Copper farming

[Hawk Eye]

I've been hammering away at a large copper deposit for a while.
In the Fandom Wiki and in other posts that I've seen; it is suggested that if you dig out all the earth that surrounds the deposit the deposit will crumble on itself into Copper ores.

Quote from the wiki, "A way of farming Copper is to dig the earth all around the deposit until it crumbles on itself into Copper ores."

This isn't happening in my game. The deposit remains, simply hovering in the air without support.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2983190553

Suggestions? Expanations? I'm a bit confused.

[UncleAcidic]

Originally posted by Maviba:

Originally posted by UncleAcidic:

waste of your time. there's more than enough surface copper in the forest so you can just take those and be good. I havn't dug a copper pit since my first play through

I wouldn't call it a waste of time.
On one hand I also think it takes longer than regular mining, but on the other hand in also does have some benefits over it.
For example it offers some protection against weather and enemies if you do it that way, or - once it comes to mining silver later - you can do so without the need to upgrade to an iron pick-axe, which comes in handy then.

silver is a bit of a different story but I was talking about copper only. there's just SO MUCH of it kicking around on the surface that digging out one entire node just seems like overkill. still, I can think of one good reason to do this, like:
using the resulting pit for a large pit house. or, if the node is large enough, leave the top cap and have a copper cave house. pretty fun.

[Mharr]

Originally posted by Foxglovez:

I had the top of what looked like a tiny rock showing at one of my plains bases. Hit it with the pick and BOOM, a ton of rock. Startled, to say the least.

Yep, that's the exact thing I'm talking about. You mined the perfect bit to knock the whole thing underground. Saw that happen a couple times and was on a mission to find the technique.

[Faceplant]

Originally posted by Maviba:

once it comes to mining silver later - you can do so without the need to upgrade to an iron pick-axe, which comes in handy then.

How do you do that? Don't you still need to start the break with an iron pickaxe?

I agree that silver is a complete reversal of copper wrt mining efficiency. Digging around it and breaking it is very efficient. I always have an iron pickaxe to pop it, though.

[i have 2026 vision fear me]

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

Originally posted by Maviba:

once it comes to mining silver later - you can do so without the need to upgrade to an iron pick-axe, which comes in handy then.

How do you do that? Don't you still need to start the break with an iron pickaxe?

I agree that silver is a complete reversal of copper wrt mining efficiency. Digging around it and breaking it is very efficient. I always have an iron pickaxe to pop it, though.

Maybe with a stone golem, think those can damage metal deposits.

[Maviba]

Originally posted by i have 2024 vision fear me:

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

How do you do that? Don't you still need to start the break with an iron pickaxe?

I agree that silver is a complete reversal of copper wrt mining efficiency. Digging around it and breaking it is very efficient. I always have an iron pickaxe to pop it, though.

Maybe with a stone golem, think those can damage metal deposits.

Not quite, but yes, that works as well.
What I meant was: apparently you can mine silver deposits only with iron pickaxes and above.
Bronze ones might be not hard enough.
Haven't tried it myself but I heard a friend complaining about that while we were playing coop.

If that's true, while you can't mine silver directly with a Bronze pickaxe, you can still use it for for digging around the silver vein and mine it that way instead.

Could become in handy if you haven't either enough iron for a full upgrade yet, or if you want to use the Bronze pickaxe as a backup tool or if you try mining silver before having beat moder

[Foxglovez]

Never had a golem help me with silver and a lot of them hang about during the process.

[Mharr]

Originally posted by Maviba:

If that's true, while you can't mine silver directly with a Bronze pickaxe, you can still use it for for digging around the silver vein and mine it that way instead.

Well you *can* but you'd still need a high tier pick to chip a bit off the ore and cause the support check so there's not that much utility there.

[Faceplant]

Originally posted by Mharr:

Originally posted by Maviba:

If that's true, while you can't mine silver directly with a Bronze pickaxe, you can still use it for for digging around the silver vein and mine it that way instead.

Well you *can* but you'd still need a high tier pick to chip a bit off the ore and cause the support check so there's not that much utility there.

I always take the bronze pickaxe to work through the initial dig and finish it with the iron when the bronze one dies. The utility is that I can always get through the whole process without stopping for any repairs.

Not really on-topic, but I'll add another tip for mining silver. If I'm mining near the edge of the mountain, and have a "friendly" biome at the bottom, I like to dig/hoe a path from the hole to the edge, build a cart, fill it with all the ore and rock, and push it over the edge.

Worst case it breaks up and spills the containers. Best case it's' waiting at the bottom and just needs a bit of repair before you drag it to your ship/camp. In either case it's a good idea to try to keep an eye on it so you don't have to search for it at the bottom. It can also get caught on rocks, which would require you to nudge it on the way down.