Mining refers to using tools to harvest various ores used in Forges and Chemistry Stations. Mining can be done with any tool or with bare hands, but it's more efficient when done with a pickaxe or an auger. Mining drains Stamina and causes your tools to lose durability. The lower your Stamina and tool durability, the slower you will break blocks, and the less resources you will yield.
Mining Tools[ | ]
Tools used for mining include the Stone Axe, Stone Shovel, Iron Pickaxe, Iron Shovel, Steel Pickaxe, Steel Shovel, and Auger. The stone axe and pickaxes break Stone and Destroyed Stone more efficiently, while shovels chew through Dirt, Sand, Sandstone, and Gravel quickly, and augers are the ultimate mining tool, which destroy both blocks quickly and yield the most resources. Your skill level with mining tools, the quality of the tool and the material it's made from, and how many ranks of the Miner 69er perk you've taken determine how quickly blocks break and how many resources are harvested with each strike.
Or TNT can be used for clearing mines - place a stick where you want it and use any sort of projectile weapon or a well-placed Pipe Bomb to detonate it safely. TNT has a blast radius of about 2-3 blocks, so the danger zone is roughly a 6x6x6 cube with some randomization. Be wary of any debris flung by the blast.
Notes[ | ]
- Lower-quality tools and tools made from inferior materials will take more time to destroy blocks while yielding less resources. Serious underground mining shouldn't be attempted without a pickaxe or shovel made of iron or steel.
- As of Alpha 16.3, Pipe Bombs no longer damage blocks and cannot be used alone for mining.
Surface Rocks[ | ]
Mining surface rocks is a good way to quickly obtain Small Stones and Raw Iron, and they have a chance to give you Lead Ore, Nitrate Powder and Coal Ore with each hit of your tool. When in the early game, or if you are struggling to find these resources underground, surface rocks will give you a decent supply of these resources until you strike a vein underground.
Ore Surface Deposits[ | ]
Each habitable biome can have small piles of ore appear above ground. A surface deposit has about 7 blocks of ore, and they do not extend below the surface. The types of surface deposits found depends on the biome:
- Snowy Forest: Coal Ore
- Forest: Lead Ore
- Pine Forest: Lead Ore
- Plains: Coal Ore
- Wasteland: Potassium Nitrate
- Burnt Forest: Potassium Nitrate, Coal Ore, and Oil Shale
- Desert (Rare): Potassium Nitrate, Coal Ore, and Lead Ore
Surface deposits in a desert are rare, and will only be found near patches of clay and grass.
- GravelSurface.png
Surface Gravel.
- PotassiumNitrateSurface.png
A Potassium Nitrate deposit in a Wasteland.
Ore Veins[ | ]
Random ore deposits are spread across the world underground in Navezgane and in randomly generated worlds. Veins of Iron Ore, Lead Ore, Coal Ore, Potassium Nitrate, and Oil Deposits spawn underground in all biomes (with the exception of Oil Deposits, which are exclusive to the Desert biome), but each biome will have a predominant type of ore to be encountered more frequently while mining.
From left to right: Iron Ore, Coal Ore, Lead Ore, Potassium Nitrate, and Oil Shale.
- Snowy Forest: Potassium Nitrate
- Forest: Lead Ore
- Pine Forest: Lead Ore
- Plains: Coal Ore
- Desert: Oil Deposit
- Wasteland: Potassium Nitrate
- Burnt Forest: Coal Ore
To get to the predominant ore, you can dig down further from the Iron Ore found under the gravel patches. Sometimes this will lead to the predominant ore, other times it will lead to other ores, or lead to no ores at all. You can also dig a shaft down to the stone layer and start digging in a straight line - eventually you will hit the ores.
Notes[ | ]
- There tends to be around 6 layers of a biome's topsoil before a player will hit Stone and ores.
- The easiest way to locate an ore vein is to locate a patch of Gravel and start digging down.
- Oil Deposits can be found higher up compared to other ores.
Digging and Structural Integrity[ | ]
Structural Integrity should be minded while clearing tunnels underground, as how much integrity connected blocks have basically depends on how far on a chain it is from an unbroken stack of blocks reaching down to bedrock, the bottom-most layer of the world. Tunneling has the potential to compromise the structural integrity of buildings on the surface and collapse them, and carving out caves too large can cause cave-ins, so bring blocks to use as support pillars (e.g. Wood Frames) to boost any structural integrity lost while digging.
Notes[ | ]
- Try to dig tunnels as narrowly as possible.
- Lighting is very important while mining. A Torch, Candle, Mining Helmet, or a Mobile Spotlight can help you see while mining.
- If your mine is directly accessed from your house, be sure to build a secure door to prevent other players from accessing your house, should they manage to dig into your mine. Hatches can also be used to create a straight down path to your cave/bunker.
Caves[ | ]
With the introduction of caves into the Random World Generator and Navezgane, mining during cave exploration (spelunking) has become the most efficient means of obtaining mined resources. Large veins of ore are commonly exposed in cave walls. The trade-off is that caves are widely spaced apart in the world, and are usually in the middle of nowhere.
Exploring a cave system to uncover a specific ore type can be time-consuming and dangerous, so be prepared with sufficient resources and lighting. Ores do not appear to be distributed evenly along the caves and tunnels, nor do they spawn in as close adjacency as before, and are not always surrounded by gravel. Caves and tunnels often connect into larger tunnel systems, and can quickly become maze-like, so marking your trail is always a good idea. Steep tunnels and sharps drops are also common, so ladders, Wood Frames, or other climbing resources are highly recommended before spelunking expeditions.
Zombies and bears will spawn in caves, but can also contain the Feral Wights and zombie bears. Hordes do not appear to spawn inside caves as of yet, so players sufficiently deep enough to throw off the zombie AI need not fear a flood of zombies.
Notes[ | ]
- Stalactites and stalagmites can be harvested for Nitrate Powder.
- The hanging moss in caves can be un-hittable at some angles, and may also prevent the mining of blocks past it.
Video Guide[ | ]
Quick video on how to locate underground ore veins easily.