Going places with your barge/exhumer

PvE Gameplay Center PvE Ships & Modules
1

Here’s what I’ve been testing:
if you want to bring your barge to that forgotten crokite belt in lowsec (or especially, your exhumer) what you can do, is put it in a blockade runner.

Fit one with a CovOps Cloaking Device (duh), T2 hyperspatials, inertial stabilizers, warp core stab T2, nullifier T2, and this lil thing gets really hard to catch.

Generally speaking, while a Crane tends to focus on tank and is less flexible, the Prowler is more about speed, and has an extra low slot for stabs. Viator and Prorator have even more low slots for even more stabs, which is really all you want to do with your low slots in this particular case.
That said, whichever blockade runner you pick will have at least 4k cargo space, which is more than enough for a barge/exhumer + mods. Remember, no rigs! You wanna package that baby up once you’re done, and put it back in the BR.
Ideally, if you’re mining anyhing you can compress, you could also stick a giant cargo container in it, to create some space for the barge, the mods, and the compressed ore itself to bring it all home in one fell swoop.

Here’s a fit for a procurer, for instance:

[Procurer, Backpacking]
Mining Laser Upgrade II
Mining Laser Upgrade II

Survey Scanner II
Thermal Shield Hardener II
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II

Strip Miner I
Strip Miner I

Mining Drone II x5
Acolyte II x5

You can change this to fit your liking/skills, pretty much anything goes as long as you don’t put rigs on it.

Pretending we’re all efficient all the time and we all cloak instantly after warp, the “only” problem you encounter in lowsec is a smart bombing fleet, or a decently organized HIC gatecamp. To that I say, check this before you undock. Other than that, keep in mind no ship should last forever :slight_smile:

The concept works in nullsec as well, except you’re more likely to bump into bubbled gates. Intel and pings are your friends.
Pings in particular if you fly around your neighborhood. Make your own. They saved my ass more times than I can count.

I’d like to hear what people think!

EDIT: This is rather solo mining oriented. Training all the toons you’re multiboxing into a fleet of Prowlers carrying Mackinaws in them would be a bit funny to watch, on top of being flashy.

EDIT2: don’t fly a Mackinaw. A Skiff will mine just as much with the same amount of Laser Mining Upgrades in the lows, with the addition that it will survive belt rats, unlike the Mackinaw.
Fly safe o7

4 Likes
2

What?! Non-afk, strategic, risky mining? I approve.

7 Likes
3

Or perhaps no expensive rigs? A cheap rig or two or three can enhance your profits and survivability substantially and the sacrifice can be well worth it. in fact, an engineering rig might be necessary just to fit the ship with anything making the trip worth it.

You have to break some eggs if you want an omlete. So, some sacrificial rigs could make perfect sense.

2 Likes
4

Well, I like your moxy kid.

2 Likes
5

I like the idea!

Just wondering how you’re going to bring back all the ore. As a solo miner in hostile space I doubt you will have compression abilities and you won’t fit a lot of ore in a BR or a packaged barge/exhumer.

Have you considered the mining frigates? Endurance or Prospect should be able to be nearly as slippery as a BR, while also having an ore bay that is biggert than what your BR has left with a packaged exhumer in it.

1 Like
6

Find a buddy or two , setup an Athanor somewhere in j-space . You’ll have compression , access to ABC ore, wh gas and even oportunities for high end ice, and there’s not a lot of effort to extract the goodies to a market hub. Alternatively you can also do some PI there or even combat sites, if that appeals to you.

7

Non expensive rigs is fair. I’m actually training a blueprint for Medium(Or small? can’t remember) Higgs Anchor I, the cost in minerals is laughable.
Every other kind of rig you’d like is easily replaced by paying attention honestly. Agility rigs won’t save you if you’re caught.
If someone pops in local and you’re not distracted, you just wait a bit aligned and see if it’s a shuttle, and if in 15 seconds nothing happens, assume it’s a cloaked loki warping to you, so get outta there :slight_smile:
Survivability rigs are also a big maybe. Procurers are tough, Skiffs even tougher. Only time I’d say yes to that is in guristas space (the battleships hit hard), otherwise, if they’re to be tanky against other players, it’s a waste. If you’re pointed, unless it’s a stealth bomber, you’re dead.
Profits? Maybe if you’re mining ice, you can put that rig on, sure. Otherwise, I don’t see how.

1 Like
8

Well if it’s moon rocks, it’s certainly a whole different matter. Without eyes, or a JF, then Cloak+mwd miasmos + the gatecheck link I posted above, plus knowing a bit of locals, plus driving shortly before and after downtime in the middle of the week is the quickest way I know to carry stuff, but unless you’re ninja mining someone else’s moon, bigger players might have a better logistical solution for you already, like contracting ore to them to move it or sell it straight away.

