Let's go ahead and talk about what exactly Minerals are...

Minerals are large chunks of valuable material that are used to create Battle Sprite Food to help them Level Up. (Not to mention, but before the battle sprite update minerals served a different purpose but were later removed from the game.) These minerals come in five different colors with their own special name. Minerals are a common thing to find in the clockworks, but depending on the levels stratum, other different type of mineral(s) will more likely show up then the other. Let's go ahead and review these five mineral types and their use.

• Crimsonite. These are the red minerals that are found in the game. These minerals are used to create food for your Drakon and are also used in the Mineral Prestige missions.
  
  Description: A fabled mineral of a fiery, red color said to contain the passion, anger and strength of the life surrounding it.

• Moonstone. These are the blue minerals that are found in the game. These are currently only used in the Mineral Prestige mission.
  
  Description: A fabled mineral of a brilliant, blue color said to contain the knowledge and origins of all worlds.

• Luminite. These are the yellow type minerals that are found in the game. These minerals are used to create food for your Seraphynx and are also used in the Mineral Prestige missions.
  
  Description: A fabled mineral of a radiant, golden color said to contain the faith, wisdom, and zeal of the life surrounding it

• Valestone. These are the green type minerals that are found in the game. These minerals are currently only used in the Mineral Prestige missions.
  
  Description: A fabled mineral of a vibrant green color said to contain the essence of all natural life

• Dark Matter. This is the purple and the last mineral that are found in the game. These minerals are used to make food for your Maskeraith and are also used in the Mineral Prestige missions.
  
  Description: A fabled mineral dark and ominous in color said to contain the essences of both chaos and nothingness.

When you collect a Mineral, there are four different sizes. Each size have their own amount of Minerals you will collect from it. For example, if I found a large piece of Dark Matter, I would collect four Dark Matter from it.

• Small. This is the smallest size you will find. The value of getting small is one piece of any small sized mineral.

• Medium. A little bigger than small, but still not very big. The value of getting a medium mineral is two pieces of any medium sized mineral.

• Large. Much bigger than before. The value of getting a large sized mineral is four pieces of any large sized Mineral.

• Shiny. This is the last, and biggest Mineral you may find. The value of getting a shiny sized mineral is six pieces! The next time you are farming Minerals, cross your fingers of getting a Large or Shiny!

Minerals can act like material too, only that these Minerals have one special purpose for crafting...

Making food for Battle Sprites.

In order to craft these food for your pets, it will require a special crafting machine called Sprite Food Alchemy Machine. Which happen to look like this...
















There are several locations of finding these food machines. (Including the one up above this text, location: Laboratory.) These are the known current locations of these machines...

• Located at Haven. Right next to these stairway and the main Auction House close by.

• Located at any Tier 2 Arcade. (AKA: Moocroft Manor) It is just right next to this desk located on the left side of the Arcade.

• Located at any Tier 3 Arcade. (AKA: Emberlight) The machine is at the left side of the Arcade next to a gremlin named "Gracken".

• Also located at Emberlight, this is located on the right side of the arcade.

As I've mentioned from the last part, these machines craft food with Minerals you collect from the clockworks. There are currently three different types of food so far. Let's go ahead and see what are these food types are. I will also mention of what food goes best for each Battle Sprite... Aren't they magically delicious?

• Power Foods = These are red foods you should be crafting and feeding if you are a Drakon owner.
  
• Divine Foods = These are yellow foods you should be crafting and feeding if you are a Seraphynx owner.
  
• Shadow Foods = These are purple foods you should be crafting and feeding if you are a Maskeraith owner.

There is also different forms of each these foods. There are five forms in each food type. (In total, there is currently 15 foods to craft from.) each of these have a certain role to play that help your Battle Sprite grow. We will now check out these forms, and I will also mention what kind of food you should feed your sprite in different parts of it's growth. And I will also show it's crafting blueprint as well.

• Motes
  These are the lowest part of the food chain system for Battle Sprites. These are: Power Mote, Shadow Mote, and Divine Mote. (All of these will be in order.) Feed this kind of food from level 1-14. Depending of which Battle Sprite you own.
  
  Following Recipe To Make Mote Food:
  5x Crimsonite/Dark Matter/Luminite
  2x Any 1 Star Material

• Dust
  An upgraded version of Battle Sprite food after Mote. These are: Power Dust, Shadow Dust, and Divine Dust. Start feeding this kind of food from level 15-29 depending of which Battle Sprite you own.
  
  Following Recipe To Make Dust Food:
  10x Crimsonite/Dark Matter/Luminite
  2x Any Two 2 Star Material

• Stone
  An upgraded version of the Battle Sprite food after Dust. These are: Power Stone, Shadow Stone, and Divine Stone. You then would start feeding this kind of food at 30-49 depending of which Battle Sprite you own.
  
  Follow Recipe To Make Stone Food:
  15x Crimsonite/Dark matter/Luminite
  2x Any 3 Star Material

• Orb
  An upgraded version of the Battle Sprite food after Stone. These are: Power Orb, Shadow Orb, and Divine Orb. Starting feeding your pet with this food from 50-74. Depending of which Battle Sprite you own.
  
