Table of Contents
Guide to Mining
Mining can be dangerous, tedious, and boring. However, no reward is without its risks. This guide provides the information you need to work as quickly and effectively as possible.
Ore
Ore is your main objective. You can send most unprocessed ore to the quartermaster to sell, and certain ores will also be useful to the roboticist, to the mechanics, and to yourself to upgrade your equipment. Each ore carries a basic toughness that corresponds to the tool needed to mine it. Certain ores are dangerous and require special care. If you plan to sell them, remember that raw ore (i.e. not a block or ingot) is more valuable than processed alloys.
Note: Ores and gems won't be usable in the mining fabricator unless you process them with the material processor or portable reclaimer first.
Name | Classification | Toughness | Radioactive? | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cobryl | Metal | 2 | No | Space silver! Decent money maker, but no real practical use. If you're a straggler stuck with nothing but a pick and barren fabricators, this is your breadwinner. Hand it to Cargo for some decent cash. Sells better as ore, so don't refine it. |
Syreline | Metal | 4 | No | Space platinum! Very difficult to mine without explosives and practically useless, but worth a king's ransom on the market. Give it to the Quartermaster! Sells better as ore, so don't refine it. |
Pharosium | Sturdy Metal, Conductor | 1 | No | Space copper! Very useful for roboticists and mechanics and makes up half of a mining charge. If you like bombing rocks, this will be the first mineral to run out. |
Mauxite | Sturdy Metal | 1 | No | Space Iron! The roboticist makes his friends and the mechanics their box frames out of this stuff, so they'll go through a lot. Makes up one quarter of a mining charge. |
Molitz | High Density Crystal | 1 | No | Space glass! Another useful material for the roboticist and mechanic. Makes up the last quarter of a mining charge. When heated it can release oxygen. Rarely, a special pink version called Molitz Beta will drop. When heated while under certain conditions, it can release Oxygen Agent b, in addition to oxygen, which helps with making plasma fires burn even hotter. This is highly desirable for Engineers and other atmospheric fiends, and you can imagine this would be a good addition to a chamber burn. The Research Director also starts with a briefcase with a little of this in it. |
Bohrum | Dense Metal | 3 | No | Space adamantium! The backbone of higher tier mining equipment, you'll want a lot of this in your fabricator to make anything worthwhile. |
Cerenkite | Sturdy Metal, Conductor, Significant Power Source | 3 | Yes | Space uranium! Horribly radioactive, digging in without a heavy hazard suit is a slow suicide. Occupies the same fabricator niche as plasmastone, but specializes in very desirable cyborg power cells. |
Phoronstone | Crystal, Conductor, Significant Power Source | 2 | Yes | Space fuel! Mildly radioactive and may release flammable phoron gas when agitated, so take care with explosive charges and stuff it inside an ore satchel quickly. A few top-shelf mining goodies want this, but it's most useful refined into extra fuel in the engineering gas extractor. |
Erebite | Crystal, Conductor, Significant Power Source | 2 | Yes | The Devil's phoronstone. As dangerous as it is rare, it makes a menacing pipebomb or an extremely fast-charging cyborg cell. Only available in uncommon asteroids located through the Quantum Telescope and rarely through the QM shipping market. Will cause a violent explosion when it is hit or it hits something. (e.g. thrown at someone) |
Claretine | Crystal, High Energy Conductor | 3 | No | Space MgB²! Required in bulk for all high-performance digging gear and industrial armor, the two most desirable things on a miner's wish list. |
Gold | Metal, Conductor, Reflective Material | 4 | No | Space gold! Worth a lot as raw ore to QMs. Don't smelt it unless you want to make them cry though. |
Koshmarite | Fabric/Organic, Crystal, Reflective Material | 2 | Yes | Mildly radioactive and uncomfortably pulsating fabric of unknown origin. Its plentiful abundance compared to phoronstone and cerenkite makes it valuable in Nano-fabricator recipes that call for large quantities of radioactive material. |
Viscerite | Fabric/Organic, Insulative Material | 2 | No | Martian meat! Can be used as raw material for the cloning apparatus, an Organic substance in the Nano-Fab, or as cloth material for fabricators, once processed. Can also be eaten! |
Char | Fabric/Organic | -1 | No | Space coal! Prime furnace fuel and secondary trade good for the quartermaster. |
Ice | Crystal, Conductor | -2 | No | Space water ice! Almost completely worthless. Will melt when you are holding it in your hand for too long. |
Rock | Sturdy Metal | 0 | No | Space dirt! Produced by mining asteroid tiles, they are omnipresent, valueless, and ignored by automatic ore collectors such as the Ore Scoop and Mineral Accumulator. Refined rock sports unique marble patterning that make it an attractive choice for construction. |
Gems
Certain gems are rare and valuable. A mined rock may contain only 1 gem at a time. Use your geological scanner to find gems quickly. If you plan to sell them, remember that raw gems are often more valuable than processed alloys.
Name | Classification | Description |
---|---|---|
Gemstone | Crystal | Space jewels that come in three tiers (tier 1 being the hardest and densest). They have no value on the market, but the rarest gems function as a substitute for uqill. Tier 1: diamond, ruby, topaz, emerald, sapphire, amethyst Tier 2: jasper, garnet, peridot, malachite, lapis lazuli, alexandrite Tier 3: onyx, rose quartz, citrine, jade, aquamarine, iolite |
Telecrystal | Crystal, Power Source | Shiny cones that let you break the laws of physics. Can be used in some machinery, for cyborg upgrades and be sold off for a good sum. You can also eat them! |
Fibrilith | Fabric, Crystal, Insulative Material | Space asbestos. Can be processed into fabric with a processor/reclaimer, used in the nano-crucible, or sold for small sums on the open market. |
Uqill | Extraordinarily Dense Crystalline Matter | Crystallized scifi magic. Required for high-end mining gear, certain upgrades at robotics, always sells well at the cargo bay, and can be used to make replacement ammo for the RCD. |
Miracle Matter | Crystal | Mineral wild card. Its level of “crystalline density” changes every round, allowing it to sometimes serve as a substitute for uqill. Can morph into different substances at welder-level temperatures or when struck. Makes excellent decor. |
Starstone | Extraordinarily Dense Crystalline Matter |
Special Rocks
Certain rocks may have special conditions on them. Using your geological scanner will give specific information and spit out symbols denoting these conditions.
Type | Description |
---|---|
Icy | Always contains chunks of water ice in addition to other materials. |
Super Dense | Has a hardness rating of 10 and is extremely difficult to break through. Super-dense asteroids tend to have a significant quantity of gems at their core, so the effort can be justified. |
Weak | Rock has -1 toughness. |
Dense | Rock has +1 toughness. |
Hazardous | Rock contains either radioactive or volatile ore. Radioactive rock will glow blueish once exposed. Volatile ore will glow red when struck, giving you only a few moments to escape. |
Foreign Object | Contains a smuggler stash, an artifact or a sleeping rock worm. Poke it with the scanner to find out what. |
Gem | Rock contains a gem. No reason not to crack it open. |
Hotspot | Sections of planets full of trapped geothermal energy. They don't have a special icon, but you'll know you've struck one when the rock you're breaking suddenly releases sparks and makes an rather ominous hissing sound. If you mine them out, the Engineers will love you for boosting their vent units' power generation. Contrary to popular belief, breaking them does not in of itself cause quakes, though it does make them worse. |
Other materials
These materials can't be found in asteroids, but you may encounter them when working with the arc smelter or a processor/reclaimer. See the Ore Processing section for more details.
Equipment
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.
Starting Equipment
Item | Description | Cost |
---|---|---|
Engineering Space Suit Set | See Engineering Objects. | 3 Fabric, 3 Metal, 2 Crystal |
Engineering Diving Suit Set | See Engineering Objects for stats. Unlike the Engineers, you actually do need at least the suit so that you aren't killed by high pressure or extreme temperatures while diving. | 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 |
Advanced Equipment
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 resistance 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 general purpose as the standard mechanized boots, but works underwater instead of in space. | 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 or by an inducer. 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 generally useless for mining in space. Useful when mining out planets, though. | 1 Metal, 1 Conductive Material, 1 Crystal |
Space GPS | Useless for mining, but can help you make your way back to the ship or outpost 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 |
Site Map | Shows the layout of the planet you are orbiting (before any changes). Available as both physical paper you can Examine and an app on your PDA. | N/A |
Jetpack MKII | An underwater 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. | 15 Sturdy Metal, 10 High Energy Conductor, 5 Power Source |
Tools
Toughness Explained
The greater the difference between tool strength and rock hardness, the more difficult it is to tunnel through the asteroid or planet. 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.
