Gem Mining Hammer and MIning Pickaxe

[Might-N-Magic]

The Gem Mining Hammer doesn't seem to work. When you equip it and start smacking a node, it just ineffectually hits it, unable to do damage (because damage resistance) and you get no gems til you eventually give up. I've spent several 10 minute+ sessions smacking various nodes to no effect.

The Mining Pickaxe does work, though my testing on various nodes seems to yield roughly the same as my "mining spear" which is just some random spear with an essence on it (and 12 str). Not sure that's intended as I'd just carry my spear instead?

Also, once these things work properly, will essences applied to them help/hinder/do nothing to the outcome of harvesting resources? I don't want to ruin my tools.

[Skarain]

Intentional Necromancy, in case someone else uses the Search function for a similar topic.

Essences on a Gem Hammer / Mining Pickaxe / Logging Axe do not "ruin" the tool. Neither do 10% weight enchantment.

However, using a gem hammer on the gem node is very disheartening. With my low STR character I only get "you can not damage this object with this weapon" all the time.

Basically the only hits that get through the DR are critical hits. Spending 10 minutes whacking away at something with a gem hammer, fishing for critical hits, or burn a few Gonne Slugs/proper weapon hits to be done in seconds.

I am in process of getting my Gem Hammer enchanted with some Frost + (Temp) Fire, to increase the damage output. I am hopeful that it will yield some improved results, but I can for certain say that using a Gem Hammer is not worth the time unenchanted at it's current state.

[Deryliss]

I thought something was up... I just started using a gem hammer after reading in the wiki that it would add +25 damage when used on gem nodes, but as far as I can tell that doesn't work at all.

[Hinty]

I am not sure where I saw it, but I distinctly recall seeing somewhere that only Physical, Fire and Acid damages count for resource mining. I do know that I spent forever hitting a node with electric blasts from a feylock once and got nothing, nor did I destroy the node, so seems reasonable to assume that is accurate.

Enchant your Gem Hammer with Fire or Acid in an enchantment basin and it'll work just fine. Hell, I enchanted one of each and duel wield them for extra speedy gem mining. Works fine with an str of 12.

[Flower Power]

The items in question are working just fine for me, and I'm definitely getting the bonus resources every now and again.

Are the items you're using found from crates, crafted, or bought from the Silver Bough?
Crafted + Silver Bough ones should be functional - crate'd ones, not so much.

[Deryliss]

I wasn't sure about this, so I went and bought one from the Silver Bough just now and went to slap around a sapphire node.

I've been at it for 3 minutes now, and done zero damage to it. The bonus damage does not seem to be working. I'm sure if I was playing a very strong character who could actually do damage with the hammer it would have worked, but as a frail little mage there's not much I can do about that

I may have to stick with punching the nodes with elementals until we get clarification on this.

[CrystalRL]

I wasn't sure about this, so I went and bought one from the Silver Bough just now and went to slap around a sapphire node.

I've been at it for 3 minutes now, and done zero damage to it. The bonus damage does not seem to be working. I'm sure if I was playing a very strong character who could actually do damage with the hammer it would have worked, but as a frail little mage there's not much I can do about that

I may have to stick with punching the nodes with elementals until we get clarification on this.

I've actually tried using it with a high STR character. The mining hammer has -1 damage and is a d4 weapon. It sucks for everyone. At least I can get x3 crits on the battleaxe.

[Straxus]

Being a spellsword I just imbue the weapon, that seems to work.

[Party in the forest at midnight]

I mentioned this in discord once and was told that resource gathering tools do invisible damage that does not show up in the combat log. So I equipped one and wailed on a node for several minutes, doing zero visible damage. Lo and behold the node actually was destroyed! So it does do damage. It's just invisible damage.

IMO it's not worth it though, because you're attacking for so long it burns more durability charges on your gear. If there's any other way you can do damage to the node, you're better off doing damage that way.

[Drowble Oh Seven]

For sure. I've been wailing on a greenstone node for ten minutes with a gem hammer and my piddly 13 STR, to the stunning effect of two gemstones.

Don't know if there's some way to improve these tools, particularly for low-level PCs that don't have access to other methods.

[Hinty]

Enchant it. Everyone has access to the enchantment pools, and putting a simple acid or fire enchantment on it is easy enough.

Also an option, Essences.

Technically flame weapon scrolls too, but since the fire damage is applied separately to the weapon damage, I am not sure if the chance for extra ore works for that.

BUT, most importantly, if you are so low level that all these options seem out of reach, then you are mining such low value and easy to obtain Ores/Gems that you might as well just use a bigger weapon. It'll hardly be the end of the world if you miss out one piece of basic ore.

[Drowble Oh Seven]

Enchanted it. It helped. Appreciate the tip!

Still, if I feel like if an item needs an enchantment to function as intended then perhaps it should have that property to start with. If only to prevent confusion.