I saw the post about Epic Drifting the other day and, since my mob harvester is being very productive, decided to try some TNT mining. But I have noticed that you seem to lose a lot of stuff, and decided to do some tests.
First off, if you have two TNT blasts near each other, the second blast will destroy the dropped blocks from the first. But that isn't the worst of it, even a single blast has horrible efficiency.
For a single blast in bedrock (or ore), that destroys a 3x3x3 area (i.e. 26 blocks + 1 tnt), you will net between 3 and 12 of those blocks, with an average of about 7.2, or about 25%. So you lose 75% of your drops on average. I have read theories that "the blast destroys the adjacent blocks only", but that does not appear to be true. Every block in the zone seems to have a random chance of being completely obliterated. I tried it with large (hacked) fields of of stone, iron, and diamond, and the numbers seem consistent. I also obliterated solid dirt, which yields a sphere approx 7 block in diameter consisting of about 240 blocks, of which about 75% of those got obliterated as well. I have no reason to think coal, gold, or redstone is going to give you any better yields.
Of course, if you are drilling a tunnel sideways, you should know what 14 of those 26 blocks are before you blast, and you can dig those out before blasting and slag the rest. But you will lose stuff, guaranteed.
Ive done some blast mining and also agree it's not the best method.
Im not sure about iron, but blasting does destroy gold ore. it does leave diamonds and red stone (in my tests)
My preferred blast mining method is to dig out a single block as far as you can reach and put a block of tnt in the hole. it should blow out a perfect room shaped hole.
Dont forget, when you blast with more than one block of TNT, the explosions can pick up and throw the other TNT blocks around randomly - causing chaotic chain explosion creators
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If you put on an / / / vein, do you get the ore? Or are they destroyed too?
Yes, EVERYTHING has a 75% chance of being destroyed, including diamonds, iron, and though I didn't test them, probably redstone, gold, and coal as well.
Yea you do loose drops from some of the stuff you blast. The trick is digging out the stuff you want when you make the tunnel. Who cares about more stone? Who cares about a pocket of dirt or gravel at such depths? Drifting is a more efficent method of finding ores, not extracting them, just finding them.
So the OP is correct to say you dont mine with TNT. However you EXPLORE with TNT for the purposes of mining.
The trick is digging out the stuff you want when you make the tunnel. Who cares about more stone? Who cares about a pocket of dirt or gravel at such depths? Drifting is a more efficent method of finding ores, not extracting them, just finding them.
Except, as I said, you can only see 14 of the 25/26 blocks you are about to destroy if blasting a sideways tunnel. If the other blocks are diamonds, you will probably lose them.
Take this as your starting conditions. Yes its 2d but bear with me.
Now Lets dig our tunnel.
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For another perspective.
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The Green is every block we expose to direct view. So for the 2x1 Tunnel we dig we determine the composition of that pattern of rock. Now lets begin filling the tunnel.
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From another Perspective.
Now this perspective is most illuminateing. From what we KNOW and can demonstrably test is the fact that each TNT charge destroys the 27 blocks surrounding it. Thats with stones reduced blast radius as well. From this perspective you can clearly see what the problem is.
However lets change the perspective again to see just how many of the Red section are we destroying?
So for every TNT charge 6 blocks are being destroyed without being observed.
Take this as your starting conditions. Yes its 2d but bear with me.
Now Lets dig our tunnel.
[] [] [] [] []
[] [] [] [] []
For another perspective.
[]
[]
The Green is every block we expose to direct view. So for the 2x1 Tunnel we dig we determine the composition of that pattern of rock. Now lets begin filling the tunnel.
[] [] [] []
From another Perspective.
Now this perspective is most illuminateing. From what we KNOW and can demonstrably test is the fact that each TNT charge destroys the 27 blocks surrounding it. Thats with stones reduced blast radius as well. From this perspective you can clearly see what the problem is.
However lets change the perspective again to see just how many of the Red section are we destroying?
So for every TNT charge 6 blocks are being destroyed without being observed.
To decrease loss there is an easy solution.
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[] [] [] [] []
[] [] [] [] []
and...
[]
[]
[]
And when laying your TNT,
[] [] [] []
and,
Very nicely done, that is a perfect graphic of how you can mine a 3x3x3 cube and not lose anything you are not already willing to lose. Well done.
Thanks. Ive been thinking about this myself and while I havent tested it the theory is sound. Gravel and dirt will still cause unpredictability if they are your green walls.
Also Direct blast mining will have more loss per TNT than Drifting simply because you never see past the immediate wall.
