.

 

started out fine really, no real threat around, a singe of some worm like thing bursted out from the ground, but my army of lobsters made quick work of that, and my thought was "hmmm this isnt to bad, I'll have a look further down this path" ... found some sort of a light thing, little did i know, they spawn shadow creatures and horribly murdered me ...

 

spawned on the top by the stone, in the middle of the winter with half a day travels to my camp (i really should remember to set those back chest by those stones)

[Grimr]

and happy as i am running around picking up nightmare fuel, one of the few things that are tricky to come by on the surface, something charged in and killed chester in one hit! when im looting im running around in my rain coat and hat with a lantern to stay as dry as i can.

and this was the resault

[Hugos10]

and happy as i am running around picking up nightmare fuel, one of the few things that are tricky to come by on the surface, something charged in and killed chester in one hit! when im looting im running around in my rain coat and hat with a lantern to stay as dry as i can.

ups.jpg

and this was the resault

 

Oh wow... It looks like you accidentally found the LABRYNTH in the ruins XD

That thing that instakilled chester is the Ancient Guardian (or Fuzzy The Rhino, your pick).

He's one of the hardest bosses in the game, but killing him spawns a cool Ornate Chest full of Thulecite (Stronger than Marble, but much lighter)

 

Yeah, be careful of wandering in there. To avoid it, look for many paths above an abyss, and STAY AWAY from the room near the middle :3 

[Doctor H. Derp]

A lot of people suggest bringing veggies down to the caves to avoid problems with the bunnymen.

 

I, on the other hand, have a different suggestion:

 

[Alice]

Caves aren't really that bad, they kinda got blown out of portion on how hard they are. There's plenty of food and materials down there to keep lighting 24/7 maintained. So you really shouldn't worry too much about bringing enough of x and y down there asides from just healing salves I would say. The rest you can make down there pretty much like you were upside. Even then you can just go back up to grab your stack of twigs or grass if you need more.

[vimrich]

Get a walking cane for the Ruins. Nightmarebeaks are fast, but with a walking cane you can easily run around in circles until the cycle kills them. Also, learn where the "dead zones" are on the map where there are no lights nearby. Go sit there when the nightmare cycle starts and you'll have far less nightmare creatures to worry about - maybe even none.

[Grimr]

Get a walking cane for the Ruins. Nightmarebeaks are fast, but with a walking cane you can easily run around in circles until the cycle kills them. Also, learn where the "dead zones" are on the map where there are no lights nearby. Go sit there when the nightmare cycle starts and you'll have far less nightmare creatures to worry about - maybe even none.

I had a walking cane, just not equiped, was soaked with water so had to build a fire and get dry and stay dry so it was rain coat and straw hat and a lantern to loot outside the campfire light.

 

Anyway, given it was my first time in the caves and even in the ruins and not knowing what i would be up against or how to deal with it proberly, lasting 4-5 days in the ruins i consider a succes sadly its back to square one and start again.

 

I am a bit torn with WX-78, he seam very powerful, once you have eaten a few gears everything just seam to become really... boring :S have to deside on a new character for when i start a new game the comming weekend

[Dazontheweb]

Sounds like an adventure!