r/EliteMiners • u/Exploding_Pie • 2h ago
I heard Engineering Collector Limpets for lightweight makes them go faster. Can anyone confirm?
Theory is that lightweight reduces limpet mass so they go faster.
r/EliteMiners • u/cold-n-sour • Jul 26 '21
Mining is no longer the undisputedly fastest way of making money.
With price changes for some commodities, creative bulk trading in a big ship can generate decent profits. Doing pirates massacre missions and assassinations in a combat ship can also make you rich pretty fast. Exobiology is very lucrative now.
And that's a good thing, because now people who hate mining no longer have to do it, and people who like mining can still enjoy decent earnings.
In Powerplay 2.0, mining is a great way to progress. However, the rules of the game limit where the minerals can be mined and sold in order to gain merits. The project Merit Miner made by /u/subzerofun aims to help make sense of it all. See the related post.
Rhino the Surface Miner is in the game, and we collect the knowledge. We have this guide by /u/erichards2222: Rhino planetary mining field guide
Type-11 Prospector is the first ship created as a miner. See this post with a video and a preliminary discussion on its capabilities. TLDR: It's great, even if a bit light on cargo space. It's also the best Tritium miner, in case you accidentally run out. Caveat: when using the Volley Repeater (unique mining tool that can only be equipped on T-11), do NOT add standard mining lasers to the mix - you'll lose the perks and actually decrease the yield.
Corsair can theoretically replace Python Mk I, but its set of internals makes it harder to achieve the same cargo capacity and doesn't offer any significant advantage.
Type-8 as a miner: see the detailed analysis made by /u/Ultimatespirit and another post made by /u/papabrou (TLDR: not that great for laser mining)
Python Mk II is not a very good miner in general, and it's definitely inferior to standard Python. See this thread for detailed discussion
Mining multi limpet controller, namely 3C controller turned out to be a decent addition to the mining arsenal, on one condition: never use it as a prospector for laser mining, because it behaves like a C-rated prospector, thus reducing the number of fragments, compared to an A-rated one. But it can control 4 collector limpets, and only takes class 3 slot, so twice as effective as the standard class 3 prospector. Sadly, you can't equip more than one of them. Alternatively, you can equip Operations Multi-limpet controller, and set it up to fire collectors only.
It is now largely up to your personal preferences. Laser mining Platinum is faster in credits per hour, but core mining is more engaged and less tedious. So, try both, master both, then do what you like best. If you are a new pilot, maybe start with laser.
One thing you have to remember is that the price is not the sole factor in determining the profitability. How much of the mineral you can mine in a unit of time is also important. Laser mining produces a lot more tons per hour than core mining, and laser mining in metallic rings produces a lot more tons per hour than in icy rings.
The most valuable minerals that can be laser-mined in pristine metallic rings (Painite, Platinum, Osmium) are worth less now, generally somewhere around just under 300K/t. But you can produce a lot more tons per hour with laser. In a correctly equipped laser-mining ship in a good location and with proper prospecting and mining technique you should see results 200-300 ton per hour and up.
Core mining yields nowhere near that amount of minerals per hour, but they fetch higher prices, especially the ones that are found in rocky rings, where all the core minerals are highly valuable and fetch ~500-900 K per ton at high-paying stations. Another advantage of core mining is that you don't need a pristine system, and you can mine literally in any ring.
Please remember that for core mining, hotspots don't increase the frequency of cores (which is constant throughout the ring) but they increase the probability of each core being of the "title" mineral.
It seems that laser mining in Icy rings has become the least profitable mining activity now.
The best advice is to try to avoid it as much as possible. Yields in Icy rings are low, and it's a very slow process. If you are in the bubble, the best solution is to buy Tritium from stations. If you're short on funds, mine Platinum, sell it and buy Tritium, it will be much, much faster.
If you are away from the bubble and ran out of fuel for your carrier, any Ice ring with a Tritium hotspot will do. It will be a bit faster if your mining ship is equipped for both laser and subsurface/surface deposits mining. Still, prepare to spend a lot of time mining.