Preset Tools
Item | Toughness | Notes | Cost to Manufacture |
---|---|---|---|
Powered Pickaxe | 2 | 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 an asteroid 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, 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, so it has 50 charges, effectively. 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. | N/A |
Shovel | 0 | Mostly used for cleaning out furnaces and the basic Nano-Crucible, this can also be used for digging holes and as a weak mining tool. The Power Shovel is effectively this once it is unpowered. | N/A |
Proto-Kinetic Accelerator | 2* | A prototype kinetic accelerator that uses gravitic technology, the PKA can be upgraded with various modules and upgrade packs that increase its functionality. Not all of these are available when the PKA is first invented. By default, the PKA is 1/5th as effective in atmosphere (50 damage in vacuum, 10 damage in atmosphere). | |
Proto-Kinetic Crusher | 2* | A prototype kinetic crusher that uses gravitic technology, the PKC is basically a big axe that can break rocks and monster skulls. Unlike the PKA, it is equally effective in atmosphere, and can be upgraded with upgrade packs. It can also have trophies attached, rewards from kills that add special features, extra damage, or other details to its attack. Base damage is 30 but increases dramatically with upgrades and trophies. | |
Resonator | 2* | A prototype field resonator that uses carefully tuned frequencies to destroy objects within the fields it creates after a five second delay or when triggered. Maximum of five fields at once. 40 damage to creatures within the field when it detonates. Range of 1 tile. | |
Super Resonator | 3* | An improved prototype field resonator that inflicts greater damage (60 damage vs creatures), and can deploy an unlimited number of fields at a time. |
Custom Tools
In addition to these tools, you can 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 unless intentionally trying to bling your gear. | (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. Concussive drills will hit a 3×4 tile area forward, concussive picks will hit a 3×1 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 |
Machinery
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. | N/A |
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 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 Oshan's 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 Deck and Mining Outpost. | N/A |
Mineral Magnet Machinery
A subset of special mining machines specifically meant to be used with the ship's mineral magnet.
Item | Description | Cost |
---|---|---|
Mineral Magnet | This large, immobile magnet pulls in asteroid you can mine. 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 into the magnet area, with a cooldown of about five minutes. Activate telescope location: Pull in a specific asteroid discovered by the quantum telescope Override Cooldown: Toggles whether you can use the Activate Magnet ability when it's still in cooldown. Overuse without cooldown can break the magnet. Enable Automatic Mode: Toggles whether the magnet will automatically pull in a new asteroid every five 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 15000. | 4 Metal, 4 Any Material, 2 Erebite |
The Quantum Telescope
A marvelous computer, with a rather unassuming appearance, for finding especially mineral-rich asteroids. 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) or planets (which you'll need to ask Command to guide the ship to), 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 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.
Interesting Finds
In addition to ore and gems, you may unearth a variety of interesting objects and critters.
Rock Worms
Harmless creatures that will move around, eating up rocks, ore, and gems. If you can manage to kill one, you might get a surprise.
Abandoned Crates
Variously called “locked crates” and “loot crates”, abandoned crates contain a large variety of goodies not otherwise available. There are two types of locking mechanisms and generally speaking, high-security crates (military supplies for instance) are more difficult to open. A failed attempt will usually reset the code and trigger the anti-theft system (if any), potentially injuring you. Be advised, however, that certain security measures will destroy the crate's contents instead.
Deca-Code Lock: Will prompt you to enter a number between 1 and 10, and you are allowed 3 guesses. To improve your odds of success, you can use a multitool on the crate and it will tell you whether the last code entered was too high or too low.
Password Lock: As the name implies, you'll have to find the password. Enter one letter at a time to attempt to reveal part of it. A multitool is essential here, as it allows you to see the exact length of the password and keep track of the known characters.
If you don't feel like opening the crate yourself, give it to the Quartermasters or check to see if any departments back on the station would be willing to receive it.
There are five types of crates, each with different kinds of loot, different Examine text, and different sprites, and they are: research, industrial, military, unmarked, and goods. Within each crate are three tiers with ascending quality of loot.
Rusted Crates
Crates of goodies haphazardly scattered about the oceans out in the open or hidden in natural caves on planets, easily identified by their slight glow in the darkness. There are many different possible sets of items, ranging from medical supplies to ores to mining gear to sometimes even guns and grenades.
Alien Artifacts
Large items of unknown origin and purpose. Can be sent to the research wing for artifact research.
Other
Easter eggs, combat drones, Christmas stockings, smuggler's caches… go around and explore!
Clocking In
At the beginning of your shift, you'll find you and your fellow miners in the Expedition Bay. Make sure to grab your equipment and check whether your ship is going to attract asteroids (deliberately; meteor showers are less desirable) or land planetside anytime soon. If the ship is in an asteroid-grabbing mood, prepare your gear and go check on the Mineral Magnet and/or Quantum Telescope. If the ship is going planetside, requisition a Pilot Officer to fly a shuttle and a Mining Outpost to help you get a foothold on the planet, and head onto the shuttle. If it's your first time mining, it's always a good idea to grab a buddy. Some planets can be pretty unforgiving to the unexperienced!
Equipment
Survival Medipen: An emergency autoinjector for miners facing harsh conditions. WARNING: Do not inject more than one in quick succession.
Mining Satchel: A satchel which will automatically collect ores if set on your belt slot, in one of your hands, or in a pocket.
Mining Voucher: A single use voucher, used to buy a starting item at the Mining Equipment Vendor found in Mining Outposts.
Seclite: This seclite is attachable to guns such as the Proto-Kinetic Accelerator.
Survival Knife: Attaches to a Proto-Kinetic Accelerator to act as a bayonet. You can remove it again with a screwdriver.
Marker Beacon: You get 10 of these initially. Use them in your hand to set down a small light source where you're standing.
Items Available in the Lockers
Sandbags: You get 5 of these initially. Use them in your hand, and you can set them down as a climbable structure that can be used as cover.
Shovel: Used for digging up dirt/sand/volcanic ash/mud. Usually made fairly redundant by the compact pickaxe.
Compact Pickaxe: A basic tool for mining ores. If you click on the ground with it, it will dig up dirt/sand/volcanic ash. It can be set on your belt slot.
Seclite: Another Seclite.
Plant Bag: Used for carrying plant-life found on the planet.
Mining Satchel: Another satchel for carrying ore.
Automatic Mining Scanner: Turn it on to see what minerals are around you. It can be stored in your bag. Use it while wearing an Optical Meson Scanner for optimal results.
Proto-Kinetic Accelerator: Your actual main tool for mining; allowing you to break rocks from a distance. Also used for fending off the local wildlife.
Optical Meson Scanner: Wear it to see the layout of your surroundings through walls and rocks.
Bluespace Shelter Capsule: Use it in your hand and then drop it to spawn a 5×5-tile shelter. Useful to hide in when a storm is going to happen. Make sure you have enough room when you activate it.
Proto-Kinetic Accelerator
The Proto-Kinetic Accelerator is a prototype mining tool/weapon. It uses bursts of energy to create a kinetic blast at the location it is aimed at. However, in order for the kinetic blast to have any significant effect, it needs to be in a very low pressure environment or vacuum. In lower pressure environments the blast can mine rock quickly, kill animals, and even break the bones of other people.
On its own, the PKA is a formidable tool, however you can bolster it with upgrades.
Proto-Kinetic Accelerator Upgrades
Upgrade | Description |
---|---|
KA Minebot Passthrough | Allows your proto-kinetic accelerator shots to pass through minebots. Pretty much required if you utilize minebots. |
White Tracer Rounds | Causes the proto-kinetic accelerator bolts to have a white tracer trail. |
Adjustable Tracer Rounds | Causes the proto-kinetic accelerator bolts to have a colored tracer trail. You can customize the color if you use it in your hand before installing it. |
Super Chassis | Changes the proto-kinetic accelerator chassis to a yellow-orange color scheme. You can remove it with a crowbar. |
Hyper Chassis | Changes the proto-kinetic accelerator chassis to an orange-red color scheme. You can remove it with a crowbar. |
Range Increase | Increases the proto-kinetic accelerator's range by 1 tile. Occupies 24% of the KA's mod capacity. |
Damage Increase | Increases the proto-kinetic accelerator's damage by 10. Occupies 30% of the KA's mod capacity. |
Cooldown Decrease | Decreases the proto-kinetic accelerator's cooldown by 2 seconds. Occupies 30% of the KA's mod capacity. |
AoE Damage | Causes the proto-kinetic accelerator to do AoE damage to mobs. Does not destroy multiple rocks at once, but handy if you're getting swarmed. Occupies 30% of the KA's mod capacity. |
Trigger Mod | Allows mobs with abnormal hands (such as golems) to utilize the PKA. |
Kinetic Crusher
The Kinetic Crusher is a more manual means of mining and fighting. You can smash things with large amounts of kinetic force from short range. Additionally, you can mark mobs from a distance and then hit them close up to deal larger amounts of damage. Killing mobs with the crusher (it looks like a big axe, after all) will allow you to unlock crusher trophies that can upgrade your kinetic crusher.
