Ok so your standing around with a pick in your hand , what to do next......
On your hand bar / action bar at the top of your screen , move it to number 10 ( well any number thats totaly free )
On the 1st empty box right click and scroll down and select Prospecting. On the 2nd box , again scroll down and select Care Plan , and for the 3rd box scroll down and select Extraction. Now the box below the 1st box put a self heal Focus and the 2nd a self heal life. Now your hand bar looks more healthy its time to do some editing
1st box : Prospecting
Right click and Edit - Select Add Option.
Choose if you have them.
Find Better Materials (Choice if not got this then upto Choice , or what ever is the highest option for you), Range (range 2 is nice or as high as you can go), Angle (angle 3 is nice again or as high as you can go), Multi spots (set this to max at all times if you have the option), Accelerated Prospecting ( set to max ).
Now Select Add Credit , and choose the focus credit that matches or is just higher than the total you are spending.
2nd Box : Care Plan
Again right click and select Edit - Add Option.
Choose if you have them. Preservation (set to max) and Stabilty (set to max)
Now Select Add Credit , and choose the focus credit that matches or is just higher than the total you are spending.
3rd Box : Extraction
Speed , now this should ALWAYS be set at Gentle , as high as you can go. Rate now this should be kept at Harmful and again set to as high as you can. Quality ALWAYS use Gentle quality as high as your level allows ( q100 dig in Desert beaciuse your level 90 does not mean your q100 dig in lake if your lake dig is only level 50)
Now Select Add Credit , and choose the focus credit that matches or is just higher than the total you are spending.
The self heal focus you added under box 1 set that to counter your prospection cost , ie: when you prospect you use 190 focus , then your self heal focus should be number 2, heal 200 focus.
Now on all 3 boxes you can also add if you have them the Area specialization options , these slow the movement of the health and life bars down , and maybe help get a extra mat
Ok so you now have the dig options all setup , time to start digging.
Since your dig options are now all together on your hand bar you can use your keyboard to prospect (number 1) Care Plan number 2) and Extraction (number3).
So go to where the mats are you require and press #1, you stand jigging side to side and with any luck you bring up a mat source to dig. Now hit your self heal focus (press it or shift + 1) , select the mat source and press #3. Now as your digging the health and stabilty bars move , these 2 bars determin if your source going to end early - killing your xp , or if you gas or explode yourself - gaining possible DP , this is where button 2 comes in, as they get lower press #2 you will swap over to care planing pushing the bars back up, when they pass the main timer bar ( at the top ) press #3 again to carry on digging.
Tip
Ok as you level up ALWAYS buy the Focus upgrades and before you go out digging check you have a pick with more than 7HP on it , as a bag of mats will use roughly 7HP on a pick.
The more spots you can prospect for means they will be on the ground for longer.
I will edit this as i think of more and if others think something should be added. For now its a good start.
Source: GoJ Public Forums
Hope it helps
. Basically, you use one action to get to a lower quality than your maximum - a cheap, fast action. Say you're digging q200, you might use one action to get to q100. You can use fairly high rate and speed on this action, as the low quality stanza means that it's cheap in terms of focus.
