Caves are waste of time

[Noval]

The game balance is kind of weird, or maybe it's just me. Most of the time, you only find stone, and any kind of ore is extremely rare. If you're lucky, you'll find two nodes in a too-large area. On top of it, you have to find a hole to jump into the next level. I never found 2 holes, even after clearing all the stones in some areas, so I guess there is only 1 hole, which is in a fixed place rather than at random.

If all of this is correct and not just my bad luck, then the cave system is a waste of time, unfortunately. I know the developers were inspired by Stardew Valley, but SV's cave system has a much better balance.

[Leilatha]

I actually found the underwater caves quite useful just not likely in the way the game intended. I've been "farming" trash, fossil nodes, and treasure chests though the caves. Its how I was able to complete both the fossils and artefact sections of the museum.

[Nefrarya]

Based on 'holes' and 'ores', OP probably means the Cavern and not the underwater caves.

[Piperbird]

Why would there be two holes?

And yes, the hole down is completely random, each floor is randomly generated each day.

The deeper you go, the more ore you find. You can also enchant your pick so you find a lot more stuff. You can also find gems, geodes, and fossils, along with all kinds of random stuff in the chests and barrels.

[Deputy Dawg]

Originally posted by Samsara:

On top of it, you have to find a hole to jump into the next level. I never found 2 holes, even after clearing all the stones in some areas

In the caves, there is only ever one hole to find, in order to access the next level down. Ore nodes are the best way to get ores. Just hitting rocks will only produce a very small chance of finding ore, (until you have a fully upgraded pickaxe with enchantments). You unlock elevators on levels 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 40. Take lots of energy replenishers like candied tree seeds, and focus on unlocking the elevator levels as your first priority.

[Nefrarya]

Originally posted by Piperbird:

Why would there be two holes?

And yes, the hole down is completely random, each floor is randomly generated each day.

The deeper you go, the more ore you find. You can also enchant your pick so you find a lot more stuff. You can also find gems, geodes, and fossils, along with all kinds of random stuff in the chests and barrels.

In SDV, there can be more than one. OP's point is probably "Do I need to find one hole in one specific place or does each destroyed rock have the chance to open up a hole".

[Tofystedeth]

Originally posted by Nefrarya:

Originally posted by Piperbird:

Why would there be two holes?

And yes, the hole down is completely random, each floor is randomly generated each day.

The deeper you go, the more ore you find. You can also enchant your pick so you find a lot more stuff. You can also find gems, geodes, and fossils, along with all kinds of random stuff in the chests and barrels.

In SDV, there can be more than one. OP's point is probably "Do I need to find one hole in one specific place or does each destroyed rock have the chance to open up a hole".

Yeah, SDV could have multiple holes which was nice since if you found it early on by the entrance, but still were doing some mining far away on that floor you had a chance to find another exit closer to where you were actually working.

I do find that the mining and combat just generally doesn't feel as good SDVs (which, at least in the combat, wasn't much to write home about either). Maybe because the ore nodes are generally always clustered and once you've found the spot where they were on the floor, that's it, move on.

Though there are those veins in the floor in the floor which were neat and I was hoping they'd be a bigger proportion of what to find. But otherwise, things like special rocks which drop gems or geodes or whatever seem to be exceedingly rare.