As said in the title, I want to be a miner but I have absolutely no idea on how to because there is no tutorial on how to become one. Also I have absolutely no idea on how to find a station because i'm stuck in the middle of outerspace with no hope of ever finding a station and extremely low on fuel with no fuel scoop
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Newcomer / Intro I want to be a miner but don't know how
- Thread starter FireOfVoid
- Start date
can we become a miner in this game ? :d
I was going to type a long explanation, but instead I Googled "YouTube how to mine in elite dangerous". You might want to do the same.
Do let us know how you get on. I'm heading back to the stars.
Do let us know how you get on. I'm heading back to the stars.
Ok. Mining's not going to help with that. If you're in the starter Sidewinder with no added equipment or cargo, then self destruct (right HUD panel, Functions tab) and you'll get the same ship assigned at your original station when you first joined the game. Otherwise, or if you want to play it out inside the game, you need to learn to read the Galaxy Map and find a system nearby.
If you remember where you jumped from, just go back there. Efficient fuel management is an important skill. If you're genuinely going to leave civilization and explore then you will need a fuel scoop (they start at 309cr).
Back to the maps. On the Galaxy Map, click the Navigation tab, and make sure Economical Routes box is ticked. On the View tab, and click the top right "Map" box. The map will centre on your current location and show the most efficient routes you can take (in blue lines). Select for "Show by Colour" to be Allegience. Then, any empty systems will colour Grey, and the rest will be Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, by faction type. Next, hover your cursor over a few of the coloured (non-Grey) balls nearest your current system, and see the five icons appear. If the middle icon (concentric rings) is white then click it to access the System Map and see if it has stations with fuel. If that icon is red then there's a chance there is a station there, but you won't know until you hyperspace to that system, so if you're low on fuel you might only have one jump left and not want to risk it.
Yaffle
Volunteer Moderator
Well, first up we need to get you to a port.
Call up the system map from the left hand panel (it's under the galaxy map). Now click on each of the bodies there and if you see a little icon like a circle, a square, or a white funny thing, that's a station. Note the name. Now exit that, go to the navigation panel, scroll down until you find that name (well, any of them you may as well pick the closest) and then select 'lock and supercruise' or something similar. Now fly to it, and you can dock and refuel.
If there are no stations in your system you need the galaxy map, then click on the nearby stars and the system map to see if they have any stations. If so, jump there and do as above.
If you are out of fuel, you're really out of luck completely.
Here's a perfect mining ship for you.
All internals except for PC are D-parts to minimize weight. Good for careful maneuvering between floating rocks and maximizing jump range without upgrading FSD itself. Since it's most likely you're selling your fruits within the system, 14LY empty jump range should be enough for you to get around.
You can start out with a lower-class refinery, but you'll soon find the extra bins in your refinery really helps, so recommend upgrade them asap.
Also, if two class-1 gimballed beams seems not enough for you, here's a secret: while you do need to keep your distance from your target below 500m, mining lasers are SUPER UBER effective against hulls.
All internals except for PC are D-parts to minimize weight. Good for careful maneuvering between floating rocks and maximizing jump range without upgrading FSD itself. Since it's most likely you're selling your fruits within the system, 14LY empty jump range should be enough for you to get around.
You can start out with a lower-class refinery, but you'll soon find the extra bins in your refinery really helps, so recommend upgrade them asap.
Also, if two class-1 gimballed beams seems not enough for you, here's a secret: while you do need to keep your distance from your target below 500m, mining lasers are SUPER UBER effective against hulls.
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I wanted to become a miner too and after trying it for 10hrs or so I found it too tedious and changed my mind and tried to become a trader instead.
I'll definitely go back when I have saved up more money for a better refinery. I made a mistake of trying to mine in my brand new Hauler when I didn't have enough money to buy decent equipment.
My refinery could only handle one type of ore at a time and it just seemed to take forever to locate a suitable asteroid that was worth mining and then you need to chase the little bits of ore about until you scoop it up and you can't see where you should go (even with the light on) because the sun had dipped behind the neighbouring planet and then the asteroid runs out after only cutting about 10 pieces off and you also need to keep moving out of the road of pirates who are always lurking around the resource sites!
So I sold my equipment and became a trader instead which is definitely more stress free, and I also get offered transport missions too.
