Newcomer / Intro Deep Core Mining

I am going after void opals and I think it requires deep core mining skills if I am not wrong? I know how to laser mine and I have the kit on my carrier to go from laser to deep core but I could do with some starting guidance bearing in mind all the changes to mining since the 9th June update.
 
His video below is a little overkill but helpful. Really not much to it. Get a ship, some storage, prospector limpets, pulse wave scanner, collector limpets, have some shields as you might be hitting some asteroids and the all import Seismic Charge Launcher. Make sure to keep the indicator in the blue area, you don't want to under charge or overcharge. Takes a little practice but after a few tries, you'll be a deep core expert! I feared it at first, now it's second nature. Head over to the Amber system, Amber A 8 planet, ring A (you'll see the hotspots with your detailed surface scanner (don't forget one!) Dive into the asteroid field, LET THE PIRATES scan you before you start collecting stuff. They will hit you as soon as you drop into the field, and as long as you have nothing but Limpets, they will leave you and go away. Then, start hitting that Pulse Wave and look for bright yellow asteroids. They MUST be bright lemon yellow, don't be fooled by the fakes, you'll see after a bit what is what just by sight. Also, the Cores seem to lie at the EDGE of the rings. Try to find one that are not spinning or not spinning too fast, much easier to hit the "cracks" that way, and try to avoid Cores too close to other asteroids, makes flying around them easier to fire your charges.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5esd-dvVeFk&t=92s


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I am going after void opals and I think it requires deep core mining skills if I am not wrong? I know how to laser mine and I have the kit on my carrier to go from laser to deep core but I could do with some starting guidance bearing in mind all the changes to mining since the 9th June update.
Don't get discouraged if you do not find a lot on your first couple of trips. As you learn to visually recognize mother-lodes your earnings will improve:
OdaMaT3.jpg
 
Don't get discouraged if you do not find a lot on your first couple of trips. As you learn to visually recognize mother-lodes your earnings will improve:
OdaMaT3.jpg
Nice! I really need to buy a dedicated mining ship with lots of cargo. I use my Krait MKII and stuck with 128t at a time, but that nets me about $200 Million a load and usually there's a port buying for between 1.3 and 1.4M within 7 or so jumps. I wish I was hauling that load of 384, or more! Just too lazy to outfit a new ship I guess ;)
 
Yeah I am definitely nervous about doing this and doing it right.
Here's a little (a lot) more advice... DON'T PANIC as soon as you let off that first charge and the timer starts! You'll start panicking and hitting other asteroids and missing fissures! Launch your Prospector, identity that it's a Void Opal core. THEN, MAP OUT the fissures! It usually takes, in my experience, about two High, one average and maybe a low or two fissures to hit the sweet BLUE spot on the charge graph (upper right HUD). Just take your time, make sure your ship has PIPs to shields and a few to engines, don't sweat Weapons, but DO make sure your weapon PIP is fully charged up. Don't get TOO close to the asteroid, makes it harder to maneuver around it, but obviously don't be too far either. Watch your timer. When you get down to like 20 or 30 seconds, maybe then start backing off. I usually go back about 2.5km to avoid the "blast zone", but I have been caught in the blast and it's kind of cool actually. Your ship gets rocked a bit, a little "Sensor Disruption" but that's it. I have no idea what happens if you're TOO close though, might take out your ship but I don't know. You're going to panic at first and under charge or over charge, just the way it goes... but after a few asteroids you're going to be nailing the perfect blast! After the blast, open cargo and fly close to the asteroid (don't need to be too close but close) and let your limpets do their job. Watch your Inventory and make sure you have room to collect and it's not "Cargo Hold Full", you might need to dump a few limpets to make room, no biggie, just dump out about two or three, and just fill up. Many VO deposits will stick to the rock, so use your Abrasion Blaster to knock them off to get scooped up. OK, now, here's the best part, BUT this might have been NERFed today with the update... once you have collected ALL the VO chucks, backup and keep the asteroid "SPOT" in the dead center of some aim function you have, use the Blaster or what you have that you can use to center where the asteroid is/was and backup until the asteroid field resets. I would say, back up about a good minute or two, until you see the smoke and field RESET. You'll know it when you see it. As soon as it resets, fly directly back to where the asteroids was and it should, if they did not NERF it today, reset and be collectible again. No need to fly around looking for another Core, it will be right there, reset and good to blast again! I hope to GOD they did not NERF this, I'll know later tonight. Also, this is what I do, not sure about your ship. I find my spot, and find a nearby station. I keep all my mining stuff at that station. That way I have a close base. I outfit my ship, store what I don't need at the station, and go mine. Then I fly back to the station and unload all my mining gear, and put back all my combat stuff, so I can defend myself on my way to the sell spot. The only thing I can't do is outfit back my better and engineered shields as a cargo rack is in that slot, so I just use another slot for lesser shields, but avoiding an interdiction is easy, unless you're in OPEN, where you'll have little chance getting out of that pirate interdiction. I am offering you all this info because I almost gave up on Elite, was stuck not sure how to really make good money and then I found VO CORES! Now, I am a billionaire! Ha! And forget LTD Cores, VO's are worth more! You might want to practice on them, if you hit one before a VO Core though. Go for it! Practice makes perfect! Last bit of advice is this... When you find a VO that's spinning fast or has other asteroids very close, you might want to just move on and find another one where it's a slow spin and has more room to fly around it. Seems like they intentionally make the CORES spin a little fast and close to other 'droids, but you'll find the perfect one and you'll be thankful for it! :) Enjoy the Billions you're going to make! o7

