Skull Caverns, is it even worth it? ( some spoilers)

[iaregamertom]

So. Long story short, I am in the "rich" stage of the game (ancient wine casked etc). I dont need iridium any more, I simply want the auto petters.
I have iridium tools and about 30 iridium sprinklers but of course you can never have enough iridium sprinklers, yea I know I can buy one a week.
The odds of an auto petter from a treasure floor is 26/1 base luck according to wiki and I have the rabbit foot wallet thing but in about 7 runs of skull cavern ranging from level 30 - 70, I have only found one single treasure floor which gave me trash.
Is it even worth it? Statistically it would take maybe a hundred runs to get a couple of auto petters which I dont really need because I dont need the products from animals anymore, its more a sort of RP thing because I dont want my animals to slip to zero hearts.
Its so frustrating, I have always felt that the rewards from the skull cavern are simply not worth the effort due to the RNG of treasure floors THEN the rng of getting what you want from the treasure floor!
I would rather auto petters to be available to purchase, even at a million!

So, in short, I have never had love for the skull cavern, in many playthroughs, I usually have the statue or perfection which supplies my iridium needs way before I am capable of efficiently running skull and have decided it just isnt worth it, theres very little incentive to go there .... interested in opinions about this.

I guess this was more of a rant, sorry :-)

[NBOX21]

I'd say it's worth it if you know what you're doing. Here's a few things to know that definitely makes it worthwhile, at least for me:

Several monsters that are in the skull cavern can only be found there, which you will need for the monster eradication goals in the Adventurer's Guild.

Purple slimes are dangerous, but well worth the trouble. If you kill 1,000 slimes of any colour, you can get the slime charmer ring that protects you from all slimes in the game, which makes all future runs of the skull cavern significantly easier.

Speaking of purple slimes, their eggs are also worth getting, not just for the sell price, but also to raise yourself. I use purple slime eggs to make my own iridium farm considering purple slimes have a good chance to drop iridium once you kill them.

If you use staircases to travel down in the skull cavern, you won't skip any floors, making the chances of finding treasure rooms much higher as a result, which in turn, increases the chances of getting an auto-petter that you seek.

You can get more staircases easily by trading Jades at the Desert Trader every Sunday. Just have a shed full of crystalariums, put some Jades inside them and watch as they make more Jades for you.

Endgame spoilers below:
Once you unlock Qi's Walnut Room, there are several challenges involving the skull cavern such as making it more dangerous or not allowing you to eat or drink anything, which are also worth completing for the Qi gems which are used to obtain unique items not found anywhere else, especially if you're using the staircase trick mentioned earlier.

[iaregamertom]

Originally posted by NBOX21:

I'd say it's worth if if you know what you're doing. Here's a few things to know that definitely makes it worthwhile, at least for me:

Several monsters that are in the skull cavern can only be found there, which you will need for the monster eradication goals in the Adventurer's Guild.

Purple slimes are dangerous, but well worth the trouble. If you kill 1,000 slimes of any colour, you can get the slime charmer ring that protects you from all slimes in the game, which makes all future runs of the skull cavern significantly easier.

Speaking of purple slimes, their eggs are also worth getting, not just for the sell price, but also to raise yourself. :slimehappy: I use purple slime eggs to make my own iridium farm considering purple slimes have a good chance to drop iridium once you kill them.

If you use staircases to travel down in the skull cavern, you won't skip any floors, making the chances of finding treasure rooms much higher as a result, which in turn, increases the chances of getting an auto-petter that you seek. :stardrop:

You can get more staircases easily by trading Jades at the Desert Trader every Sunday. Just have a shed full of crystalariums, put some Jades inside them and watch as they make more Jades for you. :pon:

Endgame spoilers below:
Once you unlock Qi's Walnut Room, there are several challenges involving the skull cavern such as making it more dangerous or not allowing you to eat or drink anything, which are also worth completing for the Qi gems which are used to obtain unique items not found anywhere else, especially if you're using the staircase trick mentioned earlier.

yea I have the slime ring, there is little danger to me, I have the galaxy sword, crab ring, (not the infinity yet) I have unlocked QI and have all of my tools and galaxy sword upgraded via the forge on ginger island.
I am considering the jade/stair case route its just the rng of getting the petters is so slim, even with luck food etc, there really isnt anything else from treasure floors i want, apart from a couple of other nice to have items.
I dont want to go the route of using cheat mods to give myself the petters but it is such a small chance of getting them, Its the only aspect of the game I feel doesnt balance the time/risk/reward factor.
I have also completed the monster eradication missions on another play through so that isnt that important to me now
In short, again, I dont need anything, even prismatic shards are now worthless to me, I dont need them, I only want the auto petters lol

[Me Patar]

So, I've only gotten 1 auto-petter in an estimated 100-200 opened treasure chests. Sad, but its just my RNG. That being said, it's definitely worth it for a visionary dream farm, and I am continuing to look for a 2nd.

Here are some tips to at least get to floor 100 every time you delve (guaranteed chest) to, on average, get one in 26 attempts:
A.) Only go on good luck days
B.) Always have spicy eel luck affect active, as well as triple espresso (for a total of +1 luck and +2 speed).
C.) Seek out any +1 luck rings that are from random champion enemy drops (also in skull cavern), and wear 2.
D.) Start to use the hammer abusing the special effect + spam normal attack mechanic.
E.) Ignore all rocks that aren't a 1 hit.

With the hammer, you can kill almost every enemy without wasting time, and I get a lot of ladders this way. Hope this can help you.

Much respect for anyone who grinds out an auto-petter.

