Mining – ICARUS

To create tools that are more complicated than a stone axe or a mortar and pestle, you’ll need to do some mining. Here’s what you’ll need to create usable metals:

• A Stone Pickaxe to mine ores;
• A Stone Furnace to process ores.

Other things to keep in mind:

• Some ores don’t require smelting to be used. Furthermore, raw ore is a requirement for some of the recipes.
• If you want to create tools (also knives and bow/crossbow ammo) with your smelted ores, you’ll also need to create an Anvil Bench.
• Higher-tier ores require stronger Pickaxes to mine and higher-level furnaces to process — this is noted in the table below.
• You will need the Machining Bench and Forge, or the Fabricator and Foundry, to do a lot of crafting work with rarer metals.
• Stone and Oxite can be picked up off the ground as well as mined from deposits.
• Hidden caves have blocked entrances that yield stone when mined.
• (Olympus, Styx) It’s possible to see some of the nodes exclusive to the caves outside of them, in close proximity to the entrance.
• (Prometheus) Some Swamp and Basalt creatures yield ores when skinned. For example, Drifters yield Oxite, Lava Broodlings may yield Stone, and StoneJaws can yield multiple ores like Scoria, Iron, and Copper.
• (Prometheus) Miasma-corrupted ores dropped by Drifters and Swamp creatures will have to be cleaned before they are smelted.
• (Prometheus) Frozen ore will have to be defrosted before being smelted. Defrosting yields a random ore, which can be more valuable than the source.

Deep Mining

There are two powerful drills that can be built and placed on Deep Mining Ore deposits, which are found throughout the Icarus landscape, as well as in some medium and large caves. These drills are expensive to craft, but will slowly mine a large amount of ore — if supplied with the Biofuel or Electricity they require to operate.

• The Biofuel Deep-Mining Drill runs on Biofuel.
• The Electric Deep-Mining Drill requires 2000 electricity to operate

The mining speed varies depending on both the type of drill and the type of ore. The Electric version mines 25% faster than the Biofuel drill. The Biofuel drill mines Sulfur and Copper at a rate of 1 ore per minute, and Gold at a rate of 0.75 ore per minute.

To use a deep-mining drill, simply place it onto a deep ore deposit (it should snap into place) and then supply it with the requisite power source.

Deep-Mining Node Identification

How to Carry More Metal

If you’re finding yourself making too many trips back and forth from your base to the cave, you can bring your furnace to the cave! Ingots weigh significantly less than ore, and the weight of the furnace is worth the difference in weight between smelted and unsmelted ore.

The Gatherer’s Backpack grants you -45% Carry Weight of Ores, which makes it much easier to move ore around — while smelting the ore still ultimately makes it lighter, the backpack can help in many situations.

Clay, Scoria, and Obsidian (Prometheus)

Clay, Scoria, and Obsidian nodes are unique to the Prometheus map and do not appear like the other metal and mineral ore nodes. They look like a small boulder of the material fell from the sky and struck and embedded itself in the ground. The type of material is indicated by color: Clay is red, Scoria is reddish-brown, and Obsidian is a glossy black.

These nodes must be mined with a Sledgehammer instead of a Pickaxe. After several hits, a piece of the rock will break off and must be picked up. Unfortunately, if the piece falls to far below the surrounding rock it will become inaccessible, so pick up each piece as soon as it breaks off.

Super-cooled Ice Mining (Prometheus)

[Note: This section is under construction]

The New Frontiers DLC expansion brings a new alloy–Cold Steel–to ICARUS crafting. Smelting Cold Steel requires steel and super-cooled ice, and super-cooled ice requires an Ice Borer to extract.

Ores (Olympus, Styx)

Ores (Prometheus)