Most of us have encountered at least one mind-bogglingly hugemongous cave system that we couldn't even begin to navigate unaided. Most of us have died in at least one of these and lost a hefty fraction of the minerals it contained. I spent most of Beta deep underground, looking for and looting the biggest caves I could find. I like to think I've gotten quite good at it; I die in my base more than I do in caves. This guide is a summary of the strategies I use to navigate them successfully and safely.
EQUIPMENT LIST
There is not a whole lot if disagreement over what to bring, but this is what usually comes with me when I step into the shadows of a likely tunnel.
- Pickaxe, shovel, sword The higher-level, the better. Diamonds in caves are too rare to make plain diamond tools sustainable, though, last time I checked. But a high-end diamond sword will save your life and thus your loot.
- Fortune or Silk touch whatever your main pick is, bring one of the above two. Either a fortune pick to get the most out of your ores, or a silk touch pick to bring them home and use the fortune pick in safety. Having a fortune pick and/or unbreaking on your diamond tools can make it easy possible to turn a diamond profit while spelunking.
- Bow and arrows For creepers, mostly. Go down with a stack if you don't like sword fighting. Take half that if you save it for creepers. I sometimes gain arrows in caves, due to frequent skeleton encounters. Low-level enchantments do a lot for bows, by the way. All you need is power 1 to take all monsters down in two hits.
- Iron armor Leather is weak sauce. Diamond is awesome, but usually prohibitively expensive. Only creepers, cave spiders, and careless mistakes around lava can kill you with full armor. I can't stress enough how important having full armor is.
- Lava bucket and Water bucket Did you know that emptying a bucket into a source block will make the contents disappear? Pick up the source you emptied it into and move on. Use this trick to clear all the random water and lava flows you find.
- Torches - 1 stack Make more as needed.
- Logs - 1 stack Logs, not planks. And at least half a stack. Yes, you might run through thirty blocks making torches, workbenches, tools and chests. No, you don't want be out of wood when you're in so deep that you ran out of wood. You get it? In mineshafts, you can mine your wood, but I prefer not to rely on that.
- Food - 1 stack The best food is the one you can bring the most of, except melon slices and mushrooms. Melons just don't fill you much, and shrooms take a lot of inventory space because you can't stack soup. I prefer baked potatoes. Very easy to get a lot of, and they keep you full for a long time.
- Some cobblestone and gravel For bridges, long drops/ascensions, etc.
You will find more, but it's good to have some before you enter. Same thing with iron.
NAIVGATION SYSTEM
My navigation system isn't very complex, but it works perfectly for completely searching cave systems. It doesn't work well for the strategy of lighting caves up then going back to mine the ores, but I always mine as I go. This whole guide is built around the idea of using what you find down there to keep going.
The primary rule is always turn right. Right, right, right (left works too, as long as you always go the same way), until you hit a dead end. Then you mark the dead end with a cobble pillar at the last intersection that has an unexplored option. With the rightmost path marked off, it's time to try the next path to the left. This means that when I enter a large room with many paths coming off it, I tend to go counterclockwise around the room as I explore each path. And if I come across a section of cave I've already been through, I mark the meeting point like a dead end. This often results in one meandering and excessively long path through the cave system, but at least it's one path. To prevent getting lost if I make any mistakes, I also place torches on the right. If I get confused, I can just keep walking walking with my torches on the left and I will always approach the exit.
CERTAIN DIFFICULT SITUATIONS
Sometimes, the cave will say, "**** you. I don't want you to get out alive today. Good luck surviving THIS." This section explains how to survive those situations with as much grace and remaining health as possible. The first and best way to survive anything is to be prepared for it, though. ALWAYS keep your health high and replace destroyed armor, even if it means stopping right there and making a workbench and furnace. Skeleton squad got you down to three hearts? There may be a creeper squad around the corner, so get ready for it before they catch you off your guard.
Lava pools
Weak sauce. You got that water bucket? Stand somewhere where the flow won't push you into the lava, and let it spread out over the lava and make a nice, safe obsidian floor. Then scoop it back up, repeat until it's all frozen, and be on your way. Don't feel obligated to mine all the obsidian.
Water pushing you into lava
Holding SHIFT will keep you from falling into the lava. Freeze the rest of the lava with your water bucket (or at least enough to make it unlikely to kill you), then find the source of the problem flow and scoop it up.
Skeletons below you
Goddamn it's hard to shoot those buggers without getting shot. Having the high ground is good in a real firefight, but bad in a Minecraft firefight. Either jump down and take the hit, or pour lava on them. It goes around corners.
Creepers above you
Shoot them if you have space. Run if you don't. If you hear hissing and don't know where the creeper is, turn around and spam punch while backing up. I consider gunpowder to be a bit of a trophy, so letting them blow up in a safe place is a last resort.
Endermen
Do not engage endermen in a cave. It will teleport away, then five minutes later it will pop up behind you while you're digging something up in a ravine wall or next to lava. Every goddamned time. They KNOW. Only hunt endermen on the surface.
Where the hell is that goddamned spider?
Spiders lost their telepathic player detection in some update and this section is only preserved as a tribute to deaths long past.
Dungeons
For all dungeons, remember that the brighter it is, the less frequently monsters will appear. Light that sucker up at the FIRST opportunity. Engage dungeons hard and fast. The longer you wait, the more monsters will be there.
Spider dungeons are easy, unless the opening to the dungeon is actually big enough to let them out. If that's the case, it totally doesn't make you a ***** to place blocks so that they can't reach you while you fight off the existing swarm and approach the spawner to disable with torches before many more spawn. You have been gifted with the ability to change the terrain, and you can use it to save your ass any time you please.
Zombie dungeons are not hard.
Skeleton dungeons are consistently difficult for me. I usually approach them through walls, open a 1X1 hole at the bottom of the wall, place a torch, and let most of them shoot each other while chopping at their feet. This also works for zombies.
If I'm really not in the mood to be f***ed with, I'll come in through the roof and drop some lava or water on it. Water will always turn the whole floor into an un-spawnable surface, and while complete coverage is not guaranteed with lava, it will kill anything in there and light it up. Chests do not burn.
Cave Spiders
As if regular spiders weren't hard enough, sometimes a mineshaft appears and says "**** your ****, you can't have my melon seeds! Just die already goddamn you!" That is what cave spiders are saying in their screech, sped up and distorted. I promise. Cave spider spawners are the most dangerous thing you will find underground. The spiders don't hurt much, but the poison will take you down to half a heart easily. They can fit through any hole, ignore the cobwebs that will trap you. If you can locate the spawner, I recommend coming in through the roof and dumping lava on it until you stop hearing the little buggers' screams. Watch out for burning wood. It shouldn't spread very far. If coming in through the roof is not an option, get a good sword out and clear as much of the cobwebs as possible (you will get stuck running and fighting if you don't), then get to a place where the spiders will not path to you but you can reach the spawner. Break it and then deal with the spiders. Take note that spiderwebs are destroyed by water.
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and what is the texture pack?