Are caves worth exploring?

[moonracer]

The contents of caves seem identical from planet to planet and I haven't seen anything unique in them except some cube things to sell.

[tkwoods]

Depends on the environment of the planet and the mode you are playing.

A cave is shelter and most are full of iron and marrow root. So you can harvest those if you need them while in shelter.

[BaneBlackGuard]

if you mean, are there hidden random treasure chests in caves, then no. they are worth exploring because they are there and occasionally tunnels combine together to create an open cavern that is quite beautiful to behold when you stumble upon them. sometimes they dive down underwater and those can be especially wonderful to scuba dive through.

it's exploration for the sake of exploration. to see what is there. not because there is a prize there. The reward is the exploration in and of itself. If that doesn't appeal to you, then exploration probably isn't your thing unless its an easter egg hunt. I wouldn't be opposed to having easter egg hunt type things in the game, but at least for now exploration in NMS is done for the sake of exploration.

TLDR: Yes caves are worth exploring, IF you are interested in pure exploration.

[BonPadre]

Though... dunno if it is relevant but...
I have found stuff on ground caves I rarely came (or never may be even more precise) in open world.
I found naturally formed Albumen pearls in caves (or cave "terrain", because it was open ground, but with marrow bulbs) I found vortex cubes NOT on a pedestal in caves (if it was what you called "cube things", they are somewhat not so common, and can turn to be usefull in some techs buiding use, once you get the blueprint.
https://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Beam_Impact_Theta
So selling them for what they worth was maybe... sort of a "mistake" ? (not an overly dramatic one I mean... but hey ;-) I try to add some drama there )

So while it's not an abslute necessity to go in them, I indeed had some fun (as long as there are no critters in them)exploring along them, and when I get bored, I simply use my terrain manipluator to get out if I'm lost

[NoX]

in the first iteration I thought they did have some cubes or something that only showed up in caves. Not sure now in this iteration.

[BT]

also some creatures also appear only in caves, so if you want to scan them all, you'll need to explore the caves.

But I agree that it would be nice if we can find something inside the caves, encouraging us to explore more aside just providing a beautiful view of csve interior.

[moonracer]

thanks all good to know. Yeah, I'm enjoying the exploration aspect of the game, I've only really explored a cave on maybe six planets so far and they just seemed to vary a lot less than surface elements. cool to know that there are cave specific creatures some times.

[Blueyce]

I would add that the critters that I have found in caves were always predators . I call them Chitter Nasties as they always "chitter". They have been the kind that sort of , kind of look like giant crabs running around on spider legs. I'm not so good of shot so I keep my grenade launcher primed.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

The caves get kind of old after a while. I only explore them if I am searching for critters or seeking resources at this point.

It would be cool if you would ocasionally run into something special, like a treasure chest, hidden monolith or old artifacts.

I did manage to drown in a water-filled cave once. That was back at initial launch when I was a newbee. Found about the grenade laucher and never had a problem since.

[Asmosis]

Originally posted by Mr. Bufferlow:

The caves get kind of old after a while.

It's quite fun to drive the Roamer or Nomad through caves, can do loop da loops with the nomad.

[BaneBlackGuard]

Originally posted by Asmosis:

Originally posted by Mr. Bufferlow:

The caves get kind of old after a while.

It's quite fun to drive the Roamer or Nomad through caves, can do loop da loops with the nomad.

oooo never done that, i will have to try it.

[Blake]

Originally posted by BT:

also some creatures also appear only in caves, so if you want to scan them all, you'll need to explore the caves.

I have yet to encounter that as all the creatures I have needed to scan have never been inside a cave

[BonPadre]

Originally posted by Gray:

Originally posted by BT:

also some creatures also appear only in caves, so if you want to scan them all, you'll need to explore the caves.

I have yet to encounter that as all the creatures I have needed to scan have never been inside a cave

Again there is cave and "cave". Let me recap.

You imagine a cave as a place that is enclosed underground. and that's right. In the game ofc you have that, no issues there.

But there are also "caves" that are NOT enclosed in the game. The way to realize that ? When you have marrow bulb, they are supposed to be a "cave" thing and when you look at the terrain color it's very often a different color as the regular ground. Also you have minerals that have a certain shape that are only "cave" minerals.

So when you are in the open, and you spot marrow bulbs + those hexagonal tall minerals, it's a "cave"...
Thus so many times in those open "caves" you get the same critters than the ones you should usually have mostly in caves.
https://nomanssky.gamepedia.com/Fauna#Ecosystems

This is why sometimes (if not often depending of the planets) you don't even need to really explore caves to get those Subterranean animals, and they spawn in the "open caves"

[Blake]

Originally posted by BonPadre:

Originally posted by Gray:

I have yet to encounter that as all the creatures I have needed to scan have never been inside a cave

Again there is cave and "cave". Let me recap...........

I have found every creature on every planet I have landed on (I never leave a planet without doing so) and I have stil yet to find a creature in a cave regardless of the definition. It must just be the planets I have found had no creatures in a cave.

[swingline]

That's interesting, I've found creatures in a decent percentage of caves, and I sometimes don't loook very hard. It's not 50%, but it's not rare. I don't know if it's 10-20%, but maybe.

I don't have many photos, but here's one interesting fellow I found in a cave:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1360095050

Like BonPadre mentions, I do think some animals spawn depending on terrian, regardless of whether it's "underground" or not. Sometimes I'll find cave animals running around the mouths of caves where that cave type of terrain extends without land being overhead.

[Zeno]

Playing in Permadeath mode, caves are essential to early-game survival. The sporting question is always: will this cave lead into a network of passages that will get me where I need to go (like to my crashed ship) in shelter? Or will it lead to a dead end?

It's also a good place to grind for iron - which is doled out in small amounts in Survival and Permadeath modes, without too much trouble from sentinels.

It's always helpful to have a terrain manipulator installed in case I get lost and/or need a quick exit to the surface.