Guide to Mining

Mining can be dangerous, tedious, and boring. However no reward is without its risks. 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. The arc smelter also requires a steady stream of raw materials. 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	Classification	Toughness	Description
Cobryl		Metal	2	Space silver! Decent money maker, but no real practical use. If you're a straggler stuck with nothing but a pick and barren fabricators, this is your breadwinner.
Syreline		Metal	4	Space platinum! Very difficult to mine without explosives and practically useless, but worth a king's ransom to the quartermaster.
Pharosium		Metal, Conductor	1	Space copper! Very useful for roboticists and makes up the remaining half of a mining charge. If you like bombing rocks, this will be the first mineral to run out.
Mauxite		Sturdy Metal	1	Space steel! The roboticist makes his friends out of this stuff, so he'll go through a lot. Makes up one quarter of a mining charge.
Molitz		Crystal	1	Space glass! Another useful material for the roboticist. Makes up the second quarter of a mining charge.
Bohrum		Dense Metal, Dense Matter	3	Space adamantium! The backbone of higher tier mining equipment, you'll want a lot of this in your recycler to make anything worthwhile.
Cerenkite		Metal, Power Source	3	Space asbestos! Horribly radioactive, digging in without a heavy hazard suit is a slow suicide. Occupies the same fabricator niche as plasmastone, but specializes in very desirable cyborg power cells instead of high-yield bombs.
Plasmastone		Crystal, Power Source	2	Space fuel! Explodes violently if shocked by mining charge, so stick to drills. A few top-shelf mining goodies want this, but it's most useful refined into extra fuel in the engineering ore distiller or stuffed inside pipebombs.
Claretine		High Energy Conductor	3	Space MgB²! Required in bulk for all high-performance digging gear and industrial armor, the two most desirable things on a miner's wish list.
Gold		High Density Matter	4	Space gold! As you'd imagine, the QMs would love to get their hands on a shipment.
Viscerite		Metal, High Density Matter	2	A flesh-like material of Martian origin. Useful in the fabricator as an alternative to uqill, but little else.
Koshmarite		Metal, High Density Matter	2	Another substitute for uqill, and a very sturdy one at that.
Char		Not construction-grade material	-1	Space coal! Prime furnace fuel, secondary trade good for the quartermaster and the closest thing to gunpowder on the station if you are into that kind of thing.
Ice		Not construction-grade material	-2	Space water ice! Also completely worthless. Will melt when you are holding it in your hand for too long.
Rock		Not construction-grade material	1	Space dirt! Completely worthless unless you're a rock worm. However, rock worms are known to frequent the trading circles, so the QM probably won't mind if a few lumps end up in your latest cobryl dispatch.

Gems

Gems are rare and valuable. A mined rock may contain only 1 gem at a time. Use your geological scanner to find gems quickly.

Name	Image	Classification	Description
Cytine		Crystal	Space jewels. Fancy array of colors, but only good for money. Slip them inside cash ore shipments.
Telecrystal		Crystal, High Energy Power Source	Shiny cones that let you break the laws of physics. Can be used in some machinery, for cyborg upgrades and be sold off for a good sum. No, you can't use them to get more Syndicate gear.
Fibrilith		Not construction-grade material	Space silk. Can be processed into fabric with a recycling unit. Raw lumps of the stuff fetch a good price on the open market, though.
Erebite		Power Source	The Devil's plasmastone. As dangerous as it is rare, it makes a menacing pipebomb or an extremely fast-charging cyborg cell. Look in plasmastone veins for small bits of these.
Uqill		High Density Matter	Crystallized scifi magic. 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		Anomalous	Mineral wild cards. When put into a recycling unit, it will turn into a random amount of a random ore or gem, including the ones unheard of in the course of ordinary mining operations.
Starstone		Crystal	Extremely valuable, but it's unlikely you'll find one until after a meteor shower has hit the station. Sell them to certain merchants to become an instant millionaire!

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
Icy		Always contains chunks of water ice in addition to other materials.
Super Dense		Has a hardness rating of 10 and is extremely difficult to break through. Super-dense asteroids tend to have a significant quantity of gems at their core, so the effort can be justified.
Weak		Rock has -1 toughness.
Dense		Rock has +1 toughness.
Hazardous		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		Contains a smuggler stash, an artifact or a sleeping rock worm. Poke it with the scanner to find out what.
Gem		Rock contains a gem. No reason not to crack it open.

