Difference between revisions of "Mining"

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[[CDB | Main]] / [[:Category:Skills | Skills]] / '''{{PAGENAME}}'''
 
[[CDB | Main]] / [[:Category:Skills | Skills]] / '''{{PAGENAME}}'''
  
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[[File:miningaction.jpg|500px|thumb|right|A Miner at Work]]
 
== Description ==
 
== Description ==
 +
'''Mining is the skill of excavating [[stone shards]], [[marble shards]], [[slate shards]], [[sandstone shards]] and [[ore]] veins.'''
  
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Mining is the skill of excavating rock and ore veins. The act of mining increases several [[characteristics]]: [[body strength]], [[body stamina]], [[mind logic]] and [[soul strength]].
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== Opening a mine (Tunnel) ==
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Activate [[pickaxe]] '''right click''' any [[cliff]] or [[rock tile]] and select '''mining''' > '''tunnel'''. '''[[Mining warnings|Find potential error messages here.]]'''
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*The first step is to make a '''mine entrance''' on the surface which may be done on any [[cliff]] or [[rock tile]].
 +
*The minimum slope of the rock surface to be mined is +1 but also have further requirements. The two lowest corners of your tile will form the bottom edge of your opening. If there are not two corners lower than the others (not equal) you cant tunnel. After opening that lower border will be reshaped completely flat at level of the lower corner.
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*If there are two lower corners identified then the opposite border will be the top of your mine opening and will be completely flat as well, leveled at lower corner of the opposite border.
 +
*'''You cannot [[Mining#Surface_mining|surface mine]] to correct an oddly shaped entrance once it is open.''' So you must make sure to have the tile in the exact shape you want it to be before you open the mine.
 +
*When tuneling, entrance tile is limited by reinforced cave floor as any others (requires that all four corner of the entrance tile not be also one of a reinforced tile). So, when you are tunneling an entrance from the outside and receive the message, {{event|inline|The ground sounds strangely hollow and brittle. You have to abandon the mining operation.}}, you most likely have a reinforced floor inside the tunnel you are trying to open. Enter the mine from another angle and remove the reinforced floor.
 +
*Tunel from outside will ever make a downgoing entrance 20 slope or more, even if there is a flat cave inside. Tunnel out from inside will only remove the rock walls without changing the ground level.
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*To correct that entry slope you can further raise the mine corner floor with concrete but if ground reach is deep underwater. If you don't want any ugly water on the floor in the mine, ensure that both lower corners of the entrance are at least at height 28 (hover the corner with the mouse).
 +
*Each tunneling action has a chance to create a [[stone shards|stone shard]]. After a number of [[stone shards]] are created, usually 9, the message {{event|inline|You will soon create an entrance}} will appear, after 51 actions. A stone shard or two later, and an entrance will be created.
 +
*The maximum height of a tunnel entrance is 270 slope, but you would not be able to continue mining because of ceiling height restrictions. Tunnel slopes should be less than 235.
 +
*The maximum height of an tunnel entrance is 90 slope if you plan to add a mine door.
 +
*You may create a mine entrance up to 3 tiles wide.
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**To widen a tunnel, the tile you mine must only be connected to ONE open tunnel only
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** Mine doors can be placed on tunnel entrances that are 1 tile or wider, except on PvP servers. Note that you will need more than one mine door for wider entrances!
 +
** It is not possible to create an opening next to an opening that has a mine door attached.
  
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== Method ==
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== Tunnel excavation ==
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There are several "modes" of mining, depending on where and what you mine. The method is much the same for all of them: Activate a [[pickaxe]], right-click the place to mine and select Mining -> (action).
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Activate [[pickaxe]] '''right click''' on [[rock tile]] select '''mining''' > '''mine'''.
  
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Remember that Wurm is a 2D world. The cave layer is essentially a second world beneath the surface world. It is possible to mine upwards and downwards with a few limitations.  You may not  mine upward out of rock and into the dirt that is covering it.  You can mine downward until you reach the water table, but can not mine deeper than one tile level below water level. It is also  not possible to have one tunnel pass under or over another without forming a vertical shaft. Each tile is essentially a pillar, so if two tunnels cross at different elevations they create a shaft going from the upper tunnel to the lower tunnel.  This can be useful when done intentionally.  It can also ruin your mine if unplanned.  Planning your mine with an overhead view of your mine on graph paper can save you some heartache.
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Mining a cave wall inside of a mine will remove that tile of rock. It takes 45 mining actions to produce the message {{event|inline|The wall will break soon}} after which it takes 1 to 11 actions to fully remove the tile.
  
