Mining
Mining
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.
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 escorts, scouts, and transports.
List of 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 750. It is available only after completing 120 prospecting missions.
List of Ores
(Note: Information on this list will change as sectors are explored more thoroughly)
| Ore Name | EXP | Mass | Known Asteroid Appearance | Description | Rough Price/Unit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common, found in almost every sector | ||||||
|
Premium Aquean | 4pt | 70kg | White Ice Blue Ice |
Dirty ice, mostly H2O with trace chemicals. | low |
|
Premium Silicate | 5pt | 150kg | Rock White Ice |
Unrefined silicate material. | 20cr - 70cr |
|
Premium Carbonic | 5pt | 150kg | Rock | Ore which is heavy in carbon compounds. | 30cr - 60cr |
|
Premium Ferric | 6pt | 200kg | Rock Blue Ice |
Ore composed mostly of iron. | 70cr - 200cr |
| Semi-common: (certain sectors of almost every system) | ||||||
|
Premium Ishik | 7pt | 150kg | White Ice Blue Ice |
A common asteroid composition containing lighter elements and chemical compounds. | 100cr - 500cr |
|
Premium VanAzek | 7pt | 250kg | Rock | A common asteroid composition containing heavy and radioactive metals. | 100cr - 400cr |
| Rare: (certain sectors of a few systems ) | ||||||
|
Premium Xithricite | 8pt | 300kg | Green Glowing Rock | Ore containing the precious mineral Xithricite | 200cr - 900cr |
|
Lanthanic | 10pt | 200kg | Sharp Rock Blue Ice |
Ore containing heavy and radioactive metals. | 700cr - 1000cr |
|
Denic | 15pt | 150kg | White Ice | Rare ore found often in young solar systems | 300cr - 1800cr |
| Extremely Rare: (often only a few asteroids in a sector) | ||||||
|
Pyronic | 12pt | 250kg | White Ice Light Round Rock Dark Round Rock |
Rare ore formed in the residue of a star’s collapse | 200cr - 1200cr |
|
Apicene | 14pt | 200kg | Sharp Dark Rock | A rare asteroid composition formed only at very high temperatures | 500cr - 1500cr |
|
Pentric | 18pt | 150kg | Medium Tan Rock | A rare asteroid composition of complex chemical material | 400cr - 2200cr |
|
Heliocene | 20pt | 100kg | Light Round Rock Dark Round Rock Dark Sharp Rock |
Rare ore formed under intense heat and tidal forces | 400cr - 2400cr |
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 reward, the advanced mineral scanner, 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 missoins 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 aqueaus 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 vary but for the majority they are around 1000cr a mission and around 800-1400 trade xp. The mining xp you get for mining the ores is negligable but on a massive scale can get you the lower levels fairly quick. 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 pennies to about 2300c/crate, depending on the ore, the station you sell it, and maybe your nationality. 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.
Group Mining
Group mining is mining involving more than one player. The point is generally to improve efficiency, or enable mining in dangerous sectors. There are many different tactics of group mining. Here is a basic list of some group activities that are known to exist.
- Unarmed Miner, Transporter:
One person mines, another transports. This improves efficiency over single person mining, since the beam is 'always on' and time is not wasted transporting. Works in safer places. Broma-ba Slick showed me this. - Unarmed Miners / Bot-dragging Escorts:
This takes advantage of the fact that bots will 'swarm' after you if you shoot them even once. The escort thus drags the bots away from the mining area. bsp showed me this. Works with high-level bots. - Unarmed Miners / Scout / Escorts:
A scout can scout for the valuable asteroids, while escorts take care of the low-level bots. Solra Bizna showed me this. - Unarmed miner / Armed scout-escort:
One player does both scouting and escorting. Miner follows closely behind. Works with low-level bots. - Armed miners:
Miners who carry their own weapons. Works against low-level bots.
Geological Features
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.
Noticing these features can help you. They can act as 'landmarks', so 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.
Mineral Maps
Once you find a nice rare ore, it might be helpful to write down where you found it. Here are some maps from those who have done exactly that:
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