Mining Basics

Fresh Spawn (How Do I Start Mining?) -

Spawning into the game, you're not too far out from delving in your first cave, you will always be just around the corner from one. However is it imperative that we have the right kind of gear before we head in:

First things first, we need to get your hands on the most important tool for mining, your pickaxe. For a starter a stone pickaxe will do just fine, beggars can't be choosers especially when you're this early in the game, we will worry about the upgrades later. For now roam around your starting town and collect twigs, stone, and kill some little critters that may inhabit the nearby forest for some leather.

Once you have:

2 leather strips

3 stones

1 wood log

You may craft your first tool! it isn't going to be pretty but mining is a dirty job.

Luggage Recommendations

Now that you have made your pick, we are one step closer to delving into the darken abyss to collect some minerals for the sake of progression. But let's check out our bags to ensure we have the necessary tools to make this as smooth as possible. Now these aren't a must but I would highly recommend you bring:

• Some healing potions
• Various amounts of food

It's also important to note that finding a campfire nearby wouldn't go amiss. Having a close spawn near the cave entrance makes the inevitable death a little easier to swallow when your one foot away from giving that cave another try.

Stepping Into Cave For The First Time

Now that we have some healings items, a close spawn point just in case, and our trusty stone pickaxe in hand we can actually begin our voyage into the cave systems. Starting out I would recommend you take your first couple journeys slow and methodical. There's a lot of things to bare in mind when it comes to collecting resources so playing it slow; your first couple runs gives you time to get used to the various amount of minerals and threats at our wake.

Minerals + Gems To Expect

Let's start with the good news, the whole appeal of the cave systems, the minerals they bring.

Every cave is going to have a different layout with thriving biomes that connect with each other haphazardly, jungle biomes may mesh with a snow biome, which then may mesh into a cliff/forest biome, yada yada yada. The point is, though these biomes may seem vastly different to each other, in most cases the spawning of the minerals is not biased.

Every cave is going to have the following ores:

Tin
Copper
Iron
Coal
Gold
Silver
Bloodsteel

As well as every gem:

Amethyst
Topaz
Emerald
Sapphire
Ruby
Diamond

Each of these ores and gems have different appearances that may help you if you plan to look for one specific ore, as well as some ores spawning more frequently in certain areas of the cave (An example being that tin and copper spawn more often in the beginning sections of the cave and bloodsteel spawns far more often in the lava section of the caves)

An easy way to grasp what gem or ore you are dealing with is to grab your trusty pick, unholster it, and aim your crosshair at the gem in question, all ore has the similar texture, a small rock that has various colorization specks forming on it, the colors differing.

Example (Copper):