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=== Surface excavation ===
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* It is possible to mine up, down or flat but only the final action is taken into account.  The resulting slope of up or down will be approximately 20. Ceiling will be 30 above the created floor whatever its shape is.
 +
* There are slight deviations in mine slopes (up to 3 "Slope") when a mine shaft progresses.This is based off Mining Skill.
 +
** skill less than 50, +-3
 +
** skill = 50, variance is +-2
 +
** skill = 70, variance is +-1
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** skill = 90+ no variance
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* When mining a tile next to an opened tile, slope of the existing tile will be kept but may also change with same variance.
 +
* When connecting two mine shafts, the direction of the mining is irrelevant; one floor will connect to the other floor and ceilings will likewise connect.
 +
* Each action will produce one stone shard.
 +
* All items mined from the cave wall will appear in a pile on the ground on the tile you're standing; this often includes items such as [[salt]] and [[gem]]s, all of which are found randomly.
 +
* It is not possible to create an exit from the inside if there is dirt covering the planned exit, this must be fully uncovered and bare just as if you were to create an entrance from the outside.
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* If the outside tile is covered by dirt while trying to mine out, the message {{event|inline|The cave wall looks very unstable and dirt flows in. You would be buried alive}}
  
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The first step in all mines is to make a mine entrance on the surface. This can be done on any [[cliff]] or [[rock]] tile. Surface mining is fairly quick compared to tunnel and ore mining. After 51 mining actions, the message "You will soon create an entrance" will appear. A few actions later an entrance will be created. The exact value is random, averaging around 5 mining actions after the message appears.
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== Mining resources==
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[[Ore]] is produced by mining metal ore [[vein]]s found inside of a mine. [[Marble]], [[slate]], [[rock salt vein|rock salt]], and [[sandstone vein|sandstone]] veins produce shards. A [[Rock salt]] tile has about the same amount of shards as a regular rock tile, approximately 50 shards.  
  
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Surface excavation will produce [[rock shards]] on some actions. The probability seems to be around 25%.
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*When an ore or shard vein is depleted a tunnel is created. However, a vein can take several thousand actions to deplete, so it is advised to mine around ore and shard veins for tunneling purposes.
  
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NOTE: Mining on a shallow slope is dangerous since you are basically mining straight down and so are probably gonna dig yourself into a pit. A slope of 10+ is probably safe (estimate).
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== Mining floors and ceiling ==
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*Mining the floor or ceiling of a cave will not create tunnels. Instead, it raises (for ceiling) or lowers (for floors) the cave. '''Note that, as with [[digging]], these actions affect the closest corner of the tile and not the tile itself.'''
 +
*A ceiling tile can be mined upward around 31 times before you will receive the message {{event|inline|You cannot reach the ceiling}}. (given that you haven't lowered the floor before you start).
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*A floor tile can be mined down well past swimming depth to let boats pass through. It is a good idea to keep a rowboat/sailboat close by for stamina regain when mining past the water level.
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*Each rock tile removed will have that standard ceiling height, so each ceiling tile must be mined individually, if you want them to be higher. The floor section will match up (providing you didn't mine up or down).
 +
*You can fix slopes with [[concrete]]: one concrete will raise one corner, the equivalent of 1 dirt or 1 mine action.
 +
*Mining ceilings for stone shards is much faster than mining on a wall tile, this can be used to your advantage when not wishing to extend a mine, but shards are required.
 +
*If you have raised the ceiling and try to mine the floor too low, you will receive the message:{{event|inline|Lowering the floor further would make the cavern unstable}} before hitting the water level.
 +
*For the best access in a mine it is recommended not to mine the floor directly, because it can create uneven surfaces making it hard to move around.
 +
*The actions '''mine up''' and '''mine down''' create predictable slopes of 20 and are good if you want a sloped passage, although floor mining can be very useful if used in the right way.  
 +
'''Proceed with caution when adjusting the floors as mining is not easily reversed.''' When digging you can always drop the dirt and refill the hole - this is '''not''' possible when mining.
  
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=== Mine doors ===
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== Mine Up/Down ==
 +
* Mining up/down will create a slope of 20 or to the corresponding next level, if there is another tunnel (see [[Mining#Dropshaft|Dropshaft]])
  
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You can limit access to your mine with the use of a [[mine door]]. Several types of mine doors are available.
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== Leveling ==
 +
Standing on a flat cave tile will permit the leveling of an adjacent tile so that it will be at the same height.  To see if a tile is flat, activate a pickaxe and hover over the tile (as long as you have at least 15 mining skill).
  
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=== Tunnel Excavation ===
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Activate a pickaxe and '''right click''' the cave floor tile, select '''Mining''' > '''Level'''.
 +
*Will mine the highest corners and make the tile flat.
 +
Activate [[concrete]] '''right click''' the corner to be raised select '''raise corner'''.
  
