best way to randomly hit ore?

[joojoo1975]

i got a cave, and at first i was doing a snake, but since i do not know where/if there is a metal node close by, should i hit the wall like i do when i search for river clay, bout every 20+ paces hit the wall?

also will the first wall give me metal, or do i have to go through the "cave wall" and then mine the second tile before i get to any ore?



thankyou for the replies folks

[killette2]

You can get ore from the first wall, no need to dig deep unless you suspect ore.

[joojoo1975]

so if i go through hourglass a couple of times and no ore, i move on?

how ofter do you mine to check?
Like 1 every 10 paces?
or 1 every 50 paces?

[TheTylerLee]

so if i go through hourglass a couple of times and no ore, i move on?

how ofter do you mine to check?
Like 1 every 10 paces?
or 1 every 50 paces?

if it drops a rock on the ground, there is no ore there

[ChampaignCaviar]

Ore nodes are pretty wide. I wouldn't go less than 50 tiles before looking again.

Also, if you have prospecting and rustroot, you can walk on the surface over the cave and try to triangulate that way.

[slipper]

Check every 10 tiles on both sides of the cave and you should be fine.
As said earlier, if a stone drops below your feet that means there is no ore at where you are mining.

Places with ore usually have softness differences, at the start of the world I found two ore veins before even being able to mine it.

[MagicManICT]

Check every 10 tiles on both sides of the cave and you should be fine.

I'll second this. My experience has shown me that nodes will only occasionally be completely intersected by a cave wall. Most often, they barely touch. Even going every 10 can miss some nodes. The q80+ node I found in a cave was a lucky find because I had found the quality node and was looking for the peak so I could make a good stone axe. There was only two tiles of exposed ore on that node.