best/fastest way to gather clay soil?

[ProxyJames]

so I have hit kind of a snag in witch I can gather tons and tons of iron and stone just by mining HOWEVER gathering clay goes MUCH MUCH slower, like I can spend 10 mins mining and fill my empty inventory with stacks of iron and stone (6000 per stack) however I can spend the same amount of time digging though the top soil and make a huge pit and bearly get 6000 clay (btw I have motherload maxed out) so what is the best way to gather this stuff?

[Shurenai]

What tool are you mining the clay with? O.o You're using a shovel, I hope?

Anyway, what you're doing is basically the fastest way..but it really sounds like you're using an improper tool for the task and not getting the full clay yield and/or not digging as fast as you could be.

[ProxyJames]

I mean what use would you use to get clay? using a pick or a axe it takes ages, so yes I am using a steel shovel, I have not found blueprints for a auger yet

[CatPerson]

I haven't tested/paid attention, but if the max amount of clay possible per block is not as much as with iron/stone, then, well ... it's always going to be "slower."

You just wouldn't be able to get around that, it's math.
Edit: isn't sand "slow" to get stacks of in that sense, too?

If they are the same amount per block and you are basically able to equally destroy earth block and stone block in the same amount of swings/time etc ... then I'm not sure.

[ProxyJames]

引用自 CatPerson：

I haven't tested/paid attention, but if the max amount of clay possible per block is not as much as with iron/stone, then, well ... it's always going to be "slower."

You just wouldn't be able to get around that, it's math.
Edit: isn't sand "slow" to get stacks of in that sense, too?

If they are the same amount per block and you are basically able to equally destroy earth block and stone block in the same amount of swings/time etc ... then I'm not sure.

no each tool does do extra damage to the thing they are ment for, axes deal tons of damage to wood, pickaxes deal tons of damage to metal and ore and shovels do tons of damage to dirt, right now with the mods I have on my shovel I can one shot dirt, the problem is that I am only getting about 44 dirt per block x.x it would go much faster if I could make a rank 5 auger witch deals tons of damage to both dirt, metal, stone and ore

[CatPerson]

Tested: lvl 6 steel shovel, motherlode maxed, mods that increase damage to stone/iron/earth, one hit destroys one block in each case (using easy difficulty/block hardness settings):

Clay from one block: 44

Lvl 6 steel pickaxe:
stone block (not the small surface boulders): 110
iron: 210 iron, 28 stone

...so there you go. It's math, is all. Something like an auger would certainly speed it up, but it will still never match the stacks-per-hour (so to speak) of stone/iron.

Edit: SPEED of damage to a block does not = more material per block.

[ProxyJames]

yeah that looks about right, I would also like to add that vol.3 of art of mining gives you 10% more ore and stone when you have a buff from coffee and there is a candy called rock busters witch gives a additional 20% so pair those and you get butt tons of ore

[CatPerson]

Btw, last I knew the auger wasn't some magical superman level of speed. It is faster for digging out larger swaths or destroying misplaced concrete blocks I suppose but ... considering the need for gas and the level of noise, it wasn't so much faster I ever cared to use one for long vs. a steel tool. Just me tho.

edit: in the old days some would use explosives on the ground and run to pick up all the blocks but since most of the time blocks aren't formed now (I think?) that doesn't work anymore.

[Juki]

I'm having the issue where i dig up clay soil, but not clay. i cant find clay anywhere.

[The Giving One]

引用自 Raesari_Renegade：

I'm having the issue where i dig up clay soil, but not clay. i cant find clay anywhere.

Pretty sure if you are on the latest version of the game, that now it's all just clay. You use clay to craft soil instead. Pretty sure it takes 16 clay to make one block of soil, and when placed, the soil automatically matches the biome surface where you are placing it.

EDIT...

Of course, exceptions like snow or sand (frozen biome/desert) are going to give those materials when you dig, until you dig deep enough/other surface location to find the clay. After that, it's all just clay, until you dig deep enough through that to get to stone.

[Teresa]

引用自 Raesari_Renegade：

I'm having the issue where i dig up clay soil, but not clay. i cant find clay anywhere.

Clay soil is clay. You put it in the forge just like you do iron and smelt it into clay.

Any recipe that calls for clay instead of clay soil needs to be crafted in the forge.

[ProxyJames]

引用自 Raesari_Renegade：

I'm having the issue where i dig up clay soil, but not clay. i cant find clay anywhere.

they don't do very well at explaining it in game but you have to put the clay soil into the "forges"* smelting spots and "smelt"** the clay soil and THEN it turns into clay

*the forge looks nothing like a forge it looks more like a stone kiln, the most basic forge you can BUY these days is a coal forge witch looks alot like a one of those little round BBQs so would have been way cooler to make a legit coal forge and one of the parts needed was a BBQ stand
*dirt melts at stupid high temperatures so the devs are having you make warm dirt, its kind of stupid

[The Giving One]

It's just a lot more simple now in the most recent alphas than it was a while back. Back a few alphas ago, you had to dig that specific biomes soil to craft it, and you had to search around to find specific patches of clay.

EDIT...Correction. You had to select which biome soil you wanted to craft, and it took dirt instead.

Now, it's all just clay and you can craft the soil instead, if you want to place soil back in a hole you dug, for example.

[Brevan]

When I need clay, I find somewhere nice and flat, dig down 3-4 blocks, and then dig a long straight line somewhere and then dig back to my entrance (I'll plug that hole with topsoil block so that I haven't wrecked the local scenery or driving routes). Considering the clay deeper down has 200hp, it's pretty easy to 1-shot it with a steel shovel, so you get nearly as much clay as you get stone from a stone block if you're counting by the number of tool swings. If you don't like digging down, then digging up a farm field or dried lake bed would yield ground-level clay blocks with 200hp instead of 250hp.

I think the magic mining speed of the Auger comes in when you've completed the Mining books. The Auger's fast attack rate makes it more likely that you'll 1-shot Ores rather than completely damage them with the auger (thus I mod mine with DiamondTip, GraveDigger, and BunkerBuster since only clay, sand, and stone blocks slow me down). I've sprained a leg by Augering downwards and breaking too many Ore blocks in a row (thus falling about 5 blocks).

[SiEgE]

引用自 ProxyJames：

so I have hit kind of a snag in witch I can gather tons and tons of iron and stone just by mining HOWEVER gathering clay goes MUCH MUCH slower, like I can spend 10 mins mining and fill my empty inventory with stacks of iron and stone (6000 per stack) however I can spend the same amount of time digging though the top soil and make a huge pit and bearly get 6000 clay (btw I have motherload maxed out) so what is the best way to gather this stuff?

Forest biome's green grass blocks have the most amount of clay. Most other clay sources like sand, burnt biome burnt grass or ruin biome's broken bricks have less clay.
Also, get the grave digger mod, and transfer all your pickaxe/weapon mods onto your shovel.