Mining

http://www.vo-wiki.com/wiki/extensions/rotating/centaurmining.jpg

Mining is probably the easiest way to make money in Vendetta Online. Simply equip your ship with a mining laser, find a good asteroid, and start raking in the credits. To help get you started, there is a mining tutorial available at mining stations. It will give you the basic equipment, tell you how to equip the equipment, scan, mine and gives you a level 1 mining license. The level 1 license gives you access to a large port (L-port) mining beam, making it possible to mine in a Wraith with a scanner equipped. To find a mining station look next to the name of the station, There you should find a description of the type of station. Or check the stations chart for a station close to your location.

Mining involves grabbing a ship and a mining beam and extracting valuable ores from asteroids. You generally use a scanner to identify which ores are in asteroids, get <100m away from the asteroid, and then fire a beam to start mining. When you mine the lower-level ores, you get 'premium' versions of that ore, as opposed to the regular version of the ore that is sold at stations. The more you mine an asteroid, the hotter it gets. The hotter an asteroid gets, the slower it mines. All asteroids start at 10 degrees Kelvin. Efficiency drops off significantly after 20 or 30 Kelvin. Some miners can go to 200 or 400 Kelvin in certain circumstances and still feel that it was worth it for the profit. After you stop mining, the asteroid cools. Small asteroids heat and cool more quickly than large ones. Also, the ice roids will heat and cool much more quickly than the rocky roids. As you gain mining licenses, you will have access to better mining beams. Some beams will extract ores with a higher probability, which translates into higher efficiency in terms of time, heat, and money. As you gain experience, you will learn which ores are valuable, where to find them, and where to sell them. You might even get involved with group mining, involving miners, escorts, scouts, and transports.

Equipment

Mining Scanners

There are only 2 scanners right now.

The Mineral Scanner has a range of 500m, and will activate whenever you 'target' an asteroid. There is no need to 'fire' it, flash the green light, etc. If you are going very fast, it will 'lag', as it only updates itself once every 5 seconds or so. The Advanced Mineral Scanner is exactly the same as the Mineral Scanner except that it has improved range of 750m. It is available only after completing 120 prospecting missions.

Name	Range	Scan Interval	Level	Description
Mineral Scanner	100m	1 per 5s	-/-/-/-/-	Standard mining scanner.
Advanced Mineral Scanner	750m	1 per 5s	Badge	Reward for completing all Prospecting Missions.

Mining Beams

When you start out, you only have the small port mining beam available to you. As your levels increase, larger and more unique forms of the mining beam will become available.

Beam	Range	Rate	Heat	Rate/Heat	Mass	Level	Bonus
Small port mining beams.
Mining Beam	100m	1	1.5	0.67	500kg	-/-/-/-/-
Large port mining beams.
Mining Beam	100m	1	1	1	500kg	-/-/-/-/1
Advanced Mining Beam	100m	1.8	0.9	2	500kg	-/-/-/-/2
Mining Beam MkII	100m	2.4	0.8	3	500kg	-/-/-/-/2
Xithricite Mining Beam	100m	2	0.8	2.5	500kg	-/-/-/-/3	Xithricite 200%
Apicene Mining Beam	100m	2	0.9	2.22	500kg	-/-/-/-/3	Apicene 240%
MagnetoTwin Mining Beam	100m	1.8	0.6	3	500kg	-/-/-/-/4	VanAzek 180% Pyronic 180%
High-Density Mining Beam	75m	2.8	0.75	3.73	500kg	Badge
Heliocene Mining Beam	100m	2	0.9	2.2	500kg	-/-/-/-/5	Heliocene 200%
Pentric Mining Beam	100m	2.4	0.9	2.67	500kg	-/-/-/-/6	Pentric 200%
IoPhase Mining Beam	75m	2.2	0.95	2.3	500kg	-/-/-/-/7	Denic 300% Lanthanic 300%
DeniPhase Mining Beam	75m	2.2	0.95	2.3	500kg	-/-/-/-/8	Denic 250% Pentric 240% Lanthanic 240%

Resources

List of Ores

(Note: Information on this list will change as sectors are explored more thoroughly)

