Welcome to Chicken Beak's guide to Cubic Castles mining! I'm Chicken Beak in-game, with my home realm at Beak's Place. I hope you'll visit. The purpose of this guide is to help you understand the mining process so you can gain the greatest rewards in the shortest time.

In this guide we'll cover everything from how mining works to how to buy perks and everything in between.

There are several important reasons to mine. They include:

• Character advancement
  
• Acquiring raw materials for building or crafting
  
• Acquiring Cubits (in-game currency)
  
• Making the most of your starter realm
  
• Building an inventory of items to sell in a shop
  
• Just relaxing and getting a Zen calm out of clicking away.

Mining provides several rewards. The first is that you acquire raw materials by mining. Whether you are gathering blocks because you want to use them to build, or because you want to use them to craft items, mining is the easiest way to get your hands on them. The only thing you need to invest is time. As you collect blocks you also build a stockpile of items that you can sell in a shop within your realm.

Mining also provides free Cubits. Every so often a bright yellow cube will spawn along with the block you mined. That's a cubit just waiting to hop into your pocket. On top of that Mining is the fastest way to gain experience points to increase your character's level.

Finally, once you get your mining groove on it can be a very relaxing activity. You just carve a path through the world and let your troubles go for a while. It can be almost meditative.

Mining is simple. Go to any mining region, point your mouse at a block you want to mine, and left click. As long as you are within three block-lengths of it you will approach the block and pull it out of the ground. This also works in privately-owned realms in which you have the BUILD permission granted to you.

You get that permission automatically in realms you own. The owners of other realms must grant it to you at their discretion. If they have not you will see a red warning when you try to mine that indicates you do not have the right privileges for mining in that area.

Each time your character gains a level you will be presented with a list of three character upgrades, called PERKS. You can choose one of the offered PERKS each time you go up a level. The list will vary each time you see it, so you will tend to see a different offering each time your level increases.

Perks all provide benefits to you as a player. Those benefits range from cosmetic (things that change how you look, such as changes to the way your name appears on the screen) to functional (things that directly affect game play).

Many of the functional perks affect how and what you can mine. Rather than just use a text list I created a video explaining which perks help you mine better, how they work, and what order you should buy them in for greatest efficiency (assuming they are available in the list each time you gain a level.)

There are essentially two ways to mine in Cubic Castes. You can mine in an organized fashion, or a disorganized fashion. Organized mining is always faster and more productive than disorganized. It lets you mine more in a shorter amount of time with less wasted movement and effort.

Of the organized methods of mining by far the most efficient is mining in straight lines digging out a 3x3 trench. My second video demonstrates this method. You'll see just how fast you can mine by doing this.


There is only one exception to this rule, and that is when you are mining for specific items that only appear above the surface layer of a mine, such as tree trunks, bushes, or boulders. Any time you are digging at or below the surface you should use the method in the video.

The choice of mining location will vary based on your needs.

There is one place you should always start your chracter's life with, however: your starter realm. Your starter realm is a 30x30 room (EDIT: New player realms may have been changed to 17x17) with about 9 full layers of blocks in it. Most of it is dirt. The top layer is mostly Forest Grass. Beneath the surface, however, is a bunch of hidden treasure, and every single starter realm has it.

This treasure takes a few forms. First, the common blocks themselves. Second, there will be useful ores like stone in your realm. It also comes with some water, buried mud blocks, and a few other goodies.

On top of that there will be a good number of HIDDEN GIFT blocks. These look like birthday gift cubes with yellow wrapping paper and red ribbons. These will contain a bunch of treasure including ores, objects, and cubits.

Finally, by digging out your whole realm, right down to the ground till it's empty, you will gain a lot of experience points and mining-based cubits. Your starter realm is your own private mine, after a fashion. Get the most out of it (including those HIDDEN GIFT blocks, which are only found in starter realms) by digging it all out.

Then rebuild it to suit your taste - because building also gets you experience.

After that you have a choice of five types of mines that appear all over the map. They are Tropical, Desert, Forest, Mountain, and Arctic. Tropical mines appear at the most southern areas of the sky map. As you move north you will see the other four types, in the order I listed them, ending with Arctic at the uppermost part of the sky map. Think of the lowest part of the sky map as the Equator, and the highest part as the North Pole.

Which one should I mine in?
That depends on what you want to do. Many materials can be found in more than one mine type. DIRT is by far the most common block in the game, and it can be found in all mines. There is a great list of all the possible blocks (along with all current recipes) at the Cubic Castles Web Site here[www.cubiccastles.com]. I cannot stress how important it is to bookmark that page.

