Skull Cavern
The Skull Cavern resides in a cave in the northwest corner of the Calico Desert. It is initially locked and requires the Skull Key to gain access.
After entering the Cavern for the first time, the following day a letter is received from Mr. Qi giving a quest called "Qi's Challenge." The quest is completed by reaching level 25 of the Cavern, for which the player is awarded 10,000G.
Every ten levels the chance to find Iridium Ore increases significantly and reaches maximum concentration at level 100. The monsters in the Cavern can also drop ore and Iridium Bars.
If the player runs out of health while exploring Skull Cavern, the player blacks out, wakes up later in the same day in Harvey's Clinic, and is charged 1000g for emergency surgery. Some items may be lost.
The plaques that can be occasionally found on the walls contain enciphered messages.
Going Deeper
Like The Mines, the player advances to new floors by finding a ladder by mining rocks or defeating monsters. Additionally, instead of a ladder, the player can find a hole and is offered a choice of whether or not to jump down. Jumping down causes a small amount of damage and skips a random number of floors.
Unlike the Mines, the Cavern offers no elevator and has no limits to its depth. Each visit must start again from the first level.
Strategy
Always Go Down
Since the frequency of Iridium Ore increases for every 10 levels descended into the Cavern, rapid descent is often more efficient for acquiring ore than thorough exploration.
Lucky Day
As with many other things, high Luck increases the frequency of ore veins, item drops, and the appearance of ladders/holes. Coming to the Cavern on a lucky day can increase success.
Items and Equipment
Food
Useful foods for spelunking in the Skull Cavern:
- Luck: Lucky Lunch (+3), Pumpkin Soup (+2), Spicy Eel (+1), Fried Eel (+1)
- Speed: Spicy Eel (+1), Coffee (+1), Crab Cakes (+1)
- Defense: Pumpkin Soup (+2), Autumn's Bounty (+2)
Note that Spicy Eel is sometimes dropped by the Serpent monsters that are common in the Cavern.
Warp Totems
A Warp Totem can be used to make a quick exit if supplies are running low or the day is almost over.
Explosives
Bombs make quick work of densely-clustered stones and ore veins. They're also necessary for permanently defeating Mummies.
- Buy Cherry Bombs from the Dwarf for 300g or craft with 4 Copper Ore and 1 Coal.
- Buy Bombs from the Dwarf for 600g or craft with 4 Iron Ore and 1 Coal.
- Buy Mega Bombs from the Dwarf for 1000g or craft with 4 Gold Ore, 1 Solar Essence, and 1 Void Essence.
Slingshot
It is a good idea to take a Slingshot with you in the mines as it can use Explosive Ammo to quickly get rid of stones and Iridium Ore which would normally take 4 hits with the Iridium Pickaxe or needs a placed Bomb. It is also very easy to defeat a Mummy with Explosive Ammo using the Slingshot as you can shoot them as soon as they fall down.
Furthermore A Slingshot with Gold Ore or better is a quick way to dispatch of enemies easily. It deals much more damage than even the Galaxy Sword.
Rings
Magnet Rings
The increased attraction radius of the Small Magnet Ring, Magnet Ring, or Iridium Band can be useful, especially when using explosives to mine clusters of stone or ore.
Burglar's Ring
The Burglar's Ring, acquired by fulfilling Gil's goal of slaying 500 Dust Sprites, can be valuable for getting larger amounts of useful drops from enemies. Serpents can drop Bombs and Spicy Eel while Purple Slimes can drop Iridium Ore.
Slime Charmer Ring
The Slime Charmer Ring is a good solution for when you want to quickly go through the mines and don't want to worry much about enemies. Wearing the ring will prevent all damage from slimes but not the large ones. It will also prevent the annoying Slimed Debuff which reduces your Speed for a while.
Savage Ring
The Savage Ring is a great choice for getting very quickly through the mine while defeating monsters as it will give a temporary +2 speed buff after slaying a monster.
This is best shown by killing a monster in one hit using the Slingshot then using the speed buff it gives.
Staircase
Staircases can be used for rapid descent or skipping troublesome levels. Since staircases do not stack, it can be more space-efficient to bring plenty of Stone and craft the staircases as needed.
Monsters
| Image | Monster | HP | Damage | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Armored Bug | 8 | Cannot be killed by any currently known means. | ||
 |
Big Slime | 60 | 5 | Splits into smaller Slimes when killed. Big Slimes in the Skull Cavern are always purple. |
 |
Purple Slime | 410 | 28 | Can drop Iridium Ore |
 |
Lava Bat | 80 | 15 | Appears rarely; flies. |
 |
Mummy | 260 | 30 | Needs to be finished with a Bomb of any type after being knocked out with other weapons. If a bomb does enough damage to knock the Mummy out, it will also destroy it. |
 |
Serpent | 150 | 23 | Moves quickly; default flying enemy. |
