Earliest Level Spelunking - Farming Chitin In Caves

[Sam]

Hello and thank you for any help provided in advance.

I need to gather a bunch of chitin for various recipes and keep seeing that going on a murder spree in the cave systems is the best approach.

The videos I see of people doing this are terrifying, and I am certain I would be dropped quickly if approached by 10 scorpions and 10 bats. (At least that's what it looked like in some of the videos I have seen)

So I am wondering:
1. What level you all started farming the cave systems?
2. Which are best to start at?
3. What gear and dino are best suited for this situation?
4. Any other thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys!

[Bonks]

Get a Saber, Get 1k HP on it, put everything else in damage. Go to the center cave and go wild. Saber will eat everything easily
Edit: Reccomended Level: Whenever you can get a Sabertooth and saddle. If playing on a server, trade for one if you can't make.

[Aira]

Personally I'd skip caves and go kill bugs. If you have a saber it will go even faster, but any dino should work. Fast dinos work better against the bugs.

[Sam]

Originally posted by Aira:

Personally I'd skip caves and go kill bugs. If you have a saber it will go even faster, but any dino should work. Fast dinos work better against the bugs.

The problem I find with bugs is consistent spawns. They are few and far between from what I've noticed and yield very little chitin. That has been my #1 source but isn't sufficient to build the metal base we are working on.

[Strategos]

As said above: Saber in center cave (41, 46).

Or, if you plan on doing it on foot, just grab a metal pike, a metal axe, a chitin/flak armor set, a bunch of stimberries and a stack of cooked meat, and go to the south cave (80, 53). It's big so there is a lot of space to kite the enemy and you can aggro them one small group at a time. Plus there are no extreme temperatures inside (it's a bit cold, but nothing life threatening). Also, no fatal falls, it's usually considered the easiest cave.

Also, set up a sleeping bag outside. You know, just in case.

[Turtlewing]

The cave in the south only has spiders, scorpians, and snakes.

You can with some skill backpedal and stab them all with a pike (or spear) while outside their attack range. Spear is actually easier as it can be thrown, but it does a lot less damge and the weight of enough to compensate for breaks and ones that decay befoe you can recover them adds up to more than a pike.

My gear for a run even at high level in that cave is mostly low level stuff:
Hide armor + pants of whatever your best stuff is
Pike
Hatchet+pick (for harvesting)
1 or 2 waterskin (refill in the water in the cave)
20 or more stimulant
20 cooked meat
Spark powder (fist time in I drop a campfire and a storage box so I can cook meat I find to if i end up needing to stay longer to heal or soemthing)
200 fiber (for repairs)
Torch (use sparingly when you need to find your kills in teh darker areas)

You could do the run in just hide with spears, but it'll be harder. I'd recommend bringing a lot of spears and preferring to throw them than to enagge melee. Also remember to pick up the enemy's inventory. Some of them drop spears, and even metal tools and pikes.

Also a dimorphedon can follow you in (most everything else even dillos seem to get stuck easily).

Also you may find a difefrent mix of armor is better. When i first got Chitin I tended to wear chittin pants (panst tend to get hit least so I can afford to not be able to repar them in teh field) cloth gloves and hat (hands and head seem to get hit the most so cheapest stuff to repair, and they offset the temperature penalty from the chitin and hide), and hide for everything else.

Now that I have higher fortitude I wear flak pants and hide everything else for most tasks. There are diminished returns to the effect of more armor, so when you're planning to farm for a while being able to repair in the field can be better than going in with full flak and either having to retreat before it breaks or end up wearing hide you crafted on the spot anyway.

[Sam]

Originally posted by Turtlewing:

The cave in the south only has spiders, scorpians, and snakes.

You can with some skill backpedal and stab them all with a pike (or spear) while outside their attack range. Spear is actually easier as it can be thrown, but it does a lot less damge and the weight of enough to compensate for breaks and ones that decay befoe you can recover them adds up to more than a pike.

My gear for a run even at high level in that cave is mostly low level stuff:
Hide armor + pants of whatever your best stuff is
Pike
Hatchet+pick (for harvesting)
1 or 2 waterskin (refill in the water in the cave)
20 or more stimulant
20 cooked meat
Spark powder (fist time in I drop a campfire and a storage box so I can cook meat I find to if i end up needing to stay longer to heal or soemthing)
200 fiber (for repairs)
Torch (use sparingly when you need to find your kills in teh darker areas)

You could do the run in just hide with spears, but it'll be harder. I'd recommend bringing a lot of spears and preferring to throw them than to enagge melee. Also remember to pick up the enemy's inventory. Some of them drop spears, and even metal tools and pikes.

Also a dimorphedon can follow you in (most everything else even dillos seem to get stuck easily).

Also you may find a difefrent mix of armor is better. When i first got Chitin I tended to wear chittin pants (panst tend to get hit least so I can afford to not be able to repar them in teh field) cloth gloves and hat (hands and head seem to get hit the most so cheapest stuff to repair, and they offset the temperature penalty from the chitin and hide), and hide for everything else.

Now that I have higher fortitude I wear flak pants and hide everything else for most tasks. There are diminished returns to the effect of more armor, so when you're planning to farm for a while being able to repair in the field can be better than going in with full flak and either having to retreat before it breaks or end up wearing hide you crafted on the spot anyway.

Thank you for the information!! I really appreciate you taking the time.

[Sam]

Originally posted by Strategos:

As said above: Saber in center cave (41, 46).

Or, if you plan on doing it on foot, just grab a metal pike, a metal axe, a chitin/flak armor set, a bunch of stimberries and a stack of cooked meat, and go to the south cave (80, 53). It's big so there is a lot of space to kite the enemy and you can aggro them one small group at a time. Plus there are no extreme temperatures inside (it's a bit cold, but nothing life threatening). Also, no fatal falls, it's usually considered the easiest cave.

Also, set up a sleeping bag outside. You know, just in case.

Thanks for the help!!

[Fuffy]

I´d recommend hunting for Trilobites on the shore. They give chitin, as well as oil and pearls and are easily killed even with spears.