[Tip] Discover if it's a vent, volcano or geyser without dig it

[SamLogan]

I gave this tips in another post, but it could be more visible in it own post, so here's the tip :

Here's a tip to know if it's a geyser, vent or volcano without dig it !

Vent

+

Geyser

+

Volcano

+

 

[Denisetwin]

This is SUCH a great tip, thank you!  In my current game, dug across to check out what was above the neutronium way outside my  base and it turned out to be an iron volcano.  If I had seen this tip in advance, I would have known to make a water lock first and then start digging so that I didn't have to do what I had to do - run wire and gas pipes a loooong distance, build a gas pump and pump out the area to vacuum....

 

[Sasza22]

A good tip as well would be to dig only 2 bottom tiles on one side. It should reveal what it is but it won`t be able to erupt.

[Saturnus]

A good tip that I found out not long after volcanoes was introduced. I'm sure I saw someone else post it on the forum so I didn't bother to post it myself.

[Denisetwin]

1 hour ago, Sasza22 said:

A good tip as well would be to dig only 2 bottom tiles on one side. It should reveal what it is but it won`t be able to erupt

This is what I usually do, but when it ends up being a volcano of some sort, you then have to build a gas pumping system of some sort and water locks before you can dig the rest of it out.  If you know in advance before digging what kind it is, you can decide if dupes need to go through a water lock before digging.

[FierceClaws]

Or just pause the game and surround the POI with tiles and see if it has the shape of a vent(4x2), volcano(3x3), or geyser(2x4)
 

[Yunru]

3 hours ago, FierceClaws said:

Or just pause the game and surround the POI with tiles and see if it has the shape of a vent(4x2), volcano(3x3), or geyser(2x4)
 

Yes, take more time and effort to do the same thing O.o

[Gurgel]

Hahaha, nice! Never noticed this difference myself.

[ChazIsidore]

18 hours ago, Denisetwin said:

This is what I usually do, but when it ends up being a volcano of some sort, you then have to build a gas pumping system of some sort and water locks before you can dig the rest of it out.  If you know in advance before digging what kind it is, you can decide if dupes need to go through a water lock before digging.

If you dig correctly, and use a corner dig to access the bottom left or right block and none of the others that are part of the hidden "geyser", you can maintain a vacuum.  Then you can fill in your access tunnel as you back out to keep the vacuum in place.  
For example, if I was coming at a volcano from the right, I'd put my tunnel in the two blocks above the white ladder in the volcano images Sam posted, and then corner dig the tile to the left of the ladder.  Which will tell me what the volcano is, but keep the exposed tile in vacuum.  I'd then fill in my access tunnel so I could use a water lock later and maintain vacuum.