Originally posted by DarthTanyon:

Originally posted by IvyLeagueZombie:

"I never understood people who use trolls to mine copper"
Have you ever tried it? Saves so much time, and is kind of fun at the same time.
I don't think using abominations to mine the underground iron is a good use of time, though.

I'd love to do a test of someone mining a copper node.. FULLY top layer all the way through mid to bottom payer with a troll vs. me with a deer antler ax.. there is no way that is quicker. Kiting him around, not getting hit by him, heaven forbid you get deeper and deeper and then some other enemies show up.. it's a gimmick.. nothing more. It is not faster or more efficient or whatever else you guys think it is. Also, mining copper is not hard regardless.. 2 nodes.. ? Is all the copper and player will ever need.

Its quite luck dependant. On my previous world, i happen to get a 1 star with log. It was 1 or 2 shotting parts of the node. And he can dig quite a bit far downward, the ore just pops up on the surface.

Troll never needs time to recover stamina, repair the tool, or stop when the forest is attacking. It does not need to dig down to uncover more, nor worry about rocks and trees that sometimes are blocking the node. And it gets you wood as well for the kilns while at it.

It may not be "the tool" to use every time, but it definitely CAN be faster than oversized deer horns.

Originally posted by ling.speed:

It may not be "the tool" to use every time, but it definitely CAN be faster than oversized deer horns.

I've used this method many times in no-boss runs, and it takes me at least a few days to get the 26 copper and 13 tin required for the bench and the pickaxe. I can then mine more than that in one day after getting the pick.

I don't think I've ever seen a starred troll near spawn, so I don't know how much difference that makes, but I wouldn't want to rely on it.

As for the abomination mining. I did not think of trying it, but I can't imagine it's any faster than just using a stagbreaker and a pick. The difficulty is not in the mining (other than when it's underwater), it's in finding the piles in the first place, which aren't very common in my experience.

I also question the need for it, other than in a no-boss run. It doesn't take long to beat the elder. It seems like if you can run around in the swamp, you can easily beat the elder.

I never understood people who use trolls to mine copper and now aboms to mine iron.. do you also use golems to mine silver for you? Like.. just use the tools at your disposal.. it's almost like people love to create challenge for challenges sake or something.

"I never understood people who use trolls to mine copper"
Have you ever tried it? Saves so much time, and is kind of fun at the same time.
I don't think using abominations to mine the underground iron is a good use of time, though.

Originally posted by DarthTanyon:

I never understood people who use trolls to mine copper and now aboms to mine iron.. do you also use golems to mine silver for you? Like.. just use the tools at your disposal.. it's almost like people love to create challenge for challenges sake or something.

Some people like to try to bypass bosses as a challenge. Some get a kick out of facing an opponent with low level gear (like stone age weapons and tools against a troll).

Originally posted by IvyLeagueZombie:

"I never understood people who use trolls to mine copper"
Have you ever tried it? Saves so much time, and is kind of fun at the same time.
I don't think using abominations to mine the underground iron is a good use of time, though.

I'd love to do a test of someone mining a copper node.. FULLY top layer all the way through mid to bottom payer with a troll vs. me with a deer antler ax.. there is no way that is quicker. Kiting him around, not getting hit by him, heaven forbid you get deeper and deeper and then some other enemies show up.. it's a gimmick.. nothing more. It is not faster or more efficient or whatever else you guys think it is. Also, mining copper is not hard regardless.. 2 nodes.. ? Is all the copper and player will ever need.

Originally posted by knighttemplar1960:

Originally posted by DarthTanyon:

I never understood people who use trolls to mine copper and now aboms to mine iron.. do you also use golems to mine silver for you? Like.. just use the tools at your disposal.. it's almost like people love to create challenge for challenges sake or something.

Some people like to try to bypass bosses as a challenge. Some get a kick out of facing an opponent with low level gear (like stone age weapons and tools against a troll).

Right challenge for challenge sake.. I mean use some mods and crank up the difficulty if you are that bored.

