Boulder
| Boulder | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Mechanic |
A Boulder is an oversized rock that covers four tiles instead of one, and it is as much a gate as a resource. Several sit on the farm from the first morning, parked across bridges and in the corners of the map, and the starter Pickaxe bounces straight off them. Underground they are different animals: boulders in The Mines, the Skull Cavern and the Quarry Mine all fall to an ordinary Pickaxe given enough swings, and each one bursts into a useful pile of Stone. That makes them one of the better early sources of building material, at a time when Stone is the thing holding up chests, paths and the first Furnace. The farm boulders, once gone, stay gone.
Overview
The boulders on the farm are the ones that matter most, because they stand between the farmhouse and parts of the land. They block bridges and shortcuts, and they sit on ground that could otherwise be tilled or paved. Breaking one needs a Pickaxe of steel grade or better, which is the second upgrade at the Blacksmith and costs five Iron Bars alongside the gold. Until then the message is the same every time, and the only answer is to walk around. A steel-grade swing takes four hits to finish the job, so the clearing is a quiet afternoon rather than a single click. Each farm boulder breaks into fifteen pieces of Stone, which is a solid return for an afternoon of swinging.
Clearing them opens the farm up for good. The original boulders never grow back, so the bridge they were blocking stays open, the corner they were squatting in becomes planting ground, and the walk across the farm gets shorter. On a farm layout with its own rock patch the boulders are part of the same chore as the stumps and the large logs, and the usual order of work is to clear a path first and widen the fields later.
Underground, a boulder is simply a big rock with a big reward. The ones in The Mines come in two looks: the brown sort on the upper floors and the deep lava floors, which also scatter through the Skull Cavern, and the blue-grey sort on the frozen floors in the middle of the mine. Either kind breaks with any grade of Pickaxe, including the starter tool, although the weaker the tool the more swings it takes. Ten pieces of Stone come out of each one. The reward is Stone alone, since the Mining skill counts nodes and ore rather than boulders, so a floor full of boulders is a stock run rather than a levelling run.
The Quarry Mine keeps the toughest boulders in the valley. It is the single long shaft above the Quarry, reached once the bridge there has been repaired, and it holds its layout between visits rather than reshuffling. A steel-grade Pickaxe breaks the ordinary rocks inside in two hits, but the boulders need gold grade to make real progress, and even then it is four hits each. An iridium Pickaxe brings that down to three. Part of the passage is walled off by rock heavy enough that a gold Pickaxe is the price of admission, and the far end of the corridor holds a Grim Reaper statue with the Golden Scythe in its hands.
One famous boulder has nothing to do with pickaxes at all. The Glittering Boulder sits in the Mountain beside the entrance to The Mines, where it dams the river. No tool will shift it. Finishing the Fish Tank bundles in the Community Center clears it overnight instead, and Willy then waits in the Mountain with a Copper Pan to hand over. With the water running and the pan in the toolbar, every shimmering patch in every river and lake becomes a source of ore and gems, which is the real reward hiding behind the rock.
Notes
Meteorites are the one way a new boulder-sized rock arrives on the farm after the first clearing. One lands rarely, overnight, with a message about an explosion in the night, and it takes up a four-tile square wherever it falls, crops and paths included. Breaking it needs a gold-grade Pickaxe at the least, and it pays out Iridium Ore, Stone and a pair of Geodes, which makes it a welcome visitor despite the damage.
A boulder on the farm occupies ground that would otherwise grow things, so clearing the ones nearest the farmhouse first usually pays better than clearing the scenic ones at the edges.
All Mechanics
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