I wanted to try mining because I liked to do it in another game I played but it works differently in this game. If you really want to do it in this game then I would wait until you can afford a decent refinery that can process 2 ores at a time. I think the C-rank is the cheapest one and here Is ED wiki for more info:
http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Miner
I'll definitely go back when I have saved up more money for a better refinery. I made a mistake of trying to mine in my brand new Hauler when I didn't have enough money to buy decent equipment.
My refinery could only handle one type of ore at a time and it just seemed to take forever to locate a suitable asteroid that was worth mining and then you need to chase the little bits of ore about until you scoop it up and you can't see where you should go (even with the light on) because the sun had dipped behind the neighbouring planet and then the asteroid runs out after only cutting about 10 pieces off and you also need to keep moving out of the road of pirates who are always lurking around the resource sites!
So I sold my equipment and became a trader instead which is definitely more stress free, and I also get offered transport missions too.
I wanted to try mining because I liked to do it in another game I played but it works differently in this game. If you really want to do it in this game then I would wait until you can afford a decent refinery that can process 2 ores at a time. I think the C-rank is the cheapest one and here Is ED wiki for more info:
http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Miner
All i have done in this game is mine, because my system struggles when in combat. i started with the sidewinder, sold my freeagle, and bought a refinery bin with 2 bins, and a cheap mining laser. i managed to find a good system with platinum, palladium and gold. i did a few runs and upgraded to a hauler. Which is a risky thing because it only has one hardpoint for weapons, but after only a few runs managed to upgrade the ship to a Cobra, even more weapons to protect yourself instead of having to run all the time with the hauler. i upgraded the refinery bin to a 6 bin (which helps alot).
I dont understand why people say mining is not profitable when everything you sell is 100% profit, sure people are making 1000 - 2000 per tonne profit on trading, but they have massive ships with massive cargo holds, if you manage to find a good spot (which is pristine reserves, on a planetary ring, away from the extraction sites) you can find palladium which sells for 19,000 per tonne, thats 19,000 per tonne PROFIT.
Yeah it takes ages but it can be therapeutic.
Enjoy
I dont understand why people say mining is not profitable when everything you sell is 100% profit, sure people are making 1000 - 2000 per tonne profit on trading, but they have massive ships with massive cargo holds, if you manage to find a good spot (which is pristine reserves, on a planetary ring, away from the extraction sites) you can find palladium which sells for 19,000 per tonne, thats 19,000 per tonne PROFIT.
Yeah it takes ages but it can be therapeutic.
Enjoy
One of the best tutorials I've seen on it. Read the notes under it for some details. (tricks like going forward & backwards to pick up a lot of rocks mined in 1 pass)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR3bUC9BHZE
Another one to pay attention to on tactics and techniques - voice over comments give advice on things to watch for such as checking rock yields to see what you may be getting, how to not get turned around as you are checking rocks until you find a yield type you want, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZAyvBswZp0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR3bUC9BHZE
Another one to pay attention to on tactics and techniques - voice over comments give advice on things to watch for such as checking rock yields to see what you may be getting, how to not get turned around as you are checking rocks until you find a yield type you want, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZAyvBswZp0
Something I have not read in any guides, is 'venting'.
Once you become familiar with HOW to mine, you'll want to know WHAT to mine.
Depending on the number of BINS you have in your Refinery, you'll want to focus on specific resources as you might find a more valuable resource but in lesser quantity.
.
Resource "chunks" can contain two (or more? I've only seen two so far) resource types, you need to specify the type you want to harvest. As long as you have a type in a bin, it will automatically "consume" the hopper-resource, until the BIN reaches 100% (and completes 1ton of that resource).
When you find a RARE or more valuable resource, such as Gold, Platinum, etc, you might want to hold on to it, thus locking away a BIN from accumulating.
** Note - I've found that if you have sufficient cargo-capacity (10+), it's faster to collect the more readily available resources as you can find 4x the Gallite as you would Silver, and Gallite at ~2100CR vs time spent hunting silver at ~5k-5500 - you'll earn far more, and faster.
.
SO! You'll collect a sample into the hopper; If the resource is NOT something you have BIN space for, or want to collect due to CARGO space, just harvest the amount (again, by specifying via HOPPER confirmation - and select to "vent" the remaining sample.
