Ores and Mining
Ores and Mining covers the ore blocks and mineable resource deposits that Fear Nightfall adds to the game, together with the cave biomes and underground structures where they generate. Most of the new resources come from the pack's mods. Iron's Spells 'n Spellbooks adds Mithril, Butchery adds Sulfur and salt, Born in Chaos adds the Dark Metal deposit, Black Argillite and infected diamond ore, and Jaden's Nether Expansion adds Fossil Fuel and Fossil Ore and Silt Flint Ore. Hexerei adds Selenite geodes, and Biomes O' Plenty adds Rose Quartz and Brimstone. YUNG's Cave Biomes adds the cave biomes that hold many of the pack's deposits, and Better Mineshafts adds the underground mines that contain further ore.
Most of these resources are gates to the pack's crafting chains. Mithril and Dark Metal are the metals behind mid-game spellcasting and horror armour, and Sulfur and salt are the early chemistry inputs of Butchery. The Mithril ore cannot be mined before the player has a netherite pickaxe, and the Dark Metal deposit requires an iron pickaxe. Mining at depth is also where the pack's horror is most concentrated: the underground holds horror cave biomes, diamond termites and dangerous structures.
Overworld ores
The overworld ores generate in the underground ore step. The table gives the height range of each ore; the page for each one lists its vein counts, sizes and drops.
| Ore | Height range | Minimum tool | Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mithril Ore and Deepslate Mithril Ore | Y -63 to Y -38 | Netherite pickaxe | Mithril |
| Sulfur Ore and Deepslate Sulfur Ore | Y -64 to Y 64 | Pickaxe | Sulfur |
| Black Argillite | Y -17 to Y 17 | Pickaxe | Black Argillite |
| Infected Diamond Ore | Y 0 to Y 16 (stone), Y -128 to Y -8 (deepslate) | Iron pickaxe | Diamond Termite |
The Dark Metal Deposit is also an iron-tier ore, and its generation and drops are covered on Dark Metal.
Mithril is the rarest of these. Its ore is found in veins of up to three blocks, seven placement attempts per chunk, and only at the lower end of the underground. Mining the ore without Silk Touch drops Raw Mithril. Sulfur is the most common of the overworld ores: the deepslate variant is placed in far larger numbers than the stone variant, so it is the usual source of the material. Salt is not an ore. It comes from salt discs on water-side surfaces and from the Basin, as described on Salt (Butchery).
Black Argillite is a vein ore at three veins per chunk. Its Cursed family is a separate set of blocks with a hardness of 25 and a blast resistance of 1000, and mining one applies Mining Fatigue III to the player.
Mining tools
Each ore has a tool requirement, and the wrong tool does not harvest it at all. The pack adds Mithril to the netherite-tier tag, so an iron or diamond pickaxe cannot mine it. The Dark Metal Deposit needs an iron pickaxe or better. Infected diamond ore needs an iron pickaxe, and the termites it releases spawn whether or not the block is harvested, so a player who mines the stone variant with the wrong tool still gets termites. Sulfur, Black Argillite and Selenite need a pickaxe. The nether ground ores, Fossil Ore and Silt Flint Ore, are mined with a shovel.
Silk Touch collects the ore block itself for the deposits that have a block drop, such as Mithril, Sulfur, Dark Metal and Fossil Ore. Fortune increases the item drop of most of them. The linked pages list the exact drops with and without Silk Touch.
Nether resources
The Nether has its own set of deposits, and most of them are added by Jaden's Nether Expansion.
- Fossil Fuel and Fossil Ore. The ores generate in Soul Sand Valley with 64 placement attempts per chunk, and they replace soul soil. Fossil Fuel Ore drops Fossil Fuel, a fuel that replaces coal in several recipes.
- Silt Flint Ore. The ore is placed inside silt between Y 20 and Y 40, with 80 attempts per chunk in all nether biomes. Silt is itself a gravity block that replaces nether gravel, so deposits can collapse into a cave.
- Brimstone. Brimstone Buds, Clusters and Fumaroles generate in the nether biome Erupting Inferno. Brimstone is the base of a family of building blocks as well as these decorative blocks.
- Rose Quartz. The crystals form almost exclusively as hanging and rising formations in the Crystalline Chasm biome. Breaking a cluster without Silk Touch drops Rose Quartz Chunks.
Selenite geodes
Selenite geodes generate in swamp biomes through a biome modifier added by Hexerei. The geodes are rare, with a filter of one in 24 chunks, and they generate from six blocks above the bottom of the world up to Y 30. With TerraBlender loaded, the geodes appear in Willow Swamp as well as in other swamp biomes. A Selenite Cluster without Silk Touch drops two Selenite Shards, and four with a tool in the cluster-harvestable tag.
Underground structures and caves
Underground structures add ore and loot to the mining layer.
- Better Mineshafts start between Y -55 and Y 30 and come in 13 biome-specific variants. Their chests use the vanilla abandoned mineshaft table, with additions from other mods. See Better Mineshafts for the variants and their spawners.
- Cave biomes from Terralith and YUNG's Cave Biomes give the underground its variety. The main ones are Deep Caves, Infested Caves, Frostfire Caves, Fungal Caves, Thermal Caves, Mantle Caves, Stone Caves, Lost Caves, Redstone Caves, Frosted Caves and Bioshroom Caves. Each page lists the ores and blocks that its cave generates. Deep Caves and Infested Caves have the full vanilla cave ore set, and Infested Caves adds infected stone veins.
Fear Nightfall changes
The pack reshapes the underground to make it more dangerous. Horror cave biomes make up about 30% of the cave layer, up from 17 to 22%, and lush caves fall to 4 to 5% from 12 to 15%. Infested Caves and Frostfire Caves are weighted six times higher than the default, and they spread into neighbouring cave areas. Horror structures are placed about 30% closer together. Horror biomes concentrate in temperate-to-cool humid forests, taigas and swamps, and deserts, jungles and peaks stay mostly normal. The Horror and Spooky Content page covers the full list.
Mining hazards
- Diamond termites appear when an infected diamond ore block is broken. Each one is a small, fire-immune mob that is never found in the wild. See Diamond Termite.
- Infested cobblestone in Infested Caves looks like ordinary stone, so check a wall for cracks or moss before assuming a block is safe.
- Cursed Black Argillite applies Mining Fatigue III when a player starts mining it, and its blast resistance is 1000.
- Silt falls like sand or gravel when nothing supports it, so a tunnel can collapse. See Silt and Siltmarram.
- Darkness. The deep and horror caves are dark, and hostile mobs spawn in darkness. Bring light before going underground. See Deep Caves.
Related pages
- Mithril, Sulfur, Salt (Butchery) and Butchery Tools for the Butchery chemistry chain.
- Dark Metal and Dark Iron for the metals from Born in Chaos and The Graveyard.
- Black Argillite and Diamond Termite for the Born in Chaos underground.
- Fossil Fuel and Fossil Ore, Silt and Siltmarram and Brimstone for the nether.
- Selenite and Rose Quartz for crystals.
- Better Mineshafts and Biomes for underground generation and biome lists.