EVE Online has an in-game recruitment tool that allows you to find player corporations that are a good fit for you. Decide on your Focus. Since there are so many skills to train, it helps to find out which activities in EVE that you find most enjoyable, and focus your skill training on improving your abilities in that area. Not Reading Ten Ton Hammer. We have guides on pretty much everything. Lots and lots of newbie. The most complete Guide to Mining in EVE Online. It includes an in-depth comparison of all Mining Ships, types of resources, and more. Learn more about one of the best ways to earn EVE ISK at Odealo.com.
Introduction
Space is full of riches, uncountable amounts of raw resources are floating through the void, just waiting to be gathered. With a little bit of preparation and minor initial investment, everyone can make a small fortune by becoming a workhorse of the mining Industry. So it is time to arm ourselves with Mining Lasers and tear those asteroids apart. In Eve, the term 'Mining' is commonly used to describe three distinct resource-gathering activities:
In this guide, we will take a closer look at wide understood Mining in the Eve Online. Most of the information will be directed to the new players, but old hands will find something for themselves as well. We will cover mining-related skills, modules, ships, ship fitting, and mining strategies which will increase your gathering efficiency.
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Skills
The importance of skills cannot be underestimated. The basic set of skills will enable you to start your Mining endeavors, while more advanced set will greatly increase your gathering efficiency, which will have a large impact on your income. We also cannot forget about skills which will allow you to pilot specific mining and industrial Spaceships (on Skill level 1), and increase bonuses that they provide (on all skill levels); both Ships and Skills corresponding with them will be covered in further sections of this guide).
| Skill Name | Description |
| Mining | Enables you to use Mining Lasers; it provides a 5% bonus to ore yield per level, costs 20 thousand ISK, and can be learned by Alpha Clones (up to level IV) |
| Ice Harvesting | Enables you to harvest Ice; it provides a 5% cycle time reduction per level, costs 375 thousand ISK, requires Mining IV, and can be learned by Alpha Clones (up to level II) |
| Gas Harvesting | Enables you to harvest Gas; each level lets you use one more Gas Cloud Harvester, it costs 24 million ISK, requires Mining IV, and can be learned by Alpha Clones (up to level II) |
| Deep Core Mining | Enables you to mine Mercoxit (found in Wormholes and Nullsec); each skill level lowers the chance that a Damage cloud will form while mining Mercoxit by 20%, it costs 500 thousand ISK, requires Mining V and Astrogeology V, and cannot be learned by Alpha Clones |
| Astrogeology | Enables you to analyze contents of celestial objects, increasing your ore mining yield by 5% per skill level; it costs 450 thousand ISK, requires Mining IV and Science IV, and cannot be learned by Alpha Clones |
| Mining Upgrades | Enables you to use Mining Upgrades; each skill level reduces the CPU penalty of Mining Upgrade modules by 5%, it costs 80 thousand ISK, requires Mining III, and can be learned by Alpha Clones (up to level IV) |
| Drones Rigging | Enables you to fit your ship with Mining Drone Augmentor Rigs; each level reduces drawbacks of Drone Rigs by 10%, it costs 100 thousand ISK, requires Jury Rigging III, and can be learned by Alpha Clones (up to level III) |
| Drones | Enables you to control Drones; each level increases the maximum number of active drones by 1, it costs 20 thousand ISK, has no prerequisites, and can be trained by Alpha Clones (up to level 5) |
| Mining Drone Operation | Improves your ability to control Mining Drones; each level provides a 5% bonus to Mining Drone yield, it costs 40 thousand ISK, requires Mining II and Drones I, and cannot be learned by Alpha Clones |
| Drone Interfacing | Improves your Drone maintenance skills; each level increases Drone's Damage and Mining yield by 10%, it costs 500 thousand ISK, requires Drones V, and can be learned by Alpha Clones (up to level IV) |
| Capital Industrial Ships | Enables you to operate Capital Industrial Ships; this skill is required to pilot Rorqual class vessels, it costs 500 million ISK, requires Capital Ships II, Advanced Spaceship Command V, Industrial Command Ships III, and Industrial Reconfiguration I, and cannot be learned by Alpha Clones |
