Skull Cavern - Stardew Valley Wiki (2024)

For ladder/shaft spawn rates, special monster drops, and the contents of crates and barrels, see The Mines.

The Skull Cavern is located in the northwest area of the Desert. It is initially locked and requires the Skull Key to gain access.

Overview

There is no practical limit to the number of floors (sometimes called levels) in the Skull Cavern.^[1] Similar to the Mines, the Player advances through floors in the Skull Cavern by finding a ladder on each floor, either by mining rocks or defeating enemies. The Skull Cavern has the same possible floor layouts as the ones in the Mines.

Unlike the Mines, there is no elevator to save progress, but on every floor there is a ladder at the starting point where the Player can leave the Skull Cavern. Each visit must start again from the first floor.

When ladders to the next floor appear from breaking rocks, 20% of the time they will appear as a shaft (or hole) instead of a ladder. Shafts make it possible to travel 3-15 floors at a time. The number of floors dropped is based on an integer x between 3 and 8 inclusive, chosen with equal probability, with a 90% chance that the player drops x floors and a 10% chance that the player drops 2x-1 floors. The amount of floors dropped is predetermined based on the mine floor, game day, and Random Seed. In particular, Luck does not affect the chances of jumping down a certain number of floors. This also means that if multiple shafts spawn on the same floor, they will all drop the player the same number of floors, so it does not matter which one is chosen. Jumping down the shaft causes Health damage equal to 3x the number of floors skipped (although jumping down a shaft will never reduce health to less than 1). Note that if a shaft above floor 100 is calculated to drop the player past floor 100, it will be modified to only drop the player to floor 100.^[2]

If the player runs out of health while exploring Skull Cavern, they will wake up sometime later on the same day in Harvey's Clinic. A fee of 1,000g will be deducted for emergency surgery. Several items may also be lost. Passing out at 2:00 am will cause the player to lose 1,000g or 10% of funds, whichever is less.

Iridium

The chance to find Iridium Ore increases slowly and steadily as the player descends into the Skull Cavern, rapidly increasing from floor 10 to 100. See Skull Cavern/Ore Distribution for more details.

The monsters in the Skull Cavern also have a chance to drop Iridium Ore and Iridium Bars, as well as special items. It can be a good idea to bring the Lava Katana or Galaxy Sword, as enemies are particularly strong.

High Luck increases the frequency of ladders/shafts. Rapid descent to floors with a higher chance of spawning Iridium Nodes is often more efficient for acquiring ore than thorough exploration. Staircases can also be stacked, so a single inventory slot can hold 999 staircases. Even blindly placing staircases will take some time though; the lower the player descends with staircases, the less time they have to explore the Skull Cavern.

Qi's Challenge

After entering the Cavern for the first time, a letter will be received on the following day from Mr. Qi. The letter begins the quest Qi's Challenge, which is completed by reaching floor 25 in the Skull Cavern. Completing the quest awards 10,000g, delivered by mail the following day. If the player reaches floor 25 of the Skull Cavern during the first visit, the quest will automatically be fulfilled the next day.

Qi's Hungry Challenge

"Qi's Hungry Challenge" is a possible, repeatable Special Order, that may be accepted in Qi's Walnut Room on Ginger Island. It is completed by reaching floor 100 of the Skull Cavern within the given time limit. While this quest is active, no food or drink items can be consumed while the player is in the Skull Cavern. Buffs from food/drink before entering the Skull Cavern will stay active.

While this quest is active, Big Slimes may occasionally have hearts that will give 10 health points when slain. Another strategy to regain health without eating is to equip one or more Vampire Rings or to use a weapon with the Vampiric enchantment.

The use of staircases is permitted. Completing the quest awards 25 Qi Gems.

Skull Cavern Invasion

The "Skull Cavern Invasion" is a possible, repeatable Special Order, that may be accepted in Qi's Walnut Room on Ginger Island. It is completed by reaching floor 100 of the Skull Cavern within the given time limit. While the quest is active, stronger variations of monsters occupy the Cavern; similarly to the Dangerous Mines. Radioactive Nodes can also spawn here, like the Dangerous Mines.

The use of staircases is permitted. Completing the quest awards 40 Qi Gems. After completing the challenge for the first time, the statue at the Cavern's entrance can be used to toggle hard mode in the cavern.

