Mining

Mining is one of the most basic activities in Minetest. Mining is the activity of removing a node with a mining tool.

How to mine

Mining requires the “interact” privilege (which is a default privilege).

Mining is done by pointing on the desired node and holding the attack button (Left mouse button by default).

Not everything can be mined with all mining tools. Some tools are better for certain materials. Also, mining often takes some time to finish. The mining speed depends on your tool and the node you want to mine.

Drops

After a block has been mined, it may leave none, one or some items which go straight into your player inventory. The items left behind are also called the “drop” of the node and it is said that a node drops something after being mined.

Most blocks drop themselves. This is also the default behaviour if not specified otherwise by the modder. But of course there are other drops possible, too. This is the list of possible drop types:

• itself,
• a different item,
• multiple items,
• nothing at all,
• item or items based on chance (probability-based drop).

If the drop wouldn't fit in your inventory, the items literally drop on the floor instead.

Mining speed

The mining speed is determined by groups.

Mining in Minetest Game

You start with a hand which is itself able to mine a lot of nodes already, but at the worst speed. Axes are good to mine wooden nodes. Pickaxes are good to mine stone-like nodes. Shovels are very fast at digging dirt, sand and gravel. Axes, pickaxes and shovels come in 6 variants: Wooden, stone, steel, bronze, Mese and diamond. In this order, the tools become stronger and stronger and usually mine faster.

Most nodes drop themselves. Notable examples for nodes which don’t drop just themselves:

• Stone (drops 1 Cobblestone)
• Clay (drops 4 Clay Lumps)
• Coal Ore (drops 1 Coal Lump)

Notable examples for probability-based drops:

• Jungle Grass (drops 1 Cotton Seed or itself)
• Cotton (plant) (drops 0 to 3 Cotton Seeds and 0 to 3 Cotton)

Mining in other games

Mining basically works the same in all Minetest games. The tools and digging times are probably different, but the concept stays the same.