Salem

For mining is there a strategy for searching blackrock? Should I just pick a single direction and mine that way? Or is that no better than doing expanding squares from the center?

It's a chance to cause a cave down no matter which blackrock you mine. However, waiting a little while after you open a level to try for the next one will raise the chances of getting the cave down since the chance goes up slowly over time.

+1 and if you specifically search for black rock, I' d go for narrow tunnels not too far, not too close from each other. Just like searching for ore.

TotalyMeow wrote:It's a chance to cause a cave down no matter which blackrock you mine. However, waiting a little while after you open a level to try for the next one will raise the chances of getting the cave down since the chance goes up slowly over time.

No I mean is there any strategy to finding the blackrock, like should I just mine way to the edge or is that pointless. Does each area of the level have the same chance to be blackrock?

Iracus wrote:

TotalyMeow wrote:It's a chance to cause a cave down no matter which blackrock you mine. However, waiting a little while after you open a level to try for the next one will raise the chances of getting the cave down since the chance goes up slowly over time.

No I mean is there any strategy to finding the blackrock, like should I just mine way to the edge or is that pointless. Does each area of the level have the same chance to be blackrock?

Oh finding it. Yeah, it's a random scatter, so mining in long narrow tunnels is the best chance. Try a pinwheel like this one: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Tutorials/Mining#Layout_4

Except make all the tunnels 1 wide and the spaces between them 10 or 15. That'll also hit most of the ore veins.

Pinwheel method is also good, but i usually just branch mine.

Like this.


Make one long corridor and then mine the fingers every 2 tiles, mine out as far as you like. This ensures you uncover EVERY possible ore/black tile node and is decently efficient.

Also note that the further you mine down the more Phlegm it costs to mine out a tile.

Alrighty, thank you both for the info

Shrapnel wrote:

I would count that as trolling the help That's a huge effort for very little gain.
Black rock veins are usually huge and there is no point to mine a tunnel every 3 tiles in search for these. Even silver veins are usually larger than just 2x2.
This should give you idea how it is.

What I do:
1. Mine 1 tile wide tunnel, some 20 tiles long in each cardinal direction.
2. Extend each of these tunnels by another 20 tiles, repeat until reach 100 tiles or so
3. Only then start digging side tunnels, some 10 tiles apart one from another - approx mine support radius,

You want your cave-down as close to the ladder as possible because you will be walking that distance many times later.
Allowing mine level to age a bit and mining anything in there increases chances for a cave down.

also FYI, you can have multiple cavedowns in the same level. Each cavedown will lead to a separate, new level. Great for storage!

Chrumps wrote:I would count that as trolling the help That's a huge effort for very little gain.

Actually its not trolling help, not a huge effort or give little gain. You will get tons of silver, gold and glass from what he showed while looking for blackrock and actively working the mine to help the drop down.