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Mining a cave wall inside a mine will create a tunnel further into the mine. It takes 45 mining actions to produce the message "The wall will break soon", after which it takes average 5 actions to open the tunnel.
+
'''The corner you are standing nearest will be raised, so make sure you are standing in the correct spot.'''
 +
*To raise corners [[concrete]] must be held in the inventory and activated.
 +
*One concrete will raise one corner equivalent to 1 [[dirt]].
 +
*Concrete can be used to raise an underwater cave tile as long as the tile is 25 [[dirt]]s deep or less; below that you get the message: {{event|inline|The water is too deep and would only dissolve the concrete.}}
  
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Tunnel excavation produces [[rock shards]] on every action.
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== Surface mining ==
 +
Activate [[pickaxe]] and '''right click''' [[cliff]] or [[rock tile]], select '''Mining''' > '''Mine'''.
  
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==== Dropshaft ====
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Surface mining is the action of shaping external rock or cliff faces to prepare an area for tunneling, adjusting terrain for other uses or simply for aesthetic reasons.
 +
*To mine on the surface, all adjacent corners of the tile must be clear of dirt. '''You will need dig all four corners of a tile to expose rock.'''
 +
*When mining into water the maximum depth permitted is -25 from the water level.
 +
*It may take one or more actions to lower a single [[dirt]] level of [[rock]]. 
 +
*Border [[slope]] depth may be seen with a pickaxe activated just as with a [[shovel]].
 +
*You will only be able to mine slopes which are 3 times your mining skill. For example, if you mining skill is 3, you can mine slopes of 9 or below.
  
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To create a dropshaft, you need to mine a tile that is either above or below a tile that has already been dug out.
 
  
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Primary uses of dropshafts are fast travel from one level of a mine to a lower level.
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:Slope reduction: {{event|inline|You mine some stone shards.}}
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:No reduction: {{event|inline|You chip away at the rock.}}
  
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For example, if you dig down to water level to get a source of water, you can create a water filled cave and mine out over that cave to get a dropshaft that takes you straight down to the water.
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== Mine doors ==
 +
You can limit access to your mine with the use of a '''[[mine door]]'''. Several types of mine doors are available.
  
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There is no falling damage inside mines.
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'''Remember that off-deed mine doors can be bashed by other players, so your mine is not entirely safe just because it has a mine door attached. A deed [[perimeter]] does NOT protect mine doors.'''
 +
* If you wish to place a [[fence]] around a mine entrance this should be done before attaching a mine door.
 +
* On [[Elevation]] and [[Defiance]] servers, there must be a minimum of 3 tiles between mine doors and only 4 mine doors in an 11x11 area. There is a check in a 5 tile radius around the door being placed.
  
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=== Tunnel Exits ===
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== Dropshaft ==
 +
Dropshafts are typically unfavorable in mines. They link two sections of a mine together which have a height difference of many dirts.  They are not easily traveled through. Vehicles and horses will not be able to move between the levels, and a player must [[Climbing|climb]] to move between the two.
  
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*You '''cannot''' mine out from a tunnel if the tile outside has dirt on it.
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*When a drop shaft is going to be created you will receive this message before the wall breaks: {{event|inline|You hear falling rocks from the other side of the wall. A deep shaft will probably emerge.}}
−
*You '''can''' mine out from a tunnel if the tile outside is bare rock.
 
  
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''Thanks, Kediec, for that info.''
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*Should a dropshaft be required, simply mine out the rock tile which separates two mines of different levels.  Some players have created dropshafts to gain fast access to water or create short-cuts.  There is no falling [[damage]] inside mines, so falling down these shafts is not going to injure the player.
  
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=== Ore mining ===
+
'''Proceed with caution as these are very hard, often impossible, to modify once created.'''
 +
*Collapsing a dropshaft tile with the [[Strongwall]] spell or a [[shaker orb]] will allow you to remine a tile to the height of the tiles around it, but proceed carefully and ask for assistance, as careful planning is required.
  
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Ore is produced by mining ore veins found inside a mine. When an ore vein is depleted, a tunnel is created as when tunnel mining. However, a vein can take several thousand actions to deplete, so it is advised to mine around ore veins for tunneling purposes.
+
== Cave-ins ==
−
 
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Any excavated cave tile has a chance of caving in.  
−
Each action will produce one [[ore]] of the vein's type.
 
  
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=== Floor and ceiling mining ===
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*When a tile caves in the it will become either a rock, ore or shard vein and will need to be re-excavated. 
 +
*A recently collapsed rock tile may not require as many actions to re-open, however an ore tile will likely require many hundred, or even thousand, actions to remove.
 +
*Reinforcing a cave wall with a [[support beam]] will lower the chance of a cave-in on tiles surrounding that support.  Once reinforced they may not be excavated, however a mayor may mine out the support should it reside on their deed.  This would take approximately 50 actions just to remove the support. 
 +
'''A cave wall reinforced with a [[support beam]] off deed is literally impossible to remove. Please be mindful of this.''' Note that underground [[highway]]s are protected from cave-ins, thus tunnels for them dont require reinforcement on side walls.
 +
*Ore veins are considered similar to reinforced walls for purposes of stability.
 +
*The chance that a tile is replaced with a vein or shard other than rock is extremely low.
 +
*You also have the option to manually cave in mine tiles using the spell [[Strongwall]] or using a [[shaker orb]] which can be bought from a trader for 4 silver and is a one time use item.
  
