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Guides/Mining

From A Wiki in the Desert

To get to the Mining Technology Page click here: Mining

Tips

When done mining a public mine, please press "Stop working this mine" so the crystals disappear and won't cause lag.

Public Mines

See the Maps/Public Mines page.

General Description of Mining

  • Anyone can see what type of Ore Mine it is. These mines do not crumble so there is no repair cost.
  • When dowsing, 'Unrecognizable ore' means the required Perception is double your current rounded up. That's the current theory.
  • Work the Mine, Normal hotkey [W] to get the first set or new set of ore stones. There is a Color Blind mining mode that can be enable by contacting a GM. The hotkey [c} to work the mine instead of [w] .
  • Minimum number of Ore Stones in a successful Workload for any ore is 3 Ore Stones chosen.
  • Gems and coal are produced when one of the Ore Stones crumbles. When a specific Ore Stone has been selected in a correct workload 7 times it crumbles.
  • "All same or all different" means that each set needs to be either of the same or of a different type. E.g., the crystal color could be all red or 3 different colors.
  • "Some same and some different" means that each set must contain a pair and one different from the pair. E.g., the crystal colors could be 2 yellows and 1 red.

Color Blind Mode

  • If you would like to have Color Blind mode turned on for mining, please place a GM call requesting it.
  • The puzzle artwork will be the same, but instead of requiring you to distinguish between stone colors, base colors, and crystal colors, you will have to distinguish between different shapes and/or marbling patterns. Even the most complex mining puzzles can be successfully configured that way.

In this iron mine, you have to distinguish between stone colors and crystal shapes.

IronReg.png

At the same iron mine, in colorblind mode, you need to distinguish between stone shapes and base shapes.

IronCB.png

Byproducts

  • Every mine will produce Gems and Coal when a stone is successfully broken. These land in the mine's inventory. The type of gem is determined by the region the mine is in. Refer to Gems for a list of which gems are mined in which regions.
  • As of 2020-01-28, there is also a small chance to gain 2 Cuttable Gems among Almandine, Aquamarine, Garnet, Kunzite and Morganite when you confirm a successful workload, be it sand or ore. Contrary to gems and coal, the cuttables will land directly in your inventory.

Ore characteristics


Ore Type Number of Ore Stones in a set Varying Characteristics Characteristic Rules for a Successful Workload Regular Mining Color Blind Mode
Aluminum 9 4 Stone Colours, 4 Stone Shapes, 4 Base Colours All Same or All Different Aluminum reg.png Aluminum cb.png
Antimony 14 5 Crystal Colours, 5 Crystal Shapes, 2 Base Shapes All Same or All Different Antimony reg.png Antimony cb.png
Cobalt 10 7 Stone Colours, 7 Crystal Colours, 7 Base Colours 2 same base and one different, 2 same crystal and one different, 2 same stone and one different Cobalt reg.png Cobalt cb.png
Copper 8 3 Stone Colours, 4 Stone Shapes All Same or All Different Copper reg.png Copper cb.png
Gold 12 3 Stone Colours, 3 Stone Patterns, 3 Crystal Colours, 3 Crystal Shapes All Same or All Different Gold reg.png Gold cb.png
Iron 7 3 Stone Colours, 3 Crystal Shapes All Same or All Different Iron reg.png Iron cb.png
Lead 9 5 Stone Colours, 4 Stone Shapes, 3 Crystal Colors All Same or All Different: Same shape + same gem colour + different rock colour = work. different rock colour + different gem colour + different shape = work Lead reg.png Lead cb.png
Magnesium 9 7 Stone Colours, 3 Stone Shapes, 3 Stone Patterns All Same or All Different Magnesium reg.png Magnesium cb.png
Nickel 13 4 Stone Colours, 4 Stone Patterns, 4 Crystal Shapes, 4 Crystal Colours (provisional) 3+ All Same or All Different Nickel reg.png Nickel cb.png
Platinum 12 5 Stone Colours, 5 Stone Patterns, 5 Crystal Colours, 5 Base Shapes Some Same and Some Different:
If mining 3 orestones, 2 must have same stone color and 3rd be different; 2 must have same base shape and 3rd be different, etc.
Platinum reg.png Platinum cb.png
Sand 7 7 Stone Colors All Same or All Different Sand reg.png Sand cb.png
Silver 10 5 Stone Colours, 5 Base Shapes, 5 Base Colours 3+ All Same or All Different Silver reg.png Silver cb.png
Tin 9 4 Stone Colours, 4 Stone Marbling Patterns All Same or All Different Tin reg.png Tin cb.png
Zinc 10 3 Stone Colours, 3 Base Shapes, 3 Crystal Colours All Same or All Different Zinc reg.png Zinc cb.png


Playing the Mining Game

  • We will use a Copper Mine in this example. Copper Mines use the Ore Stone characteristics of body colours and body shapes. You will always play the Mining Game with this type of mine with those characteristics. In the chart above, successful workloads will have characteristics that are either all the same or all different for copper.
  • Click on the Mine and choose Work this Mine, Normal [W] to bring out a new Ore Stone set.

