Ore Veins Data

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Allright nerds, i took one for the team and did some testing, so you dont have to.

First of all, it looks like veins are able to spawn at any depths. I would imagine corestone veins must be limited to T2/T3 only, but i cant really confirm or deny due to a very small sample size.

Next, in case you didnt notice by now, veins come in different sizes. From very small like this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2966995425

To various medium sizes like this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2966995450

And even fat chonkers like this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2966995504

This last one is the biggest one i found, but you never know. All they have in common is that they all got a center point, or should i say a center cube. Which means they are Odd in dimentions. Which also means its T2 drills unfriendly, cuz those tend to have Even structure.

Anyway, lets get testing. We are interested in rates, right? First i did a quick test on a small Crystal vein.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2966995990

And here is the data from slightly above 1000 cycles:

Crystal 36.6%
Gold 25%
Iron 33%
Cloutium 1%
Corestone 1.1%
Gems 3.3%

Then i wanted to know if there is any difference whether i place a drill right in the center or on the edge of the sphere. And as you can see here, there is no difference, the numbers are within RNG margin of error (ironic that drill on the edge even pulled ahead slightly):

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2966995892

And finally i wanted to have a more accurate data on cloutium vein so i ran over 10.000 cycles and here are the numbers:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2967004254

Cloutium 33.3%
Gold 25%
Iron 33.9%
Corestone 1.2%
Crystal 3%
Gems 3.6%

Which corelates with the crystal vein test results. And also confirms my approximations of rates from a different post.

Edit: Should have done this right away, but better late then never. So in comparison the regular dirt (no vein) at the same exact depth:

Cloutium 1%
Gold 37%
Iron 50%
Corestone 2%
Crystal 5%
Gems 5%

So we got a massive x33+ increase on cloutium. Which for normal people means - 1 drill on a cloutium vein equals 33 drills on a regular dirt, on the same depth. I had 3 drills there on a test rig. So in order for me to keep up on cloutium agains those 3, i would have to build a 100 drills on a regular dirt. Comprende?

[aRPeaR]

And what are % of normal dirt?

[subwaybananas]

good work, addition question (if you want to make further tests):
has the ore veins "only" the higher percentage of the specific ore or is the weight increased (specific ore and overall), compared to the dirt at the same level?

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Originally posted by subwaybananas:

good work, addition question (if you want to make further tests):
has the ore veins "only" the higher percentage of the specific ore or is the weight increased (specific ore and overall), compared to the dirt at the same level?

The weight of the chunks is related to the depth, as usual. Veins only increase the reates.

[h_LordEC[no-VC]]

Awesome information.

Do we know how the effect is spawned? Is it always there? Even if you haven't used the digsite?

I found two in my main digsite. Gold near the bottom of T1 and crystal near the top of T1.
I clipped into the ground to check all the other digsites and didn't find any more.

I ran around checking my main digsite while wearing the helmet and possibly found two other veins because the helmet was going off... but there is no effect anywhere close to where the helmet is detecting.

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Originally posted by h_LordECno-VC:

Awesome information.

Do we know how the effect is spawned? Is it always there? Even if you haven't used the digsite?

Yes the veins are genereted along with the save file when you press "new game". You dont have to use detectors, you can uncover them by accident with explosives or hydromole, or even pickaxe. Its just like with relics, you cant see them by clipping through the dirt, they only appear when you actually uncover them. But their positions are generated with the map itself.

[h_LordEC[no-VC]]

Weird...
I'm digging down to areas with no visible effect but the helmet says something is there.
Bad luck on my part.

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Originally posted by h_LordECno-VC:

Weird...
I'm digging down to areas with no visible effect but the helmet says something is there.
Bad luck on my part.

The helmet is meh. I tried it, didnt really like it at all. But the scanner vehicle is pretty good if you realy want to find some veins.

If it was up to me, i would replace the helmet with X-ray techno-goggles which would enable you to see veins (and relics) through the dirt. And i would put a F-YOU pricetag on it, like .. idk 30k tokens. People would still buy it.

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Originally posted by aRPeaR:

And what are % of normal dirt?

I included the normal dirt % into OP so all the numbers are in one place there.

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I did a couple more 10K passes on the test rig. And its pretty much all the same. Minor RNG fluctuations. We can basically round it up like this:

Cloutium vein

Cloutium 33%
Gold 25%
Iron 33.5%
Corestone 1.5%
Crystal 3%
Gems 3.5%

Regular dirt

Cloutium 1%
Gold 37%
Iron 50%
Corestone 2%
Crystal 5%
Gems 5%

Is it worth hunting for veins? I think definately. It saves the number of drills dramatically, and you dont even have to process any other ores from the vein, just filter out what you want (cloutium/corestone) and scrap the rest. Who knows maybe it is the new meta even, instead of killing your fps with mass drill farms.

[XOCE]

I have a dumb question...
How do the veins work exactly?
Like... you find a vein, say, the middle sized one (3x3 squares). And then what... if you put a drill on any of those 9 squares, you will get more of the respective ore?
Also depthwise - to use the example with the 3x3. Is it 3wide X 3long X 1 deep... or 3 wide X 1 long X 3 deep... or... something else?

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Originally posted by XOCE:

I have a dumb question...
How do the veins work exactly?
Like... you find a vein, say, the middle sized one (3x3 squares). And then what... if you put a drill on any of those 9 squares, you will get more of the respective ore?

Yup. Well not on any 9, you want your drill's bottom part within the radius.

Originally posted by XOCE:

Also depthwise - to use the example with the 3x3. Is it 3wide X 3long X 1 deep... or 3 wide X 1 long X 3 deep... or... something else?

Its a sphere dude, like a ball. So yea its a 3x3x3 but its a sphere, not a cube, so corners are not within radius.

[aRPeaR]

Oh no, here come the flat earth conspiracy theories.

[XOCE]

Originally posted by |||||||||||:

.....
Its a sphere dude, like a ball. So yea its a 3x3x3 but its a sphere, not a cube, so corners are not within radius.

Well that is interesting. I will need to rethink the concept of my base then... and sertainly check youtube for some visual aids as an addition to the explanation provided here .
Thank you for the info.

MAN, I love having game-related 'issues' to figure out

[BearlyKodiak]

Heads up, nerds - I have my own tests to add to this thread.
Ore veins basically follow these rules:
* 1/3 of resources collected are of the vein type.
* The other 2/3 follow the normal loot table for the depth collected.

You can check out my test results on the Hydroneer discord:
Ore Vein Tests[discord.com]

For those who want to do their own tests, I have a resource counter save
Resource Counter with Instructions[discord.com]
I also made a couple mods that can help with testing builds: Terrain Manipulator to clear plots and reveal naturally spawned ore veins, and the Ore Vein Tool (needs Creative Menu to spawn) to create your own custom veins.

[h_LordEC[no-VC]]

Originally posted by BearlyKodiak:

Heads up, nerds - I have my own tests to add to this thread.
Ore veins basically follow these rules:
* 1/3 of resources collected are of the vein type.
* The other 2/3 follow the normal loot table for the depth collected.

You can check out my test results on the Hydroneer discord:
Ore Vein Tests[discord.com]

For those who want to do their own tests, I have a resource counter save
Resource Counter with Instructions[discord.com]
I also made a couple mods that can help with testing builds: Terrain Manipulator to clear plots and reveal naturally spawned ore veins, and the Ore Vein Tool (needs Creative Menu to spawn) to create your own custom veins.

Thanks for the info, very much appreciate your time!