Prospecting vs. Caves

[TertiaVigilia]

Hi all, 

I'd like your opinion on prospecting. I had no success so far locating any ore vein with it. However, by circling mountains and exploring every cave I come across I located three deposits of iron, two of fireclay and black coal, one zinc and more copper, lead and olivine than I can count. 

So, for me it seems prospecting is kind of useless, unless you are in an area without caves (don't know if that's a spawn option). The only thing I haven't found yet is halite aka salt, and a second zinc vein would be nice, but well...

Also, fun fact: I found four rusty gears in deep caves so far (despite all lore content and ruins being turned off in my world). 

[Echo Weaver]

I've found a lot of ore prospecting. You are using both the probability search and the node search modes?

Caving is great, though. I have found at least as much ore via surface deposits and caving as I have via prospecting. I've never found iron via caving myself. I love looking for ruins in caves, and then I naturally run across exposed ore. Prospecting is tedious but gives you more control to see specific ore. 

[LadyWYT]

I tend to rely on prospecting more than caving, as ore veins in VS don't generate like they do in the other block game. That's not to say that what the prospecting pick says is there, is actually there, but more often than not there's at least some kind of useful ore present when I dig. I would opt for the pro-pick over caving, just because it's less risk and offers a better idea of good places to dig.

[Thorfinn]

Yeah, if you are good at evading monsters, or playing with them turned off, caving is a lot  more bang for the buck.

[EDIT]

I still use the propick, but mostly to see if there's a high enough ore probability to make exploring that cave worthwhile.

Edited August 16, 2025 by Thorfinn

[Calixtus]

I have used both methods.

The prospect pick is great when you want to find a specific ore.

I am 220 hours in on my first playthrough but pro pick was very useful it getting tin/iron early on and pentlandine, ilmenite & chromite late game.

Use the area search to start and when you have someting you want go out around 40 blocks N, S, E & W to see if the % chagne increases or decreases.   If increase move to that mark and repeat until you find the best %.  Then change the Propick setting using F to localize the search.   I use a 2 wide shaft straggling the clock as I go down.  Every 12th/13th tile use the propick  as on vanilla it searches in a 6 tile radius for any local ores.

Bismuthnite, sulfur, lead, olivine and borax I seem to find when cave delving.