I don't understand mining.

[Loh]

Please don't link me the wiki page, I've already read it a million times. I don't understand how to mine in this game, all of the rock faces are too steep to realistically create a mine out of and you can't do anything in this game without iron.

[Celebeth]

Under 30-40 layers of dirt you will also find rock, you don't need to climb up a steep mountain to make a mine.

Remove the dirt in 4 corners of a tile, and then tunnel the uncovered rock tile. The only thing you need to lookout for is that you stay higher than water level, else your mine will be filled with water.

[Loh]

Do I dig on the 4 corners around the border?

[Celebeth]

Yes in wurm you don't dig a tile, you dig borders to lower or flatten the tile. It makes more sense if you just do it and it will be more clear :)

[E.coli on Strike]

1.Find a bare rock which is not too high, usually not mor than 2 tiles for new characters.
Prospect whether it shows iron nearby.If not,change a rock to prospect.

2.Use climb button to get close to it, make sure stamina bar is lefted more than half.

3.Right click to creat a tunnel. Will failure if it says your pickaxe chip away from the rock.No rock shards created.Climb off, wait stamina recover, climb up, try again.

5.Action successed when it says you make a rock shard.

6.Repeat until more than 4 or 5 or more positive actions achieved on the same rock.A big black tunnel will surely appear. Before that,it will says"you will soon creat a tunnel."

7.When you make a tunnel you get somewhere to stand and things goes faster since stamina is full.

8.Prospect tunnel wall repeadly until prospect level is over 21 .Then you will be able to Analyse the rock shards in inventory after knock off it to find direction of iron tile. Good Luck!

[prophesied]

You can also prospect the rock tile face to find ore veins. Use the in-game wiki (h key - prospecting) to see how the prospecting ability maps out a basic mine. Essentially it is so many tiles inward and 7 tiles (3 to either side from your center) side to side. When you mine inward, say 7 tiles, you want to make a shaft on each side every two tiles, this way you'll uncover each vein that was within range of your prospecting. The wiki has a text based guide on what this looks like and how to do it.

Since you're so against informing yourself on the information through a simple link based on your claim of formatting, I will post the information here in this thread:


'''Prospecting''' is a skill used for locating [[ore vein]]s, [[flint]], and [[salt]] in [[rock tile|rock]] when on the surface, and for doing estimations of vein contents while inside a mine. To prospect, activate a [[pickaxe]], right-click a [[rock tile]] or vein, and select "Mining > Prospect".

== Layout for surface prospecting ==
For the guide you have to view it with the in-game wiki (H key > type prospecting > hit enter) or here (It won't paste in same format so I removed it): http://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Prospecting


The area in which prospecting works is a 7x7 with the player in the middle (the "o" represents the player).

==Notes==
* Ore veins can't be searched for by means of prospecting when being inside a [[cave]]; the player has to be on the surface. Surface prospecting of flint and salt is only for the single tile prospected; nearby flint/salt tiles can't be prospected. For finding veins inside a cave, check out the [[Analyse|analysing]] page.
* [[Gem]]s appear randomly during all mining, and cannot be prospected.
* All ores are slightly regional. Thus, if an ore vein is located, it is likely there will be other veins of the same ore type nearby.
* You can use a [[tuning fork of metal detection]] to determine the exact quality and mining operations left on a vein.
* Currently a bug where after you transmute a rock tile into a vein, it still gives you the quality of the rock tile you transmuted. Not the proper quality, which is 99ql, or utmost.

==Skill levels ==
Anyone can detect veins within 3 tiles on the surface. At higher skill levels, additional abilities are unlocked (currently affected by the curve on Epic):

* 20 (Actual epic skill 10.56): Estimate the [[quality]] of a vein or rock tile, and detect flint when present
** ''Note : Free to play seem to not get get this bonus either when prospecting on a rock surface outside or inside the mines.''
* 40 (Actual epic skill 22.54): Detect salt when present
* 60 (Actual epic skill 36.75): Estimate the remaining amount of ore in a vein
* 80 (55.28 Effective epic skill 96.00) Exact quality (overrides prospecting 20 message)
* 90 (68.38 Effective epic skill 99.00) Exact remaining hits (overrides prospecting 60 message)

The same abilities are available when prospecting the vein inside the mine.

== Vein quality ==
Rock tiles and ore veins have a maximum quality level.

* Poor: 20-29 (can also prospect as "pretty bad")
* Acceptable: 30-39
* Normal: 40-59
* Good: 60-79
* Very good: 80-94
* Utmost: 95-99

== Vein depletion ==
If your prospecting skill is over 60 (36.75), prospecting an ore vein will give you an estimate of how much ore is left there.

* "There is plenty of ore left" ''(more than 10000)''
* "Only a few weeks mining remain here" ''(between 5000 and 10000)''
* "The ore is starting to deplete" ''(between 3000 and 5000)''
* "You should start to prospect for another vein of this ore" ''(between 1000 and 3000)''
* "The ore will run out soon" ''(between 100 and 1000)''
* "The ore will run out any hour" ''(1-100)''

== Tools ==
Player-made tools to help find veins.

* [http://discon.googlepages.com/prospector.html Prospector]
* http://www.pvv.org/~magnusrk/wurm/prospect.html

== Titles ==
* Prospector at 50 skill
* Geologist at 70 skill
* Goldsniffer at 90 skill

== Guides ==
Here's a compilation of guide pages for prospecting.
* [[Prospecting guide]]
http://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Prospecting_guide
* [[Prospect with Uzetaab]]
http://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Prospect_with_Uzetaab
* [[Kiro's_mining_guide]]
http://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Kiro%27s_mining_guide

== See also ==
* [[Mining]]
http://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Mining
* [[Tuning fork of metal detection]]
http://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Tuning_fork_of_metal_detection
* [[Analyse|Analysing]]
http://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Analyse

[Lark]

I'm still trying to get the hang of the borders thing. I figured out how to dig, but I'm still working on this too.

I have discovered that you have to get the skill up to really do anything. Make sure you rummage and prospect before you tunnel.

It is hit or miss on finding anything major untl that skill is up.

I would suggest that you make sure you can reach the tunnel area w/o having to adjust the ground up to it. That is a pain to fix and if I didn't have ore in my mine I wouldn't be bothering w/ it right now.

Take wood w/ you or stuff to make something to smelt the ore. That significantly reduces the weight on what you have in your pack. That much I've figured out. I was shocked how much it reduces it. I figure that is the representation of the rock being smelted from the ore.