Most equipment can be manufactured at the mining fabricator. This includes your basic beginning gear if you lose it or show up late and all of it is gone.
Note: The majority of ore and gems won't be usable in the mining fabricator unless you process them with a material processor or portable reclaimer first.
| Item | Description | Cost to Make |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering Space Suit Set | See Engineering Objects. | 3 Fabric, 3 Metal, 2 Crystal |
| Engineering Diving Suit Set | See Engineering Objects for stats. | 3 Fabric, 3 Metal, 2 Crystal |
| Flippers | See Flippers. Again, technically unnecessary for mining underwater, but it'll make moving underwater much easier. | N/A |
| Jetpack | See Engineering Objects. | 2 Dense Metal, 10 Conductive Material |
| Mining Belt | Holds most of the gear and equipment you will need to mine. | N/A |
| Geological Scanner | Use the scanner in your active hand to scan all rocks in view. The scanner will spit out a report and put symbols on rocks with something out of the ordinary in them. Using it on a piece of asteroid will tell you specifically what ore is present, its toughness, any danger conditions, and the presence of any foreign items. | 1 Metal, 1 Conductive Material, 1 Crystal |
| Geiger Counter | Upon encountering something radioactive while holding this in your hands or pocket (but not backpack), the dial moves back and forth, and the device clicks, just like in the movies. The further the dial goes, and the faster the clicking, the more intense the radiation detected. Every Miner equipment locker comes with one, the mining fabricator can make one, and Cargo's Radioactive Emergency Supplies crate has two of them. | 1 Metal, 1 Conductive Material, 1 Crystal |
| Ore Satchel | Holds up to 50 units of ore. To quickly pick up ore, click and drag one piece onto the satchel and you will automatically begin grabbing all ore of that type in every space surrounding you. Clicking the satchel in your active hand will dump its contents onto the ground. Use it on a fabricator or crate to empty it into that container. | 5 Fabric |
| Ore Scoop | This very useful utensil allows you to collect ore by merely walking over it. Simply insert an ore satchel, hold the scoop in your active hand and you're good to go. Click on the scoop to unload the satchel, or anywhere else to dump the ore on the floor. | 1 Metal, 1 Conductive Material, 1 Crystal |
| Meson Goggles | See Engineering Objects. Also allows you to see the composition of asteroids. | 3 Crystal, 2 Conductive Material |
| Breath Mask | See Clothing. Required for full spacesuit gear. | 1 Fabric |
| Mining Headset | Stay in touch and coordinate with your colleagues. Type say :e to talk over the engineering channel. | N/A |
| Item | Description | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Industrial Space Armor Set | Replaces the standard spacesuit and helmet. The melee and bullet resistance is mediocre, but it provides excellent protection against explosions, reduces damage from radiation, and has zero movement slowdown. | 15 Dense Metal, 7 High Energy Conductor, 3 High Density Matter |
| Industrial Diving Armor Set | An industrial diving helmet and suit set that replaces the standard diving suit and helmet. Same stats as the Industrial Space Armor Set, but more appropriate for underwater. | 15 Dense Metal, 7 High Energy Conductor, 3 High Density Matter |
| Mechanized Boots | Gives the wearer a permanent speed boost, both in space and indoors. Moving around quickly will also deplete the contents of your jetpack faster, so be careful. | 15 Sturdy Metal, 7 High Energy Conductor, 3 Power Source |
| Mechanized Diving Boots | Same as the standard mechanized boots, but with a different sprite aesthetically more in line with the other diving gear. | 15 Sturdy Metal, 7 High Energy Conductor, 3 Power Source |
| Large Ore Satchel | Like a regular satchel, but holds 100 ore instead of 50. | 25 Fabric, 3 Dense Metal |
| Cargo Transporter | Sends stuff to a cargo pad. Use it in your active hand to pick a destination, then click on the target to teleport it. Has 8 uses before it must be recharged at a recharger. Compatible objects: crates, closets/lockers, gas canisters, large tanks and artifacts. | N/A |
| Flashlight | See General Objects. Provides additional light if you opt to go exploring derelicts and other foreboding parts of space, but useless for mining. | 1 Metal, 1 Conductive Material, 1 Crystal |