Originally posted by i have 2024 vision fear me:

Originally posted by Nerevar:

pretty useless. the outdoor piles are not cotaineing much iron to begin with. youll struggle to even get 100 iron. and most of them spawn below waterlevel on top where you simply cannot mine em fully. the bigger problem was always finding them without the wishbone.

the mistlands method is faster. more risky but definitly alot more reliable than digging around the swamp. the abom would speed this process up much to begin with if you dont know where the piles even are.

this is also not makeing iron available any earlier really. you can just kill oozers to get ironscrap or just FISH for it at any point in time aswell.

It's not a method to get large quantities, but to GET iron in the first place. Say if you want to make stone buildings, and you come across an early swamp before Elder, or even Eikythr. Mistlands is end game, and i'm talking about early game, unless that's a tactic, though sailing across the world to put in that much effort is probably not the best method at that stage. Oozers are a rare spawn that only have a 33% chance to drop 1? iron at time. And to fish you need access to the trader which is RNG, and quite unlikely before Elder (for me anyways), or by getting it from a frozen lake in the mountains, which again, is very rare, and high risk before Elder.

Abominations are roughly as common as trolls, and due to their aoe attack, they can mine deep underground, and the loot dropped pops up on the ground above.

So yeah, it's useless if you already are late game in mistlands, or have a fishing rod (though that's probably more tedious).

oozers arent rare. they are a night spawn simply. and getting 2 iron for the stone cutter early from them is definitly faster than trying to randomly find hidden iron by lureing an abom all over the dangerous swamp early on....

the mistlands method only requires sailing and finding a dvergr bridge ruin near the shoreline. tough this is probaly more something for speedrunners who wanna get an early black forge^^

Originally posted by i have 2024 vision fear me:

You can use aboms to mine underground mud piles for iron. I can't believe i didn't realize that earlier, then again i didn't know they could mine ore.

Easy and early access to iron without needing to gamble by mining random spots.

Awesome idea thanks! If the iron does pop up to surface I will be trying that next playthrough. I usually use the stagbreaker for my first 2 pieces of Iron, but will try this method. Way better than the other options that have been suggested on this thread.

I discovered that soldier seekers can break apart ancient armor for iron and copper scraps, but its very dangerous without late game gear

Originally posted by Nerevar:

pretty useless. the outdoor piles are not cotaineing much iron to begin with. youll struggle to even get 100 iron. and most of them spawn below waterlevel on top where you simply cannot mine em fully. the bigger problem was always finding them without the wishbone.

the mistlands method is faster. more risky but definitly alot more reliable than digging around the swamp. the abom would speed this process up much to begin with if you dont know where the piles even are.

this is also not makeing iron available any earlier really. you can just kill oozers to get ironscrap or just FISH for it at any point in time aswell.

It's not a method to get large quantities, but to GET iron in the first place. Say if you want to make stone buildings, and you come across an early swamp before Elder, or even Eikythr. Mistlands is end game, and i'm talking about early game, unless that's a tactic, though sailing across the world to put in that much effort is probably not the best method at that stage. Oozers are a rare spawn that only have a 33% chance to drop 1? iron at time. And to fish you need access to the trader which is RNG, and quite unlikely before Elder (for me anyways), or by getting it from a frozen lake in the mountains, which again, is very rare, and high risk before Elder.

Abominations are roughly as common as trolls, and due to their aoe attack, they can mine deep underground, and the loot dropped pops up on the ground above.

So yeah, it's useless if you already are late game in mistlands, or have a fishing rod (though that's probably more tedious).

Originally posted by Nerevar:

just FISH for it at any point in time aswell.

What is this. Please explain further.

Originally posted by Kalysm:

Originally posted by Nerevar:

just FISH for it at any point in time aswell.

What is this. Please explain further.

Some fish types will sometimes dump bonus materials when you catch them. For one of those, a possible bonus dump is Iron Ore.

TY I did not know that. By the time I usually find the trader I am using iron already.

pretty useless. the outdoor piles are not cotaineing much iron to begin with. youll struggle to even get 100 iron. and most of them spawn below waterlevel on top where you simply cannot mine em fully. the bigger problem was always finding them without the wishbone.

the mistlands method is faster. more risky but definitly alot more reliable than digging around the swamp. the abom would speed this process up much to begin with if you dont know where the piles even are.

this is also not makeing iron available any earlier really. you can just kill oozers to get ironscrap or just FISH for it at any point in time aswell.