Farming sims are having a moment and from Stardew Valley, we’ve gotten full re-imagined fun with Sun Haven and even My Time At Sandrock. Now we have Coral Island a farming and life sim that has you living out your conservation dreams on a beautiful Southeast Asian tropical island. In this world, you can spend your days growing crops, raising livestock and revitalising the town. And in your free time, there’s always fishing and mining to do!
Mining in Coral Island is not just great to earn money but the ores you collect are necessary to upgrade your Farmhouse and equipment. There are several different mines to go through in the Caverns of Coral Island, types of ores and gemstones, as well as enemies that you encounter. We’ll cover all this and more in our Coral Island mining guide below!
Disclaimer: Coral Island was released on the 11th of October 2022 in Early Access. As such information in this guide is subject to changes and additions. We’ll be adding more to this guide as the game updates!
QUICK LINKS
- How To Start Mining
- The Mines
- Traversing The Mines
- Mining Mastery Skills
- Monsters
- How To Upgrade Your Pickaxe
- Smelting Ore
How To Start Mining
You’ll immediately get a pickaxe on your first day on Coral Island so that you can smash the rocks on the farm. That’s basically the essence of mining haha but to get to the Cavern that may take you a few days. Sometime in the first week Mark will show up at your property and tell you about the Caverns on the back of the island. That’s your cue to head on over there.
Head on to the Cavern and you’ll run into Kira who will tell you about the mines and give you a Blunt Sword before you go in. When you enter the Cavern, there are a few sets of stone doors, which open up different areas within the mines below. The first door that’s open is the Earth Mine which has Bronze ore.
Head on in and start hitting your Pickaxe against rocks to get ores, stones or gems.
The Mines
When you enter the mines there looks to be about four different mines available. But currently, in the Early Access version, you’ll only be able to go to the Earth and Water Mine. You’ll need to reach the bottom of each mine to unlock the other. So in the Earth Mine, you’ll need to reach level 35 to be able to enter the Water Mine.
Earth Mine (35 Levels)
Ores: Bronze
Gemstones: Amber, Fire Agate, Moonstone, Pink Crystal, Diamond, Lepidolite, Granite
Earth Geodes (may contain): Marble, Black Opal, Red Beryl, Diorite, Blue Quartz, Quartz, Fire Agate, Morganite, Topaz, Aquamarine.
As we mentioned before the Earth Mine is the first door that’s open to you, head on in and take the elevator down to start mining.
Water Mine (45 Levels)
Ores: Silver, Bronze
Gemstones: Amber, Fire Agate, Moonstone, Pink Crystal, Diamond, Lepidolite, Granite
Water Geodes (may contain): Marble, Black Opal, Jasper, Diamond, Red Beryl, Diorite, Blue Quartz, Quartz, Fire Agate, Morganite, Topaz, Aquamarine.
As we mentioned before the Earth Mine is the first door that’s open to you, head on in and take the elevator down to start mining.
Traversing The Mines
Traverse the mine via rope or elevator, use them when you need to return to the surface. But with the elevator, unlike the rope, you’ll be able to jump to another elevator stop point that you’ve discovered. You won’t be able to hop around the mine from the elevator on Day One, instead, you’ll need to unlock it by discovering it, which you’ll be able to do every five levels or so.
To move further down the mine without the use of an elevator simply mine all the rocks around you. Eventually, you’ll find a hole which will drop you into the level below you.
Though the rule is that you’ll find an elevator every five levels, there’s an exception when you’re at level 30 of the Cavern. Instead of 5 levels down the next elevator will be ten levels down, not five. So remember to pack for an extended, difficult trip to reach level 40, which is the bottom.
The contents of the Cavern are randomized each day, and it doesn’t appear that ore or gems become more abundant as you go lower and lower. So if you’re just mining for ore it shouldn’t matter which level you go to.
Mining Mastery Skills
Tier I Skills
- Double Ore I: 20% chance to mine double ores.
- Double Ore II: 40% chance to mine double ores.
- Double Gems: 5% chance to find double gems.
- Rock Domino I: 5% chance to break surrounding rocks when mining.
- Rock Domino II: 10% chance to break surrounding rocks when mining.
Note: Tier II Mining Mastery skills are not yet implemented in Early Access
Monsters
Exploring the Cavern is probably the least peaceful aspect of Coral Island because of the monsters. These creatures can inflict damage to your Health, so you’ll need to clear them out with your Sword before your HP runs down to zero. Once you run out of Health your trip into the Cavern will end for that day.
It’s generally a smart move to clear out any monsters populating a floor before you look for the exit, and since swinging your Sword doesn’t cost any Energy there’s nothing to lose besides time if you go for the monsters first.
Note: Right now there’s only two types of monsters in Early Access but as it grows we’ll add on another Combat article.
How To Upgrade Your Pickaxe
All pickaxes consume 3 energy per use if they hit a breakable material or 1 energy if the hit fails. However, higher-level pickaxes do more damage per hit, allowing the player to spend their energy more effectively.
Smelting Ore
Metal bars are one of the key resources in Coral Island, and in order to craft them, you’ll need a Furnace and some ore. Start by crafting the furnace. You should receive this recipe quite early on in the game after mining a little bit. Simply press the letter T on your keyboard to open up the crafting menu. From there, select the furnace to craft it.
Furnace: 40x Stone, 20x Bronze Ore
After crafting the Furnace you’ll be able to smelt metal bars. For one bar you’ll need five pieces of any ore (bronze, silver, or gold) and one coal.
Note: Currently in Early Access you’re unable to mine for Gold ore but you can buy it at the Blacksmith for 800 coins each.
Coral Island
Coral Island is a vibrant and laid-back reimagining of farm sim games. Be who you want and create the idyllic farm of your dreams, where you’ll tend crops, nurture animals, and build a bond with the natural world around you. Help revitalize the nearby town and its surrounding coral reefs, and forge relationships with a vibrant community of more than 70 fellow people who call Coral Island home.
Coral Island is currently out on Early Access on PC – Steam and Xbox Game Pass.
CORAL ISLAND GUIDES
- Coral Island – Friendship Guide
- Coral Island – Bachelorette Romance Guide
- Coral Island – Bachelor Romance Guide
- Coral Island – Beginner’s Guide To Ranching
- Coral Island – Cooking and Recipe Guide
- Coral Island – Best Crops To Plant
- Coral Island – The Complete Fishing Guide
- Coral Island – Bug Catching Guide
- Coral Island – Lake Temple Offering Guide
- Coral Island – Festival Guide