Crusher Trophies
Trophy | Description |
---|---|
Legion Skull | A dead and lifeless legion skull. Causes the proto-kinetic accelerator to recharge 0.3 seconds faster. |
Goliath Tentacle | A sliced-off goliath tentacle. Causes the proto-kinetic accelerator to do more damage to marked tarkets. (2 damage for every 10 health you are missing) |
Watcher Wing | A wing ripped from a watcher. Marked mobs when attacked lose some of their abilities for 0.5 seconds. |
Magma Wing | A still-searing wing from a magmawing watcher. Attacks deal 5 more damage. |
Ice Wing | A carefully preserved frozen wing from an icewing watcher. Attacks deal 8 more damage. |
Megafauna Trophies
Eye of the Blood Drunk Miner | Its pupil is collapsed and turned to mush. Mark detonation to grant stun immunity and 90% damage reduction for 1 second. |
Ash Drake Spike | A spike taken from an ash drake's tail. Mark detonation to deal 5 damage to nearby creatures and push them back. |
Demon Claws | A set of blood-drenched claws from a massive demon's hand. Slayer of Bubblegum. Melee hits do 5 more damage and heal you for 1 with 5x effect on mark detonation. |
Blaster Tubes | The blaster tubes from a colossus's arm. Mark detonation to make the next destabilizer shot deal 15 damage but move slower. |
Resonator
A handheld device that creates small fields of energy that resonate until they detonate, crushing rock. It can also be activated without a target to create a field at the user's location, to act as a delayed time trap. It's more effective in a vacuum.
This is another form of mining equipment that is commonly used by Free Golems. It is only acquirable from the golem shuttle or by purchasing it from the mining vendor. The default resonator is not a powerful device, instead the super resonator should be used instead when you can get hold of it. It can set unlimited fields going at once and mines quicker.
Mining Vendor
There is a mining vendor located in the Expedition Bay as well as on the Mining Base. After dropping off your ore into the ORM, you can receive mining points. These mining points can be spent on a variety of items that are available in the mining vendor. They can range from comfort items such as space cash to valuable items such as jetpacks. There is also a Rockbox™ ore sales machine, which lets you put ore directly in and set a price to sell it for credits to the rest of the crew. The Quartermaster is often a good customer to be sold to, as he has the means to sell it onwards at a profit.
Item | Cost | Description |
---|---|---|
Advanced Scanner | 800 | A scanner that automatically checks surrounding rock for useful minerals; it can also be used to stop gibtonite detonations. Wear meson scanners for optimal results. This one has an extended range. |
Explorer's Webbing | 500 | Used to hold shelter capsules, medipens, and marker beacons. |
Fulton Beacon | 400 | |
Mining Conscription Kit | 1500 | Everything in the Mining Conscription kit available for only 1500 mining points. Useful if you've lost yours or need to outfit a new member of the team. |
Jetpack Upgrade | 2000 | Use this on a mining hardsuit to install it with a jetpack; allowing you to control your flight if you end up in the void of space. It needs a full tank in the hardsuit's suit storage in order to function. |
Jump Boots | 2500 | Allows you to dash forward 5 tiles; meaning you can clear a 4-tile gap. Presumably helpful for jumping over chasms. |
Lazarus Capsule | 800 | Use it on creatures revived by a lazarus injector to capture them and register them as yours. You can then release them, and they will fight hostile mobs for you. |
Lazarus Capsule Belt | 200 | Stores lazarus capsules. You can hold six. |
Mining Hardsuit | 2000 | An EVA-capable version of the Explorer Suit. Slows you down. |
Tracking Implant Kit | 600 | Contains 3 tracking implants; an implanter; an implant modifier, and an implant locator. Useful when you need to find your buddies and don't trust the GPS. |
10 Marker Beacons | 100 | Prism-brand path illumination device. Used by miners to mark paths and warn of danger. |
Brute First-Aid Kit | 600 | Contains 1 brute automender, 1 healing patch, 1 autoinjector and a health analyzer. |
Fulton Transport Pack | 1000 | Use it in your hand to link it to a placed Fulton Transport Beacon, then use it on any unbolted object or person to extract them to that point. |
Jaunter | 750 | Wear it on your belt slot to save yourself from death if you happen to fall into a chasm. |
Lazarus Injector | 1000 | Revives small animals and monsters, making them docile. The Head of Personnel will usually ask for this if somebody kills Ian. |
Point Transfer Card | 500 | A card preloaded with 500 mining points. Swipe your ID over it to claim it. |
Shelter Capsule | 400 | Use it in your hand and then drop it to spawn a 5×5-tile shelter. |
Stabilizing Serum | 400 | Stabilizes regenerative cores, allowing them to be used at a later time. |
Survival Medipen | 500 | |
Proto-Kinetic Accelerator | 750 | A miner's favorite. Allows rocks to be broken from a distance, and works well as an offensive weapon in a low-pressure environment. |
KA Adjustable Tracer Rounds | 150 | Causes the proto-kinetic accelerator bolts to have a colored tracer trail. You can customize the color if you use it in your hand before installing it. |
KA AoE Damage | 2000 | Causes the proto-kinetic accelerator do AoE damage to mobs. Does not destroy multiple rocks at once. Occupies 30% of the KA's mod capacity. |
KA Cooldown Decrease | 1000 | Decreases the proto-kinetic accelerator's cooldown by 2 seconds. Occupies 30% of the KA's mod capacity. |
KA Damage Increase | 1000 | Increases the proto-kinetic accelerator's damage by 10. Occupies 30% of the KA's mod capacity. |
KA Hyper Chassis | 300 | Changes the proto-kinetic accelerator chassis to an orange-red color scheme. You can remove it with a crowbar. |
KA Minebot Passthrough | 100 | Allows your proto-kinetic accelerator shots to pass through minebots. Pretty much required if you utilize minebots. |
KA Range Increase | 1000 | Increases the proto-kinetic accelerator's range by 1 tile. Occupies 24% of the KA's mod capacity. |
KA Super Chassis | 250 | Changes the proto-kinetic accelerator chassis to a yellow-orange color scheme. You can remove it with a crowbar. |
KA White Tracer Rounds | 100 | Causes the proto-kinetic accelerator bolts to have a white tracer trail. |
Item Cost Description
Diamond Pickaxe | 2000 | Stronger than the silver pickaxe. Toughness 3. |
Kinetic Crusher | 750 | Melee weapon. Mark a mob with the destabilizing force, then hit them in melee to activate it for extra damage. Extra damage for backstab. Also acts as a Toughness 1 mining instrument. |
Resonator | 800 | A device creating small fields of energy that eventually detonate. Works better in a low-pressure environment. |
Silver Pickaxe | 1000 | Stronger than the regular pickaxe. Toughness 2. |
Super Resonator | 2500 | The same as the normal resonator, but this one can have 5 fields active. |
Minebot | 800 | A little drone to help you with mining. |
Minebot AI Upgrade | 1000 | Offers the mining drone sentience. Save points to buy one of these for Science, as it boosts their research levels. |
Minebot Armor Upgrade | 400 | Increases the mining drone's health by 45. |
Minebot Cooldown Upgrade | 600 | Decreases the mining drone's shooting cooldown by 20. |
Minebot Melee Upgrade | 400 | Increases the mining drone's melee damage by 7. |
Absinthe | 100 | Almost potent enough to make you forget the dust in your lungs. |
Alien Toy | 300 | A facehugger toy. |
Cigar | 150 | A premium cigar for a premium price. |
GAR Mesons | 500 | Same as any other Optical Meson Scanner, but more fashionable and usable as a weapon. |
Laser Pointer | 300 | To make presentations more interesting. Or to shine it in someone's eyes. |
Luxury Shelter Capsule | 3000 | Spawns a needlessly luxurious shelter. Requires a 7×7 clearing. |
Soap | 200 | A cheap bar of soap. |
Space Cash | 2000 | A stack of 1000 credits. Can be placed into an ATM to transfer it to your bank account. |
Whiskey | 100 | The true reward for your endeavors. |
These kits can be acquired from the mining vendor with a Mining Voucher, which is part of the Mining Conscription Kit that all miners start with.
Minebot Kit: 1x Mining Drone Cube, 1x Upgraded Welding Tool, 1x Welding Helmet Survival Capsule and Explorer's Webbing: Explorer's Webbing, 1x Bluespace Shelter Capsule Resonator Kit: 1x Resonator, 1x Pocket Fire Extinguisher Extraction and Rescue Kit: 1x Fulton Extraction Pack, 1x Extraction Beacon Signaler, 30x Marker Beacons Crusher Kit: 1x Proto-Kinetic Crusher, 1x Pocket Fire Extinguisher
Mining Conscription Kit: The same as what every miner starts with. 1x Survival Medipen, 1x Mining Satchel, 1x Mining Voucher, 1x Seclite, 1x Survival Knife, 10x Marker Beacon.
