Special Rocks

Besides minerals and bedrock, the mines of Umbra also offer an assortment of special rocks.

Explosive Rocks
One tap is all it takes, and the timer is set. You have only a few seconds to get out of the way or you (and your gear) will suffer damage or destruction. The explosion damages or destroys

anything in a 3x3 area, and can trigger other explosive blocks. This volatility means miners need to use care around softer minerals like Melanite, but it also provides a powerful tool for clearing out swaths of bedrock. During the "Xmax" event a player can get "Exo-Fulmanate" fro m these rocks to complete missions.

We're not sure what's in them, because they've never been able to properly examine one without it going off. Indeed, the entire scientific findings report from Doctors Hurok and McBob (of the Nautilus Scientific Consortium of Tectonics and Volcanic Studies) simply reads, "They done blowed up real good."

Hidden Stash
A hard-to-open crate encased in bedrock, containing something left behind by a previous miner. Were they hiding it? Did they get caught in a collapse? Or did they simply discard it? No one knows, but it's yours if you can open it. They can contain anything from a Class C fat bar to premium gear. There's not a lot of these, and they're very easy to overlook.

During the Singularity Event of 2014, opening one of these would unleash a virulent nanovirus that would have to be fought off for four full minutes. Numerous deaths were reported.

Oxygen Block
A large, slightly fragile, bulbous white "rock," breaking this open will give you an infusion of fresh oxygen--or toxic air. Since they usually contain oxygen, most miners who are running low will find

it worth the risk to crack one open. While blocks destroyed by explosive rocks generally do not have any yield, if you're standing next to an oxygen rock when it's destroyed, you will still gain any benefit/poison from it.

Vitamin Block
By far the most plentiful special rock (that will not blow you up), but one of the diciest. It can give you a short positive buff--healing, increased XP gain, boosts--or it can give

you a shot of poison. Many miners report getting a case of the "space horrors" from these--a brief state of panic marked by either paralysis or uncontrollable running.

Be careful! If you want to roll those dice, the vitamin block strongly resembles explosive blocks. Be sure which you're hitting.



Mystery Blocks
Their odd stepped shape is strange enough, but the way they float and have all those glowing runes is just weird. But miners like them anyway, because, like hidden stashes, they can contain anything--curious, gemstones, gear, even clusters of minerals as high as a half kg.



Gemstones
These tall, white crystal structures are the toughest thing in the mines. Gem hunters can burn through a lot of time and pickaxes cutting these down to size, but they're always rewarded with an

unrefined gemstone.