| Industrial Command Ships | Enables you to operate Industrial Command Ships; this skill is required to pilot Orca and Porpoise class vessels, it costs 50 million ISK, requires Spaceship Command V, Mining Director I, and Ore Industrial III, and cannot be learned by Alpha Clones |
| Mining Barge | Enables you to operate Ore Mining Barges; this skill is required to pilot Covetor, Procured and Retriever class vessels, it costs 500 thousand ISK, requires Mining Frigate III, Industry V, and Astrogeology III, and cannot be learned by Alpha Clones |
| Exhumers | Enables you to operate Elite Mining Barges; this skill is required to pilot Skiff, Hulk, and Mackinaw class vessels, it costs 28 million ISK, requires Spaceship Command IV, Industry V, and Astrogeology V, and cannot be learned by Alpha Pilots |
| Mining Frigate | Enables you to operate Ore Mining Frigates; this skill is required to pilot Venture class vessels, it costs 40 thousand ISK, requires Spaceship Command I, and can be learned by Alpha Clones (up to level IV) |
| Expedition Frigates | Enables you to operate Expedition Frigates; this skill allows you to pilot Endurance and Prospect class vessels, it costs 4 million ISK, requires Spaceship Command III, Industry V, and Electronic Upgrades V, and cannot be learned by Alpha Pilots |
Modules
Fitting your ship with appropriate Modules will greatly increase your Mining efficiency, which will have a lot of impact on your income per hour. Before you install any modules, however, you should decide which mining activities you want to perform (Ore mining, Gas Cloud Harvesting or Ice Harvesting), as you have limited number of module slots. You can use the following module list to determine the best ship setup for the mining activity of your choice:
| Module Name | Description |
| High Power Modules: | |
| Mining Lasers | These are the basic Mining Modules used for Mining Ore from Asteroids; they require a free turret slot and have a 60-second cycle time. Following types of Mining Lasers are available for fitting: Miner I, EP-S Gaussian Scoped Mining Laser, Particle Bore Compact Mining Laser, Miner II, Single Diode Basic Mining Laser, ORE Miner, Gallente Mining Laser |
| Strip Miners | Modules used for Strip Mining Ore, they can be fitted into Exhumers and Mining Barges; they have a 180-second cycle time and provide much better yield per minute than Mining Lasers, but are a lot more expensive. Following types of Strip Miners are available for fitting: Strip Miner I, Modulated Strip Miner II, Modulated Deep Core Strip Miner II, ORE Strip Miner |
| Deep Core Miners | Mining Lasers designed for mining Mercoxit; their cycle time is dependant on the Laser Model. Following types of Deep Core Miners are available for fitting: Deep Core Mining Laser I (60s cycle time), Modulated Deep Core Miner II (180s cycle time), ORE Deep Core Mining Laser (60s cycle time) |
| Ice Mining Lasers | Modules used for harvesting Ice, they can be fitted into Prospect and Endurance class vessels; they have very long cycle times (330-360 seconds) and offer 1000 cubic meters yield per cycle. Following types of Ice Mining Lasers are available for fitting: Ice Mining Laser I, Ice Mining Laser II, ORE Ice Mining Laser |
| Ice Miners | Modules used for harvesting Ice, that can be fitted into Exhumers and Mining Barges; they have the same yield per cycle as Ice Mining Lasers, but their cycles are considerably shorter (200-240s). Following types of Ice Miners are available for fitting: Ice Harvester I. Ice Harvester II, ORE Ice Harvester |
| Gas Cloud Harvesters | Modules used for vacuuming Gas Clouds; they require a free turret slot, and maximum number of Harvesters that can be fit into your ship depends on your Gas Cloud Harvesting Skill (see our skills table for a reference). Following types of Gas Cloud Harvesters are available for fitting: Gas Cloud Harvester I, 'Crop' Gas Cloud Harvester, 'Plow' Gas Cloud Harvester, Gas Cloud Harvester II, Syndicate Gas Cloud Harvester |
| Mining Crystals | |
Some Ore Mining Modules (those with a 'Modulated' keyword in their name) can be fitted with special Mining Crystals. Those Crystals increase the efficiency of mining specific Ores, corresponding with a Crystal type, and therefore increase the mining yield of those Ores, but have no impact on yield of other types of Ore. Modulated Mining Modules used without Mining Crystals will provide less yield per minute than their regular counterparts. Using Mining Crystals requires a corresponding ore processing skill at level III for tech I Crystals and IV for Tech 2 Crystals. For the maximum Mining Efficiency, multiple kinds of Mining Crystals should be carried and swapped when a specific type of Ore is encountered. | |
