Mining for Ores and Gems

While there isn't a mine to explore in Zephyr Town, there are still ways to collect ores and gems. You'll find loose ore nodes around town that can produce these precious items when smashed using a hatchet. Ore nodes vary by season and location and, like other wild items, reappear at 5:00 pm for a second smashing of the day.

The 5 types of ore nodes, from common to rare, are copper, silver, gold, orichalcum, and mithril. While copper nodes can be smashed using the beginner-level hatchet, mithril nodes can only be broken using an orichalcum-quality hatchet or higher. Hitting a node with an insufficiently upgraded tool will display the message, "Your hatchet's not strong enough." To upgrade your hatchet, use the red windmill for the copper and silver levels, the blue windmill for the gold upgrade, and finally, the yellow windmill for the orichalcum and ultimate (mithril) tool levels.

When destroyed using a hatchet, a node will randomly produce 1 to 3 items, ranging from a simple rock to a pretty diamond. Nodes produce the same goods all year long, with some goods only appearing from ore nodes located in specific areas.

Name	Hatchet Lvl	Items
Copper Node	Hatchet	Common: Iron Uncommon: Copper Rare: Rock, Moonstone Moonstone only appears from Copper Nodes in the Mountain or on your farm after a storm.
Silver Node	Copper Hatchet	Common: Iron Uncommon: Copper, Silver, Peridot, Topaz Rare: Rock Peridot only appears from Silver Nodes in Zephyr Town. Topaz only appears from Silver Nodes in the Mountain or on your farm after a storm.
Gold Node	Silver Hatchet	Common: Iron, Copper Uncommon: Silver, Gold Rare: Rock, Ruby, Emerald, Amethyst Ruby only appears from Gold Nodes in Zephyr Town. Emerald only appears from Gold Nodes in the Mountain Amethyst only appears from Gold Nodes in the Equestrian Park (Gold ore is also more common here).
Orichalcum Node	Gold Hatchet	Common: Iron, Copper, Silver Uncommon: Gold Rare: Orichalcum, Diamond
Mithril Node	Orichalcum Hatchet	Common: Iron, Copper, Silver Uncommon: Gold, Mithril Rare: Pink Diamond

Node Locations

The rarity of ore nodes changes as the year progresses. In spring, there are more copper and silver nodes compared to winter, whereas winter has more orichalcum and mithril nodes than spring. The nodes that do appear are typically the same type every day, though the quantity that appears is undefined; there may be 1 or 2, or maybe none at all. The high-mountain cliff area (more on that below) seems to be the most random spot of them all.

Most nodes appear in Zephyr Town, the Mountain, and the Equestrian Park. The day after a summer or winter storm (S), you can also find copper and silver ore nodes scattered around your farm, where you have 2 days to smash them before they disappear. The storm-dropped nodes do not reappear at 5:00 pm like the standard nodes.

You will never find ore nodes in the bazaar grounds.

Zephyr Town

There are a few tricky locations in this area. The first spot (#1), across from the yellow windmill, requires a double jump and then a glide; you can't access it from location #3 below. For #6, go west from Wilbur and Nadine's house and jump up from there. You can reach spot #7 by climbing onto Derek and Jules' house roof and double jumping from the roof's peak. You can reach spot #8 by gliding over from the Sunnywood Hotel, though most likely you'll get there by using the jump barrel to reach spot #11 and then moving on to #8 on the way down.

Mountain

There are 2 spots in the Mountain that require the double-jump skill. The first is #10, which you can reach by double jumping from the southeast corner on days with less than 2 dots of wind speed. The second is #12. For this spot, stand at the top edge of the mountain, jump to the east, double jump when halfway across the gap, and then glide the rest of the distance. This requires a wind speed of 1 dot (if you're skilled) or 2 dots. Location #13 is in front of Kagetsu's shrine and is accessible after your bazaar reaches Rank 3.

Equestrian Park

This area only has gold ore nodes all year long. Gold all day, every day. If you want gold, this is the place to go! Additionally, this is the only area where Amethyst can appear when breaking gold ore nodes.

After a summer/winter storm, there will be extra gold ore nodes.