Ore Name		EXP	Mass	Asteroid Type	Description	Rough Price/Unit
Common, found in almost every sector
	Premium Aquean	4pt	70kg	1, 2	Dirty ice, mostly H2O with trace chemicals.	low
	Premium Silicate	5pt	150kg	1,2,4,7	Unrefined silicate material.	20cr - 70cr
	Premium Carbonic	5pt	150kg	3,4,5,6,7,8	Ore which is heavy in carbon compounds.	30cr - 60cr
	Premium Ferric	6pt	200kg	1,4,5,6,7,8	Ore composed mostly of iron.	70cr - 200cr
Semi-common: (certain sectors of almost every system)
	Premium Ishik	7pt	150kg	1,2	A common asteroid composition containing lighter elements and chemical compounds.	100cr - 500cr
	Premium VanAzek	7pt	250kg	4,5,6,8	A common asteroid composition containing heavy and radioactive metals.	100cr - 400cr
Rare: (certain sectors of a few systems )
	Premium Xithricite	8pt	300kg	8	Ore containing the precious mineral Xithricite	200cr - 900cr
	Lanthanic	10pt	200kg	1,5	Ore containing heavy and radioactive metals.	700cr - 1000cr
	Denic	15pt	150kg	2	Rare ore found often in young solar systems	300cr - 1800cr
Extremely Rare: (often only a few asteroids in a sector)
	Pyronic	12pt	250kg	2,4	Rare ore formed in the residue of a star’s collapse	200cr - 1200cr
	Apicene	14pt	200kg	5	A rare asteroid composition formed only at very high temperatures	500cr - 1500cr
	Pentric	18pt	150kg	7	A rare asteroid composition of complex chemical material	400cr - 2200cr
	Heliocene	20pt	100kg	3,4	Rare ore formed under intense heat and tidal forces	400cr - 2400cr

Asteroid Field Features

Cluster of roids

Vendetta asteroids fields have certain patterns to them. They are sometimes in long 'strings'. Sometimes there are large 'clusters' of a certain type of rock or ice. A few asteroids rotate. There will be 'groups' of types of asteroids, with a sort of 'border' between the groups. On a system wide level, the asteroids are often arranged into belts around stars, with each sector of the belt having asteroids of similar mineral composition.

Pay attention to these features, as they can be helpful when used as landmarks. Once you find a rare asteroid, you can use them to find it again. The features may also act as 'guide posts', with rare ore being concentrated around certain features or types of rock.

Types of Asteroids

Ferric/Aquean/Silicate (1)	Aquean/Silicate/Ishik/Denic (2)	Carbonic/Heliocene (3)
Ferric/Carbonic/Pyronic (4)	Apicene/Lanthanic (5)	Ferric/VanAzek (6)
Silicate/Carbonic/Pentric (7)	Xithricite/VanAzek (8)

Mineral Maps

Most guilds and or players have their own maps and protect this information to keep their roids from being overheated. If you would like to share your own personal information with the rest of the server feel free to place your info in the proper section of one of the system charts found here.

Missions

Prospecting Missions

These are missions in which you find 30 asteroids of a certain ore. There are 4 missions per system, and with 30 systems in the game that makes 120 possible missions total. After you finish 120 you get access to an improved mineral scanner and an improved mining beam which are sold at certain stations.

The missions generally ask you to search for Carbonic, Ferric, or Silicate. Sometimes they will ask you to search for Ishik or VanAzek. VanAzek is generally agreed to be the biggest pain because it is generally spread out over a wide area. There are a handful of missions to find Xithricite.

These missions are generally thought to be very boring, so don't expect excitement or glory. But the rewards, the advanced mineral scanner and the high-density mining beam, can significantly speed up searching for rare ores.

Trade Guild Mineral Missions

The Trade Guild offers, among many other mission types, "mineral" missions. Mineral Missions are most abundent at mining stations. They are offered elsewhere but not at the same volume you can get at a mining specific station. Most of the time these missions are oriented around getting the station that you've accepted the mission from the ores that is most needed. A majority of the time the station will ask for either aqueous or silicate ore to be collected. If you spend a while doing these missions you will get other types ranging from Ferric, Carbonic, VanAzek, and Ishik. On very rare occasions though, they may ask for you to bring them back some Pentric, Xithricite, or Pyronic ore. I have yet to take a mission that has asked for the more extremely rare ores, though it's certainly possible.

The pay for these missions varies but the majority are around 1000cr per mission and around 800-1400 trade experience per mission. The mining xp you get for mining the ores is negligable but considering the amount of mining that can be done with multiple beams concentrated on a roid/roids over a period of time, it is fairly easy to get the lower-level licenses. I've also found that the mining missions are a great way to build faction standing with a particular faction. Search out a specific faction and see if they also have a mining station.

Profitability

Ore prices range from single-digit credits to about 2400c/crate, depending on the ore, the station you sell it, and several other factors. Players can drive the price of ore down when they repeatedly sell the same ore at a certain station. This especially happens if there is rare ore right next to the station.

Rumors have it that the price of other items can be brought down too, since items manufacture depends on ore.

Sources

Information was gathered from the following sources:

• http://mage.localnetsys.com/vldb.html
• http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard
• Authors' personal experience
• Classified website from a guild