Stardew Valley is a popular farm simulation role-playing game. While its main focus is the farm life and trying to get married to someone, you can also fight monsters in caves. Exciting, isn’t it? However, there is a massive dungeon in the game that is quite difficult, and players often advise to come fully prepared for this: the Skull Cavern. If you are planning on taking on the Skull Cavern, then you need to be ready for what’s coming. This guide will show you what you need to do in order to conquer the Skull Cavern.
Ultimate Skull Cavern Guide – Stardew Valley
Food Preparation
Before we start diving into the treacherous Skull Cavern, we have to prepare ourselves for what’s to come. First, we start with food.
The easiest food you can get is buying a salad from Gus. This is because the salad offers the best price-to-health ratio and you can buy a ton of them from Gus. If you have animals, cheese is also a great food to bring. You should make sure it is high quality. The higher the quality, the better.
If you have crystalariums, use those to mass-produce rubies and buy a lot of spicy eels. They are also a great food to bring.
If you plan on doing a short run through the Skull Cavern, or just don’t have the means to get the food mentioned beforehand, you can pick up the cacti fruits that are available on your way to the entrance of the cavern. You should try getting crab cakes from iridium crabs too, because of the bonus +1 speed they give.
Food can also be picked up if you’re in the Skull Cavern. Items you can pick up are pink cakes, miner’s treats, spicy eels, energy tonics and others. Coffee and triple shot espressos are also great to have in a run, but you don’t really need them on the first few runs in the Skull Cavern.
Ring Combination
Next up is the ring combination. This combination will help you fight through the Skull Cavern. Some of these may require a bit of grinding, some need to be crafted. But we’ll try to include other rings in case you don’t have the necessary rings for the combo.
The first combo is the Iridium Band (it attracts items and increases your attack damage) and Slime Charmer (prevents damage from slimes) as well as Burglar (more monster drops) and Napalm (enemies will explode upon defeat) rings. This combo is to help you use fewer bombs and food while simultaneously getting more loot.
Other rings you can use are Savage Ring (grants speed boost after killing a monster), Ring of Yoba (won’t take damage sometimes, not all the time), Thorns Ring (your enemies will inflict damage on themselves if they attack you), and Lucky Ring (just for extra luck).
Other Items to Consider
While the ring combo we advise to use helps in not using bombs, we still advise bringing bombs or mega bombs to the Skull Cavern. Don’t use cherry bombs. Those bombs have too much a small radius and it feels like you’re throwing paper balls at them. It’s a total waste of resources when you could craft other bombs.
You can also get bombs from the desert trader, but they are too expensive and essentially a lost resort if you don’t have enough. You can get it if you have the money, but that’s up to you. However, if you really want to buy bombs instead, buy from the dwarf. Not as expensive.
Staircases are also some items you need to get. These will essentially help you go deeper into the cavern. You can bring 5 to 10 minimum if you’re planning on doing a short run. But take 50 to 100 if you plan to go really deep into the cavern. You can get a lot of staircases by using crystalariums to get jade, then using the jade at the desert trader to trade for the staircases. However, those are only available on Sundays.
Another thing to buy from the desert trader are Desert Warp Totems. They are 3 Omni Geodes each, but these will save you a lot of time and money.
It’s also advised to not go to the Skull Cavern during a bad luck day. It is frustrating to do so because your luck will be down the whole day and it might affect your run, but it also won’t matter if you’re incredibly prepared.
Single-Player Runs
Now for runs. These apply to single-player and some of these tips aren’t going to work if you’re playing multiplayer.
When you get swarmed by enemies, and trust me because that will be happening a lot, you will panic and start playing erratically. You’ll forget that you have some items to use. Pause the game. There’s no shame in it. Catch your breath, remember what you brought with you, and use those once you unpause the game. This only applies to single-player.
If you’re playing multiplayer, communicate with your partner. You need to rely on each other in order to survive a run through the Skull Cavern. You won’t be able to pause and catch your breath, so you need to rely on your friend for help.
If this is your first run, we recommend bringing 25 iridium ore to upgrade your pickaxe and leave before you get attacked or something worse. Bring food, bombs, and some staircases.
Take note of the enemies you will be fighting:
- Mummies – Slow-moving enemies that you can run away from. Can only be killed if you use a bomb to explode their bodies.
- Serpents/Bats – Time your attacks when you face these creatures. Do not get surrounded by them because once they attack you from all sides, you’re done.
- Slimes – They will surround you fast, and you won’t even have time to react to your low health until it’s too late. This is why we advise bringing the Slime Charmer ring.
Keep your inventory organized as well. An unorganized inventory can lead to problems, but a clean and well-organized inventory is great. You won’t even realize that you have extra space if you don’t organize your inventory. Always keep your items in the same order as well. It helps in remembering where some things are.
When you’re in Skull Cavern, try to get as many iridium ore and prismatic shards. They are valuable resources that are worth a lot and can craft some of the best items in the game.
READ NEXT: War Thunder: F-14A Complete Guide
