Mining

Mining is a primary mechanic for gathering ore and crafting better weapons and armor. Mining is first available in the second region of the game, so you’ll need to complete the starting area to gain access to the skill.

Mining in the Pine Canyon Wilderness

Mining Mechanics

Mining, similar to fishing, has a tick speed that controls your progress. You are presented with a grid, and can reveal a single square every tick. Each time you do, you increase your focus bar, which speeds up the process. Each square has the chance to be either a boost (yellow), which instantly increases your progress, or a vein (green). Squares around boosts and veins are similarly colored, so you can dial in exactly where these rewards are.

When you find a vein, you enter into a “deep seam,” which offers double the number of speed boosts, and the chance of finding a purple “boon,” which instantly offers you one of two randomized rewards.

Mining In The Wilderness

Most of the mineable rocks in Riddler’s Peak are located in the Pine Canyon Wilderness. The Wilderness is a harsh landscape. When in the wilderness, you will have a cold meter and a fatigue meter that chip down over time. When you get too cold, or too fatigued, you will begin taking damage. If you die in the Wilderness, you will drop anything you have collected during your current expedition (these items are considered “death marked” and notated with a small red skull in your inventory). Only once you bring items out of the Wilderness will they be officially unlocked and safe. This means you are at risk of losing any of your mined ore if you do die.

Mining in the Wilderness is currently the fastest mining method, and is considerably faster than safe mining.

Mining Safely

If you would like to avoid the Wilderness, there are a collection of safely mineable rocks in the Caves of Greater Forgetting, located via an entrance in the mountainside in Riddler’s Peak. These rocks are drastically slower than the rocks in the Wilderness, which in turn means they provide both less rewards and less XP per hour, but can be mined more casually.