Exploring Caves and caverns

garysully1986

Does anyone have tips for not getting lost in caverns, I tend to find a cav dig in a bit find a cavern with loads of turns and before ya know it, its two hours and I havent a clue how to get out so have to dig my way out.

Have you any tips on finding your way back, I found a stronghold the other day but the floor was missing in most of it and there was just starcases leading to walls, Pain in the hoop. spent about an hour before I got bored and had to dig my way out.

DirtyBollox

put torches along 1 side of the wall as you walk around.

or place a block of sand beside the entrance/exit of the cave so you know which way leads out.

Completionist

Randomly explore, then dig up when done!:D

jujumushu

place cobblestone in the walls, so that most of the time you know that you put it there. torches on the right doesn't really work for massive caverns and i'm always getting lost myself

Solitaire

Some tips; mix and match for profit!

- blocks of sand, sandstone or especially colour-coded Dyed Wool are great markers in lit spaces. Fail to light them correctly and an Enderman will make a beeline for your marker and walk off with it! :eek:

- Make clearly identifiable digs parallel to ravine walls etc. to put your own mark on natural structures and give a good landmark for future reference

- Be very profligate with the torches around user-made or explored areas to distinguish them from barely-lit newly explored areas

- Signs are expensive in terms of material - they can't be stacked and cost nearly a bole of wood a pop - but the addition of text makes one hell of a difference. Use them to lead you and team-mates from your base through confusing areas to potential Layer 12 dig-sites and back

- Two heads are better than one when mining, covering each other from mobs and/or navigating back home. In SMP always try to have a partner or team going down together as it makes things a lot easier and ensures there's someone with a Chest on-hand in case someone bites it and gets warped back to spawn; they can deploy the Chest and stuff the victim's gear into it to prevent it disappearing!

- Finally, always bring some cobble (or possibly Sandstone) for bridge-building in ravines and bring some Glass and LOTS of Wood; if you range far from your base(s) you should build a small enclosed workshop in the middle of a promising dig/caves/ravine and put in a workbench, furnaces, doors, windows and storage! Store surplus blocks or Diamonds/Diamond Tools there if playing with lava (iron is far more expendable) there and make sure you put in a series of Signs to guide you back there from base!

Mycroft H

Always have a bucket of water if possible!

You can obsidianise lava lakes and put your self out if you happen to fall into lava

jujumushu

pfffffft...bucket of water...we're hard

Solitaire

Actually, TWO buckets

That way you can create a 2x2 Infinipool in or near your "site office" for infinite replenishment of water buckets for "fixing" lava or indeed crispy-fried teammates

gavmcg92

The main thing would be putting torches on only one side of the wall. If done you know that if the torches are on your left/right you are going deeper/towards exit

Another trick I used to do was ransack a cave with little to no use of torches and then just dig up and use your compass to get back to your bed with your riches!

Solitaire

It can be hard to retain your riches if you dig up into lava/an ocean/night-time

garysully1986

Some good solid tips there lads, Its grand once you dont run into a huge cave but I honestly spent hours the other night trying to distinguish one hall of a mineshaft from the other.

Genghiz Cohen

I always use redstone torches to point home. If i break into a new cavern I'll pop a redstone torch over the door. then as I meet intersections I'll use 2 normal touches and a redstone one to point home. The red torch being the point of an arrow.

Great for quick escapes.