Newcomer / Intro How do people make money mining?

William H. Bonney

W
You don't take Branston Pickle separately to put in your cheese sandwiches later. Preparation dear cmdr is key.

PS. collector limpets are a better choose over prospector if pushed for space.
 
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CMDR Mr. Boombastic

CMDR Mr. Boombastic
Last time I went mining I made over a million credits. Also check when you are selling if the Mission Board has a mining mission corresponding to your cargo, which may substantially increase your profits. Picking up a mining mission before mining will increase the chance of interdictions.

This video from CMDR Chaos Wulff taught me everything I wanted to know about mining (5 or 6 months ago). It's over a year old (as you can see from the old outfitting screen) but mostly relevant. It doesn't cover icy rings though.
[video=youtube_share;EkU-1SJ_7a4]https://youtu.be/EkU-1SJ_7a4[/video]
Pristine reserves and metallic rings tend to have the better yields.
And using a prospector drone tends to increase those yields.

A site I've used in the past to find pristine reserves: http://www.hozbase.co.uk/elitedangerous
Another pristine finder: http://edtools.ddns.net/index.php

Another guide here with more up-to-date info: The popular guide to mining (EDIT: Already mentioned by artigan99 :cool:)
And from that guide:
Asteroid rings come in four flavors: Metallic, Metal-rich, Rocky and Icy. Lots of new minerals were introduced with the engineers update, here’s what I found each belt type to contain and the galactic average price when I mined the stuff. This list will come in handy if you go for mining missions or are looking for something particular.
Metallic: painite - 40500Cr, platinum - 19279Cr, palladium - 13298Cr, gold - 9401Cr, osmium - 7591Cr, praseodynium - 7156Cr, samarium - 6330Cr, silver - 4775Cr, gallite - 1819Cr, bertrandite - 2374Cr, indite - 2088Cr

Metal-Rich: gold - 9401Cr, osmium - 7591Cr, praseodynium - 7156Cr, samarium - 6330Cr, silver - 4775Cr, lepidolite - 2374Cr,
indite - 2088Cr, gallite - 1819Cr, coltan - 1319Cr, uraninite - 836Cr, lepidolite - 544Cr

Rocky: samarium - 6330Cr, indite - 2088Cr, gallite - 1819Cr, coltan - 1319Cr, uraninite - 836Cr, cobalt - 647Cr, lepidolite - 544Cr,
rutile - 299Cr, bauxite - 120Cr

Icy: bromellite - 7062, lithium hydroxide - 5646Cr, methanol monohydrate crystals - 2282 Cr, methane clathrate - 629Cr,
liquid oxygen - 263Cr, water - 120Cr, hydrogen peroxide - 917Cr… And very rarely, low-temperature diamonds.
Click to expand...
Happy mining CMDR, o7.
 
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mrsiCkstar

M
So, it all comes down to knowing what to mine and where. By the looks of it I went straight into an icy ring and mined the least profitable material. Consider my attitude adjusted! Hopefully I'll have more success tonight.
 

CMDR Cknarf

CMDR Cknarf
I did quite a bit of mining in a Type 6. I don't have enough patience to be out there for hours in a Type 9.

Back in the good 'ol days, when there would always be missions to find paininte and stuff, and there were less materials to be found, you could make a fair amount of cash by stacking missions.

Still never paid as well as bounty hunting, combat bonds, or regular old trading.

I just mine for materials, now.
 

StiTch

StiTch
pipo zelvelder said:
My point is that this game greatly depends on time investing in tools outside the game. I don't like that. When I am playing this game, I have to open side programs to make any profit (like finding stations that sell what i need for a mission, or that sell stuff, or where profitable rings are, or where the engineers are, or where the engineer stuff is).

Without that, I am constantly interdicted for my engineering stuff, which are unmanageable without aid outside of Elite:Dangerous. I just think that is ridiculous, but that's me. Apparently, i am the only one
Click to expand...

Yeah not sure how the interdictions got involved here, because everything above is worthy of genuine discussion.

In-game indications of resources/assets are poor as hell. It's been established before that the trade route data etc. are actually very poor tools for working out trade routes, easily to the extent it would be considered broken.

