Earlier Access to Better Resource Gathering Tools

Mining copper is a uniquely miserable experience. I would suggest the Blacksmith should have metal tools available - unlock some basic metal ax and pickax once you have the Forge and are able to make metal sheets, with the metal ones having higher durability, chopping/mining faster, taking less Stamina per swing, with copper tools becoming available as soon as you mine copper for the first time and bring it back to the Blacksmith. Copper tools should be better than tools made from generic metal sheets, possibly with the ability to upgrade them for increased efficiency.

The improved tools should also have a higher chance of getting the thing you're mining. It took me 2+ hours to get 100 Copper from the first area I found, which looked visually like it should have about 2,000 to 3,000 units of copper, but instead, it's 5-10 hits before you get anything - and when you do, it isn't usually copper. Even if the entire wall you're hitting is literally copper.