| Space GPS | Useless for mining, but can help you make your way back to the station if you ever get lost in space/the trench or find certain locations. See Space GPS for instructions on usage. | N/A |
| Material Analyzer | Shows the properties of raw as well as processed ore. | N/A |
| Planetary Map | Shows the layout of the local planetary Z-level at roundstart. Available as both physical paper you can print out and Examine and an app on your PDA. Colors: Blue: Cave/asteroid/rock. Dark blue: Open land. Dark purple/magenta: hotspot. Orange square: NovusCorp structures. White/Cyan: Ruins & other areas. | N/A |
| Neon Lighting | Useful glowing strips that light up the area and require no power after deploying, can be ordered from Cargo. | N/A |
| Jetpack MKII | Your standard jetpack combined with flippers, basically. Passively (i.e. just when being worn) slows you down in dry area, but negates the slowdown from being in a fluid. Fabricator recipe appears exclusively on Oshan Laboratory. | 15 Sturdy Metal, 10 High Energy Conductor, 5 Power Source |
The greater the difference between tool strength and rock hardness, the more difficult it is to tunnel through the asteroid. You can sometimes get lucky and break the rock with a lower strength tool, but the chance gets lower the greater the difference. Equipment with a strength at least equal to the rock's hardness rating is guaranteed to work on the first try. Having the Gamma Ray Exposure or Musculature Enhancement genes boosts tool strength by 1; having both does not give a higher boost.
| Item | Toughness | Notes | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Powered Pickaxe | 2 | Starting equipment. Has 100 PU battery, and each use costs 2 PU, so it has 50 uses before it must be recharged at a recharger. Decent weapon when powered, but attacking people with it costs 10 PU per use. Capacity can be expanded with other energy cells. Also available from the QM's Mining Equipment crates. | 2 Sturdy Metal, 5 Conductive Material |
| Laser Drill | 3 | Has infinite charge. | 15 Sturdy Metal, 7 Dense Metal, 10 High Energy Conductor |
| Power Hammer | 4 | Has a 100 PU battery, and each use costs 3 PU, so it holds 33 charges. Good weapon with an useful special when powered on, but prolonged use can drain the battery quickly, as attacking people with it drains 15 PU each time. Charge can be refilled at a recharger, and the hammer also accepts other small power cells. Also available from the QM's Mining Equipment crates. | 1 High Density Matter, 8 Conductive Material |
| Concussive Gauntlets | 4 | Worn on your hands and allows you to simply punch rocks with an empty hand. Infinite charges. Blocking unarmed while wearing them will charge up a slam attack, similar to the power hammer. | 15 Dense Metal, 15 High Energy Conductor, 2 Power Source |
| Low-Yield Mining Explosives | N/A | Plant on a rock surface to produce a small concussive blast. Will break nearby rocks and weaken rocks at the edge of its blast. Has a 5 second countdown. Starting equipment and can be made in the fabricator in sets of 5. | 3 Metal, 3 Crystal, 7 Conductive Material |
| Mining Explosive | N/A | A stronger variant of the mining explosive, also in packs of 5. | 7 Metal, 7 Crystal, 15 Conductive Material |
| Pickaxe | 1 | Mostly useless for anything beyond basic rock. Unlimited uses. You basically get this whenever your powered pickaxe or power hammer runs out of charge/is deactivated, since their unpowered versions both have 1 toughness. | 1 Sturdy Metal |
| Power Shovel | 1 | Starting equipment for Engineers and Engineering cyborgs on planetary maps, meant for digging holes for geothermal vents and acting as a stand-in for real tools if Miners are busy/absent. Rather weak, but adequate for basic rock and occasionally low-toughness ore, with some difficulty. Has 100 PU battery, and digging with it costs 2 PU. Has 0 Toughness when unpowered. Okay weapon when powered, though attacking people with it drains 10 PU per use. It can be recharged at a recharger and also accepts other energy cells. | 1 Sturdy Metal, 3 Conductive Metal |
| Shovel | 0 | An unpowered shovel such as that used to shovel slag out of furnaces and crucibles, perfect for digging up dirt or sand but not great for mining by itself. | 1 Sturdy Metal |
In addition to these tools, you also design your own mining equipment using parts from the Mining Nanofabricator. These custom-made tools never run out of charge and most will hit multiple rocks at a time, but, depending on the material used in the tool head, will require a few hits to break rocks.
