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Ship Mining - Vehicle Mining - FPS Mining - Refining - Modules - Gadgets - Locations - Helpful Sites
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//Mining in a ^(sea)nutshell

Mining in Star Citizen is the process of breaking apart mineable rocks to extract valuable materials. You can do this in a few different ways depending on your gear and ship:SHIP MINING = Using a mining laser mounted on a ship.
-DRAKE - Golem = Solo - 36scu of space using [2] Drake Pods
-MISC - Prospector = Solo 32scu of space using [4] MISC pods, or 48scu wuth ARGO pods
-ARGO - Mole = Multi-Crew - 3 mining lasers (1 inner 2 outer) - 96scu with [8] ARGO pods.VEHICLE MINING = Using a ground vehicle to mine smaller surface deposits planet side.
-Greycat - ROC
-Greycat - ROC-DS
-Argo - ATLS GEOFPS MINING = On-foot mining using a Greycat Pyro RYT Multi-Tool equipped with an OreBit Mining Attachment. Usually inside caves, for small deposits and gems.All three use the same core mechanics = you’re managing energy, not just blasting rocks.

Ship Mining - Vehicle Mining - FPS Mining - Refining - Modules - Gadgets - Locations - Helpful Sites

//SHIP MINING

STEP #1Quantum travel to known mining Areas (asteroid belts, lagrange points, mining bases ect).Once you drop out of quantum, use your scanner (hotkey V to enter scan mode and hit TAB to "ping) to search the area.You will notice tiny puffs of "unknown" and a number will show up in your field of view.TIP: Large EVEN whole numbers such as 2000, 4000, 8000, 10000 ect are scrap debris.
Signals with awkward numbers such as 1700, 3440, 5700, 8750 ect are asteroids.Travel towards one of these signals until usually around 2kms a rock will show up.You should now see what type of asteroid it is.

STEP #2Switch into mining mode using the "M" key (this is the default hotkey).You can now manoeuvre close enough so that you are withing the "scan" range marked on the left side of your projected mining mod UI.Hover here for a moment and the scan will return you information on the right side of your mining UI.MASS: The size and density of the asteroid.RESISTANCE: How tough it is.INSTABILITY: How un predicably the charge bar will react when mining it.DIFFICULTY: Over all how easy or hard this rock will be fore your current build/set up.COMPOSITION: How much SCU will brake down into.
Underneath that you can see the percentages of what exactly is in it

STEP #3Once you have decided if it is worth your time and if it has what you are looking for you can begin to mine.Manoeuvre yourself close enough to the rock that you hit the OPTIMAL marker on the left of the mining UI.Make sure you are in "fracture" mode and start pew pewing (left mouse) that rock.TIP: If you aren't sure what mode you are currently in, you can hit ( Left Alt + Left Mouse ) and you will see the two small laser mode icons at the top of the mining UI cycle. Your ship should also audibly announce what mode your are switching into.As your fracture laser now fires at the asteroid, increase or decrease the power with your mouse wheel (this is the default keybind) You will see the charge grow green in the arc on the right of the mining UI.At the top of this charge area is the OPTIMAL window.
This is the sweet spot you need to fill by managing your charge power.Maintaining your laser power in this area will charge the window horizontally until it fills completely and the rock fractures!If your power grows too much you will trip into the OVERCHARGE section and are at risk of blowing the rock up in your face, damaging your ship and ultimately possibly you.

STEP #4Now that you cracked the heck out of that rock, it is now more sizeable pieces!Switch into "Extraction" mode by hitting Left Alt + Left Mouse (this is the default hotkey set up) You can now extract minerals from the smaller pieces.Hovering over each piece will give you information again on what is in each. This way you can carefully narrow out a lot of garbage inert matter if possible.As you fire (using left mouse) your extraction laser at the asteroid chunk, you will suck it up into your ore pods. Down in the lower right of the mining UI you can see exactly how much SCU of certain materials you have collected.

STEP #5Once you have cleaned up what you want from the fractured asteroid, it's now time to begin the process all over again:
1 - Ping
2 - Scan
3 - Fracture
4 - Extract
Rinse and repeat!Tips:
⁍ Some rocks need a little extra help depending on their mass and your current ship set up. This is where Gadgets can come in very handy.⁍ Its best practice to try and steer away from rocks that are heavy with Inert materials, this is garbage filler that will ultimately take up your pod space and lessen your take away.⁍ Not all ore/gems are equal, many minerals don't sell very high on the market so if you are looking to get rich quick via mining it's a smart idea to familiarize yourself with the current patch economy and values.⁍ Bring snacks, especially if you are running a pod/bag swapping session with a friend in a cargo ship. You will often loose tract of time and find yourself hangry or dying for a drink.⁍ Mining is a lot of trial and error at first, you WILL explode rocks, you WILL hunt for the prefect spot, you WILL juggle modules and gadgets. You can min/max and find the meta becoming BIGGEST BESTEST MINER EVER, or just have fun in the verse.