Assuming you’re mining ore you can compress solo, you’d be surprised how much compressed ore goes in the BR.
If you mine for hours on end maybe you would end up having to swap an inertial stabilizer for an expanded cargohold, but to give you a ballpark, I mined with max porpoise boosts (from a friend) in a max skill procurer for 2 hours yesterday and brought back everything on a full agility fit BR, including the ore I couldn’t compress, and crokite is dense as hell.
This can vary considerably depending on the BR you pick, but if you hit 6k m3 of space (whether you do it through the rigs or the low slots is up to you), you can fit in 2 Giant cargo containers and that creates 1.8k m3 out of thin air.

If I don’t feel comfortable flying a barge, I mine in a venture fit with Warp core stab and shield tank. I’ve survived t3c ganks, most people don’t run around with 5 points. Expedition frigates are more comfortable, but don’t have that +2 warp core strength, so maybe they’re more slippery going from point A to B, but not when it’s time to sit in a belt and press F1+F2.

If you get caught by a cloaky hunter with 5 points, raise your eyebrows, write “Touché” in local and buy the fully fit venture back for 5mil.

9

One thing that I still would like to do some day (I haven’t mined in ages) is to fly two characters:

  1. Miner pilot:
  • Prospect to scout ahead for other character
  • Can fly barge
  1. Booster pilot:
  • Porpoise to bring mining boosts, defend against rats and haul ore
  • Packaged barge in cargo

With a setup like that you could travel relatively safe in the Porpoise (MWD + cloak trick and scout) and have a decent mining setup at the location depending on how much risk you want to take. Either you use Covetor + Porpoise for higher yield, or you use Prospect + Porpoise for more safety as those ships can both cloak up immediately when danger shows up.

All you need is a station or structure to store your Prospect and unpackage your Covetor.

10

Oh absolutely. Though this is more trying to answer a “my lowsec buddies are 15 jumps away through lowsec space and I’m afraid my procurer will get blapped on the way” kind-of-question.

11

Do it, if you’d enjoy it, though my ISK making brain compels me to mention that 2 procurers mine more than a porpoise boosting a covetor.

12

2 Procurers mine less than a Porpoise boosting a Covetor. (With mining drones out, around 47m3/s versus 56m3/s). On top of that, the Porpoise + Covetor has better defences against rats and a significantly bigger ore hold.

The only reason to fly 2 barges rather than barge + Porpoise is if you already get mining boosts from someone else.

13

The data doesn’t lie, but personally I’d still go for 2 procurers. Considering this concept is more lowsec oriented, the amount of time you need to put into skilling a porpoise with max boosts (+ mining foreman’s implant), I just find 2 identical ships easier to handle.

14

Just a and b, and they are crap.

15

I thank you for this! You inspired me to buy a Viator yesterday. The hull cost me about 140m at Dodixie, and I spent another 50-60m outfitting it. It allowed me to retrieve some stuff Concorde had put under seal at a low sec station while I was gone from the game, perhaps when Pochven was created?

One thing I don’t understand is the Hyperstatial. I have read the description, and looked carefully at the Fitting screen, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference that is visible in the Fitting screen. Can you explain me what it actually does, and why I need it? Other than that, your suggested Fittings are great.

1 Like
16

Hyperspatials increase your warp speed. Blockade runners are naturally very quick already, but if you want to traverse longer routes of many jumps, you can cut down on travel time even more by adding hyperspatial rigs to your ship.

Check the warp velocity of your ship, that should be affected by the hyperspatials. A good alternatives for hyperspatials on blockade runners are rigs for extra cargo space.

17

Thank you very much! I see it now. On the Fittings screen, under the Navigation section, my Viator is 7.13 AU/s with the Hyper, and 6.9 with it disabled. Honestly, for that small an increase, I don’t think it’s worth using up one of my three Low Slots.

Thank you again for reminding me to rig my Viator, but I really don’t understand how “A good alternatives for hyperspatials on blockade runners are rigs for extra cargo space”. I don’t see the connection. One makes you warp faster and the other lets you carry more.

18

Oh I wouldn’t use the low slots for increased warp speed. Low slot warp speed modules only add a flat amount, which is relatively strong on slow warping ships (like capitals and freighters) but, like you said, not worth using on something that can warp as fast as a blockade runner.

The hyperspatial rigs can be worth it.

What I meant is that if you don’t want to use hyperspatial rigs, another good rig to use on blockade runners is extra cargo space. The connection is ‘useful rigs on blockade runner’. Go faster or haul more, your choice! :wink:

(There are more rigs you could use, but I personally like either of these two for a blockade runner.)

1 Like
19

I usually have inertia stabs or cargo expanders in the lows. Always t2 cargo rigs.

Side note, you can fit 4 GSCs in BRs, which hold 3900m3 while only taking up 3000m3.

1 Like
20

really glad to have spurred you on mate. Fly safe o7