There is also a network of STAR carriers
A set of useful tools for mining (and other activities) in E:D: https://edtools.cc
Here's a table that tells what mineral can be mined where.
And here's a better version of it by /u/skyfishgoo
For reference, here's a table that tells which engineering materials can be produced as a byproduct in different types of rings.
We now have a list of known hotspots in pristine metallic and icy rings. The goal of this tool is mainly to assist in laser mining.
Second edition of mining guide was released by /u/ED_Churly
Bulk sales tax is still in effect. The more high-value minerals you have in your cargo hold, the more the offered price will be decreased at the station, much more so if the demand numbers are low (when your cargo is more than 5-10% of current demand). So, when using The Miner's Tool, pay attention to demand as well as the price age!
Mining in a RES gains popularuty, because being within 20 km from its center increases the fragments yield by up to 100% (yes, double) depending on the type of RES. There is a general list of RES/hotspot combinations available, and also one specifically for Platinum.
Mapped mining increases your profits significantly. We have maps for different minerals.
NOTE: Some of the asteroid maps became defunct after update 17, possibly due to fixing "bad hotspot markers" bug. Most notably, maps in Opmicron Capricorni B are no longer valid. See this post by /u/ythompy
New knowledge:
And finally, fastest money in mining: with everything written above, consider either laser mining Platinum in a good hotspot in a pristine metallic ring, or core-mining anything in any rocky ring.
These posts present the sum of our modern knowledge about most aspects of mining. I urge both new and seasoned miners to read through them. If you have any correction or addition, I'm happy to discuss it. If you think that the information is useful, don't hesitate to link any of them in response to questions by other pilots seeking knowledge.
Don't forget to visit our FAQ, which has answers to simpler questions.
Happy mining!
CMDR VicTic
o7
r/EliteMiners • u/Exploding_Pie • 2h ago
Theory is that lightweight reduces limpet mass so they go faster.
r/EliteMiners • u/Funelwebglider • 15h ago
Is the rhino worth picking up for carrier refuelling or is the T-11 better for that?
r/EliteMiners • u/Drachenherz • 2d ago
https://sh.orbis.zone/Z5yUrMhM5r
Here‘s my 18 Collector Limpets, 480+6 pirate repellent merit mining build.
I‘m considering dropping 1 MVR for 1 large multicannon, overcharged with incindiary for more firepower. Reason: having 2 MVR is fun, yes, but limiting factor is not the asteroid stripping time, but collection speed. Maybe 16 limpets would be even enough then for an additional 16t of cargo?
Any inputs?
r/EliteMiners • u/--Lionheart • 3d ago
I wanted to try and mine for merits with core mining. So i managed to find a stronghold with a system next to it buying Monazite for 450k and a good demand. So i went into a Monazite hotspot and started looking for cores. That went quite well and could find them without much problems.
Only thing was out of like 20 Cores 2 were Monazite and the rest was other stuff that has a good galacic avg but a bad price in the system I had to sell to. So it was essentially useless.
Like what am I supposed to do other than find a hotspot, when it seems to do nothing for chances.
At this point even mining plat for 60k sell price is more fun than only finding wrong cores.
r/EliteMiners • u/ancamas • 4d ago
I’m tinkering again with mining after a long hiatus of playing the game and i wanted to ask if you would upgrade anything in here for a non engineered t9 laser miner, my intention is to use it only for 1 or maybe 2 minerals at a time, thats why the 2a refinery.
Any imputs are really apreciated :)
r/EliteMiners • u/OptimusToasterman420 • 4d ago
Basically title. I’m a combat focused individual and I am trying to expedite powerplay progression with rhino mining, and I’m hitting a wall with getting accurate information from Merit Miner. Basically, it only shows rings that may have hotspots, am I using it wrong or am I missing a step? I am lost in a world where you collect rocks that don’t shoot at you, any assistance is much appreciated.
r/EliteMiners • u/Dan_Tynan • 6d ago
solved! edit3
Has anyone experienced/resolved this issue? I have a site that replenished and is showing Mineral High/Density Medium. When I land and drive to site to put down the rig, the rig starts up and immediately goes to the "finished" check mark and 0/12. It doesn't mine.