Here's a tool to find the best selling location. I use it all the time. Just make sure the "WHEN" column is not like 28 hours ago, find a spot in the list, that's reasonably close that has a reasonable "WHEN" time. I like the ones that say an hour or less. http://edtools.ddns.net/miner

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Here is a present for you, it looks like you need it:

View attachment 187287


;)

( ... only teasing, sorry ... )
I'm feeling stalked Para! 🤨 Sorry for the run-on. My intention was not a lesson in proper grammatical writing but rather just a bunch of Core Mining core asteroid tips. But thanks for pointing that out. I think you wait for me to post stuff and jump on it. What I do? 🤨
 
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My tips.

Find a way to have your Pulse Wave Scanner operating continuously and have your night vision system operating, I find that this makes the rocks containing cores most distinguishable.

Mount your Seismic Charge Launcher and Abrasion Blaster close to the centreline of your ship as this helps aiming them.

While the shape of the core contains rocks is fixed the colours shown by the scanner are affected by your whole graphics setup so be prepared for the images in the guides not necessarily matching what you get.

It helps to have a reasonably agile ship when you are dancing around a spinning rock trying to place multiple charges in the time limit, shields are a good idea as it is easy when doing that dance to hit an adjacent rock
 
My tips.

Find a way to have your Pulse Wave Scanner operating continuously and have your night vision system operating, I find that this makes the rocks containing cores most distinguishable.

Mount your Seismic Charge Launcher and Abrasion Blaster close to the centreline of your ship as this helps aiming them.

While the shape of the core contains rocks is fixed the colours shown by the scanner are affected by your whole graphics setup so be prepared for the images in the guides not necessarily matching what you get.

It helps to have a reasonably agile ship when you are dancing around a spinning rock trying to place multiple charges in the time limit, shields are a good idea as it is easy when doing that dance to hit an adjacent rock
Yes, forgot the Night Vision! Good point. Much easier to see the rocks for sure! Very difficult without NV ON.
 
Yes, forgot the Night Vision! Good point. Much easier to see the rocks for sure! Very difficult without NV ON.
Well, if you're constantly pulsing your PWA you'll see the rocks in the dark anyway. I did this before I realised night vision existed (as it didn't exist when I played this years ago).
 
Yes, forgot the Night Vision! Good point. Much easier to see the rocks for sure! Very difficult without NV ON.
Well, if you're constantly pulsing your PWA you'll see the rocks in the dark anyway. I did this before I realised night vision existed (as it didn't exist when I played this years ago).
It’s not just that you can see the rocks in the dark it also seems to emphasise some of the characteristics of a core rock and make it more distinct from a very bright non core rock when you are continuously using the PWS.

At least with my graphics settings it seems to.
 
It’s not just that you can see the rocks in the dark it also seems to emphasise some of the characteristics of a core rock and make it more distinct from a very bright non core rock when you are continuously using the PWS.

At least with my graphics settings it seems to.
That Night Vision, even in a pretty well lit area, cuts through all the dust of the ring, like where I am mining below. It's invaluable to me.

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Well, I can confirm that respawing an asteroid via the backup method has been killed. I don't get why these a-holes at Frontier would care about that. If you want to spend 2 minutes backing up, so what, how is that hurting them? Also, they have cut down on the amount of Core asteroids AND made more fake asteroids look very much like core asteroids. I don't get it and really want to move onto something else, WAY too nanny other games to play. But, it's late and I am ed. Who knows tomorrow. I just think it's a really f'ed thing to do to players, especially ones that don't have 1000's of hours to put into this simulator and would like to buy something that, with all the goodies and ENG, costs BILLIONS! what FDEV? Cheating via something like Cheat Engine is one thing... a stupid but nice little game function, even if unintended, should not be taken, asteroids thinned and fake asteroids made to look like core asteroids. These guys are sadistic developers, like they get a kick out of it. F'ed up! :cautious:
 
Ahhmmm how do I find good void opal hotspots? and are there any double ones?
Void Opals are IIRC found in icy rings, pristine ones ought to be the best, there certainly used to be double hotspots though it is possible that the overlap isn’t as much of an advantage as it used to be.
 
My tips.

Find a way to have your Pulse Wave Scanner operating continuously and have your night vision system operating, I find that this makes the rocks containing cores most distinguishable.

Mount your Seismic Charge Launcher and Abrasion Blaster close to the centreline of your ship as this helps aiming them.

While the shape of the core contains rocks is fixed the colours shown by the scanner are affected by your whole graphics setup so be prepared for the images in the guides not necessarily matching what you get.

It helps to have a reasonably agile ship when you are dancing around a spinning rock trying to place multiple charges in the time limit, shields are a good idea as it is easy when doing that dance to hit an adjacent rock
I originally mapped my PWS to my Trigger #1 and wrapped a velcro strip around the joystick (and trigger) to hold the trigger down. This kept the PWS pinging constantly and at minimum intervals but I recently found out Voice Attack and ELI can do it just by asking.
 
Here is the link to a deep-core mining guide I wrote several months ago, most of the info is still valid:

 
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