Underrated Mining Modules and Techniques

Industry Gameplay Center Mining & Extraction
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Just want to list some under used or known mining modules and techniques that I think should be used more than they currently are. And hopefully learn some from you guys.

Higgs Anchor I :

This rig is great for slow aligning mining ships, like barges and some of the large mining boosting ships.

What it does is allow a ship to stay fully aligned and at the speed needed to initiate warp, while still being slow enough to stay in range of asteroids for a long time (usually slowed to under 50 m/s).

Once something you don’t like pops up in belt or d-scan, you can warp out INSTANTLY. Faster than what it takes for a Venture to align and warp out. If you do this before they can get a lock on you (ideally as soon as you seen them on grid), you are essentially untouchable.

It is useful when mining in “dangerous territory”, or when you want to avoid dying to gankers or war targets. In my opinion it is better than the tankiest of fits, since if you are locked and scrabbled, tanks just delay the inevitable.

Not used very often. Probably because for it to be useful, you need to be actively looking out for trouble and not passively mining semi-AFK.

Modulated Deep Core Miner II with Tech 2 Mining Crystals :

Might be well known to others, but not me. Just recently learned that this module can use crystal charges when mining and increases yield significantly for those in mining frigates.

A Prospect (Tech 2 Expedition Frigate) with mining laser upgrades can out mine a max level Mining Barge with Tech 1 Strip Miners and no mining upgrades.

So if you fly a tank fitted Procurer, a yield fitted Prospect can out mine you (if you have the right crystals). It is also a lot faster at travelling than a mining barge is, so getting your ore out is a lot faster and safer.

The reason it is probably not used is because if you are not mining max yield in a barge, you aren’t really mining at all :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: .

Befriending NPC Mining Corporations

The new NPC mining operations might be annoying to some. They mine ore that is to never be seen again, and if attacked respond with a pretty OP fleet of new NPCs.

But an overlooked new addition is that if you have excellent standing (which is a lot 10.0 standing), they will actually aid you with logistics frigates when you are under attack (and mining in the same belt as them).

If you are mining in lowsec, these guys could give you an increased chance to fight back against would be pirates. Or last long enough for an ally to aid you.

I haven’t personally tried this yet, excellent standing is a very long grind. But I might post about it later. I haven’t seen any videos or posts about it’s usefulness yet.

And again, probably not used since grinding to excellent standing is hard to do, and not needed for a NPC mining corporation, till now.

I personally wish they would decrease the requirement for logi help from 10.0 standing to 5.0 standing, and have it when you have excellent standing, the OP aggressive response fleet comes to save you.

Would make killing a lowsec miner a bit more trivial.

Well that is all the niche mining things I know about. If you guys have any to share, that would be great to.

Mine Safe o7

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I actually didn’t know about this. Granted a Prospect takes longer to get into, but I think I’ll be using Prospects to mine Spod (since you can use crystals apparently) instead of Procurers.

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Might be useful for hunting ore anomalies in highsec and lowsec. Mining barges are very slow to move from system to system. Porpoise is also pretty fast, so that would be the mobile boosting ship if needed.

Nomadic mining can now be a thing.

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I’m thinking just mining in our local anoms in J17.

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In my current experience this works best on a max yield covetor. It’s slow enough that you can warp 10km off a rock, align, and obtain 2 cycles before being outside the ~18k range that your excavation noodle shuts off.

The most vulnerable aspect about this form of mining is the time when you land on grid and begin your align. It can be a decent idea to swap individual asteroids or grids entirely from haul to haul.

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Interesting pointers. I’m a relatively newbie miner, so I have a question: what would be the best way to farm standing for a mining corp in hisec? Mission running?

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Normally yes, some of them have distribution too then you can make trips with a T1 hauler in your dead times.

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That I was not aware of

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I didn’t know about the lasers, I thought that the modulated deep core only took mercoxit, I didn’t realise it was all of them! Time to refit a few ships!

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Also, related to that, any mining corp worth to farm standing? I know that if one controls a market I want to use, it’s worthwhile, but other than that, any reason to farm standings with them at all?

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Yeah, that’s what the “modulated” part means. The normal deep core miners are just mercoxit. Last time I messed with sample loadouts, a hyperion or rohk can just about match the yield of a hulk (or they could before the last mining balance pass, don’t know currently.)

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What I find interesting is that the modulated deep core laser(with t2 crystals) works so good compared to the modulated deep core strip miner(with t2 crystals). I never really looked at the MDC lasers because the MDC strip miner looked so bad compared to the plain modulated strip miner, looks to me it only got 2/3s as much as the strip so I never gave the MDC lasers a second glance.

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A smaller one than the 2 from the op, but can be very powerful depending how you use it : the mobile depot.

Mining barges and exhumer have actually quite a big cargohold (not the orehold), which gives enough room for 1 or 2 fits (tank, dps for NS rats, ecm, WCS and so on), drones and with all that mining crystals.

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Nomadic mining SHOULD be a thing, sitting in 1 system with endless industry upgrade ore is ridiculous

industry upgrades should only have the opportunity to attract an anomaly belt, and we should just overhaul regular asteroid belts

instead of hearing “The asteroid is depleted” NONSTOP everytime you try to mine in high sec

I love high sec but I gave up trying to mine there, its maddening

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When i was quadrupleboxxing in a belt, i couldn’t get enough of this.

Orca with links. three covetors, all ships with higs and webs fitted. max yield, no tank except armor rigs who had a different purpose. two bookmarks outside the belt, drawing an imaginary line through the belt and i’ve made sure all roids are within reach of my lasers. engaged spiderwebbing and mining lasers. went through the belt at a whopping 8 meter per second and i almost couldn’t keep up with moving ore to the orca’s hold and switching asteroids.

one of the best things i ever did. i was fully in the flow, 100% occupied, operating smoother than an underpaid chinese worker in a nike factory. the orca pilot had the WarpTo command open permanently and visible. alt-tab doesn’t, or didn’t, close the rightclick menu, so it was a piece of cake to get the fleet out immediately.

Good times.

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I’m an a 0.6 system and I very rarely see more than 2 out of 7 belts cleared, and I have 3 0.5 systems around me.

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The other thing that I do not see people talk about in HS or Null is DO NOT MINE at the warp in point. Get as far away as you can with roids in your direct path. That way if someone does warp into your ice belt or anom they won’t be landing right on top of you.

For instance, in Null or LS in a ice belt, I warp in with a small fast ship. WMD to the far end of the belt and setup a bookmark to that location that I chose. Then I can go back to the station and use fleet warp to get all my toons to the same spot.

You can do this, and SHOULD do this in any and every belt you mine in. It can give you up to 5-10 seconds if you are not paying attention to local to GTFO when someone lands in your belt that is hostile.

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I think Thukker Tribe has a pretty good LP store. You can get around 2,000 ISK per LP last I checked.