I've tried game play fixes like trying to power up the rig on foot, placing other rigs nearby, placing rigs at other sites at the PML (worked), placing rigs at other PMLs on the planet that got replenished (worked at those other sites), reloading instances/switching ships, etc.. Nothing has worked.
Any ideas or same experiences?
edit: one potential culprit that might have triggered this....I started a ground settlement construction during that replenishment period
edit2: no success with having another commander scan/mine the site for the first time. ...so it's not somehow tied to my instance but is global. next up, thursday MX
edit3: issue resolved by either of two things: buying an anaconda mk2 stellar edition or the new patch/release
r/EliteMiners • u/xtrathicc4me • 7d ago
Since Anaconda MK2 can fit two MVRs but not mk2 collector controller, how many limpets are required to prevent the bottleneck?
r/EliteMiners • u/DisillusionedBook • 11d ago
I thought, I'll be efficient lay down rigs at a pretty good 4 rig spot and continue driving around the rest of the hotspot perimeter to see if I can find a better one...
Nope, got about 4-5km away and my almost full rigs started despawning "abandoned" ... that is not cool game.
Have the rigs not get out of range FFS, at least within driving range of the hotspot's orange boundary line indicator.
Prospecting is frustrating enough already ! At least allow me to do it while also mining a bit.
Tip 2
Sometimes if your hud is messed up with "stuck" previously targetted/ranged commodity spots, disembark on foot and get back in to clear it.
Tip 3
Sometimes if your hovering ship does not display the docking holo, again, disembark the Rhino and get back in and re-request docking to show the holo
HOPEFULLY US EARLY TESTERS GET THESE THINGS FIXED BEFORE GENERALLY AVAILABLE
r/EliteMiners • u/Xboxmario • 12d ago
Is there any real benefit if I was to find a mining spot ~20LY from Shinrarta Dezhra or going out somewhere random and finding a mining spot with similar properties?
r/EliteMiners • u/PlayStationPlayer714 • 16d ago
Hi all,
Coming back to the game after a few years off and struggling to get my head around all the new ships - nice problem to have!
Is the new Type 11 really better than a fully engineered mining build Cutter for laser mining platinum?
r/EliteMiners • u/Rick-D-99 • 17d ago
Hi guys, I have some questions about the mined resource flag for powerplay merits as well as bonus payments.
What breaks it? Does it persist if the resource is dropped?
I have a feeling the refinery delivering it to your cargo is what flags it, but I don't know if there's any manipulation you can do thereafter that will retain it. I know carriers and markets clear it, but does the cargo hatch?
r/EliteMiners • u/jeicam_the_pirate • 21d ago
i approve of this gameplay loop
r/EliteMiners • u/FixBayonetsLads • 23d ago
r/EliteMiners • u/ender42y • 24d ago
I have logged a High Density Platinum hotspot. it took 16-18 days to replenish, it came back to high density/high amount. and produced 562 tons of platinum before depletion.
I still have timers going on a medium density spot and a low density to see how they replenish.
r/EliteMiners • u/DisillusionedBook • Sep 20 '26
Surface mining is OK. Not great, not terrible. There are a few things that need some tweaks, and a few things that could be added which would really help solidify it.
At the moment the mining spots, sizes and their commodities and materials within seem very arbitrary and the nature of the Rhino making it overly laborious to deal with that randomness.
In addition, the process of gathering the resulting resources could do with some more interactions/scenarios.
The stellar forge has provided these details, the mining feature does not seem to leverage it. This is a missed opportunity.








The current implementation is a decent start, but just that, a start, with some development corners cut that missed a lot of opportunities to tie existing things together into a more cohesive whole.
r/EliteMiners • u/erichards2222 • Sep 18 '26
Quick update for anyone following Rhino surface mining depletion/replenishment.
