How does one mine?

[Luna]

I see gold nuggets in the wall, but my staff can't blow through and my bombs seem to destroy it.
So how do I gently remove dirt?

[thebadman]

You need something that is explosive to mine thru most hard matter except for ice or frozen rocks. Some things are explosions even though they do not say so, for example teleport spell lets you mine too.

[Ethan]

Energy orb and chainsaw work as well but, the energy orb is best for almost any surface. A slow but powerful orb of energy.

[marharols]

Originally posted by Luna:

I see gold nuggets in the wall, but my staff can't blow through and my bombs seem to destroy it.
So how do I gently remove dirt?

drill spell

[thebadman]

Yeah blue orb spell is awesome in 2nd layer because coal veins are very weak so you can avoid rocks and mine all gold fast by hitting coal.

[TheLaughingDead]

Some spells can do damage to the level around them. Chainsaws, drill bolts, energy orbs and triplicate spells (from what I've seen), bombs (etc etc), just to name a few. Some projectile modifiers will also let you mine or get through difficult materials, such as matter eater, acid of any kind, "Touch Of X" (doesn't mine but can get you into pockets of gold, remember not to cast on self), etc. Glass Cannon can turn normal spells into potential mining spells, things like energy orbs and chainsaws become a lot more efficient.
The problem with most of these is, as you say, they can destroy gold (which defeats the purpose of using them to mine). A would be destroying the ground under or above gold instead and then dropping in and collecting it.
I personally don't mine very often (unless I find an efficient mining spell) as I find it just takes up so much time that will probably end in my death anyway. However, sometimes the extra gold helps and results in me getting farther than I would have had I not mined, so to each their own.

[Guts]

The gold doesn't disappear when you bomb it. It becomes single pixels of gold that you can pick up. It does tend to destroy some of it when that happens, though. The most efficient mining method is to mine below a pocket of gold with a chainsaw, dig, or drill spell. Try to not mine directly into the pocket of gold, but you need to free it from the wall so it starts flowing down towards you. This way you destroy the least gold.

[Luna]

I gotta reach layer 4 first, heh

[Brassqund]

Explosives barrels can be really useful for that too.
If you don't need them to move on, you can always get a few gold using them right.
But I wouldn't lose too much time on that if I was you...
That can make the game tedious and boring.
Just use it when you see an easy opportunity...
like a barrel that is not too far, you got a drilling spell wand or if
you are about to take the portal and you still got a (few) bomb left.