Saltpeter
Saltpeter is used with Charcoal to create Black Powder, which is used with Cloth to create a Charge in the preparation of Cannons for firing. Prior to Publish 68.3, it was obtained from NPC Alchemists at the Sea Market or at the other docks of the Towns in Trammel and Felucca. As of Publish 68.3, saltpeter is now a gathering resource for miners from niter deposits in dungeons and at sea.
Mining
Niter Deposits give saltpeter. When mined they will get smaller and smaller till they vanish. The order of size descriptions, from largest to smallest are:
- Gigantic
- Massive
- Huge
- Large
- and Small.
Niter can only be mined in areas designated as dungeons or when on a boat. Mining skill and Luck are factors in determining a miner's success at locating niter deposits. Niter deposits can not be picked up.
Dungeon Mining
For dungeon mining, once an 8x8 area has been checked for saltpeter, it won't be checked again for 5 minutes. In other words, the same location can be checked for niter deposits every 5 minutes, regardless of the success of the previous try.
GM Miners will discover a niter deposit inside a dungeon on their first strike, provided that there is one within an 8x8 tile location.
Boat Mining
For boat mining, the chance of finding a deposit is checked for each swing of the pickaxe, but the chance to find a niter deposit and the niter deposit sizes are a lot less than dungeon mining (roughly one third of the chance for dungeon mining). It is reported that a GM Miner with 750 luck has 1.25% chance to find a niter deposit from a boat per mining attempt.
Luck's Role In Saltpeter
I completed an unofficial test on 7/4/2011, and concluded that while mining in dungeons, luck played no significant role in the frequency or quality of niter deposit discovered. This test was done-albeit briefly-mining for 2 hours with 0 luck, and 2 hours with 800 luck. It should be noted however, that the miner was wearing +5 blacksmithing gloves.