Core Keeper

Core Keeper Drill Guide: How to Craft, Materials, and Gathering Rates

Posted on Aug 11, 2023 by justin

Adventuring in the different biomes in Core Keeper will sometimes bring players to different large boulders. Attempting to harvest ore from these boulders won’t yield results. Instead, you must use a drill to collect the prizes in these massive stones. With that, here's how to craft the drill in Core Keeper and all the different ore boulders you can harvest with it.

How to Craft a Drill in Core Keeper

To craft the drill, first, interact with the Automation Table and use 10x Iron Bar and 10x Scarlet Bar. If you don’t have this crafting station, you can make it using 5x Copper Bar and 8x Tin Bar at the Tin Workbench. To make the Tin Workbench, use 10x Wood, 6x Copper Bar, and 10x Tin Bar at the Copper Workbench. But if you still don’t have this workbench, you can craft it from the Basic Workbench using 8x Wood and 6x Copper Bar.

How To Use The Drill and Ore Yields

Although the primary function of the drill in Core Keeper is to mine ores from Ore Boulders, you can also use it to harvest minerals from walls. Note that you can’t use this piece of automated furniture on an Obsidian Wall. With the drill in place, connect a generator next to the device to give it power. You can also connect multiple drills with one generator, provided that there’s sufficient energy to power the units. Warning: The drill can damage Core Keeper NPCs, and will deal 3 damage per second if those characters get too close. You can also use up to eight drills mining a wall or Ore Boulder. However, the time it takes to deplete the drilled surface’s minerals depends on the number of drills working on it. Here’s an overview of the time it takes to mine ore using the drill in Core Keeper and the number of minerals to mine:

Drills	Time to Deplete Mineral Deposit	Ore Gathered Per Minute
1	2:00 minutes	0.5
2	1:08 minutes	0.88
3	50 seconds	1.2
4	40 seconds	1.5
5	37 seconds	1.62
6	34 seconds	1.76
7	31.5 seconds	1.9
8	30 seconds	2.00

Note: As of patch 0.5.2.4, ores in Ore Boulders are in different positions. That means placing a drill in a specific spot next to an Ore Boulder may not yield the same result when placed in a different location.