| Item | Notes | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Mining Tool | A tool for mining asteroids. Type of tool depends on components used. Optional modifier slot. Metal used for the base does not matter, feel free to use 10 stone, spare mauxite, or spare pharosium. | (10) Metal, (1) Mining Tool Head, (1) Optional Tool Mod |
| Tool head (Drill) | A Drill head. Goes 3 tiles forward and can break down rock in a couple of hits, depending on the hardness of the used material, with chitin being a good choice. | (5) Material |
| Tool head (Hammer) | A Hammer head. Goes 3 tiles wide and can break down rock in a couple of hits, depending on the density of the used material, with viscerite and mauxite being good choices. | (5) Material |
| Tool head (Blaster) | A Blaster head. Goes 2 tiles forward in a T-shape, but takes a lot of hits to break a rock. More conductive materials, such as pharosium and claretine make for stronger blasters. | (5) Material |
| Tool head (Pick) | A Pick head. Hits only one tile, but can break rock in just one or two hits, even with softer materials. Strength of the pick depends on both hardness and density. Molitz, having a decent amount of both stats, makes for great picks. | (5) Material |
| Tool mod (Concussive) | A mod for mining tools that increases Area of Effect for anything but a Pick. Concussive drills will hit a 3×4 tile area forward, concussive hammers will hit 5×4 area roughly centered on the wielder, and concussive blasters will hit in a 5×5 orb. With 45 radioactive material being a lot, koshmarite tends to be your best option, as you can get plenty of them from a single Quantum Telescope koshmarite asteroid. The mod might be a little overkill since custom tools using basic materials are already quite efficient on their own, but if you want to bling out a mighty electrum blaster or iridium pick, go for it! Make sure you make the shaft out of Syreline too, you showoff! | (45) Radioactive Material, (1) Explosive Charge |
| Space Suit Set | A space suit and helmet set, very much like the ones in EVA. | (3) Cloth or Organic or Rubber, (3) Metal, (2) Crystal |
Large mining machines can be used to harvest or process great deals of ore.
| Item | Description | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Rockbox | Full name, Rockbox™ Ore Cloud Storage Container, for storing ores and selling them to the rest of the crew. You insert the raw ore (i.e. no refined materials) into it (click-drag and clicking on it with the ore both work), mark it for sale, set a price, and the rest of the crew can buy the ore from fabricators and manufacturers. Simple as that. Miners set the base price, and the money that pays for that is evenly split among all their accounts (any amount that can't be evenly split goes to cargo's shipping budget). Meanwhile, the Quartermasters set additional percent tax and minimum fee per ore amount from their console, and the money for those fees/taxes goes to the shipping budget. There is also a 5 credit fee RockBox charges per transaction that doesn't got towards any budget; the QMs can waive this fee for a premium, again at their console. | N/A |
| Nano-Crucible | Ore can also be processed into alloys with various properties. For more information, refer to Ore Processing. | |
| Mining Pod | Provided they've been upgraded with the right gear, pods can be a great asset for the miners. Please see Space Pod for more information. | N/A |
| Mining Minisub | The underwater counterpart to other stations' mining pods, and just as useful if equipped with the right gear, detailed below. Please see Space Pod for more information. | N/A |
| Conclave A-1984 Sensor System | Like standard pod sensors, but with optical mason scanners and geological scanner for mining asteroids. | 1 Power Source, 5 Crystal, 2 High Energy Conductor |
| Ore Scoop/Hold | Heavy-duty version of the ore scoop for pods, with a maximum capacity of 300 pieces of ore. Install and activate the system, fly over ore to collect it, drag & drop the pod onto an adjacent tile to empty out the hold when necessary. This component spawns near the mining pods. | N/A |
| Mining Phaser System | Fires weak phaser bullets that can break rock in two hits and weaken ore-bearing rock, making it easier to break with low-tier mining tools, though they can't destroy it by themselves. Starting equipment for mining minisubs. | N/A |
| Plasma Cutter System | Shoots bolts of plasma that instantly dig through up to three rows of rock. | 10 Power Source, 10 Dense Metal, 20 Extraordinarily Dense Crystalline Matter |
| Rock Drilling Rig | Digs up asteroids, one row at time. Cuts up pods and people like nobody's business. | 10 Power Source, 10 Dense Metal, 10 Extraordinarily Dense Crystalline Matter |
| Recharger | Recharges your powered pickaxes, power hammers, cargo transporters, and more. Simply click on it with the tool you want to recharge in your hand; if dings and flashes, that means it's fully charged your tool. There's always at least one on a table somewhere in the Expedition Bay, in Mining Outposts, as well as elsewhere on the ship. | N/A |
A subset of special mining machines specifically meant to be used with the mineral magnet.
