The Caverns: Four Caves, an Unkillable Blind Bat, and the Eight Statue Blessings — Including the Tier Nobody Explains

The Caverns are the only place in the game that pays you in permanent effects instead of gear. Clear a cave, pick a statue, and you get a blessing that stays with the server: longer days, slower hunger, fewer lightning strikes, less rain. There are four caves and four picks, which is why this system is worth understanding before you understand anything else about it.

What actually stops players is not the reward design. It is a bat that cannot be killed, cannot see you, and still hits you from across the room — plus three cultist variants that only exist underground. Both get covered here, because both are properties of the place, not of the enemies.

And there is one thing nobody explains: every source lists eight blessings, and only one of them tells you how the second tier is earned. That is the section we spent the most time on.

At a Glance

What the Caverns Actually Are

There is not one cave. There are four, and they are not the same cave set up three more times.

The main cave spawns on Day 1, close to the campfire, and shows up on the map as soon as you craft the Map Blueprint — a cave icon marking the entrance, with the main one carrying a yellow exclamation mark. Pro Game Guides describes the central Caves location appearing on the map on Day 1 plainly, which matches.

The other three are smaller caves. Two accounts of how they open agree on the method and disagree on the trigger:

• The trigger is TNT. All Things How and Desinema both say the smaller cave entrances are blocked off initially and need TNT from inside the main cave to blast them open. Once open, they work as extra statue-and-blessing opportunities and as new exits back to the forest. The fandom wiki carries the same TNT requirement.
• The trigger is a campfire level. All Things How also frames it as "crafting a map and upgrading the campfire enough to unlock cave access", and Desinema repeats that the three smaller caves become accessible as you upgrade your campfire level.

TNT is the better attested of the two, because it appears in three places rather than two, and because it explains something the campfire version does not: the TNT comes from inside the main cave, so the order of operations is main cave first, side caves later. Take the campfire reading as a secondary detail rather than the rule.

One naming note, since this trips people up: the cave system is The Caverns on RBLXGuide and on this site, and the fandom wiki files the same content under Caves. Same thing, two names. A third name — "Obsidian Caverns" — is not real; it comes from a site we blacklist (99nightsforest.wiki) and we have already flagged it in How to Get the Obsidiron Hammer, which names that fake recipe in full.

Inside: Dark, Long Corridors, and Crystals You Have to Charge

The Caverns are dark. Every source that describes the interior says the same thing, and every one of them lands on the same loadout conclusion: a Strong Flashlight is mandatory, not optional.

The mechanic underneath that advice is specific. There are crystal clusters set into the cave walls, and you charge them by running your flashlight beam over them until they glow. A charged crystal lights a large area around it, which is what makes the cultists and the Bat trackable. All Things How describes this as the reason to bother — better sightlines near the statue rooms — and it is also the practical answer to "why did I walk past the exit".

The geometry is long corridors with side paths off them, and that shape matters more than it sounds: it is what allows the Bat to be avoided without being fought, and it is what makes the side-chamber sniping spot (below) possible.

Who Is Down There

The Bat — blind, unkillable, and still ranged

The Bat is the entity this update arrived with, and it behaves unlike anything else near your campfire.

You cannot kill it. The stat block lists it as HP: N/A (Unkillable), and the fandom wiki, Deltia's Gaming, RBLXGuide and TechWiser all say the same thing: no health bar, no damage route, survive until it leaves the room.

It is blind — and that single fact is the whole counter-play, because it means the flashlight does not work on it the way it works on The Deer or The Owl. The fandom wiki states it outright: the Bat is blind and therefore cannot be stunned by the flashlight. Deltia's Gaming states the opposite — that pointing your flashlight straight at the Bat stuns it and cancels the scream. That is a genuine disagreement between the two most detailed accounts, and we are recording it rather than splitting it. What is not in dispute is the mitigation: get behind something solid.

How it attacks. Entering the Caverns for the first time, the Bat lets out a screech and flies away, which is what starts the encounter. It then flies a fixed path, briefly landing at nodes to screech again. Before each screech a rising screech meter appears above it — that is your warning — and when it fills, a rapidly expanding red sphere leaves the Bat and damages anyone it catches, blurring your screen. The fandom wiki names the cover objects specifically: a stalagmite, a rock, or any other provided object. Walls block it completely, and Deltia's notes that simply running far enough away also works.