Mining Base
One of the orbital drop options available from the Military Requisitions office is a Mining Base Deployment Shell. This shell creates a small base at the drop site that is a perfect operating base in a bluespace-compressed shell. Impact on a safe surface deploys the base, which includes a marker for shuttles to connect, a break room should your character get hungry, a small medical bay in case you get injured, a storage room with five lockers and an equipment vendor for additional miners, and an EVA equipment room with explorer suits and oxygen tanks as well as a GPS dispenser.
Working in the Mines
To mine a rock, click it with your Proto-Kinetic Accelerator or with a pickaxe in your hands. You can mine multiple tiles at once with the pickaxe. If you use the pickaxe on the ground, you will mine volcanic ash/Sand, which is needed to make glass. Keep this in mind, as Robotics and R&D use a boatload of it over time, and they will very likely start screaming at you to get some if they need it.
Keep the satchel in your pocket and walk over the ores to collect them. If the satchel is full, empty it into the ore box you are dragging with you.
The Ore Redemption Machine (ORM)
The ORM is what turns your ores into sheets, making them usable by Engineers, Roboticists, Scientists, and whoever else gets access to it.
Whenever you are done with mining, return to the Cargo Office. The ORM is in the northeast room. Place the ore box right above it, right click the ore box and empty it. Then insert your ID card and claim your points. These are the points you can use at the Mining Equipment Vendor.
Surviving The Wastes
Hostile planets will kill you if you do not tread carefully. Your PKA or Crusher will be your best friend in keeping you alive for the most part. The general rule of thumb is to keep distance and avoid getting hit by fauna. If you do not think you can take a mob on, it is best to leave it alone and go find somewhere else to mine.
Make sure to utilize your emergency injector and possibly invest in a brute medkit/fulton transport kit for when you inevitably take serious brute damage. Always keep an active GPS on your body in case you die and want hope of being found.
If you encounter a dangerous storm (which you will), it's imperative that you throw down a bluespace shelter or find a place to shelter under before the storm comes. Chances are if you don't, you will not survive for very long.
You and R&D
One of your biggest partners in your and your ship/station/colony's success is Research and Development. They require all the ores you can mine and can use said materials to produce awesome items. They will rely on you to provide materials so make sure to at least take up 1-2 loads of ore before messing around and getting killed.
R&D can provide your KPA with upgrades for free and also give you upgraded mining satchels and equipment. Robotics may even be able to supply you with a Ripley APLU mech that is impervious to ash storms and lava and can instantly mine out 1×3 areas of rock.
Overview
Being a miner is an exciting job with many possibilities for career advancement. For a job that is primarily out in space, it's an extremely safe occupation, assuming you know exactly what you are doing. So make sure to follow a few guidelines here to keep yourself from becoming lost forever in the mines.
Your Boss
Your superiors are the Quartermaster, and the Head of Personnel above him. Generally they won't butt into any of your affairs other than talking over the cargo channel and (if they know what they're doing) attempt to coordinate your efforts for the good of the station. Use your quartermaster like a lifeline, he and your fellow miners may be the only people on the station who will ever realize you have been lost in the void. After bringing your materials to the ore redemption machine for your payday, try utilizing Cargo Bay's disposal system to deliver them that much faster without fear of theft.
Chatting it Up
You can talk with all of your mining buddies, as well as the other cargo technicians and the all-important Quartermaster, over the cargo channel using :u the supply radio channel, or :h the department radio. Unlike your other department members, you also get access to the research channel using :n to relay info about those materials you were supposed to deliver 2 hours ago instead of deciding you'd rather be an Explorer and pick fights with the local wildlife.
The Gear
The following is a complete list of mining equipment:
- Mining Hardsuit and Helmet: Used so you can mine with impunity regardless of the target environment.
- 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 with your hardsuit. Always make sure it is turned on before venturing out, you would not want to permanently damage your lungs.
- Optical Meson Scanners: Let's you see where the ore is through the rock. Allows you to see all terrain, but objects, monsters, and other people won't be visible unless they're in your normal sight range. Be wary of areas that look like they've already been dug out - those regions tend to be where the monsters are lurking.
- Lantern: For seeing in the dark. Your meson scanners don't illuminate objects and mobs, and cavern interiors have little natural lighting. It could easily keep you from walking into the path of a Goliath.
- Mining Tools: For tunneling through everything. Place them on your belt, it saves room. Alternatively, you can get various drills and other tools from science. These will dig faster, and may have other advantages such as the ability to drill through walls themselves!
- Shovel: For gathering sand directly from the floor. You can stick this in your backpack.
- Ore Satchel: For carrying ore without using an ore box, and holds 25 ore nuggets. Get at least one of these and make sure to set the bag to “all on tile” (should be set to this as default setting). Use in conjunction with an ore crate. Newbie tip: This does not work like a backpack. Hold it in your hand and click the ore pile with that hand to pick it up.
- 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, place the box in the unloading machine's input slot or near the Ore Redemption Machine in the Cargo Office to unload it. Drag this around with you for easy carrying. Can be loaded into a Ripley exosuit using a hydraulic clamp for even faster mining.
- Crowbar: For opening doors during a power outage; don't expect to use it often.
- Mining Scanner: Use it to check if those diamond deposits are genuine, or if they're actually gibtonite. If you accidentally pick into gibtonite, use the scanner on it to stop the countdown and allow the gibtonite to be harvested for use as a mining charge. The less time there was remaining before the gibtonite's detonation, the stronger the gibtonite will be.
Gear that will be very handy, but not included:
- Ripley: Just because 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. Can be upgraded with diamond drill for even faster mining.
- Mining Drone: also known as Minebots, they little bots have two settings: searching and storing any loose ore they can locate, or attacking all visible hostile wildlife. They will automatically switch to their offensive setting if a monster attacks them, and strike back with their built-in laser guns and drill. You can switch settings by clicking on them with an empty hand. As such, they make a reasonable alternative to carrying a crate around. To instruct them to drop all the ore that they have collected, just click on them with a mining scanner.
- Proto-kinetic Accelerator: Your mining territory is often home to many hideous alien creatures, which will be all to quick to see you as a snack. While you don't have conventional guns to fight them with, the Proto-kinetic Accelerator's kinetic force blasts will be more than sufficient to defend yourself against the beasts. It can also be used to break down rocks, but using it for that may leave you defenseless when you really need it. The rechargers on the mining outpost can be used to refill its battery. It is most effective in vacuum or low-pressure environments.
- Wrench/Welding Tool/Screwdriver: Very rarely, you might stumble over a hidden complex deep within the rock. These complexes have no doors or visible points of entry, but by disassembling the walls of the complex, you can break in and collect the hidden goodies within it. The complex can contain many things, including (but not limited to) Energy Cutlasses (basically a reskinned Energy Sword), rare plant seeds, mining equipment, medical supplies, a Wizard's Firebird with keys, or even an alien nest. Their positions and contents are randomized, so you'll rarely if ever find the same loot in the same place twice.
- Multitool: You may also dig up Abandoned Crates when mining. These crates are locked and typically require a passcode to function.
The Objective
You're here to mine, so get digging! Put on your mining hardsuit (make sure to put a large oxygen tank in your suit storage), grab your pickaxe in one hand, click on an artifact site ore tile, and then pick up the ore with your mining satchel. You can then empty the satchel into an Ore Box, so it's probably best to drag one around with you.
Once you're full to bursting with ores, drag your crate to the conveyor belt outside of the airlock. If there's uranium coming down on the belt, wear your hardsuit inside the production area so you don't get a blast of radiation. From there, you can use the machines and computers to smelt raw ore to its finished states, retrieve a well earned pay and stack them up to 50-count stacks.
Now, it's off to wherever those resources need to be, but hopefully you have a Cargo Technician for that. Take that crateful of materials to science and ask Research and Development to make you better tools, and ask robotics for that Ripley while you're at it. Back to the mines!
The Ores
Name | Uses | Value |
---|---|---|
Iron | For just about everything. | $0.2 |
Sand | For making glass, which has a plethora of applications. | $0.2 |
Phoron | The reason you're here. | $1 |
Gold | For making various electronics. | $6 |
Silver | Making mechs and for material research. | $6 |
Uranium | For various radioactive tasks. | $6 |
Diamond | For making mech parts, among other industrial uses. Be mindful that some diamond deposits are actually Gibtonite, which will explode a few seconds after revealing them if they aren't defused with a mining scanner. | $50 |
You'll get paid per piece of raw ore brought to the smelter, so do keep in mind that since you get about 5 pieces per deposit, the actual reward per deposit found and mined is five times as much.
