Delarius' Mining GuideFollow

***************************************************************
Why? cause I felt like making one, feel free to add comment or correct me.
***************************************************************

1. Starting up
-1. Basics
-2. Equipment
-3. Macro
-4. Ethiquette

2. Advance tips
-1. Mining Mechanics
-2. Carrying Capacity
-3. Days
-4. Jobs

3. Other Information
-1. Minerals
-2. Mines
-3. Usefull Links

4. Version Information

***************
*1.Starting up*
***************

1. Basics

Ok Mining is basicly the action to go through a mine and get ores/rocks/stone which have value or are used to craft something, in FFXI it is done by finding a "Mining Point" (pressing Tab continually) and using a pickaxe on it.
Doing so will give you 4 possible result
a) failure
b) failure + pickaxe broke
c) success
d) success + pickaxe broke

Sadly enough there are only a few things that affect what you get as a result (which will be discussed further) and no matter what you'll always get a lot of failure and pickaxe lost.

2. Equipment

OK well the first thing you need when you go mining is a pickaxe, or should I say a couple of stack of pickaxe, the number you need depend on a lot of factor (discussed in advance tips section) but to help I'll say this for now, the number of pickaxe you bring depend on what you can carry in ore (ore can't be stacked, keep that in mind ;) ), Pickaxe can be found in the AH but I don't recommend buying these there, I would rather suggest you to buy them at the utility store (there is one in each great city) with maximum reduction in price from fame it's 180 each.

The other important thing is the armor, if you plan on mining you should get it as soon as possbible, it really helps a lot. The piece you need are the Field/Worker Glove, Field/Worker Armor, Field/Worker Boots, don't bother getting the legs as they don't help (just read the description of the item). Now is the worker set better than the field set, it could with the 14 lvl difference, but as the angler set give the same bonus the ficher set, I do believe it is the same for the field/worker. These item are crafted so your best bet to find these is the AH, the price of the total set can go from 20k to 30k (and that's the field one) but seriously it's really worth it.

Another piece of equipment you can bring would be fire crystal, if you have good skill in either Smithing or Goldsmithing, or are leveiling these, you can craft on the spot allowing you to carry more ore back (4 ores = 1 ingot; ingots stack so 12 ingots = 1 spot; ores don't stack so 4 ores = 4 spots; 4 spots = 48 ingots; 48 ingots = 192 ores)

Other usefull part of equipment you might consider;
Scroll of instant warp/trick staff: we're not all BLM so getting a way to travel back faster to town might help you getting profits
Black Drop: Same as the warp scroll expect for the part where you are not interupted by attack when using it, allowing you a safe escape when you get a bad aggro.
Ninja tools: Ninja can use tonko to avoid some aggro and from what I've heard, ninjitsus don't create aggro from magic (usefull in hte Cauldron) Utsusemy can also help if you get aggroed, allowing you to warp back without being interupted
Silent Oil/Prism Powder: If you don't mind getting less gils from time to time I guess you can use these, but keep in mind they are expensive and could destroy your profits.

And the last part of equipment (and seriously prolly the most important) SPACE, when you mine you get your pickaxe, field/workers suit, fire crystal and maybe your weapon, and the other stuff that might help you on the trip, but you don't bring anything else nothing at all, if you don'T have the field/worker suit, you go naked. More space = less return to town and ore drop = better profit. And what about aggro, well to make it simple, if you can't avoid aggro (sneak and invisible are aggro avoider) then you shouldn't be mining there.

3. Macro
Quite a short section, when you mine you need a macro cause seriously who wants to go in the inventory select the pickaxe and then select the mining point, so here is the macro.

Mining
/item "Pickaxe" <t>

when you have the mining point selected, hope that helps.

4. Ethiquette
Yup there is a code to follow when you mine, and it has one single rule: don't ever mine at a Mining Point someone is already mining, it's really irritating when you mine and someone goes next to you and start mining. Go find another spot there should be plenny.