[Avilyn]

If you don't object to using mods, there is a mod that allows you to buy the auto-petter from Marnie after completing a quest from her on the Special Orders board:
https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/7534

[ChrillBill]

Getting an auto-petter from the skull cavern can be a pain. I have lucked out a few times and got more than one within a short period of time, but other times I have had to go through many many chests!

In addition to the mod suggested above me, there is another mod that actually expands all shop inventories in town, including Marnies and makes it possible to buy the auto-petter for 50K :> The mod is called Expanded Shop Inventories[www.nexusmods.com]

[iaregamertom]

Thanks for the replies, yea, i may have to succumb to a mod that allows a purchase. its not as if its a massive cheat item after all, just an endgame nicety

[Redwood]

What is it that pets your animals anyway? I don't see how such a thing could work.

[iaregamertom]

Originally posted by Redwood:

What is it that pets your animals anyway? I don't see how such a thing could work.

You know there is an auto grabber that picks up and stores eggs milk etc? Well, there is a same size object called the auto petter, it has two hands (graphically) that is supposed to go around like a wheel and pet animals ao you dont have to, the pets basically never lose friendship providing they are still fed

[iaregamertom]

Originally posted by iaregamertom:

Originally posted by Redwood:

What is it that pets your animals anyway? I don't see how such a thing could work.

You know there is an auto grabber that picks up and stores eggs milk etc? Well, there is a same size object called the auto petter, it has two hands (graphically) that is supposed to go around like a wheel and pet animals so you dont have to, the animals basically never lose friendship providing they are still fed

[NBOX21]

Originally posted by Redwood:

What is it that pets your animals anyway? I don't see how such a thing could work.

Magic! It's just a video game, it's not supposed to be a 1:1 recreation of real life considering it's not a realistic simulator.

[ChrillBill]

Originally posted by Redwood:

What is it that pets your animals anyway? I don't see how such a thing could work.

In the vanilla version of the game the auto-petter consists of a stick with two hands attached to it, that spins all day everyday! So when the animal gets near it, they receive a pet :D However, in my last modded playthrough the auto-petter was depicted as one of those hypnosis wheels, which also spins all day everyday... Kinda creeped me out a bit to be honest. My guess is that the animals were supposed to look at the wheel until they were convinced they had received a pet, but I am still not sure about the thought behind that particular design o.o The auto-grabber also creeps me out a bit to be honest.

[NBOX21]

Originally posted by ChrillBill:

Originally posted by Redwood:

What is it that pets your animals anyway? I don't see how such a thing could work.

In the vanilla version of the game the auto-petter consists of a stick with two hands attached to it, that spins all day everyday! So when the animal gets near it, they receive a pet :D

I think he meant how is it supposed to work within the actual game world itself considering you never see it happen yourself, even if you rush to the barn/coop as early as possible. My guess is that it somehow works by magic and that any animals inside magically receive a free petting every morning. Maybe it somehow knows where each animal is and the hand stretches out to pet them...

I don't know for sure, but that's part of the fun when it comes to stuff like this! As you never see how it works in the game itself, you can leave it up to your imagination as to how it actually functions.

[ChrillBill]

Originally posted by NBOX21:

Originally posted by ChrillBill:

In the vanilla version of the game the auto-petter consists of a stick with two hands attached to it, that spins all day everyday! So when the animal gets near it, they receive a pet :D

I think he meant how is it supposed to work within the actual game world itself considering you never see it happen yourself, even if you rush to the barn/coop as early as possible. My guess is that it somehow works by magic and that any animals inside magically receive a free petting every morning. Maybe it somehow knows where each animal is and the hand stretches out to pet them...

I don't know for sure, but that's part of the fun when it comes to stuff like this! As you never see how it works in the game itself, you can leave it up to your imagination as to how it actually functions.

Uhm, that is what I kinda explained, how it is supposed to work from a logical perspective if you take the design of the auto-petter into account. Animals are usually curious about new things and if the thing in question does something that the animal enjoys they will naturally come back to it. No need for any magic. Imagination goes a long way ;>

[NBOX21]

Originally posted by ChrillBill:

Animals are usually curious about new things and if the thing in question does something that the animal enjoys they will naturally come back to it.

Oh, I did not think of that at all. My bad. I'm not super knowledgeable with animals, nor am I good with animals in real life so there's heaps of things I don't even know about them, with that being one.

Come to think of it, us humans aren't that much different in that regard either. We too naturally come back to something if we enjoy it like our favourite video games or entertainment, for example! That's because technically, humans are also animals; it's just that many of us don't think of us that way.

[ChrillBill]

Originally posted by NBOX21:

Originally posted by ChrillBill:

Animals are usually curious about new things and if the thing in question does something that the animal enjoys they will naturally come back to it.

Oh, I did not think of that at all. My bad. I'm not super knowledgeable with animals, nor am I good with animals in real life so there's heaps of things I don't even know about them, with that being one.

Come to think of it, us humans aren't that much different in that regard either. We too naturally come back to something if we enjoy it like our favourite video games or entertainment, for example! That's because technically, humans are also animals; it's just that many of us don't think of us that way.

Yes that's very true :> I will admit my imagination started going places when I read your theory about the arms stretching out to pet all the animals. I think honestly that would cause a lot of panic in the coop :p I mean while animals are generally curious they also tend to prefer to investigate on their own terms (at their own pace). My mind also started to travel to a scenario with a malfunctioning auto-petter @.@ Imagine visiting your coop only to find all the chickens have been turned into nuggets O.O And in a distant corner the culprit sits, and before you know it you see a hand coming at you at full speed!