Your favorite way of mining manually

[RealSketch]

I don't have a favourite, mining manually is like milking a cow manually, boring and pointless.
This is not vanilla, it's FTB!
Let the machines do the work and you just grab the fuel!

 

[KirinDave]

I don't have a favourite, mining manually is like milking a cow manually, boring and pointless.
This is not vanilla, it's FTB!
Let the machines do the work and you just grab the fuel!

You can game manual mining like any other task in modded minecraft. It's actually one of the hardest tasks to improve upon!

 

[RealSketch]

You can game manual mining like any other task in modded minecraft. It's actually one of the hardest tasks to improve upon!

ikr

 

[Bgraywolf]

With the latest mod packs, My brother and I have gotten quite used to using Ars Magica 2's Dig spell. Just a simple Projectile dig for me but my brother has this monstrous Beam, AOE, Dig spell he likes to use to strip mine whole areas. I keep a TiC Mossy, Fortune enchanted pick just incase I find some diamond.

As for methodology, Branch mining or cave spelunking ftw.

 

[tedyhere]

Armodrine Hammer with Obsidian plates, full luck and redstone. Sigil of the Fast Miner, Sigil of Magnetism. Armodrine pick with obsidian binding and Armodrine rod, full luck. These tools when paired with sigil of the fast miner are stupid fast.

 

[Democretes]

Destruction Catalyst and a Void Ring inside an Alchemical Bag.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Destruction Catalyst and a Void Ring inside an Alchemical Bag.

If you don't mind being stuck in 1.2.x

KirinDave's "Boom goes the dynamite" method is certainly... effective. I like doing branch mining with a steel hammer (using Mekanism for the steel) with maybe a thaumium plate on one side, a paper plate on the other side, and an Ardite handle. Yea, a cobalt head would go faster, but considering that the tool is Silk/Flux and everything else is Redstone... I'm not really having much of a problem with that.

And yes, my main manual mining tool is silk touch, not fortune. Mostly for the Redstone. Those who play with Thermal Expansion 3 will understand this.

 

[Odovbold]

If you don't mind being stuck in 1.2.x

KirinDave's "Boom goes the dynamite" method is certainly... effective. I like doing branch mining with a steel hammer (using Mekanism for the steel) with maybe a thaumium plate on one side, a paper plate on the other side, and an Ardite handle. Yea, a cobalt head would go faster, but considering that the tool is Silk/Flux and everything else is Redstone... I'm not really having much of a problem with that.

And yes, my main manual mining tool is silk touch, not fortune. Mostly for the Redstone. Those who play with Thermal Expansion 3 will understand this.

Similar to yours but I'm using a stone head hammer with lots of redstone and moss, so it will leave all ores harder than iron for me to choose using my fortune or silk touch pickaxe.

 

[Esheon]

Well, if I'm going for everything, I use a normal pick to dig 4 blocks down, make a 5x5 room 3 high, repeat until I hit bedrock (laying ladders as I go). I widen the bottom room to 5x5, slap down a workbench (or tool station) & some chests.

Assuming TiC is installed, I break out the hammer and dig out a 55x55 square. I use a pick to get the extra ores out of the floor/walls/ceiling. I go up to the next room and do it again... I hate leaving ores behind. For starters, I just use an iron hammer with max haste, mainly because it's easy and cheap to repair. Eventually I upgrade to something better.

If I don't have TiC, I instead do a branch-style mine based off the same 5x5x3 rooms... I extend the bottom room north/south by 25 blocks (making it a 5-wide 55-long hallway), then dig a series of single-wide tunnels (3 high, I hate being cramped) for 25 blocks east and west of the main hallway, putting a new tunnel every third block. On the next level up, I rotate the pattern 90 degrees (extending the original room east/west, with the side tunnels going north/south). I just keep flipping the pattern back and forth all the way up.

Like Shneekey, I prefer to mine with Silk Touch & process the ores later. Even if I don't have TE installed, they stack easier and I can just use a fortune pick on them once I get back to the surface.

I prefer to let a quarry or turtle do that for me while I go explore mineshafts & ravines. Magic World 2 is killing me with no automated miners. I guess I need to look into Blood Magic for that.

 

[Exadi]

Is dartcraft in FTB Monster? If so, this technique could work there. If not... um... get creative.

No, it's not, but the Player Interface block from RandomThings has potential. It shares inventory with the player so you can have cobble, ores, etc pulled out automatically with no need to manually put it in an ender pouch or something. It is expensive though and will need to be chunkloaded unless you can telepose/rebuild your processing system where you're going to mine.

 

[KirinDave]

No, it's not, but the Player Interface block from RandomThings has potential. It shares inventory with the player so you can have cobble, ores, etc pulled out automatically with no need to manually put it in an ender pouch or something. It is expensive though and will need to be chunkloaded unless you can telepose/rebuild your processing system where you're going to mine.

RemoteIO is my new jam here. I can basically seal an EnderIO conduit to my but.[DOUBLEPOST=1388856927][/DOUBLEPOST]

And yes, my main manual mining tool is silk touch, not fortune. Mostly for the Redstone. Those who play with Thermal Expansion 3 will understand this.

This cannot be understated, actually. Once you understand the relationship between redstone and TE3 and its ore processing and power generation, suddenly the mod seems... well it seems quite intense.

I really wish there was some way to find out if energy cells were full or not. It's quite frustrating to have all this potential for sophisticated fuel consumption and not even be able to use a comparator to figure out what's up.

 

[Exadi]

RemoteIO is my new jam here. I can basically seal an EnderIO conduit to my but.

Cool. I didn't look at that mod when I was going through the list because there weren't any wiki links or anything in the forum post, and I usually don't watch videos unless something else gets me interested in the mod, but this looks a lot cheaper than what I suggested.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

This cannot be understated, actually. Once you understand the relationship between redstone and TE3 and its ore processing and power generation, suddenly the mod seems... well it seems quite intense.

Indeed. I refuse to smelt any of my Ferrous Ore without Cinnabar. Shiny Ingots are just too valuable in making Endurium.

I really wish there was some way to find out if energy cells were full or not. It's quite frustrating to have all this potential for sophisticated fuel consumption and not even be able to use a comparator to figure out what's up.

There's a level indicator on the front face of an Energy Cell that will tell you how full it is without needing to whack anything.