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Mining the floor or ceiling of a cave does not create tunnels. Instead, it raises (for ceiling) or lowers (for floors) the cave. Note that as with [[digging]], these actions affect the closest corner of the tile, and not the tile itself.  A ceiling tile can be mined upward approximately 40-50 times before it is too high to reach.  A floor tile can be mined downward a maximum of ?? times.  Excavating a new tile from a tile that has raised ceiling or lowered floor does not open at those levels.  The new tile will be standard hight with the the ceiling and floor sloping as appropriate.
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== Skillgain ==
  
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== Cave-ins ==
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'''Ore Difficulty'''
  
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Any excavated cave tile has a chance of caving in. When this happens, the tile is simply returned to its former non-excavated state and can be excavated again. If you mine a tile soon after it collapses, it won't need as many mine actions as usual to re-open. Ore veins may appear in cave-ins.  
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*The easiest is mining plain rock or [[zinc]], followed by [[iron vein]]s and [[tin vein]]s.  
 +
*The hardest are silver and gold.  
 +
'''As with most things in Wurm, too low difficulty leads to reduced skill gain, while too high difficulty results in high failure rate. A failure results in a 1.00 QL shard.'''
  
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Reinforcing a cave wall with a [[support beam]] lowers the chance of cave-ins, but reinforced walls cannot be excavated or mined. Ore veins are said to count as reinforced for purposes of stability.
+
*Items from successful mining have random QL, but the maximum possible is the lower of your mining skill and the tile's inherent quality. See [[prospecting]] for details about tile quality.
  
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== Skill and difficulty ==
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'''Note''': In order to gain skill from a mining action the by‑product has to be anywhere in between 1.01 and 39.99 quality range.
  
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Different ore veins have different difficulty. The easiest is mining plain rock, followed by iron ore and copper ore. The hardest are silver and gold. As with most things in Wurm, too low difficulty leads to reduced skillgain, while too high difficulty results in high failure rate. A failure results in a 1.00 QL rock or ore.
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'''Note''': All tests were done with a 25ql pickaxe.
  
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Items from successful mining have random QL, but the maximum possible is the lower of your mining skill and the tile's inherent quality. See [[prospecting]] for details about tile QL.
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{| class="wikitable"
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|-
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! Tile type !! Skill
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|-
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| [[Rock]], [[Zinc vein|Zinc]] || 1-25
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|-
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| [[Iron vein|Iron]], [[Rock salt]] || 25-35
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|-
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| [[Tin vein|Tin]] || 35-50
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|-
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| [[Copper vein|Copper]], [[Slate]], [[Lead vein|Lead]] || 50-75
 +
|-
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| [[Silver vein|Silver]] || 75-90
 +
|-
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| [[Gold vein|Gold]], [[Marble]], [[Sandstone vein|Sandstone]] || 90+
 +
|-
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|+ Optimal Skill Gain
 +
|}
  
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== Other considerations ==
 
  
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You can either mine "up", "down" or level when mining a tile. Only the last mining action is relevant to determine the direction the mine shaft will take.
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'''Optimal Pickaxe Selection for Skill Gain'''
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Mining up or down represents the equivalent of a 20 dirt slope.
 
  
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There are slight deviation in slope (up to 1 "dirt") when a mine shaft progresses. so "level" is actually 0 slope, 1 or -1.
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If you want to optimize mining skill gain, you need to pick the correct QL pickaxe for your skill and for the vein you are mining. You can use the formula:
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Note that when connecting two mine shafts, the direction of the mining is irrelevant. one floor will connect to the other floor and ceilings will likewise connect.
 
  
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== Warning messages ==
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'''(Skill + Tool QL) divided by 2, then subtract 20 = <optimal difficulty>'''
  
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'''''Note:''' Some of these messages aren't exactly as presented in-game. Feel free to correct the wording.''
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Plug in the variables you know, and solve for the remaining variable.
  
