Any tips on finding an iron ore vein?

[Sefru [Linux]]

Hi! :) I'm a new Wurm player. I recently started to play on a new world, and I have tried to find an iron ore vein. I was roaming around the world, and I found a small patch of stone in the ground. Apparently someone else had found it too. There was a small opening to a cave and lots of stone shards in the ground. I went into the cave, and looked around it. There were only normal cave walls, no sings of any ore veins. I started to mine the cave walls in hopes of finding an ore vein. I have now mined a bunch, and still haven't been able to find any ore veins.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there some better way of finding ore veins? Also, is prospecting the walls necessary to find an ore vein? So, if I'm mining a cave and reveal a new wall, will I instantly see if it's an ore vein, or will I need to prospect it first in order to realize that it contains ore?

[JT]

Prospecting certainly helps in finding ore veins and the higher that skill is the better the info you get out of it is, iirc.

You'll definitely know when you come across a vein. If the changed name doesn't clue ya in, the wall will certainly look different

[bob_2059]

So, if I'm mining a cave and reveal a new wall, will I instantly see if it's an ore vein, or will I need to prospect it first in order to realize that it contains ore?

You'll see it instantly. Ore veins look different that regular rock tile, and when you mouse over them the tooltip will display what they are (ex: iron vein) as well.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there some better way of finding ore veins?

You're not doing anything wrong, per se, but you are running around blindly.
Get prospecting up to 20. That give you access to the Analyse skill.:
https://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Analyse

In order to reach 20 prospecting, you don't need to prospect different areas. You can keep re-prospecting the same tile over and over again.
Yes. It is boring.

[Sefru [Linux]]

Thanks a lot for the answers! =)

[Monoxide]

If you need iron "right now" you can also forage on open rock faces. This often gets you rock iron, which can be smelted into iron lumps.

This is only a bandaid, though. Finding a vein will be much more efficient.

You can also make your own mine anywhere by mining into a rock face, though as stated above you'll be going blind unless you analyze for ores.

[wildbill]

Some servers will have a public mine, which at a minimum, has at least one iron ore vein. If your server has one, that is an option until you find iron ore.

You can usually find at least one iron ore vein (in my limited experience) in any 20 x 20 area. So you can take a longer term few, put a mine in at a convenient location and assume you will eventually find iron. You then use surface sources mentioned above or a public mine until you find iron in your own mine.

[wildbill]

One more option that no one mentioned is mods.

If your server allows mods, there are at least two that will help you find ores.

Live Map - when on the surface it shows the terrain nearby. Once you sink a tunnel, it will show you all mine shafts and ores (if you turn on the feature to show ores) nearby.

WurmESP - Shows you nearby mobs (draws a colored line around them) and can also show you the location of ores once you are in a mine shaft.

Keep in mind, some servers either request that you not use these mods or block the data from the server that these mods rely on to work, so this may not be an option, depending on what server you play on.

[Sefru [Linux]]

Thanks everyone for the answers! :) With your help I have finally managed yo find an iron ore vein. Thanks!