*****************
*2. Advance tips*
*****************

1.Mining Mechanics
OK there is still a lot of mysteries about how mining works, with my experience I've came with the following mechanics: whenever a mining point is mined (with success) it will simply spawn elsewhere in the mine (can be stacked).
With some information I got from other miners, it appear that ppl have been seeing point disappear (without being mine), so I still believe my mechanic work, but instead of never disappearing until someone mine the mineral, they can be move automaticly after a while (since I've never seen something like this happen we can assume the time require for this to happen to be quite big)
Example (number is the number of minerals which are stacked at this spot)
*Exemple*
A:0 B:1 C:5 D:1 E:1 F:0
Let's say Bob enter the mine and start mining he run pass A since he won'T see a Mining Point (no minerals) he then run at B and mine one thing, the point disappear and spawn at let's say F so the status is now
A:0 B:0 C:5 D:1 E:1 F:1
Bob then continue his path and run in C he mines a first time the point spawn in E, so E is now at 2 (as they minerals can be stack at the same point)
A:0 B:0 C:4 D:1 E:2 F:1
He noticed there is still a Mining Point so continue mining until the C is empty.
A:2 B:1 C:0 D:1 E:2 F:3
(For the next step is just a supposition since there are no way to test this)
Bob now comes to D which contains only 1 minerals, he mines the point.
A:2 B:1 C:0 D:1 E:2 F:3
and noticed there is still a point (what I supposed here is that a mineral can spawn where it was mined, I came with this conclusion when in gusgen mine, alone mining hunting 1 point in my section (trapped) and at some point I got 2 minerals from the same spot (later on it spawn out of my reach so I just warped))
As Bob quest for minerals continue the mineral on F was there for a while, it then disappeared and moved to B
A:2 B:2 C:0 D:1 E:2 F:2


*/Exemple*

So basicly if you're alone in the mine, you should go through the whole mine. And if your in some mines where you can be trapped, make sure other parts of the mine are mined (you might run out of point faster than what you think)

2. Carrying capacity
Here are a couple of tips to improve your carrying capacity
a) as stated in the first section, carry the less you can
b) have your Goldsmithing and Smithing skills at 20 or more, this will allow you to melt most ore in ingots (Iron, Silver and lower)
c) do the gobby bags quests more inventory space is like cutting the unnecessary items
d) drop worthless minerals to you. Dont be affraid, if you don't use it and its not worth much drop it.
c) get copper ore before leaving: this might sound weird but it actually helps me a lot space wise, usually you don't get nearly enough copper in a trip to synth your zinc to brass, this is prolly the only way to do it (I usually leave with my inventory full of copper (53/55) and usually end up with a couple of unsynthed zinc ore anyway. You should avoid doing this if your gathering zinc for the tenshodo fame

3. Day
OK the most basic thing to know about different days is that they are used as color selector when you mine Colored Stones
here is the complete list (the days are in order)
Fireday: Red Rock
Earthday: Yellow Rock
Waterday: Blue Rock
Windday: Green Rock
Iceday: Translucent Rock
Lightningday: Purple Rock
Lightday: White Rock
Darkday: Black Rock

OK heres the other important think that my mining trips seems to show, mining is much like other craft and like all the craft it's element based (other craft are based on crystal used) and then the day can affect your results in the same mechanics crafting gets affected. On lightday and the day of the element, you'll get much more success but most of these success will be normal success (in the case of mining lesser value ores) and the darkday and the day of opposite element you'll be getting more HQ (in this case high value ores) but at the cost of more failure (which will lead to much more pickaxe used to gather same ammount of ores)
As for the element of mining it's still unclear to me, I somehow don't get a lot of sucess on lightning day which should lead to water element, but I find it hard to believe mining could be water based, and since the ammount of failure is not quite as high as the one I've been getting on darkday, it could be the result of coincidence.

