Lowest lvl str for mining hard metal?

[TeckXKnight]

i have 78 str and feel so bad even with a pickaxe ,started with 10 q axe and 24 str and still was confusing why it's so hard .Probably my cave with really hardrocks...

Yes, this can happen. Just gotta explore around for softer stone.

[Hardsun]

Just an observation. It looks like not yet cracked cave walls use some basic hardeness value same for all cave wall sections + modified by hardeness grid value (but not element behind that wall - or simply cave walls count as material on its own with self hardeness value).
For example - i barely managed to crack cave wall but after that i could not mine and it was "slightly hard" for me. Later with more STR ive mined that tile and it was basalt - probably with higher then average material hardeness.

ps: would be nice to see actual use of hardeness in crafting - seems weird that same ql axe from softer and harder stones perfome same. Not sure if its possible tech-wise, just a thought.

[Sevenless]

Just an observation. It looks like not yet cracked cave walls use some basic hardeness value same for all cave wall sections + modified by hardeness grid value (but not element behind that wall - or simply cave walls count as material on its own with self hardeness value).
For example - i barely managed to crack cave wall but after that i could not mine and it was "slightly hard" for me. Later with more STR ive mined that tile and it was basalt - probably with higher then average material hardeness.

ps: would be nice to see actual use of hardeness in crafting - seems weird that same ql axe from softer and harder stones perfome same. Not sure if its possible tech-wise, just a thought.

Presumably quality could be related to hardness rather than two independant systems. Devs have chosen to do it this way for a long time so I guess they have their reasons for it.