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Sometimes you will be unable to continue mining and presented with a warning message.
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{| class="wikitable"
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|-
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! Ore type !! Difficulty
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|-
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| Stone || 2
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|-
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| Zinc || 2
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|-
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| Iron || 3
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|-
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| Tin || 10
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|-
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| Copper || 20
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|-
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| Slate || 20
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|-
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| Lead || 20
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|-
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| Rock salt || 30
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|-
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| Silver || 35
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|-
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| Gold || 40
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|-
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| Reinforced || 40
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|-
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| Marble || 40
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|-
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| Sandstone || 45
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|-
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|}
  
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[[Image:Sideshaft.png|frame|right|Side shaft example]]
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== Resources ==
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There are several types of resource which can be found while mining:
  
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; You fail to produce anything here. The rock is stone hard. : Occurs on the surface. This means the tile you are attempting to excavate is actually an ore vein. There's nothing to do about it, you simply have to make your entrance on another tile. Note that if you make the entrance one tile below the vein, the tunnel will open right into the vein and cannot be extended until the vein is depleted.
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{| class="wikitable"
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; The ground sounds strangely hollow and brittle. You have to abandon the mining operation. : Occurs on the surface. This means there's already a tunnel on the tile you're trying to excavate. There's nothing to do about it, you simply have to make your entrance on another tile. Or you could search for the entrance (possibly caved in) to the existing tunnel.
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|-
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; ? The cave shudders from some imbalance.
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! Tile type !! Mining By-Products
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; ? The cave wall sounds hollow. : Appears when you are mining into another mine shaft and the height difference is not dangerous.
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|-
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; ? A dangerous side shaft will appear. : Occurs inside a mine. This message appears when the tile you are excavating shares a single corner with an existing tunnel. To excavate it you must first excavate so the target tile shares an entire wall with the other tunnel. See example on the right.
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| [[Rock]] || [[Stone shards]]
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; The cave walls look very unstable. You cannot keep mining here. : Occurs inside a mine. Exact cause unknown, it happens when mining close to the top of the rock layer, and can sometimes be avoided by mining downwards.
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|-
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; You hear falling rocks on the other side of the wall.  A deep shaft will probably emerge. : Occurs inside a mine.  Caused when there is already another mine nearby, but there is too much of a height difference to connect the two mines.
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| [[Rock salt vein]] || [[Rock salt|Rock salt shards]]
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; Dirt will flow in. : Occurs inside a mine. Happens when the tile you are mining on will break out to the surface, but the surface is not exposed rock. To excavate it, you must first expose the rock on the surface.
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|-
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; There's also a message for attempting to mine underwater, text unknown.
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| [[Slate]] || [[Slate shards]]
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; There is no space to mine here. Please clear the area before continuing. :  Occurs when the tile you're standing on has 100 items on. Move a few objects and you can continue.
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|-
 +
| [[Sandstone vein]] || [[Sandstone shards]]
 +
|-
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| [[Marble vein|Marble]] || [[Marble shards]]
 +
|-
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| [[Iron vein]] || [[Iron ore]]
 +
|-
 +
| [[Copper vein]] || [[Copper ore]]
 +
|-
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| [[Tin vein]] || [[Tin ore]]
 +
|-
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| [[Zinc vein]] || [[Zinc ore]]
 +
|-
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| [[Lead vein]] || [[Lead ore]]
 +
|-
 +
| [[Silver vein]] || [[Silver ore]]
 +
|-
 +
| [[Gold vein]] || [[Gold ore]]
 +
|+ Mining Resources
 +
|}
  
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== Ore veins ==
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Other resources which can be found include [[salt]], [[gems]], [[source crystal]]s and [[flint]].
  
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There are several types of ore which can be found while mining.
+
== Notes ==
 +
*Mining speed is determined by mining skill, pickaxe [[quality]], pickaxe skill, and the [[Wind of ages]] or [[Botd]] cast, ordered from greatest effect to least.
 +
*Because Wurm is not a true 3D world, the cave layer is essentially a second world beneath the surface. It is possible to mine upwards and downwards with a few [[Mining warnings|limitations]].
 +
*Mining straight mines at zero slope. Mining upward or downward mines at a slope of 20 in that direction. From this, a set of variants is applied based on skill which ultimately determines the final slope of the tile. This skill-based variance set is such that: <50 skill is +/- 3, 50-70 is +/- 2, 70-90 is +/- 1, 90+ is 0. Only the final action that breaks the wall (upward, downward, or straight) determines the direction mined. 
 +
* You may not mine upward out of rock and into the [[dirt]] that is covering it.
 +
* You can mine downward until you reach 25 dirts below the [[water]] table.
 +
* It is not possible to have one tunnel pass under or over another without forming a vertical shaft. Each tile is essentially a pillar, so if two tunnels cross at different elevations they create a shaft going from the upper tunnel to the lower tunnel.  
  
