Hand Drill
| Hand Drill | |
|---|---|
| |
| Category: | Tool |
| Status: | Functional |
| Function: | |
| Destroys voxels to provide resources. Can also destroy blocks. | |
| Mass: | 22 kg |
| Volume: | 25 L |
| Data Controls: | [edit] [purge] (?) |
The Hand Drill is a tool in Space Engineers that a player equips and uses to detect ores, mine, and dig.
The Hand Drill is one of the tools that every player spawns with, along with the 
Welder and 
Grinder.
The upgraded versions of the Hand Drill mine increasingly faster than the standard Hand Drill.
| Hand drill properties | Speed | Reach | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
 Standard |
x 1.0 | x 1.0 | x 1.0 |
 Enhanced |
x 1.2 | x 1.2 | x 1.0 |
 Proficient |
x 1.4 | x 1.4 | x 1.2 |
 Elite |
x 1.4 | x 1.6 | x 1.4 |
Usage
The small Hand Drill you find in your inventory is a perfect starter tool, but you'll notice quickly that it's not as effective a drilling tool as a ship mounted Drill. A mining ship mines much faster, wider, and carries more ores in its inventory, but it is more expensive to build and also consumes much more power as a Hand Drill.
Store the mined ores in Cargo Containers or in your inventory and process them in the Refinery into Materials. The goal is to assemble the materials into tools, ammo, and building components in the Assembler.
How to equip the drill
Note: The standard hand drill is usually already assigned to your toolbar in Survival Mode.
- Make sure you have the tool in your character inventory.
- Press G key to open the Toolbar config.
- Go to the Character Tools section.
- Drag the Hand Drill to a toolbar slot.
- Press ESC key to close the window.
If a different tier tool is grayed out in the G-menu, you cannot assign that tool to the toolbar because you don't have it in your inventory.
How to detect ores
The Hand Drill has a small built-in Ore Detector, allowing players to locate veins of ore at a short range of 20 metres, which is less than a small-grid ship mounted drill.
It's easy to use: Equip the hand drill while walking (the detector activates automatically) and keep an eye out for ore signals on your HUD. Higher tier hand drills do not increase detection range, only its drilling reach and speed.
How to dig
Digging means removing voxel material from planets or asteroids to get rid of the low-yield sand or dirt layer and get closer to denser 
Stone and valuable ores.
Digging is much faster than mining and useful when building underground structures and tunnels, or for smoothing the ground for a rover.
Don’t use this secondary drill action if you intend to gain resources (like stone, ice, and ores): The digging mode will destroy any resources you encounter.
- Press the slot number to equip the Hand Drill in your hand.
- Before digging down into the ground, press C key to crouch.
-click and hold to dig.
Shortcut:
- Double--click to switch digging mode on (or off) without having to hold the mouse button pressed.
How to mine ores
Mining means to gather ores from planets or asteroids.
- Press the slot number to equip the Hand Drill in your hand.
- Before drilling down into the ground, press C key to crouch.
-click and hold to use the drill's primary action which is mining stone, ore, and ice. Drilled stones and Ores drop as items.- To pick up dropped ores, target the chunks and press F key.
Warning: On multiplayer servers, floating objects like ores despawn quickly.
Shortcut:
- Double--click to switch the drill on (or off) without having to hold the mouse button pressed.
How to trench (PvP)
In PvP situations, the Hand Drill is practically incapable of dealing melee damage to players. However it is useful in a combat situation for quickly making trenches on planets and digging hiding spots within asteroids.
Assembly
Craft the Hand Drill from the Tools tab in the Assembler.
| Hand drill recipes | Iron (Fe) | Nickel (Ni) | Silicon (Si) | Silver (Ag) | Platinum (Pt) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard |
20.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 0 | 0 |
| Enhanced |
20.00 | 3.00 | 5.00 | 0 | 0 |
| Proficient |
20.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 0 |
| Elite |
20.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 0 | 2.00 |
The Enhanced-level Hand Drill distinguishes itself from other Enhanced-level tools in that it does not need Cobalt.
