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[Iamblichos]

I am on a good site... got all my industries humming along, with an acceptable amount of loiterers and layabouts, but I can't find caverns anywhere.  I am more than 20 levels below ground (108 atm iirc) and there just... don't seem to be any.  Where are they usually?  Should I just sprint for the basement?

[TripJack]

cavern depth varies, keep exploring downward and you will almost certainly run into one

[Hetairos]

If you still don't hit the caverns, dig sideways. It's sometimes possible to dig a shaft down in such a place that one can hit semi-molten rock without finding the caverns.

[Raphite1]

If you've dug past them and want to avoid random side-digging you can "scan" for the caverns. Do b->o to start building a paved road, set it to maximum size, and start going down Z levels. Sections of the road block will change color when intersecting open cavern tiles, even if they're unrevealed.

Kinda exploity, but it just saves time rather than giving a real in-game advantage.

[FrankMcFuzz]

Kinda exploity, but it just saves time rather than giving a real in-game advantage.

Except if you don't want to open up the caverns, you can use this method to go past them :O So that you don't have 1000000 FB's in there once you decide you need gold and precious gems.

And Giant Cave Spiders.

And candy :3

[Raphite1]

Kinda exploity, but it just saves time rather than giving a real in-game advantage.

Except if you don't want to open up the caverns, you can use this method to go past them :O So that you don't have 1000000 FB's in there once you decide you need gold and precious gems.

And Giant Cave Spiders.

And candy :3

True!

Wow, I had never thought of using it to -avoid- caverns, since I'm always so eager to see what they look like.

[Merendel]

Wow, I had never thought of using it to -avoid- caverns, since I'm always so eager to see what they look like.

I'll use that on ocasion for trying to find a strait shot down to magma so I can get a single shaft with minimal effort if I havent discovered all the caverns yet.   If I cant find a reasonable spot close I just go down wherever its convenient up top and build stairs and walls as needed.   Then agian I tend to wall off small sections of the caverns as soon as I crack them open and use those as launching points for further exploration.

[Iamblichos]

This trick was the secret.  Thanks a ton... that makes a real difference in my miners' quality of life.  Now they don't have to grid each floor as they go down.  My jeweler was legendary on all the gems they found, but it was really annoying the weavers and clothiers by how long the process was taking 

[Sutremaine]

Digging down at the intersections of embark tiles is more likely to make you skip caverns.

Start a totally flat 2x2 map, and dig a 1x1 shaft as close to each corner as you can. Then, move in 20-25 tiles from each corner and dig again. Odds are, the corner shafts will pass by more caverns than the more central shafts. If you generate a world with no cavern passages (or fully reveal the magma sea) it'll be easier to see why this is the case.

[Iamblichos]

How do I dig a 1x1 shaft?  I thought I had to have stairs beside it or something...

[smjjames]

A 1x1 shaft IS a shaft of stairs.

[TheKaspa]

In my current fortress, I digged down to the third cavern without hitting the other levels. I then reached the Magma Sea and the Candy...

[thegoatgod_pan]

20 levels down is nothing. First cavern can be as low as -100.

[Nyxalinth]

It just depends. Once I went down 6 z-levels and I gt the message about the caverns having been breached  One other time I had to go down well over 40.   Caverns are in every embark, so you'll hit them eventually!

[Urist McScoopbeard]

20 levels down is nothing. First cavern can be as low as -100.

jeez, I have never encountered more than like 15 z-levels down on a natural, non-modded, or custom genned game, that's insane!