The other night I promised I would write a Mining Guide. Until I go all out and write a real guide, here are some rules that I follow to maximize mining profits. I have a ton of mining experience and am quite good at it, so I hope that you'll trust me and try these out. Mining Guide 1. I will not mine without protection from lava. 2. I will not mine straight down or take unnecessary risks. 3. I will not panic at the sight of lava, but will instead block it off and make my way around it. 4. I will mine at level 10, 11 or 12. 5. I will mine in a 1x2 tunnel, straight ahead. 6. I will mine ores with a Fortune 3 pickaxe (unless I specifically need to silk the ore). 7. I will mine every ore that I see, including Coal Ore. 8. I will use /sell on blocks, coal, redstone, lapis and iron unless I need it for some specific use. 9. I will not waste time wandering through caves or abandoned mineshafts. 10. I will mine straight ahead with SuperBreaker, then go back and collect ores from the walls after it runs out. 11. I will edit my options.txt file so that I can see in the dark. (Works even better with Optifine) 12. I will mine extra blocks surrounding valuable ores to be sure that I've found the full ore vein. 13. I will mine/dig with an Eff5 Unb3 Fort3 DPick and an Eff5 Unb3 Silk DShovel -- or as close as I can get to these tools. 14. I will have a homepoint dedicated to mining so that I can stop and start mining whenever I want with no travel time. I will add more as I think of them, and feel free to challenge me on any of them. I can elaborate as to why I feel the way I do.
15. I will not fly over lava to get to the other side 16. I will check under diamond ore just in case there is lava :|
I remember when i was flying over lava while mining, then a server restart happened, then fell into the lava once i joined the server again
Really tanstaafl, don't wander about caves and mineshafts? I only use caves and mineshafts, or else mining tends to feel like farming. With extra amounts of lava. I found 7 minecart chests this morning mining for like 30 minutes. Also 3 cave spider spawners and two dungeons.
The issues I have with caves and mineshafts are that ore veins in caves/mineshafts are smaller and that there can be a lot of travel time between ore/treasure finds. The veins are smaller because part of the vein is often "eaten" by the creation of the cave or mineshaft. From a $/hour standpoint, it is best not to venture too far into them. I am ignoring the fun aspect here.
Greetings, I just wanted to post, since I have 5 minutes left on my lunch. 1. Agreed. 2. Agreed. 3. Agreed. I have Water so I tend to keep one water bucket to clear out lava quickly. 4. Agreed Prtially. I have an OCD that leaves me mining at 10 when strip mining. No higher, no lower. 5. Agreed Partially. IRL, no claustrophobia, in Minecraft 1x3 or I feel squished in. 6. Disagree. Silk everything for space and time. 7. Agreed. 8. Disagree. I keep everything until I need to sell it. There may be someone in TR channel needing something at an outrageous price at any time. 9. Disagree. While this may work for you, people leave webs ($5/each) and rails($2.50/each) in those shafts. Easy money. 10. ** This is a great idea. ** I'll start doing this. 11. Agreed Partially. I know how to do this, and have been experimenting doing it lately, but it just feels like cheating. 12. Disagreed. While I see the reasoning, more often than not (in my experience) it is a waste of time. 13. Agreed. 14. Agreed. I infact have 3 slots set for mining. When strip mining I set one at each end of the path and one I use as a temp "back" right where I am. 15. N/A - I do not have FLY 16. Agreed.
4. 10 is the best level for ores, but it has quite a bit more lava than 11 or 12. I used to swear by 10, but have come to like 11. 5. If that's what it takes to feel comfortable, ok. It is between 5 and 10 percent slower at revealing new blocks though. 6. With Silk you have to re-place the ore and mine it a 2nd time. This brings its $$/hour below fortune 3. 8. I find that it takes a lot of time to transfer and sort stuff at my base. Then, to take it back out and negotiate a sale. 9. Yes, there are valuables in abandoned mines and caves, but I believe you'll make more money if you just keep pushing towards the bigger ore deposits you find in tunnels. I do collect things like webs and rails if they are right there for the taking, but I do not wander around searching for them. I go right back to my tunnel. If I find a spider spawner with a ton of webs, I set a homepoint and comeback to collect webs later. 12. Well, you use experience with ore vein size to make this useful. If i dig two redstone ores and don't see any more, it is a virtual certainty that there are 2-4 more hiding nearby. Thank you for your reply!
Greetings, I will say this. With the list you have, it is very apparent you are experienced and know what are doing and I feel anyone following it would benefit greatly. Excellent list and even I learned a new trick or two. I would have praised your list more in my initial post, but I was pressed for time. Thanks for sharing.
Your reaction to my methods is not uncommon. and I do waste a lot of money with how i do things in exchange for time. to each his own, happy mining!
Hmm, I agree with a lot of this, but I personally tend to mine in caves as well as strip mining. While it's true there's more distance between each patch of ore, the fact that you can see more and you don't have to mine to get there makes up for it. In addition, I bring an Eff. 4 diamond pick as well as the Fortune 3. When I'm strip mining I'll switch over to the Eff. 4 in order to save the durability of the Fortune Pick. It helps a lot with extended mining trips that can last up to 3 hours in my case. Anyway, good guide, it definitely will help the newer players and teach new tricks to old dogs
I fail at #1 and #2 all the time. I am a ECC nOOb but I have been playing MineCraft for a year or so, but I am always trying to take a shortcut to Y: 11 instead of staircasing and I have lost two enchanted diamond pickaxes, one of which was a silk touch because I dropped directly into lava. The water pouring donation perk looks more and more appealing every day ...