I mainly use TNT to open up entrances to dungeons that might otherwise be too treacherous to do by hand.
Same here, I also use it for random traps around my base. I learned the first few day of minecraft to not use TNT to mine, I lost a hefty bit of diamond that way. :sad.gif:
So you destroy some blocks, but what about the speed? The idea with using TNT is that you observer blocks at a faster rate then just normal digging. If you loose 25% of the possible blocks, but you observer blocks at 2-3 times the normal rate then you will come out ahead. Remember the world is infinite basically, so losing some blocks is not the end of the world.
So you destroy some blocks, but what about the speed? The idea with using TNT is that you observer blocks at a faster rate then just normal digging. If you loose 25% of the possible blocks, but you observer blocks at 2-3 times the normal rate then you will come out ahead. Remember the world is infinite basically, so losing some blocks is not the end of the world.
lol, "end of the world". was that pun intentional?
why not just stop using tnt to mine at the depth that diamond occurs?? Seems like a pretty simple solution, plus at this depth the rate of occurance is up for every type of ore, seems like a waste of tnt to me also since chances are you'll hit some adamantine.
First off, if you have two TNT blasts near each other, the second blast will destroy the dropped blocks from the first. But that isn't the worst of it, even a single blast has horrible efficiency.
For a single blast in bedrock (or ore), that destroys a 3x3x3 area (i.e. 26 blocks + 1 tnt), you will net between 3 and 12 of those blocks, with an average of about 7.2, or about 25%. So you lose 75% of your drops on average. I have read theories that "the blast destroys the adjacent blocks only", but that does not appear to be true. Every block in the zone seems to have a random chance of being completely obliterated. I tried it with large (hacked) fields of of stone, iron, and diamond, and the numbers seem consistent. I also obliterated solid dirt, which yields a sphere approx 7 block in diameter consisting of about 240 blocks, of which about 75% of those got obliterated as well. I have no reason to think coal, gold, or redstone is going to give you any better yields.
Of course, if you are drilling a tunnel sideways, you should know what 14 of those 26 blocks are before you blast, and you can dig those out before blasting and slag the rest. But you will lose stuff, guaranteed.
Fun >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> rocks.
diamond is distroyed the rest are droped i tested
Im not sure about iron, but blasting does destroy gold ore. it does leave diamonds and red stone (in my tests)
My preferred blast mining method is to dig out a single block as far as you can reach and put a block of tnt in the hole. it should blow out a perfect room shaped hole.
Dont forget, when you blast with more than one block of TNT, the explosions can pick up and throw the other TNT blocks around randomly - causing chaotic chain explosion creators
Yes, EVERYTHING has a 75% chance of being destroyed, including diamonds, iron, and though I didn't test them, probably redstone, gold, and coal as well.
So the OP is correct to say you dont mine with TNT. However you EXPLORE with TNT for the purposes of mining.
Except, as I said, you can only see 14 of the 25/26 blocks you are about to destroy if blasting a sideways tunnel. If the other blocks are diamonds, you will probably lose them.
Now Lets dig our tunnel.
[] [] [] [] []
[] [] [] [] []
For another perspective.
[]
[]
The Green is every block we expose to direct view. So for the 2x1 Tunnel we dig we determine the composition of that pattern of rock. Now lets begin filling the tunnel.
[] [] [] []
From another Perspective.
Now this perspective is most illuminateing. From what we KNOW and can demonstrably test is the fact that each TNT charge destroys the 27 blocks surrounding it. Thats with stones reduced blast radius as well. From this perspective you can clearly see what the problem is.
However lets change the perspective again to see just how many of the Red section are we destroying?
So for every TNT charge 6 blocks are being destroyed without being observed.
To decrease loss there is an easy solution.
[] [] [] [] []
[] [] [] [] []
[] [] [] [] []
and...
[]
[]
[]
And when laying your TNT,
[] [] [] []
and,
Very nicely done, that is a perfect graphic of how you can mine a 3x3x3 cube and not lose anything you are not already willing to lose. Well done.
Also Direct blast mining will have more loss per TNT than Drifting simply because you never see past the immediate wall.
Good work, that does seem like a good solution for drifting. I may have to switch to that method, because I have a lot of TNT to use up nowadays.
Same here, I also use it for random traps around my base. I learned the first few day of minecraft to not use TNT to mine, I lost a hefty bit of diamond that way. :sad.gif:
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lol, "end of the world". was that pun intentional?
Nope, noticed afterwards though.