Time

Time runs more slowly in Skull Cavern than elsewhere in the game: whereas one hour of game time normally lasts 43 seconds, in Skull Cavern one hour lasts 54 seconds (25% longer). However, time reverts to normal 43-second hours in multiplayer games and on Prehistoric Floors.^[3]

This has two main implications:

• Players have more real-time available before the end of the day, and should be able to descend deeper than otherwise.
• The game-time duration of any buff is decreased.

This adjustment in timing has no effect upon other aspects of the game, such as equipment processing times. For example, Honey placed in a Keg at noon is ready with Mead at 10 pm even if the player spends most of that time in the Skull Cavern.

Strategy

Food

Shown below are foods with Buffs that are useful when exploring the Skull Cavern. Note that eating a food with buffs will wipe out any active buffs and replace them with the buffs from the newly eaten food. If the newly eaten food has no buffs, the existing buffs will remain in effect. Coffee, Triple Shot Espresso and Ginger Ale are an exception to this rule; they will stack with other food buffs (but not each other).

Image	Name	Ingredients	Energy / Health	Buff(s)	Duration
	Autumn's Bounty	Yam(1) Pumpkin(1)	22099	Foraging(+2) Defense(+2)	7m 41s
	Coffee	Coffee Bean(5)	31	Speed(+1)	1m 23s
	Crab Cakes	Crab(1) Wheat Flour(1) Egg(1) Oil(1)	225101	Speed(+1) Defense(+1)	16m 47s
	Cranberry Sauce	Cranberries(1) Sugar(1)	12556	Mining(+2)	3m 30s
	Eggplant Parmesan	Eggplant(1) Tomato(1)	17578	Mining(+1) Defense(+3)	4m 39s
	Fried Eel	Eel(1) Oil(1)	7533	Luck(+1)	7m
	Fried Mushroom	Common Mushroom(1) Morel(1) Oil(1)	13560	Attack(+2)	7m
	Ginger Ale	Ginger(3) Sugar(1)	6328	Luck(+1)	5m
	Lucky Lunch	Sea Cucumber(1) Tortilla(1) Blue Jazz(1)	10045	Luck(+3)	11m 11s
	Magic Rock Candy	N/A	500225	Mining(+2) Luck(+5) Speed(+1) Defense(+5) Attack(+5)	8m 24s
	Maple Bar	Maple Syrup(1) Sugar(1) Wheat Flour(1)	225101	Farming(+1) Fishing(+1) Mining(+1)	16m 47s
	Miner's Treat	Cave Carrot(2) Sugar(1) Milk(1)	12556	Mining(+3) Magnetism(+32)	5m 35s
	Pepper Poppers	Hot Pepper(1) Cheese(1)	13058	Speed(+1) Farming(+2)	7m
	Pumpkin Soup	Pumpkin(1) Milk(1)	20090	Luck(+2) Defense(+2)	7m 41s
	Roots Platter	Cave Carrot(1) Winter Root(1)	12556	Attack(+3)	5m 35s
	Spicy Eel	Eel(1) Hot Pepper(1)	11551	Luck(+1) Speed(+1)	7m
	Stuffing	Bread(1) Cranberries(1) Hazelnut(1)	17076	Defense(+2)	5m 35s
	Super Meal	Bok Choy(1) Cranberries(1) Artichoke(1)	16072	Speed(+1) Max Energy(+40)	3m 30s
	Triple Shot Espresso	Coffee(3)	83	Speed(+1)	4m 12s

Explosives

Bombs make quick work of densely-clustered stones and ore veins. They can also be used for permanently defeating Mummies.

Bombs can be crafted, or purchased from Dwarf:

Image	Name	Ingredients	Purchase Price
	Cherry Bomb	Copper Ore(4) Coal(1)	300g
	Bomb	Iron Ore(4) Coal(1)	1,000g
	Mega Bomb	Gold Ore(4) Solar Essence(1) Void Essence(1)	1,600g

The Slingshot's Explosive Ammo is also effective in dealing with small groups of stones, Iridium Ore deposits, and incapacitated Mummies. Loading the Slingshot with Gold Ore deals substantial damage, making it potentially useful for dispatching tough targets. Explosive ammo can be crafted, or bought at the Adventurer's Guild for 300g.

Staircases

Staircases can be used for rapid descent or skipping troublesome floors. If the player has one or more Crystalariums, they can be used to produce Jade which can be traded for Staircases with the Desert Trader on Sundays.

