Mining.

  • Please make sure you are posting in the correct place. Server ads go here and modpack bugs go here
  • The FTB Forum is now read-only, and is here as an archive. To participate in our community discussions, please join our Discord! https://ftb.team/discord

Regus

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
28
0
0
This thread is just me wondering what is the most efficient method of mining?

Thanks :)


Regus
 

DrKnoz

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
35
0
0
A quarry placed over ocean/water.

Automatically deals with any lava, doesnt leave huge holes in the middle of the world, doesn't leave big pits with haphazardly placed water that can cause epic lag when the one or two blocks feeding the entire thing are removed.

Just build frames over the water so you cna walk and place markers.
That is the most power*time efficient.

Most power efficient got to be a turtle or some other special method like frames

Most time efficient are MFR Mining Lasers and rotarycraft boring machines. They basically work for ever in one spot but require tons of power.
 

Ieldra

Popular Member
Apr 25, 2014
1,810
733
129
The most efficient mining machine in terms of power and the ratio of useful vs useless blocks is Mekanism's digital miner. It is relatively slow, however, and it needs occasional relocation. The fastest way to mine is RotaryCraft's boring machine, which requires a little more power - and a lot more if you want it to be really fast - but it can be enchanted for Silk Touch and Efficiency without requiring additional power. The combination of RotaryCraft's boring machine and RotaryCraft's extractor will result in - arguably - the fastest way to acquire and process resources in the world of modded Minecraft. That requires a lot of power - but nothing on the level of MFR's laser drill - and a fairly involved technological setup. Progressing up the tech tree in RotaryCraft is more difficult than in most other mods, though less so than in GregTech.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Type1Ninja

jordsta95

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
5,056
-4
1
Ore there are orechids, from botania, which will spawn your ores. And then you can use any method of mining to mine them.
@goreae had a great way of doing this, using mana bursts going through the mana lens which mines. But you could twin it with something like the digital miner, which would mine the ores and not the stone.
 

Bibble

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
1,089
0
0
Efficiency is fluid, depending on your needs.

As far as initial setup cost goes, mining by hand is the most efficient. (turtles arguably in there, too). Turtles come into play if you want to include your time into the equation. Ender Quarries save you from those nasty world holes. Digital miners save you from having all that junk floating in your system. And all of these are redundant if your pack doesn't include that mod.

There's the secondary filter of knowledge/time. If you're going to have to learn to set up a frame quarry, or an Arcane bore, then that's got to be factored in aswell.
 

jordsta95

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
5,056
-4
1
Efficiency is fluid, depending on your needs.

As far as initial setup cost goes, mining by hand is the most efficient. (turtles arguably in there, too). Turtles come into play if you want to include your time into the equation. Ender Quarries save you from those nasty world holes. Digital miners save you from having all that junk floating in your system. And all of these are redundant if your pack doesn't include that mod.

There's the secondary filter of knowledge/time. If you're going to have to learn to set up a frame quarry, or an Arcane bore, then that's got to be factored in aswell.
Agreed, apart from the last bit. If it is something you haven't used before, and is complex, then yes you have to factor in the 5-10 minutes to learn how to use it (unless it is something like RoC's mining machine, which may take some added tinkering/time) but once it is set up, it's not going to take time to set up at all really... well, nothing drastically different to any other method.

But I forgot about turtles. If you have ComputerCraft in the pack, they are probably the cheapest, easiest, and most OP way to get mining. You need 3 diamonds, some stone, some glass, and some redstone (IIRC) very cheap... Then you just plonk the lil guy down next to a chest and tell it to excavate(<number>) and you have a quarry, for a lot cheaper cost than something like a buildcraft quarry
 

lenscas

Over-Achiever
Jul 31, 2013
2,015
1,801
248
The total cost for a turtle is
1 glass plane
1 redstone
7 stone
7 iron
1 chest
then you just equip it with a diamond pickax and you are good to go. I always use tunnel and walk together with the turtle and mine the ores it misses. This way I can more easily search for the ores I need and only those, until I have enough for a better way to get ores.
 

