Legacy:Prospecting

Prospecting
LP Cost	-999
Skill(s) Required	Mining
Skill(s) Enabled	None
Hearth Magic(s) Unlocked	None
Required By (0)	Nothing
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As of the 4th world, mines can be built anywhere. Their cost also has risen, now including ropes, leather, boards and hardened leather. If you don't want to throw all of that away on a guess, try prospecting. 0.1 L of Rustroot Extract is depleted each time the Prospecting skill is used, regardless of whether or not you find minerals.

On prospecting, now also depending on Rustroot Extract quality, you might find a vein of minerals. See following forum topics for details.

Available metals are: Gold, Silver, Iron, Copper and Tin. The system seems to be bugged a bit as of Jan 22nd.

In-Game Text

"Like tiny little pebbles, dreams of stone and metal, spewn forth from the innards of the deeper dwelling spirits of the mountain, so this area is strewn with gold. Now to find the Mother Lode."

Using the metallurgical qualities inherent in the wild growing Rustroot, mixed with water into an extract of the said root, you can analyze soil samples to determine their metallurgical compositions. This allows you to triangulate, and ultimately, determine locations suitable for mining. There is no need to dig up the soil samples, simply use "Prospect" under the adventure menu.

How to Prospect

The prospecting system is at the very least obtuse, and it can quite easily seem broken/bugged to people who are new to prospecting.

When you prospect, you scan an area of ground beneath you for the presence of a metal node. The higher the quality of rustroot extract you use, the more area it will scan. The formula seems to have been changed within recent worlds and is currently unknown, but Q20-30 seems to scan at least a 100 tile radius ( [Verify] data and confirmation required). It is unknown if any skills or attributes are involved in this process.

In preparation for prospecting, you'll want to collect a fairly large amount of rustroot. At least 20 is a good start as it will let you scan around a fair bit with some leftover in case you find a node signal to chase. The quality of extract seems to be dependent on the quality of the root and jar. It is unknown if any skills affect it, and it appears to ignore water quality.

When you scan, if you are standing on an ore vein, it will tell you the ore type that is below you. The next best situation is if there's an ore vein in scanning range, in which case it will give you a dowsing direction to follow. However, when scanning there is a chance that you will fail to detect ore whether or not it is present within scanning range. It seems that once you have failed, a small area (5x5?) around you will no longer give positive readings. If you have gotten on track of a node and fail, move ~5 tiles before scanning again to pick up on the node again. How exactly this failure mechanism works is unknown.

Ender's client is highly suggested for the "show dowsing direction" option that has been added in. This gives a boxed window that will tell you the direction the ore node was in, and unlike the pie slice, it will not fade unless you close it. This allows you a set reference point if you have to leave the area or are trying to get new readings but fail.

When reading Enders dowsing direction information, make sure to note this game is isometric. The center top of your screen is North West, and the top right corner is actually true North. Using the in game compass:

0 degrees means the node is NW of your character

+90 degrees means the node is SW of your character

+/-180 degrees means the node is SE of your character

-90 degrees means the node is NE of your character

The delta number given doesn't appear to have any bearing on the direction, it may be related to the width of the pie slice. The dial tracks degrees as positive spinning counter clockwise, and negative spinning clockwise. Enders will occasionally give numbers like 203 degrees. If you want the negative number equivalent, simply subtract 360 from the reading. Either way, the pie slice tracking appears to be accurate if you make sure to be paying attention when each prospect attempt finishes.

Note

(09:21:06) <Lexx> Jorb has stated "If there are no minerals where you are standing, the extract scans a ((Q-10) * 5) x ((Q-10) * 5) tile area around you and returns a dowsing pointer to the closest found mineral, if any."
(09:21:13) <Lexx> Was Jorb mistaken about the closest found mineral part?
(09:21:42) <loftar> That sounds about right, but the "scan" isn't perfect.
(09:21:50) <loftar> It doesn't check every possible tile in that area.

Prospecting when someone is near you has a higher chance of failure. [Verify]