Originally Posted by
CheddarLimbo
Dynamite will give you 2 random pieces of ore, TnT will give you 3, and shovels will give you 4. It also SEEMS like shovels are more likely to give you a diamond, but I can't speak to any statistics to prove that. Any of the tools can give you that bonus diamond.
Also, picking up ore is like picking up complete products or harvesting crops in that you can earn the special tool or item drops like tape, nails, etc.
Here's what I do:
Step 1 - Hire Tom for 15 diamonds, and send him to get shovels.
Step 2 - Use the shovels to dig up tons and tons of ore, and (hopefully) diamonds.
Step 3 - Repeat this process until you've earned back 15 diamonds, then start sending Tom out to get whatever other item you need that takes a long time to make, like Jellybeans, Chocolate, Jams, etc. with whatever trips you have left over.
Repeat as needed. It means you don't have to really "pay" for Tom for a few trips, and it nets you a bunch of shovels/ore.
This will leave you with a huge pile of ore in your barn. So then I put all my silver in one smelter, gold in another, platinum in another. The other two I tend to rotate depending on what I need to make.
If you keep filling up your barn you can open your queue and add a new bar to production without picking the old ones up (we call it stacking). the end result is you have piles of completed bars sitting on the ground outside your smelters. When you need them for jewelry, you just pick up the ones you need, and leave the rest, make your bracelets, or necklaces, and then send them off. This keeps you from storing a ton of ore and metal bars in your barn taking up valuable space.
My only other tip is: don't make your own diamond rings. It takes a diamond for each one. you can spend 15 diamonds and get a lot more than 15 rings if you just ask Tom to get them for you.
