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Just about ready to try out mining, learned to manually dock the hard way last night when my docking computer got destroyed.
@Mikkel check out deep core mining, very lucrative. If you've got any questions I've already made a few of the mistakes!
I'm using a cobra, pretty cheap and as above, a good trip can net about 5M.
Matt
Yep def the Cobra for a first effort. Or he could haul with his Hauler and I can escort him.
I have now reconsidered, saving up for the Chieftain instead.
I have done no mining at all so far. I might deck out my Asp as a miner to see if it helps saving up for the Chieftain. Although I am currently making over 1mCr each boom delivery mission so I should probably keep going with that.
Just arrived at my first engineer, Farseer, now I’ve got to work out what to do. Did a little exploring on the Road to Riches which felt like a bit of a cheat and probably is, but then exploring on the way to find some meta-alloys and then onto Farseer gained me quite a few credits for the exploring data. It took a while to work out the FFS scanner but once you do it’s easy money if you’re travelling a longish way.
@molgrips what's the cargo on an aspx. Void opals are 180000 per ton, alexandrite is around 280000.
Definitely money out there
Matt
78-92 depending on internal gear.
Right, I'm off out for a ride you bunch of geeks 🙂
I’m going to try some junior mining missions out in Pleiades as they are pretty lucrative, and that deep mining looks like a gorgeous animation if nothing else, worth it for the view alone. Did you attract much negative attention with such lucrative cargos Matt?
Also, if (it’s a big if) I can find any meta alloys I’ll bring back some to share amongst the squadron.
See you in the black Cmdrs! o7
Gah, the frustration...! Done a few courier missions now, next one I pick up, go to plot the route and... "route plotting failed". WTF? Que an increasingly frustrating hour trying to work out a route manually on the stupid 3D map before finding the self-destruct and pulling the plug. Deep breath, start again - I get my money's worth from the insurance people. 🙂
There's no doubt it's good fun blowing asteroids into chunks, easier than you imagine when you get the knack.
I haven't had much bother from pirates and the like, but I mainly stick to low RES sites. I will try and see what the difference is later. Usually the scan you when you arrive, but as you're empty they soon clear off. It seems the nearer to are to the RES the more 'action' there is. I've seen some advice that says move off about 5-10km and you don't get a lot of trouble so that's what I do.
I'm 'based' in the same system as the RES at the minute, as the prices are good for alexandrite and void opals (currently both around 260000 per ton.
Matt
I haven't got a clue what I'm doing but think I will run some courier missions and replace the hauler that I just bought as I was to lazy to move around to find a place with more ships available.
Go to EDDB (Elite Dangerous Databases, I think). Takes the guesswork out of travel. You can select the ship you want and find the closest station which sells it.
Also good for finding the most profitable trades.
Matt
I get my money’s worth from the insurance people.
I think we all do. As many new ships as you want for just the excess and we never seem to pay any premiums.
I've been mining at high metal content rings. I scan them with the discovery scanner and it shows up hotspots.
I get scanned on the way down with an empty hold and left alone. Occasionally I need to drop one or two things in the cargo hold to stay alive (no weapons).
Made 30mil this afternoon, getting faster as I recognise cores.
Decided to follow v8ninty to an extent, looking to get the farseer stuff done.
Need to suss out mining then for 30m in an afternoon.
Have 1t of meta alloys 😲
Now to get to the engineer...
Oops. Stayed up til gone four last night without realising it - this really hardly ever happens to me with computer games so it just goes to show how absorbing it can be.
Bought the Alliance Crusader, but now worrying if it was the right thing to do. Since it's a bit of an all-rounder I sold the AspX too, on the basis that if this works I should be able to whip up the funds to get another one reasonably easily.
I've kitted it out for combat, but it's a bit sluggish compared to the Asp. Already failed to mass lock one pirate in an Asp cos he was going too fast. I think I might go hunting for meta alloys next.
My wife cancelled her holidays for this week and is today for her 2 day week.
I may be on later.
Oops. Stayed up til gone four last night without realising it
I know! It’s a massive real time shrinker isn’t it?
Bought the Alliance Crusader
Ooh, you recruiting for SLF pilots? That would significantly increase its combat effectiveness and resilience 😎👍🏼
I'd love a bit of multi-crew but I don't have SLF, that's the Challenger.
I noticed you still up as I went to bed at 0030, I'll message you next time...
Work tonight, might get on later.
Edit to say: got to the farseer and did a basic upgrade, I forget which. Plan to keep the AspX as a miner/longish range machine and will upgrade the fsd.
Then plan to get a proper long range jobbie as I want to get the "busy X" trophies and have an explore.