4. Jobs
Ok here is a list of job with the bonus they give to mining.

a)Ninja:
Mijin Gakure: When mining in dangerous places you can use it as an escape, and when your done mining you can use it as a warp
Utsusemi: Might give you just enough time to warp via scroll if you get aggroed, mostly usefull if your main is not PLD/THF/NIN/BLM
Tonko: Still for dangerous place, if the aggro is by sight it will help you pass through those mob and get to that mining point. Note: Don't forget you can't mine while invisible so going at Oldon with all the mob still EP+++++ wouldn't be that profitable, another note: Ninjitsu are not considered like magic when it comes to aggroing, so this is very usefull to pass through bombs.

b)Thief:
Flee: Most of the time you spend mining is usually running from a point to another, why not cut this time a bit and get to that point very far before that guy just before you, pop a flee and get there
Perfect Dodge: Will allow you to read an instant warp scroll if you get aggroed in dangerous places

c)White Mage:
Teleport: done mining, well just teleport and you're halfway back, combine with warp, it allow fast travel between town and mine to empty your inventory
Sneak: Needed to mine in Iffrit Cauldron to avoid aggro, could be used in Gusgen mine too.
Invisible: (read Tonko part) carefull with magic aggro with this one though

d)Black Mage:
Warp: Back to town to sell minirals.
Warp II: in remote place, other miners might pay to get this
Escape: to use when you are lost or trapped, escape and return in mine (especially usefull in gusgen mine)

e)Paladin:
Invincible: Will allow you to use the warp scroll when aggroed
High Defence: If you get an aggro and your close to the zone, you might just as well make it without diing (carefull though, you should warn other poeple when you zone)

***********************
*3. Other informations*
***********************

1. Minerals
List of minerals you might get mining, all reciepe use fire crystal and usually it's 4 ore of that mineral to get an ingot, some ores though use different reciepies to be synthed in ingots, when this is the case the ores that are to be used will be displayed in parenthesys.
The price listed here are the range of price you get on Valefor, the pricing varie from server to server so don't be surprize if the information isn't always totally acurate)

a) Pebble: Worthless... you should drop (or throw at orcs to skill up you throwing skill ^^)

b) Flint Stone: Might be used to boost fame in Sando (staring a flame quest 4 flint -> 100 gil) otherwise worth 1k a stack, worthless at higher lvl.

c) Copper ore: worth 50-100 in AH (and 10 gil at stores o_O) usefull though if your synthing brass out of zinc, or if you're starting as a goldsmith you might want to keep to boost your skill up to 3 (ingot sold 5k-8k) or to boost smithing (see tin ore)

d) Zinc ore: worth 300-500 in AH can be synth in brass (3 copper, 1 zinc, cap at 10 in Goldsmith) which sells for 8k-9k a stack; is also used in a quest at bastok to boost tenshodo fame

e) Tin ore: worth 50-100 in AH (sold for abour 35 by NPC) used in the bronze ingot (3 copper, 1 tin) -worth 5k-6k- to boost Smithing up to 4 and in the tin ingot which basibly worth almost nothing, use only for skill up (up to 15 in Smithing) and don'T bother selling it at AH

f) Iron ore: worth 500-800 in AH and 35k-36k in ingot stacks, better source of income than most poeple think (ingot cap at 20 in smithing)

g) Silver ore: worth 400-700 in AH and 30k-32k in ingot stacks, Goldsmith cap at 20 with this

h) Darksteel ore: worth 9k-11k in AH and 15k in ingot (gobby bag quest) Smithing cap at 52 (1 darksteel 3 iron)

i) Gold ore: worth 10k-12k in AH and 40k-45k in ingot (gobby bag quest) Goldsmith cap at 53

j) Mythril ore: worth 1k-1.5k in AH ingot stack 80k-85k Goldsmith cap at 40

k)Platinium ore: worth 25k ingot 50k cap at 63 in Goldsmithing; Very rare

l)Adamant ore: worth 50k-60k ingot 150k-160k Smith cap at 90 (1 Iron 3 Adamant) Very good money but very rare and dangerous to mine

m)Orichalcum Ore: Worth 100k ingot 350k-400k Goldsmith cap at 89 (3 Orichalcum, 1 Platinum) Very good money but insanely rare (still have to hear about someone on my LS getting one)

n)Kopparnickel Ore: Worth 100-600 paktong ingot worth 2k-2.5k (Gobbie Bag quest) Smith cap unknown (most likely near lvl 20 since I could make these without problem at lvl 22) (1 zinc, 1 Kopparnickel, 2 copper)

