Which is faster for gathering Tungsten: mining or SRV prospecting?

[CMDR Redcrest]

I have only ever mined to unlock engineers so my knowledge is limited. So which is faster?
I don't enjoy mining and I don't enjoy bouncing about in the SRV either. I need the materials though.
Before anybody suggests trading for them I'm low on pretty much all raw materials.

 

[Vardaugas]

Find a metal-rich body with nickel, germanium, tungsten and tellurium. Then go there and keep collecting all of it. Visit your local raw material trader to condense the yield into tungsten.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

SRV, no contest.

You can get Tungsten from rings, but:
- it's very rare even in rings which have it
- you can't scan the rings to tell in advance if they have any at all

 

[dognosh]

Go to TIRIS 1C and prospect for POLONIUM , then go to a material trader and convert each Polonium to 9 Tungsten
So every Polonium you pick up(3 actual) is worth 27 Tungsten.

 

[CMDR Redcrest]

Thanks for the tips folks! Saves me having to outfit ships for mining!

 

[RamirezKurita]

SRV prospecting is faster, but ring mining lets you earn credits while doing it. Ring mining is also pretty good for getting large amounts of the lesser materials, as you just keep scooping them up automatically rather than going out of your way and blasting worthless rocks.

 

[Mars Starcruiser]

SRV prospecting is faster, but ring mining lets you earn credits while doing it. Ring mining is also pretty good for getting large amounts of the lesser materials, as you just keep scooping them up automatically rather than going out of your way and blasting worthless rocks.

Tried this, sadly only saw maybe 1 material drop per asteroid. Prospector maybe double it occassionally but can’t be sure.

 

[Marshall...]

Go here:

Certain materials are easily found at the site of a crashed anaconda.
Location: Orrere 2b coordinates (43.8122, -173.9722)
Materials: Tungsten, Antimony, Ruethenium, Tellirium, Zirconium

there are 3 cargo crates at the site, which if you shoot, drop one of the above. Log in and out and fill yer boots!

 

[Vardaugas]

Log in and out and fill yer boots!

Now I know where they got the Guardian blueprint "gameplay" idea from. So many people just re-logged at material sites FDev thought that's exactly the way people want to play.

 

[RamirezKurita]

Tried this, sadly only saw maybe 1 material drop per asteroid. Prospector maybe double it occassionally but can’t be sure.

I find most asteroids give about 2 materials per asteroid, which doesn't sound like a lot but when you are filling up 200 odd tonne cargo holds with 3Ps (or mining mission requests) then you will typically run through quite a few asteroids. The fact that I've picked up over 10K materials from my time mining, while also lining my pockets nicely, shows that it can be a viable way of getting materials. I actually ranked up every single engineer just by spamming low level recipes, and this was before mining dropped valuable materials.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Now I know where they got the Guardian blueprint "gameplay" idea from. So many people just re-logged at material sites FDev thought that's exactly the way people want to play.

"[People] will always fight to win, within the rules of the game, pushing the boundaries of those rules as far as they can without being punished."

Chris Haueter

 

[BradHann]

SRV prospecting around geysers and other forms of volcanism. There's always plenty of rocks within a small area.

 

[dognosh]

Go here:

Certain materials are easily found at the site of a crashed anaconda.
Location: Orrere 2b coordinates (43.8122, -173.9722)
Materials: Tungsten, Antimony, Ruethenium, Tellirium, Zirconium

there are 3 cargo crates at the site, which if you shoot, drop one of the above. Log in and out and fill yer boots!

Absolutely terrible terrain for driving an SRV, but yes lots of materials. I gave up after 3 relogs,not going back.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Absolutely terrible terrain for driving an SRV, but yes lots of materials. I gave up after 3 relogs,not going back.

The key is to ignore the one on top of the cliff.

 

[Stealthie]

Tungsten?

Try Iah Lanitei C1.

My scrawled "log" tells me it's good for Tungsten, among other things.
If a planet makes it into my scrawled notes, it's there for a reason.

*EDIT*

Also, FWIW, you don't want to be looking for Tungsten at all.
If you want Tungsten, look for Tellurium and then trade down for 3x Tungsten.

Tellurium: Shibboleth 2ha

 

[Ralph Vargr]

SRV prospecting is faster, but ring mining lets you earn credits while doing it. Ring mining is also pretty good for getting large amounts of the lesser materials, as you just keep scooping them up automatically rather than going out of your way and blasting worthless rocks.

Correct. Mining this way lowers the time cost/credit deficit.

 

[Hooplah]

Tungsten SRV prospecting is at best 2.4 percent versus say 2.7 percent for Arsenic inside the bubble and 3.0 percent outside. Maybe asteroid mining is better but I haven't worked that end.

 

[Daniel Cloudsifter]

Go to TIRIS 1C and prospect for POLONIUM , then go to a material trader and convert each Polonium to 9 Tungsten
So every Polonium you pick up(3 actual) is worth 27 Tungsten.

Polonium is the G4 raw material in the Category 6 line. You can trade it down for 1/3 Mercury (G3) and 1/9 (G2) Arsenic in the same line.

Tungsten in the G3 raw material in the Category 5 line. The G4 there is Tellurium. So you could trade Tellurium down at 1/3 for Tungsten. Any other material trade will be more expensive. Germanium is the G2 material in that line, so you could trade it up for Tungsten at 6/1 if you have a lot of surplus Germanium.

 

[dognosh]

Polonium is the G4 raw material in the Category 6 line. You can trade it down for 1/3 Mercury (G3) and 1/9 (G2) Arsenic in the same line.

Tungsten in the G3 raw material in the Category 5 line. The G4 there is Tellurium. So you could trade Tellurium down at 1/3 for Tungsten. Any other material trade will be more expensive. Germanium is the G2 material in that line, so you could trade it up for Tungsten at 6/1 if you have a lot of surplus Germanium.

I was using the Beta list......

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

Mining can be a good way to get mats, including tungsten. Unfortunately, there is no listing in the game of what is in which ring. Records from pre 3.0 are unreliable too, as some mats have disappeared from some rings.

Also, metal-rich used to be the place to go. No longer. 3.0 changed it so that metallic rings are 10% better than metal-rich - provide you stick with medium & high content roids. Add to this the profit and there is now zero reason (except roleplay) to mine anywhere except pristine metallic.