The Alloys
Name | Uses |
---|---|
Plasteel | An alloy of iron and plasma, for reinforced tables and reinforced walls. |
Plasmaore.png Sandore.png Plasma glass.png Plasma Glass A plasma infused sheet of glass, tougher than normal glass Ironore.png Sandore.png Glass r.png Reinforced Glass For reinforced glass, which is tougher than normal glass. Also available by applying metal rods to a sheet of glass. Ironore.png Plasmaore.png Sandore.png Plasma r glass.png Reinforced Plasma Glass For reinforced plasma glass, which is tougher than normal plasma glass. Also available by applying metal rods to a sheet of plasma glass. Windows don't get any tougher than this. Ironore.png Sandore.png Sheet-brick.png Brick Bricks, for brick walls. Use them on a girder instead of metal. These you'll have to select on the smelter by raising their priority, and ensure the smelter is loaded with each ore before turning it on..
Who Needs What Scientists just want a little uranium, plasma, and gold everything you can mine, ESPECIALLY DIAMONDS. Refine a little of each for research (5-10 blocks each should do it) fuckload. In exchange, they may give you a bomb or more advanced mining tools (like the fabled Diamond Drill), both for even faster digging! Roboticists need plasteel, diamond, uranium, silver and gold for building mech parts. Give them enough and you might get a big, fancy machine for your troubles! Too bad the Ripley is the only good mech for mining. Everybody could always use more metal and glass, but especially Station Engineers and Mechanics, the second of which will be eternally grateful at you for giving them some science materials. Chemists might have use for a few sheets of plasma and uranium. The bartender could brew some of his rarest drinks if you gave him some uranium, silver, gold or plasma. Coins of all types can be minted at the mining station, and used to unlock special goods in vending machines with coin slots, get candy or win toys at the gashapon; ask Botany for a coin bag. If you feel adventurous, tales tell of another asteroid hidden somewhere in space where you can mine two exclusive minerals that are highly valued by scientists and clowns alike. The Natives, and how not to get killed by them Mining the relatively shallow areas won't be much of a problem, but as you dig deeper you'll begin to run into many vicious beasts which will attack you on sight. Knowing how to deal with them is vital to your survival.
Hivelords A nuisance at worst and at best are effectively a source of free healing. The Hivelord Broods they summon to attack you can be overwhelming in large numbers, but each one dies to even the weakest attacks and the Hivelord itself is rather fragile as well. Robust it with your mining gear, or shoot it with the proto-kinetic accelerator until it dies. Keep in mind that its remains will only heal you if you eat them within a few minutes after it dies. Be sure to butcher them with your pickaxe or drill to get the core.
Hivebots These tend to travel in large groups and can be dangerous if they surround you, but most of them have very little health and don't do much damage on their own. Picking them off one at a time is your best bet. Look for a Teleporter beacon if the Hivebots seem to keep coming; the beacon will keep summoning more Hivebots until it's destroyed and will also warp in reinforcements when its own health is low. Be mindful that some hivebots are equipped with decently powerful guns and additional armor that will let them put up a harder fight.
Goldgrubs Rare and lucrative beasts that eat rare ores, which they cough up when they die. Their sheer girth keeps ranged attacks from doing much harm, and they'll try to flee when they detect you- chase them down and hit them up close until they die. Tossing a bit of valuable ore in their direction to distract them helps with this. They'll spit out the ore they've eaten when they die, so don't worry about wasting any of it.
Basilisks Much more dangerous than the previously listed beasts. While they don't attack unless you're relatively close to them, their glare can freeze you to the bone, drastically lowering your body temperature to the point you begin taking burn damage. Worse, it leaves you practically immobile so you can't escape from its melee attacks. For this reason, keep your distance from them and try using Gibtonite to take them out- their crystalline bodies are highly vulnerable to explosions. As for the freezing, Hot Chili and Leporazine can counteract it if consumed in advance, and Hyperzine will make sure you stay at full speed. Once you've taken it down, butcher it with a drill or pickaxe to get yourself diamond ore. Feel free to call them blood diamonds if Science asks how you got them.
Goliaths A significant step up from the other denizens of the asteroid. These masses of tentacles and teeth are slow, but they're highly territorial, can take a lot of punishment before dying, and will send four of their tentacles under the ground to pop up beneath your feet, knocking you down and disarming you. From there, you'll be helpless against the Goliath's melee attacks, which can break bones in only a couple of hits and are very likely to send you into crit. Unless you're highly confident in your aim and your reflexes, it's safest to just keep away from them- especially if the possibility of fighting more than one of them at once is present. If there's a particularly large number of them around, beg RnD for a bigger gun to defend yourself with in order to improve your chances of surviving an encounter with one of these beasts. When If you kill one, you can use your pickaxe or drill or whatever you use to skin the goliath of it's hide plates. You can then attach said plates to your mining hardsuit, gaining more protection against melee attacks, same goes for your helmet. Be advised, if you skin a goliath and revive them with a basic lazarus injector rather than the advanced one, they will have lower defense. Their juvenile forms, the Davids, are weaker but faster.
Magmaws Big plasma-eating lava blobs that spray fire everywhere in addition to biting, and if the temperature is hot enough they can come back from the dead. While their remains can't be used for anything you'd need, they'd make a great addition to any scientist's or engineer's burn chambers.
Rockernauts The most dangerous and least obvious threat on the asteroid. They disguise themselves as ordinary mineral deposits and will try to ambush you if you “mine” them. They hit harder than a goliath and take more damage than one as well, and although they don't trip you the surprise of running into one is enough of an opening for them to smash you into paste. If they do die though, they drop lots of whatever mineral they were mimicking. Beware of the especially large rockernaut called “Angie”- it has nearly three times as much health as a standard rockernaut, can send you into crit in two hits, and has an alarmingly fast charge attack that will send you flying a long distance away. Should you somehow manage to slay this stone titan, you will earn a pair of special gloves that will let you punch straight through rock walls! That said, don't even try to fight it unless you've got some very big guns and a lot of friends on your side. Just run for it.
Traitoring A traitorous miner has a lot of advantages. You have a space suit for free right away and your mining tools are pretty good weapons too! As long as you have some mineral wealth on you, no one will suspect your presence around the station, even in highly restricted areas like robotics or toxins. In addition, the mining station is isolated, hard to get to, loaded with bloodthirsty monsters that you can use to make an assassination look like an unfortunate accident, and as expansive as you're willing to dig out. Plenty of room for somebody to get lost in… Forever! Just make sure to disable their suit sensors and remove their GPS if they have one.
Speaking of monsters, have you ever noticed that Lazarus injector you can buy from the mining vendor? Using it on a dead monster will revive it and make it friendly towards you (and only you), and it can then be stored in a Lazarus Capsule to be deployed at will. Revive a couple of Goliaths, throw their capsules into a hallway or a place where people tend to gather, and then sit back as your pets slaughter anything that moves.
If you just want to be an asshole you can target the Xenoarchaelogists digsites and delete all artifacts in seconds with a diamond drill. Bonus points if you destroy a large artifact (a loud sound will play if you do) and triple points if you do this in front of the Xenoarchaelogist currently digging stuff up.
Introduction to Mining For a job that is primarily out in space, mining is a relatively safe (given that the miner is experienced), 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.
Mining is located South of Cargo through the break room. It has access to the smelter, rewards terminal, voidsuits, equipment, and airlock.
While mining can be extremely easy, every good miner knows that they have one mortal enemy. Holes. Avoid them at all costs and be sure to bring a GPS locator just in case.
Your Base of Operations This is the mining bay, your base of operations. Within the area you will find multiple pieces of equipment and machinery to aid you in your work. Miningbay.png
Standard Equipment Within the orange lockers (highlighted in red as mining equipment on the above image) you will find some items to help you start out your shift. This basic gear will be your way to gain some mining points so that you can gain better, more efficient gear. But more on that later. Below is a list of the gear found in the lockers.
