Skull Cavern is really, really hard.

[The Lemon]

I think the main problem is enemy damage. Mummies can do around 30 damage, which is around a fourth of your health bar. Plus, the flying guys are pretty annoying. It may be an issue with co-op, but when I hit a flying enemy, they don't fly back immediately. Instead, they take the chance to deal some damage. Rinse and repeat until I'm dead.

Is there a certain tactic that I'm missing? Is it just about spamming food so that after every battle you're fully healed? I genuinely have no idea how you're supposed to get to level 40 for certain items.

[smeredith]

You want a strong weapon with enough knockback, Lava Katana or Galaxy Sword/Hammer, then make sure to attack a little early so they don't get to trade blows. You're definitely expected to have food, salad's are an inexpensive and always accessible one (buy from Gus). You'll also want to have a bunch of bombs to clear large groups of rocks, a slingshot loaded with explosive ammo is also beneficial.

[MadamLizzy]

And steps help if you're just trying to get down faster! Lol

[The Lemon]

Originally posted by smeredith:

You want a strong weapon with enough knockback, Lava Katana or Galaxy Sword/Hammer, then make sure to attack a little early so they don't get to trade blows. You're definitely expected to have food, salad's are an inexpensive and always accessible one (buy from Gus). You'll also want to have a bunch of bombs to clear large groups of rocks, a slingshot loaded with explosive ammo is also beneficial.

Thanks! I do have a couple questions though.

I know about the galaxy sword, but isn't the whole idea that you get it from exploring the skull cavern? Is the skull cavern not the only/most efficient way of getting a prismatic shard?

I've also tried the knockback strategy with a claymore, which has been helping, but I do think striking early should do the trick.

I've been trying to get the crabshell ring (about 40/60 crabs killed, with progress being as slow as molasses) which adds +5 to defense. Do you think this will make a difference?

[Turtleswatter]

Yes, skull cavern probably is the most plentiful source of prismatic shards but you have a chance to get a Prismatic shard from any omni geode. Outside of skull cavern these are most likely to fall below floor 80 in the normal mines.

While you're grinding away for the ring try food buffs. If you don't have the money for salads there is plenty of stuff you can make - such as fruit salads - that give masses of health and energy, as well as buffs to your attack, defence and luck.

As mentioned before, bombs and stairs are really important to clear a floor quickly before you get assaulted and a quick escape if you get monster floors.

Be prepared to die. I usually restart the day.

[Zerschmetterling]

The flying snakes have a bigger hitbox than their bodies. Strike a bit early to avoid hit trading.
Also, the skulls in the underground quarry drop the "dark sword". Use it on slimes to heal yourself up quickly.

[MoreBooks]

Mummies can be hit several times until they are squished down (yes they will rise again) and you can quickly place a bomb next to them. Move away quick & the bomb will kill them.

[MoreBooks]

Most important thing in Skull Cavern in bombs.

[ehyder]

Originally posted by MoreBooks:

Most important thing in Skull Cavern in bombs.

and stone stairs

[TheCollector]

Use Food with bonus to luck, speed, defense, etc.
https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Skull_Cavern

[Serebro4]

Also use of the TV from the fortune channel.

[CloudSeeker]

What you want is to eat a spicy eel when you start to get the luck and speed bonus.
You also need to carry a couple of healing items to manage the health. I normally bring all my gold star cheese for this. The cheese is easy to get from cows and goats, and it will almost always bring your health and energy to maximum.

[Bob]

Just get a few cows. Use the cheese to heal yourself. At the end of the day, if you just stuff your face, then you can't die, and getting cheese is quite easy to do.

[The Lemon]

Originally posted by Bob:

Just get a few cows. Use the cheese to heal yourself. At the end of the day, if you just stuff your face, then you can't die, and getting cheese is quite easy to do.

Heh, that was exactly what I was doing! Guess I need more.

[bruvinsky]

I have noticed co-op really messes with combat from my limited experience with it, so yeah you won't have a nice time learning Skull Cavern combat with it.

I honestly never use the Crabshell Ring (the Ring of Yoba and Burglar's Ring are just too good to pass up) but in this instance is co-op is ducking up combat it's a good idea to get that, maybe even two.

My favorite healing items in SC are salads from the bar and healing elixirs(can buy some from the dwarf if you don't have a mushroom cave iirc) - don't be afraid to use white algae soup from all the white algae the purple slimes drop in masses too

Lastly, general tips like using the block button (keeping your sword 1 slot next to the pickaxe is helpful for reacting to a sudden serpent), having max luck with the lucky charm, daily luck and lucky lunch + bombs and stairs to leave floors as quickly as possible with minimum hostile encounters

[TheCollector]

Once you have foraging level 10, you can collect iridium quality berries. A berry season yields 2-300 free berries and at iridium quality each berry gives 29 health. I always have a stack of iridium berries, a stack of gold cheese and a stack of normal cheese with me in the caverns to quickly compensate the loss in health. The game pauses while eating, so if you are quick enough you can eat multiple items even in combat.

For skull cavern I suggest galaxy sword and two iridium bands, later maybe also the slime ring. If you approach and strike quick enough, the monsters are pushed back and often do not hit you. Even serpents are often defeated with a few hits while you take no damage. It is important that the enemies are killed fast enough, otherwise they may gang up and encircle and kill you.

If a combat situation is difficult, pause the game by selecting the inventory ('E') and analyse the situation, e.g. check your health bar and decide which item to eat if necessary.

If you want to go down in the caverns, prioritize bombing and finding ladders and holes. If you have a ladder/hole, head for it and go down and simply leave your enemies behind you. No need to waste too much time with fighting (unless completing the monster kill quests has a high priority, too.) With speed buffs it is easier to avoid/outrun enemies.

If you lack practice with skull caverns, wait for a good luck day, skip farm work, wait for 9:30 and head for the bus to the desert. Do skull cavern until midnight (or until you are severly injured/almost killed), check the floor level and the loot, exit the game without sleeping/saving, reload the day and repeat this 5-10 times. Caverns highly depend on luck and RNG as well as practice and equipment. In case of extremely good loot luck like a stack of iridium ore and/or prismatic shard you may want to keep the day and stop practice. Otherwise you may want to reload a last time and spend the day with normal farmwork, etc. and continue to work on your equipment, e.g. stockpiling health food, buff food and bombs or getting the lava catana if you don't already have this or the galaxy sword.

After a skull cavern visit, don't forget to open your geodes. A omni geode has a 5% chance for iridium ore and a 0.4 % chance for prismatic shard and you get a lot of geodes from breaking normal stones in the caverns.