Its damage figure is a single source. RBLXGuide puts it at 35 per hit; no other source we found publishes a number. Treat 35 as uncorroborated until you see it twice.

Two smaller items worth knowing: Deltia's Gaming says each scream summons Shadow Cultists into the cave (a claim only that source makes), and the fandom wiki notes the Bat is the first monster entity to attack another monster entity — it fights The Deer in a cutscene — and the only one that can appear when two monsters are already in play. The Bat has a page of its own — see The Bat, which covers the Deer is Hurt cutscene that opened this cave, the four-phase scream loop, and the flashlight dispute in full.

The three cultist variants

The Caverns also introduced three cultist types that exist nowhere else. Our Cultist page already lists them with their full stat lines, so here is only what a cave runner needs:

The Brute numbers are worth flagging: they come from BloxSwaps alone in our Cultist page, and the fandom wiki corroborates that these variants exist underground but publishes no health figure for them. We carry the figures because they are internally consistent, not because they are double-sourced.

Side chambers are quieter than the main route. Per the fandom wiki, the side chambers hold Darkstring and Shadow cultists only — no Bat, no Brute — which is what makes the third-statue ladder spot worth the climb.

Clearing a Cave, and the Green Gem

The statue room is gated, and the gate is the whole cave: you must clear the entire cave to open it.

Clear it, and you walk into a room containing a green gem set into the wall of a structure. Activating it shows you two randomly chosen statues, drawn from the Deer, Owl, Ram and Bat, and you must pick one. Selecting one grants the matching blessing, and — per the fandom wiki — that blessing is server-wide, not just yours.

The failure mode is the thing that ruins runs: if you do not fully clear a chamber, the cultists in chambers 1 through 4 respawn. Brutes now between you and the next statue are therefore self-inflicted. The fandom wiki recommends clearing as you go rather than rushing, which is also the advice that makes the ladder spot below work.

The Eight Blessings

Four statues, two tiers each. Every list we found contains the same eight entries, and the effects are stated identically across them:

Three of the four are qualitative — the Ram and Owl effects are expressed as a lower chance, with no percentage published by anyone. Only the Deer and Bat numbers are concrete, and only the Deer one carries a figure attached to it: 10 seconds each way.

The Tier II problem

Here is the thing no source solves. All eight blessings above are listed everywhere, every guide lists the II versions, and not one of them says how you obtain the second tier. Pro Game Guides, All Things How, Beebom and Desinema all describe Tier II as simply "better than Tier I" and stop there.

The only mechanism on offer is the fandom wiki's: "a statue's blessing can be received multiple times by completing multiple caves and selecting it multiple times." Under that reading, Tier II is what you get for selecting the same statue again in a later cave — the later pick is the stronger version.

That conflicts slightly with the arithmetic other guides state. All Things How and Pro Game Guides both say there are four caves and a maximum of four blessings per run, one pick per cave. Four picks could be four different statues, or four picks of one statue — but if four picks are spent on four different statues, you have four Tier I blessings and no Tier II at all.

Two things make that resolvable without inventing an answer:

1. Our own patch notes page records a Caves Update Part 2 in January 2026 that added Blessing I and II badges alongside new cave areas and the explosives. That is the earliest we can find anywhere for the badge tier existing as a tracked pair.
2. The guides that list only Tier I — Beebom, Desinema — read as the older material, and the ones that discuss both tiers (Pro Game Guides, All Things How) are the later ones.

Our reading: Tier II is the January 2026 addition, obtainable by selecting the same statue in a second cave, and the guides that still show one tier per statue predate the addition. We flag this as our inference, not a sourced fact — no source states the mechanism, so treat Tier II acquisition as unconfirmed until you test it in game.

Which Statue to Choose

If you take one prioritisation from the sources, take the fandom wiki's: Day Length first, then Hunger, then Lightning — and never pick Rain. The reason is in the table above: the Owl is the only blessing whose entire job is to make a bad thing less likely, while the Deer and Bat change a resource you are actively spending.

