⛏️ Mining
There are two different mining systems in the city, and they work nothing alike.
| Quarry and foundry | Mineshaft contract | |
|---|---|---|
| Pace | Yours. Do as much or as little as you want | A job you start and finish |
| Crew | Alone | Solo or a party |
| Pay | Whatever you make selling what you produce | Paid per contract |
| Depth | Mine, wash, crack, smelt, cut, craft | Dig the tunnel out |
Quarry and foundry
The long game. You dig raw stone, process it into ores and gems, and turn those into jewellery worth far more than the stone was. Nothing is timed and nothing is assigned; your profit is whatever you sell at the end.
Where to go
| Place | What is there |
|---|---|
| Mine, Great Chaparral | Shop and mining |
| Mine, the eastern quarry | Shop and mining |
| Foundry Shop, Cypress Flats | Shop, smelter, cracking bench, jewel cutting bench, ore buyer |
| Stone Washing | Mountains, the stream, Mount Gordo, Alamo Sea |
| Gold Panning | Vineyard, Tongva, the wilderness |
| Jewel Buyer | Vangelico, in the city |
The chain
- Mine stone. The mine shop sells the tools. A pickaxe is cheap and slow, and it is all you need to start. A mining drill is faster but eats drill bits as you work, so it costs you every swing. A mining laser is the expensive one, and it is faster still and burns nothing — it pays for itself if you mine seriously, and is a waste if you don't.
- Process the stone, and which one you pick decides what you get:
- Washing at a river or lake gives ores and uncut gems.
- Cracking at the bench gives a different mix of ores.
- Gold panning at a river skips the stone entirely and gives gold or silver ore directly. It is slow, and it needs nothing but a pan, so it is the way in if you are broke.
- Smelt ores at the foundry to turn them into gold and silver ingots.
- Cut gems at the jewel cutting bench. Cutting burns through drill bits, so buy them in bulk.
- Craft jewellery at the bench: rings, necklaces and earrings, gold or silver, set with the gems you cut.
- Sell ore to the ore buyer at the foundry, or jewellery to the buyer at Vangelico.
What it is worth
Raw ore is pocket money. Every step you put it through multiplies it:
| What you sell | Roughly |
|---|---|
| Raw ore | $10 to $50 a piece |
| Smelted gold and silver ingots | up to $100 |
| Cut gems | up to $100 |
| Plain gold or silver jewellery | $300 to $400 |
| Jewellery set with a cut gem | $450 to $750 |
That last row is the whole point. The same gold and the same diamond are worth several times more once you have smelted, cut and set them, so the money is in finishing what you dig up rather than selling it raw.
Mineshaft contract
Different job, different place. You clock on at the Miner Job site in Grand Senora, take a contract, and dig a tunnel underground with a crew. It pays when the work is done rather than when you sell anything.
How it runs
- Go to the mineshaft site and interact to start work. There is a changing room for work clothes and a point to grab your gear.
- Work solo or invite people into a party. The host takes the contract, and everyone works the same tunnel.
- Dig the tunnel out. You are paid for how much of it you finish, so an abandoned contract still pays something and a finished one pays properly.
Htoggles the light on your belt, which you will want.
Down there
Once you are into the tunnel properly, two things start going wrong on their own:
- Gas pockets hurt you until they clear.
- Blackouts kill the lights, sometimes briefly and sometimes for a while.
Neither ends the contract. They just make the rest of it harder, and the blackouts are the reason for the belt light.
There is a $1,000 penalty if the crew finishes without building every support along the way.