o)Colored stone: worth 1.5k-2k, usually good money if you can't HQ them in gems, otherwise sell them unsynthed
)

p)Moblin Mask: worth 500-1000 These can be desynthed with Alchemy using a lighting crytal for Glass Fiber (2x, 4x or 6x)

q)Moblin Armor: worth 500-1000 These can be desynthed with Clothcraft using a lighting crytal for Cotton thread (2x, 4x or 6x)

r)Moblin Mail: worth 2.5k-3k These can be desynthed with Goldsmithing using a lighting crytal for Brass ingots or Gold ingot.

s)Moblin Helm: worth 2k-2.5k These can be desynthed with Goldsmithing using a lighting crytal for brass ingot or Gold ingot

will add the other ore later on....

2. Mines
(OK this is where I'll need help for aggro value and some other information since I have yet to mine everywhere)

Aggro mean the lvl at which you get no aggro (except for Yuggot grotto 32 and Gusgen Mine 48 these are approximate value)

a)Zeruhn Mine: Aggro: 12 Minerals: Iron Ore, Pebble, Copper Ore, Zinc Ore, Silver Ore, Tin Ore and Darksteel Ore
The beginners mine, only mine with very low aggro but the minerals aint that good, if you're lucky you might get a couple of Darksteel, the iron is quite frequent but as you level up you should leave this for better spot like palborough or yuggot grotto.

b) Palborough Mine: Aggro: 18, 26, 32 Minerals: Pebble
Copper Ore, Tin Ore, Zinc Ore, Iron Ore, Silver Ore, Mythril Ore and Platinum Ore
Many mob level (depend on section) you can stick to low lvl zone as long as higher players are mining the other section, usually mined a lot for the rare platinum ores, point are far form each other so you might walk a lot between two points

c) Yuggot Grotto: Aggro: 26, 32 Minerals: Pebble, Flint Stone, Copper Ore, Tin Ore, Zinc Ore, Iron Ore, Silver Ore, Gold Ore, Darksteel Ore and Colored Stones
The area is small and spot are all close to each other, normally mined by going through all the spots (require lvl 32), oyu can do the same thing up to half the grotto if you don't have level 32 yet. In this place you'll be getting a lot of Iron ore and zinc ore (bout 4 of each per stack) so its a good spot to mine if your leveling your smithing skill or if you are raising your tenshodo fame.
Tips:
i)This mine is quite linear, if you are following someone and seem to get no point turn arround and go the other way, with the point mobility in this place you'll usually end up finding point a bit behind you.

d) Gusgen Mine: Aggro: 30, 48, 55, sneak Minerals: Pebble, Copper Ore, Tin Ore, Zinc Ore, Iron Ore, Silver Ore, Gold Ore, Darksteel Ore and Colored Stones
Big Area with basicly 3 mining sections (which can be split of course) since the doors can trap you, you have to make sure other section are mine and you also want the section that isn't mined too much, the first section does't require a very high lvl but is usually mined a lot. If you plan to mine with sneak avoid bombs. The thing you might want to be carefull with are the Hecatomb NM (spawn when you hear the siren) and the Foul Meat mob which can aggro at higher lvl. In this place you get a decent ammount of Gold and Darksteel but with the crowd you'll still will be slowed in your mining.
Tips:
i)When your a BLM or have BLM sub at higher lvl you can use Escape to acces all the mine.

e) Iffrit's Cauldron: Aggro: sneak Minerals: Iron Ore, Sulfur, Flint Stone, Bomb Ash, Bomb Arm, Iron Sand, Darksteel Ore, Adaman Ore, Orichalcum Ore and Colored Stones
Watch out for sight aggro!!! This place is really dangerous, mobs that aggro to sight, sound and magic roam this place, we always be carefull when you cast sneak/invisibility. Don't ever forget bomb and dangerous and will kill you whenever they see you or when you cast a spell near them.

