Pickaxe vs drill

[Suxar]

There are two main tools for mining ore: the steel pickaxe and the drill. Each has its pros and cons, which I won't go into here. While it's common knowledge that a drill mines ore faster, finding even rough estimates is nearly impossible. To determine this, I conducted a short test. The test is subject to error due to the fact that I'm not Shiva and only have two hands. I used a mobile phone as a stopwatch.

The character had the Miner 69er skill level 5 and miner armor level 6. All The Art of Mining books had also been read.
The pickaxe was equipped with the following modifications: an ergonomic handle, an iron scrap, a rock breaker, and a weight. The drill was equipped with a large tank, an iron scrap, a rock breaker, and a weight.

The test ore vein consisted of a 400-block, 20x20-sized vein.


Time spent on extraction:
Iron.
Pickaxe 16:01
Drill 8:53 (4 refills)
Coal.
Pickaxe 8:01
Drill 8:45 (4 refills)
Gravel.
I didn't use the pickaxe; it'll be the same as for coal.
Drill 4:54 (2 refills)

I used a gravel block because the sand block from the creative menu yielded clay and sand when harvested, instead of stone and sand. For some reason, I couldn't find the sand block that fills veins in the creative menu.

I hope someone will need these numbers.

 

[Riamus]

I think some additional information would be helpful. Did you have mining perks? Did you have stamina reduction for tools? I see you using coffee, which helps stamina regen, but was that on for the entire time? Pickaxes use stamina, so whether or not you're running out of stamina has a big impact on your mining speed. Augers don't, so stamina doesn't matter there. That could impact your results.

I don't use a pickaxe just because I like the auger. It wouldn't matter even if I get more ore with the pickaxe. I would still use the auger. But that's just personal preference.

 

[Suxar]

Did you have mining perks? Did you have stamina reduction for tools? I see you using coffee, which helps stamina regen, but was that on for the entire time?

I wrote it

The character had the Miner 69er skill level 5 and miner armor level 6. All The Art of Mining books had also been read.

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Pickaxes use stamina, so whether or not you're running out of stamina has a big impact on your mining speed.

With the Miner 69er skill fully trained and level 6 Miner armor equipped, the steel pickaxe consumes no more stamina than it regenerates. Stamina was always full. After holding the button for 16 minutes, my finger got a little tired. And there is also a modification to the pickaxe that reduces stamina consumption, which I also indicated in the text.
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I don't use a pickaxe just because I like the auger. It wouldn't matter even if I get more ore with the pickaxe. I would still use the auger. But that's just personal preference.

The amount of ore mined doesn't depend on the tool. I was specifically testing the mining speed, or more precisely, the difference in speed. The results with coal surprised me a bit, but considering that a real vein will contain sand inclusions, coal/shale/saltpeter are still faster to mine with a drill.
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I see you using coffee

It's not coffee. It's a yuki smoothie. There's no option to disable food or water consumption in the game, so I chose the smoothie out of habit. But given my skills and gear, it made no difference.

 

[Riamus]

I wrote it

Oops. My fault for not noticing that.

The amount of ore mined doesn't depend on the tool.

I was referring to the ore mined within a time frame, so based on speed.

 

[Suxar]

I was referring to the ore mined within a time frame, so based on speed.

This is an equation with a whole bunch of unknowns. While a pickaxe can still be given a formula, since its variance in parameters is almost insignificant (1 hit on sand/shale/saltpeter/coal and 2 hits on iron/lead), a drill also requires taking into account the variance in the drill's damage. Whether you drank miner's coffee or not, or whether you ate candy, also affects your yield. There are many nuances involved.

In the test, I tried to determine how much faster the drill was. It will be 10-20% or it will be a two-fold difference.

 

[Riamus]

This is an equation with a whole bunch of unknowns. While a pickaxe can still be given a formula, since its variance in parameters is almost insignificant (1 hit on sand/shale/saltpeter/coal and 2 hits on iron/lead), a drill also requires taking into account the variance in the drill's damage. Whether you drank miner's coffee or not, or whether you ate candy, also affects your yield. There are many nuances involved.

In the test, I tried to determine how much faster the drill was. It will be 10-20% or it will be a two-fold difference.

Yeah. I had just said that even if the pickaxe were faster, I wouldn't use it.