Somehow got the Kepler's eye trophy last night - I'm going to have to find where as I was only just off the beaten track bypassing obscured fsd targets.
I will rebuy my AspX as soon as I can. I think I'm going to try mining. Maybe a bit more combat with the new ship to try it out - but it doesn't pay that well.
Anyone else come across systems with status 'outbreak' and feel a pang of sympathy?
Getting the hang of mining now. Picked up an ASPx for a 96t hold capacity. The last run was 19M worth of void opals, alexandrite and low temperature diamonds, which took around two hours. I'm sure if i'd shopped around I could have got another couple of mil but I'm lazy and wanted to sell them all in one place.
Tempted now to stick the asp in storage and go back to bounty hunting for a bit.
I love how you can chop and change play styles. Is the ASPx the best cheapish explorer? Even kitted for mining I have a range of 20Ly
Matt
How do you find the stuff? Fly to the right system, prospector limpets, then pew pew and collector limpets?
How do you know which system/planet has the good stuff?
**** if I know - I can't even work out what to do with the fragments I pick up. Bit over it all, to be fair.
I got frustrated my first few goes, most of it didn't make any sense. Sat on it for about a month, persevered mostly cos I paid more than the recent sale price, then when it clicked it started to make sense.
Oh - there's a manual, you can download it. Worth a read.
Google painite double hotspots - gave me more instruction than regular threads.
With the right setup do the following.
Go to a planet with a ring, planet needs to be high metal or icy.
Scan the ring with discovery scanner (whist cruising).
It'll show up hotspots for mining as orange rings.
Head to one, land about 1.6mn away. Use the centre as a destination to stop you getting turned around in the asteroid field.
Use the pulse wave scanner to find asteroids that glow orange, these contain stuff to mine. Use the prospecter limpet to check content, target it as it goes to the asteroid.
Garlic clove shape generally have a core. Core mining is where the money is. The core shows up as a blue message.
Use mining laser to take some stuff, use abrasion laser to take surface stuff off.
Now you have to target the asteroid fissures (they are only on asteroids with a core), there are 3 strengths. Use a seismic charge launcher to match the strength. Once the first hits you get 90 seconds, you also get a sensor on the top left. Each charge gets closer to the blue "optimum" line. I work on high/ave strength til I'm close then use low to tip it into the blue.
Move 1km away and set shield to max for the detonation.
Use collector limpets to get your stuff. Oh, I load up with about 60 limpets, they are interchangeable.
Remember to use the abrasion laser to get the stuff from the middle out.
Refinery has bins for each type of stuff, get the most bins you can saves you dumping stuff.
Things you need.
Mining laser
Abrasion laser
Seismic charge launcher
Oc pulse wave analyser
Collector limpets controller
Prospector limpets controller
Detailed surface scanner
Refinery
Remember to set you fire groups, I have pulse/dss set to A with prospector on b as my hunting set up, the all the other mining weapons linked to collectors in sets 2,3 and 4.
That's bloody complicated.
I wonder if I can buy another AspX for a dedicated mining setup - a lot easier than shuffling kit around each time..? Or is the Challenger better than AspX so I might as well use it?
I'd go dedicated miner - I just swap out the refinery for a fuel scoop at the mo.
It's about 20 mill to get it fully fitted out, a good afternoon minings worth, does have 32ky range too.
I haven't got the liquidity to invest in a miner currently, I don't think.
I'm not sure if my game is bugged or I'm just stuck with limpets that are thick as shit.
Crack open an asteroid, use the abrasion blaster to chip minerals off, send the limpets in and they fly straight into something and explode. I find I have to get right into the center of the split asteroid and hope for the best otherwise I burn up all my limpets.
Still, good thruster practice dodging chunks of asteroid I suppose. Might get myself set up with a mining specific ship when I get to Colonia if there is anything worth mining and trading there.
Great mining post Sac, thank you. I’ve failed miserably so far at making any money from it but I can see a few areas that I was going wrong now, cheers. Also, where did you find your meta alloys?
There's not much to add to that other than, learn your asteroid types! Each field type rocky, metallic, icy has a single asteroid type which will have a core. Once you know the type you will hit a core every time.
For icy it's the 'smaller' popcorn, bunch of grapes asteroid, with big nobbles.
For metallic it is egg shaped, but obviously only in one plane.
Check out a guy called Down to Earth Astronomy on youtube. It is the clearest guide I have seen.
With the collector limpets, don't select a target then fire or they only pick up one fragment. Also makes sure your cargo hatch is clear, it can get blocked and the limpets die if you try and get in the broken asteroid too quickly. Hang back, let the limpets do their stuff and ping the surface deposits with your abrasion blaster. Look for the sights 'pulling' to the target, even fixed they seem to gimbal a bit.