f) Oldton Movalpolos: Aggro: 50 + tonko, 55 Minerals: Copper Ore, Tin Ore, Zinc Ore, Igneous Rock, Moblin Mask, Moblin Armor, Moblin Helm, Moblin Mail, Silver Ore, Iron Ore, Goblin Die, Mithril Ore, DarkSteel Ore, Gold Ore and Platinum Ore
The only danger at this level should be Goblin Freelances but these are no where near the mining spots, as for the minerals, it's a good place to mine platinum without sacrificing chance to get other good ore (gold and darksteel can'T be found in palborough). Be carefull with bombs when using magic
Tips:
i) As you'll be getting Moblin wear in this place, bringing a couple of lightning crystal for desynth can be a good idea (I recommand having at least 30 in gold smithing for this)
ii)tonko is a usefull tool here from 50 to 54 to avoid bomb aggro and moblin rodman aggro in the middle section

g) Newton Movalpolos: Aggro: ???? Minerals: Tin Ore, Zinc Ore, Igneous Rock, Silver Ore, Iron Ore, Mithril Ore, DarkSteel Ore, Gold Ore, Platinum Ore and Colored Stones
(info to come)

3. Usefull Links
http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/gulif/ziq_topeng.html <- contain maps of mines with possible position of mining points

************************
*4. Version Information*
************************

V1.01
Added the day section
Corrected aggro lvl on Zeruhn mines (Thanks to Febavas)

V1.02
Modified Mechanics (Thanks to GeniusTaru)
Added more info about Oldton Movalpolos (Thanks to Nilisa)

V1.03
Added a targeting line in the mining macro (Thanks to Rylock)
Added a tip for the Gusgen Mine section (Thanks to Rylock)
Added a tip for the Yuggot Grotto section

V1.04
Added the Orichalcum Ore (pricing from KillerMe)
Added Kopparnickel Ore
Increased warning about Ifrit Cauldron (from KillerMe and many of my LS friend that got killed)

V1.05
Added more info about mining and days
Added more info about the Equipment (thanks to Lenonis)
Added more info of some area
Added Moblin wears in the mineral section

V1.06
Added a job section

V1.07
Updated price to current status of Valefor server
Added even more warning about Ifrit Cauldron
Removed colored stones from Oldon Movapolos

Edited, Wed Jan 26 18:53:09 2005 by Delarius

VERY GOOD rate up!^^ Thank you for cotnributing to Allakhazam and FFXI :-).. keep up the good work... how many of these places have you mined at, and which is most worth while? Mods can you sticky this... well put it in the sticky thread.

Edited, Thu Nov 25 16:20:32 2004 by WibbleofDiabolos

wow, nice guild ^^ rate up

mining is my 1st incoming source in this game
so, i mine @ gusgen mines, i go with 5 stacks pickaxe and 1 or 2 stacks of fire crystals, i have field tunica and legs and worker gloves and boots, gusgen mines isnt bad @ all, yes theres alot of gilsellers, but they mine deep only, so i mine in the first section when theres no one mining there, theres 4 points there and they are so close 2 each other.

i think worker gear gives u good reslut, when i was eq my field gear, i get only 1darksteel or 2 if this day is good, havent get any gold, this was from lvl20 to lvl25 (maybe 11 days) and i thought mining is SO bad, but i got spook and got the drop and bought my worker gloves, then bought 5 stacks pickaxe and went to gusgen mines, digged my first dig and i got darksteel, 2 mints got gold, and in 3 days i got about 16 darksteels and 5 gold ores and alot of rocks, and i start drop my iron and silvers, sometime i drop the rocks, i dont know what this mean but i guess this happend cuz i bought worker gloves.

and i traid mining @ ifrit, i think this is bad choose, u need invs and sneak, and u cant mining while u inv, so u should cancel the invs to mine, and ALWAYS theres bombs near the point, which aggro by sound, so just forget this stupid place, me and some of my LS members went there, havent find any point (badluck) my friend find one point and he got adaman ore, and found another point and got flint stones! (VERY BADLUCK), and they all die while mining cuz bomb aggro them!, i lost about 2k exp with no ores >.< .

now i started lvl my smithing and glodsmithing, i can get ALOT of money and save my time, cuz i drop iron and silver ores, wich r about 12k stack for iron ingots (not sure) and 22-28k for silver (also not sure), also one of my LS member have glodsmithing lvl60, so maybe i get HQ ring from my rocks wich give u good gils ^^ .

thanks again for this post :).