A GPS Unit - Mining can be dangerous at times, it's wise to take one of these so that you can be found in case of an emergency. A Key - A key that is able to start a minecart. Useful for those who wish to make a transportation network within the mines. A Scanner Pad - This nifty gadget will point you in the direction of any ore around you. However be warned that it is not 100% accurate. A Kinetic Accelerator - A low end ranged mining solution that is charged via pumping. Science can upgrade those a lot with the right materials. A Pickaxe - A standard pickaxe that will break down a rock face in around three swings. Note that the pickaxe must be wielded by activating it in your hand for it to break rock walls quickly. A Shovel - A shovel that can be used to dig up sand and other minerals that may be lurking within the ground. An Ore Satchel - This orange bag is one of the miners greatest tools. Clicking on a tile with this bag will deposit all ore and rock on said tile into the bag for quick storage or transferring of the minerals. An Analyzer - A simple analyzer that shows data collected from your atmospheric environment. Shoes, Some black gloves and a Mining Jumpsuit - Standard uniform should you somehow lose your own. Supply Radio Headset - A headset for the supply channel, should you lose your own. Industrial Satchel/Backpack - A satchel or a backpack that can be used to hold items so long as they fit inside. EVA Equipment Within the mining bay you have access to some basic EVA equipment so you can survive within the harsh conditions of the asteroid. The EVA equipment can be found in the bottom left of the mining bay (as marked on the picture above). Below is a list of said items:
Mining Voidsuit, helmet and breathe mask - Basic EVA gear. With this you are able to survive the dangerously low pressure and temperature outside of the station. Don't forget to pack your oxygen! Mining Suit Cycler - A machine used to decontaminate and refit voidsuits so that other species may wear them. Tank Storage Unit - Contains partially filled oxygen tanks that can be fitted into a voidsuit Oxygen Cannister - Can be used for filling or refilling oxygen tanks. Oxygen tanks can hold the maximum output of a cannister. Coloured beacons - Useful to marking a route through the mines. Other gear that can be found within the mining bay: Ore boxes - These boxes hold huge amounts of ore. They work most efficiently with ore satchels. Simply pick up the ore with the satchel and click on the ore box with the satchel inhand to transfer all of it's contents into the box. They can also be placed against the unloading machine, which will deposit it's contents onto the conveyor to be smelted. Portable Suit Cooling Units - These devices are primarily used by IPCs. They keep the IPCs cool within voidsuits and rigsuits due to the lack of airflow within the suits. Industrial IPCs can carry suit coolers on their back and do not require a suit. Other IPC types, however, require a suit as well as a cooler in the suit storage slot (Where an oxygen tank would usually go) Mechanical Toolbox - A toolbox containing a standard set of tools. Useful for adding and removing powercells and modules to rigsuits, or setting up industrial drills. Mobile Ladder - A ladder that can be placed either below an open space (allowing the user to travel up a level) or on an open space (allowing the user to travel down a level). Hoist Kit - A deployable and collapsible hoist that can be used to raise or lower objects between levels. To use the hoist kit, first click and drag the object to the clamp using your mouse. Next, click on the green frame of the hoist kit, this will give a message stating that you reverse the direction. Clicking the green frame again will raise or lower the clamp and thus, the object attached (however an object does not need to be attached for the hoist to raise/lower). To detach an object from the hoist, drag the clamp to an empty tile adjacent to the hoist that is not blocked. If there is nowhere to unclamp to, you can click and drag the hoist to your own tile, as this also works. Mining When you've put on all your gear after joining the shift, chances are you'll only have the basics. A pickaxe, ore scanner, ore box and an ore satchel as well as the appropriate EVA gear and possible the ladder/hoist kit; although you should try make sure you don't accidentally hide it from your co-workers, as it can benefit everyone on the mining team.
The first thing you want to aim for is high value minerals, so you can purchase some better gear. This includes, but is not limited to: gold, diamond, phoron and silver. Rumour has it that some levels are more densely packed with minerals than others.
Processing your goods First and foremost you should set up the smelter, see Furnace 101 below. Assuming you've collected your ore, you're going to want to transfer it to the smelting belt on the far right of the mining bay. To do this, either dump the ore infront of the unloading machine Unloader.gif and it will start to move the items onto the belt. Assuming you set the smelter correctly and it is turned on, you should see materials go in as ore and come out as sheets and bars respective to the type of ore put in. After smelting, compressing or alloying, the materials will now follow the belt round to the stacking machine, which will stack the materials. The stacking machine can be controlled via the console on the wall below it Miningconsole.gif. This will allow you to place the materials in a crate for cargo to ship to whomever needs them.
Mining Points And The Mining Vendor As materials pass through the smelter you may notice that points begin to rack up within the ore processing console Miningconsole.gif. Inserting your ID by clicking the blue “Insert ID” will allow you to claim the points for your own. Which can be cashed in at the mining equipment vendor MinerEquip.png to purchase new tools and devices to aid your mining. Below is a table to give you some idea on what you can purchase within the mining vendor.
Mining Vendor Contents Item Picture Cost Description Food Ration Ration.png 5 Some food to keep you going. Poster Poster.png 20 A poster that you could put up somewhere. Ore Scanner Pad Pinpointer.gif 50 Points to the nearest ore deposit. Green means close, blue means quite close, red means far away. 5 Red Flags Redflag.png 50 Can be placed. Could be used for marking a route on the asteroid. 5 Green Flags Greenflag.png 50 Can be placed. Could be used for marking a route on the asteroid. 5 Yellow Flags Yellowflag.png 50 Can be placed. Could be used for marking a route on the asteroid. 5 Purple Flags Purpleflag.png 50 Can be placed. Could be used for marking a route on the asteroid. Ore-Bag Satchel.png 50 Can pick up large amounts of ore with just one click. Can also transfer said ore to an ore box or drop it all. Meat Pizza Pizza.png 50 It's Pizza.. You eat it.. Lantern Newlantern.png 75 Light source: Shines light around you with a radius. This also extends behind you. Good for avoiding holes. Shovel Shovel.png 100 For digging holes in the sand. Pickaxe Pickaxe.png 100 Used for breaking down rocks and gaining the treasures within. Compressed Rail Cartridge Compressed matter cartridge.png 100 Used as ammunition for the Rapid Railway Fabricator Ore Box OreCrate.png 150 A huge, heavy box for storing large amounts of ore. When ordered through the equipment vendor, it is delivered via cargo shuttle. Emergency Flood Light Inf box.png 150 A kit that can be assembled easily for a long range light source. Premium Cigar Cigar2off.png 150 Some say they make you live longer. Seismic Charge Seismic Charge.png 150 A plantable explosive that delivers a low-medium intensity explosion for the purpose of shattering rock. Material Scanners Material.png 200 Allows you to see materials within large rock formations. Mining Drill Handdrill.png 200 A drill that is faster than the pickaxe. Deep Ore Scanner Forensic0old.png 250 Scans for mineral deposits within the ground. Magboots Mashoe.png 300 Can stop you from falling down open spaces Autochisel Jackhammer.png 400 Allows you to sculpture. Jetpack Jetpack.png 400 Allows traversal up, down and across open spaces. Note that you must activate the jetpack and the stabilizers for it to work. It should also be placed on your back. Drone Drill Upgrade Mainboard.png 400 Allows you to upgrade the mining drill on a Mining Drone Industrial Drill Brace Mining Drill Brace.png 500 A large brace that is part of the Industrial Drill Assembly (See Drill 101) Point Transfer Card Data1.png 500 Gives you a card loaded with 500 points. Can be used to give points to other miners. Explorers Belt Explorers Belt.png 500 A belt that can hold multiple items, usually items to do with mining. Item Warp Beacon Item Warp Beacon.png 500 A Beacon that is used along with the Item Warp Pack to transport non-living matter. Item Warp Pack Item Warp Pack.png 600 A Pack that is used along with the Item Warp Beacon to transport non-living matter. Has 3 charges. Drone Health Upgrade Mainboard.png 600 Increases the max health of a mining drone. Rapid Railway Fabricator RCD.png 600 A swift way of making tracks for minecarts. Brute First-aid kit Mining First Aid kit.png 600 Contains some bandages and trauma kits, useful in the event of an unexpected fall. Ore magnet Ore Magnet.png 600 Attracts nearby ores to your tile. Minecart Mining Cart.png 600 A trolley that attaches to the Mining Engine Resonator Resonator.png 700 A handheld device used for shattering rock. Mining Rig Mining rig.png 1000 A rigsuit that can hold multiple modules. Mass Driver Inf box.png 800 A device that can “throw” objects and even people. Use with care. Mining Drone Mining Drone.png 800 A nifty little drone that mines for you. Mining Engine Mining Engine.png 800 The main mine-cart engine. Good for cross-asteroid transportation. Drone Kinetic Accelerator Upgrade Mainboard.png 800 Increases the efficiency of the Drone KA. Ore Summoner Ore Summoner.png 800 Teleports any ore you can see onto your tile instantly. Note that it does not work between levels. Lazarus Injector Lazarus Injector.png 1000 A device that is able to raise animals from the dead. Industrial Drill Head Mining Drill Head.png 1000 A large, automatic drill that digs for ore deposits underground. Super Resonator Super Resonator.png 1250 An upgraded version of the Resonator. Diamond Pickaxe Diamond Pickaxe.png 1500 A much better version of the standard pickaxe. Mines rock in 2 swings. Thermal Drill Thermal Drill.png 3750 A large drill that fires 2, 4 or 6 second bursts of laser-based projectiles to mine rock quickly. Pickaxes Those come in different forms and flavors. The material usually affects how efficient you can get to your ores. Make sure to grab it with both hands and swing away to get through the asteroid. While not the most fancy option these have two distinct bonuses that should not be underestimated. A good hit or two make short work of anything dangerous outside the station and fit into your explorers belt. They are also the only mining tool that allows you to find things that are valued highly by specialized scientists. Just make sure to be extra careful with anything that glows more than it should.
