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[mcshmeggy]

so I found my first bit of admentine. how would I go about mining it? I think it would be pretty simple, except for the fact that is surrounded by lava, and water is on top of it.

any suggestions are more than welcome.

also I don't mind if I break into hell, this fort has been lucky for too long.

[Daetrin]

Drain the water into the lava to make obsidian!

[geail]

Drain the water into the lava to make obsidian!

This.  The most effective way is to coat the cotton candy with the precious black glass

[mcshmeggy]

thank you very much, I will try this now

[Nil Eyeglazed]

The adamantine almost always protrudes higher than the magma, it's just that the magma part gets revealed through the magma.

If you're anything like me, you don't want to have to devise an entire magma irrigation system before you go for the adamantine.  Just dig on the level above the magma, in the places that the adamantine exists.  You'll strike a vein that way.

[Silly Theory]

I just found the spiral too.

How many z-levels does it span, usually?

[ThatAussieGuy]

That's part of the !!Fun!! 

You never know just how deep in the adamantine vein is Too Deep.

[malroth]

smooth, carve a fortification to look behind the wall, then be prepared to pull your "collapse everything" lever if you find something

[Nil Eyeglazed]

There's probably no hard rule.  My current map has 5 spires.  The most dangerous spire has 1 free level and the fun begins under that; it's 4 levels from top of spire to magma.  The safest spire has 12 free levels of adamantine, extending to the top of the deepest cavern, and 14 levels between the magma and the top.  It takes 12 additional levels from the magma to hell; hell lies 4 levels under where it stops.  DFProspector shows between 3 and 4k adamantine total on my map.  The most adamantine I've ever heard of on an unmodded, unbugged map is close to 20k.  Bugs that cause sectors at the wrong z-levels can cause things like adamantine spire levels.

[Silly Theory]

Ah, I thought maps only spawned with 2 spirals. Gotta read that wiki some moar.

I found my first spiral on zlvl -60 . I First two layers are unreacheable (surrounded by water, and I haven"t gotten around to messing with water in this game yet. seems mighty complicated...).

So I just skipped that one, and uncovered 4 layers so far. Nice to know that there are other spirals around, althought what I have already found is gonna be enough for a LOT of stuff.

[Nil Eyeglazed]

It depends on the size of the map.  My map with 5 spires is a 4x4.  I expect you're guaranteed a spire in any 2x2 section, as that's the minimum embark, but as the locations are generated before embark and aren't on a strict grid (which could be gamed), you could end up with between 1 and 4 for a 3x3.

Trying to pump out a cavern of sourced water (water that extends to the map edge) sounds close to impossible to me without a bit of magma application.  I'd be surprised, though, if more than one level of adamantite was covered this way, so I'd just look on the level under the water.  If you've got to get rid of the water, you could pumpstack some magma up (black glass solves water problems as well as it solves magma problems) or you could cause a controlled cave-in.

[Urist Imiknorris]

I just found the spiral too.

How many z-levels does it span, usually?

It will at least reach the highest level the magma sea reaches on your map.

[peskyninja]

I just found the spiral too.

How many z-levels does it span, usually?

from the

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Circus

top to anywhere ,I've found one on the 1st cavern layer

[franti]

There was a report, possibly a bug, of a spire that went up 10,000 z-levles, and I myself have found spires protruding out of the ocean before.

[Zaerosz]

2212 z-levels above ground, IIRC. I remember hearing something about another one of comparable height, but I'm not sure.