Ore Caves
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These caves are in-game formations that can be found inside your world. These were added in version 1.0.27_X4186, and are usually large in size, being the average cave a couple hundred blocks of extension. They always take the shape of already generated vanilla formations, as they generate before this process is completed. This might result on the player encountering otherwise vanilla structures which have their stone tagged blocks replaced by the ones these caves add to the game, like Mineshafts composed of bauxite blocks.
They come in 2 variants: Caves, which always have cave-like shape and are easy to spot, and Stratas, which are deposits that can also take the shape of existing generated caves, but they can also be fully enclosed in stone.
Caves
Pretty dangerous for the early-game players, as these caves pose various threats that are hard to circumvent without the recommended equipment.
Sulfuric Caves
These formations are entirely composed of Sulfurous Stone and Sulfurous Stalagmites, along with some patches of Sulfuric Acid, which can damage the player and kill them if they're not careful enough. Sulfur can be obtained as a main product by centrifuging, shredding or acidizing the stone, or be obtained in its dust form directly by breaking a stalagmite. The sulfuric acid can be picked up with a bucket if the player so desires to do, although it would be an ineffective way to navigate these caves, since the amount of acid present on them surpasses greatly the amount of inventory space available (and even modded early game equippable inventories).
Asbestos Caves
Although less dangerous than their sulfurous counterpart, these caves also pose the risk of death by contracting respiratory diseases, as the presence of Asbestos Particles is guaranteed. These are also composed of 2 main blocks, the Asbestos Stalagmite (drops Asbestos Dust) and Chrysolite Rock (can be processed into Asbestos Dust like the Sulfurous Rock).
Stratas
Extremely useful after the player has reached the infrastructure required for the processing of these blocks the deposits contain, which can yield insane amounts of material (At least 1000 items roughly)
Hematite Strata
Composed entirely of brown-red Hematite Blocks, the size of these deposits are generally in the range of 300-1200 blocks estimated. Before the Bedrock Ore update, this was the only way to obtain Hematite, which is desired as it's a great way to obtain Iron by melting the rock on a Crucible, being the yield 1 iron ingot per block and a stone byproduct.
Malachite Strata
Almost the same as Hematite deposits, except this green Malachite comes in drastically smaller sizes, being the tinier veins a couple blocks of extension. Malachite can also be processed the same way as Hematite, except it yields Copper instead of Iron.
Bauxite Strata
This bright orange rock deposit is generates in huge patches, being approximately the same size as Hematite deposits. Processing the Bauxite rock yields primarily 2 Aluminium ingots and 250mb of Red Mud if processed on a Combination Furnace, and said red mud can be also re-processed on a Coker Unit for Iron and Mercury.
Schist Strata
It is the most special of all the stratas, as it contains various resources outside its composing Schist Rock. Its formation is controlled by a perlin noise function, so this means that they are unpredictable to locate, but you are guaranteed to find them at some point. These resources generate more commonly inside of this Schist, which generate in the form of Schist Ores.
The ores found inside this strata are Gold, Asbestos, Copper, Iron and Uranium as the most common ones. Rare Earth and Lithium generate in scarce quantities, Petroleum Gas can also be obtained very easily from Gas Shale Blocks, which contain 250mb of this product and can be inserted onto any fluid container/machine if placed on the insert slot. Schist Rock itself can also be shredded to produce some tiny piles of Lithium, and can be acidized to obtain Lithium Dust
Trivia
- Processing of Hematite and Malachite was nerfed from 2 ingots yield down to one in update
X4774.Malachite veins were adjusted to be larger to compensate the nerf, but it's still a pretty subpar way to obtain copper despite its "buff". - Bauxite can be easily confused with Lava, as the texture and color pallete are very similar.
- Bauxite is considered to be the best deposit block, as it yields multiple first-hand materials and has a really easy processing chain.
- Lithium Schist Ore is very important, as it can be acidized to obtain Lithium Crystals, used on many end game recipes such as the Overclock Upgrades. It has the
Hydroreactivetag, which means it will explode when in contact with water. Beware of rain for this reason. - Upon mining your first Schist rock, you'll be granted an amount of XP and the "Stratum" achievement
There is a very low chance that the sine waves cancel each other out and result in little to no strata forming at all.- With a new update switching to perlin noise instead of sine waves, this should not happen.