Guide to Mining

{wip}

Mining can be dangerous, tedious, and unrewarding. This guide provides the information you need to work as quickly and effectively as possible.

Ore

Ore is your main objective. You can send any ore to the Quartermaster to sell, and certain ores will also be useful to the Roboticist and to yourself to upgrade your equipment. Each ore carries a basic toughness that corresponds to the tool needed to mine it. Certain ores are dangerous and require special care.

Name	Image	Toughness	Description
Mauxite	img	1	The main component of metal. Most useful to the Roboticist.
Molitz	img	1	The main component of glass. Useful to the Roboticist and for making mining charges.
Pharosium	img	1	The main component of wiring. Useful to the Roboticist and for making mining charges.
Char	img	0	Can be used to fuel furnaces or sold by the Quartermaster.
Cobryl	img	2	Sells at a decent price for the Quartermaster, otherwise useless.
Erebite	img	2	Extremely volatile. Do not set off blasts nearby.
Bohrum	img	3	Useful for a lot of mining gear.
Claretine	img	3	Useful for a lot of mining gear, as well as components for Roboticists.
Dense Mauxite	img	3	Contains a lot of mauxite.
Dense Pharosium	img	3	Contains a lot of pharosium.
Plasmastone	img	3	Useful for certain mining gear. Volatile-- do not hit with mining blasts.
Cerenkite	img	3	Highly radioactive-- should not be mined or even touched without a RIG Suit.
Syreline	img	4	Sells well for the Quartermaster, otherwise useless.

Gems

Gems are rare and valuable. A mined rock may contain only 1 gem at a time. Use your Guide to Mining#Geological Scanner to find gems quickly.

Name	Image	Description
Cytine	img	Comes in a variety of colors. Sells at the Quartermaster's.
Telecrystal	img	Can be used in some machinery, at Robotics, and to be sold by the Quartermaster. (No, you can't use them to get more syndicate gear).
Fibrilith	img	When put into a fabricator, it turns into a certain amount of fabric. In its natural form it sells well at the Quartermaster's.
Uquill	img	As amazingly useful as it is rare. Required for high-end mining gear, certain upgrades at Robotics, always sells well at the cargo bay, and can be used to make replacement ammo for the RCD.
Miracle Matter	img	When put into a fabricator, it will turn into a random amount of a random ore or gem.

Special Rocks

Certain rocks may have special conditions on them. Using your geological scanner will give specific information and spit out symbols denoting these conditions.

Type	Symbol	Description
Weak	img	Rock has -1 toughness.
Dense	img	Rock has +1 toughness.
Hazardous	img	Rock contains either radioactive or volatile ore. Radioactive rock will glow blueish once exposed. Volatile ore will glow red when struck, giving you only a few moments to escape.
Foreign Object	img	Rock contains a rock worm, abandoned crate, or alien artifact.
Gem	img	Rock contains a gem.
Super-dense	img	Rock contains a very high quality of extremely dense ore. This occurs in very small asteroids. Ore cannot be harvested using tools, you must use an extractor rig on these rocks.

Equipment

All equipment and tools can be manufactured at the Mining Fabriactor. This includes your basic beginning gear if you lose it or show up late and all of it is gone.

Starting Equipment

Item	Image	Description	Cost
Engineering Space Suit Set	img	Provides protection from the vacuum of space. The helmet has a built-in flashlight.	3 Fabric, 3 Mauxite, 2 Molitz
Jetpack	img	Provides air and allows you to move freely in space when worn on your back. Can be topped off using the large O2 canister in the outpost. Requires a breath mask to work.	2 Bohrum, 10 Pharosium
Mining Belt	img	Holds most of the gear and equipment you will need to mine.
Geological Scanner	img	Use the scanner in your active hand to scan all rocks in view. The scanner will spit out a report and put symbols on rocks with something out of the ordinary in them. Using it on a piece of asteroid will tell you specifically what ore is present, its toughness, any danger conditions, and the presence of any foreign items.	1 Mauxite, 1 Pharosium, 1 Molitz
Ore Satchel	img	Holds up to 30 units of ore. To quickly pick up ore, click and drag one piece onto the satchel and you will automatically begin grabbing all ore of that type in every space surrounding you. Clicking the satchel in your active hand will dump its contents onto the ground. Use it on a mining fabricator to empty it into that device.	5 Fabric
Optical Meson Scanners	img	Allows you to see the composition of asteroids.	3 Molitz, 2 Pharosium
Cargo Transporter	img	Used to transport crates, lockers, or Alien Artifacts to valid pads, the most important of which are the Cargo Bay pad, the Robotics pad, and the Mining Outpost pad. Use it in your active hand to pick a destination, then on the item to teleport it. Has 10 uses before it must be recharged.
Flashlight	img	Provides additional light if you opt to go exploring derelicts and other foreboding parts of space, but useless for mining.	1 Mauxite, 1 Pharosium, 1 Molitz
Breath Mask	img	Required for full spacesuit gear.	1 Fabric

Advanced Equipment

Item	Image	Description	Cost
Industrial Space Armor Set	img	Formerly known as a "RIG Suit." Replaces the standard spacesuit and helmet. It provides protection against radiation and explosions.	15 Bohrum, 7 Claretine, 3 Uqill
Mechanized Boots	img	Gives the wearer a permanent speed boost, both in space and indoors. Moving around quickly will also deplete the contents of your jetpack faster, so be careful.	15 Mauxite, 7 Claretine, 3 Plasmastone
Large Ore Satchel	img	Like a regular satchel, but holds 90 ore instead of 30.	3 Bohrum

Tools

Certain tools carry a "toughness" rating. To mine a piece of rock, your tool must have equal or greater toughness than that rock. In addition, "Hot" mining tools will set off volatile ores and should be handled with care.

