The ultimate guide to caves [SPOILERS]

Since A4 there are some randomized locations to be found to occupy your time and since they are different for each player/hero there has not been a general hints thread for them as there are for other locations. But some parts are similar and have been giving people headaches so I decided to gather some hints (and a few spoilers) for those desperate out there.

1. How to find your caves?

I guess even low level heros have stumbled upon at least one cave while exploring the world, but if you're looking for the next one and can't find it might be helpful to know where to look. First of all there are two ways of finding caves:

- exploring the world

- opening chests (in your towns mostly) and sometimes just looking through your towns

The first type of caves are placed on your map and can be found by scouting units. These are (ordered by length/difficulty/distance from your town):

Small

Hollow

Misty

Dire

The caves are placed semi-randomly. That is, the distance from your town (main dwelling) is fixed, but otherwise the placing is randomized. And so the Small cave is placed on the 7th "ring" around your dwelling, Hollow on the 14th, Misty on the 21st and Dire on the 28th. Here's an example of how to find the first cave:

If you trace those rings out further into the world, on each multiple of 7 you will find a cave (well, only until the 28th). In principle - if you really have nothing to do and badly need a cave - you could send your explorers to uncover only the squares on those particular rings, but of course there's other interesting stuff in between :)

The other type of caves can be explored when you find maps for them. In most cases these can be found in your towns (chests especially) but again there's a rule. The maps can be found when your hero reaches a certain level and again the more difficult/lengthy the cave, the higher level you will need. Maps should be found after hero reaches level 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30. If you find one - post the name of it and your hero level (at the time you found it) in this thread or pm me in the game.

The caves with maps are: Deep, Hidden, Sinister, Secret and Legendary.

2. Stalgmites

(reserved post - to be edited)

3. Traps

(reserved post - to be edited)

4. Deadly Traps

(reserved post - to be edited)

2. Stalagmites

Caves are divided into sections. The longer the cave the more sections it will have and these can also be longer themselves. There are different types of sections: monsters, traps, moving rocks, hidden objects, stalgmites, etc. Some of those are pretty straightforward and do not need any further explanation - simply kill all the monsters and there you go! ;p Two of them however are pretty tricky: stalgmites and traps.

Stalagmite sections have blocks that are missing a piece and block your way unless you replace the missing tip. So far these have given players the most headaches, as sometimes tips are very smartly hidden. Probably the most important thing to note here is that the missing tips are WITHIN the section (or, at least, I've never found any outside of it) - so the searching space is limited.

The second imprortant thing is there are only 4 types of stalagmite blocks that can be chipped and the tips are different for each of them. It is MUCH easier to find one if you now precisely what you are looking for. So let's go through them all.

Type 1.

If you look around you can find what it looked like before somebody spoiled it a bit. Here it is as a whole

Comparing the pictures you can see what is missing, but just to be clear - this is what it looks like

Type 2.

Can you find the same tip here?

Type 3.

This is probably the most tricky one, as the tip is really tiny.

And here's the culprit (unfortunatelly, it rarely is so nicely placed in the open)

Type 4.

To see if you can find those, I'm posting bigger screenshots where the tips are in their natural surroundings ;) Can you find them all?

Last, but not least, stalgmites can sometimes block a bonus nook in your cave. You know you've stumbled upon it if you have two same stalgmite blocks to repair and only one tip! Here the order of replacing matters - behind one of these blocks lies the missing tip. Don't worry though - if you place it wrong you will still be able to finish the cave, only you will miss out on some bonus item/chest. I know, it still breaks your heart ;) So how to avoid locking out some nice stuff? The hint lies in the fact that the bonus parts are off the main path. Look carefully on the map and on the surroundings to try and figure out where (most probably) the main path goes and first replace the tip on the SIDE path. In there, you will find the piece that will unlock the main way in the cave. For example, if one of the blocks is after a very narrow corridor, it might be a side pathway. If you can see anything blocking the way behind a block - this is probably the side way. Here's an example:

You can see 2 blocks of the same type. The little map in the corner is of little help as there's little of the main path shown and it's hard to figure out which way is sideways and which is the main road. But if I move my hero onto one of those out croppings I can remove some of the fog and peak behind the block:

Both of those ways behind blocks go in the same direction, but one of them is full of rocks and rubble. I took the hint and opened that way first - and found the missing piece. (Unfortunatelly, there might be cases where you'd be down to guessing...)

I cannot edit the reserved posts (and here I was thinking I was smart...) so the edits will go in separate posts. Herkin solved the cave levels mystery ;) Thanks!

The maps are found after you've reached level 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 - with the last one being the longest and final in the cave quest - the Legendary Cave.

The ordering before that remains unclear although I think their sizes increased as follows: Hidden, Deep, Secret, Sinister and Legendary

You have really done a good job on this post. Thank you so much for your time and trouble.

Thanks Ubique

Yes, great work. Thank you.

Excellent thanks so much

Wow!  Excellent!  Your time is greatly appreciated.

Woo thank you. Hope this info will help me finish my misty cave.

Excellent job! Very useful for new players. Thanks for the time and effort!

I thank you for the time you put into this information. It really helps. Great Job!

Seriously impressed - well done and thank you!

Awesome job, ubi :) :)  Thanks so much for taking the time to do this :)

Thank you Ubi!   I am sure your work will help new players very much to avoid some the angst that we have experienced with the caves :)

Found the map for Hidden cave on the ground at level 10 and Secret cave on the ground at level 15

I managed to find a 5th type of broken stalagmite.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8CgGfJE1hRjQnV4WlpaaDE4WEE/view?usp=sharing