Mining Guide

Mining is one way you will gather materials used to craft and build in Landmark.

The information on this page changed rapidly and may be out of date. The feature or features may still be in beta and more changes can be expected. A "Beta" section may exist to clarify any expected changes or differences. This template was updated on June 7th, 2016.

Please update information on this page if you see it is outdated or comment at the end of the page to alert editors.
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Beta and Mining

This page was last updated on Feb. 1st, 2015.

The game is currently in closed beta and as such, we have and will see changes with game updates.

The Dec 17, 2014 game update has radically changed mining how mined materials are used. If you are a new or returning player, refer to the Dec. 17 Official Update Notes until changes can be made to the wikia.

Some examples of the changes include but are NOT limited to:

Most ore and minerals are no longer on the surface of islands as they have moved (even) further into caves with greater complexity and depth.
The number of ore and mineral types that player need to mine was reduced and replaced with a system of crafting those eliminated with identical materials that have new names. The new crafted materials that replaced prior ore and minerals are known as Composite Materials.
"Crafting 2.0" - was implemented and the first iteration of salvaging was added.

In addition to the new composite materials described above, most crafting and building recipes (may) take new materials from the salvaging system, killing monsters (added on 12/17), and mining ancient earth.

All pre-update Picks will still work on the renamed ore and minerals, but they are due to change soon, so look for additional game updates on the forums after New Years 2014.

The best way to keep track of any upcoming changes is to check Blueprint created by developer Dave "Smokejumper" Georgeson. While it does not list all incoming changes between phases of beta and launch, it does provide a timeline of changes that can be projected.

Beta Bugs

A recurring bug has plagued ore and minerals since the introduction of caves. Regular "server bounces" (small, weekly restarts of the servers) have been used to offset the problem until it's fixed.

Equipping and Un-Equipping Tools

A hotbar with harvesting tools. L to R: a pick, an axe, a sickle, a lightstone, a rockgrinder, the ore prospector, and ground sounder.

Gathering Tools must be equipped. Press i to open your inventory and drag them to a hotbar. Once they are in the hotbar, you can L click to activate them and start mining. Press Esc to deactivate the tool.

Location, Location

In order to mine successfully, you need to know where to go and where you can and can't mine.

Move away from the spire to mine. You can't mine right next to the spire and a system message will tell you when you are able to do so. Likewise, you can not harvest on your claim or anyone else's. The target circle for your tool will turn red if you are within a claim.
The world is made up of Servers and Islands. Due to major changes on Dec. 17, 2014, see the spire page for info. You travel by going back to a Spire (always in the center of a map), by crafting Portal Shard for instant travel back to a spire or to claims owned by you. You can also use the Gallery to travel using a portal shard, though you can only visit claims you do not own via the Gallery.
Rather than using the describing tools or the areas we go to by levels, Landmark uses the term tier. In short, it describes something akin to a range of levels. You can use a tool of any tier at any time - even the top tier tool as soon as you log in if you are handed one. For more info read about Tiers.
Caves play a large role in mining. The Dec. 17th changes noted above apply to caves as well. (See the caves page for more info)

Essential Mining Gear

Having the right gear makes mining easy. A pick is the single thing you need, but due to the way ore and minerals are found in the world, the following gear will make your life as a miner much easier.

Grappling Hook - It will help you get up and over mountains quickly, but it's essential for mining in caves. Some deposits are in the walls and ceilings of caves and require grappling. Grappling is necessary in most caves, so make one before you jump in a cave drop-off. If you find yourself in a cave without a grappling hook though, press ESC and use Evac to return to the surface.
Ore Prospector - This is used to help you find large deposits of ore, but it is also useful for finding pocket caves very deep below the surface of the world.
Ground Sounder - This functions just like the Ore Prospector, but it is used to find mineral deposits.
Cave Sounder - When this tool is used, it reveals all nearby cave tunnels and any pocket caves.
Pulverizer - this allows you to quickly and easily drill your way through the walls of caves to get to pocket caves. It can also be used to remove any dirt or stone around ore and mineral deposits, making it easy to mine as much of the resource as possible.
Lightstone or Bottled Moonlight - These will light you way inside caves. You can make lightstones at any time, but bottled moonlight requires plants harvested inside of specific caves.

