Building a drill in Core Keeper allows you to mine big ore rocks that you cannot break with a pickaxe and increases the speed of your mining.
Core Keeper is popular because it mimics the elements of other survival simulator games, while keeping its own unique storyline.
As you progress through this story, you will need a drill to mine bigger ore rocks, quicker. There are several requirements you need to meet before you can build and set up your drill.
Why do people play Core Keeper?
Core Keeper is a base builder survival-simulator that appeals to people who enjoy other, similar resource-building simulators like Minecraft, Stardew Valley, Don’t Starve, and Terraria. When you start this game, you are dropped underground and you need to start gathering resources, like food, armour, and tools.
Core Keeper gives you enough of a storyline to follow that you know what you need to do, but it also allows enough room for you to play at your own pace.
Core Keeper: Drill
Since gathering and increasing your resources in Core Keeper is so important, a late-game item such as a drill, which helps you mine ore faster, is a good way to build up your inventory.
The drill automates your mining processes in the game and you may need a drill later in the game when you come across rocks that are too big to mine with your regular pickaxe. These bigger rocks contain large amounts of ore, which can be extremely valuable to your game.
The automation of the drill is also beneficial. The drill runs on power from an electrical generator and after you have set up your initial drilling system, it mines on its own, without much need for intervention on your side, which gives you freedom to focus on other aspects of the game. However, the drills do mine slower when you move away from them in the game.
The drill makes quick work of breaking down big rocks of ore and mines about half a piece of ore per minute. You can also stack multiple drills together in your setup, which increases this speed as follows:
| Number of drills | Time it takes to mine one piece of ore |
| 1 | 120 seconds |
| 2 | 68 seconds |
| 3 | 50 seconds |
| 4 | 40 seconds |
| 5 | 37 seconds |
| 6 | 34 seconds |
| 7 | 31.5 seconds |
| 8 | 30 seconds |
Requirements to build a drill in Core Keeper
Before you can start setting up a drill with which to mine ore, you need to progress through the game. Some of the things you need to complete before you can start drilling, include:
| Requirement | Summary |
Defeat three bosses |
This includes defeating Glurch, Ghorma, and the Hive Mother and placing their gems in their statues. |
Touch the Great Wall |
Now, you can interact with the core, which will help you destroy the Great wall. |
Find the Azeos Wilderness biome |
Once the Great Wall has disappeared, you can interact with the core again to be directed to the new biome. |
Mine scarlet ore and iron ore |
You can find scarlet ore exclusively in the Azeos Wilderness biome and iron ore can be found in the Forgotten Ruins biome. You need a quantity of 30 or more for each kind of ore to start with. |
How to build a drill in Core Keeper
In order to craft your drill once you have defeated the bosses, unlocked new biomes, and mined for ore, you first need to craft a few workbenches, including a Scarlet workbench, an Electronics table, an Automation Table, and a few other items, namely:
| Craft item | Requirements |
| Drill | Iron bar x10, scarlet bar x10 |
| Robot Arm | Iron bar x5, scarlet bar x5 |
| Conveyor Belt | Iron bar x1, scarlet bar x1 |
| Electricity Generator | Copper bar x10, iron bar x5, gold bar x1 |
| Electrical Wire | Copper bar x1 |
| Chest | 5 Wood |
How to set up your drill in Core Keeper
When you have all of the above items ready, you can choose which big ore rock you would like to drill and then follow these steps:
- Place the drill next to the rock and press E to rotate the drill, so that it is facing the rock
- Put the electrical wire on the ground next to the drill and the generator on the other end of the wire
- Place a conveyor belt at the back of a drill to carry the ore and a wall at the end to keep them from falling off
- Place the robot arm near the end of the conveyer belt and the chest on the opposite side