  Following Recipe To Make Orb Food:
  20x Crimsonite/Dark Matter/Luminite
  2x Any 4 Star Material

• Star
  The final form of food is the Star. These are: Power Star, Shadow Star, Divine Star. You will now then start feeding your pet with this final food form at 75-100. Depending of which Battle Sprite you own.
  
  Following Recipe To Make Star Food:
  25x Crimsonite/Dark Matter/Luminite
  2x Any 5 Star Material

As I've mentioned in "What Are Minerals?" certain Minerals are only found in certain Stratums in the levels of the Clockworks. This is a true fact. Certain types of Minerals will show up more while the others are uncommon. Originally they were frequented with whatever Minerals were not used in Gate Construction.

Theme is what effects this, such as theme from monsters. For example, one type of monster let's say "The Jelly Family" have an uncommon find for Valestones if they are in the stratum, Valestones will be an uncommon find. But if we go to a different stratum that have "The Fiend Family" with them in the stratum, they will make Valestones a common find. Others things can be added at once which revert it back to be uncommon or common. Check out this full graph about this in this link here[wiki.spiralknights.com],

It is called "Mineral Frquency". This can help you decide which levels are good to find specific Minerals needs while you can also decide which aren't good. (Sorry for my lazyness of not making a graph on here instead, but this was rather a difficult graph to make on here.)

Let's see another example of this if you still don't quite get it, say I want to find Luminites. What could be the best place to find Luminites as a common Mineral? Why in the first level of this mission called "The Collector (Rank 2-3)" Would be a great place to find Luminites!




























Why this mission you might ask? In the first part of this mission, a level called "Mechanized Mile (Depth 2)". Because of "The Construct Family", you would think that Luminites would be an uncommon thing to find in the first level... Right? However, this level also have a share with "The Gremlin Family". And as you can notice, with them in this Stratum, Luminites are a common thing with them in the stratum. And since there is just only normal type monsters, It would revert Luminites back to a common find! Don't believe me? Take a look down here...



























Go ahead and use that link I gave you to help you test out some levels with different stratums... You can decide which is best to find specific minerals you may want or need.

This will be last part about "What. The. ♥♥♥!?. The Facts And Knowledge About: Minerals". However this part will be talking about farming them. And ways I would find usefull that would also help other players farming Minerals. One of the tips in this will repeated again from last part, "The Mighty Quest For Epic Minerals".

• Use That Graph I Gave You!
  That graph from the wiki can be very usefull. That is, if you want to farm specific Minerals. You can re-read "The Mighty Quest For Epic Minerals" if you need to.

• Farm With Friends
  It's usually better to farm with friends, because gathering Minerals with others gives you 4x more Minerals then you would alone. (Depending of how big the party is.) Only downside of this is that if you do it with a party, the process could be slow. If you prefer rushing, you may not want to do some farming with a group of people.

• Give Yourshelf A Boost!
  If you are like me, you would prefer rushing while farming. If that is so, I highly recommend using any armor sets with a speed bonus such as the "Mercurial Mail Set", "Mercurial Demo Suit" or even the "Black Kat Kowl". When they are seprated, they give off a MSI of low. But when any of these two sets combine. They will give you a MSI of Medium!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  If your Battle Sprite is level 50 or higher then I would also recommend equiping a perk called "Swift Steps". If your Swift Steps are currently low, but mix it with any of those two armor sets up there. You will have a MSI High. But if your Swift Steps perk is fully maxed up (Medium) and mix it with one of those two sets, you will have a MSI of Very High!!!
  
  

• Jigsaw Valley Level Skip Trick
  
  Many of you may have all ready know about this trick, but this is just for any one who doesn't know about the Jigsaw Valley Level Skip trick. In order to do this trick, this will require any 4* or even better a 5* Driver gun. It doesn't matter which type it is, any version will work.
  
  Go to a mission called Beyond The Axes of Evil (Rank 7-3) and when you first start the mission, go to the corners of the bottom part of the starting area and chrage up your driver and shoot forward at the bottom. There is a ghost block hidden there, and since your chraged up bullet is a ricochet type, it will hit the ghost block. (You may have to do this a couple of times in order to hit it.)
  
  Once done with that, head down to that area, step on the button located there as well, and collect your Minerals. Now go ahead and head on over to the other side and do the same. This is also a great way to farm Minerals. Here is a excellent example video to show you how this trick works...
  
  
  (Special credit to Drakeson SK for the video.)

I would like to give you guys a special thank you for reading my guide. Leave a rate, favorite, and comment if you found this guide to be usefull. Most of the infomation were borrowed from the Spiral Knights Wiki so if you would like to learn more click on the following links...

• http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Battle_Sprite#Heating
  
• http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Sprite_Food_Alchemy_Machine
  
• http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Mineral

If there is any mistakes I have made on here, anything that I am missing, or grammar errors. PLEASE let know in the comments below! I will be sure to add/rework them!