Allen Posted December 20, 2023 Report Share Posted December 20, 2023 Finally trying to step into the iron age, poking around with the prospecting pick to find some iron. So apparently the poor/decent/etc next to the ore the prospecting pick shows is the chance for ore to be there, and not like, the actual ore. So the question is, does say 'decent' actually give a decent chance of finding ore, or should I just skip all but very/ultra high readings? Second, is digging around in quartz veins I find for possible gold/silver worth it or no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorfinn Posted December 20, 2023 Report Share Posted December 20, 2023 (edited) If decent is the highest you can find, I might be tempted, but generally if you try a ways away from there, you can find it either increasing or decreasing, and usually I find there's high or ultra-high not that far away. I'd be comfortable burning through 3-4 prospecting picks before consigning myself to settling for decent, though. I'd spend some time looking for caves in the area, because if there is decent iron, a cave of any size often intersects it. Re: gold, silver, depends on what you want to do. Me personally? Nope. Quartz isn't even that big of a deal, since I only need it for lanterns and a limited number of refractory bricks and generally have picked up enough quartz bits in my travels. Edited December 20, 2023 by Thorfinn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Posted December 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2023 Well I did find a very high copper reading nearby, so worst comes to worst I guess I can tap into that for more tools. More prospecting it is then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solution Streetwind Posted December 21, 2023 Solution Report Share Posted December 21, 2023 (edited) Decent is... well, decent. Not good, but serviceable. I'd give it a try, especially since you're looking for iron. Iron ores, unlike most other ores, have this quirk where they try to spawn less than once per chunk column. That means that you could find yourself an "ultra high" result, and still not find an iron deposit there. It would have certainly made its spawn roll if it attempted one, but welp, it didn't get to even try. So for iron, you'll need to be prepared to search more than just the highest peak you can find. On the other hand, you can spread your search attempts easily 50 blocks apart, because when an iron deposit does generate, it'll be absolutely gigantic and almost impossible to miss. As such, it is more valid to try lower spawn chance areas for iron than it would be for other ores that reliably produce deposits in peak spawn chance areas. For example, if your "decent" area covers four chunks, then chances are that two of those chunks were allowed to try to spawn ore, so you got two spawn rolls at decent chances, and if just one of those succeeded, the resulting deposit would be so large that you'd find it by digging in the middle of those four chunks, no matter where it actually spawned. So while it's not ideal, and you might well not find anything, it's worth giving it at least one try IMHO. Edited December 21, 2023 by Streetwind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maelstrom Posted December 21, 2023 Report Share Posted December 21, 2023 In my experience I have yet to fail finding iron on an ultra-high reading. Once I found two ore deposits separated by 5 blocks vertically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allen Posted December 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2023 So uh, crazy thing. I was starting to run low, so I started digging a mineshaft near the very high copper reading near my base and... I found hematite. Well, to be exact, my prospecting pick's node search mode turned up a reading for hematite. I haven't actually found the vein yet, and considering the hematite reading for the area was really low, I don't expect there to be much ores anyways, but uh... that should help a lot when looking for that ultra-high iron chunk. But also, because it occurred to me while I was digging. Once I get a reading, do I just... dig down until I hit something? Because that's what I did, but as I'm currently expanding the mineshaft, I realize I very easily could have just missed various ore veins I found if I'd dug in a slightly different position. Like 3~4 blocks to the the side or up and I would have missed the giant copper vein I've currently stopped on. If I hadn't tried out my prospecting pick at the exact moment, or I dug like a few blocks to the other side, I would have missed the hematite reading. I mean, it does look like the ores I get will more than cover for all costs of me digging this stupid deep hole, but like, I can't be that lucky all the time, can I? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maelstrom Posted December 22, 2023 Report Share Posted December 22, 2023 You probably won't be that lucky. My first world I planted my temporary first home directly above a vein of hematite. In my last world the best iron reading I got within 1,500 blocks was a decent reading that didn't spawn any iron. But I had copious amounts of copper, cassiterite, sphalerite and bismuthinite wherever I went. I wouldn't mind that ore generation again on my next world as my last world was 1.17. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwind Posted December 22, 2023 Report Share Posted December 22, 2023 14 hours ago, Allen said: But also, because it occurred to me while I was digging. Once I get a reading, do I just... dig down until I hit something? Because that's what I did, but as I'm currently expanding the mineshaft, I realize I very easily could have just missed various ore veins I found if I'd dug in a slightly different position. Like 3~4 blocks to the the side or up and I would have missed the giant copper vein I've currently stopped on. If I hadn't tried out my prospecting pick at the exact moment, or I dug like a few blocks to the other side, I would have missed the hematite reading. Congrats on finding your iron As for the question above - just like all other parts of prospecting the answer is "you develop a reliable, repeatable methodology". Go to this prospecting guide I once wrote. Skip down to the part where it gets to digging. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sushieater Posted January 3 Report Share Posted January 3 Quote I realize I very easily could have just missed various ore veins I found if I'd dug in a slightly different position. Like 3~4 blocks to the the side or up and I would have missed the giant copper vein I've currently stopped on. If I hadn't tried out my prospecting pick at the exact moment, or I dug like a few blocks to the other side, I would have missed the hematite reading. You can change the propick search radius in real time. E.g.: /worldConfig propickNodeSearchRadius 8 That way, you can have a large radius by default and switch a a small size for finding the vein (which can be quite painful with the large radius). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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