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| The Complete Guide to Mining: Part 1 by - July 11, 2008 |
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1. Mining 101 – The Basics 1.1 Asteroid Belts & Ores – What they are, and what to expect to find 1.2 Minerals – What is hiding in those chunks of rocks in your cargo 1.2.1 What Should I Mine Then? – The hottest topic in the universe 1.3 The Beginning of a Miner’s Career – You might be new, but you shouldn’t be clueless 1.3.1 Your First Ship – You know that ship you start with, consider it trash 1.3.2 The Two Basic Mining Techniques – At least the only two that work 1.3.3 Industrial Ships – Huge, slow and full of goodness 1.3.4 Joining a Corporation – The universe is a large place, don’t go in the dark alone 1.3.5 Selling your 1.3.6 Your First Cruiser – No, I am not referring to the motorcycle in the garage 1.4 The Different Mining Lasers – Tools of the trade 2. Refining – Brining the trade into an art form 2.1 Calculating your Yield – Yes children, I am speaking of math 2.2 Refining Implants – For those with ISK to spare 2.3 From Refining Yield to Reality – Knowing what to expect to bring home at the end of the day 3. The Math System – Yes it looks complicated, but look harder, it isn’t so bad 3.1 The Skill System – That light bulb should be getting brighter 3.2 Cycles – To be long or to be short, that is the question 3.2.1 Cycles and Yield Interaction – Can’t have one with out the other 3.2.2 From Yield to 4. Mining Barge or Battleship? – Or, serious versus casual play 4.1 The 4.1.1 The Apocalypse – The Golden Banana 4.1.2 The Rokh – The Intergalactic Swiss Army Knife 4.2 The 4.2.1 The Retriever – Cheap, easy to get into and effective 4.2.2 The Covetor – The Cadillac of Barges 5. 5.1 How do I Read my Yield? – No, you aren’t the only one who gets it confused 6. Achieving perfection – 6 1 The Mindlink Isn’t Broken! – Yay, it finally works 7. The Mighty Hulk – Behold the beast! 7.1 The Mighty Hulk's Tank – Yes, it can live in 0.0, if you are smart 1. Mining 101 – The Basics The basics of mining in EVE are very simple, in every system of every region, you will find asteroid belts and in those belts you will find many asteroids of different types. Using mining lasers or mining drones, you simply harvest those asteroids and fill your cargo hold with ore, which can be later refined into minerals, which again are used to build ships and modules (modules are any piece of equipment that you can fit on a ship, such as weapons, shields, armor plating and so on). In Empire Space (this is what most everyone refers to anywhere in the game with a security status of 1.0 to 0.5), the most common types of asteroids are Veldspar, Scordite and Pyroxeres. They yield the most basic minerals which are Tritanium, Pyerite and Mexallon. The quantity of minerals that you will get from efining your mined ore depends on how high your refining skill is for that type of ore and the standings you have toward the corporation owning the station you are refining at. This sounds complicated, and if you want to get every single bit of mineral out of your ore that you can it really can be, but this will be all covered later. In essence, I could sum up mining like this: you are a miner if you have any ship that has a turret slot and equipped with a mining laser and or mining drones that harvests ore from asteroids for personal production, trading or reselling. EVE offers a wide array of mining ships and equipment, some much more efficient than others. Through this guide we will discover what they are, and what they do. This section however will cover the very basics of mining. 1.1 Asteroid Belts & Ores – What they are, and what to expect to find As previously mentioned, every system has asteroid belts, some more than others. The rule is, the lower the security status of a system is, the better the quality of the asteroids you will find will be, but also the more dangerous it can be. If you are new to EVE, I suggest you read more about security status and how it affects your gameplay. You will not go into a low security system with the same ship and setup as you would in a 1.0 system. However this is not the subject of this guide and I will not cover it here, so do your homework before you make a mistake that will cost you ! A simple reminder would be that you are mostly safe in 0.5 and above from other players since We call every ore found in 1.0 - 0.1 systems Low ends, and the exclusive ores to 0.0 systems High ends. As you may have guessed high-ends namely, Bistot, Arkonor, Mercoxit, Gneiss and Crokite yield the best and most lucrative minerals in EVE. This doesn't mean that all low ends are crap. Again, some are worth more than others. Finally there is ice, which is now only available in low sec areas and 0.0. Some ore can only be found in particular systems. For example, Jaspet can only be found in 0.4 systems in Gallente or Amarr space. You won't ever find it in any Caldari or Minmatar space! Note that all ore types can found in 0.0. You will find everything from Veldspar to Mercoxit, however not in every system. It would be impossible to list which system has which kind of ore in 0.0, therefore, I suggest you use ToxicFire's Ore Map. It is a great tool to help you locate a good spot for your mining head quarters or simply figure out where to go depending of what you need to mine! It