| Item | Description | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Mining Magnet | This large, immobile magnet pulls in asteroids you can mine and wrecks that can be salvaged. For further information, see Miner. | N/A |
| Mineral Magnet Controls | A computer for controlling and accessing the condition of the mineral magnet. It comes with the following functions: Activate Magnet: Pull in a randomly-generated asteroid or wreck into the magnet area, with a cooldown of about five minutes. Activate telescope location: Pull in a specific object discovered by the quantum telescope. Override Cooldown: Toggles whether you can use the Activate Magnet ability when it's still in cooldown. Enable Automatic Mode: Toggles whether the magnet will automatically pull in a new asteroid every three or so minutes. | N/A |
| Mining Magnet Replacement Parts | Required to repair the mineral magnet in case of catastrophic damage. Use it on the chassis. | 5 High Density Matter, 30 Dense Metal, 30 High Energy Conductor |
| NC Magnet Link Array | Remote control for the mineral magnet (7 tile range) intended as an upgrade for mining pods. Interface with the magnet via Use Comms System in the Pod tab. | N/A |
| Mineral Accumulator | Allows you to send large quantities of ore to a cargo pad. To use, select a destination first, drag the accumulator to the desired location and then turn it on. Any loose ore within an eight-tile radius will be pulled to the device and teleported to the cargo pad. Must be turned off before it can be moved again. The accumulator cannot be picked up, only dragged around. The miners get one accumulator for free at the start of the shift. | 25 Sturdy Metal, 15 High Energy Conductor, 2 High Density Matter |
| Power Cell | See Engineering Objects. | 4 Metal, 4 Conductive Material, 4 Any Material |
| Cerenkite Power Cell | A self-recharging power cell that any cyborg would be glad to have. Capacity is 15000. | 4 Metal, 4 Any Material, 2 Cerenkite |
| Erebite Power Cell | Self-recharges more quickly than the cerenkite cell, but is also highly volatile. Capacity is 20000. | 4 Metal, 4 Any Material, 2 Erebite |
A marvelous computer, with a rather unassuming appearance, for finding especially mineral-rich asteroids and wrecks. Essentially, you try to guess where an object of choice is on a map, using circle size to guide your clicks.
Click on the computer to boot it up. You should see a rather stunning picture of a galaxy and list of objects on the right.
Select one of the items on the list to home in on it. Most of them will be a “celestial body”, which are mineral-rich asteroids (i.e. what you'll probably choose if you're a Miner), but there are a few unique objects that lead to special Adventure Zone areas; more on them in their respective page.
Click anywhere on the picture of the galaxy to guess where the thing you're looking for is. Center is a good place to start. After a short while, you'll see a circle. Here's an important clue: whatever you're the looking for is somewhere inside this circle, and the smaller it is, the closer you are to the object you're looking for.
Click anywhere inside the circle to narrow down the distance between you and whatever you're looking for. You'll see another circle, overlaid over the previous one. If you get a smaller circle than before, your new guess is closer than your the previous. If it's larger, than it's farther.
Continue clicking inside the new circles until you successfully guess where the object is.
When two circles partially overlap, try clicking in the area where the circles overlap (not necessarily where their circumferences intersect).
You can use your incorrect guesses to hone later guesses. For example, if you click north, south, east, and west a place, and the smallest circle is south, but the second smallest is east, try clicking towards the southeast.
When you successfully pinpoint the location of the object you're looking for, its name will change, and it'll turn green in the list on the right. You can then click on it in the list to bring up some options on what to do with the thing. Most of the time, the computer'll just ask you to save its location to the mineral magnet's database, but occasionally, you might get to choose one of the ores in the asteroid, among other things.