Two nuances that change the value of the Deer:

• The Deer blessing does not make the game faster. The time it takes from the night goes straight into the day. Fandom says this explicitly, and it is the single most useful line in the whole blessing guide — without it you will pick Deer expecting a speedrun and end up with a more forgiving run instead.
• The Deer, Owl and Ram cannot spawn in the Caverns, and neither can wolves or alpha wolves. A cleared chamber is therefore the safest place to sit out a night — even the AFK spot, if you are willing to share it with the Bat. That is not a bug in the design; it is what makes a failed cave run less punishing than it looks.

The Loot Dispute

This is where the sources stop agreeing entirely, and the disagreement is not cosmetic.

One party says the Caverns are full of loot. The fandom wiki describes the side chambers holding a high number of Legendary Chests, Gold Chests, Iron Chests, Ruby Chests, and the cave-exclusive "Miner's Chest". It lists what a Miner's Chest can contain:

• Impact Grenade — a hotbar weapon, ×5 ammo per pickup, throwable, no reload, solid splash damage.
• Dynamite — a sack item, set on fire, delays, then explodes for large splash damage.
• Explosive rifle ammo / explosive revolver ammo — ×6 ammo, sizzles on firing, slightly more damage (marked as an assumption), small chance to set the target on fire. Rifle and revolver fire explosive rounds before regular ammo.
• Heavy Ammo Crate Recipe Tablet — always in the final Miner's Chest, the Gold Miner's Chest beside the last blessing chamber. Grind it at your campfire to upgrade the Ammo Crate blueprint; the Heavy Ammo Crate then sells explosive rounds for 5 scrap each.

The other party says there is nothing down there. Beebom states flatly that there is no loot in the cave, not even a single chest. Desinema says the same — no traditional loot, no chests, no items. Neither fandom's Miner's Chest nor its explosive ammo appears anywhere in their text.

We cannot resolve it from the sources, so we are not going to claim there are chests. What both sides agree on is the practical rule, and it comes from fandom: do not spend your Impact Grenades in fights until every side chamber is open, or you can end up unable to open a Legendary Chest for lack of explosives. That advice holds under either reading of the dispute.

The Dynamite usage note is fandom-only and worth knowing before you pick it up: because the fuse is long, it is near-useless in combat except from the top of a Child's Cave, where you can drop it on the animal guards below.

Why It Is Worth the Trip

Four reasons, none of them equipment:

1. Blessings are the only permanent payoff the cave system has. One pick per cave, four caves, and the effects are server-wide. Nothing in the cave can be farmed for a number the way Cultist Gems or Frog Chest drops can.
2. It is the safe night spot. No Deer, Owl, Ram, wolf or alpha wolf can reach the Caverns. The only thing that can hurt you down there is the Bat, and it can be out-ranged by a wall.
3. It is where the explosives come from, under the fandom reading — and the Heavy Ammo Crate upgrade is what makes explosive ammo a purchasable economy rather than a lucky drop.
4. The Bat cannot follow you out. It is confined to the caves, which is why this is the only monster in the game that can never reach your campfire.

How the Caverns Compare

The row that matters is the last one. Every other location on this site hands a player their reward; the Caverns hand it to everyone in the server, which makes the four picks a social decision rather than a solo one.

Where Sources Disagree or Are Silent

• How Tier II is earned — the fandom wiki's "select the same statue again" is the only mechanism on offer; Pro Game Guides and All Things How both cap you at four blessings and never reconcile the two.
• Whether the Caverns contain loot — fandom lists Legendary/Gold/Iron/Ruby/Miner's Chests with contents; Beebom and Desinema both say there is not a single chest.
• Whether the flashlight stops the Bat — fandom says the Bat is blind and cannot be stunned; Deltia's Gaming says a direct beam stuns it and cancels the scream.
• Whether the side caves need TNT or a campfire upgrade — TNT is stated by fandom plus All Things How and Desinema; the campfire reading appears in All Things How and Desinema only.
• The Bat's damage — 35 is RBLXGuide alone; nobody else publishes a figure.
• The Brute's 400–450 HP and 40 damage — BloxSwaps alone; fandom confirms the variants, not the numbers.
• Whether screams summon Shadow Cultists — Deltia's Gaming alone.
• Nobody publishes: the exact chance reduction on the Ram and Owl blessings, the animal spawn count per cave, whether the blessing cap of four is a hard limit, or whether the second tier can be earned after a run's fourth pick.