Know your Pick

The Tier of your pick and its stats are how you can tell what you can mine and how effectively you will mine. The key goal for tools is to progressively make tools of/for higher tiers and aim for the best possible stats.

Tiers are how you can tell which tool can harvest which ore and minerals you want to gather. Your pick must have a minimum tier rating for each tier of ore and minerals. For example, the Adventurer's Pick that can harvest Copper Ore can not be used to mine Alabaster, because that pick's rating is for tier 1 materials and Alabaster is a tier 5 resource.
A pick that is made with materials of a higher tier can be always be used to mine materials of a lower level. For example, the Overseer's Pick is a tier 5 pick, so it can be used to mine tier 5 material and all tiers below (T4, T3, T3, T1).

Tiers are displayed when you mouse over a tool in your bag; a "tool tip" window will appear with this information.

See the beta section and update notes link. Upgrades are currently on-hold in-game. Every gathering tool has stats (statistics) like those you might expect to see on armor in many other games; these stats greatly influence how you mine in the long run. Each time a tool is crafted the stats on it are randomized, so make more than one tool when you want to mine faster, gathering more per strike, and cover a larger area with the pick. In addition to the base stats, you can customize stats further.

See the Gathering Tools page for details on how this works.

Common Resources

All of these common materials can be mined with the Adventurer's Pick (the "starter" pick).

The first three materials here are extremely common because you will gather them anytime you mine. Even so, they are very useful for building on a claim. Coal is (currently) used for crafting.

Dirt: the most common resource, you will get dirt any time you mine in areas that look grassy (including the desert.
Stone: found on the surface of many mountains, but in great quantities when you mine in caves.
Sand: found on all beaches near the sea and on the top layer of deserts.
Coal: found in all locations within other things you will mine, though you can also craft it if you run low.
Essence of Earth: this resource was made obsolete by the Dec. 17, 2014 game update. If you have it in your overflow Inventory, delete it as it no longer has a use. A bug put it in overflow.

Ancient Earth and Ether Shards

One of the most useful, but common resources you will find while mining is Ancient Earth. Each time you see deposits of ancient earth, stop and mine them, because they are an easy and fast way to gather plenty of Ether Shards. Ether shards are a very common resource in most recipes. Building a Ground Sounder and going to a desert biome makes finding these deposits even easier.

You can also see more tips for finding and mining Ancient Earth.

Types of Ore

Ore is anything you mine that mimics the look of metal in the real world. There are two types of ore.

(Regular) Ore: this type is used both in Building and Crafting. For example, Iron Ore can be used to build a floor on claim or made into Smelted Iron and used in crafting recipes. How easy or how difficult it is to find depends on whether it is on the surface on the land or inside caves.
Note: it is unclear if Elemental Ore will remain in-game and useful. Though existing elementals have not been removed from Inventory as of Jan. 2105, it is not listed with any recipe. Elemental Ore: is only found while mining regular ore of the same common type. The tool tip window that appears when you mouse over elemental ore will describe it as "the purest form of (ore name)". It is used as a component in crafting.

Types of Minerals

The word mineral is a general way to describe any non-ore material, mined in veins and precious stone. These can be thought of as two types, based on how easy or how difficult they may be to find and how desirable they are to players.

Common minerals, like Amaranthine, are typically easy to find and though the color is attractive, it is not as widely used in large quantities for building as some minerals. In contrast, moonstone is very difficult to find, but often highly desirable as a material for building; as such, it is like gemstones in the real world. Like the real world, how precious a mineral is to the population determines if it is a gemstone, so what will and won't be valuable in the player economy will fluctuate.

Ore and Mineral Tables

In Dec. 2104, the number of materials players need to mine was (approximately) halved. This change was intended to save players time; rather than scouring the caves for multiple veins to mine, players have fewer to look for and the rest are now composite materials. At the same time, many materials were renamed, but they still look the same when used for building. The first table lists all mined materials. The second is a table of composite materials.

Mined Materials

One of two detection tools can be used to find materials you mine: Ore Prospector (ore) and Ground Sounder (minerals)
Mining tips: if an ore or mineral is pale in color, go to a biome with darker grasses (eg. silver ore in an Old Forest biome). In the opposite situation, the same approach works (eg. cobalt ore in a Tundra biome). In general, deserts are good for seeing most ore and minerals on the surface.
Players no longer travel to different islands to mine different tiers of materials. As of Dec. 17, 2014 the tier of the ore or mineral will correspond to caves as you go deeper in the world. See the Beta section above for a link to the update notes.