s also important to mention is that each ore has two variations. The first will give an extra 5% mineral when refining, and the second variant will give an extra 10%. Here is a table with each ore and its variations. Low End Ores Veldspar Concentrated Veldspar Dense Veldspar Scordite Condensed Scordite Massive Scordite Pyroxeres Solid Pyroxeres Viscous Pyroxeres Plagioclase Azure Plagioclase Rich Plagioclase Omber Silvery Omber Golden Omber Kernite Luminous Kernite Fiery Kernite Jaspet Pure Jaspet Pristine Jaspet Hemorphite Vivid Hemorphite Radiant Hemorphite Hedbergite Vitric Hedbergite Glazed Hedbergite High End Ores Gneiss Iridescent Gneiss Prismatic Gneiss Dark Ochre Onyx Ochre Obsidian Ochre Spodumain Bright Spodumain Gleaming Spodumain Crokite Sharp Crokite Crystaline Crokite Bistot Tridinic Bistot Monoclinic Bistot Arkonor Crimson Arkonor Prime Arkonor Mercoxit Magma Mercoxit Vitreous Mercoxit 1.2 Minerals – What is hiding in those chunks of rocks in your cargo Minerals are what you aim to get from refining the ore that you mined. There are 8 kinds of mineral, 3 high end types and 5 low end types. Low ends include Tritanium, Pyerite, Mexallon, Isogen and Nocxium. High end minerals include Zydrine, Megacyte and Morphite. High end minerals can of course only be refined from high end ores, which can only be found in 0.0 (some in low-sec, refer to grid in section 1.1), which would explain why their price is generally much higher than low ends. Here is a table that shows which ore gives which kind of minerals: Veldspar 333 … 1000 ………………………………………………………………………………….. Scordite 333 … 833 ……… 416 ……………………………………………………………………… Pyroxeres 333 … 844 ……… 59 .……. 120 ……………… 11 ……………………………………….. Plagioclase 333 … 256 ……… 512 …… 256 …………………………………………………………… Omber 500 … 307 ……… 123 ………………… 307 ……………………………………………… Kernite 400 … 386 ………………… 773 ……… 386 ……………………………………………… Jaspet 500 … 259 ……… 259 …… 518 ……………… 259 …………………… 8 ……………… Hemorphite 500 … 212 ……………………………… 212 … 424 …………………… 28 …………….. Hedbergite 500 ……………………………………… 708 … 354 …………………… 32 …………….. Gneiss 400 … 171 ………………… 171 ……… 343 …………………………… 171 …………… Dark Ochre 400 … 250 ……………………………………… 500 …………………… 250 …………… Spodumain 250 … 700 ……… 140 …………………………………… 140 …………………………… Crokite 250 … 331 ……………………………………… 331 …………………… 663 …………… Bistot 250 ……………… 170 …………………………………… 170 ………… 341 …………… Arkonor 250 … 300 ………………………………………………… 333 ………… 166 …………… Mercoxit 250 …………………………………………………………………………………… 530 … How should you interpret that table? Let s start with the batch. This is pretty simple, the batch is the number of units you will need for every refine. Every other number you see in each ore's row is the quantity of minerals you will get for each batch with a perfect refine (yes, it is possible to get a perfect refine of 100% efficiency but extremely hard to reach). Let's use a simple example to make it clearer. Let's use Omber for this example. Omber has a batch quantity of 500. Let's say you mined 3467 units, and you hauled it back to a station which has a refinery. For every 500 units, if you have a perfect refining yield of 100%, you will get 307 units of Tritanium, 123 units of Pyerite and 307 units of Isogen for each batch. If you divide 3467 by 500, you will end up having 6 batches, and 467 units of Omber left over. That is a simple analogy, as you might have to pay taxes (paid in units of mineral during a refine) depending of your standing with the corporation owning the station and your skills. The refining system will be covered later in another section, however this table is very useful to know which asteroid you should mine depending of the minerals you need. 1.2.1 What Should I Mine Then? – The hottest topic in the universe Since the value of minerals fluctuates daily following the supply and demand law ("The economic theory of market value where price is determined by the interaction of sellers and buyers to reach an equilibrium price which both are willing to accept."), it would be pointless to say that a certain mineral is always in high demand, so mine that! Eve Central has an excellent market report on minerals, with statistics up to the last 180 days. If you want to enter the mineral trading business which is, I warn you, as hard as keeping up with stocks and commodities in the real world, or simply be efficient, you should familiarize yourself with this great website! No matter what you mine, there will always be demand for it. Since the introduction of capital ships in the Red Moon Rising expansion, mineral consumption significantly raised, therefore don t worry, you won't be stuck with overstock, ever! 1.3 The Beginning of a Miner’s Career – You might be new, but you shouldn’t be clueless Ok, so you just started playing EVE, you are very motivated, but completely lost. We just looked at what you can mine, and what it will give you. You are however in your newbie ship and cannot figure out where to go. Don't worry, everyone has that feeling at first, it's normal. And so now you find yourself reading this section of the guide, smart you! Before you do anything else, I highly suggest you do the tutorial missions if you haven't already done so, if for no other reason than to familiarize yourself with the game mechanics and tools. Another excellent reason is that the tutorial agent will give you ISK and rewards, maybe even an implant, which you can also sell for ISK, which will give you the capital you need to start. Another good idea is to join a nice helpful corporation and have them help you getting your proverbial feet wet. No matter which option you choose, you will need some ISK before you can start. 