Town Mining

[Rambler]

In the early game it can be safer to mine ore inside the town. I've seen several places where it's possible to do this. They're not HN or UC so faction shouldn't be a problem.

The iron node inside the Hub seems well known. Bandits can attack while you're mining, but they won't eat your squad. If you join the ninjas they will kill the bandits.

The automatic ore drill in Mongrel also seems well known. Fogmen can get inside the city though. I haven't experienced power issues in Mongrel but I usually build batteries and rooftop windmills in town bases to prevent that.

There's a 100 percent copper node inside the eastern Hive village, I've seen this mentioned in other posts as well. Gorillos and beak things will attack but the hivers should win the fight. The hivers don't sell buildings though, so the copper storage would need to be located in a dangerous area.

High up the mountain in Squin, there's a 40 percent copper node. Should be safe although sometimes the sheks want to fight and issue a challenge. This might be the safest mining location.

The swamp village in the far south has a 100 percent copper node. The huts have enough room for storage so this might be the best mining location. The journey would be very dangerous for a new player with all the red spiders and swamp ninjas running around. Other swamp villages may have 100 percent copper nodes as well, haven't checked all of them.

[Stonebiter3]

I generally start off going to Stack, there's a node or iron and copper just outside the walls the biggest threat there is the dogs though you can just run to stack and lure them to the guards, get yourself some skins and meat to boot, or if your games weird as hell like mine just imprison them without bounty and recruit them for free ( no idea why that works on my game, I tried replicating it on a friends Roger and it didn't) and the other threat is hungry bandits, which just make good combat practice early game

[Rambler]

Tried that in one of my earlier games, did get attacked by bonedogs so it's probably safer if another character stays in the city in case a rescue is needed. Also, the Stack guards didn't always attack the hungry bandits, and IIRC if you loot bandits inside Stack the guards may get mad at your characters. Stack seemed more lively than the other HN cities, bonedogs frequently ran into town and got knocked out so free meat was available. The Hub seemed safer and Squin seemed like the safest spot.

Another early game mining spot I liked was the 100 percent copper nodes next to the Stenn Desert waystation. Berserkers attack the guards there frequently, so you can sell their fragment axes as well, and the bar sells backpacks. It's very important to station someone inside the waystation if you mine in that location, though, because of the skin spiders. I had 6 or more miners stationed there a few times, and it is possible to run to the waystation immediately after starting a new game if you already know where it is.