Another good tip there in your #1 above, Renton. After the first time I went into the cave, where it's always night, I kind of realized how I was unnecessarily chaining myself to my camp at night. A miner's hat is so easy to make, and immensely useful outside of the caves.

I hadn't thought of just using the torch for the first few days, but I can immediately see the merit in this.

Hey, that gives me some motivation to go back into adventure mode again. It sucks that you can't take any inventory through Maxwell's Door. The game mechanic that returns you to the main map when you die in Adventure Mode makes it something that you can attempt whenever you find it. I don't know if it advances the time in the main map, though. I know the caves do. I came out of a cave once to a pack of Hounds that had been waiting for me. Be warned.