Ship Mining - Vehicle Mining - FPS Mining - Refining - Modules - Gadgets - Locations - Helpful Sites

//VEHICLE MINING

Ship Mining - Vehicle Mining - FPS Mining - Refining - Modules - Gadgets - Locations - Helpful Sites

//FPS MINING

Ship Mining - Vehicle Mining - FPS Mining - Refining - Modules - Gadgets - Locations - Helpful Sites

//Refining

In order to get the most credits out of your collected ores you will need to refine them. There are multiple stations with refineries in each system.NOTE: You also have the option to sell the raw ore unrefined, but you will eat a huge chunk of possible credit income by doing so.

Once you have found a station you would like to refine at (many are also surrounded by great salvage and minnig fields) you will take the station elevators to the refining station and head to the back.Here you will generally find two locations.The lower level is the refineries supply store.
This is where you will find gear, modules, and gadgets.NOTE: Not every store has every piece you might be looking for. You may need to shop aroundThe upper level is the refinery itself, up here there are two sets of terminals.
The ones to the left will let you sell your minerals UNREFINED as well as any inert matter.The ones directly ahead from the door will let you begin the refining process.

At this terminal you will choose from a series of options from a drop down.First the location you would like to refine the ore from.NOTE: Currently this terminal will only see/access ore pods connected to a ship, OR in a ship's hold, after storing it from the hanger ASOP terminalNow that you picked where you want to refine the ore from, you need to choose how you want to. Below is a table of all the options along with their speed, cost, and take home after refining. Each method has its merits depending on how you play or what your preference is.

Once you have waited your space microwave minute and your ore is all refined. You can go back to the same terminal to collect the order. It will ask you where you want to store the collected ore (either the station or one of your ships currently stored there).Now you can go back to your hanger, call up the boxes of refined materials in the cargo elevator, and fly off to the best place to sell your new shiny rocks.Tip: As impatient as we like to be, this goes especially just before a patch or after... Wait for all the sirens and sounds to stop when moving cargo on elevators. DO NOT PREEMPTIVELY PULL AWAY FROM TERMINALS WHEN THEY ARE LAGGING Sorry for yelling, but half the time you can get through cargo and ASOP lag by patiently waiting on the screen (yes, staring at it aimlessly instead of exiting) instead of bogging the whole system down by trying to spam rage your cargo or ships into existence.

Ship Mining - Vehicle Mining - FPS Mining - Refining - Modules - Gadgets - Locations - Helpful Sites

//Mining Lasers & Modules

So you have the ship, it's doing it's job, but it's all stock with that New Deal smell. There are a bunch of mining lasers and modules you can slap on to improve or spice up your daily driver.Laser heads, modules, and gadgets all go together like a recipe.1 - The laser is your base, this is your starting point.
2 - The module(s) your flavour, these can help balance and/or boost your laser choice.
3 - And a gadget is extra cheese, not necessary but can give you a little extra help or spice things up.Everyone has their own favourite set up or BiS meta. There are lots of videos on the subject but ultimately if you aren't wanting to get sweaty with it; just try some combos out.Various types of rock are predictable, depending on what sort of mining you are out doing, so gear up with what you find comfortable.Below are 3 tables of lasers broken up by size because I find it easier at a glance.*NOTE: Currently you cannot switch the Pitman laser on the DRAKE Golem out. It is bespoke to the ship. You can install 2 modules on it though.

//Size 1

//Size 2

//Vehicle Mining Lasers

//Modules

Ship Mining - Vehicle Mining - FPS Mining - Refining - Modules - Gadgets - Locations - Helpful Sites

//Mining Gadgets

Mining gadgets are handheld devices you place on mineable rocks to tweak their stats like resistance and instability. This lets you choose between safer mining or pushing your luck for faster / better results. You can find them at at any refinery supply terminal (and occasionally other stores).

RESISTANCE = How hard the rock is.INSTABILITY = How predictable the charge bar's behaviour is.CLUSTER MODIFIER = How many pieces when fractured, keeping good stuff together.WINDOW SIZE = The size of the green “sweet spot” on the charge meter.WINDOW RATE = How fast the charge bar fills.

Ship Mining - Vehicle Mining - FPS Mining - Refining - Modules - Gadgets - Locations - Helpful Sites

//Locations

Ship Mining - Vehicle Mining - FPS Mining - Refining - Modules - Gadgets - Locations - Helpful Sites

//Helpful Sites

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