Item	Image	Toughness	Notes	Safety	Cost
Pickaxe	img	1	You get this when your powered pickaxe runs out of juice. Utterly useless.	Hot	1 Mauxite
Powered Pickaxe	img	3	Starting equipment. Has 30 uses before it must be recharged.	Safe	2 Mauxite, 5 Pharosium
Power Hammer	img	n/a	Weakens rocks, lowering their toughness by one. Available in Mining Crates that the Quartermaster can order.	Hot	1 Uqill, 8 Pharosium
Laser Drill	img	3	Has infinite charge.	Safe	7 Bohrum, 10 Claretine
Concussive Gauntlets	img	4	Worn on your hands and allows you to simply punch rocks with an empty hand. Infinite charges. Also increase your basic punching damage a bit.	Safe	15 Bohrum, 15 Claretine, 5 Erebite
Low-Yield Mining Explosives	img	n/a	Plant on an asteroid to produce a small concussive blast. Will break nearby rocks and weaken rocks at the edge of its blast. Has a 5 second countdown. Starting equipment and can be made in the fabricator in sets of 5.	Hot	3 Molitz, 7 Pharosium
Mining Explosive	img	n/a	A stronger variant of the mining explosive, also in packs of 5. Whether regular or low-yield, miners should never set bombs next to veins of volatile ore. This will cause a massive explosion that both destroys the ore, possibly kills you or another miner, and lags the server to hell.	Hot	7 Molitz, 15 Pharosium

Machinery

Large mining machines cannot be picked up but can be pulled or dragged. Moving them in space requires a good deal of patience as they will often slip out of your hands and you will have to double back. Nevertheless, they can be used to harvest great deals of ore.

Item	Image	Description	Cost
Mining Bot	img	You can unlock the mining bot with your ID to change its settings. It can be set to mine certain toughness of ores and to avoid or attempt to mine potential trouble spots. A few start right outside the Mining Outpost. They operate very slowly and are more of a "set it and forget it" deal. Can be made at Robotics and is available at Cargo Bay if you really need more.	n/a
Ore Extraction Rig	img	Used to harvest ore from dense asteroids. Move the extractor next to the asteroid, then bring up the "Select Target" menu to have it recognize the asteroid. Turn it on to have it begin harvesting. It can also be set to send a status message to your PDA when it has finished. It works very slowly and is very limited in its basic form, but upgrades can be purchased. A few start right outside the Mining Outpost. Without upgrades, it can only harvest Level 1 toughness ores.	20 Mauxite, 20 Pharosium
Extractor Capacity Upgrade	img	Increases the available space in the Extractor's hopper.	10 Bohrum, 1 Uqill
Extractor Teleporter Upgrade	img	Allows the rig to teleport ore as it is harvested to any valid teleport pad. Essential for any productive use of the rigs.	8 Cerenkite, 4 Plasmastone, 2 Telecrystal
Extractor Bohrum Drill Upgrade	img	Allows the rig to mine Level 2 toughness ore.	7 Bohrum
Extractor Uquill Drill Upgrade	img	Allows the rig to mine Level 3 toughness ore.	3 Uqill
Extractor Plasma Drill Upgrade	img	Allows the rig to mine Level 4 toughness ore.	15 Plasmastone
Mineral Accumulator	img	Allows you to pick up large piles of ore at once and teleport them to any valid teleport pad. To use, first set a destination, then drag to its desired location, and turn it on. Any loose ore in an 8-tile radius will be pulled into it and teleported. The machine must be turned off to move it again. Best used in combination with bombs.	25 Mauxite, 15 Claretine, 2 Telecrystal
Power Cell	img	Used in APCs and machinery.	4 Mauxite, 4 Molitz, 4 Pharosium
Erebite Power Cell	img	A higher capacity but very volatile power cell.	4 Mauxite, 4 Molitz, 5 Erebite
Cerenkite Power Cell	img	A very high capacity power cell that any robot would be glad to have.	4 Mauxite, 4 Molitz, 5 Cerenkite

Interesting Finds

In addition to ore and gems, you may unearth a variety of interesting objects and critters.

Rock Worms

Harmless creatures that will move around, eating up rocks, ore, and gems.

Abandoned Crates

Crates with a coded lock. Attempting to open will prompt you to enter a number between 1 and 10. You are allowed 3 guesses, and failing the third guess will cause the crate to explode, destroying its contents and hurting you if you are not wearing a RIG suit. To improve your odds of success, you can use a multitool on the crate, and it will tell you whether the last code entered was too high or too low. Abandoned crates contain a large variety of goodies not otherwise available on the station, including strange liquor, robotic upgrades, cash, chemicals, and other items of interest. If you don't feel like opening the crate yourself, check to see if any departments back on the station will be willing to receive it.

Alien Artifacts

Large items of unknown origin and purpose. Can be sent to the Research Wing for artifact research or to the cargo bay for sale.

Fermids

The miner's greatest foe. Fermids can chase you throughout space. If they catch up to you, they will bite you and inject a paralyzing neurotox before slowly gnashing you to death. Nothing short of a laser gun is enough to stop a fermid, so if you encounter them, your best bet is to run away and not lure them towards your outpost. A fermid hive can be found on the mining z-level, for the adventurous miner.

Other

Easter eggs, stockings, smuggler's creches... go around and explore!