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* [[Iron ore]]
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==PVP Servers==
−
* [[Copper ore]]
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* Maximum slope for surface mining is limited to your 1x mining skill on [[Defiance]] and [[Epic]] servers and capped at 60 slope.
−
* [[Gold ore]]
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* There is a minimum of 3 tiles required between mine doors on all PVP servers.
−
* [[Silver ore]]
 
−
* [[Lead ore]]
 
−
* [[Tin ore]]
 
−
* [[Zinc ore]]
 
  
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For details about ore location, see [[prospecting]].
+
==Mining Warning Messages==
 +
See: [[Mining warnings]]
  
 
== See also ==
 
== See also ==
−
 
 
* [[Pickaxe]]
 
* [[Pickaxe]]
 
* [[Prospecting]]
 
* [[Prospecting]]
−
* [[Support Beam]]
+
* [[Support beam]]
 +
* [[Clad]]
 
* [[Stuck]]
 
* [[Stuck]]
 +
* [[Mining warnings]]
 +
* [[Strongwall]]
 +
 +
==Skills & Characteristics==
 +
* Mining
 +
* [[Body]] > [[Body strength]]
 +
* [[Body]] > [[Body stamina]]
 +
* [[Mind]] > [[Mind logic]]
 +
* [[Soul]] > [[Soul strength]]
 +
 +
== [[Titles]] ==
 +
* Miner at 50 skill
 +
* Prime Minester at 70 skill
 +
* Mastermine at 90 skill
 +
* The World is Mine at 100 skill
 +
 +
== Notes ==
 +
* Mining can be done while moving, so long as you do not move too far away (two tiles) from the tile you are currently working on.
 +
* See [[Mining warnings]] for more indepth information on each situation.
  
 
[[Category:Skills]]
 
[[Category:Skills]]
 +
[[Category:While_moving]]
 
[[Category:Babel/M]]
 
[[Category:Babel/M]]

Latest revision as of 13:58, 17 July 2024

Main / Skills / Mining

A Miner at Work

Description

Mining is the skill of excavating stone shards, marble shards, slate shards, sandstone shards and ore veins.

Opening a mine (Tunnel)

Activate pickaxe right click any cliff or rock tile and select mining > tunnel. Find potential error messages here.

  • The first step is to make a mine entrance on the surface which may be done on any cliff or rock tile.
  • The minimum slope of the rock surface to be mined is +1 but also have further requirements. The two lowest corners of your tile will form the bottom edge of your opening. If there are not two corners lower than the others (not equal) you cant tunnel. After opening that lower border will be reshaped completely flat at level of the lower corner.
  • If there are two lower corners identified then the opposite border will be the top of your mine opening and will be completely flat as well, leveled at lower corner of the opposite border.
  • You cannot surface mine to correct an oddly shaped entrance once it is open. So you must make sure to have the tile in the exact shape you want it to be before you open the mine.
  • When tuneling, entrance tile is limited by reinforced cave floor as any others (requires that all four corner of the entrance tile not be also one of a reinforced tile). So, when you are tunneling an entrance from the outside and receive the message, The ground sounds strangely hollow and brittle. You have to abandon the mining operation. , you most likely have a reinforced floor inside the tunnel you are trying to open. Enter the mine from another angle and remove the reinforced floor.
  • Tunel from outside will ever make a downgoing entrance 20 slope or more, even if there is a flat cave inside. Tunnel out from inside will only remove the rock walls without changing the ground level.
  • To correct that entry slope you can further raise the mine corner floor with concrete but if ground reach is deep underwater. If you don't want any ugly water on the floor in the mine, ensure that both lower corners of the entrance are at least at height 28 (hover the corner with the mouse).
  • Each tunneling action has a chance to create a stone shard. After a number of stone shards are created, usually 9, the message You will soon create an entrance will appear, after 51 actions. A stone shard or two later, and an entrance will be created.
  • The maximum height of a tunnel entrance is 270 slope, but you would not be able to continue mining because of ceiling height restrictions. Tunnel slopes should be less than 235.
  • The maximum height of an tunnel entrance is 90 slope if you plan to add a mine door.
  • You may create a mine entrance up to 3 tiles wide.
    • To widen a tunnel, the tile you mine must only be connected to ONE open tunnel only
    • Mine doors can be placed on tunnel entrances that are 1 tile or wider, except on PvP servers. Note that you will need more than one mine door for wider entrances!
    • It is not possible to create an opening next to an opening that has a mine door attached.

Tunnel excavation

Activate pickaxe right click on rock tile select mining > mine.

Mining a cave wall inside of a mine will remove that tile of rock. It takes 45 mining actions to produce the message The wall will break soon after which it takes 1 to 11 actions to fully remove the tile.

  • It is possible to mine up, down or flat but only the final action is taken into account. The resulting slope of up or down will be approximately 20. Ceiling will be 30 above the created floor whatever its shape is.
  • There are slight deviations in mine slopes (up to 3 "Slope") when a mine shaft progresses.This is based off Mining Skill.
    • skill less than 50, +-3
    • skill = 50, variance is +-2
    • skill = 70, variance is +-1
    • skill = 90+ no variance
  • When mining a tile next to an opened tile, slope of the existing tile will be kept but may also change with same variance.
  • When connecting two mine shafts, the direction of the mining is irrelevant; one floor will connect to the other floor and ceilings will likewise connect.
  • Each action will produce one stone shard.
  • All items mined from the cave wall will appear in a pile on the ground on the tile you're standing; this often includes items such as salt and gems, all of which are found randomly.
  • It is not possible to create an exit from the inside if there is dirt covering the planned exit, this must be fully uncovered and bare just as if you were to create an entrance from the outside.
  • If the outside tile is covered by dirt while trying to mine out, the message The cave wall looks very unstable and dirt flows in. You would be buried alive

Mining resources

Ore is produced by mining metal ore veins found inside of a mine. Marble, slate, rock salt, and sandstone veins produce shards. A Rock salt tile has about the same amount of shards as a regular rock tile, approximately 50 shards.

