Originally posted by umop-apisdn:

Originally posted by Pat Fenis:

Expose the whole thing removing dirt and undermine it to collapse.

Yeah, this statement is demonstrably false.

It's not demonstrably false--I've done it myself. It can be tricky with the mechanics and because copper sends shoots down, but with enough clearance the whole node will collapse. It's demonstrably true.

i lost my bronze stuff and wanted to stay in the bronze age a bit longer than normal and even then i have not yet beat the 3rd boss on this new world and character as not played since hearth and home update so had a lot of catching up

Seems to be a fairly consistent 80-90 ore for a whole deposit. Expose the whole thing removing dirt and undermine it to collapse. Never really paid attention to what a single chunk drops.

Originally posted by Pat Fenis:

Expose the whole thing removing dirt and undermine it to collapse.

Yeah, this statement is demonstrably false.

That doesn't work with copper deposits... or at least, the 4 times I did it expecting it to collapse like a house with no support didn't act like that. To add insult to injury, having to build scaffolding to be able to reach the floating voxels, then falling as soon as I break through was an exercise in frustration.

I don't know if there's a collision glitch, or something, but if my character can pass through the smallest gap between the copper and the surrounding dirt, it should absolutely collapse... but it doesn't.

Sometimes it does collapse, but honestly its not a mechanic I would try to count on as it doesn't seem to work most of the time.

might be bits of dirt/stone in the nodes themselves unlike the pillars in the plains that dont or at least didnot have that problem last time i tried pre H&H update unless you cant do that anymore also

I am doing a whole base with the new copper mesh walls and exploded 2 copper nodes this week with no problem. I mine a circle around the node, then below it. Once I am comfortable that it is complete I hit it from the bottom and whole thing explodes. The side walls have to be a little farther than you just seeing empty space. In my experience about 4 meters on all sides works. Do not go too deep though or you will be back to trying to get on top and falling when the node explodes. Definitely still a thing though as I can still do it with no problems.

I do not even start one near shore as the water level can ruin a whole node.

i wonder if it even saves time even with 100% chance of it exploding

I think you get more copper. If I just walk up to a copper node and start from the center working down, many times the center of the node is filled with rock. As far as time goes I agree, it might even take longer lol. But since I "think" I am getting more copper I continue to do it the "explode node" method.

I guess to fully experiment I would need to do both ways on multiple nodes and record the results, but I would rather build my copper palace first.

The collapsing strat works great for stone pillars and silver nodes, not so much for copper. You're also robbing yourself of pickaxe experience by using the collapsing method, so something else to consider.

Originally posted by red13seto:

i wonder if it even saves time even with 100% chance of it exploding

No. It doesn't save any time.

If you just mine the exposed portion of a rock you get around half of what you get if you mine the whole thing (more if it's more exposed, on the side of a hill, etc). In my experience, it takes much more than twice the time to mine the whole rock, no matter how you do it.

As was mentioned, stone pillars and silver are a different story.

Nope. It's random chance, and it starts at zero.

I agree, it's quite frustrating to hit a rock 7-9 times, and not receive any copper (or even stone) for your trouble.

odd its the first time i have ever noticed not getting copper

As your Skill level goes up and you use better/durable pickaxes, you don't have to strike as many times to produce the resource/loot. Tin smashes in 1 strike, etc...

Originally posted by rexpiscator:

As your Skill level goes up and you use better/durable pickaxes, you don't have to strike as many times to produce the resource/loot. Tin smashes in 1 strike, etc...

Aye, but does anyone actually mine copper, once iron is available? Is there a reason to?

When you first start mining, you've got an antler tied to a bundle of sticks. It takes quite a few swings to break a single voxel of copper... and then it might not even drop anything at all.

Even after you upgrade to a bronze pick, it still takes quite a few swings to knock off a chunk of copper deposit... which still may or may not drop anything.