You can then pull it into the station's mineral magnet by going to the mineral magnet controller and picking the Activate telescope location option.
If the quantum telescope is destroyed or you just want to build a new one, you can build it as a console with the telescope circuit board.
Guide to Mining
Introduction to Mining
For a job that is primarily out in space, mining is a relatively safe, even boring, occupation. Still, the entire station is depending on you to bring back those all-important phoron and minerals. Just follow a few guidelines here to keep yourself from becoming lost in the mines.
The Mining Dock, containing the shuttle to the Mining Station, is located just below the Cargo Office.
The Equipment
The following is a complete list of mining equipment:
Mining Hardsuit.png Mining Voidsuit and Helmet: Used so you can mine with impunity on the airless, cold, resource-rich planetoid.
BreathMask.png Breath Mask and Oxygen Tank: So you can have oxygen when mining. Get an O2 tank from the tank dispenser, and wear it on your suit storage slot.
MGlasses.png Meson Scanners: Lets you see where the ore is through the rock.
Miningdrill.png Mining Drill: For tunneling through everything. You can wear it in your belt slot. Science can get you various better drills and other tools, if you ask them nice enough. These will dig faster, and may have other advantages.
Shovel.png Shovel: For gathering sand. You can stick this in your backpack, or just not bother with it and trust the drill technicians to bring in any sand the station may need.
Lantern.png Lantern: For seeing in the dark, put one in your pocket. Obsolete when wearing mesons.
OreSatchel.png Ore Satchel: For carrying ore without using an ore box, and holds 25 ore nuggets. Get at least one of these and make sure the bag is set to “all on tile” (the default setting). Use in conjunction with an ore crate; hold the satchel and drag the crate. (Newbie tip: This does not work like a backpack. Hold it in your hand and click the ore with that hand to pick it up.)
OreDetector.png Ore Detector: Used for finding out what types of ore are nearby, so you can decide where best to set up the drill. Make sure you hold still while scanning, or you won't get any output.
OreCrate.png Ore Crate: Used for carrying huge amounts of ore. While a satchel can only hold 25 nuggets, this can hold 1000. Use your satchel on the box to empty it into the box. To unload it, place the box in the unloading machine's input slot or right-click the box and choose the unload option. Drag this around with you. Can be loaded into a Ripley exosuit.
Gear that will be very handy, but not included:
Crowbar: To remove the power cell from the drill. Also handy in case you come back from the mines to a power outage.
Screwdriver: Needed to open the maintenance hatch on the drills. Also generally handy.
Wrench: To secure the drill parts together.
Ripley: These mechs are awesome at mining. A Ripley equipped with a drill and with an ore box loaded up (using the Hydraulic Clamp) mines three squares at a time and automatically picks up any ore gained from the squares. Upgrading it with a diamond drill will let you drill through reinforced walls, etc., but will not actually speed up the mining time.
Old-school Mining
Before you embark on a mining adventure, it is highly advised that you obtain a proper mining hardsuit, Meson goggles, an ore satchel, and a mining drill or pick. All you need to do is walk around and thanks to the goggles you will be able to see any ore within the walls. Click on the wall with the drill in your hand to start digging! When you have a gathering of ore beside you, click on your ore satchel to pick up any ore in an extended radius by you. Once full, stash the ores in a ore box by clicking on it with the satchel in your hand. If you are holding a pick in your inactive hand, you can bump into the rock wall to start mining it, and you can mine as many as three tiles at a time.
Mining Tools
Your major source for tools, other than your drill, will be Research & Development. The better you keep them supplied, the better their research goes and the more likely it is they'll be able to make you high-level tools. Occasionally you'll also find old mining sheds in the asteroid, which you can break into (by digging through or dismantling walls), and which may or may not contain something useful or interesting. Among the possibilities are better mining tools.
From slowest to fastest:
Drill: Your basic drill. Slow, but you can get it right away.
Advanced mining drill: Get this from Research. It can be made without any special materials from the asteroid, so if they're on the ball you may start out the shift with one.
Silver pickaxe: Occasionally found on the asteroid. As fast as an advanced mining drill, and makes no metallurgic sense.
Sonic Jackhammer: Get this from Research. Twice as fast as the basic drill, this jackhammer requires silver from the asteroid.