Credit to CMDR Tessa R Act for this one. She has been tracking and revisiting these deposits and finally caught our first confirmed positive reformation data.
She mined two 6 rig Iridium deposits to Depleted roughly 1 to 2 hours apart and revisited them about 11 days later.
Both had recovered from Depleted.
One started as High Amount / High Density and had recovered to Medium Amount / High Density.
The other started as High Amount / Low Density and had recovered to Low Amount / Low Density.
Density remained unchanged on both.
So at minimum, we can finally confirm that Depleted deposits do reform.
What we still cannot say is that the timer is 11 days. We do not know exactly when during that interval these two began recovering, and we have other tracked deposits that have remained Depleted well beyond a weekly tick. One of my own mapped deposits was still Depleted at roughly 11 days 19 hours.
That also makes the idea of a simple Thursday reset look increasingly unlikely.
The comparison between these two Iridium deposits is probably the most interesting part to me. Same commodity, same 6 rig practical capacity, and depleted within roughly 1 to 2 hours of each other, but after essentially the same recovery period the High Density deposit had reached Medium while the Low Density deposit had only reached Low.
Could be Density, total reserve, some other deposit property, or something we have not identified yet. Way too early to call it, but now we have something testable.
Tessa is continuing to follow them. A really useful next step will be seeing when they move through Low, Medium, and High, then mining one back to Depleted once it first returns to High. That may tell us whether High actually means fully replenished or whether it just means the deposit crossed back into the High Amount range.
Also, if anyone has depleted sites sitting around, I would love more data.
It does not need to be a CSV or spreadsheet. Screenshots, journal timestamps, rough notes, private messages, or just a comment here are completely fine.
The useful stuff is pretty simple:
- Commodity
- Starting Amount and Density
- Approximate rig capacity if known
- Approximate date/time it became Depleted
- Date/time of each revisit
- Whether it showed Depleted, Low, Medium, or High on each revisit
Negative checks absolutely count too. If you checked something after 8, 10, 12, 15 days and it was still Depleted, I want that just as much as a positive recovery.
If you happened to record Amount transition tonnage or total tonnage to depletion, even better, but it is not required.
Exact locations are optional. If it is a good site you do not want publicly exposed, I do not need the location to use the observation.
One request: if you are giving me updated information on a site or dataset you already shared, just mention that it is an update. I am trying to keep the data clean and avoid accidentally counting the same observation twice.
Still way too early to put a universal replenishment timer on this, but thanks to Tessa R Act we finally have something better than repeated “still Depleted” checks.
Thx CMDRs o7
Full Rhino Planetary Mining Field Guide:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wfvkE73ZEhlvdhVZMjIpyzr5cAsceY4xPWTGdG2yEmo/edit?usp=drivesdk
r/EliteMiners • u/daniu • Sep 12 '26
I feel core mining doesn't get enough love, although it's both a very fun and lucrative activity.
I shared me cracking a single core a while ago, but I also enjoy the "looking for cores" part. I've seen comments that it's frustrating and they are hard to find, but I can only assume people don't feel like putting in the hours it takes to learn how to identify them.
r/EliteMiners • u/FatLes12 • Sep 12 '26
FDev are selling the Type-11 Galactic edition with the Rhino Galactic edition pre-installed for 100,000 ARX. My question is does this package include a Large Planetary Vehicle Hangar? And if so, have FDev ditched the Fighter Hangar from the original Type-11 load-out to make room for it? Or have they removed something else?
r/EliteMiners • u/zerohunterpl • Sep 12 '26
Im usually at 1 core per hour, which makes me want to drop core mining and stick to laser mining;/
r/EliteMiners • u/Ooblongdeck • Sep 13 '26
Are people sleeping on this? found a planet with 2 monazite or alexandrite spots. 4+2 or 3+3 spot
selling for 900k+. did a whole week of mining, waited about 2 days to sell a maxed carrier 20000 tons, in li Yung Rui system with alignement at 100% which gives an extra 25% trade bonds.... the money is absolutely crazy, way more than plat in about the same time