1.3.1 Your First Ship – You know that ship you start with, consider it trash The best mining ship for starters is with out a doubt the Caldari Bantam. Take note that the Bantam is not the only capable mining frigate. The Gallente for example, have the Navitas. Each race has its mining frigate, so if you do not wish to cross-train for Caldari if you aren't Caldari already, you should go through the frigates descriptions in the database to find the mining frigate of your race. Arguably though, the Caldari have the best mining cruiser (more later), so it makes sense to start with them. Skills you will need: Caldari Frigate 2, Mining 1 I suggest you train Caldari Frigate 2, then Mining 1, then train up to Caldari Frigate 4 and then straight to Mining 4, if you don't already have these skills. Since the Caldari frigate skill gives 20 percent bonus to the yield of mining lasers (only for the Bantam of course), the one day training time it might take you to get to Caldari Frigate 4 is absolutely worth it because it will allow you to mine 40 percent more than having your skill at 2. After that, getting to Mining 4 will allow you to use Tech 2 Mining lasers, which are definitely better than their Tech 1 counterparts. For the moment, you should fit 2x Miner 1's on your Bantam. The modules you fit in the medium slots really are unimportant, as no medium slot modules will increase your yield in the game. You can also train the skill Mining Upgrades 1 and try fitting one Mining Laser Upgrade (+5 percent to mining yield per laser) in one of your low slots. Whether it will fit or not will depend of your Electronics skill level. You should mine in your Bantam until you get Caldari Frigate 4 and Mining 4. For the moment keep stockpiling the ore you get, you will get better offers for your ore and minerals when they are in larger quantities. 1.3.2 The Two Basic Mining Techniques – At least the only two that work There are two ways to mine (ok, there are more than that, but there are two basic ways of mining). The first is to fly your ship back to the station as soon as your cargo is full to unload (which is quite time consuming), or use a technique called jet can mining. How it works is quite simple: the first time your cargo is filled, you simply jettison the ore in a can, and you keep filling this can by transferring your ore from your cargo to your can until it is full (which has 27,500m3 of space versus your small cargo). Once this can is filled, you switch your mining ship to an industrial ship, which are specialized ships with big cargo to transport goods (or if it is a corporation mining event then someone else will likely be doing the transporting). Make sure you empty your can every hour and a half to a maximum, as a can will expire and go poof every two hours. The main drawback from using this technique is that anyone can open your can and steal your ore. This is becoming rarer and rarer, but it still happens. If someone does take something from your can, they will start flashing red in your overview, which means you will be allowed to shoot them with out Concord interfering. You can also gang yourself with corporation mates to hunt them down, as anyone in your gang will also be allowed to shoot them. Just keep in mind that there are some people that will use this technique in reverse. If you get it in your head that you are going to go can stealing be aware that some people will drop jettison cans with a single piece of veldspar or equally worthless items in them just to have a free pass to blow your ship up. 1.3.3 Industrial Ships – Huge, slow and full of goodness Each race as its own set of industrial ships. What is great about EVE is that you are not limited to fly around in only your race's ships. Unfortunately although the Caldari have the best mining frigate, they do not have the best indy's. Instead, I suggest training for a Mammoth (Minmatar). Skills you will need: Minmatar Frigate 3, Minmatar Industrial 4 The Mammoth will hold 16,466m3 with 4x Expanded Cargohold 1 modules and 4x Giant Secure Containers. Why the Giant Secure Containers? Simply because they use 3000m3 of cargo space, but can hold 3900m3 each, which means for each one that you can fit in your cargo, you will get an extra 900m3 of cargo. No other Tech 1 indy will approach that kind of cargo space, except the Gallente Iteron V, which requires Gallente Industrial 5, meaning it is not at a beginner's reach. However, while you train for the Mammoth, the Caldari Badger will do a fine job. Don't stress yourself at getting a Mammoth too quickly, definitely not before you fly a cruiser. Keep using the Badger until you have a few million ISK in your wallet. 