What are mining missions? They are provided by mission agents, just like security and distribution missions and are rewarded with Loyalty Points and ISK just like any other mission. The general task is to warp to a mission deadspace location and mine out the ore, ice or gas there. The mined item will be given to the agent to complete the mission. If you’ve got an Alt Toon and are looking for an easy way to make some decent ISK in a fairly AFK manner then mining missions could be what you’re looking for. I’ve been at it on and off for the past little while and have a decent system down.
If you need a base guide to start from there is a good post on ore mining here [Guide] Ore Mining
You’ll need to build up standing to get access to the Level 4 Missions but you can start out doing the Level 1 Missions in a Venture and be training into the larger mining ships while you’re grinding away at those.
At minimum for the Level 4 Missions I’d recommend that you have and be able to pilot the following ships:
• a Venture for gas mining
• two Retrievers, one fit for ice mining one fit for ore mining
• a Miasmos for hauling ore out of the bulkier ore mining missions
If you’ve got the ISK to spare and want to get serious about it:
• a Hulk or Porpoise for the bulkier ore mining missions
The Missions, there are nine of them:
Arisite Envy
• 45,000 m3, use Gneiss crystal
• Ore Hulk or Ore Retriever, warp in, launch drones, position your ship within mining range of the 1 asteroid, jet can mine until it is mined out then return with a Miasmos and pick up all the ore ~ Using a Porpoise for this mission is a viable option
Cheap Chills
• 20,000 m3, Ice mining
• Ice Retriever, warp in, launch drones, orbit ice, AFK mine, can do in one load – you get a notice when the ice is mined out
Feeding the Giant
• 44,800 m3, use Dark Ochre crystal
• Ore Hulk or Ore Retriever, warp in, launch drones, position your ship within mining range of the 1 asteroid, jet can mine until it is mined out then return with a Miasmos and pick up all the ore ~ Using a Porpoise for this mission is a viable option
Gas Injections
• 4,250 m3, Gas Mining
• Gas Venture, warp in, launch drones, orbit gas, AFK mine, can do in one load – no notice is given when gas cloud runs out
Geodite and Gemology
• 44,800 m3, use Crokite crystal
• Ore Hulk or Ore Retriever, warp in , launch drones, position your ship within mining range of both asteroids, jet can mine until they are mined out then return with a Miasmos and pick up all the ore ~ Using a Porpoise for this mission is a viable option
Ice Installation
• 20,000 m3, Ice mining
• Ice Retriever, warp in, launch drones, orbit ice, AFK mine, can do in one load – you get a notice when the ice is mined out ~ This mission often spawns Drone Faction rats
Like Drones to a Cloud
• 4,250 m3, Gas Mining
• Gas Venture, warp in, launch drones, orbit gas, AFK mine, can do in one load – no notice is given when gas cloud runs out
Mother Lode
• 44,800 m3, use Arkonor crystal
• Ore Hulk or Ore Retriever, warp in, launch drones, position your ship within mining range of all 8 asteroids, jet can mine until they are mined out then return with a Miasmos and pick up all the ore – don’t get too close to the asteroids (keep 5,000m away) they explode while you are mining them ~ I would not use a Porpoise for this mission, your drones orbit the asteroids too close and will take damage from the explosions
Not Gneiss at All
• 21,000 m3, use Gneiss crystal
• Ore Retriever, warp in, launch drones, position your ship within mining range of the 1 asteroid, mine until it is mined out then return to station and turn it it.
Some notes:
Rats
• You will get the occasional rat spawn to shoot in your mission and they won’t be based on the level of mission your running, they will be System specific so just like you’d find in an asteroid belt in the System you’re doing the mission in. In High-Sec they will be mostly Frigates and rarely a Cruiser sized rat but if you’re running mining missions in Null-Sec then you’ll often see Cruiser and Battleship sized rats and I’d assume there would be a chance of getting a NPC capital spawn. The gas mining missions seem to spawn Drone Faction rats plus the ‘native’ rats. I’d recommend using a Procurer for running mining missions in Null-Sec.
Gankers
• There is no such thing as mining without gankers but mining missions do give you a little bit of a buffer because you are mining in a deadspace pocket where gankers will need to scan you down. A Venture can earn its price tag in a single mission, the Retriever can do it in an hour.
Income
• If you are near the keyboard and dock as soon as the ice/gas/ore is mined out, you can do about 3 missions an hour. In High-Sec, a mission gives 1.8M ISK and 4.5K LP on average and depending on whose Loyalty Points you’re getting this can convert into over 40M/hour. In NPC nullsec, working for a Pirate Faction you can get up to 80M/hour.
Storyline missions
• When you are doing Level 4 mining missions, you will get Level 4 storyline missions.
• Get a load of Kernite to the storyline mission station as the agent will often asks for Kernite.
• They will also have hauling missions, sometimes a small item and occasionally a load of 40K m3 cargo which you can complete in 2 loads with a T1 hauler.
• There are also combat storyline missions which you may be able to complete with your main? But there is a special one “Record Cleaning” which needs no combat, just a max-active-tanked battleship to fly over the acidic cloud.
• Complete every storyline mission that you can to get the faction standings over 5.0, which will allow you to decline the slower mining missions.
[Venture, Level 4 Gas Harvester]
Gas Cloud Harvester II
Core Probe Launcher I
Gas Cloud Harvester II
1MN Monopropellant Enduring Afterburner
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Medium Shield Extender II
Damage Control II
Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Small Core Defense Field Extender I
Hobgoblin II x2
Core Scanner Probe I x8
[Retriever, Level 4 Ice Harvester]
Ice Harvester II
Ice Harvester II
Small Shield Extender II
Ice Harvester Upgrade II
Damage Control II
Ice Harvester Upgrade II
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Warrior II x5
- You could swap out one of the Medium Core Defense Field Extender I for a Medium Ice Harvester Accelerator I, which would give you a little boost to your mining speed.
[Retriever, Level 4 Ore Miner]
Modulated Strip Miner II
Modulated Strip Miner II
Small Shield Extender II
Mining Laser Upgrade II
Damage Control II
Mining Laser Upgrade II
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Warrior II x5
[Miasmos, Level 4 Hauler]
Small Tractor Beam II
Small Tractor Beam II
Large Shield Extender II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
EM Ward Field II
Thermal Dissipation Field II
Damage Control II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Inertial Stabilizers II
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
[Hulk, Level 4 Ore Miner]
Modulated Strip Miner II
Modulated Strip Miner II
Small F-S9 Regolith Compact Shield Extender
Domination Explosive Deflection Field
Gistum C-Type Kinetic Deflection Amplifier
Survey Scanner II
Mining Laser Upgrade II
Mining Laser Upgrade II
Mining Laser Upgrade II
Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender II
Warrior II x5
[Porpoise, Level 4 Ore Miner]
Damage Control II
Omnidirectional Tracking Enhancer II
Large Shield Extender II
Drone Navigation Computer II
Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
Drone Navigation Computer II
Medium S95a Scoped Remote Shield Booster
Salvager II
Small Tractor Beam II
Drone Link Augmentor II
Medium Drone Mining Augmentor II
Medium Drone Mining Augmentor II
Medium Drone Mining Augmentor I
Mining Drone II x5