Tale 7 Ore Stone Set

  • Left-click the stones that you think will be either All Same or All Different as in the chart above for this Ore Stone Set and choose Add this to the Workload [A]. In this example I chose All Different for both colour and shape, so all stone shapes must be different and all stone colors must be different (yellow, purple, blue). A blue rotating ring appears around each stone you choose. Two Ore Stones have been chosen and a blue Ore Stone is about to be chosen.

T5 Workload

  • Left-click the last Ore Stone and choose Add this to the Workload and Finalize [S]. If you chose a correct set of Ore Stones then you will see the flyaway message as below! You win some ore! The ore amount is added into the pot and you can Take.

Cyan Shade 1

Ore Stone, Crystal and base shapes

Crystal Shapes Names Stone Shapes Names Base Shapes Names Pattern Names Colors Names
Mixedcrystal.png Mixed Crystals Longshards.png Udder Stone Boxedbase.png Boxes Base Honeycombpattern.png Honeycomb Pattern Redstone.png Red Stone
Longshards.png Long Shard Bowlstone.png Bowl Stone Fracturedbase.png Fractured Base Wigglylines.png Wigley Lines Yellowstone.png Yellow Stone
Longbranched.png Long Branched Ovalstone.png Oval Stone Roundedgebase.png Rounded Edged base Linedpattern.png Lined Pattern Blackstone.png Blackstone
Longsmooth.png Long Smooth Stackedstone.png Stacked Stone Bowlstone.png Round stone base Volcanicpattern.png Volcanic Pattern Bluestone.png Blue Stone
Rawcrystal.png Raw Crystal Facetedcrystal.png Round Stone Angledstone.png flat base Splatteredpattern.png Splattered Pattern Greenstone.png Green Stone
Shards.png Shards Angledstone.png Angled Stone Longbranched.png Mounds Base Longshards.png Speckled Pattern Honeycombpattern.png Cyan Stone
Facetedcrystal.png Faceted Squasedstone2.png Squashed Stone Rawcrystal.png Flat Oval Base Magentastone.png Magenta Stone

A Small Guide to Efficient Copper Mining

The basics of efficient copper mining is to generally ignore the small loads from the 3-stone combinations and to go for the much more rewarding 4-stone combinations.

  • If the current set of stones does not contain any 4-stone combinations, do a few 3-stone combinations to get timer to 0, then get a new set of stones.
  • Soften up the stones in the 4-stone combination(s) by doing 3-stone combinations first. This will ensure a bigger return from the 4-stone combination(s). Be careful not to break any of the stones you need in the end.
  • Now do the 4-stone combinations. You will notice that even though it takes some time building up to this, the reward is also great. Happy mining!

Mining Helper Tool

There is a helper tool available for mining many kinds of ores. It's written in Python 3 and available here. Please update the link if you find it.

Sand Mining

Check out the Sand Mining Guide for pictures and charts that explain this process. Now in living color!

Sand mines have 7 stones varying only in Body Colour. All 7 colours are possible, but unlikely to come out all at once. Having only one varying property makes sand mines much easier to mine for gems. The aim is to find groups of 3+ with all same or all different colours, and to work as many stones as possible seven times so that they crumble into gems (and coal).

If there are no triples having the same colour, it is possible to collapse all seven stones according to a simple rule: Make a workload of three stones using one from each pair (including other stones if there are fewer than 3 pairs), then make a workload of the four other stones. Repeat this seven times, and all stones will crumble yielding seven gems.

With just a triple (and four singles), you can get 5 gems by making all possible workloads of 3 stones using one from the triple, and then a workload of 5 stones.

You can take out 6 of the ore stones with this combination, Using one of the triple and the 4 singles will give you 6 sets. Do this with a 2nd of the triples, then with the 3rd of the triple you will have 2 sets and take out the 4 single stones then complete with doing the triple and that will take out two of the triple leaving you with just the one stone left. (Fez)

With a triple and a pair, you can get 3 gems by doing all possible workloads using stones from each of the triple and the pair (there are 12 of these), then a 4-workload.