  • When an ore or shard vein is depleted a tunnel is created. However, a vein can take several thousand actions to deplete, so it is advised to mine around ore and shard veins for tunneling purposes.

Mining floors and ceiling

  • Mining the floor or ceiling of a cave will not create tunnels. Instead, it raises (for ceiling) or lowers (for floors) the cave. Note that, as with digging, these actions affect the closest corner of the tile and not the tile itself.
  • A ceiling tile can be mined upward around 31 times before you will receive the message You cannot reach the ceiling . (given that you haven't lowered the floor before you start).
  • A floor tile can be mined down well past swimming depth to let boats pass through. It is a good idea to keep a rowboat/sailboat close by for stamina regain when mining past the water level.
  • Each rock tile removed will have that standard ceiling height, so each ceiling tile must be mined individually, if you want them to be higher. The floor section will match up (providing you didn't mine up or down).
  • You can fix slopes with concrete: one concrete will raise one corner, the equivalent of 1 dirt or 1 mine action.
  • Mining ceilings for stone shards is much faster than mining on a wall tile, this can be used to your advantage when not wishing to extend a mine, but shards are required.
  • If you have raised the ceiling and try to mine the floor too low, you will receive the message: Lowering the floor further would make the cavern unstable before hitting the water level.
  • For the best access in a mine it is recommended not to mine the floor directly, because it can create uneven surfaces making it hard to move around.
  • The actions mine up and mine down create predictable slopes of 20 and are good if you want a sloped passage, although floor mining can be very useful if used in the right way.

Proceed with caution when adjusting the floors as mining is not easily reversed. When digging you can always drop the dirt and refill the hole - this is not possible when mining.

Mine Up/Down

  • Mining up/down will create a slope of 20 or to the corresponding next level, if there is another tunnel (see Dropshaft)

Leveling

Standing on a flat cave tile will permit the leveling of an adjacent tile so that it will be at the same height. To see if a tile is flat, activate a pickaxe and hover over the tile (as long as you have at least 15 mining skill).

Activate a pickaxe and right click the cave floor tile, select Mining > Level.

  • Will mine the highest corners and make the tile flat.

Activate concrete right click the corner to be raised select raise corner.

The corner you are standing nearest will be raised, so make sure you are standing in the correct spot.

  • To raise corners concrete must be held in the inventory and activated.
  • One concrete will raise one corner equivalent to 1 dirt.
  • Concrete can be used to raise an underwater cave tile as long as the tile is 25 dirts deep or less; below that you get the message: The water is too deep and would only dissolve the concrete.

Surface mining

Activate pickaxe and right click cliff or rock tile, select Mining > Mine.

Surface mining is the action of shaping external rock or cliff faces to prepare an area for tunneling, adjusting terrain for other uses or simply for aesthetic reasons.

  • To mine on the surface, all adjacent corners of the tile must be clear of dirt. You will need dig all four corners of a tile to expose rock.
  • When mining into water the maximum depth permitted is -25 from the water level.
  • It may take one or more actions to lower a single dirt level of rock.
  • Border slope depth may be seen with a pickaxe activated just as with a shovel.
  • You will only be able to mine slopes which are 3 times your mining skill. For example, if you mining skill is 3, you can mine slopes of 9 or below.


Slope reduction: You mine some stone shards.
No reduction: You chip away at the rock.

Mine doors

You can limit access to your mine with the use of a mine door. Several types of mine doors are available.

Remember that off-deed mine doors can be bashed by other players, so your mine is not entirely safe just because it has a mine door attached. A deed perimeter does NOT protect mine doors.

  • If you wish to place a fence around a mine entrance this should be done before attaching a mine door.
  • On Elevation and Defiance servers, there must be a minimum of 3 tiles between mine doors and only 4 mine doors in an 11x11 area. There is a check in a 5 tile radius around the door being placed.

Dropshaft

Dropshafts are typically unfavorable in mines. They link two sections of a mine together which have a height difference of many dirts. They are not easily traveled through. Vehicles and horses will not be able to move between the levels, and a player must climb to move between the two.

  • When a drop shaft is going to be created you will receive this message before the wall breaks: You hear falling rocks from the other side of the wall. A deep shaft will probably emerge.
  • Should a dropshaft be required, simply mine out the rock tile which separates two mines of different levels. Some players have created dropshafts to gain fast access to water or create short-cuts. There is no falling damage inside mines, so falling down these shafts is not going to injure the player.

