It also take a long time to set up buckets around the hog pan area without them falling over. Unfortunately there is some complex bit of code that results in buckets filling in more than 3 scoops which causes delay and probably gold loss. Ideally the white buckets will fill in 3 scoops from the shovel. I strongly recommend you DO NOT use the white 5 gallon buckets to mine the hog-pan area at this time.
The first thing you need to do is get your hog pan (then Hog Pan with Pump) and shovel every ounce of pay-dirt out of the Hog Pan mining area. Mudds initial recommendation still is absolutely correct, however.
There was a longer (better) Hard Mode strategy guide by Mudd posted in the Tips & Gameplay forum that has become dated due to game updates which rendered his data as out-dated. I will supplement hard data with my own personal experience having played through two years of game play. This is intended to help hard mode players make choices on when make large capital investment choices regarding their move from T2 to T3. Short guide on T3 wash-plant pricing for Hard Mode.
