Skull Cavern
| Skull Cavern | |
|---|---|
| Type | Location |
The Skull Cavern is the hole in the north-west corner of the Calico Desert, and the Skull Key found at the bottom of the Mines is the only thing that opens it. It has no bottom floor worth speaking of and no elevator, so every trip starts again at the first floor and ends when the day does or the health bar empties. In exchange it is where the iridium is. The chance of iridium climbs steeply from the tenth floor down to the hundredth, the monsters themselves drop ore and bars, and the treasure chests scattered through it hold things that exist nowhere else. A run here is the single most profitable day in the game and the easiest one to ruin, which is why Skull Cavern trips get planned like expeditions rather than walked into.
Area
The cave mouth sits above the Oasis in the desert's north-west, so getting there means the bus, a Warp Totem: Desert or a Desert Obelisk. The totem and the obelisk have a second advantage: they put a farmer in the desert about four hours before Pam even arrives at the Bus Stop, and four extra hours is a dozen more floors.
Floors are laid out the same way as the Mines, and the way down is a ladder found by breaking rocks or killing monsters. Each floor has a ladder back out at the point of arrival, so leaving is always possible. Progress is not saved, though, and every new visit begins at the top.
Roughly one ladder in five arrives as a shaft instead, and a shaft is the real engine of a deep run. Dropping down one skips several floors at a time, and occasionally far more. The drop costs health in proportion to the distance fallen, though it will never quite kill, and the distance is fixed for that floor on that day: luck does not change it, and if two shafts open on the same floor they both go exactly as far, so there is nothing to choose between them. A shaft taken above the hundredth floor will never carry a farmer past it.
A statue stands at the entrance. Once the Skull Cavern Invasion order has been completed for the first time, that statue toggles hard mode on and off, which is a permanent choice rather than a quest.
Notes
Time runs slowly down here, which is the cavern's quiet gift. An hour underground takes about a quarter longer in real time than an hour anywhere else, so there is genuinely more of the day available for descending. Two things are worth knowing about it: buffs burn through their game-time duration all the same, and the effect goes away in a shared save and on prehistoric floors. Machines up on the farm keep to normal time regardless, so honey put in a keg at noon is mead by the evening however long the day felt in the cavern.
Descent beats exploration. Iridium is thin near the surface and thick a hundred floors down, so the standard approach is to get deep fast and mine there rather than clear each floor on the way. Mega Bombs blow out clusters of rock and ore in one go and save a great deal of pickaxe work, and Explosive Ammo in a slingshot does the same job on a smaller scale. Staircases skip a floor outright and stack to a full inventory slot, and a farmer with a Crystalarium turning out Jade can trade that Jade to the Desert Trader on Sundays for staircases, which turns one gem machine into an endless supply of floors.
Luck matters more here than anywhere. High luck means more ladders and shafts, and it raises the odds of a treasure room appearing. Lucky Lunch, Magic Rock Candy, Spicy Eel, Fried Eel and Ginger Ale are the usual luck foods, and Coffee, Triple Shot Espresso and Ginger Ale are the only buffs that stack with a meal rather than replacing it. Miner's Treat is the mining buff of choice, and it brings magnetism with it, which drags dropped ore across the floor instead of making a farmer walk to it.
The monsters are harder than anything in the Mines. Serpents fly and move fast, Iridium Bats appear from the fifties onward with a great deal of health, Iridium Crabs turn up from the twenties, and Purple Slimes hit hard and drop iridium when they go down. Mummies are the problem child: they have to be knocked out with a weapon and then finished with a bomb, or they get back up, and only the Crusader enchantment stops them reviving. Big Slimes split when killed. In hard mode every one of these has a tougher counterpart, with far more health and damage, and Royal Serpents appear on top.
Prehistoric floors are a rare treat. They are infested, so every monster has to die before a ladder shows, and they are full of Pepper Rex, which breathe fire and drop Dinosaur Eggs or one of the prehistoric artifacts. Dinosaur Eggs and Fiddlehead Ferns can be foraged there too, and chopping the foliage sometimes turns up an Ancient Seed.
Treasure rooms can appear from the tenth floor down and their odds are driven almost entirely by luck, which is another reason to eat before descending. Two floors are certain: the hundredth always holds a chest, and the two hundredth and three hundredth hold two and three. Those chests are the source of some of the game's rarest items.
Mr. Qi takes an interest twice. Entering the cavern for the first time brings a letter the next day starting Qi's Challenge, which asks for the twenty-fifth floor and pays ten thousand gold by post. Far later, after the right secret note has been read, he is waiting in person on the hundredth floor. He hands over Iridium Snake Milk either way, which permanently raises maximum health, but he is only complimentary about the achievement if ten or fewer staircases were used getting there, and merely calls a farmer clever otherwise.
Two of his special orders live down here as well. Skull Cavern Invasion asks for the hundredth floor in a week with the cavern in its dangerous state, Radioactive Nodes included. Qi's Hungry Challenge asks for the same depth with nothing to eat or drink, which means leaning on the hearts that Big Slimes start carrying during the order, a Vampire Ring, the Fairy Box or a vampiric weapon for healing. Buffs eaten before going in survive, so the meal happens in the desert rather than in the cave.
Running out of health has a price. A farmer who collapses here wakes later the same day in Harvey's Clinic, a thousand gold lighter for the surgery and usually missing a few items, with the weapon among the things that can go. Collapsing instead from exhaustion at two in the morning costs a thousand gold or a tenth of the money, whichever is smaller. A Warp Totem kept in the bag for the way out is the cheapest insurance in the game.
All Locations
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
