How to Use Pebbles to Find Ore Faster

Pebbles are small ground items in Spelunkery — Basalt Pebble, Blackstone Pebble, and others — and they are easy to dismiss as junk. In practice they are one of the best navigation tools the mod gives you, because they tell you what stone you are standing on and therefore what ore variants can spawn nearby.

Why pebbles matter

Because ores generate inside specific stone types, knowing which stone surrounds you narrows down what you should be looking for. A pebble on the floor is a free hint about the local geology. If you see basalt pebbles, you are in basalt terrain; if you see blackstone pebbles, you are in blackstone terrain. Each terrain has its own ore distribution.

A practical search method

1. Walk your branch mine and pick up every pebble you pass.

2. Note which type dominates a given tunnel.

3. When you hit a boundary between two pebble types, slow down — transition zones often concentrate ore.

4. Dig a short probe tunnel into the wall at those boundaries.

Pebbles also stack cheaply, so collecting them costs you nothing. Keep a few in a chest as a record of which stone types you have already explored, and you will stop re-mining the same dead tunnels.