Golden pickaxe: Occasionally found on the asteroid. As fast as a sonic jackhammer, and makes no metallurgic sense.
Plasma cutter: Made at Research. As fast as the sonic jackhammer, but smaller and also cuts through walls.
Borg drill: The drill you start off with if you're a mining cyborg. It's faster than a plasma cutter but not as fast as a diamond tool.
Diamond pickaxe: Can occasionally be found on the asteroid. Twice as fast as the plasma cutter.
Diamond Drill: The fastest digging tool out there. Research can make you one, but it takes diamond and high-level research.
Ripley APLU 101
If Robotics is kind (insert: functioning), odds are one of the first creations from their lab will be a Ripley APLU for Mining. The machine is typically outfitted with a drill and a hydraulic clamp. Although a good Roboticist will quickly explain the features when asked, the Ripley does offer external lighting, life support, and various user-control security measures. To access the APLU's menu, click on the “Exosuit Interface” tab followed by “View Stats.” To select your active tool, click on the name under “Equipment.” An underline means it is not active. To load a box into the Ripley, click on the box while facing it with your hydraulic clamp active. To mine, walk into the rock wall with your drill active.
Drill 101
For most drill functions, you will need a crowbar, wrench, and a screwdriver. At time of writing, the drill is found in three parts - A mining drill head and two mining drill braces. In order to set the drill up, drag all three pieces to the drill site. The mining station has two drills available for use.
To set up the drill, place the two braces beside the drill head, and if necessary, turn them so the arms face the drill. Click on the braces with a wrench in your hand to secure them in place. To turn the drill on, click on the drill.
As the drill is powered by a power cell, the occasional change is required. To change, click on the drill head with a screwdriver in your hand. Click on the drill afterwards to remove the power cell. Science can upgrade the drill with bigger power cells.
To empty the drill, place an ore box beside it. Click “Unload Drill” under the “Objects” tab.
Furnace 101
There are two points where the furnace can be loaded - One is on the port side of the furnace, immediately beside the belt lever inside the camp. The other is the conveyor belt found starboard, outside the camp. Although both can unload crates automatically, the outside belt is set to have any miner unload the crates themselves. The furnace is operated from inside the station. You can produce multiple products at once, but smelting or compressing something that has no corresponding product will produce useless slag.
Note, that there is no way to smelt ores onboard the station, it has to be done at the outpost.
The Ores
Name Wall Raw Ore Smelted Compressed Coin Door Uses
Hematite Mining iron.gif Ironore.png Iron None None Irondoor.gif For use in steelmaking.
Impure silicates Minefloor.png Sandore.png Glass.png Sandstone.png None Sanddoor.gif For making glass, which has a plethora of station applications.
Native gold Mining gold.gif Goldore.png Golddone.png None Goldcoin.png Golddoor.gif For making various electronics.
Native silver Mining silver.gif Silverore.png Silverdone.png None Silvercoin.png Silverdoor.gif Making mechs and for material research.
Phoron Mining phoron.gif Plasmaore.png None Plasmadone.png Plasmacoin.png Plasmadoor.gif The reason you're here.
Diamond Mining diamond.gif Diamondore.png None Diamonddone.png Diamondcoin.png DiamondDoor.gif For making mech parts, among other industrial uses.
Pitchblende Mining pitchblende.gif Uraniumore.png Uraniumdone.png None Uraniumcoin.png Uraniumdoor.gif For various radioactive tasks.
Coal Mining coal.gif Coalore.png Plastic.png None None None For use in steelmaking and plastics. Platinum Mining platinum.gif Platinumore.png Platinum.png Osmium None None For making osmium or selling to Centcomm via Cargo.
Hydrogen None Hydrogenore.png Tritium Hydrogen.png None None For making tritium fuel or metallic hydrogen for R&D.
The Alloys
Raw Ores Product Name Uses
Ironore.png Coalore.png Metal.png Steel For use in all kinds of tasks around the station.
Ironore.png Coalore.png Platinumore.png Metal r.png Plasteel An alloy of hematite, platinum and coal, for reinforced tables and reinforced walls
Shipping the Ores
One half of of the main reason why the NSS Exodus exists is to mine phoron to send back to Central. Although phoron is always in demand with Medical and Science, by shipping phoron back to Central you receive an abundance of cargo points.