Prospecting

[telas]

i have start mining on lvl-2 and this is the form im looking ores by prospecting. the brighter layer its lvl-2 and the arrows are vectors from prospecting on the lvl above. atm i have located only tin, but it has been efective. if you have suggestions im all ears.

[MagicManICT]

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.

[Fostik]

Must say, that prospecting is defective mechanic, since legacy had round(or form of dick) spots of ores, but now most of spots are vein-type, so rustroot will not lead you to a place where you can dig a lot of ores.
Try tunneling instead, or prospecting by mining walls in caves with mining helm

[vatas]

Rustroot is most useful in early game when you have no metal for supports, to find a spot near natural tunnel or cave to kickstart your metal industry. After that it's usually better to just tunnel around. If you don't have too much metal yet you can mostly use minesweeper method to get around and build supports when you hit dead-end (as in all tiles have dust in certain cirection) or a vein.

[mvgulik]

If one finds Rock stockpiles (8x8), as markers, a bit to big. Bark SP's (4x4) might be more agreeable.

> prospecting is defective mechanic
It led me to a nice and untouched iron ore deposit on level 1 none the less. (now completely gone of course)

[Clemins]