Drills turn discovered ore boulders into unattended raw ore, freeing exploration time for other materials and crafting goals.
PC / Global, 1.0+
WHERE & HOW TO FARM
Where to farm
Ore boulders in their native biomes; Copper and Iron boulders occur in the Forgotten Ruins.
Mark a boulder, place powered Drills against it, and provide a clear collection point. A boulder produces a fixed total, so build around storage and periodic collection instead of assuming endless output.
Drills, each crafted with Scarlet and Iron Bars at the Automation Table.
Electricity Generator or Lever power source.
Chest or a planned belt and robot-arm collection route.
Find a boulder and confirm its ore type; map markers help distinguish a return site from ordinary wall patches.
Craft Drills at the Automation Table and bring them, power, and a collection container.
Place Drills around the boulder so they can extract its ore.
Power the drills with an Electricity Generator or Lever.
Collect raw ore directly, or build a conveyor route that carries drops to storage.
Check chests and processing stations on return visits; clear finished bars before output storage fills.
Smelt the collected ore at the correct station and spend bars on your current crafting goal.
Farming tips
Drills continue working regardless of player distance, so leave the site running while exploring elsewhere.
If using belts, build from the destination end toward the source; check each tile’s direction.
Repeat, collect and use
Automation repeats until the boulder’s finite 1,800-ore total is exhausted. Dedicated servers stop running automation when no players are connected.
Common mistakes
Using a pickaxe on a boulder: it is unbreakable by hand tools and requires powered Drills.
Leaving a full chest or furnace output: blocked storage can halt collection or processing.
Assuming distance stops extraction or that output is infinite: it works while away, but the node has a fixed total.
When to stop or switch
Stop investing in a depleted site and mark it complete; use another boulder if you need more of that ore, or collect the stored output and return to crafting.
