Stuck between miner and geologist! (2024)

Yes, the level 5 perks stays when you reach level 10.

I usually pick miner and prospector. I use more ores and coal than gems.

I went with Geologist and will take Excavator whenever mining finally hits 10. The Geologist perk is fine but rarely matters (gems I care about getting more of are jade and ruby, for the most part, and I've only seen a few nodes of each). Excavator looks like it will be really nice though.

Nothing wrong with Miner/Prospector but I haven't felt a significant lack of ore (well, OK, I feel a very significant lack of iridium ore, but I've only seen a couple of iridium nodes so Miner wouldn't have helped much either) or coal so far. Based on some other recent discussions, I think this depends on play style.

It does depend on playstyle. I choose Miner+Prospector so that I can mass build kegs and crystalariums at a rapid pace.

While gems are useful in the late game due to the Trader, I never cared much for them early game.

I don't know; not saying Miner/Prospector is wrong, because it's clearly a plausible choice, and one I'll probably try in my second save, whenever I play one. But most of the benefits of it are easily available for purchase if necessary, so to me Miner/Prospector reduces down to +1 ore per iridium node. If I want more copper - and I might, since the keg program could use a few more tappers - I can buy it from Clint relatively cheaply. I already have more iron and gold than I have a use for without Miner, and turning wood into coal is adequate (I'm not going heavily into preserves jars or beehives). Plus I don't actually have Mining 10 yet anyway.

Whereas there is no way to buy gems (I think), and only very limited ability to buy geodes, so the Geologist/Excavator perks offer benefits that can't be replicated by other means.

The +1 ore per iridium node is meaningful, but the question is then where one should expect to get the bulk of one's iridium from? Ore nodes, monster drops, Statue of Perfection, other sources? From what I've seen in SC runs so far, the answer is unlikely to be ore nodes. I've gained 12 iridium ore total, of which 4 came from nodes (plus a prismatic shard! Super-excited about that last iridium node!). The rest came from purple slimes and breakables (boxes/barrels). So with Miner I'd be at 15 total ore but my stockpile of staircases and spicy eels would be a little smaller.

So in the short run I'd probably be better off if I'd gone Miner. On the other hand, I don't particularly enjoy SC and in the long run I expect to get the vast majority of my iridium from the Statue of Perfection (if only one could trigger the evaluation early - I'm at 15 points in mid-summer Y2...).

Even after working through the details like this the choice still looks to me like six of one, half a dozen of the other. Which is nice! I prefer two reasonable options to just one obvious no-brainer.

Worblehat said:

Whereas there is no way to buy gems (I think), and only very limited ability to buy geodes, so the Geologist/Excavator perks offer benefits that can't be replicated by other means.

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I keep a well stocked crystallarium farm. It's not as comprehensive as most people's but it has everything I need/want to gift or craft with. The big difference between Geologist and Excavator, imo, is that with Geologist you get a bit more extra cash from gem drops (or extra gifts), but with Excavator it really helps you progress through the museum faster, and occasionally you get something cool from geodes, like iridium or a rare prismatic shard. The value of the excess gems you get from the geodes is a toss up, honestly, so if you are going for money than you are better off going with Geologist. I recommend Excavator though, I think you'll get the most use out of it from what it sounds like.

The Miner perk is probably best for people who frequent the SC often, and prospector...well...some people just want more coal, but it's kinda redundant IMO given how many ways we have to get coal easily.

I think you're mixing up Geologist and Gemologist. Every character with Excavator has Geologist already by definition.

The crystalarium farm will be nice, but that requires quite a lot of iridium... I'm figuring bars 1-5 go to Willy's anchor, bars 6-10 to the pickaxe, then bars 11-12 might become crystalarium #2.

If you're going to set up a crystalarium farm... you will be needing lots of iridium and gold. You can buy gold, but you can not buy iridium. You have to mine for it, or get it from a statue... and yes, perfection gets you iridium ore, and endless fortune can get you gold/iridium bars... but endless fortune is expensive, and is a slow waiting game, just like perfection. So, yeah, until I've got the gold clock, I'll only get endless fortune. (After that, I'll be getting a shed just for my statue collection and be getting more endless fortunes to fill it up.)

Until then, you gotta get it the hard way, or if you want more than a trickle. That means Miner. Then it's just deciding between bars being worth more or coal being more plentiful, and since I never sell bars... that's an easy choice.

Yeah, I go miner+blacksmith because I make decent amounts of cash from deep Skull Caverns runs, but that's not a super common playstyle. If I weren't going to SC I'd probably still start out with miner+prospector for the kegs and jars though, but I get why some people might prefer the other professions, depending on playstyle. Mining seems more balanced than some of the other skill trees, which is nice.
Also I'll sometimes switch to Excavator to finish the museum and then switch back. Especially now that there's other ways to get all of the artifacts besides artifact spots, so it's actually possible for minerals to be the last thing you need for the museum.

Worblehat said:

The +1 ore per iridium node is meaningful, but the question is then where one should expect to get the bulk of one's iridium from? Ore nodes, monster drops, Statue of Perfection, other sources? From what I've seen in SC runs so far, the answer is unlikely to be ore nodes. I've gained 12 iridium ore total, of which 4 came from nodes (plus a prismatic shard! Super-excited about that last iridium node!). The rest came from purple slimes and breakables (boxes/barrels). So with Miner I'd be at 15 total ore but my stockpile of staircases and spicy eels would be a little smaller.

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Yeah, you really need to get to floor 70+ or so to start seeing iridium nodes commonly, which does take some practice. And of course if that's not something you enjoy, that's what the statue of perfection is for.

Elenna101 said:

Yeah, you really need to get to floor 70+ or so to start seeing iridium nodes commonly, which does take some practice.

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It's pretty easy when you have crystalariums. Just set them to produce jade and get a pile of stairs.

Dive, convert your ores to more crystalariums, then dive sooner and deeper. Repeat. Once you have a good base of Jade and Quartz, diving SC for iridium and bombing is pretty easy.

Also if you are fishing a lot and take Pirate then Excavator is pretty useless. Treasure chests will net you A LOT of geodes, so you are free to use your mining skill for something else.