I tried it. It’s more boring than ore or ice mining, seems to take much longer and can’t really make ISK selling it. It takes huge cargo space, even though its a gas it non compressible.
Gas mining is primarily used for making boosters, although booster production is illegal in hi sec (is there a big market for booster production?)
I’m annoyed whenever I scan down a signature and its a worthless gas site.
Oh the only pro I can think of is you can pretty much AFK mine gas because no one seems to see it as worth their time to gank a lowly gas miner
yeah…OP. go in a wormhole and afk mine that gas. I promise it will be different for you. I’m sure you are aware that there are different types of gas that are worth wildly varying amounts.
The level of boredom is identical whether mining ore or huffing gas. The activitz is absolutelz identical. Of course you can earn more money in highsec with minerals but that does not make it more enjoyable. WH gas huffing is a lot more profitable but only a bit more exciting due to the hostile environment. Maybe it|s worthwile with an own reactions tower.
I recently started doing some wormhole ninja mining. I’ve had good days and bad days, profit-wise. Overall I make more money on hisec mining (just because it’s immediate and consistent). WH gas mining has a lot of non-mining time in finding a wormhole that isn’t full of hostile players, scanning down sites, and hoping for ones with good gas. Regardless, I keep doing it at times as it’s a good break from hisec mining.
Really good gas can only be found in c5/c6 systems. The lower sites are much less profitable. Ideally you are also able to hack (non sleeper) relic and data sites to make the most out of your scanning efforts.
In small teams, you can take this even further by clearing c2 and c3 systems completely, including combat sites. Helps a lot if you know how to close unwanted holes.
Regarding hostile players (which are by my experience a lot rarer than it sounds in your post):
Start scanning somewhere a little further away from the trade hubs, this will keep people coming in after you down to a minimum.
Add force fields to your active overview to see if ships are just standing at a pos. In that case there is a good chance they are just empty (somethign you might want to check).
Check the player structures if there is anyone docked.
Do a quick killboard check for the residents if they are active in the current time zone.
Always do a full scan of the system and scout other connections.
Keep the signature window open to see new sigs immediately.
D-scan of course, maybe not every ten seconds but regurlarly.
Few sigs and anoms -> residents are more likely to be active.
Most systems you visit should have no visible activity at all, unless you are very unlucky.
If the OP is referring to HS, do not…I repeat…do NOT harvest/mine in HS. It is a waste of time and resources and you will not make nearly as much as a small focused group of 4-5 people in a WH.
I’m living in a C5 right now and the gas sites that pop up are very valuable and often available as long as you scope it out first and have a team with you. Shattered WH Ice mining is probably my favorite…that sweet sweet Krystallos = so much ISK. But again, it requires a team for surveillance and execution/boosts.
If you’re solo mining then your best bet would either be HS or sub a bunch of alts and hit a WH.
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