Analyse

Analyse is an action granted by the prospecting skill. When used on recently mined rock shards, or even ores, it allows you to determine if any ore veins are nearby the tile the shard was mined from, as well as their approximate distance and direction from that tile. The action is first unlocked at prospecting skill level 20. To Analyse, right-click a rock shards, and select "Analyse."

Event messages

• "You are unable to work out how to analyse the shard." - You are below prospecting skill level 20.
• "It looks like someone has tampered with the rock shards and therefore you decide not to analyse it." - The shard has already been analysed and cannot be analysed again.. Also appears if part of the shards have been used to make something or used in improving.
• "The rock shards looks too old for a decent analysis and therefore you decide not to analyse it." - Appears if you try to analyse a shard from a bulk storage bin.

How to use

When analysing a shard, several messages will appear in the event window over several seconds.

Distance

Depending on your prospecting skill, you will receive different amounts of information from the shard. Nearby ores will appear as traces every few lines. The strength of the traces shows the distance from the tile the shard originated from, to the tile with the ore vein. The level of your prospecting skill will determine the strength of the traces you can detect.

The four different strengths:

• "Traces" - Shows for ore that is 1 tile away. Unlocked with Analyse at prospecting level 20.
• "Slight traces" - Shows for ore that is 2 tiles away. Unlocked with Analyse at prospecting level 20.
• "Faint traces" - Shows for ore that is 3 tiles away. Unlocked at prospecting level 35.
• "Minuscule traces" - Shows for ore that is 4 tiles away. Unlocked at prospecting level 54.
• "Vague traces" - Shows for ore that is 5 tiles away. Unlocked at prospecting level 70. (I saw this at 69.8+)
• "Indistinct traces" - Shows for ore that is 6 tiles away. Unlocked at prospecting level 85(?). (Needs confirmation)

The distance away from the analysed rock shard/tile is a square of radius equivalent to the distance.

Quality

Additionally, at higher prospecting levels, you can begin to see the quality of veins. Veins farther away require more skill in order to assess the quality. Rather than a specific quality, it lists a range of quality. This is the same vein quality system used in prospecting.

The quality ranges are:

• Poor: 20-29 QL
• Acceptable: 30-39 QL
• Normal: 40-59 QL
• Good: 60-79 QL
• Very good: 80-94 QL
• Utmost: 95-99 QL

Level necessary to see quality at specific distances:

• "Traces" quality, unlocked at level 22
• "Slight traces" quality, unlocked at level 40
• "Faint traces" quality, unlocked at level 70 (Needs confirmation)
• "Minuscule traces" quality, unlocked at level 80 (Needs confirmation)
• "Vague traces" quality, unlocked at level 90 (Needs confirmation)

NOTE

By the most new experiments (done at 20 skill in prospecting), it looks like the more distance the ore is at, the more difficult is to determine what its. A message like [xx:xx:xx] You notice a slight trace of something, but cannot quite make it out. would be shown then, as an example, for some ore in the 2nd tile radius, displaying the ore vein as unknown (even if the vein is exposed and you can see it).

Anyway, such given message does not mean that there is an ore beyond that point (and if there is, at that lvl of skill its imposible to say), but that there is an ore in the given radius.

It also looks like different kinds of ore have their own difficulty for being detected. So, since the message from above has been given at 20 prospecting skill and with a Silver Vein, the message [xx:xx:xx] You spot a slight trace of zinc ore. has been given with a Zinc Vein at 2 tiles away.

So far, for now, Silver and Lead are not identificable at 20 skill in Prospecting, but Zinc is when its beyond the 1st tile radius.

Direction

In addition to type, quality and distance of the vein, a direction is available from the analyze messages if you have a compass in your inventory. The direction is given as one of 16 possible values:

• the 4 cardinal directions north, east, south and west if the prospected ore is in a straight horizontal or vertical line on the grid
• the 4 intermediate directions northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest if the prospected ore is in straight diagonal line on the grid
• all other locations fall into the 8 directions east/west of north, north/south of east, east/west of south and north/south of west

Example

This is a possible analyse readout at prospecting level 20-29:

You start to analyse the shard.
Lots of different sized rock shards.
You notice a trace of silver ore (northeast).
You take a closer look.
You notice a slight trace of iron ore (south of west).
You finish analysing the shard.

This says that there's a silver ore vein right to the northeast from the tile from which the analysed rockshard was mined. The distance one is the square of tiles immediately surrounding the analysed one. Each increment of distance beyond this is the square of tiles immediately surrounding the previous one. In this example the second square, of distance two, holds the iron ore.

Quick reference

Below is a table showing the required prospecting skill to view ore type and quality by distance. This is the same information as provided above, just inserted into a table for quick reference. Numbers with question marks(?) are unconfirmed.

Distance	Ore type	Ore quality
Traces (1 tile)	20	22
Slight traces (2 tiles)	20	40
Faint traces (3 tiles)	34	70 ?
Minuscule traces (4 tiles)	54	80 ?
Vague traces (5 tiles)	~70 ?	90 ?
Indistinct traces (6 tiles)	85 ?	?

Notes

Facts

• Rare pickaxe will not add another line of information.
• Ores may also be analysed.
• There is a skill tick chance for each trace strength analysis. (ex. If you can go up to "faint traces" you get 3 skill tick chances.)
• You get more prospecting skill gain when you have lower stamina.
• It is possible to detect two veins in the same distance zone. Both can have its quality range listed and be of same type, each on separate lines.
• Rock shard QL plays no part in how much information is given.
• Flint and salt detection is possible.

Uncertain knowledge

• Rare rock shards do not appear to give any more information than normal rock shards. (Needs confirmation)

See also

• Prospecting