Overview
This guide will explain a technique to help you to mine for oil in an orderly fashion and without dying.
Background
I have spent many a day mining in Arctic mines, typically mining for oil and ores found there to sell in my Mini-Emporium. Sometimes other players will come into the mines and seem to abruptly leave. As I’m sweeping the mine for oil, I’ll sometimes see a few blocks pulled, but most of the oil field left behind by the other players. I suspect many people don’t have a technique for mining oil and often find the oil kills them before they can harvest a significant amount of oil blocks. This guide is to share with other players my technique for mining oil without dying.
My Technique for Mining Oil
My technique to mine for oil is pretty simple.
1. Find an oil field in an Arctic mine.
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2. Next, clear out one side of the oil field down to the level of the oil.
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3. Then dig a trench in the dirt/grass on that one side three blocks down. Oil is only three blocks deep, so a three block trench is adequate. Be careful to not hit the oil while pulling the dirt/grass blocks else you will lose life points.
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4. Continue to mine the oil in a 3×3 fashion from the one side, using standard 3×3 mining techniques.
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5. Mine a 3×3 trench through the oil field. After, start to work on the left over oil blocks on the sides or in the nooks. If an oil field is wider, continue to mine in 3×3 trenches until you’ve mined the whole field, being careful to pull the blocks away from the oil blocks that are still in the ground. Your avatar will step back when pulling blocks so keep the oil blocks that are in the ground in front of you.
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6. Continue until you’ve mined the entire area. Then run through to gather the floating oil blocks as they will not harm you if they are floating.
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That’s all there is to it. Start from one side. Do the standard 3×3 mining technique keeping the oil in the ground in front of you (so you don’t back into it and lose life points). Gather the pulled blocks.
Happy mining for oil!!