| Medium Power Modules: | |
| Survey Scanners | They enable you to scan nearby asteroids in order to determine which of them contain the most resources. This module will increase your mining efficiency, by allowing you to chose asteroids that contain the most Ore. Following types of Survey Scanners are available for fitting: Survey Scanner I, ML-3 Scoped Survey Scanner, Survey Scanner II Please remember that Survey Scanners have to be activated manually, and they do not have auto-refresh feature, which means that you will have to use them manually each time you need the information that they provide |
| Low Power Modules: | |
| Mining Laser Upgrades | These modules boost your Ore yield per minute but also increase the amount of CPU used by the main Mining Modules mounted on your ship. Following types of Mining Laser Upgrades are available for fitting: Mining Laser Upgrade I, Elara Restrained Mining Laser Upgrade, Mining Laser Upgrade II, 'Carpo' Mining Laser Upgrade, 'Aoede' Mining Laser Upgrade |
| Ice Harvester Upgrades | These modules are very similar to Mining Laser Upgrades, but they increase the yield of your Ice Harvester Modules. They have the same CPU penalty downside as their Ore-related Counterparts. Following types of Ice Harvester Modules are available for fitting: Ice Harvester Upgrade I, Frigoris Restrained Ice Harvester Upgrade, Ice Harvester Upgrade II, 'Anguis' Ice Harvester Upgrade, 'Ingenii' Ice Harvester Upgrade |
| Rig Upgrades: | |
| Ice Harvester Accelerator | These Rigs decrease the cycle time of your Ice Harvesters, which in turn increases your Ice yield per minute; These are available in medium size only (they will fit Exhumers and Mining Barges) |
| Mercoxit Mining Crystal Optimization | These Rigs increase your Mercoxit Mining efficiency, providing you with a 16% higher yield. These are available in medium size only (they will fit Exhumers and Mining Barges) |
| Drone Mining Augmentor | These Rigs improve your Mining Drones, by increasing their yield (Tech I by 10%, Tech II by 15%), but at a cost of reducing your vessel's available CPU capacity by 10%. The severe computing penalty and small overall yield of Mining Drones make these Rigs not worth using. |
| Drones: | |
| Ore Mining Drones | These will mine the asteroid that you have targetted. They have a 60-second cycle; when the cycle is complete, Drones will deposit mined Ore in your Ship's cargo bay, and redeploy to continue Mining. Following types of Ore Mining Drones are available for fitting: Civilian Mining Drone, Mining Drone I, Mining Drone II, 'Augmented' Mining Drone, Harvester Mining Drone, 'Excavator' Mining Drone Ore yield provided by Mining Drones is rather small, which makes them usable only as a minor addition to your main Mining Modules |
| Ice Harvesting Drones | These drones are specialized in gathering Ice from Ice Belts; they operate similarly to the Ore Mining Drones but are only capable of harvesting one Ice unit per cycle and their cycle time equals to 220 seconds. Following types of Ice Harvesting Drones are available for fitting: Ice Harvesting Drone I, Ice Harvesting Drone II, 'Augmented' Ice Harvesting Drone, 'Excavator' Ice Harvesting Drone |
| Combat Drones | These Drones are specialized in damaging and destroying enemy ships. Mining vessels employ them mainly for defensive purposes, in order to compensate for the lackluster firepower. If you plan to mine resources in dangerous areas it would be a good idea to invest in those. Combat Drones come in the following variants: Light, Medium and Heavy Combat Drones, Stationary Sentry Drones, Electronic Warfare and Combat Utility Drones (used to impair enemy vessels), and Logistics Drones specialized in repair and maintenance work. |
Now, that you have the information about all important mining-related skills and modules, it is time to take a closer look at ship types most commonly used for Mining related operations. |
Ships
The best Mining ships are produced by the Outer Ring Excavations (ORE) Corporation. They are adapted for salvaging and mining missions and lack offensive capabilities, but their shields are very powerful, and they commonly utilize drones for self-defense. Choosing the right ship for the job might be a difficult task, so we have prepared a list of all available ORE Mining-related ship types which will let you chose the one that is best suited for your particular needs.
