Gathering Ore can be a time-consuming, and sometimes frustrating task. To maximize your success, it is important to understand a bit about how the ore nodes are populated by the landscape and how relative demand and character behavior affect the amount of ore you find.

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Ore spawns in fixed locations, often called nodes. The landscape generator has a probability to fill (spawn) an empty node every so often - in the absence of players removing ore, generally most of the nodes will be filled. Most nodes can spawn either of two types of ore, usually iron or a precious metal. Note that in some areas ore of different tiers may be on the same spawn table (e.g. in the The Trollshaws you can get Gold or Dwarf-Iron).

Not all ore is in demand to the same level. See the entry on Metalsmiths to understand how much iron is required to skill up a Metalsmith. In general, iron is in higher demand than precious metals because both Metalsmiths and Weaponsmiths need iron, while only Jewelers consume precious metals. This high demand for iron can result in selective removal by many players of just the iron ore, leaving a landscape increasingly populated by precious metal nodes only. This can be very frustrating for Prospectors searching for iron.

In general, there will be more of the scarce resources if everyone mining mines ALL of the nodes. Similarly, you can get better results in scarce conditions by clearing the nodes from an area and waiting for them to respawn, then clearing again. This technique will guarantee at least some of the scarce resource.

More information is avialable in the strategy guides offered by Killer Guides for Lord of the Rings Online.