Copper

Finding the vein

Copper usually appears below the first easy excavation layers and often in compact pockets rather than broad seams. Scan deliberate underground rooms and the dirt surrounding them; generation can place part of a vein just outside the chamber that visually introduces it.

The ore is tougher than Dirt. If progress is extremely slow, return with a drill or a stronger excavation tool instead of interpreting the vein as decorative terrain. The Void Gun has only a minimal effect.

Extraction route

Clear space below or beside the vein before breaking it. Copper behaves as a transportable solid after extraction, which makes belts, collectors and the Grabber valid options.

Prefer a catch floor that slopes toward one collector. Digging directly over an open cave trades a mining task for a recovery task as the Copper falls through several screens of terrain.

Factory role

Copper is a mid-game infrastructure material. It feeds the shift from passive processing into electrical systems and should be stockpiled separately from Gold and Cinder.

A good Copper depot shows the reserve at a glance and leaves a straight outlet for later machinery. Avoid burying it inside the first generator build; expansion usually asks for more Copper than the starter circuit.

Failure modes

• Underpowered tools make a real vein look indestructible.
• Mining before placing a catch surface can scatter the entire yield.
• Shared solid buffers allow Copper to contaminate filters tuned for Gold or Cinder.