Matt
In No Man's Sky, you shoot the asteroids, they blow up, the chunks zoom into your cargo hold. You get precious metals in every one. And space is about 50% filled with huge asteroids. Which raises the question: if they are so plentiful, productive, and easy to mine, why are the metals still precious and why do people pay you good money for them?
One of many many reasons why ED is so much better. OTOH VR in NMS is great.
Also, where did you find your meta alloys?
According to eddb.io you can find them at Danielle’s Progress in the Maia system. Despite playing for 2 years, I’ve never tried engineering, so I’m on my way there at the moment to pick some up for Felicity Farseer
I'm on the look out now for a good home base. I'm currently near Crom. The list of requirements is:
Near anarchy or low-security for collecting bounties
Good outfitting and ship building
Near some good mining (deep core)
Decent place to sell within a couple of jumps
What area is anyone else in, do you know of anything which fits the bill?
I haven't aligned to the federation or anyone else yet, has anyone done this? What are the benefits?
Matt
I aligned to the Federation so I could support Felicia Winters, because she's a leftie and I thought I could improve the lot of the poorest and most downtrodden Federation citizens. Not done any missions for her yet though.
I dunno about any bases fitting your criteria - I've been hanging around places with high-tech, and looking for booms. Kinda boring but too lucrative to ignore currently.
In other news, the Challenger is awesome. It feels sluggish at first compared to the smaller ship, but it accelerates and brakes better which is useful and also whilst it doesn't necessarily change direction that fast, it comes about more quickly and drifts, which some how makes it easier to keep on a target. And even with only one large hardpoint with 3E burst laser I tore a Competent Anaconda to shreds in no time.
My favoured loadout seeems to be beam lasers on one trigger to strip shields then burst lasers and multicannons on the other to damage hull. Also experimenting with a railgun and seeker missiles on another fire group for when they run away.
Interesting stuff about the challenger, the next upgrade for bounties would be something with a bigger gun platform.
I've seen big ships do a kind of flip move, then back up to speed quickly, so it sounds like your ship is that kind of boat. I have only dared to get involved with an anaconda once and that was with the FEDS on my side so we could double (triple) team. Beam lasers really rip the shields but heat up fast.
I really noticed the deceleration rate when I moved from the cobra to the aspx for mining, I crashed into two head on before I learned to slow down earlier!
Matt
Is the ASPx the best cheapish explorer?
It arguably the best long range exploration ship in the game. Mine has 60ly jump range and all the internal space needed for SRVs a big fuel scoop and a small shield.
In other news, the Challenger is awesome.
I think the Cheiftain is a a better all rounder for bounty hunting and general combat because its a lot more agile.
You lose a little in hull strength but you should get hit less often, but all the alliance ships are pretty solid.
I use 3 small beam lasers and 2 large and one medium multicannon.
If you have Felicity Farseer unlocked you should upgrade the thrusters to grade 3 dirty drives to get better speeed and maneuverability.
You should also have access to Tod the Blaster, upgrade your MCs to Overcharged
I’ve seen big ships do a kind of flip move, then back up to speed quickly
That's not a Challenger thing - it's what you can do when you turn flight assist off......
I think the Cheiftain is a a better all rounder for bounty hunting and general combat because its a lot more agile.
Yes for combat, but I wanted an all-rounder.
How do you get an AspX up to 60ly? Is that with engineering and guardian upgrades?
I've priced up an exploration package using D rated subs and the best I can get it to is 36ly unladen with a 16t fuel tank and 8t cargo rack. Power plant is minimum size.
36ly is pretty good without engineering. Have you fitted a smaller sized power plant? (go the smallest A rated that will still power the ship. you can even go slightly above you power cap by switching off things like the cargo hatch and the SRV bay until you need them.
The Guardian frame shift booster gives you a flat increase depending on the module size, they come in 4, 5 and 6 slot sizes. I think my AspX has a size five which gives 8ly boost. You can still get a very respectable jump range without though just using engineering and to be honest collecting the Guardian tech is a bloody grind.
If you have Horizons you should have access to Felicity Farseer straight away. You need to take 1 Meta Alloy and have your Exploration rank up to Scout. If you fly out to Maia (which has a station that always sells Meta Alloys) and scan all the planets and systems on you way there, then jump a few systems to the side and fly back so you aren't passing through the same systems on the way back, you should get enough exploration data to rank up.
I'm heading to Maia anyway so I won't feel like I'm cheating if I happen upon meta alloys for sale 🙂
Do you get the AspX up to 32Ly just by minimising mass?