Guides/Mining

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.

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

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.

Ore characteristics

NOTE: Each characteristic can be all same or different and you can mix these. All the same color + all different patterns is valid

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
Antimony	14	5 Crystal Colours, 5 Crystal Shapes, 2 Base Shapes	All Same or All Different. In practice this means the base shape must always be the same. The crystals and crystal shapes can be either all same or all different.
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. For sets of 4, can be 3/1, 2/2 or 2/1/1 for each property.
Copper	8	3 Stone Colours, 4 Stone Shapes	All Same, All Different, All of one characteristic same, all of other characteristic different
Gold	12	3 Stone Colours, 3 Stone Patterns, 3 Crystal Colours, 3 Crystal Shapes	All Same or All Different
Iron	7	3 Stone Colours, 3 Crystal Shapes	All Same or All Different, one characteristic all same, other characteristic all different
Lead	9	5 Stone Colours, 4 Stone Shapes, 3 Crystal Colors	Different shape + same gem colour + different rock colour = work. same gem color, same rock shape, different rock color = work
Magnesium	9	7 Stone Colours, 3 Stone Shapes, 3 Stone Patterns	All Same or All Different
Nickel	13	4 Stone Colours, 4 Stone Patterns, 4 Crystal Shapes, 4 Crystal Colours (provisional)	3+ All Same or All Different
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.
Sand	7	7 Stone Colors	All Same or All Different
Silver	10	5 Stone Colours, 5 Base Shapes, 5 Base Colours	3+ All Same or All Different
Tin	9	4 Stone Colours, 4 Stone Marbling Patterns	All Same or All Different
Zinc	10	3 Stone Colours, 3 Base Shapes, 3 Crystal Colours	All Same or All Different

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.

• 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.

• 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.

Ore Stone, Crystal and base shapes

Crystal Shapes	Names	Stone Shapes	Names	Base Shapes	Names	Pattern	Names	Colors	Names
	Mixed Crystals		Udder Stone		Boxes Base		Honeycomb Pattern		Red Stone
	Long Shard		Bowl Stone		Fractured Base		Wigley Lines		Yellow Stone
	Long Branched		Oval Stone		Rounded Edged base		Lined Pattern		Blackstone
	Long Smooth		Stacked Stone		Round stone base		Volcanic Pattern		Blue Stone
	Raw Crystal		Round Stone		flat base		Splattered Pattern		Green Stone
	Shards		Angled Stone		Mounds Base		Speckled Pattern		Cyan Stone
	Faceted		Squashed Stone		Flat Oval Base				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!

Ore Yield

• Copper ore: See above. Typical 3-stone combination yields are not great.
• Iron ore: You get more iron ore than copper ore for a typical 3-stone combination. 4-stone combination doesn't yield much more than 3-stone combos.
• Silver: 3-stone combinations give 1 silver at first, but as the stones get used you will get higher yield. 4-stone combinations gives significantly more than 3-stone combos.
• Cobalt: 4-stone combination yields are actually much smaller than for 3-stone combinations, so stick with 3-stone combos. Alternately, use 4-stone combos first to soften up the stones (being careful not to break any stone you need), then use your 3-stone combos for higher yield.
  • To find 3-stone sets, try looking for a pair of stones that have two things in common, then find other stones that are different on those two things but match either stone for the third property
  • To find 4-stone sets, try looking for a pair of stones that have the same stone color, then add a third stone that matches either crystal color, and a fourth stone with the same base color of any of the first three. Also, if you've found a 3-stone set, any stone you add to that will make a 4-stone set.

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.

There is a brute force mining script in automato which goes through all stone combinations. Best use is for silver and cobalt mining.

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.