Mining Tips

I was getting a little tired of always seeing this post first whenever I checked my blog, so I’m moving it to its own page, where it will be easier to manage .

1 – Read Halada’s Mining Guide. It is the holy book of miners all across EVE.

2 – Do not AFK mine. Simple. But if you do (and I know you are going to do it, because so do I), remember to Alt-Tab to something else, don’t actually leave the room if you can avoid it. Try to keep your sound up so you can hear if any rats come at you.

3 – Remember to align to a station before you start mining. In high-sec this isn’t much of an issue, but it’s a good habit to get into for when you move to low or null-sec.

4 – This may be heresy to some of you out there, but I find that it works very well. Turn off the auto-repeat on your MSMII’s. An asteroid very rarely (read as never) contains the exact amount of ore you can mine with your lasers. It will have more or less. If it’s less, no problem, but if it’s more, you run the risk of spending another 3 minutes just to get 10 more units of Veldspar. By not using the auto-repeat, you can scan the asteroid and determine whether it is best to shoot at it your lasers, or to just send in your drones.

5 – Use a Survey Scanner. See number 4.

Both number 6 and number 7 can be better achieved by using a fast ship (frigate, cruiser, even a shuttle) before you start mining anything. Thanks to Eric for the tip

6 – When you arrive at a system you intend to stay in for some time, get to know its layout. Check to see if the station you are parking your ships at is the best one for your mining needs. Sometimes stations are located at a planet that has most of the asteroid belts in that system. These are the ones you should aim for, since they save you considerable time when your are flying to and from the belts.

7 – Related to number 6, when you arrive at a belt, don’t dash off to the nearest roid of your choice (Hulk pilots will have laughed at the “dash off” part, no doubt). Use your Overview to determine where the greatest concentration of roids is and head for that. Rare ores (the one that give 10% bonuses) tend to spawn at the same locations, give or take, so learn where these locations are and bookmark them. When you decide to mine at that belt again, warp to that bookmark, so that you are ready to mine the best roids as soon as you arrive.

8 – Know what to mine in order to get the most out of your time. Halada’s guide comes to the rescue once again, in section 13, page 48 (as of version 2.2). There you will find a table detailing which ore is the most valuable. Note that these values were valid for the region and the time that the guide was written. Things  have changed since then, so remember to make your own calculations beforehand. The guide also teaches you how.

9 – Whenever you feel safe doing so, use drones. They don’t mine much, but it adds up over time. One thing I have discovered, at my own cost, though. If your drones are mining one asteroid and you want them to mine another, tell them to orbit your ship first, so they can transfer their cargo to you. The reason for this is that whatever ore they might have already mined from the first asteroid is still in their cargo holds and if you tell them to mine the second asteroid without emptying first, they will just orbit it without mining. And it is really frustrating when you remember them a few minutes later and they are still there, not doing anything.