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[Blizzlord]

I have to admit, despite my extensive knowledge of the game I have yet to pierce the first cavern layer. Therefore, I do not know how well equipped my squad should be before exploring it. When do you; the bay watchers, consider your forts ready for the horrors of the depths?

[schismatise]

I pierce all 3 caverns and the magma sea within the first month

(I like to know where things will get in the way of my epic fortress design (OCD))

...Of course i then block them all off again. But really, the underground is just like a second surface level, with different wildlife. Go exploring!

[MarcAFK]

I've never really done teh caverns, the only 2 times i had pierced them nothing showed up to say hello, the forts died of boredom.
Zombies are more fun than randomly generated goo spraying beasts anyway.

[Blizzlord]

I've never really done teh caverns, the only 2 times i had pierced them nothing showed up to say hello, the forts died of boredom.
Zombies are more fun than randomly generated goo spraying beasts anyway.

With "horrors of the depths" I was actually refering to GCS and the like. Forgotten beasts waits untill you are "ready for them".

[Scelly9]

You are never ready for a deadly dust beast made of steel.

[Blizzlord]

You are never ready for a deadly dust beast made of steel.

True, but when are you ready for the GCS, olmmen and giant cave swallows then?

[Scelly9]

You are never ready for a deadly dust beast made of steel.

True, but when are you ready for the GCS, olmmen and giant cave swallows then?

As soon as you can train some crossbow dorfs up and carve the walls into fortifications.

[NecroRebel]

If you'd feel reasonably safe having your dwarves work outside in a low-savagery area, you're ready for the first cavern layer.

If you'd feel reasonably safe having your dwarves work outside in a medium-savagery area, you're ready for the second cavern layer.

If you'd feel reasonably safe having your dwarves work outside in a high-savagery area, you're ready for the third cavern layer.

That's my basic rule of thumb. Generally, the first cavern layer is actually somewhat less dangerous than a Calm area, the second less dangerous than a Wilderness, and the third less dangerous than Untamed Wilds. If the surface is an undead zone, treat them as as about as dangerous as the evil versions of the same savagery (that's taking into account the extra precautions needed to deal with the walking dead).

The bigger creatures are uncommon-to-rare in the upper caverns and the majority of the creatures in the first cavern will flee from your dwarves unless trapped, so wildlife in the first cavern isn't very dangerous, and there's no chance of goblin ambushes in the caverns, so that's why they're safer. Forgotten Beasts seem to show up earlier and more often than titans and other megabeasts, but if you've got a military capable of handling goblins you've got a military capable of handling most FBs, and you get fair warning when they show up anyway, so they're not actually all that bad.

[TheLinguist]

No later than whenever I start worrying about my timber supply, really. If you've been productive enough to have chopped down most of the trees outside, your fort should be able to handle the occasional incursion by cavern-dwellers. If you're too scared to go outside to chop trees, the caverns are probably safer . If you were foolhardy enough to embark on a site that doesn't HAVE many trees, you probably know enough to be able to handle yourself.

Another good sign that you're ready for the caverns is boredom, of course. Because really, the caverns aren't that bad, aside from the occasional forgotten beast or GCS (either the swallow or the spider), and even those generally aren't too much worse than a goblin attack. Just make sure that you don't have your main hallway open directly into the caverns, though - that tends to scare dwarves, and makes it even easier for a flier to enter your dining room.

Now, HFS? That's something you probably want to prepare carefully for.

[Loud Whispers]

Well I have an extensively militarized fortress, and I cleared the first cavern layer of everything within a month of the second year, and got everything sealed. Probably more down to me being hesitant when breaching the caverns, but meh, Giant Cave Spiders getting torn to pieces by unarmoured Dwarf lords has its merits. Though I suppose you could just wall off bits of the cavern instead of sealing it to the level I did...

[Echo51]

I pierced the first cavern and mocked around it a bit back in 32.25, nothing bad happend tho, atleast not that i noticed. Which was a good thing, because i didn't have any sqauds or traps at all

[martinuzz]

You are ready to pierce the caverns as soon as you start wondering why you don't have a GCS silk farm