Sinkhole

A Sinkhole is the entrance to a Cave and can be found randomly in the world. In , each Sinkhole leads to a new Cave or Ruin, while in , there is just one "caves" and the ruins are an area within it. The cave-side of a sinkhole is a staircase or cave-exit ("cave_exit" in the code).
When first discovered, the Sinkhole will be a Plugged Sinkhole and is covered with a jagged rubble mound; In , the player can usually tell they are close to a Plugged Sinkhole on the surface when they find Rocks lying about in the Biomes for no reason. Mining the Plug reveals the hole with a rope going down into its depths while providing Flint and Rocks on the surface and Thulecite, as well as Thulecite Fragments underground. It takes six hits from a Pickaxe to unplug it. Once unplugged, up to 6 Batilisks will spawn quickly from the Sinkhole at dusk and return underground in the morning. If Batilisks are killed, they will respawn at a rate of 1 per minute until the maximum of 6 has been reached.
There are only three Sinkholes in a surface world and one for each Cave. Plugged and open Sinkholes are marked on a map by a gray mound and a hole with a red arrow pointing downwards, respectively.
On default settings, the three surface Sinkholes are guaranteed to spawn in the following locations:
* A Mosaic biome.
* A Pig Village (generally, this village also has a Pig King).
* The Forest biome found in the center of the world's Marsh.
The number of sinkholes in the world settings can only be "Default" and "None".
Thulecite Sinkholes are usually found on Stalagmite Terrain.
__NOTOC__
== Downloadable Content ==
In the Hamlet DLC, Sinkhole can be found in Pinacle Biome, which can only be accessible via BFB. Sinkhole in this DLC doesn't lead to a new Cave. Instead, it leads to a cave system similar to the Ancient Pig Ruins and Mant Hill, consisting of a series of connected rooms. In one of the rooms there will be a Stone Plug in the middle of the back wall. Mining this rock will trigger a single Earthquake, which will create a passage out of the caves. This passage will lead to one Cave Cleft on any of the other 4 islands, regardless of whether or not it had been explored.
== Don't Starve Together ==
In Don't Starve Together, caves are only one extra world, so all sinkholes lead into the same cave. As the Ruins are on the same level with caves, there are no sinkholes in caves leading further below.
In default settings, the world will have 10 sinkholes, and caves will have the same number of corresponding staircases, scattered around in the "caves" part of underground. Notably, the relative location of either of them has no influence on the locations of their counterparts, so for example, a pair of nearby sinkholes can lead to staircases which are far apart from each other (or vice versa).
== Tips ==
* The high number of sinkholes and staircases in Don't Starve Together often leads to one or more pairs of either spawning close to each other, allowing players to use them as a form of fast and no-cost travel.
** As a disadvantage of the above tip, most followers don't follow the players in or out of the caves.
*Setting up a base in close proximity to a sinkhole is ill-advised as the player will be constantly attacked by Batilisks at dusk and night.
== Trivia==
* The sinkholes were plugged up by Maxwell a long time ago, as revealed upon his examination quote.
* Basalt found in previously generated worlds were actually placeholders for Sinkholes and were turned into Sinkholes when the Caves update was released.
* Sinkholes originally had a lighter gray color.
== Gallery==
CaveEntrance1.png|The original texture of the Plugged Sinkhole.
Unplugged Sinkhole DS.png|Open Sinkhole in Don't Starve.
Batilisks-dusk.png|Batilisks spawning at dusk.
Sinkholes.png|The right icon shows a Plugged Sinkhole, and a Cave entrance is on the left.
Heavenly light glitch.png|The light that shines on the sinkhole when the player exits the caves.
Thulecite Plugged Sinkhole.jpg|A Ruins Sinkhole in a cave. It is a Plugged Sinkhole retextured so it is made of Thulecite.
Caves promo.png|Wilson looking down a Sinkhole in promotional artwork.
Hidden_Sinkhole_Image.png|A hidden image of Wilson looking down a sinkhole.
Unplugged Sinkhole DST.png|An unplugged Sinkhole in Don't Starve Together. It has a staircase leading down instead of a rope.
Stairs map.jpg|A Caves map in Don't Starve Together with all staircases revealed.
Nearby stairs.jpg|A pair of nearby staircases in a cave in Don't Starve Together.
vi:Sinkhole
pl:Zapadlisko
Category:Mineable Objects
Category:Naturally Spawning Objects
Category:Resources
Category:Non-Renewable
Category:Mob Spawning Entities
Category:Mob Housing
Category:Indestructible Object
Category:Portal
Category:Caves