Mining, Hulk, vs Orcha

Hulk with all relvent Mining skills maxed, and Orcha mining burst
Orcha with all relevant mining skills

Ignoring the argument that a hulk has downtime due to travel, as it it in a group

How much would a Orcha pull per second, vs a hulk. Which would have the higher ore Yield.

If a Orcha mines faster then all exhumers why would a exumer be desirable over a orcha?

Ignoring the effect of an orca boost, my numbers are as follows:

Hulk, trained to Exhumer IV gives 30.8 m3/sec. Training to Exhumer V would add <2%.

Orca, on Industrial Command IV yields 25.5 m3/sec (using augmented drones). Training to Industrial Command V would add +7%.

I am a solo player, single account, no multi-boxing. The orca wins for me on ore simply because of its 250 000 m3 hold capacity (depending on how you have it configured).

On ice however, the exhumers come back into play. I prefer the skiff in this scenario as it can fly an augmented ice drone, effectively giving me 2.5 ice harvester II’s when rigged appropriately. The orca with just the single ice drone, but more drone rigs/better drone bonuses, cannot match an endurance on ice never mind the skiff.

Orca.

Industrial Command ship 5, Mining Drone Operation 5, Mining Drone Specialization 5, +fitting on Orca +Tech II mining drones= 1,475 m3 per minute or 24.5 m3 per second.

As far as what Exhumers can mine I have no clue but I can tell you it take me boosting my friends Covetor with tech I lasers to out mine my drones.

My boost is -30.2% to cycle time for mining lasers.

Hope the information helps you out.

Just looking at it from a pure yield perspective the Hulk wins hands down (ignoring hauling), on the other hand the Orca wins hands down on the pure convenience perspective (can stay in belt for hours). As a player with only one (1) account you probably would like your mining to be more convenient than trying to maximize yield, “AFK” mining at it’s best.

My Request was to ignore the small size of the hulk’s cargo bay due to the fact that it is mining in a group with the orca. I wanted to know what the point of a exhumer was if the ore support command ship can mine faster.

Why wouldn’t (training time in question) you prefer to go for the orca instead of the months of training it take to get the the hulk?

And the answer is, the ore support command ship cannot mine faster.

The base numbers:

Hulk, on Exhumer IV = 30.8 m3/sec. Just on its own.

Skiff, on Exhumer IV = 22 + (5 x T2 mining drones @ 1.1) = 27.5 m3/sec

Mackinaw, on Exhumer IV = 20.8 + (5 x T2 mining drones @ 1.1) = 26.3 m3/sec

Orca, on Industrial Command V = 27.3 m3/sec (using ‘augmented’ drones that will cost 250 M)

Then add Orca boost - as you insist - and the exhumers in fleet will always beat a command ship. And beat it by quite a lot. Note that command bursts do work on the orca but do not work on mining drones. So, the orca still gets shield bonuses but does not get mining bonuses, as it does not use lasers.

Note too that having an ice mining rig on exhumers does not reduce their ore mining yield. And on ice, an orca cannot get near any of the exhumers. At least in principle. (In practice, you would not actually fit exhumers for maximum ice yield as they would be too easy to gank.)

Bottom line, as a solo player, I will use exhumer over orca because it is more versatile for both ore AND ice. As a solo player I will also use orca over exhumer, because it is at least as good on ore and has a vastly bigger cargo hold. And if I can get into a fleet, I will absolutely use exhumer as the fleet bonus does nothing for orca mining yield.

I recommend using a Mackinaw if you have only one account
with Max skills you can carry 35,000m3 ore it should take you two to three hours to get a full load if you’re mining smart and defensively that’s with Tech 1 stripminers

you’re focusing on one type of ore then you want to use Tech 2 stripminers should take an hour to 45 minutes

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