Talk:Utumno/Strategies/@comment-33763020-20181113140542

New strat in Utumno I tried out to gather maximum loot in caves, two versions:

1. The more lucrative "Ground floor" version, when you have some troops for support:

- find one of the huge caves of any given level and if you have some hired troops, storm the middle of the cave and quickly pull up a barrier of 2 high (actually only need to pull up the second layer first to keep most enemies outside) by making a square of about 10x10, depending on troop numbers and courage ;). Command all your surviving troops inside and make this a "base" of your looting. If you have no troops, put on your Elven Scout armour and drink a Haste potion to outrun your enemies while you pull up the barrier, then quickly get inside of it and put up your Galvorn armour to protect you from missiles and kill the enemies inside the square.

- Once the walls are up and you are protected from most of the missiles from the outside, Make a "hallway" to the middle of your square from one of the sidewalls, that leads to the middle of your base by pulling up a 2-high wall made of cobblestone wall blocks (not full cobblestone blocks, as those have no gaps in them). Give it two entrances: one to the outside of the square, the other opening up to the inside of the square. Put a steel door at both ends, which you can handle from inside your square with a lever each.

- Now let your enemies gather while you stand next to the hallway at the inside of your square, open only the outside door with the lever, move around a bit so they come towards the middle of the square, archers will sometimes run away from you so you have to be quick. Once there are some of them inside, close the outside door, so they are trapped in your hallway. Now poke at them with longer weapons through the murder-holes of the wall, so you keep safe (and any hired troop that stands too close), preferrably with a Blessed modifier for optimal loot and Legendary to speed up the process, third modifier being Enduring as this process wears out material real fast due to all the kills.

- Once you killed all the trapped enemies, open the inside door and gather the loot.

- Repeat the process until you have your Chill of Daedalos, plenty of mithril or any loot you desire :).

- Once you have enough loot, the regular way of finding a Melkor plate or going down to the lower levels to prepare your exit.

2. The riskier but simpler method when you have no troops, the "Platform method":

- Run to the middle of a huge cave with Galvorn armour on and a haste potion.

- Quickly build up a column to any desired height and make a small platform with sidewalls on about 4 blocks high. Only spears and the occasional troll snowball/stone will be able to knock you off during this first minute of building, as Galvorn will protect you from the arrow knockbacks, so keep those in sight. Best thing is to build the column to half the height of the cave so those projectiles avoid you initially, then shoot down any trolls or spearmen you see and then safely break down the column to your desired height.

- Once your column is up, build a small platform on top with murder-holes on the sides or in the floor, so you can somewhat move around, but do not hinder sight down where enemies will be gathering. You can make it as high as you want, but 5 high is preferred, so you can poke with 200% range melee weapons at the enemies. It is also safer to build a roof above you, because projectiles from higher placed enemies in the cave could not only damage you but also knock you off your platform at an unexpected moment.

- After your first kill range, place ladders on the side of your wall, so you can climb back up each time.

Version 1 is more lucrative and safer, but without troops and in a full cave this can be very risky and you may easily die before you have the protecting walls. You also need to make sure to make the hallway wide enough to let in wargs if you so desire or possibly even Trolls, but if the hallway is too wide, you may have to get closer to poke them and they can hit you as well. In addition the outside door needs to be linked to 2 or 3 wide for wargs and/or trolls to enter.

Version 2 requires guts to climb down after each few kills (before loot despawns) and poking at them will be more difficult from above, while they can shoot you easier. A benefit however is that you can shoot arrows from up there instead of using melee weapons only. You are fairly locked in though at a small space, leaving less room for chests, crafting/forging, etc. The enemies will also have to get just close enough and you cannot move around to attract them.