The deep crystal caves

Below the Crystal Caves under the mountain there is more: three deeper levels and a hidden grotto. Everything here is also in the game menu: Life plus, then Life, health and quests, then The deep crystal caves. The command /deepcaves opens the same menu.

Getting there

Go into the Crystal Caves from the mountain and climb down the iron ladder and the rope ladder to the bottom level, the crystal chamber. In the far north east of that level a knotted rope drops into a crack in the floor. Step onto it and you climb down to the Descent Landing. To come back, step onto the rope at the south end of the Descent Landing.

Take a lamp

It is completely dark down here. A miner's lantern (point shop or credit shop) or a crystal lantern in your bag counts as your lamp. Without one you can walk and listen, but you cannot see a crystal seam or anything worth finding, and you are reminded of it every minute.

The levels

Upper level: the Descent Landing with Marrow the cave guide, the Squeeze (a very narrow passage going north), the Glowworm Gallery, the Rockfall Passage going east, and the Echo Chamber with the four singing stones.

River level: a rope ladder in the south west of the Glowworm Gallery goes down (stand on it and press enter). A low tunnel leads west to the underground river and its gravel bank. North along the bank the Flooding Passage opens east to the Dripping Hall.

Lake level: a second rope ladder in the south west of the Dripping Hall goes down to the Lake Shore. The Sunless Lake lies to the south and west; its shallows are safe to wade. A crawlway from the north east corner of the landing leads to the Crystal Throne.

Every place has its own sound: dripping in the gallery, the river roaring, a low hum near the singing stones and the throne.

Marrow the cave guide

At the Descent Landing. Press shift enter on him. He tells you the way, gives you the lost explorer quest, tells you when the Flooding Passage is safe, buys deep crystals for 15 ln point each (up to 8 a day) and makes a crystal lantern from 3 deep crystals and 100 ln point.

Deep crystals

Three crystal seams: the glittering seam in the Glowworm Gallery, the blue seam in the Dripping Hall and the great seam of the Crystal Throne. Stand at one with a lamp and a plain, iron or bronze pickaxe in your bag and use the pickaxe, or press shift enter. 45, 60 or 75 strikes in 100 give a crystal depending on the pickaxe, up to 10 crystals a day; the great seam sometimes gives two and sometimes a piece of gold ore. The pickaxe wears exactly as it does on ordinary ore. The singing geode in the Singing Grotto gives 2 crystals once a day. Ordinary ore veins also open on the lake level: use an ore detector there as in any mine.

Wren, the lost explorer

Ask Marrow about the lost explorer. Wren is somewhere in the deep chambers, and every half minute or so you hear her calling from where she is, if you are on her level. Follow her voice until you are right beside her: she gives you her field journal. Give it to Marrow for the title Deep Rescuer, a trophy, 100 ln point once, and Wren's cave map. Wren gets lost in a different place every day; finding her again gives a deep crystal, 30 ln point a day and sometimes a deep cave find. Marrow and Wren's map both know where she was last heard.

Wren's cave map

Use it from your bag down here: it tells you your level and chamber, the way on that level, how many finds you have not found there yet, and where Wren is lost today.

Deep cave finds

Eight things to find for the Deep cave finds page of your field notebook (Life plus, Keepsakes and collections). With a lamp you hear a small bright ring at the nearest thing you have not found yet, within about ten steps. Walk to it and press shift enter to pick it up. The eighth one comes from the singing stones. A full page gives a trophy and 150 ln point once.

The singing stones

In the Echo Chamber stand at the four stones and press shift enter. Choose Listen to hear today's song of five notes, from the lowest stone to the highest. Then strike the stones in the same order. A wrong note starts you over; three wrong songs in a row silence the stones for a minute. The song is different for everybody and changes every day. Sing it right and the wall opens into the Singing Grotto. The first time you also earn the title Stone Singer, a trophy and the singing stone chip. Leave the grotto through the crack in its south west corner (shift enter).

Dangers

The Rockfall Passage: when the roof groans you have seven seconds to get out of the passage, at either end. Falling rocks take 60 to 110 health but never take you below 100.

The Flooding Passage: the river surges through it every four minutes and stays for thirty seconds. Ten seconds before, you hear a rushing roar. Anyone still inside is swept back to the river bank and loses 25 health (never below 100). Crossing takes well under a minute. Ask Marrow, or choose Is the Flooding Passage safe in the menu, to hear how long you have.