There's a few guides on prospecting around. I know the guide in
Sevenless's Beginner's Guide* is still spot on.
to summarize:
- Try different qualities of rustroot. They'll have different ranges. Higher quality = greater range; greater range means more likely to see those larger nodes rather than a small node nearby.
- Try moving farther away from where you are. Sometimes you really are just stuck with the one ore type in a area that size. You could have iron or copper in the next map section over (pick a direction).
- Try different levels. The quality between adjacent levels isn't a big difference. Sometimes you can find higher quality ore on L1 than you can on L3. The types of ore and stone can also vary greatly.
*note: the last time it was updated we had a tri-quality system. If anything refers to values, just take it as "quality" rather than Vitality, etc.
Opinions expressed in this statement are the authors alone and in no way reflect on the game development values of the actual developers.