Skull Cavern Invasion
| Skull Cavern Invasion | |
|---|---|
| Type | Special Order |
| Board | Mr. Qi |
| Giver | Mr. Qi |
| Time Limit | 7 days |
| Repeatable | Yes |
Mr. Qi fills the Skull Cavern with harder versions of everything that lives there and asks for the hundredth floor inside a week. Food is allowed this time, which makes the descent itself no worse than any other deep dive, and the real change is what is swinging back: serpents with far more fight in them, mummies that take a great deal of killing and slimes that arrive in stacks. Forty Qi Gems is a solid payment, and the week leaves two things behind that outlast it: a switch at the cavern mouth that can summon the same monsters whenever they are wanted, and a monster list that drops things no ordinary cavern run ever produces. This is the notice to take when the farm wants a reason to go mining rather than merely a reward for doing it.
The board reads: The Skull Cavern has been invaded by powerful monsters. Make it to level 100 in one piece.
Requirements
Floor one hundred is the mark, and staircases are permitted, so a farmer who only wants the gems can buy the whole descent and ignore the invasion entirely. Anyone who wants the loot has to fight through at least part of it.
What is down there is the point. Royal Serpents replace the ordinary serpents and have many times their stamina. Mummies grow tough enough to shrug off a galaxy weapon's first few swings, and they still refuse to stay down without a bomb finishing them off unless the blade carries the Crusader enchantment. Armoured bugs, purple slimes and squid kids all arrive in their dangerous forms, and slimes stack on top of each other far more often. Radioactive Nodes appear as well, which is the only ordinary way to pull Radioactive Ore out of the desert.
The cavern's difficulty is a dial rather than a switch, and the order is only one hand on it. After this notice has been completed once, the statue at the cavern entrance becomes a second toggle, and the two effects stack: the order alone, or the statue alone, gives the lighter version, and both together give the heavier one. Each step up adds a little to the chance of Radioactive Ore, raises the number of monsters a floor spawns, makes stacked slimes more common, and lifts the chance that a dead monster leaves a diamond or a Prismatic Shard behind. Monster health, damage and resistance to damage climb with it.
The statue cannot be touched while the order is running. Interacting with it during the week produces nothing but a shrug, so the choice between the two difficulties has to be made before the notice is accepted.
Rewards
Forty gems buys a Galaxy Soul, or two Deconstructors, or a Junimo Chest with the Deluxe Fertilizer recipe alongside it.
The gems that fall during the week can outstrip the payment. Big Purple Sludges in the invaded cavern sometimes carry a Qi Gem inside them, and once in a long while a Galaxy Soul instead, and a slime holding something looks faintly see-through so the prize is visible before the first swing. A Burglar's Ring turns one of those into two. A farm that spends several days hunting slimes rather than racing downwards can come out of the week with more gems than the order itself hands over.
The week also builds towards the galaxy weapon's last upgrade from both ends. Fifty of the dangerous monsters slain is what persuades the Island Trader to start stocking Galaxy Souls, and the Radioactive Bars that pay for them are smelted from the ore that only this kind of cavern produces.
Strategy
Decide first whether the week is a race or a hunt, because the two want opposite preparation. A race wants a tall stack of staircases, a long speed buff and no fighting at all. A hunt wants Monster Musk, which doubles the number of monsters waiting on each floor and does not disturb any food buff already running, plus the patience to clear them.
Either way, eat before the descent and keep eating. Magic Rock Candy is the single best thing to carry, since it lifts luck, attack, defence, mining and speed all at once for a good stretch. Spicy Eel is the cheap stand-in for luck and speed together. Coffee and Triple Shot Espresso stack on top of a food buff rather than replacing it, so a drink and a dish can run side by side.
Pick the day by the forecast. Luck raises the rate at which ladders and shafts appear and the chance of a treasure room, so a good morning is worth saving the staircases for and a poor one is worth spending on the farm instead.
Bring bombs regardless of plan. They clear a cluster of stone in one go, they are the only clean way to finish a knocked-down mummy, and the Desert Trader swaps five Quartz for one, which is far cheaper than crafting them from iron.
The order fails on arithmetic more often than on combat. Floor one hundred has to be reached in a single day, the bus does not arrive until the morning is half gone, and a dangerous cavern eats far more time per floor than a quiet one. A Warp Totem to the desert buys back the hours the bus wastes.
Notes
Prehistoric floors have to be cleared completely before a ladder will show, and in the invaded cavern that means a floor of reinforced Pepper Rexes standing between the farmer and the way down. A staircase walks past the whole problem.
Floor one hundred always holds a Treasure Chest, which is a pleasant end to the run whatever else it produced.
The notice goes up on a Monday and the seven days begin draining from that morning rather than from the moment it is accepted, so the statue decision and the staircase stack both want settling over the weekend before.
All Special Orders
Every special order from both boards, with who posts it and how long it runs.