Nice guide. As far as Oldton goes, I'm LV 60 and the only thing that aggros me are Goblin Freelances. Of course, these guys don't hang out anywhere near the mining spots, so if you see them you are in the wrong place. A friend of mine goes here as well... he's LV 54 and still gets aggro from the ancient bombs sometimes since they can con Too Weak or Easy Prey to him. So I'd say a few LVs above that and you should be safe. Some of the higher Gobs/Mobs and Bugbears (Bondmen and Pikemen for example) will probably still aggro you, but these don't spawn near any of the mining points so you shouldn't see them if you know where you are going.

Hmm personnaly I've never seen a point either appear if I'm alone or disapear before I mine it, only thing I saw something like this is when another miner is right next to it, well my theory about how it work come from my personnal experience and since I've been mining quite a lot I assumed it is how it worked. Maybe there is a timer like you said, but not for appearing (only disappearing) when the timer is off the point respawn to allow trapped miners or miner that can'T get there without aggro to still be able to mine. Think that it would make sense.

Would be hard to test out though since mines are big and hardly ever empty (even though I've been lucky lately in grotto), its hard to keep up a good check on all point when your alone

I'll change the openning of that section to mark this is my theory about the mechanics and that further testing should be made.

Wow great info here I'll be sure to add it to the guide. and the /target npc will help a lot not hitting alt-tab when I try to mine realy fast. one question though, there is some place in the deap lvl of Gusgen where there is a ??? right next to a mining point (I believe it's for the monk AF), so I'm wondering if it would just select the ??? intead of the point. Well guess I can test that on my next mine trip (right after I finally get that Exoray mold that has been slowing my leveling progress)

Hmm well I've seen as far as 7 point at once at Yuggot grotto all tight up at the beginning or the mine and sometime I have to go through the last 3 point before I find something (when mining alone) so thats why I'm a big disbeliever of the random number of ore when a point is moved.

I might be wrong though cause there are to place when mining there that show to path (I always take the one to my right) so I could have missed points which could have brought the total up to 7 (well thats if I missed these all and usually I get the one the the small corner near where Ashmaker spawn)

I've also seen point show up to 10 minerals (sadly for me too much pebbles)



Edited, Fri Nov 26 03:30:38 2004 by Delarius

Just a few clarifications for you, in case you want to add them:

Platinum Ingots (Fire Crystal + Plat. Ore x4) cap at Goldsmithing 63.

Adaman Ingots (Fire Crystal + Adaman Ore x3 + Iron Ore) cap at Smithing 90.

Orichalcum Ingots (Fire Crystal + Orichal. Ore x3 + Platinum Ore) cap at Goldsmithing 89.

And I'm nearly positive Paktong ingots cap at Smithing 20.

It might also be worth adding that of the ingots listed, only Iron can be HQ'ed during synthesis (into Steel).

Otherwise great guide!

I mine in Oldton now most of the time and I've been doing it since level 45. I like it better than Gusgen since it's less crowded with no gil sellers (I don't think a lot of them have bought the expansion pack yet ^^), and the drops tend to be better too. Platinum, Darksteel, and Gold ores are still fairly rare (probably around the same rarity as they are in Gusgen and Palborough), but the Moblin gear is quite common and the Mail and Helms sell for 2k each. At 45 I needed to keep Invis on almost the whole time, taking it off briefly to swing at a point when the gobs would turn their backs and recasting it again. Kind of a pain, but after spending so many hours mining in Ifrit's it was a breeze compared to that. At around level 50, most of the goblins/moblins near the mining points no longer aggroed me, so I just had to watch out for Ancient Bombs (which hang around only 2-3 of the mining points and are quite dangerous if they aggro you), and the Moblin Rodmans on the platform near the mining points in the SE corner. I'm hoping when I hit 55 the bombs will no longer aggro me, and mining in Oldton will be even easier then. Right now I typically get 25-35K/hour mining in Oldton which isn't a bad way to kill extra time when I'm waiting for a party invite.