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| Description - The entry-level Mining Ships (Tech I). They are rather small, quite fragile, and their cargo space is limited. | |
Ships of this type:
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| Description - Advanced (Tech II), specialized mining frigates. They are able to fit advanced Cloaking Devices, and support bonuses for them which increases their survivability greatly and makes them well-suited for Mining operations in Nullsec and Wormhole space. | |
Ships of this type:
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| Description - The next step in the evolution of the Mining ships. Mining Barges boast large Ore bays and good defensive capabilities (except the Covetor). They are able to fit Ice Miners and Strip Miners which increases their mining and harvesting efficiencies greatly. | |
Ships of this type:
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| Description - the advanced (Tech II) variants of Mining Barges. These ships were designed as direct upgrades from their Tech I counterparts, and as such, they boast (depending on a model) Large Ore Bays, Great Toughness, and solid Mining yield and efficiency. | |
Ships of this type:
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| Description - Industrial Command Ships were designed with the Mining Fleet support in mind. They boast vast Ore bays which enable them to store resources gathered by smaller vessels. These ships are also able to mount the Mining Foreman Bursts which improve yields of up to 256 other ships in the Mining fleet. | |
Ships of this type:
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| Description - These ships were designed to help in large-scale Mining operations. They give massive bonuses to other Mining fleet ships and are able to compress ore, which makes it easier to transport in large quantities. Capital Industrial Ships also boast Maintenance and Clone bays, however, they must be anchored in order to use those modules or the Ore compression systems. | |
Ships of this type:
Now, that you have familiarized yourself with all Mining and Industrial ships available, it is time to take a closer look at the entry-level Mining Ship - the Venture and its basic setup. |
The basic Venture setup and Mining strategy
If you are interested in this chapter, you probably have just finished the Career Tutorial and got your hands on a brand new Venture type Mining Frigate. In this section of our guide, we will feature the very basic Venture's module setup, that will allow you to begin your Ore gathering endeavor, and defend yourself from NPC pirates. We do not recommend using this setup in areas other than Hisec, for obvious reasons. Some efficiency-improving tips for players new to Mining will also be featured in this section. | |
| Module Slot | Module fitted |
| High Power Module I | EP-S Gaussian Scoped Mining Laser - The basic mining laser with an optimal range of 16km, an Ore yield of 50m³ per minute, and the 60-second Cycle time; it requires Mining I |
| High Power Module II | Second EP-S Gaussian Scoped Mining Laser |
| Medium Power Module I | Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I - The basic level shield booster, which increases shield resistance bonus against all damage types by 25%; it requires Tactical Shield Manipulation I |
| Medium Power Module II | Medium Shield Extender I - boosts the shield's strength by 750HP; it requires Shield Upgrades I |
| Medium Power Module II | ML-3 Scoped Survey Scanner - allows you to scan the composition of Gas Clouds, Ice, and Asteroids, it has 20km Scanning Range and requires CPU Management I |
| Low Power Module I | Elara Restrained Mining Laser Upgrade - increases the yield of your Mining Lasers but at a cost of them using up more CPU; it provides 8% Mining yield bonus at a cost of 8% CPU penalty and requires Mining Upgrades I |
| Rig I | Small Core Defense Field Extender I - Increases your Shield capacity (which is good) and your Signature Radius (which is bad); it provides a 15% bonus to Shield's Capacity and requires Shield Rigging I |
| Rig II | Second Small Core Defense Field Extender I |
| Rig III | Small Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer I - Increases your ship's thermal resistance, but also boosts your Signature Radius; it provides 30% bonus to Thermal Damage Resistance and requires Shield Rigging I |
