Mining is ridiculous in 1.6...

[maestro]

So I finally got around to picking up mining mastery.

I went with Combat and Farming first, and then picked up Mining Mastery.

Next trip into the Skull Caves was quite interesting! I had already bought the Book of Diamonds from the Dwarf in the Volcano, though I never really got a chance to test it out.

A quick jaunt down 20-30 floors and I was just absolutely rolling in Diamonds, because all of these bonuses stack.

You get a possibility of 2 gems from the Profession Perk.
You get more Geodes from a Profession Perk.
You get the chance to find Diamonds in a rock that you break by hand.
You get +1 gem from rocks that have gems in them from the Mastery.

And finally, you get a buff from the Dwarf King Statue (this time, it was ore+1).

Now, a note about the above: The +1 gem is factored in BEFORE the double gem proc, which means you are guaranteed 2 gems, and if you get the double gem proc, you will then get 4, as it's (1+1)*2 = 4.

And also, the +1 gem from rocks AND the chance to find Diamonds applies to ALL rocks that you break, INCLUDING ore nodes!

So this means every plain rock, every gem node, every ore node that you break by hand can give you 2-4 diamonds. And the proc isn't a "once in a hundred", it was actually proc'ing rather often. That one trip to the skull caverns got me like 95 geodes and almost 30 diamonds, and... a LOT... of ore. Oh, and probably 8000+ XP from all of those diamonds, ores, and other gems.

[Anzaman]

Build focusing on gems, getting plenty of gems.

Do note that if extra gem procs from Geologist, you gain reduced experience from that node.

[maestro]

Originally posted by Anzaman:

Build focusing on gems, getting plenty of gems.

Do note that if extra gem procs from Geologist, you gain reduced experience from that node.

Reduced or not, still gave a metric crapton of XP. I got a third of Mastery level 4 in one go, lol.

[DarkLink]

The game has in general gotten easier but I think thats fair due to the time it can take. Not everyone can play 24/7. I think its a good balance in that perspective.

[Anzaman]

Originally posted by maestro:

Reduced or not, still gave a metric crapton of XP. I got a third of Mastery level 4 in one go, lol.

Mhm, it's nice to see large jumps in Experience.

Tho, I've feeling that farming, especially with Ancient Fruit is still the easiest way to get the required Experience Points. Greenhouse alone is over 4000 experience from one harvest.

[BingusDingus]

Yeah, gem spawns are overtuned, was surprised because I just started a new playthrough for 1.6 and went down to floor 6 of the cavern and right next to the ladder were two amethysts.
At first i thought i was just extremely lucky, but then amethysts kept popping up.

[maestro]

Originally posted by Anzaman:

Originally posted by maestro:

Reduced or not, still gave a metric crapton of XP. I got a third of Mastery level 4 in one go, lol.

Mhm, it's nice to see large jumps in Experience.

Tho, I've feeling that farming, especially with Ancient Fruit is still the easiest way to get the required Experience Points. Greenhouse alone is over 4000 experience from one harvest.

I am Mastery Level 3, halfway to 4 and I only have like ~12 Ancient Fruit plants in my Greenhouse. By the time I fill my GH with AF plants, I'll have mastery done by then lol

[Anzaman]

Originally posted by maestro:

Originally posted by Anzaman:

Mhm, it's nice to see large jumps in Experience.

Tho, I've feeling that farming, especially with Ancient Fruit is still the easiest way to get the required Experience Points. Greenhouse alone is over 4000 experience from one harvest.

I am Mastery Level 3, halfway to 4 and I only have like ~12 Ancient Fruit plants in my Greenhouse. By the time I fill my GH with AF plants, I'll have mastery done by then lol

Oof - I had my first Ancient Fruit planted during the first spring.

[maestro]

Originally posted by Anzaman:

Originally posted by maestro:

I am Mastery Level 3, halfway to 4 and I only have like ~12 Ancient Fruit plants in my Greenhouse. By the time I fill my GH with AF plants, I'll have mastery done by then lol

Oof - I had my first Ancient Fruit planted during the first spring.

I tend to not plant AF until I get my GH unlocked, because it only takes ONE lightning strike in the summer to take out your singular plant and then you're boned until you find another ancient seed (this is assuming I even found a seed during Spring, sometimes I don't see one until Summer+ anyhow).

I don't like the anxiety this causes, so I just wait until I have the GH unlocked so that I know I am 100% safe. Also the reason why I won't plant a Rare Seed until the GH, too.

Sure I gotta wait a little longer to get the ball rolling, but I don't have to deal with the anxiety every time a storm happens.

[ULTRA]

I just do the ore specialization and then build 420 crystalariums

[Mysterious Sir Knight]

It's not really that insane by any stretch.

You'd probably get more XP from blowing up Iridium nodes. On a quality run you could easily break more than 200 nodes, which at 50xp/node is 10000xp.

Same goes for the money made, good Skull Caverns runs can net you around 500-1000+ iridium which after smelting would sell for 100-200k or 150-300k with Blacksmith.
However, that doesn't factor in the cost of bombs and coal for smelting, so.