Asteroid Mining 101
Everything you need to know to get started.
Equipment
Spacecraft
There are a number of different spacecraft you can use to mine asteroids at The Howling Mine.
Sleipnir
A VTOL that can be use in space and planet-side. (FREE on arrival)
- Max Speed
- 57.60 km/h
- Seats
- 2
- Max. SI
- 450
Quad-Wing Interceptor
Faster than a Sleipnir, and built for combat.
- Max Speed
- 104.40 km/h
- Seats
- 2
- Max. SI
- 1200
Pioneer
Built for asteroid mining, 3 seats and can pack some serious asteroid busting firepower.
- Max Speed
- 79.20 km/h
- Seats
- 3
- Max. SI
- 1600
Lasers
There are a multitude of different mining lasers to use that scale as you level up. To prevent overcomplication, we will focus on the starter laser you will be using. These lasers are available through the space mining terminals found throughout The Howling Mine and The Employer.
Laser Types:
- Attached: These lasers attach to your ship when it is still stored in your inventory and are available for use by the pilot.
- Mounted: These can be equipped from your inventory when sitting in a passenger seat and provide a de-buff to certain asteroids to deal extra damage.
Asteroids
Space holds a wide variety of asteroids. There are 6 types that hold many different resources.
Scrap Asteroid
Level 0
These are clumps of space debris and need clearing as part of the daily job.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Top Claim
- UNKNOWN
- Best Resource
- UNKNOWN
C-Type Asteroid
Level 1 - 10
The most common and easiest to crack. Contains Ore.
- Difficulty
- Easy - Medium
- Top Claim
- 112,136 PED
- Best Resource
- UNKNOWN
S-Type Asteroid
Level 1 - 10
Armored and contains rich Energy Matter.
- Difficulty
- Medium - Hard
- Top Claim
- 9,329 PED
- Best Resource
- UNKNOWN
F-Type Asteroid
Level 1 - 10
Armored and contains richer ores than C-Type.
- Difficulty
- Medium - Hard
- Top Claim
- 13,758 PED
- Best Resource
- UNKNOWN
M-Type Asteroid
Level 1 - 20
Heavily Armored, contains the holy grail - Scottium.
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Top Claim
- 174,638 PED
- Best Resource
- Scottium
ND-Type Asteroid
Level 1 - 6
Armored, also contains Scottium at a lower yield than M-Type.
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Top Claim
- UNKNOWN
- Best Resource
- Scottium
Pirates
The PvP Reality
There are specific places where you can be killed and looted by other players.
The asteroid belt outside Howling Mine is PVP Lootable, and is the only place M-Type asteroids can be found. With great risk comes great reward.
Other areas are deep space sectors and server borders between planets. If you are travelling to another planet, you will cross through these zones briefly.
Risk Management
In order to minimise the chance of being looted, you can do a couple of pre-flight checks and plan your route / mining spot accordingly.
- Check your surroundings. Pirates like to stalk their prey until they reach lootable space. Always check your 6 before setting off!
- Take the road less travelled. Sometimes pirates like to wait inside the lootable space and ambush. You can minimize your risk by not flying directly from where you spawn in space. Head up or down for 60 seconds before you set off. This puts you at a much higher chance of avoiding ambushes.
- Don’t carry loot if you don’t have to!
What Happens If You Die
If you do die in space, whether from a pirate or just crashing into too much stuff, you will be thrown out of your destroyed vehicle and respawn at the nearest Space Station.
From there, you can repair your vehicle and carry on with your business.