| Drones | Hobgoblin I - Light Scout Drones with limited offensive capabilities. Two of them might be enough to protect you from NPC pirates roaming the Hisec asteroid fields; They require Light Drone Operation I, and Drones III |
Now, that your Venture is fully optimized for Mining and Survivability, it is time to find an Asteroid Belt (those can be found via the overview menu), warp to it, scan it with your Survey Scanner, and proceed to mine asteroids with the most resources available in them. The next question is - what to do with gathered Ore? There are two basic options; you can either sell or refine it. Refined resources are more expensive, but refining process requires a fee (unless you have the following skills: Refining V, Refinery Efficiency V, and a corresponding Ore Conversion Skill), and a tax (taxes can be avoided by increasing your relations with Station's Owner to high enough level). You should calculate your projected income from refining resources and compare it with the amount of ISK that you would gain from just selling those resources; you should then chose the more profitable option. | |
| How to improve your Mining efficiency in Venture: | |
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END NOTE We hope that you have found this Guide useful and informative. If we have missed a piece of information that is important to you, please let us know! Please do note that this is an early version of our guide, and we will be happy to receive constructive criticism, that will help us improve it, so leave your suggestions in the comments section below. |
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Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of CCP Games
Starting an Ore Mining Career in Eve Online
In Eve Online there are three forms of mining, the others being ice harvesting and gas harvesting and while they overlap to a degree they each have their specialties. In this guide, I focus on ore mining which is the type of mining that most players start out with so this can be considered as a beginners guide to Eve Online mining.
To be able to mine at the very beginning of the game you need access to a ship and a Miner I module. You can use your starting ship or any frigate you are currently flying but you need to train the skill Mining to level I before you can use the Miner I module.
When everything is ready you can fit the Miner I module to your ship through the fitting screen, undock and fly to an asteroid belt in your current system. Once there you need to target an asteroid, fly within 10 km and then press the Miner I icon on your HUD. You are now mining ore if everything was done correctly and should see it appear after a minute in your cargo hold or ore hold if you have it on your ship.
If you intend to do some more mining you should next upgrade your ship.
Getting Your First Ore Mining Ship
The first ship you should buy for your newfound mining career is the Venture. The Venture is a specialized mining ship made by the ORE corporation in Eve Online. It’s not expensive compared to other frigate class ships and will vastly improve your mining yield, both ore yield, and gas cloud harvesting yield. The Venture has the following traits;
To be able to fly the Venture you need to have the Mining Frigate skill and Spaceship Command skill trained to level I. If you don’t have it already in your skills section you can buy the skill books necessary from the market and inject to start training the skill. To be able to fly the Venture you only need to have the skill trained to level I. When that is trained you can fly to the next station that sells a Venture and buy it.
The Venture has three high slots of which two of those can fit a turret. This means that a Venture can fit and use two mining lasers at once. Given the role bonus of the Venture and the fact that you can use two mining lasers, you should have doubled or quadrupled your ore mining yield.
The next step is to train the Mining skill to level IV. At Mining IV you will be able to use the Miner II module instead of the Miner I. This alone will increase your ore yield by 50% in addition to the extra 15% you got from training Mining from I to IV. So, when you have the ISK you should go and buy yourself a couple of Miner II modules and get them equipped.