I have a question though for any goldsmiths or blacksmiths out there: what level do you need to be to desynth Moblin gear? My goldsmithing is at 24 and my blacksmithing is 18; is that high enough? Also what do you get from desynthing these items? I'm assuming it's something pretty good based on what this gear sells for.

I am currently leveling my Smithing, I am up to level 50 and I am in need of Darksteel and Iron Ore, I'm riding the airship from town to town and I have finally sold all of the AH's and Guild's out of these items. Where is the best places to mine these two ore's? I have never mined before but I am level 63 so where would be best to go for the best mining rates and where I don't have to fear for my life or worry about some retarded gil farmer screwing me over? Thanks.

nice post, just missing the section on what to do if on our server there is a bot standing in front of every mining point in the entire zone ><

Well you could try to report to a GM but seriously this look more like gil farming for the purpose of gil selling so they might be able to react to what the GM say. Well in either case that doesn'T seems like legit mining to me, in this very exceptional situation, maybe you can point steal, (try to check for reaction first though)

great guide del ^^

also as an additionnal tip:
if your main job is level 50+, you can sub THF when you mine so you get to use Flee

its always funny to be just a few steps behind someone running to a far mining point, and hitting flee just in time to get there before they do :p

dont hate me, its legit heheh

personally im a gusgen miner, and ive been for a while. i used to mine the four mining points at the top at level 42-45, then i moved to the second floor. at around 50 the mobs stop aggroing you even in the lowest floors, and strangely enough, some of them are still easy prey. i tried standing in front of an EP bomb in the basement, /wave at it, dance in front of it, and it never even moved. maybe my big fat galka butt is intimidating it :p

also...
the phase of the moon seems to influence mining on top of the day of the week. del was telling me over our ls yesterday about his lightday crappy luck, and i got two white rocks by the time i read 1:35AM on lightday. i did get pretty much only coppers and pebbles the rest of the day though... this mining trip i used 8 complete stacks, found 7 colored stones and 4 darksteels, no gold, and the moon went from 0% to 13% when i was there. on my last trip the moon was 80%, i got 2 colored stones, 10 darksteels and 3 gold, with 7 stacks

i seem to remember a thread in this section of the forums detailing tests done while mining with the phase of the moon. ill try to dig up the link...


EDIT:

ok, i just went through 30 pages of buried threads out of the available 150 and didnt find it... if anyone has a premium account he could do a search and try to find it faster than i did...

Edited, Wed Dec 1 13:18:24 2004 by DarKane

Wow, I must not be paying enough attention. Thanks for bumping this to the top again. I'll be replacing the old (Feb. 26th) mining guide in the sticky with this one.

As far as the Moon phase thread, is this what you're looking for?

Mining and Moon Phase

This isn't true. They also aggro on sight.

I've found this out the hard way.

are you sure that you can find mythril and gold ore's in oldton movapolos? I've only found plat and DS there.

You should also put which places have lots of breaks (with full mining gear)

Zehrun - Low break rate. Usually 1 stack to fill up 20-25 spots w/ full mining gear.

Palbrough - High Break Rate. 2 stack to fill up 20-25 w/ full mining gear.

Yughotto - Very High Break Rate. 2-3 stacks to fill up 20-30 spots w/ full mining gear.

Gusgen - High break rate. 2 stacks to fill up 20-25 spots w/ full mining gear.

Oldton - Medium Break Rate. 1.5 stacks to fill up 20-25 spots w/ full mining gear.

Newton Movopalos - Haven't mined there

Ifrit's Cauldron - High Break Rate. 2 stacks fill up 20-25

These are all estimates, don't live or die by these results, just seems that this is what i have gotten.

