Ship Builds & Load Outs Medium Sized Core Mining Ship?

[S7ewie]

Hey folks,

I'm trying to find a good ships to kit out as a core mining vessel. I haven’t tried it yet so I could do with some advice and opinions from those that have.

I don’t have loads of ships so the ones I do have I like to keep for a specific role. Therefore I don’t want to use a python because that’s my main multirole ship. Someone suggested in a previous topic to go with an Alliance Challenger. But I can’t get it to work for me, there’s just not enough slots. I’ll either have to drop the shield, fuel scoop or discovery scanner and I’m not happy with that. It’s a shame because I really love the ship and I think the central hardpoints would be handy. I also like the idea of being able to defend myself should I get attacked. Sadly though I don’t think it’s the right one for me.

I’m leaning towards the Phantom or Krait MKII now. Possibly more so the MKII again for the reason of being able to defend myself. I think it also has a central mount which might come in handy too?

As I said though I could do with some advice. I think I need a seismic charge launcher and an abrasion blaster. I’ve read elsewhere that the drill one (forgot what it’s called) is more useful for laser mining and less so for core mining?

Any opinions? What do you like to use?

 

[Ceekay]

It was probably me that suggested the Challenger but more as fully featured miner capable of all types of extraction, it works really well but does have limited cargo and range.

For DC mining only the Krait mk2 should work as you need decent agility to place the charges, if you're surveying rings (or belts apparently) for the first time you need the DSS to highlight the hot spots, a pulse wave scanner to locate suitable asteroids (KWS in the build), a prospector to highlight the fissures on the rock and the seismic charge launcher to place the charges.

Something like this as a starting point, add engineering to taste

https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/kra...BhBmUA5QFMCGBzANokICMF8hRFA&bn=Krait DC miner

 

[S7ewie]

Ahhh I think it was! Haha. I love the ship but just found myself a bit limited with optional modules. I like to have a fuel scoop for example. Having to land 3 times just to get to a decent belt would drive me insane.

That bascially what im running at the moment, just without the fighter hanger. I have a seismic charge and abrassion blaster on medium hardpoint. Not sure what to go with on the large. I guess MC and 2 pulse? I also had a headsink because I find them pretty useful.

I screwed up on my my first attempt and got blown to bits by a pirate though. I’m wondering how I can improve my defence? It was bascially missiles that ruined me which got me wondering whether it’s always worth taking both shield boosters instead of a point defence or ECM?

 

[Ceekay]

Point defence is useful against missiles but multiple launches can overwhelm a single turret, for ships with 4 utilities I'd generally fit 4 x engineered boosters and perhaps a guardian ship package if you've got the power/access, AFAIK ECM is more geared towards torpedoes than missiles generally with NPCs they generally spam missiles when the targets shields are down so you either build tough shields or add PD turrets to lower capacity shield builds.

From recent mining expeditions "decent" belts and rings are more focused on strip mining i.e. pristine metallic rings but the deep core materials are available in hot spots that aren't necessarily in PR rings , in fact a few hours ago I extracted over 6 mil from the (major reserve) rocky rings around this earth like https://eddb.io/body/4027020 and that's fairly local to my normal in bubble location so I wouldn't worry too much about fuel scoops TBH

 

[S7ewie]

Ahh I think I'll stick with the shield boosters then Any suggestions on engineering for them?

I have a fuel scoop on all my ships. I hate being limited. I'll often travel a fair way to find a good ring and then I'll try somewhere else to switch scenery.

I did have a go last night in a pristine ICY ring. I only cracked 2 (maybe 3 rocks, can't remember), but got about 40T of alexandrine which sold for around 10M. Pretty happy with that. Seems like mining is worth doing

 

[Ceekay]

I use bi-weave shields on my ships so it'll be a mix of thermal, kinetic and resist augmented to get a fairly balanced set of resistances something like this Challenger build

https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/all...loBhBGA2EoFMCGBzANokMK4fiIA==&bn=Chall CWA-44

For some ships I swap out a resist aug for another thermal resist booster to increase resistance to laser strikes, I don't try to achieve too high shield strengths as you reach a point where the fast regen advantage of the bi-weave starts to get lost, TBH that build should probably have around 800 MJ with a 6C bi-weave to keep the regen to around 2 minutes.

 

[Norwin Palmer]

I never carry subsurface missile launcher on core miner. On a large core miner ship I will carry a laser miner but not on a medium.

A lot depends on your tolerance for how long you want to staying out mining, it is going to take a while to fill up a Krait MII.

The principles of outfitting the internals for core mining are mostly the same as for laser mining except refinery size is not as important, A class collectors may be preferred, and prospector class is unimportant. Still with some of the new resources going for 1.6M+ credits each I would not needlessly skimp on refinery size as it can double as extra cargo at the end of a run.

Other midsize options that will take less time to fill:

1. Asp X with 64T cargo + 8T refinery, has spare hardpoints for defense, can carry Detailed Surface scanner or swap it out for extra collector limpet controller.
2. Dropship with 96T cargo + 10T refinery, has spare hardpoints for defense, can not really fit Detailed Surface scanner into the build.

I do not place any priority on equipping a DSS for now, the only exception might be to specifically mine one resource type. Even then I think it would be a rough go being very successful at it, some hotspots do produce their resource as cores some do not seem to. Could all just be down to random luck though.

The most important attribute for a midsize core miner is speed, maneuverability would probably be next but again those are up to an individuals tolerance levels for such things. What I find super fun others might find intolerable.

 

[Kopachris]

I've been using an Asp-X lately. 96T of cargo. 48 limpets seems to be the right number, lasts for one play session for me and gets me a full hold. 3A collector (only two limpets but that's been working out for me), a small prospector controller. Size 3 shields. Enough hard points for 2 mining lasers, 2 abrasion blasters, and 1 each seismic charge and subsurface drill. And around a 50 ly jump range, even with cargo. Only problem is it's a little bulky around the floaty bits.