Mining Spells

The Glyph of Break is the mining glyph in Ars Nouveau, and it’s one of the five glyphs every spell book comes with, so you’re able to mine with magic from the very start. It only breaks one block at a time on its own, but with a few augments added, a mining spell clears out whole areas, mines Obsidian and even gives you Silk Touch or Fortune drops.

Usually you’ll want a couple of different mining spells in your book, like a small one for everyday use and a bigger one for clearing out space. Most of the good augments for mining are tier 2 though, so you’ll need a Mage’s Spell Book before you’re able to make the bigger ones.

A Basic Mining Spell

The first mining spell most people make is Touch and Break, which breaks whatever block you’re looking at. It’s a bit like having a pickaxe that never wears out, and since both glyphs come with a Novice Spell Book, you’re able to make it straight away.

If you swap Touch for Projectile, the spell fires a bolt that breaks the block it hits instead. It comes in handy in caves, for knocking ores out of the ceiling or the far side of a ravine, and saves a lot of pillaring up with Cobblestone and breaking it all back down again.

Harvest Level and Amplify

A Break spell mines the same blocks as an Iron Pickaxe, so Diamond Ore and Gold Ore are fine, but Obsidian and Ancient Debris won’t break. Putting one Amplify after Break brings it up to the same level as a Diamond Pickaxe, and then it’s able to mine pretty much anything.

Mining Fatigue also brings the level down, which catches people out in Ocean Monuments, where a spell that normally works suddenly stops mining some blocks. An extra Amplify fixes that, so it’s worth keeping one spell with Amplify in it if you’re planning on raiding one.

Mining Bigger Areas

With the AOE augment, Break hits the blocks around the one you’re aiming at too, so one AOE mines a 2×2, leaning to the side you hit, two of them mine a 3×3 and four will mine a 5×5. Pierce goes the other way and mines deeper, with each one adding another block behind, so a spell with AOE and a couple of Pierce is able to dig a tunnel in one go.

Each AOE costs 35 mana though, whereas Break only costs 10, so the bigger spells do eat through your mana fairly quickly. Usually it’s best to keep the big one for clearing out a room or a tunnel, and use Touch and Break for everything else.

Silk Touch and Fortune Spells

For Silk Touch, you’ll want to add the Extract augment after Break, and blocks will drop themselves the same way they would with a Silk Touch pickaxe. So you’ll get the ore blocks themselves, and things like Glass, Ice and Grass Blocks come out whole.

For Fortune it’s the Luck augment instead, and each Luck is another level of Fortune, so three Luck works like Fortune III. Break is able to take up to four of them, which is one more level than a pickaxe can get. Extract and Luck can go in the same spell, but the Silk Touch will take over on ores, so it’s worth having one of each.

Useful Mining Spells

A spell book holds ten spells, which leaves plenty of room for a few mining ones. The glyphs are listed in the order you’d put them in, and anything using AOE, Extract or Luck needs a Mage’s Spell Book.

Spell	Glyphs	What it’s for
Quick mine	Touch, Break	Breaking single blocks early on
Long range mine	Projectile, Break	Ores you can’t reach
Hard block mine	Touch, Break, Amplify	Obsidian and Ancient Debris
Area mine	Touch, Break, AOE, AOE	Digging out a 3×3 area
Tunnel	Touch, Break, AOE, AOE, Pierce, Pierce	A 3×3 tunnel three blocks deep
Silk Touch	Touch, Break, Extract	Ore blocks, Glass and Ice
Fortune	Touch, Break, Luck, Luck, Luck	More drops from ores, like Fortune III
Collect	Touch, Break, AOE, AOE, Item Pickup	Mining an area and picking up the drops

Adding Item Pickup after Break pulls in all the drops from where the spell landed, which is great with AOE, as otherwise the items end up all over the floor. Sensitive is handy as well, since it makes Break act like Shears, so it’s able to collect Leaves, Cobwebs and Vines.

Frequently Asked Questions