I farmed 100 levels of the Caverns of Chaos so you don't have to

Discussion in 'Adventure Discussion and Strategy' started by Happenstance, Nov 28, 2015.

  1. Happenstance

    Happenstance Thaumaturge

    Premise: Caverns offers loot decent enough to make it worth farming.

    Method: Fast farming. This means I wasn't spending time thinking too far into the future, what my characters might draw, etc - either I won or lost the level, no matter either way. This led to inevitable mistakes at higher nodes, but this was balanced against the speed of loot returns, because the lower nodes are faster to run.

    Pros (compared to MP)
    Speed:     most levels take under five minutes to complete, meaning an entire run would take 20-40 minutes. You'd be lucky to finish 2-3 MP games in that time (including match queues and deck tweaks).

    Ease: once you've completed Caverns, all the pressure is off and it becomes quite zen-like to play. You don't need to think too hard (or at all, really) because the mobs have predictable AI. It's actually a relaxing way to unwind between real life tasks, whereas MP can leave me more wired than when I started.

    Flexibility: much easier to deal with real life interruptions when you can pause at any moment when you're playing. If anyone works via pomodoro, then Caverns fits in perfectly with this.

    Item drops: although I was vastly disappointed with the return of legendary items, considering I've had four drop in a single eight node run before this (although this may have been because I had a few drop in Loot Fairy and league chests during the runs), I've filled out my epic items list very nicely.

    Cons (compared to MP)
    Club membership: you need club to make Caverns farming work. It's just not worth the time spent without it, because in a three drop chest the chances of the good item appearing in the club slot is high.

    Gold drops: everyone knows that, since the balance, gold MP chests = gold. While the Caverns loot contained a lot of epic items, not many of these were epic treasures. If you're a good player, 8-9 hours of MP will give much greater returns than 3.7k gold.

    Excitement: if you want to actually have to think while you play, then MP will trump Caverns every day of the week. You occasionally get a node where you have to manoeuvre for a tight win (taking out a full health bombardier with a 1HP fire mage was a highlight), but most of the time either you quickly overwhelm the mobs, or they quickly overwhelm you.

    The runs and returns
    Run 1: Completed Node 6 = 159g 1 epic
    2: CN7 = 170g 4E
    3: CN4 (adult wyverns) = 122g 3E
    4: CN7 = 248g 1E
    5: CN7 = 512g 2E
    6: CN7 = 207g 2E
    7: CN4 (weak mages vs fast melee) = 54g 1E
    8: CN7 = 510g 5E 1 legendary
    9: CN7 = 457g 2E
    10: CN 6 = 173g 5E
    11: CN4 (weak mages vs fast melee) = 132g 1E
    12: CN6 = 145g 1E
    13: CN4 (weak mages vs fast melee) = 54g 1E
    14: CN6 = 74g 1E
    15: CN5 = 243g 1E (adult wyverns, bombardiers, sparklers and mutant warriors vs jelly priest, caveman mage, geisha mage, trololo)
    16: CN6 = 230g 1L
    17: CN7 = 202g 1L

    Total returns for 100 nodes: 3,692g 31 epics 3 legendaries
    Total playing time spent (estimate): 8-9 hours

    Finally, here's my node 1 party, which wins fast and comfortably 98% of the time:

    Kurt Straker
    Level 21 Dwarf Priest

    Jesse Hooker
    Level 21 Dwarf Priest

    McDougal Cloudbrows
    Level 23 Dwarf Wizard
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2015
    Happenstance, Nov 28, 2015
    #1
    Cheesie, visak13, ParodyKnaveBob and 7 others like this.
  2. Sir Veza

    Sir Veza Farming Deity

    I haven't fared nearly so well loot-wise, but it's good to know that you and others (from chat) have been doing well!
     
    Sir Veza, Nov 28, 2015
    #2
    ParodyKnaveBob, Stexe and Happenstance like this.
  3. Flaxative

    Flaxative Party Leader

    I read this thread as a congratulations =) =)
     
    Flaxative, Nov 28, 2015
    #3
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  4. Happenstance

    Happenstance Thaumaturge

    I was right about the scarcity of both legendaries and higher node runs during my loot experiment, because in the 4 runs since finishing the experiment I've reached node 10 twice and had 5-6 legendaries drop - useful stuff like Wym's Lavastaff, White Flame, Zoltan's Laser Scourge and Boxton's Red Pendant.
     
    Happenstance, Dec 1, 2015
    #4
    Sir Veza likes this.
  5. zuzzu

    zuzzu Kobold

    The big problem with cavern is that the nodes 6-7 are the hardest generally, and the ones to prevent the access to the good loot, the garanteed epics. I can play very fast the first levels, but it's generally worth the time some good reasoning in the middle floors. The floor 10 is totally luck based, unfortunately. I found the hardest enemies overall, except the boulder and blitzy boss, to be those damn Inquisition arciers. I've never been really able to win against them :/, they're extremely elusive for warriors and the wizards just get bolted to death really fast. Plus they spawn in teams on three !(ouch!).

    Trolls and ice skellys are scary too, but most of the time possible to win against, despite the apparences. The problem is that if you chose to fight them and not surrender immediately, it will probably not be a time-worthy decision.

    I wish some characters will be buffed a bit in the future (the Vulnerable priest dude is a joke, really) or some mobs nerfed specifically for caverns, to make it more fair and enjoyable.
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2019
    zuzzu, Feb 6, 2019
    #5
    Sir Veza, Happenstance and Maniafig like this.
  6. winner

    winner Orc Soldier

    congrats. I farmed till lvl 7 -8
     
    winner, Feb 8, 2019
    #6
  7. Susurrus in Gloaming

    Susurrus in Gloaming Hydra

    I came back from Cardhunter retirement and figured CoC looked like good farming, searched and found this fantastic thread (Thanks, Happenstance!). I played probably over 100 runs at CoC myself with his team, and I recommend it very highly. Nevertheless, after playing it that much I wanted to build a new team just for a change of pace. I don't pretend that my build is superior, just different. Someone asked me about it today so I figured I would spit it out finally:

    Azagrul
    Level 23 Dwarf Wizard

    Buffy
    Level 24 Human Priest

    Sleep
    Level 24 Elf Wizard

    This build is mainly just for part 1 of CoC. I have never tried it on Return, so it is optimized for that opening level only. Flood is huge to seal off and control flow of enemies. Radiation Bombs can make the whole level a breeze when they dole out a Festering Guts and you can blow up a whole pile of monsters. Know that the only monster I worry about is Ghosts, because so many of my attacks are non-targeting. The elf wizard is the ghost killer, keep him alive if you face them. Also, nothing is better than capping a troll/sharkbear/bronze golem/etc with Ancient Grudge/Pathfinding combo. Good luck!
     
    Susurrus in Gloaming, Jul 6, 2020
    #7
    fatcat__25, Sir Veza and ParodyKnaveBob like this.
  8. wtfisAPC

    wtfisAPC Kobold

    Thank you for sharing your builds. This is very helpful for my learning!
     
    wtfisAPC, Jul 6, 2020
    #8
    Sir Veza and ParodyKnaveBob like this.

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