Yeah... You are right. You can even see them using pickaxes in some of the videos. Like the water demo one.
I think a drill would be great! I think however that trade off for using a drill vehicle (if it can be obtained early) is that it drills slowly, but drills a very large area. So if you wanted to dig to find new caves it would be better to hand mine a small tunnel for yourself, and if you wanted to excavate a large area for ore a drill would be the better choice.
I forgot I had this posting. I think this should be a mid game item, but in order to get the most out of it, you need to maintain it and apply upgrades to it periodically.
This would really remind me of Motherlode. A drill vehicle should be a must have for safer/faster deep digging
I support this idea! *Imagines myself drilling straight down & seeing how far down I can go before I get too close to the Super-Heated Core & go BOOM!!!*
A mecha with a mining drill would be great! Our journey won't stop until we've pierced the heavens themselves, and beyond!