Prospecting

Main / Skills / Prospecting

Prospecting is a skill used for locating ore veins, flint, and salt in rock when on the surface, and for doing estimations of vein contents while inside a mine. To prospect, activate a pickaxe, right-click a rock tile or vein, and select "Mining > Prospect".

Layout for surface prospecting

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   | o |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

The area in which prospecting works is a 7x7 with the player in the middle (the "o" represents the player).

Notes

• Ore veins can't be searched for by means of prospecting when being inside a cave; the player has to be on the surface. Surface prospecting of flint and salt is only for the single tile prospected; nearby flint/salt tiles can't be prospected. For vein finding inside a cave check out Analysing.
• Gems appear randomly during all mining, and cannot be prospected.
• All ores are slightly regional. Thus, if an ore vein is located, it is likely there will be other veins of the same ore type nearby.
• You can use a tuning fork of metal detection to determine the exact quality and mining operations left on a vein.
• Currently a bug where after you transmute a rock tile into a vein, it still gives you the quality of the rock tile you transmuted. Not the proper quality, which is 99ql, or utmost.

Skill levels

Anyone can detect veins within 3 tiles on the surface. At higher skill levels, additional abilities are unlocked (currently affected by the curve on Epic):

• 20 (10.56): Estimate the quality of a vein or rock tile, and detect flint when present
  • Note : Free to play seem to not get get this bonus either when prospecting on a rock surface outside or inside the mines.
• 40 (22.54): Detect salt when present
• 60 (36.75): Estimate the remaining amount of ore in a vein

The same abilities are available when prospecting the vein inside the mine.

Vein quality

Rock tiles and ore veins have a maximum quality level.

• Poor: 20-29 (can also prospect as "pretty bad")
• Acceptable: 30-39
• Normal: 40-59
• Good: 60-79
• Very good: 80-94
• Utmost: 95-99

Vein depletion

If your prospecting skill is over 60 (36.75), prospecting an ore vein will give you an estimate of how much ore is left there.

• "Only a few weeks mining remain here" (more than 5000)
• "The ore is starting to deplete" (between 3000 and 5000)
• "You should start to prospect for another vein of this ore" (between 1000 and 3000)
• "The ore will run out soon" (between 100 and 1000)
• "The ore will run out any hour" (1-100)

Tools

Player-made tools to help find veins.

• Prospector
• http://www.pvv.org/~magnusrk/wurm/prospect.html

Titles

• Prospector at 50 skill
• Geologist at 70 skill
• Goldsniffer at 90 skill

Guides

Here's a compilation of guide pages for prospecting.

• Prospecting guide
• Prospect with Uzetaab
• Kiro's mining guide

See also

• Mining
• Tuning fork of metal detection
• Analysing