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 or the Fabricator 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.
• It’s possible to see some of the nodes exclusive to the caves outside of them, in close proximity to the entrance.

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.

Ores

Ore Type	Location	Min. Required Pickaxe	Min. Required Furnace to Process	Yield
Stone	Forest, Arctic, Desert	Stone Pickaxe	–	–
Oxite	Forest, Arctic, Desert	Stone Pickaxe	–	–
Silica	Forest, Arctic, Desert	Stone Pickaxe	–	–
Sulfur	Forest, Arctic, Desert	Stone Pickaxe	–	–
Coal	Forest, Arctic, Desert, Caves	Stone Pickaxe	–	n/a (used as fuel or in Steel Blooms)
Copper	Caves	Stone Pickaxe	Stone Furnace	2 Ore — 1 Ingot
Gold	Caves	Stone Pickaxe	Concrete Furnace	2 Ore — 1 Ingot
Iron	Caves	Stone Pickaxe	Stone Furnace	2 Ore — 1 Ingot
Platinum	Caves	Steel Pickaxe	Concrete Furnace	5 Ore — 1 Ingot
Aluminium	Caves	Steel Pickaxe	Concrete Furnace	1 Ore — 1 Ingot
Titanium	Caves	Steel Pickaxe	Concrete Furnace	5 Ore — 1 Ingot