FAQ

Do I need to find the cave on the map first? The main cave is on the map from Day 1, marked with a cave icon and a yellow exclamation. The other three appear as you progress.

How do I get into the smaller caves? With TNT from the main cave, per the sources that specify a method.

Can I kill the Bat? No. It has no health and cannot be damaged by any means we can find. Survive it, do not fight it.

How do I avoid the Bat's scream? Watch for the rising screech meter, then put a stalagmite, rock or wall between you and it. Distance also works.

Does the flashlight stop the Bat? The sources disagree. Fandom says it is blind and cannot be stunned; Deltia's Gaming says a direct beam cancels the scream. Cover is the reliable answer either way.

Is the Bat worth the risk for the blessing? The Bat is only one of the reasons to clear a cave, and it never leaves the cave system.

How many blessings can one run give? Four, according to every source that states a cap — one per cave.

Can Deer, Owl or Ram appear in the Caverns? No. Neither can wolves or alpha wolves, which is why a cleared cave is a safe place to wait out a night.

Do I get to keep my blessing? It is granted server-wide when the statue is activated, and the fandom wiki says the same statue's blessing can be taken more than once by clearing more caves.

Is there loot in the Caverns? The sources flatly disagree — one side lists Miner's Chests and four chest tiers, the other says there is not one chest. We report both rather than pick one.

Sources

Checked 2026-10-02. The four-cave structure, the Day 1 main cave with its cave icon, the Map Blueprint, the walled-off smaller caves opened with TNT from inside the main cave, the crystal-charging mechanic, the green gem and the two-statue choice, the server-wide blessing, the four effects with the Deer's 10-second shift and the Bat's 10% hunger cut, the respawn rule for chambers 1–4, and the "prioritise Day Length, then Hunger, then Lightning, never Rain" advice all come from the fandom wiki's Blessings page, corroborated where noted by All Things How and Desinema. The statue tiers I and II with their effect wording are identical across Pro Game Guides, All Things How, Beebom and Desinema; none of the four states how Tier II is earned, which we call out above and flag as unresolved. The Bat being unkillable, its blind behaviour, its screech meter, the red expanding sphere, and stalagmite-or-rock cover are the fandom wiki, with the 35 damage figure from RBLXGuide alone and the flashlight stun claim from Deltia's Gaming alone — the two are recorded as a disagreement rather than reconciled; the scream-summoning Shadow Cultists detail is Deltia's alone. The Bat's confinement to the caves, its 22 November 2025 release alongside the Bat Entity / Cave update, and its 15 November 2025 tease in the Deer is Hurt update are the fandom wiki and RBLXGuide. The cave variants of the cultists — Shadow at ~120 HP in groups of 2–4, Brute at 400–450 HP with 40 damage and 10–12 at once, Darkstring firing twice — are BloxSwaps alone, as recorded on our Cultist page, with the fandom wiki confirming the variants and the side-chamber rule (Darkstring and Shadow only, no Bat, no Brute) but publishing no figures. The Heavy Ammo Crate, the 5-scrap explosive round economy, the Miner's Chest contents, and the Dynamite fuse caveat are the fandom wiki alone; the competing "no loot at all" reading is Beebom and Desinema, and we report the dispute rather than resolve it. The obsidian cave-area breadcrumb comes from RBLXGuide's map-locations coverage, which names the system Caverns and places the Bat there; the "Obsidian Caverns" name is from 99nightsforest.wiki, a blacklisted source we discuss on How to Get the Obsidiron Hammer. We did not use that same blacklisted site for anything in this article.

Related Pages

• The Cultist — the Caverns variants, their full stat lines and the raid nights they changed
• All Locations — where the Caverns sit among the rest of the map
• The Deer — the statue on the longest-day blessing, which the Bat fought first
• The Owl — the rain-side statue, and the one every guide tells you to leave alone
• Volcanic Biome — where The Ram lives, and the third of the four statue deities
• Ice Temple — the other biome-gated dungeon, and its Gem economy
• Frog Cave — the other key-gated dungeon, and what its badge pays instead
• Cultist Stronghold — the difficulty ladder this one has no equivalent for
• How to Get the Obsidiron Hammer — where we first flagged the fake cave name
• Updates and Patch Notes — the 22 November 2025 cave release and the January 2026 Part 2 that added the Blessing badges