A Guide to the Iron Mine by Niveus

The Iron Mine



Please note that the numbers for gaining iron ore, finding money & coal, and losing health point might change at any given time. We try our best to update to the latest information.

Preparations

• You must have a pickaxe to be able to mine iron ore. The quality doesn't matter - the gain is the same except better pickaxes have more durability. You can either make a pickaxe yourself in the blacksmith or buy it from the town's Item market -> tools.
  
• A lot of bread is essential. In the wild you can't eat meals, only bread. You can also drink milk but that will not feed you. To figure out how much bread you need to take with you, you must be aware of that each 100 stamina used results in 50 damage on your pickaxe. Or 0.5 damage per 1 stamina. If you use 10 stamina, the damage will be 5. Of course you could mine some ore and then head back to town but if you've hired Bob the Miner, you may want to get as much out of him as possible meaning mining until your pickaxe breaks. A cheap pickaxe has 1000 durability, it will therefore take 10 days before it breaks if you use 100 stamina every day. That would mean at least 10 loaves of bread.
  
• If you want to maximize your gain, hire Bob the Miner. He can be found at the other followers at the Town Gate. If you want to head out one day and he isn't among the followers its worth to do something else that day and wait until he shows up. He costs 15 Bronze / day to hire and will add 20% on your mining skill (the mining skill is the same for both the iron mine and the coal mine).
  
• On your way to the mine you may encounter different hostile creatures. Some go down after a swing others will bring you down. Its a good idea to keep a couple of health potions on you, especially as you might lose health in the mine from accidents.
  

To summarize, you need:
- A pickaxe
- Minimum 10 bread
- Bob the Miner (optional)(recommended)
- Health potions (optional)

Heading out to the mine
After you've got all you need, its time to head out. The iron mine lies directly north of Camaar so its very hard to miss. Unless you've got a horse, it cost 2 stamina to walk on the road and 3 stamina on the terrain. It will take a total of 20 stamina to walk to the mine. It can easily be done in a day and you'd still have leftover stamina to be able to mine. Or if you'd like: 20 stamina to get there, 60 stamina to mine and 20 stamina to get back...




At the mine
Clicking on the mine image will get you to the mine. Before you enter, you can also see who else is there mining. Today it seems I have to keep a lookout for Axel and Heir. Its too easy to cover up a murder and blame the falling rocks.

Inside the mine you can see your mining skill, endurance skill, amount of iron ore and coal as well as the durability of the pickaxe you have equipped.

Iron ore Gains :

Lord_Aro wrote:You receive 0.7 Iron ore for each stamina spent, rounded down (So 1 stamina gives 0 ore basic).

On top of that basic gaining you also have a chance to gain +1 Ore with each stamina spent. The chance increases based on your mining skill.

And on top of that (basic + Mining chance) you have a chance to get +1 ore with each stamina spent based on your Endurance Skill.

So if you spend 1 stamina you can have between 0 and 3 ore.
If you spend 100 stamina you can have between 70 & 270 ore.

There are also chances to find other things in the Iron mines.

Clicking on Mine for Iron Ore leads to a box where you can insert how many stamina you want to use for mining. There is always a certain chance that you get injured by some falling rocks, which is why health potions are good to have. From my own experience, the coal mine has sharper rocks.
Remember - if you're melting iron ores, you need 80 iron ore and 3 coal per iron bar.



OTHER NOTES:

• Takes approximately 100 stamina to get to the iron mine from Spero.
  
• If you die while mining, you do not get the coal or iron you mined at your death, it is better, especially in the coal mine to mine 10 stamina at a time. You still keep coal that was in your inventory from when you previously mined.
  
• If you die in any situation, you also lose 1% of the money that you had at the time of your death.
  

Edited by Airy - 11/10/2011 (Added Other Notes Section).
Edited by JpRagavan - Added Info on Iron ore gains and corrected minor mistakes |08-Feb-2013|
Edited by Airy - removed missing images 7 march, 2014

Im not sure why I never saw this before :/ but this is awesome, plus it takes around 100 stamina to get to the mine from Spero.

Also coal mining: Axel said: You lose the gainings that you had gotten with the same stamina that you died with. You still keep coal that was in your inventory from when you previously mined. So, I recommend when mining for coal to use 10 stamina or so at a time.If you die, you dont get the coal that you mined from that time.

Aro said: You also lose 1% of the money that you had on you at the time of death.

Losing the gainings from stamina that you used when you died applies to iron mining as well as stone mining.

The 1% loss of money is from dying in general, nothing to do with mining.

Updated first post, with information provided to this point.

Thank you Milord *Curtsies prettily* and Welcome back

Is there any chance we might get some information on the, well, probabilities of receiving damage, and what amount of damage we might get from these activities

In addition, is the information that "mining 10 stam at a time is better"... Do you miners find that is true by your experience?

Underground level  well, I'm learning new stuff lol I suppose I will find out as soon as I get there

A few details to add to the guide:


* With mining skills around 50-55 (BOB included, so 30-35+20), expect to gain 1 iron ore per stamina, on average.
* With 1 endurance skill, expect 10 damage per 100 stamina used.
* Slaughter animals before you go mining if they would exceed their expected life span during the time you are out mining
* Hire the animal feeding dude to watch over your animals (if any) when you go mining.
* A blanket is very helpful to regain health points. Order from a tailor.
* A sleeping bag gives you more stamina when out of town. Order from a tailor.


Edited 9th of May 2017:

* Damage is now higher. Expect up to 20 damage per 100 stamina used, to be on the safe side. https://thegraillords.forumotion.net/t1209-coal-and-iron-mine-update
* Useful skills: Regeneration (every 4th skill point gives you +1 life per day), Constitution (1 skill point = +1 maximum life)
* Secondary skills: Luck, for finding gems (extremely rare) and healing potions, and Endurance for less damage.
* If you have only 2 units left on your pickaxe, use as much stamina as possible in one go. You will have the benefit of only 2 unit loss, but up to 999 stamina used on mining (that's the ceiling/cap).

All very good tips, thank you for posting them Axinee.

Only this one:
* Remember to unequip your bed (if you have any), so it does not deteriorate when you are out mining.

is not needed, your bed only loses durability if you actually get a bonus from it (spending the reset inside town). As far as I know you can safely keep both a sleeping bag and bed equipped at all times. (maybe someone can confirm?)

framer wrote:All very good tips, thank you for posting them Axinee.

Only this one:
* Remember to unequip your bed (if you have any), so it does not deteriorate when you are out mining.

is not needed, your bed only loses durability if you actually get a bonus from it (spending the reset inside town). As far as I know you can safely keep both a sleeping bag and bed equipped at all times. (maybe someone can confirm?)

Thank you for that clarification!  It makes my Grail life a bit easier  Also, I found out you can go to the pub and drink beer while in the mines, so no need to bring beer!

confirmed- durability on sleeping bag is only used while outside and bed is only used inside.