If you are debating on where to mine here are some things to look at:

- Are you going to get agro'd in the place you go?
*If you are too low for any high places, stick w/ gusgen
*Once you can go to the lower part of palbrough, try it out. Make a set path before you go.
*Yughotto Grotto is like a lower lvl gusgen w/ more breaks. If you can't go to gusgen go here. I'd suggest Palbrough more than here though.
*Gusgen is great, once again make a set path before you go.
*Oldton is good for low breaks. I usually go to Gusgen, and with 6-10 pickaxe head over here and fill up the rest of my inv.
*Ifrits you can go with any job that has sneak/invis. My fav combo is whm/nin. just get whm to 22 and sub nin at 9. Tonko ichi and sneak.

- Can you pay for certain things?
*If high break rate and no mining gear don't go.
*If high break rate and not enough pickaxe don't go.
*Can you afford the ninja tools or powders/oils?
*Are you willing to pay in EXP if you die? (mainly for ifrits)

I guess im just rambling on caus ei have nothing better to do. Good guide btw :-D.

i know, but it seems that in general, that is how the breaks go. Hmm, guess i haven't mined in oldton much.

Well, I would assume the "point spawns" work similar to harvesting...and that's something I do know about. I can't imagine why it would be different for mining.

Havesting spawns are all on timers (duration of timer is my "trade-secret"), but yes they absolutely will despawn (and pop elsewhere) if no one finds them in a certain timeframe.

This can actually be helpful once you *really* know an area well, you can figure out how many spawns are active at a given time (w/harvesting, there is never more or less than a given amount active at any time.) Once you finish one up, it will immediately respawn at another spot.

If you are ever totally alone in an area (much easier if you have a friend to help you research), you'll learn alot about timers and such.

I personally have had:

1) a point disappear before I started mining it

2) points that stop letting me mine after 1 or 2 swings

3) points that won't let me excavate from them at all

I am currently mining almost eveyday in Palborough.

This is a good thread. Thanks to you, I don't have to stay exclusively in Palborough for platinum ores and can zone to Gusgen when I want to. I made a route for myself that spans Palborough, Oldton Movalpolos, and Gusgen Mines.
So far, on my trial run for that route, I got 2 platinum ores from Palborough, 1 Black Stone and 1 platinum ore from Oldton, 1 Gold ore and 4 Darksteel ores in Gusgen.
I got other ores and synthed lots of ingots, but I thought I'd just input the ones that rake in a bigger chunk of money.
...and the fact that I only kept track of these ores. ^^;
Thanks again. =D

could race affect what you can mine? first i mined for around 100 pickaxes in zehrum with mu taru blm/thf and got around 50 irons, 16 zincs, 1 darksteel, 68 coppers and 30 tins.

then i mined with my hume war for another 100 pickaxes and got 70 zincs, 20 irons, 1 darksteel, 50 coppers and 27 tins.

both were using the field gear. also, how can 8 pickaxes break in a row if using field gear and usually i can mine only once or twice from one mining spot? o_O

I don't know if this has been said, but bombs in Ifrit's Cauldron aggro to sight, bats aggro to sound (which you already have) and bombs ALSO AGGRO TO MAGIC! Which is very important for mages.

just if anyone is curious, on my server, Pandemonium, the prices of ores as follows:

Adaman- 90k
Ochr(w/e sp)- 150-200k
gold- 15k
darksteel- 13k
mythril- 2k
colored stones- 2k
Platinum- 35k

did i forget any?

v1.07 online, enjoy

(and thanks for the comments)

For a lowbie smith/goldsmith, Zerhun is actually fantastic. Most of what you'll end up with worth keeping is iron and zinc ores, with the rare silver and rarer darksteel.

For me with field gear on, it's a self-sustaining process. Darksteel goes for 25K each on Ragnarok now, so one is enough to pay for quite a few mine runs. Now that my smithing is 20+ and my GS too, I pop in, melt down the iron, save the zinc, and when I'm all full, warp back to town. Then I just sit down with the cheap copper ore at the guilds (either one) and make brass, which sells nicely for a stack (I used it to skill up through GS 14ish or so, but after that...).

You can easily get to just under 20 GS and 26 Smithing just sitting in Zerhun chipping away at ores. It takes time, but the Gil investment is minimal in the end.

one of the field pieces doesn't effect ur mining, so dont be dumb, and gilsellers are not gonna mine, mining doesnt give them anywhere near enough gil to supoort a family, haha