PC Ores underground in the desert?

H

Hockallz

New member
Hi all just a quick sanity check. I've been away from the game for a while and have only dabbled a little in a18 but I've set up shop in the desert and started to mine under my house. I'm around 20ish blocks down and have mined a fair bit in branches and only found stone so far.
So I'm just checking are ores still underground in the desert? So as not to waste my time/build myself up for disappointment 😆
Thanks

 
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They have made finding ore very easy in a 18. Look around for the little boulders on the ground if you find a bolder of iron, dig directly beneath it for more iron. If you find a boulder of lead, mine directly underneath it for more lead. When you get the mine deep enough, you will find other random ores and sand. You'll find iron, lead, shale, nitrate, and coal. You only find shale in the desert. the rest you find everywhere. some places are more prone to have one ore than others but I haven't been in a biome yet that didn't have all the iron coal nitrate and lead I wanted except for shale

 
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And don´t get fooled that it looks like sand sometimes underneath that surface rock. There are actually blocks of whatever ressource the surface rock is under it. Just mine away under it.

 
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I have been able to find all the ores in the desert, without a problem.  The open landscape makes it easy to spot them top side.

 
Ramethzer0 said:
I have been able to find all the ores in the desert, without a problem.  The open landscape makes it easy to spot them top side.
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Even coal??? Outside of Dumpn Lung (the coal mine POI, it's in the southern desert on Navazgane) I haven't found any coal in the desert.

 
Yeah I do recall that was my main mining spot for coal.  As for finding it randomly out in the bush, i don't remember.

I tend to play a lot of desert maps with lots of western towns lately, because i like the 'Weird West' theme, and Nitrogen delivers.  That may be the reason that your experience differs from mine, because I got bored with Nav map long ago.

 
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I was making these for a Wiki update. Coal is hard to find in the desert, easier in snow.

iron_200.jpglead_200.jpgnitrate_200.jpgshale_200.jpgcoal_200.jpg

Edit to add: the old "follow the gravel" rule is still in effect in A18, it's just now they've added obvious surface markers. Once you get underground, follow the gravel. The ore veins will be behind/near the gravel, not necessarily through the solid rock.

 
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Thanks for the pointers guys. I should clarify I do know about surface ores, the mines I'm making now are normally done overnight when I've nothing better to do, so I'm just trying to find out if the surface ores and the few blocks they go down are it, or if there are ores deep down, like where I am. Sorry if the post wasnt clear :D

 
I haven't yet found a marked vein that petered out quickly.  Once I figured it out, I went back to a couple mines I thought were duds. Nope. Sometimes they get very thin for a bit, it might be less obvious in sand, but look closely, do a little judicious shovel work and maybe some exploratory stone picking, the veins do continue.  If you're not getting thousands out, I'm thinking you overlooked the main lode.

 
quyxkh said:
I haven't yet found a marked vein that petered out quickly.  Once I figured it out, I went back to a couple mines I thought were duds. Nope. Sometimes they get very thin for a bit, it might be less obvious in sand, but look closely, do a little judicious shovel work and maybe some exploratory stone picking, the veins do continue.  If you're not getting thousands out, I'm thinking you overlooked the main lode.
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Thanks for this, but I'm not digging down from the surface, I've dug a shaft down about 20 blocks and am mining through stone looking for ore to give me something to do overnight. I've branched out in a few directions from there but no sign of ore. I'm just wondering if I'm wasting my time is all. Not that thousands of stone isn't useful :)

 
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Hockallz said:
Thanks for this, but I'm not digging down from the surface, I've dug a shaft down about 20 blocks and am mining through stone looking for ore to give me something to do overnight. I've branched out in a few directions from there but no sign of ore. I'm just wondering if I'm wasting my time is all. Not that thousands of stone isn't useful :)
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I usually try to build my hut over one of the surface deposits, for that very reason. While you might happen upon some ore starting from a random place, it won't be found in rock. If you see gravel down there, then you're onto something. Probably you'll have found the edge of an ore field signaled by a surface block (if you went up and checked). It's not like it was before, where the ore is scattered all over the place. I think now it is 100% signaled by the surface blocks (though the ore field can stretch out pretty far).

If you start at a surface deposit, you will very likely have a vast area you can mine up, over several nights. And not just the surface ore type either. Down in the rock/gravel layers you'll find other ores.

 
Hockallz said:
Thanks for this, but I'm not digging down from the surface, I've dug a shaft down about 20 blocks and am mining through stone looking for ore to give me something to do overnight. I've branched out in a few directions from there but no sign of ore. I'm just wondering if I'm wasting my time is all. Not that thousands of stone isn't useful :)
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In my experience it's a crapshoot but it pays often enough that I'll gladly try it. I go 30-35m straight down from my converted POI because that's far enough to never trigger screamers, drop my forge, expand that to a full workshop over time. This run I've got lead and iron maybe 40m along the north tunnel from there, nitrate closer on the west tunnel, nothing but rock to the east before I gave up, 50m or so, and tried west, and I haven't tried the south yet because I don't need enough of anything else to gamble on easy-access mining for those yet.  Shale I spend one or two days a month getting, I love molotovs on horde nights, industrial-quantity coal's for later.

Once you've got a little armor and a half-perked weapon you can cover the marked-lode mine entrances with plates and a hatch, string any overly-inquisitive zeds out on the entry ladder/stairs, night mining away from home isn't much more dangerous than crossing a street, just pay attention, carry some first aid, stay wary

 
Thats given me some good ideas, thanks. I may have to try mining away from home but I think I'll push a little deeper first and try my luck.

 
Mining away from home can also easily be done during night. Find a surface boulder, dig down until you reach the real ore veine. Usually then you already deep enough to close the top with woodframes. Even if there do some Zs spawn, they won't find you and because of the woodframes not even fall down by accident. Then mine all night.

Besides it is not that dangerous to run around during night anyway.

 
Strip mining. Otherwise known as recreating the grand canyon.   That's how I prefer to do it.

I'm finding spots with 3 nodes of stuff...  iron, lead, coal,   some even give all 4,

One mountain on pregen02, had/has tons of iron, coal and lead, little bit of nitrate.

Desert on, iron, shale and bunchaton of nitrate.

Need the rocks for cement, sand for cement.  clay/soil for smelting/forging.

Of course, I end up with too much clay, and never enough of the rest... for a while.

When doing open pit, you get to see just how large the veins are, and some are pretty impressive.

 
I currently have two mines in the desert on our map. One, I can confirm has two veins of coal. I have found every ore in one of my mines. However, in general, I rarely find coal in the desert. It is usually Oil Shale primarily with some lead, iron, and nitrate. I look for a cluster of surface nodes and then do a pit style most of the time. My son, drills down 20-30 blocks and then uses dynamite to clear out areas underground to spot veins. He can cover a lot more terrain with dynamite than I can drill checking.

 
I used dynamite on the mountain, once I had a rather large cavern dug out.

(and it's really fun to toss at screamers and her friends. get double duty out of the booms)

:)

 
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