One of Mr. Qi’s Special Orders in Stardew Valley instructs you to descend through the Mines or Skull Cavern at a pace that, at first, seems nearly impossible. However, with a simple trick, you can easily complete this challenge and net yourself a nice payout of Qi Gems in the process.
Qi’s Hungry Challenge appears on the Special Orders board within the Walnut Room, with the description noting, “Your task is to make it to level 100 in the Skull Cavern. However, you can’t eat or drink anything while there.”
Additionally, you only have seven days to complete the challenge. Like I said, at first glance this challenge seems like a pretty tough one, and there’s more than one way to tackle this.
How to complete Qi’s Hungry Challenge in Stardew Valley
First, remember your Vampire Rings. This accessory, when equipped, restores 2 HP every time a monster is slain. This should help to keep your health up, removing the need for food or drink for healing.
Within the Skull Cavern, Big Slimes may also occasionally spawn with hearts in them. When slain, pick up these hearts for 10 HP. This, coupled with the Vampire Rings, should be enough to enable a speed run down to floor 100.
How to use Mines and Skull Cavern staircases in Stardew Valley
If you’re in a pinch, or you simply want to overcome this challenge without the added stress of fighting monsters, you can also use Staircases to go straight from floor one to floor 100.
To do this, you have two options:
- Craft 100 Staircases
- Trade Jade for Staircases
If you want to gather resources to make Staircases yourself, you’ll need at least 9,801 stone to create the 99 Staircases needed to reach floor 100. This is definitely the more time consuming and energy-heavy route to take.
Alternatively, you could collect Jade and trade it with the Desert Trader for Staircases, which cost one Jade each. Staircases are available only on Sundays, so you have the rest of the week to mine for and stock up on Jade. You can also place Jade into a Crystalarium to create duplicates of the original Jade.
Once you’ve got your 99 Staircases, simply head into the mines and begin placing them down and using them to descend a level at a time. This may take a while, but you’ll avoid any confrontation with monsters and make it in one piece.
This method can also be used to complete Qi’s other Special Orders:
- “Danger in the Deep”
- “Skull Cavern Invasion”