Shovel The classic concept of digging through the dirt for valuable materials. A massive drill is a lot more efficient, but if you just require some glass sheets this is a quick way to get some sand to smelt. Dig deep enough and you will be able to reach a lower level of the asteroid. Just make sure to use a ladder or jetpack when traversing since gravity might not always be your friend. Some niche materials can only be found in the dirt instead of rocks.
Resonators This little device creates a force field which crumbles everything inside of it like paper. Can be used to crush a lot of rocks rapidly. Activating the field again when set up lets it collapse instantly. Just make sure that you do not step into your own fields if you value your bones. The biggest bonus of those is that they never run out of charge and make mining a job for the not so muscular.
Seismic Charges Those can be purchased from the mining vendor. Think of dynamite in space. Find a mineral rich area and plant one of those to rip a big hole into the rock. Keep a safe distance when it goes off and you should be able to collect any ore it broke free. Although designed to remove lose rocks, the charges should be planted with a little distance to the station to ensure nobody gets spaced during their lunch break.
Kinetic Accelerators A high tech tool for the futuristic space miner. They come as small hand guns, only able to break through rock slowly and range all the way up to massive canons breaking through large areas rapidly. Depending on which modules they are made of, you either have to reload them manually or wait for it to recharge. Favored by many due to their customization option, these tools require the most in terms of materials and research staff.
Mining Mech If Robotics is supplied and able, odds are one of the first creations from their lab will be a mech for Mining. The machine is typically outfitted with a drill and a hydraulic clamp. All mechs usually offer external lighting and life support. To load an ore box into the mech, click on the box while facing it with an active hydraulic clamp. To mine, walk into the rock wall with your drill active or click on the floor to start digging through the sand. Refer to this guide for more information on how to pilot your new mech and keep in mind that miners would probably not know a lot about repairing or modifying those complex machines.
Drill Mining For most drill functions, you will need a crowbar, wrench, and a screwdriver. 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. Drill technicians can request drills via the dropper tool they start with.
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. Use a crowbar on the drill to remove the power cell. Science can upgrade the drill with bigger power cells or better machine parts.
To empty the drill, place an ore box beside it. Click “Unload Drill” under the “Objects” tab.
Furnace 101 The furnace Furnace.gif can be loaded via the unloading machine Unloader.gif and must be turned on via the ore redemption console Miningconsole.gif infront of it. It is also configured from here. You can produce multiple products at once, but smelting or compressing something that has no corresponding product will produce useless slag.
an example of a working setup for the smelter. The Ores Name Wall Raw Ore Smelted Compressed Door Uses Hematite Mining iron.gif Ironore.png Iron None Irondoor.gif For use in steelmaking. Impure silicates Minefloor.png Sandore.png Glass.png Sandstone.png Sanddoor.gif For making glass, which has a plethora of station applications. Native gold Mining gold.gif Goldore.png Golddone.png None Golddoor.gif For making various electronics. Native silver Mining silver.gif Silverore.png Silverdone.png None Silverdoor.gif Making mechs and for material research. Phoron Mining phoron.gif Plasmaore.png None Plasmadone.png Plasmadoor.gif The reason you're here. Diamond Mining diamond.gif Diamondore.png None Diamonddone.png DiamondDoor.gif For making mech parts, among other industrial uses. Pitchblende Mining pitchblende.gif Uraniumore.png Uraniumdone.png None Uraniumdoor.gif For various radioactive tasks. Coal Mining coal.gif Coalore.png Plastic.png None None For use in steelmaking and plastics. Platinum Mining platinum.gif Platinumore.png Platinum.png Osmium None For making osmium or sending to Centcomm via Cargo. Hydrogen None Hydrogenore.png Tritium Hydrogen.png 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 of the reasons why the NSS Aurora 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 credits for the Cargo account. Other materials can be sold as well, but do not yield the same price as phoron.
Workin' In The Coal Mine File:Mining Dock.png The Mining Dock is your access to the Mining Station.
Being a miner can be somewhat tedious, but you serve a crucial role in the R&D food chain, and can accrue some decent personal rewards. Just follow a few guidelines to keep yourself from becoming dead in the mines.
Your workplace, Lavaland, has some hazards:
Ash storms will cut right through your clothes, dealing constant burn damage if you are outside. A rain of dark particles outdoors indicate an ash storm. Lava - one step in and you'll be badly burned and on fire. Chasms - Anything that falls into one will disappear from this world. The risk of these hazards can be reduced by watching your step and being aware of your surroundings. Don't walk into lava, chasms, or outside during an ash storm. You'll get a text warning not long before a ash storm is about to begin, so long as you stay near shelter (or have a bluespace shelter capsule with you) then you'll be fine.
You can click on an adjacent rock or run directly into it to begin picking or drilling the rock, but the Kinetic Accelerator is much faster and more efficient and you should be using that instead of a pickaxe or basic mining drill. Keep in mind that if you do decide to pick or drill your way through rock, you can have multiple dig jobs running at the same time to mine faster.
Working With Your Boss Who is your boss? You answer to the Head of Personnel, much like the rest of Supply – but usually, you'll just be talking to the Quartermaster or other Miners. He can watch cameras on lavaland and has full access to Mining, so keep that in mind.
The Objective You're here to mine, so get digging! Once you're full to bursting with ores, drag your ore box back to the station and head to cargo where the Ore Redemption Machine Ore Redemption Machine sits. Insert your ID and, drag the box next to the machine to automatically offload your ores and have them instantly processed into sheets. Then click “claim” to retrieve money as a reward to your currently work ID. Now print new gear from the supply techfab and buy new gear from the mining vendor, then take your crate and head back to lavaland!
How to Do This Gearing up Gear up! From the mining equipment locker, you will need Meson Scanner goggles, a mining scanner, your pickaxe (optional), a bluespace shelter capsule (DON'T FORGET!) and your standard issue proto-kinetic accelerator. If you want, there is also an additional mining satchel, and a shovel for digging up ash (for glass). Attach your seclite and knife to your proto-kinetic accelerator to save space, and to let you bash things harder without having to take out your knife. Use your voucher on a mining vending machine to select your choice of advanced mining tools, listed below. Go to the Lavaland Mining Station and get an explorer suit, breath mask, and oxygen tank from Mining 'EVA'. On the western side of the base, there is a mini-Medbay where you can find first-aid kits, and a maintenance room where you can top off internals. The nearby storage room has more gear lockers and Ore boxes. Before you go, you'll want an Ore Box, which can hold an infinite amount of minerals. Ore boxes are available on the mining station, the mining shuttle and rarely on the field. More can be built with wood planks. For extra safety, grab a GPS device, set it to your name and tell the QM and other miners about it. If you're lucky, they will drag your lifeless body back to medbay. Smashing rocks Find minerals. The further north, the better ore. Activate your scanner and shove it into your bag or internals box. Every once in a while it sends out a pulse that lets you see deposits in the rock a few tiles away from you. Try to get a mixture of every type of mineral. Pick up minerals by either having your mining bag in your belt slot or pockets, then just walk over the minerals. If you're dragging an ore box behind you, you'll automatically deposit minerals into the box instead of your bag. Once you've had enough, return to the main station with your Ore box. Do not deliver ore to the processing plant on the lavaland mining base, as that room is outdated. Miners have access to the science channel (with :n). Drag your ore box to the delivery tile next to the ORM Ore Redemption Machine (usually north or south of it, depending on station). That'll automatically empty the box into the ORM Ore Redemption Machine. Take your mining satchel into your hand and activate it while standing on the same delivery tile next to the ORM Ore Redemption Machine. This will empty any ores in the bag into the ORM as well. Already processed sheets inserted into the ORM do not give any points. Only raw ores count. Click “Claim”. You do not need to insert your ID. Go to a mining equipment vendor to buy advanced equipment with the points you've gained. Life beyond smashing rocks Use your better gear to push deeper into Lavaland. Print Advanced Plasma Cutters and Mining Satchels of Holding at the cargo protolathe for even more efficient mining. If you feel robust enough, explore some ruins and die horribly get amazing rewards. If you feel VERY robust, look for Megafauna with your GPS and try to kill it, for extremely valuable loot. Voucher equipment You start the shift with a complimentary mining voucher, worth one free item out of a selection of four. These items, and their strengths, are:
Survival Capsule and Explorer's Webbing: The webbing (you put on your belt slot) allows you to carry even more mining equipment - having a second shelter capsule is nice too. 900 pts value. Resonator Kit: Comes with a resonator, explorer's webbing, mini extinguisher and advanced scanner. While the resonator is underwhelming, the advanced scanner has almost twice the scanning range and updates much faster. 2100 pts. Mining Drone: A little companion that helps in storing ore and hunting wildlife. Only useful once you install the sentience upgrade module. Comes with an industrial welding tool, a welding mask and a KA modkit that allows shots to pass through the drone. ~800 pts. Extraction and Rescue Kit: Contains a fulton extraction pack and a beacon, which allows you to send back home minerals, items and dead miners without having to use the ferry. As a bonus, you get 30 marker beacons too. 1700 pts. Crusher Kit: Contains a proto-kinetic crusher, a chest webbing like the capsule kit, an advanced scanner and a mini fire extinguisher. The crusher is two-handed and hard to use without getting hit, but has a chance to make fauna drop powerful trophies. 2450 pts. Mining Conscription Kit: A duffle bag full of basic items for one conscript - Proto-kinetic accelerator, survival knife, seclite, explorer's suit, mesons, mining scanner and satchel, gas mask, a supply radio key and a special card that adds mining access to IDs. Good for when you want to recruit metafriends fresh conscripts. 1500 pts. Mining Skill Mining with certain tools will slowly increase your mining skill, making you faster at mining. If your skill in mining is greater than Journeyman you will also randomly see ores around you when using a mining tool.