At this point is probably suitable to mention all the non-ship specific skills that come in handy while mining. Both those that increase your yield and the ones that increase your ability to fit better modules and your survival chances.
Skills for a Ore Mining Career
At this point is probably suitable to mention some of the skills that are useful for a mining career. Both the skills that directly increase your yield and the ones that increase your ability to fit better modules and your survival chances. Those skills are:
The first three skills are the skills that will improve your ore yield. The next four skills are the skills that will allow you to fit better modules to your ships and the last four will increase your survival ability. Those later skills are useful for almost any career in Eve Online so you should train those whenever you have the training time to spare. And remember that the Mining Frigate skill will also improve your yields while flying a Venture.
There is also a module that will increase your yields called Mining Laser Upgrade I. To be able to fit that module you need to train the Mining Upgrades skill to level I and to level IV to be able to use the Tech 2 version of that module. The module increases your ore yield while at the same time reduces your overall CPU.
Is Mining Really for Me?
Now you can mine ore in your Venture while slowly getting more skillful and stockpile some ISK. What you need to do after getting a decent amount of ISK is to decide if mining is the thing for you or if you want to try your hand at something different. There are so many things in Eve Online to do that are both fun and rewarding and you should take some time to try them out.
Reprocessing
At this point, I want to briefly mention refining. You can sell your ore directly at the marker, but it is often better to refine it and sell the minerals you get from the refined ore. There are two skills that are most important to refining. There are Reprocessing and Reprocessing Efficiency. If you intend to refine and sell the minerals you need to get both these skills to level 5. There are also other ways to increase refining which are beyond the scope of this guide but are discussed in my reprocessing guide.
The Mining Barges
When (and if) you decide to further your mining career the next step is to move into a Mining Barge. To do so you need to have Mining at level IV, Science at level IV, Astrogeology at level III, Mining Frigate at level III and most annoyingly Industry at level V which takes a few days and does nothing for mining. After training these skills and getting enough ISK, you can buy the Mining Barge skill and train it to level I.
You then need to decide if you want to use a Procurer, a Retriever or a Covetor. Each barge has its pros and cons. The Procurer has great tank-ability for a barge but lacks slightly in yield and the size of the ore hold. The Retriever can be tanked to some degree, but its greatest strength is in the size of its ore hold making the Retriever somewhat ideal for solo mining. The Covetor is paper thin, with a small ore hold, but by far the greatest ore yield, making it ideal for “safe” fleet mining operations.
Of these, I would go for the Procurer for high-sec mining and the Covetor if mining in null-sec with a fleet. From my perspective, the Retriever’s role is mostly for solo high-sec ice harvesting, but even then I would personally use the Procurer instead. Below are the traits for each barge.
You can see that all the barges get better yields when the mining barge skill is increased. Training the Mining Barge Skill to level 4 is, therefore, a smart thing to do when you have gotten your hands on a barge. But the most important thing about a barge is the strip miners and mining crystals.
Strip Miners
What makes barges so effective at mining is their ability to use strip miners. Strip miners come in a tech 1 and tech 2 variety. You have the Strip Miner I module and then the Modulated Strip Miner II.
The skill requirements for strip miners are only Mining IV which you should already have at this point. For the Modulated Strip Miner, you need Mining V, which is something you should train anyway at this point.
The goal is to be able to use a modulated strip miner II with Tech 2 mining crystals as that will maximize your ore yield. To do so you need to get the ore specific Processing to level IV (for example Veldspar Processing IV). This is a skill-intensive pursuit but it is rewarding as it gives you excellent refining skills along the way. To get any ore processing skill you first need to complete the following skills:
- Reprocessing IV
- Reprocessing Efficiency V
- Metallurgy IV
- Science IV (you should already have this)
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When you have those skills you can start training the ore specific reprocessing skill. You need it at level III for the tech 1 crystals and at level IV for the tech 2 crystals. When ready, you can fit a Modulated Strip Miner II to your barge and place your crystals in the ammo slot. There are however two things you must keep in mind. First, a Modulated Strip Miner II without crystals is worse than a Strip Miner I and second, you need to mine the same ore as the type of crystal used, otherwise you will get a low yield.
