The ultimate guide to caves [SPOILERS]

Ubique, thank you!!! This is a huge help :)))

Very helpfull! I read about these caves on the forum but I thought it where things that would pop up randomly in towns. Thanks to the description were to find them on the map I found the small and the hollow cave so far.

Can it be that my small cave is no more then a cave with one roadstone, one iceblock and one chest containing food? I removed the iceblock and found the chest behind it and walked into a dead end. I tried to click everywhere and anything (also all stalagmites seem complete). Am I supposed to find some secret doorway or is this cave completed now?

I suspect that one's Small Cave is minimal, and the later ones get more interesting.

The chest there for my Anne Young just now yielded one of the combat spells (Mask of Many?) and a small crossbow, damage 16, Renaissance required. A disappointment for her, since her trusty Socket Axe already does 14, and there are Renaissance-era Double Flails that do 24 damage--my Edgar has two.

I'm not much for stalagmites, but I too failed to notice any broken ones.

Well I managed to find the piece for the 5th stalagmite type I posting picture of before

It was hiding under the southern part of the sections wall with just a tip sticking out: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8CgGfJE1hRjYXJsY0pyYTloX28/view?usp=sharing

So if you get that area try looking around that wall or at least close to it.

*EDIT* Though in a different cave I also got that "set piece" so to speak and I found the piece hiding behind some other stalagmites a bit to the east. So its location is randomized.

Thanks a lot DUMBHA! I found that 5th set as well, but I picked the tip early on without taking a screenshot - it is very similar to the tip of type 2. So if you have close up of the tip itself could you post it? I can then add nice shots of the whole block.

Btw, I've found some traps in my hidden cave but out of 5 four were of the same trigger type so not much to show... But I'm closing up to lev 15, so hopefully I will be able to post the part on traps soon.

I believe that Small Cave is always the same for everybody - I've seen about 10 examples.  This means that you'll usually see it some time before you can deal with the ice and you'll often find another cave before then.

All the later caves I've seen seem to be completely random and very variable in difficulty, but you do occasionally see a particular cave part repeated on a different hero.

Oh man!! I heart this post SO MUCH!!!!! THanks Ubique for divulging the secrets of the Stalagmites... it's making my Brain  aLL sparkly thinking of searching those caves again! Tomorrow... !

One of my heroes has just seen two of his caves with the first sections identical.  Much easier to pick the right stalagmite the second time round :)

The other sections of these caves are different.

Small Cave: my latest one has a different obstacle from the others, making it easier to get into at the beginning.  Still identical otherwise.

Sorry to be  a pain but i cant find where any of the missing tips are!! the places where you have shown are not visible in my map of the cave!! I need to remove a bush but cant as yet as i dont have the right tool (which i dont know what it is) could that be the reason?  Thanks x

Does anyone know if the cave maps always appear in the Dwelling, and if there's a timeframe for them? I just got up to level 21, but I'm still looking for my level 20 cave map...

Takes 24 hours from the time you level up, I just got my Deep cave at level 25

Hmmm it should be there by now, then. I guess I'm just not seeing it. I'll give it another day or so. Thanks!

This may be a really dumb question, but just throwing it out there - could it be possible that I missed out on the level 20 cave map because I made it to level 21 within 24 hours after reaching level 20?

It's been three days since I made level 20 and I still don't have a map. The previous ones were really easy to find - am I just not seeing it? Sorry to be so impatient, but I really love my caves :)

Sorry to be  a pain but i cant find where any of the missing tips are!! the places where you have shown are not visible in my map of the cave!! I need to remove a bush but cant as yet as i dont have the right tool (which i dont know what it is) could that be the reason?  Thanks x

The screenshots are just examples of what the tips look like. They are placed randomly, so in your caves they will be in different places than in the pics.

This may be a really dumb question, but just throwing it out there - could it be possible that I missed out on the level 20 cave map because I made it to level 21 within 24 hours after reaching level 20?

It's been three days since I made level 20 and I still don't have a map. The previous ones were really easy to find - am I just not seeing it? Sorry to be so impatient, but I really love my caves :)

The higher the level of the cave, the smaller the chance to get the map. Usually, we get 1 random item a day laying around your towns - this could be a consumable, some equipement or a map. But the chance to get the map is smaller and smaller. So for the first 2 (lev 10 and 15) I got them within 24h (the first random item after levelling up) but I'm still waiting for the 3rd (lev 20). It's been 3 days already (levelling up to 22 now), got different random items instead. Opened chests, fought monsters but it's still not there... I remember from A4 that for the legendary (lev 35) it took me a few weeks to get it... And I think I was lev 37 when it finally appeared (that's a lot of exp in between!)

