Diggy Diggy Hole - Mineral Gathering in 1.5 (Patreon)

Iron is the lifeblood of any successful settlement once you have transitioned past the early part of the game. As a general rule; you should be moving your focus towards Iron once you have leather and you are past the L1 King's Man. I think it's ideal to be getting Iron in a semi-regular fashion no later than LY12.

Mineral Gathering is how you gain Iron, Scrap, Blacksmith gear (via the Cyclops Knight) and the Crystal Skin ability for your settlement. However, Mineral Gathering is a very core game based mechanic and there is just one expansion that has an overt contribution to Mineral Gathering. This is the Dung Beetle Knight and its Digging Claws - which are both a pickaxe and give a single reroll on the event each time you encounter it. This is important because the event can be very harsh on your pickaxes!

Triggering:

Mineral Gathering exists in two forms; the first is the pre-Overwhelming Darkness version and the second is a more extensive experience which is triggered by having the event occur post.

However, this event is never going to happen unless at least one survivor in your party has the following item equipped:

Essentially, without a Bone Pickaxe in your hunt party, you are not going to get to go mineral gathering. Which means that every party looking to mineral gather needs at least one pickaxe, and if they are trying to be efficient then every member of the hunt party should try and make room for a pickaxe.

This means that Iron gathering parties should build around eight slot grids rather than the usual nine - and also they should consider picking certain 'farming' monsters in order to achieve success with less risk.

Best Monsters for Mineral Gathering:

What you are looking for in a good monster is relatively straightforward, it needs to be relatively risk free because you are going to be bringing back a lot of resources, but also, in order to be as potent as possible you should be aiming for a monster that has a space post Overwhelming Darkness (and doesn't move too much).

This means that your best candidates are the L2 Screaming Antelope (which has 1 space, but it is prone to moving about) and the L1 Flower Knight.  The L1 Flower Knight is the single best monster in the entire game for farming Iron from as it's super weak, rarely moves, has The Forest Wants What It Wants instead of Overwhelming Darkness and it has that precious single space before you reach the monster.

Other candidates are a lot tougher and in order of preference are as follows:

• L2 Dragon King*
• L2 Sunstalker 
• L2 Dung Beetle Knight
• L2 Phoenix

*Special mention must be made to the Dragon King, who is potentially an infinite source of Iron as long as you are patient enough to let the obsidian pillars form and then break them with your Club/Heavy Weapon. Dragon King is a massive amount of Iron for a party that can handle them. 

So apart from the L2 Dragon King's exception, it's safer and easier to either Flower Knight or Antelope Farm for a few years in order to get your Iron economy rolling.

Other Gear:

Mineral Gathering Post-Overwhelming Darkness makes use of three other items as a part of its mechanics (if you get to explore the subterranean areas).  These items are a Sickle, a Whip and an Almanac.  

Of all of them, the Sickle is the most useful because it increases your chances of getting to the Crystal Lake and gaining Crystal Skin - something every settlement wants access to because of the curse immunity it provides (perfect for beating the King's Man and Hooded Knight).   The Whip avoids you getting Crystal Skin on a survivor and increases your chances of getting to the Lantern City.

In the Lantern City you are essentially looking to roll as high as possible because if you are insane the 1-4 result will kill your survivor.  Beyond that you get access to either a huge amount of Iron or you meet with the Cyclops Knight and he will gift you with a Blacksmith item (this is normally worth getting, though some of the weapons suck until they are oxidised - Daggers, Ring Whip and Lantern Sword).

Thing is, having a Sickle is kind of a once per party thing, as are Whips and the Almanac is a solid item but it's rarely worth the slot. So these bonuses are not often applied.  

In fact the best 'boosts' to Mineral Gathering are having the Digging Claw (DBK) equipped and Survival of the Fittest. These passively give you reroll(s) to use on the tables which are often just as effective as the flat bonuses that the gear gives, but they offer up better upsides (really good Katar weapon and not filling up a gear slot).

So that's it for Mineral Gathering really; and next time we will look at Sky Fishing (which needs more hype as it gets ignored a lot) before rounding things out with a cursory look at Herb Gathering!