Bibble

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
1,089
0
0
Agreed, apart from the last bit. If it is something you haven't used before, and is complex, then yes you have to factor in the 5-10 minutes to learn how to use it (unless it is something like RoC's mining machine, which may take some added tinkering/time) but once it is set up, it's not going to take time to set up at all really... well, nothing drastically different to any other method.
I did say that it was for when you have to learn about things. If you know what you're doing, then that's fine, but if you've got to learn the principles of a mod or two first, then that's going to take more time and effort. There are additional bits for things like Thaumcraft, where you have to do a certain amount of work before you are able to set something up.

It's a capital cost, so once it's done it's done, but it still needs to be considered (and can be mitigated by the other advantages of doing that work).
 

Baron_Falcon

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
433
3
0
The total cost for a turtle is
1 glass plane
1 redstone
7 stone
7 iron
1 chest
then you just equip it with a diamond pickax and you are good to go. I always use tunnel and walk together with the turtle and mine the ores it misses. This way I can more easily search for the ores I need and only those, until I have enough for a better way to get ores.


You know, I haven't used turtles in a long time, perhaps I have been overlooking their early game advantage. I usually go for a hammer then a BC quarry. I can see using a turtle to tunnel in one place while I'm mining in another with the hammer. Digging with a turtle is too frustrating for me with all the stoppages and resetting.
 

GamerwithnoGame

Over-Achiever
Jan 29, 2015
2,808
1,507
224
This discussion comes around every so often, and the end result usually can be summarised as "It depends on what you want from it" i.e. power efficiency, time, resource cost, and so on - and of course what mods you have! Which is why I take issue with ANYONE saying someone else is 'wrong' (looking at you here @lenscas :p).

I personally love a nice fast hammer, but maybe that's just me!
 

lenscas

Over-Achiever
Jul 31, 2013
2,015
1,801
248
This discussion comes around every so often, and the end result usually can be summarised as "It depends on what you want from it" i.e. power efficiency, time, resource cost, and so on - and of course what mods you have! Which is why I take issue with ANYONE saying someone else is 'wrong' (looking at you here @lenscas :p).

I personally love a nice fast hammer, but maybe that's just me!
what? when did I say that mine is the "right" way? as I am pretty sure it is not, except when you hate tico like me and even then their might be better options.
 

Jakeb

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
309
0
0
Ender quarry upgraded with Speed 3 and Silk Touch is faster than anything else I know, but given I haven't tried the Rotarycraft bore yet. I had one on my current server setup but there was no way my processing could handle that influx of resources without expanding it considerably, so I shut it off and eventually switched to MFR mining lasers, which I think are the best late-game solutions under certain circumstances.
 

Baron_Falcon

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
433
3
0
Ender quarry upgraded with Speed 3 and Silk Touch is faster than anything else I know, but given I haven't tried the Rotarycraft bore yet. I had one on my current server setup but there was no way my processing could handle that influx of resources without expanding it considerably, so I shut it off and eventually switched to MFR mining lasers, which I think are the best late-game solutions under certain circumstances.

Yep, pretty much the same here. Once you get there, upgraded ender quarries mining out an area as big as you care to travel to set the markers is a guaranteed no maintenance over abundance of pretty much everything. I've yet to figure out what to use the millions of ingots for anyway other than a reason to make more storage cells :D (whatever happened to that extracells mod anyway?). It gets really silly when you have millions, and you're still trying to eke out that 3rd or 4th bonus ingot :/. Lasers seem slow till you realize its only mining ores. When you have 4 of them going it gets ludicrous. I usually get bored and just start over at that point :D.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SolManX

KingTriaxx

Forum Addict
Jul 27, 2013
4,266
1,333
184
Michigan
I have a tendency to make one huge quarry, then use a hammer to punch holes in the walls. It's a lot easier to find the ores that way. Plus I don't miss things.
 

Zelfana

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
813
0
1
SS rank Terra Shatterer is baller for manual mining. Even S rank is great already. If you have Efficiency V on it and enough haste from other gear you can instamine stone and blast through the world. Ring of the Mantle OR Traveller's Gloves with 500 redstone, one of these is enough. Ring of Far Reach and Ring of Magnetization is my choice of rings so I'm using the gloves for haste.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Psychicash