Mining is anything but fun, but it can be less daunting if you can AFK some of it. There may be some middle ground if you dislike mining but love to AFK stuff. Motherlode mining is probably the best way to go about it.

Motherlode Mining Up Until Level 72 Mining

To start Motherlode mining, you should have level 60 mining already if you want to do Fall Hard Diary. At this stage, your goal is to reach mining level 72. Until you reach that level, you should farm around 220 nuggets.

Motherlode Mining After Level 72 Mining

At level 72 mining, you can unlock the upper level. You want to get to this level as soon as possible as the upper level is considerably less populated with players. Also, in the upper level, the sack where you deposit your ores is much closer; thus, you have to run around less. Additionally, the veins in the upper level respawn in 30 seconds, and thus it is a bit easier to anticipate which vein will spawn and what you need to click on.

Unlock Order

The order in which you should unlock things first for Motherlode mining is straightforward. If you want to focus on mining, this is the order in which you should unlock things:

1. Coal Bag. This should be your first goal. Get the coal bag as soon as possible. It will cut down your banking time which means you increase your XP.
2. Upper Level. Once you reach level 72, sell the Coal Bag to pay for access to the Upper Level. Access to the upper floor is 100 gold nuggets.
3. Coal Bag. Once you get to the Upper level, you want to get your coal bag back.
4. Prospector set. Once you have your coal bag, continue farming and save nuggets from getting the prospector set. Once you have the full prospector set, you will be able to give yourself another XP boost along with the indirect boost from the Coal bag.
5. Upgraded pay-dirt sack. The pay-dirt sack is where your ore is stored after being washed. If you upgrade it, its capacity increases from 81 pay-dirt to 162 pay-dirt. It will cost you 200 nuggets. This should be your end goal.

For someone that is not heavily focused on mining, the only difference in how you do things is that your first unlock should be the prospector set. You will then sell it to get access to the Upper level, and from there, all the steps are the same.

Keep in mind that the order in which you can unlock things also depends on your current mining level and how many nuggets you have. In either case, when you reach level 72, you must have 100 gold nuggets to get to the upper level. If you do not have 100 nuggets, you will have to mine a bit more until you have enough.

Tips

1. The prospector set gives an 8.5% EXP boost to mining. While farming for level 72 mining, you will bank 220 nuggets. The prospector set costs 180, which leaves you with 40 nuggets. If you want to get to the upper level, you have to pay a one-time fee of 100 nuggets. Thus you may need to skip the prospector set to have enough nuggets to pay for your entry to the upper level.
2. If you decide to go for the upper level, you pay the fee and will be left with just over 100 nuggets. You can get the coal bag which cuts your banking downtime by half. Compared to the XP boost that the Prospector set would give you, having the Coal bag offers a superior XP yield.
3. You can also experiment with the order of unlocking things. Depending on how many nuggets you have when you reach level 72, you can have a mining bag and some pieces of the prospector set. You do not have to sell everything. You just need to have 100 nuggets to pay for access to the upper level.
4. Keep in mind that you lose some nuggets in the process of unlocking then selling something such as the coal bag. You get 80% of the value you paid for the coal bag or the prospector set items.