Proceed with caution as these are very hard, often impossible, to modify once created.

  • Collapsing a dropshaft tile with the Strongwall spell or a shaker orb will allow you to remine a tile to the height of the tiles around it, but proceed carefully and ask for assistance, as careful planning is required.

Cave-ins

Any excavated cave tile has a chance of caving in.

  • When a tile caves in the it will become either a rock, ore or shard vein and will need to be re-excavated.
  • A recently collapsed rock tile may not require as many actions to re-open, however an ore tile will likely require many hundred, or even thousand, actions to remove.
  • Reinforcing a cave wall with a support beam will lower the chance of a cave-in on tiles surrounding that support. Once reinforced they may not be excavated, however a mayor may mine out the support should it reside on their deed. This would take approximately 50 actions just to remove the support.

A cave wall reinforced with a support beam off deed is literally impossible to remove. Please be mindful of this. Note that underground highways are protected from cave-ins, thus tunnels for them dont require reinforcement on side walls.

  • Ore veins are considered similar to reinforced walls for purposes of stability.
  • The chance that a tile is replaced with a vein or shard other than rock is extremely low.
  • You also have the option to manually cave in mine tiles using the spell Strongwall or using a shaker orb which can be bought from a trader for 4 silver and is a one time use item.

Skillgain

Ore Difficulty

As with most things in Wurm, too low difficulty leads to reduced skill gain, while too high difficulty results in high failure rate. A failure results in a 1.00 QL shard.

  • Items from successful mining have random QL, but the maximum possible is the lower of your mining skill and the tile's inherent quality. See prospecting for details about tile quality.

Note: In order to gain skill from a mining action the by‑product has to be anywhere in between 1.01 and 39.99 quality range.

Note: All tests were done with a 25ql pickaxe.

Tile type Skill
Rock, Zinc 1-25
Iron, Rock salt 25-35
Tin 35-50
Copper, Slate, Lead 50-75
Silver 75-90
Gold, Marble, Sandstone 90+
Optimal Skill Gain


Optimal Pickaxe Selection for Skill Gain

If you want to optimize mining skill gain, you need to pick the correct QL pickaxe for your skill and for the vein you are mining. You can use the formula:

(Skill + Tool QL) divided by 2, then subtract 20 = <optimal difficulty>

Plug in the variables you know, and solve for the remaining variable.

Ore type Difficulty
Stone 2
Zinc 2
Iron 3
Tin 10
Copper 20
Slate 20
Lead 20
Rock salt 30
Silver 35
Gold 40
Reinforced 40
Marble 40
Sandstone 45

Resources

There are several types of resource which can be found while mining:

Tile type Mining By-Products
Rock Stone shards
Rock salt vein Rock salt shards
Slate Slate shards
Sandstone vein Sandstone shards
Marble Marble shards
Iron vein Iron ore
Copper vein Copper ore
Tin vein Tin ore
Zinc vein Zinc ore
Lead vein Lead ore
Silver vein Silver ore
Gold vein Gold ore
Mining Resources

Other resources which can be found include salt, gems, source crystals and flint.

Notes

  • Mining speed is determined by mining skill, pickaxe quality, pickaxe skill, and the Wind of ages or Botd cast, ordered from greatest effect to least.
  • Because Wurm is not a true 3D world, the cave layer is essentially a second world beneath the surface. It is possible to mine upwards and downwards with a few limitations.
  • Mining straight mines at zero slope. Mining upward or downward mines at a slope of 20 in that direction. From this, a set of variants is applied based on skill which ultimately determines the final slope of the tile. This skill-based variance set is such that: <50 skill is +/- 3, 50-70 is +/- 2, 70-90 is +/- 1, 90+ is 0. Only the final action that breaks the wall (upward, downward, or straight) determines the direction mined.
  • You may not mine upward out of rock and into the dirt that is covering it.
  • You can mine downward until you reach 25 dirts below the water table.
  • It is not possible to have one tunnel pass under or over another without forming a vertical shaft. Each tile is essentially a pillar, so if two tunnels cross at different elevations they create a shaft going from the upper tunnel to the lower tunnel.

PVP Servers

  • Maximum slope for surface mining is limited to your 1x mining skill on Defiance and Epic servers and capped at 60 slope.
  • There is a minimum of 3 tiles required between mine doors on all PVP servers.

Mining Warning Messages

See: Mining warnings

See also

Skills & Characteristics

Titles

  • Miner at 50 skill
  • Prime Minester at 70 skill
  • Mastermine at 90 skill
  • The World is Mine at 100 skill

Notes

  • Mining can be done while moving, so long as you do not move too far away (two tiles) from the tile you are currently working on.
  • See Mining warnings for more indepth information on each situation.
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