Ex: Gallite 15%, Lepidolite 2% - the Lep. is hardly worth the effort when compared to Gallite and BIN space is limited.
This will require more work because you have to do this each time you collect a sample, however, it's the only way to allow you to continue if you're limited on BIN space or CARGO space.
.
.
** Note - You can use this as a comparative index of their value:
(you can look up the actual resource elsewhere for precise values)
** Note - I seem to find a mix of all kinds in various quantities - so keeping the more valuable types in the BIN and venting lower-values from the hopper speeds things along.
.
Platinum 19.7k
Paladium 14.250k
Gold 9.7k
Beryllium 8.69k
Silver 4.873k
.
Bertrandite 2926
Indite 2619
Gallite 2140
Coltan 1696
Uraninite 1168
Lepidolite 812
Rutile 406
Boxite 300
**Edit - when "scooping up" resources, I use my thrust forward, and thrust reverse often. I may shoot off 3-4 pieces which will float to approximately an equal space, so I thrust forward, then back again, and keep 'pecking' at them. It's much faster than doing fly-by's.
** Note - other players and NPC's will "steal" your hauls if left floating. Conversely, I haven't yet run into a problem where taking a chunk mined by an NPC offended them.
** Note - When scooting between asteroids, I choose to switch to engine/shields or full engine, then switch to full weapons when mining. It allows for faster transit while leaving the scoop down and weapons open.
** Note - one last thing - You will be scanned by NPC's (and likely players). If you get scanned by anything other than Security Forces, and if you have any cargo, you'll be put into a fight or flight confrontation - NPC's will say "I only want all that you have", and then open fire on you.
Once you become familiar with HOW to mine, you'll want to know WHAT to mine.
Depending on the number of BINS you have in your Refinery, you'll want to focus on specific resources as you might find a more valuable resource but in lesser quantity.
.
Resource "chunks" can contain two (or more? I've only seen two so far) resource types, you need to specify the type you want to harvest. As long as you have a type in a bin, it will automatically "consume" the hopper-resource, until the BIN reaches 100% (and completes 1ton of that resource).
When you find a RARE or more valuable resource, such as Gold, Platinum, etc, you might want to hold on to it, thus locking away a BIN from accumulating.
** Note - I've found that if you have sufficient cargo-capacity (10+), it's faster to collect the more readily available resources as you can find 4x the Gallite as you would Silver, and Gallite at ~2100CR vs time spent hunting silver at ~5k-5500 - you'll earn far more, and faster.
.
SO! You'll collect a sample into the hopper; If the resource is NOT something you have BIN space for, or want to collect due to CARGO space, just harvest the amount (again, by specifying via HOPPER confirmation - and select to "vent" the remaining sample.
Ex: Gallite 15%, Lepidolite 2% - the Lep. is hardly worth the effort when compared to Gallite and BIN space is limited.
This will require more work because you have to do this each time you collect a sample, however, it's the only way to allow you to continue if you're limited on BIN space or CARGO space.
.
.
** Note - You can use this as a comparative index of their value:
(you can look up the actual resource elsewhere for precise values)
** Note - I seem to find a mix of all kinds in various quantities - so keeping the more valuable types in the BIN and venting lower-values from the hopper speeds things along.
.
Platinum 19.7k
Paladium 14.250k
Gold 9.7k
Beryllium 8.69k
Silver 4.873k
.
Bertrandite 2926
Indite 2619
Gallite 2140
Coltan 1696
Uraninite 1168
Lepidolite 812
Rutile 406
Boxite 300
**Edit - when "scooping up" resources, I use my thrust forward, and thrust reverse often. I may shoot off 3-4 pieces which will float to approximately an equal space, so I thrust forward, then back again, and keep 'pecking' at them. It's much faster than doing fly-by's.
** Note - other players and NPC's will "steal" your hauls if left floating. Conversely, I haven't yet run into a problem where taking a chunk mined by an NPC offended them.
** Note - When scooting between asteroids, I choose to switch to engine/shields or full engine, then switch to full weapons when mining. It allows for faster transit while leaving the scoop down and weapons open.
** Note - one last thing - You will be scanned by NPC's (and likely players). If you get scanned by anything other than Security Forces, and if you have any cargo, you'll be put into a fight or flight confrontation - NPC's will say "I only want all that you have", and then open fire on you.
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