Of course because everyone uses third party tools by default, the need to resolve this comes across as pretty minimal, despite the game advertising making a big thing of being able to read the economy etc.
 

aRJay

aRJay
I can see that some people would have issues with external tools, and I had a few myself until I thought some things through particularly in terms of how the other space trading/mining/crafting/hauling/combat game I play works.

Take the example of where to mine, nobody would have an issue of another Comdr. in game telling them directly that there was a xxxxxx ring at such and such a location they could then note the location for later either as a bookmark or on a post it note. Now there is no difference if this Comdr. had broadcast the information in Local to everyone in range except that the information has reached more people. Again it is really only a difference in scale if he posts that information on a blog/reddit/forum. Firing up the galaxy map takes you out of direct control of your ship, looking at a post it by your controls is less of an issue, alt tabing to a browser etc isn't too distracting if you keep it small and/or semi transparent or you could glance at a tablet or phone by your controls pretending to be a subsidiary display (at least for those of us without VR).

The thing with all these external data suppliers is that the data is provided by players reporting it from the game so even with market data the difference between a friend telling you directly or it being available on an app is not insurmountable it is there and other people's mileage will vary but my only problem is remembering to take my tablet to the computer to run the trading app.
 

Arry

Arry
aRJay said:
I can see that some people would have issues with external tools, and I had a few myself until I thought some things through particularly in terms of how the other space trading/mining/crafting/hauling/combat game I play works.

Take the example of where to mine, nobody would have an issue of another Comdr. in game telling them directly that there was a xxxxxx ring at such and such a location they could then note the location for later either as a bookmark or on a post it note. Now there is no difference if this Comdr. had broadcast the information in Local to everyone in range except that the information has reached more people. Again it is really only a difference in scale if he posts that information on a blog/reddit/forum. Firing up the galaxy map takes you out of direct control of your ship, looking at a post it by your controls is less of an issue, alt tabing to a browser etc isn't too distracting if you keep it small and/or semi transparent or you could glance at a tablet or phone by your controls pretending to be a subsidiary display (at least for those of us without VR).

The thing with all these external data suppliers is that the data is provided by players reporting it from the game so even with market data the difference between a friend telling you directly or it being available on an app is not insurmountable it is there and other people's mileage will vary but my only problem is remembering to take my tablet to the computer to run the trading app.
Click to expand...
I have used the Coliolis to work out ships builds and costs and EDDB for trading information. However: The EDDB web-site is only as good as the information provided and after travelling over 750Ly (longest distance travelled at the time) and not finding what i was looking for; I have found the 84 tech, of pencil and paper, is my best option. This requires game time and constant market checking as I go. To be honest: These forums are a major source of information and only the hard core Elite psychos would not use other peoples tips and information; especially in these days of decades of internet walk throughs etc..
 

pipo zelvelder

pipo zelvelder
Arry said:
I have used the Coliolis to work out ships builds and costs and EDDB for trading information. However: The EDDB web-site is only as good as the information provided and after travelling over 750Ly (longest distance travelled at the time) and not finding what i was looking for; I have found the 84 tech, of pencil and paper, is my best option. This requires game time and constant market checking as I go. To be honest: These forums are a major source of information and only the hard core Elite psychos would not use other peoples tips and information; especially in these days of decades of internet walk throughs etc..
Click to expand...

Yes, it is really weird: When you start this game it is absolutely unplayable without MAJOR internet help (I don't think anyone will dispute that this after-2.1 game is unplayable without lots of internet help, like EDDB, landing video's, interdiction videos, Engineering lists etc.) and when you reach Elite level (which I for one will never reach, but maybe if I am still playing in 2084...) you fall back to pencil aan paper...
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
Missions are a good way to buff the profits too. You sometimes get silly ones offering 200kcr for 2t of bromellite and the like, but you also get extremely lucrative ones offering a million or more for 40t.

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And maybe with things like pristine metallic rings the devs might expect players to engage their brains and look for one where one is likely to be found. Just a few LYs outside the bubble, all rings are pristine.
 
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