SGS1E5

Spotter's Guide: S1E5 - To The Granite!

The second half of our previous outing! We are heading into the ground to start our endless pursuit of ore. I luck out and dig into a cavern and search through it for ores finding a few deposits!

Notes on Tin video

Tin is a very important metal that only has one ore it can be found in and only one rock layer that that ore can be found in. Cassiterite is that ore and it is found within the Granite type of rock. This ore is fairly important as it is combined with copper to make Bronze which will get us out of the bronze age.

Cave-In Mechanics video video

The cave-in's that are possible in TFCraft are a tricky subject. Some times they will help you find materials faster but you will want to utilize them in a controlled manner so they do not take you out with them as well. Basically when you mine a block it will check for the integrity of the rock around it and see if it can possibly collapse. If there is enough of a burden and not enough support, and then a bit of random luck added in, a collapse will start. This collapse will then spread through neighboring rocks. So far all the ones caught on video have been small but these can expand to great size. Check out the Support Beams for more information on them.

Ore-Levels video

TFCraft is a big place and while ore deposits are pretty large, finding them is not always easy. A few things of note is that ores always spawn in veins. These veins are more common between the depths of y>=30 and y<=50. This is not to say that you can not find ore outside of those boundaries, but when you are considering a quarry or a branch mine, those are the depths that will give you your best results.

Support Beams video

These do exactly what they say, support. When a block is checking to see if it should crumble during a collapse it will check to see if a horizontal bar is within range. This is a range of 4 in any direction. If there is one, then it is supported by that beam. Easy enough and fairly cheap to make, these will help make your mines more safe as you dig them out.

Left Hand Rule video

I am sure most people know this rule by now. When you explore a cave system place torches on one side of the tunnel. I choose the left hand. If you see torches on the left wall, you are going away from the entrance. If you see them on the right hand side then you are going towards the entrance. For me, if you see a torch that is not attached to the wall it is there to stop monsters from spawning and can be ignored. Only exception to that is if the way 'up' or 'out' is narrow and hidden from common view, I will generally put a line of torches on the ground to it.

Ore! video

This is a good first sighting of ore because it shows off what it looks like. Ore will appear On top of the type of rock that it is found in. You will then just see the streaks of ore running through the stone. As I get closer and light the ore up the contrast becomes more apparent. Then we come across a second ore vein that is a bit more distinctive. They will range from blended in to very visible, especially the ores that can be found in more than one type of rock. While not the Cassiterite that we were looking for, it is a start!