Stalagmite type 5.

Here is what it looks like:

This is the same one before someone broke it:

And here's the tip:

As you can see, it is very similar to the tip of type 1, so look closely.

Can you find it here?

Cave secrets

BIG SPOILERS AHEAD - BEWARE!

(we should have a monster called spoiler!  ;p)

If you're wondering whether you've finished a cave - cause there's so many paths you can see, and can't get there maybe? - the answer is most probably, yes. If you've found  the Ignavus message and the last obstacle close to it and have collected most of the gems it means you're done with the cave. Those paths you can see (most probably on the shortcuts which seem to have a way in the opposite direction, which you can't reach) are due to the fact that caves are generated from some general pattern and some parts will be accessible in one, some others in another.

But there is a small "but"... Sometimes you can see parts of walls or stones just behind those enclosing your path. It is worth investigating those cause you might fight something real nice! :)

There are no spoilers tag, so I won't place the images in the post as before. Instead take a look here:

/static/img/content/random/caves/0B-PwitbK1QGrb0J0ak5hS3VIaWc.png

You can see some shadow of a wall in the left lower corner. Note its position on the cave map! It will always come up in the same section (if you're lucky and get it in you cave), in the same place. So if you notice this exact place in one (or more) of you caves, just move your hero closer. This is what you get:

/static/img/content/random/caves/0B-PwitbK1QGrcG5ZY1dtZHJfMjg.png

Here comes another one. This is what it looks like - a corner of a wall just visible to the right. Again, note the shape of this part within the cave section, it will be in the same place and will look just like this:

/static/img/content/random/caves/0B-PwitbK1QGrVkZzeUd2NWxiUDQ.png

This is the prize:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-PwitbK1QGreEVxWUM1T1pycFE

And the final one I found (in many caves!) - the most tricky, but the most rewarding. This one doesn't have any visible clues of its position. Rather, you have to learn where it comes up. It is a big section with moving rocks that has a lot of "roundabout" parts. If you have one such in your cave take a closer look at this top right part of this section:

/static/img/content/random/caves/0B-PwitbK1QGrLUlOZTJITUVMOTA.png

Nothing really special there right? Moving a little to the right this is the most interesting place:

/static/img/content/random/caves/0B-PwitbK1QGrbmoxbEdWQWxwWEU.png

And a little bit further...

/static/img/content/random/caves/0B-PwitbK1QGrVUc1RVlNWlJtVEk.png

Worth getting close, isn't it?

Traps

Sections with traps are easy to recognize - you encounter blocks of stone paving the path, like this:

If you step on one of those you quickly realise why it is a trap - well, if you were there with your hero only, you might not see the picture as you will most probably end up dead. On revisiting, you'll find nasty spikes waiting for the uncautious.

There are 3 ways of dealing with traps:

1. Take an army with the hero and walk them all together through the traps. Traps deal a certain amount of damage to random units so they will simply kill a couple of your troops (hopefully, not the hero). The larger the army - the lesser the chance your hero will end up dead.

2. Same as 1 but add healing units (sis of mercy, witchdoctors) - haven't really tried it out but some say the damage is smaller.

3. Finally you might try and find the trigger - it will activate the spikes without the need to step on them and a safe path will be revealed.

Generally, there is a trigger for every row of traps, except cases in which the path is obvious without the need to reveal all rows. For example here the first row of traps has been triggered showing one cell that is safe:

After stepping on that safe cell there's only one way to go safely - forward. Therefore you can be sure that the next cell will be safe. Since there are no more rows here, there will be only 1 trigger - no more are needed to find the safe path.

In cases where there are 3 rows, usually the 1st and 3rd have an associated trigger that you need to find. Again, the remainig path in between them can be figured out from the setting. For example:

After stepping on the safe cell in the first row there's only one way to get to the safe cell in the last row - so it has to be safe.

Triggers, triggers - but what exactly are we looking for? I have found 4 types of those, with the more difficult, longer caves sporting them in tricky places.

Type 1 - an oval stone in the floor of the cave. Here it is in a simple setting:

And here a bit more hidden:

There's one here in this picture as well, try to find it:

Type 2. A very similar oval, but placed in rocks or cave walls. A simple version:

More tricky ones:

There's one somewhere here too:

For the next 2 I have only 2 screenshots each, so they come with one easy example and one full view

Type 3 - a brick button

Type 4 - a stone button. This one is rare, but has been giving me the most headaches...

Fortunately, I have gotten the deadly traps among those above so once I manage to collage the screenshots I will post the final part of this guide.