Equipment

All equipment and tools can be manufactured at the mining fabricator. 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		Provides protection from the vacuum of space. The helmet has a built-in flashlight.	3 Fabric, 3 Metal, 2 Crystal
Jetpack		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 Dense Metal, 10 Conductive Material
Mining Belt		Holds most of the gear and equipment you will need to mine.	N/A
Geological Scanner		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 Metal, 1 Conductive Material, 1 Crystal
Ore Satchel		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 fabricator or crate to empty it into that container.	5 Fabric
Ore Scoop		This very useful utensil allows you to collect ore by merely walking over it. Simply insert an ore satchel, hold the scoop in your active hand and you're good to go. Click on the scoop to unload the satchel, or anywhere else to dump the ore on the floor.	N/A
Optical Meson Scanners		Allows you to see the composition of asteroids.	3 Crystal, 2 Conductive Material
Breath Mask		Required for full spacesuit gear.	1 Fabric

Advanced Equipment

Item	Image	Description	Cost
Industrial Space Armor Set		Replaces the standard spacesuit and helmet. It provides protection against radiation and explosions.	15 Dense Metal, 7 High Energy Conductor, 3 High Density Matter
Mechanized Boots		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 Sturdy Metal, 7 High Energy Conductor, 3 Plasmastone
Large Ore Satchel		Like a regular satchel, but holds 75 ore instead of 30.	25 Fabric, 3 Dense Metal
Cargo Transporter		Send crates or lockers to a cargo pad. Use it in your active hand to pick a destination, then click on the crate/locker to teleport it. Has 10 uses before it must be recharged. No longer standard equipment for miners, but the quartermasters may be willing to part with their spare transporter.	N/A
Flashlight		Provides additional light if you opt to go exploring derelicts and other foreboding parts of space, but useless for mining.	1 Metal, 1 Conductive Material, 1 Crystal

Tools

The greater the difference between tool strength and rock hardness, the more difficult it is to tunnel through the asteroid. Equipment with a strength at least equal to the rock's hardness rating is guaranteed to work on the first try.

Item	Image	Toughness	Notes	Cost
Pickaxe		1	You get this when your powered pickaxe runs out of juice. Utterly useless.	1 Sturdy Metal
Powered Pickaxe		2	Starting equipment. Has 30 uses before it must be recharged.	2 Sturdy Metal, 5 Conductive Material
Laser Drill		3	Has infinite charge.	15 Sturdy Metal, 7 Dense Metal, 10 High Energy Conductor
Power Hammer		4	Holds 30 charges. Also available from the quartermaster.	1 High Density Matter, 8 Conductive Material
Concussive Gauntlets		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.	15 Dense Metal, 15 High Energy Conductor, 2 Power Source
Low-Yield Mining Explosives		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.	3 Metal, 3 Crystal, 7 Conductive Material
Mining Explosive		N/A	A stronger variant of the mining explosive, also in packs of 5.	7 Metal, 7 Crystal, 15 Conductive Material

Machinery

Large mining machines cannot be picked up, only dragged around. 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
Mineral Accumulator	File:MineralAccumulator.png	Allows you to send large quantities of ore to a cargo pad. To use, select a destination first, drag the accumulator to the desired location and then turn it on. Any loose ore within an eight-tile radius will be pulled to the device and teleported to the cargo pad. Must be turned off before it can be moved again.	25 Sturdy Metal, 15 High Energy Conductor, 2 Telecrystal
Power Cell		Used in APCs and machinery.	4 Metal, 4 Conductive Material, 4 Any Material
Erebite Power Cell		A higher capacity but very volatile power cell.	4 Metal, 4 Any Material, 2 Erebite
Cerenkite Power Cell		A very high capacity power cell that any cyborg would be glad to have.	4 Metal, 4 Any Material, 2 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. If you can manage to kill one, you might get a surprise.

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 an industrial space 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. Alternatively, if you have procured an electromagnetic card, you can simply hit the crate with it to unlock it instantly. Abandoned crates contain a large variety of goodies not otherwise available on the station. 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.

What could be inside?

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. Bashing them with melee weapons or mining tools might help, lasers and other guns are likely to pass right over them. If you encounter fermids alone, 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. They are annoying but ultimately harmless to a cyborg, so if one gets too close to the outpost, scream for a cyborg over the radio. The borg needs only to beat one over the head repeatedly with a wrench to kill the shit out of it.

Other

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