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[Akoto]

So, all dwarves love adamantite. It's the candy of metals, and what could possibly be dangerous about mining it?!

That said, finding it can sometimes prove a frustration. What are your techniques for finding adamantite ASAP? That includes how to do it via cheating, if you like. I'd love to be able to start at the top of columns so that nothing's wasted, without having to randomly mine out labyrinths across dozens of Z-layers in hopes of finding something.

[Dorsidwarf]

So, all dwarves love adamantite. It's the candy of metals, and what could possibly be dangerous about mining it?!

That said, finding it can sometimes prove a frustration. What are your techniques for finding adamantite ASAP? That includes how to do it via cheating, if you like. I'd love to be able to start at the top of columns so that nothing's wasted, without having to randomly mine out labyrinths across dozens of Z-layers in hopes of finding something.

Drill down to the Magma Sea and you'll almost always get the notifications at the same time you breach the sea.

[PatrikLundell]

As Dorsidwarf said, digging down to the magma sea and explore it so that the center of each embark tile is exposed (i.e. making several holes down to the sea). You'd then carefully probe for the rest of it (i.e. upwards) with careful mining (note that you won't stop and get a warning when you dig into a spire already exposed, so you have to do careful single layer at a time onion peeling.
Spires appear about the center of embark tiles, and by the sea they shouldn't have twisted much out from the center.

I assume you can also cheat by using the DFHack reveal (which I think can have some nasty side effects in some cases).

It doesn't matter where you start mining it, as long as you mine only the safe parts. Only when the safe parts have been claimed do I move to mine the unsafe parts, and that only after having set up accident handling measures.

[Akoto]

I admit, I haven't done much with the magma sea. The only times I've really even breached it have been when it's breached by default, i.e. volcanoes. I understand that cracking open certain areas or getting visuals on certain things gets you notifications that they're present. However, I don't understand how one can explore a sea of magma without... Um, melting the dwarves involved. I'd think it would also invite some nasty things up early on.

I'm familiar with the fact that the adamantite columns are kind of a scheme, tempting you to dig up more and more so that you eventually free demons. I'm just not seeing where the Magma Sea figures in, unless the idea is that the columns of adamantite are the only solid things crossing through that level before continuing onward to Hell.

I'm sounding like a dumb newbie here, I know, and failing my dwarven engineering terribly. The only thing I can think of to make the magma sea a practical way of accessing the adamantine is by solidfying it with a waterfall.

With respect to DFhack's reveal, I had always assumed that the "blank spots" which are hidden despite the surrounding map showing - usually on deep levels - were either adamantine or dark fortresses being obscured as an anti-spoiler mechanism.

[Bumber]

I admit, I haven't done much with the magma sea. The only times I've really even breached it have been when it's breached by default, i.e. volcanoes. I understand that cracking open certain areas or getting visuals on certain things gets you notifications that they're present. However, I don't understand how one can explore a sea of magma without... Um, melting the dwarves involved. I'd think it would also invite some nasty things up early on.

Finding an opening to the magma sea in the 3rd cavern reveals pretty much the entire thing. (Magma is apparently transparent to dwarves.) You might have to find/create multiple openings on larger embarks to see all of it.

I'm just not seeing where the Magma Sea figures in, unless the idea is that the columns of adamantite are the only solid things crossing through that level before continuing onward to Hell.

They're not the only solid thing, but the columns are always (I think) surrounded directly by magma in the magma sea layer.

[Fleeting Frames]

Either magma, or semi-molten rock.

Dwarven radar techniques are good for finding them, though. One I've used is drawing an unfinished 31x31 zone, and before pressing second enter move downwards if you find 1-4 pits+3-0 meeting areas, you've probably found the hollow of the magma tube.

Also, you don't need to use a dwarf to explore. Even cave-in can reveal a bit, and tossing a kitty in volcano is neat way to see a whole lot - they die only when they hit the bottom.

[PatrikLundell]

Breaching the magma sea is like breaching a cavern: it reveals a large area. Thus, you poke a few holes in the roof of the sea, without actually descending into it. Unless you want to live dangerously you immediately plug those holes to avoid invasion by nasties. In general, though, breaching the magma sea is about as dangerous as breaching a cavern in that you may open it up on top of something nasty, but you generally manage to plug it. Also there are no FBs entering the embark through the magma sea and magma critters don't seem to be keen enough to enter the fortress to run for an opening (although leaving one open will have them enter eventually).

I believe reveal can reveal the blank spots and more, given the right parameter, but I don't really see any reason to use reveal.

[Iamblichos]

I almost always sprint for the basement to start magma forges, rather than try to survive on charcoal or coke.  How I find it is to drop a vertical shaft of stairs all the way to the bottom, rerouting as caverns get discovered (and immediately sealing off the caverns as I go).

Once you get to the bottom, if you're lucky you will come out over a big swathe of magma; if not, you can burrow down into one of the stone columns, bottoming out on semi-molten rock.  At that point you need to go up and sideways, looking for warm rock.  When you find some, go up a level and see if the stone is still warm.  If it is, repeat until it's cold.  Then dig around a bit to see if you are at the top, then just channel a peephole to see the sea.

[GhostDwemer]

Drill down, find the magma sea. If there's no spire immediately visible, go up a couple levels and dig a cross, then down at the ends of the cross.  A cheesy method of determining hollowness is to use the farm plot oracle. Try to place a farm plot, maximum size. If the whole thing is red, there are no floor tiles in that area. If parts change to green or purple, those are floors. Dwarven farmers can tell where floors are, even in unrevealed tiles. Or, you know, use dfhack and "reveal-hell", then for extra cheese sauce, "fill-tubes."

[Iamblichos]

You can also smooth and arrowslit to see into the column without letting anything that MIGHT be in there out.

[muldrake]

Once you find adamantine, there's always the Dwarf Ground Penetrating Radar to avoid the HFS that you will otherwise encounter.

Also since I'm in this thread, what do you do to avoid HFS when mining one of these adamantine veins?  How many layers at the top (3?  4?) are guaranteed to be safe without an opening into HFS?

[Fleeting Frames]

When messing around with reveal hell, I've seen only 1 layer as safe, but I wouldn't be surprised for the number to be 0.

[GhostDwemer]

When messing around with reveal hell, I've seen only 1 layer as safe, but I wouldn't be surprised for the number to be 0.

I've seen dozens of safe layers in a spire. It all depends...

[Quietust]

Nitpick: it's adamantine, not adamantite.

[Infinityforce]

Nitpick: it's adamantine, not adamantite.

it's the stuff wolverine is made out of, right? not quite mythril or damascus either. I always imagined the Ur-Metal in DF to be an alloy.

p.s. I know, wolverine has an adamantium skeleton, please don't roast me