1.3.4 Joining a Corporation – The universe is a large place, don’t go in the dark alone Joining a corp is not mandatory, it is however very, very helpful. There is no valid excuse for not doing so. Many corporations will accept players with casual playing times, or newbies. There are so many corps out there, you are bound to find one that will fit your playing style. If worse comes to worse and the corp that you you signed on with isn't working out to well, just leave and find a new one! If you don't know where to start, have a look at the recruitment forum, or join the in game channel Eve University, which is a great place to ask questions and get help! 1.3.5 Selling your At the very beginning of the game, refining the ore you mine yourself would mean too large of a loss to be productive. Your refining skills will be too low at this point (if you have any). You could sell the unrefined ore, but I don t suggest doing that. Why? Most buy orders on the market for most types of ore are going to be probably anywhere between 60 to 90 percent lower than the true value of the ore. Most people that are capable of setting huge buy orders are well aware that most new miners don't understand the system and will just sell at any price The buyer will then collect the ore and refine it. Don't be angry if this has happened to you already, economics like that happen in the real world every day and EVE is no different in that respect. This however incapacitates your wallet as you are not getting the full value of the work you put in. Joining a corp helps here: there is probably someone in your corp that will be able to get a good (even if not perfect) refine. If you insist on playing solo, get Refining 4 and it will make a sizable difference in what you get in return. The worst thing you can do is just right click -> sell and accept without even looking at the price you are getting. This is the most common mistake. Open the market, look at the buy orders, don’t be lazy! Each mineral unit has a volume of 0.01 m3 (compared to ore, which take much, much more space) so they really are easy to move around! Don t be afraid to stockpile and to make your trips more worthwhile! Knowing the market is the key to make ISK as a miner or a trader, don't go blind selling the ore that you have put so much effort to mine! 1.3.6 Your First Cruiser – No, I am not referring to the motorcycle in the garage So, you finally got Caldari Frigate 4 and Mining 4. The next step of the chain is to get a cruiser. Lucky for you, the Caldari also have the best mining cruiser, the Osprey. Skills you will need: Caldari Cruiser 1, Spaceship Command 3 The Osprey is a very nice ship, very affordable and also gets 20% bonus to yield per skill level. I suggest training Caldari Cruiser up to level 3 immediately. Caldari Cruiser 4 will not be wasted time, but if you just started, you might want to invest the 4 or 5 days it would take you into other skills, like Engineering and Electronics for example. As for fitting the Osprey, it is pretty straight forward. 3x Tech 2 Miner II's in the high slots, you can fit a shield tank in the medium slots if you want as the Osprey can handle itself in 0.6 systems with a heavy launcher and some drones. As usual in the low slots fit as many mining upgrades as you can. One will fit for sure; two will fit with good skills (Electronic 5, Mining Ugrades 4). Next step is to get Astrogeology to level 4. It will give you another 20% bonus to your yield and is required for the next step of the chain, which is a Mining Barge (covered later). After you reach Astrogeology 4, you will be faced with a choice. You can either get Caldari Cruiser 4 and / or Mining 5 (both will require about the same time to train if you don't already have mining 5). Mining 5 is a good investment for sure. If you plan to go for a Barge right away, then getting Caldari Cruiser to level 4 is not necessary as you are not very far from your first mining barge at this point (5 or 6 days). If you would like to also train some PvP skills before though, then getting Caldari Cruiser 4 is a good idea as the 20% bonus it will give you is absolutely worth it. The next step will be either a Battleship or a Mining Barge. The fourth section is dedicated to this important next step and will explain the pros and cons of both to help you in your decision. 1.4 The Different Mining Lasers – Tools of the trade There are many types of mining lasers, and it can be quite confusing for the new comers, so here is a summary of what they are and what they are used for: Laser Name ……………………… Note …………………………………………………… Uses Mining Miner I ……………………………. Can be fitted on any ship, entry class laser, also has Various named variants. Miner II …………………………… Can be fitted on any ship, Tech 2 class laser. Strip Miner I ………………………. Can only be fitted on mining barges or exhumers. Modulated Strip Miner II …………. Can only be fitted on mining barges or exhumers X Virtually useless without crystals, cannot mine Mercoxit. Modulated Deep Core Miner II …… Can be fitted on any ship, and fits all crystals. X Tech 1 Ice Harvesters ………………... Must be fitted on mining barges or exhumers. Tech 2 Ice Harvesters ………………... Must be fitted on mining barges or exhumers. This puts an end to the first section. If you can retain everything you read in this first section, you are already on your way to a brilliant career! Before heading to the fourth section of this guide, there are a few skills you should have trained. Skills you should now have: Caldari Frigate 4, Caldari Cruiser 3 or 4, Mining 4 or 5, Astrogeology 4, Mining Upgrades 1.
(To be continued in Part 2.) ForumlinkDiscuss about this article by following the address below :http://www.skryer.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=3196  Print Article Send to a friend
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