Mining Drones
Being in a barge also gives you access to mining drones. Granted, you can use those drones in a Venture but at that point your drone capacity is better spent on combat drones to drive of the belt rats. On the other hand, a barge has room in the drone hold for both combat drones and mining drones.
The drones that you should look at are called Mining Drone I and Mining Drone II. To be able to operate drones you need to have the skill Drones to at least level I with each level allowing you to control another drone. To operate mining drones, you need the skill Mining Drone to at least level I with each level giving a 5% increase to the drones mining yield.
The Tech 2 version of the mining drone has a 32% higher base yield but they require the skill Mining Drone Operation to be at level 5 and you need the first level of Mining Drone Specialization. There are also a few faction mining drones with better stats, but the cost of those when this guide is written is exorbitantly high. An example is the Harvester mining drone which has a base ore yield of 42 m3 opposed to 33 m3 for the Mining Drone II, but it has a price range in the 100’s of millions. There might be some scenarios that justify using such drones, but on a general basis they are just too expensive.
Rigs are a piece of equipment that when fitted on your ship, boosts some parameters while penalizing others. There are a couple of rigs that can increase the ore yield of your mining ship. These rigs can increase the total ore yield by 10% each (15% for T2) so there is room to enhance the ore yield considerably. However, you need to consider if the extra yield is worth the reduction in effective hit points of your ship. For high sec mining, I would recommend using shield rigs as detailed in these anti gank mining barge fits. If you are however a part of a null sec mining corporation, then using the mining rigs makes absolute sense.
Moving Into Exhumers
The last tier of mining vessels are the exhumers. They are the ultimate miners maximizing the abilities of the mining barges. Training for an exhumer is, however, yet another time-intensive activity and should only be done if you intend to become a professional miner.
To be able to fly an exhumer you need the exhumer skill at level I. To be able to train that skill you need to take Spaceship Command to level IV, Astrogeology to level V and finally, Mining Barges to level V. This will take a few weeks of skill training to accomplish. Below are the traits for each exhumer.
As you can see the added bonus you get from upgrading from a barge to an exhumer is not that great for the total yield. However, the exhumers can be fitted with better modules and in the case of the Skiff, it can be fitted to tank null sec rats and be a really hard nut to crack for high sec gankers. And as with the mining barges, I would personally only use the Skiff or Hulk depending on the mining scenario.
Fitting a Mining Barge
Here are a couple of fits that you can use in high sec. They are a mixture of yield and tank-ability, making you less of a sitting duck for any ganker. This is probably not the best fitting available, but it is a good place to start from.
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Cybernetic Implants
Your skills, modules and ships are not the only things that will increase your ore yield. Certain cybernetic mining implants are available on the market that will increase the ore yield by up to 5%. These mining implants can be fitted into implant slots 7 and 9 and are:
- Slot 7: Michi excavation Augmentor which gives a 5% bonus to yield (EXPENSIVE).
- Slot 9: Inherent Implants ‘Highwall’ Mining which gives up to 5% bonus to yield. (three versions)
Other implants are also available that can help for CPU fitting troubles, refining yields and so forth.
Is That All There is to Ore Mining in Eve Online?
Yes and no. This guide has now gone over the stats and skills needed to be a successful miner. There are other things that need to be learned that cannot be learned from a written guide and must be experienced.
There is also room to improve your mining yield by joining a mining fleet which is the scope of another guide. In my Fleet mining guide, I go over what stats and skills are needed to boost a mining fleet successfully and give some tips on how to run it smoothly.
Now if you liked this ore mining guide then be sure to share it with your friends and allies and feel free to check out my other Eve Online guides.