Rings

Several Rings may assist in exploring the Skull Cavern. See the Rings page for full descriptions.

Warp Totems

A Warp Totem can be used to make a quick exit if supplies are running low or the day is almost over to avoid the fee of up to 1,000g for passing out at 2:00 am.

A Warp Totem: Desert (or Desert Obelisk) can be used to access the Desert about 4 hours earlier than Pam arrives at the Bus Stop.

Monsters

Prehistoric Floors

See also: The Mines#Infested Floors

Prehistoric floors are a type of infested floor containing mainly Pepper Rex monsters. Mutant Flies and Iridium Bats can also spawn and attack the player there. Dinosaur Eggs and Fiddlehead Ferns can be foraged on Prehistoric floors. Foliage on this floor has a chance to yield an Ancient Seed when cut down. There is a ≈2.2% chance to encounter a prehistoric floor at and below floor 7.^[4]

Because prehistoric floors are infested, all enemies on this floor must be killed before a ladder appears.

Treasure Rooms

Small rooms containing treasure chests, similar to those in the Mines, can randomly appear at floors 10+. Daily luck and luck buffs affect the chance to find Treasure Rooms.

The probability of encountering one when entering a new floor equals to 0.01 + (Daily Luck / 10) + (Luck Buffs / 100).^[4] This means Treasure Rooms have a base chance of 1% to appear with daily luck increasing the chance by 1% at best or decreasing by 1% at worst, with the Special Charm adding 0.25%, and food buffs adding 1% for every point of luck. In multiplayer, the luck values taken into account are the average of luck stats of players present in the Skull Cavern.

Floor 100 of the Skull Cavern is guaranteed to contain a treasure chest. The only exception is during the run where the player completes the secret. Floors 200 and 300 of the Skull Cavern are also guaranteed to contain 2 and 3 treasure chests, respectively.

Below is a table of all possible treasures that can be randomly found inside Treasure Chests in the Skull Cavern. All percent chances listed below are assuming that the player has claimed Farming Mastery (for the Golden Animal Cracker) and Combat Mastery (for the Trinkets). If either or both have not been claimed, then the chances for all other available items are slightly increased.

Secret

After reading Secret Note #10, the player will find Mr. Qi at floor 100 of the Skull Cavern. A cutscene ensues in which:

Trivia

• The plaques that can be occasionally found on the walls contain enciphered messages.
• To reach the deepest floor of Skull Cavern, the Quarry Mine Floor would need to be bypassed, which has no ability to produce a ladder. This floor is coded as 77377, and can be found at floor 77257 of the Skull Cavern, (which counts floor 1 as floor 121 internally).^[8]
• Starting at floor 880, Iridium Bats will become red bats and have double health and faster speed.^[9]

References

History

• 1.3.27: Added Carbon Ghost, Iridium Bat, Iridium Crab, Treasure Rooms, and encounter with Mr. Qi. Removed exploit that allowed the player to avoid bomb damage by consuming food after placing a bomb.
• 1.4: Added Pepper Rex. Added White Turban to possible Treasure Room items. All players entering a shaft in Multiplayer now descend to the same floor. Qi's challenge can now be completed during the first visit to the Skull Cavern. Shafts will no longer drop the player past floor 100.
• 1.5: Added Auto-Petter to possible Treasure Room items. Fixed chests spawned on certain floors being shifted down by 4 tiles. Fixed message appearing when opening a treasure room chest before opening the initial 15 Parsnip Seeds given by Mayor Lewis.
• 1.5.2: Added Dark Cowboy Hat to possible Treasure Room items.
• 1.5.5: Reaching floor 100 will result in a guaranteed treasure chest, except when viewing the secret cutscene.
• 1.6: Additional chests added to Skull Cavern levels 200 and 300. Mystery Boxes, Trinkets, and the Golden Animal Cracker added to the chest loot pool. Added statue at the Cavern's entrance that can be used to toggle hard mode in the cavern after completing the Skull Cavern Invasion quest.
• 1.6.4: Added 20 new 'alternate' floor layouts. Added more variety (Artifact Troves, Cinder Shards, Seafoam Pudding, Spicy Eel, Crab Cakes, and Golden Mystery Boxes), and improvements, to Skull Cavern treasure chests.
• 1.6.6: Fixed issue causing only 1 Omni Geode to be produced from treasure chests.