Mined Materials


Material Name	Resource Tier	Minimum Pick	Mining Locations	Material Type	Detection Tool
T1	Copper Ore	Adventurer's Pick	All islands surface, T1-T2 Caves	Ore (Metal)	Ore Prospector
T1	Agate	Adventurer's Pick	All islands surface, T1-T2 Caves	Gemstone	Ground Sounder
T2	Tin Ore	Hewer's Pick	T1-T2 caves	Ore (Metal)	Ore Prospector
T2	Sapphire	Hewer's Pick	T-1-T3 caves	Gemstone	Ground Sounder
T2	Marble	Hewer's Pick	T1-T3 caves	Superior Stone	Ground Sounder
T3	Iron Ore	Miner's Pick	T2-T4 caves	Ore (Metal)	Ore Prospector
T3	Ruby	Miner's Pick	T2-T4 caves	Gemstone	Ground Sounder
T3	Amaranthine	Miner's Pick	T2-T4 caves	Superior Stone	Ground Sounder
T4	Silver Ore	Foreman's Pick	T3-T5 Caves	Ore (Metal)	Ore Prospector
T4	Emerald	Foreman's Pick	T3-T5 caves	Gemstone	Ground Sounder
T4	Obsidian	Foreman's Pick	T3-T5 caves	Superior Stone	Ground Sounder
T5	Gold Ore	Overseer's Pick	T4-T5	Ore (Metal)	Ore Prospector
T5	Diamond	Overseer's Pick	T-4-T5 caves	Gemstone	Ground Sounder
T5	Alabaster	Overseer's Pick	T4-T5 caves	Superior Stone	Ground Sounder

Composite Materials

Composite Materials are crafted before they can be used for building or made into a crafting component. To use them as building materials they must be made into Blocks. To use them as a crafting component gemstones must be made into Cut materials and ore must be made into Smelted metal.

Click on the name of the composite material in the table below to go to the page with its recipe.

Composite Ore and Gemstones


Building Material Example	Tier	As a Building Material	As a Crafting Component	Crafting Station	Refining Station	Material Type	Old Name
N/A as of 1/2015	T2	N/A as of 1/2015	Smelted Solucite	Stone Forge	Smelter	Ore (Metal)	new on 12/17/14
	T2	Skystone Block	Cut Skystone	Tinkerer's Workshop	Saw Table	Gemstone	Aquamarine
	T3	Amethyn Block	Cut Amethyn	Tinkerer's Workshop	Saw Table	Gemstone	Amethyst
	T4	Indicite Block	Smelted Indicite	Stone Forge	Smelter	Ore (Metal)	Cobalt Ore
	T4	Tormeral Block	Cut Tormeral	Tinkerer's Workshop	Saw Table	Gemstone	Tourmaline
	T5	Sunstone Block	Cut Sunstone	Tinkerer's Workshop	Saw Table	Gemstone	Topaz
N/A as of 1/2015	T5	N/A as of 1/2105	Cut Omenstone	Tinkerer's Workshop	Saw Table	Gemstone	New 12/17/2014
	T5	Moonstone Block	Cut Moonstone	Tinkerer's Workshop	Saw Table	Gemstone	No name change
	T3	Druidium Block	Smelted Druidium	Stone Forge	Smelter	Ore (Metal)	Tungsten Ore
	T5	Mithril Block	Smelted Mithril	Stone Forge	Smelter	Ore (Metal)	No name change
	T5	Rubicite Block	Smelted Rubicite	Stone Forge	Smelter	Ore (Metal)	No name change
	T5	Etherium Block	Smelted Etherium	Stone Forge	Smelter	Ore (Metal)	No name change

Where's the Copper?

As of Dec 15th, 2014, copper should be on the surface of islands. Bugs are still being addressed though so if you can't find copper, you may need to return to a tier 1 island using the Spire.

Sifting for Ore and Minerals

You will still need to use your pick to mine, but dirt, sand, and stone can be taken to a Refining Station, known as a Sifter. The sifter can exchange large quantities of dirt, sand, or stone for smaller quantities of ore and minerals. This is not an ideal way to get supplies for building or crafting, but is useful if your supplies or ore and minerals run low or you have a surplus of dirt (etc).