Beginning Mining

[iamahh]

early world I created my miner alt right away, so whenever I get wounds I'd just keep playing on my main char, dunno how it is now but it was kinda ok to heal back then

[sMartins]

No matter what, the first tile you mine in a fresh area there is no way to tell if it will cave in....

exactly...

[Thedrah]

in a fresh area then yeah, just pray the first tile isn't a cave in. for me, i mine in a line and move to the side when i find dust. that way i just pick anywhere along the line to start mining again

[abt79]

That does suck that the first tile in keeps caving, but until you get a decent hole going you basically just have to persevere.

Once you do get deeper in the stone, it's worth noting that dust operates like the game minesweeper. One to technically 8 (but really only up to seven) hundredths of a kg of dust will drop once in a while to show that one to eight (again, only really seven because if eight tiles remained around the one you mine there'd be no way to mine it) of the surrounding tiles are going to collapse. You'll want to pave these rules (a different color for each value 1-7 if you're really smart).

Then, by power of deduction, any tile that you have mined (avoid trusting preexisting player mines even if they look like they knew what they were doing unless there are supports to cover you) that didn't drop any dust makes all right tiles around it safe even those that also happen to be next to dusty tiles.

Be cautious, but once you understand the system there's no reason to be afraid of tiles you can be sure won't collapse. Also don't forget how the areas of supports work once you get them.

[MagicManICT]

As a tip to avoid a cave in, make sure to move out of visible range of any debris from a previous cave in. It used to be that cave in debris in an area actually increased the chances of a cave in, but I haven't been brave enough to test this myself.