Skull Key
| Skull Key | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Collection |
| Location | The Mines (Floor 120) |
Digging all the way to the bottom of the Mines ends at a reward chest, and the Skull Key is what is inside it. The key fits the locked door at the north-western edge of the Calico Desert, which is the way into the Skull Cavern, and it also switches on the Junimo Kart machine in the Stardrop Saloon. Those two prizes could hardly be less alike: one is the most dangerous place in the valley and where all its iridium comes from, the other is an arcade game to play while the rain comes down. The key goes into the Special Items And Powers tab and stays there, so the long climb down only has to be made once.
Overview
Reaching the chest is the whole of the early game in one task. The Mines run a hundred and twenty floors deep, the lift makes each stretch repeatable, and the floors get colder and nastier as they go. The chest on the final floor is the reward for finishing the descent, and the key in it is worth more than anything else found on the way down.
The Skull Cavern is a different kind of place. The bus has to be running before the desert can be reached at all, and the cavern entrance sits in the far north-western corner of the sand. Its monsters hit much harder than anything in the Mines, and its loot is correspondingly better: Iridium Ore appears here in quantity and the rare drops are far more common. Two things make it genuinely punishing. Every visit begins on the first floor and the floors go on endlessly, so a run ends when the farmer decides it ends or when they are carried out unconscious.
That shape dictates how the cavern is played. Depth is what pays, so the goal is to go down fast rather than to clear floors. Mega Bombs break through rock far quicker than a pickaxe and are the standard tool for finding the ladder. Holes in the floor are better than ladders when they appear, because dropping through one skips several levels at the cost of a little damage. Food is the clock: a run should be abandoned while there is still something left to eat and enough of the day left to walk back to the bus, since passing out down there costs gold and scatters items, the weapon included.
Mr Qi takes an interest in anyone who goes deep. One of the Secret Notes points to somebody waiting on the hundredth floor, and making it that far earns a draught of Iridium Snake Milk, which raises the farmer's maximum health permanently. That is the single best reason to attempt a monster run rather than a mining run.
Junimo Kart is the key's other gift and much the gentler one. The cabinet sits in the Stardrop Saloon and plays nothing like the farm: it is a side-scrolling scramble with its own high score board, and it keeps a rainy evening in town occupied.
Notes
The key marks a turning point in a save rather than just a new door. Before it, iridium is something read about; after it, iridium tools, Iridium Sprinklers and the Iridium Band all become projects with a clear path. Most farms change character within a season of earning it.
Going back for a second descent is unnecessary, since the key is permanent and the lift keeps its progress. The only thing worth repeating in the lower Mines afterwards is the hunt for the materials the cavern runs will consume.
All Collections
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