If you need to build or craft specific items make a list of the blocks you need and mine in the regions that provide them. Some items can only be found in certain mines (or are only REALLY abundant in certain mines). Among the more important ones are:

Tropical - Lava, Coral, Water, Sand, Cotton Bush
Desert - Mesa, Mesa Top, Sand, Chiliberry Bush
Forest - Flowers, Sunberry Bush
Mountain - Cave, Yumberry Bush
Arctic - Snow, Ice, Oil, Dead Tree, Frostberry Bush

If you're looking for certain precious metals like gold, silver, iron, or coal, the easiest way to find it is to enter a mine area and walk the perimeter of the map with the camera angle set so you can see the underground layers. Ore tends to appear in clumps (real world term: veins) so if you see even a single ore block the odds are several more will be nearby. Simply dig down to that level and strip-mine it out. Remember to dig a stairway-shaped slope down to the ore so you can easily get back to the surface.

Mining Ethics are pretty basic and all of it can be boiled down to saying this:

Be a good neighbor.

There are a few behaviors that can be really unpleasant when mining. Avoid doing them and be ready to ask others to stop doing them to you. Among them are any actions that make mining less fun or more difficult for other players. Here are a few specific examples.

Don't interfere with another miner's work. For example, you've seen in this guide that digging long 3x3 trenches is efficient. If you see someone doing that don't jump into their path and start digging randomly. Let them do their thing.

Don't pirate from other players. If you see someone diligently digging out a few bricks like stone blocks or iron ore, accept that they have been working toward that goal and let them have the ore they've put in the effort to reach. Don't just dive into their hole, dig it out, and run away. That's rude.

Don't stand on top of other players. Shadowing people, chasing them around and hoping the blocks they mine will touch your character first, effectively giving you all the blocks they dig out is just griefing.

Cooperate. If you and another miner are in the same area it can be a good idea to ask if they are digging for anything specific. Daily missions often appear that require a player to dig up a large number of a specific ore. If you and the other miner both have a quest like that it can be an opportunity to work together. If you are mining for the same thing you can both pick opposite sides of the map, dig like mad, and chat. If you are looking for different ores you can call out to each other when you find what the other one needs, helping both of you complete you quests faster.

There are a few other tips for efficient mining.

Make a shopping list
If you know you need to craft a few things or build a specific structure in your realm, make a list of the blocks you need and seek them out specifically. It will shorten your mining expedition.

Be a strip miner
If you find one block of ore as you dig it is almost certain there will be several more nearby. Dig out all the blocks within a range of 2-3 cubes and you will almost always find more valuable loot.

Learn what you use most
Players tend to have a style for what they build in their realms. I use a lot of glass, for example. Knowing that means I know that I need a steady supply of sand and coal (the materials necessary to craft it).

Build a Farm with berry bushes and rubber trees
Bushes provide berries, and rubber trees provide rubber. Both are crafting components that are frequently needed in large quantities. By building a farm you can mine the bushes once, plant them in your farm, and mine berries or rubber from them every half-hour. The five berries and the base level of rubber trees are renewable resources. You can mine enough to build a farm once and you will never need to mine them again.

I have a 30x30 farm at Beak's Place (through a door near the main entrance) that can provide me with 120 units each of rubber, cotton, chiliberries, frostberries, sunberries, and yumberries every 30 minutes. Take a look - it's a pretty room and very efficient. I'll never need to spend time mining those bushes "in the wild" again.

Zone hop for rare items
Lava and Coral are two of the rarest blocks to find in the game. Lava only appears in Tropical zones, and even then it only appears in such zones if that zone spawns with a volcano. Coral appears (unsurprisingly) beneath the water in tropical zones and is slightly pinker and more textured than the common sand. It is fine to visit a Tropical mine, look around, and move on if you need a rare block but do not see the source.

Mountain Boulders are the best-kept secret of Cubic Castles mining
When you mine a mountain boulder one of two things will happen. First, you might wind up with a mountain boulder. Second, it might convert to a pile of about 5 ore that will be a mix of stone and coal. These blocks are important for two reasons. First, the converstion probability on mountain boulders is higher than any other boulder. Second, if you don't get it to convert you can bring the stack of boulders back to your own zone and place them like any other block. After that you can just keep placing them and mining them till they all convert.

In other words, you can guarantee a 100% conversion rate by placing and mining them in your home realm till you wind up with mountains of stone and coal.

Love the cold
Arctic mines have the highest likelihood of containing gold and silver ore.

Climb the Mountains
Mountain Mines are loaded to the gills with iron and stone ore - it can appear normally and all Mountain blocks and Mountain Boulder blocks have a chance to convert to a mix of stone and coal ore.

I hope you've found this guide helpful. If you did, please feel free to let me know in the comments or in game. I look forward to seeing you all digging away with grins on your faces as you mine your way to high levels and great wealth.

Best regards,

Chicken Beak
Realm name: Beak's Place