For Great Profit! Mining for the sake of it can only get you so far. By mining minerals and returning them to the station you'll accrue mining points, you can then use these points to buy better and more powerful equipment and supplies from an equipment vendor. You can then in turn use these items to push further into Lavaland to mine more minerals, fell stronger wildlife and find greater treasure. Consider it all an investment.
Survival Medipens can help you in a pinch for example, or a Wormhole Jaunter can help you escape what would have been a death trap. Or using Legion Stabilizer on Legion Cores, to let you save their heal and anti-slowdown effects for later. Or you can spend it all on booze and cigars.
Default Gear The following is a list of default mining equipment:
Essential Equipment Item Description File:Explorersuit.png Explorer Suit This comes with a inbuilt hood. It provides some protection against heat and cold, and works as decent armor with no slowdown. It is not spaceproof, but can hold a full-sized oxygen tank or other mining gear. You can also reinforce the suit and hood with up to 3 goliath plates. Melee 30-60, bullet = 10, laser = 10, energy = 20, bomb = 50, bio = 100, rad = 50, fire = 50, acid = 50.
File:ExplorerGasMask.gif Explorer Gas Mask and Oxygen Tank So you can have oxygen when mining. Oxygen tanks are available from the tank storage unit, and can be worn on your suits storage slot. You can also use your emergency oxygen tank which can be placed on your suit. Running out of oxygen is unlikely with the full sized tank. File:MGlasses.png File:MiningScanner.png Meson Scanners and Automatic Mining Scanner Activating the scanner will briefly flash any ore on screen - it works even inside a box. Can be used to stop gibtonite from exploding. File:GPSm.gif Global Positioning System, GPS The crew monitoring console back on the station won't catch your suit sensor signal from all the way down on the planet. Having one of these on you will help others track down your body if you happen to develop a case of the dead. In addition it can be used to locate other miners (who bothered to take it) as well as “lost” signals. Megafauna, necropolis tendrils, and certain ruins emit GPS signals. Be wary. Be sure to set your name on the GPS. File:KineticAccelerator.png Proto-kinetic Accelerator A standard issue gun. The good part is that it packs a punch in a low pressure environment, is very good at digging and has infinite shots. The bad part is that it tickles in pressurized environments, has a cooldown after each shot, and has a range of three steps. Can be dual wielded on Template:Combat Mode at the price of lower accuracy and speed. Alternatively, turn off Template:Combat Mode and switch hands after every shot to get around the accuracy reduction. KAs deal brute damage (40 standard/10 in pressurized rooms), but count as explosive versus armor. That way, suits like bomb suits and the RD hardsuit can negate 90% of the damage dealt.
File:Survivalknife.gif Survival Knife Use it for butchering the wildlife (hit corpse while on Template:Combat Mode). It's as strong against mobs as a pickaxe, but you can't mine with it. You can store it in your boots to save space, but remember to alt-click the boots to draw the knife back out. Alternatively, stick it on your KA. File:Stimpen.png Survival Emergency Medipen A medipen for surviving in harsh environments. Heals most common damage sources. WARNING: May cause organ damage. Takes 10 seconds to inject and only injects half the reagents unless done in low pressure environment, where it's instant. Contains 8u Epinephrine, 8u Aiuri, 8u Libital and 6u Leporazine. File:Data card.png Point Transfer Card A card that can store mining points, to transfer between miners. Comes pre-loaded with 500 mining points. 500 Points File:BScapsule.png Bluespace shelter capsule Activate this in your hand, and it'll near instantly produce a beautiful shelter. Ash storms do not hurt you inside, but wildlife can break through the walls. The shelter contains a cupboard which contains a guitar (or dice) and some donk pockets. It also has a stasis bed which requires another person to use. Never leave home without one. You're issued one for free in your the mining lockers on station. File:OreSatchel.png Ore Satchel For carrying ore without using a mining cart, holds 50 ore nuggets. Empty it into boxes by using the satchel on them. Newbie tip: Put it in one of your pocket slots, then start dragging an ore box. Any ore you walk over will be transferred to the box. File:OreCrate.png Ore box Used for carrying huge amounts of ore. While a satchel can only hold 50 nuggets, this can hold an unlimited sum. You cannot carry it, but you can drag it with you. Use your satchel on the box to empty it into the box. Even better: Drag it behind you with an ore satchel in your pocket.
File:Voucher.gif Mining Voucher Found in your backpack, exchange this at the mining equipment locker for one of several selections which include various mining items. File:Seclite.png Seclite A beefed up flashlight. Does 9 damage. Put this on your KA to free up inventory space. Miscellaneous Equipment Items that, while not critical to take, can be situationally useful.
Item Description File:Pickaxe.png Pickaxe Somewhat antiquated thanks to the prevalence of the proto-kinetic accelerator and resonator. Nevertheless it can be used to dig wide tunnels, robust things in melee combat and as a backup if you lose your resonator. It can also fit inside a belt chest webbing. File:Shovel.png Shovel Gathering sand. You can stick this in your backpack. A crappier version of a compact pickaxe Crowbar.png Crowbar For removing KA mods, or just in case when there is a blackout. Spawns in your box. Advanced Gear The following are more advanced items that need to be purchased from a mining equipment vendor, with points:
Voucher/Reward Equipment These items can either be acquired from a voucher, or can be bought with mining points, usually earned from delivering ore to the Ore Redemption Machine Ore Redemption Machine on the station. Prices are included.
Mining Equipment Vendor Mining Equipment Vendor List Item Description Price 1 Marker Beacon A glowing prism stone that you can anchor to the ground. Useful if you tend to get lost. 10 Points 10 Marker Beacon Same as above, but 10 beacons. 100 Points 30 Marker Beacon Same as above, but 30 beacons. 300 Points File:Whiskey bottle.png Whiskey A bottle of alcohol, helps you forget you literally work in hell. 100 Points File:Absinthe bottle.png Absinthe A bottle of alcohol, helps you forget you literally work in hell. 100 Points File:Cigar.png Cigar A high-quality havana cigar. 150 Points File:Soap.png Soap A bar of slippery soap. 200 Points File:Laser pointer.png Laser Pointer Just a laser pointer, don't shite it into people's eyes. Useful against rogue Cyborgs. 300 Points File:Facehugger.png Toy Facehugger An extremely realistic-looking facehugger toy, to prank the crew with. Latches onto faces and tears off masks. 300 Points File:Bottle17.png Stabilizing Serum Can be used on legion souls to prevent them from decaying. 400 Points File:Fulton beacon.png Fulton Beacon Creates an anchored beacon when used in hand that fulton packs can target as a drop-off point. 400 Points File:BScapsule.png Bluespace Shelter Capsule The Shelter Capsule is indispensable for long expeditions: it creates an ash-storm proof 3×3 room complete with breathable air, a sleeper and some warm donk-pockets. 400 Points File:Gar mesons.png GAR Mesons A pair of very sharp meson scanners. Can be thrown as a weapon, with a chance to embed. 500 Points File:Miner webbing.png Chest Webbing Can be worn on the belt slot, stores mining equipment. 500 Points File:Stimpen.png Survival Medipen Contains several healing and heat-stabilizing chemicals. Using more than one in a short period may cause overdosing. Takes 10 seconds to inject and only injects half the reagents unless done in low pressure environment, where it's instant. See contents here. 500 Points File:Box.png Brute First-Aid Kit Contains bandages and brute-healing patches. 600 Points File:Implanter.png Tracking Implant Kit Contains three tracking implants and a locator; useful if you want others to find your corpse for up to 10 minutes after death. 600 Points File:Jaunter.png Wormhole Jaunter One-use item that creates a wormhole to a random beacon on station. The portal is unstable and will make you dizzy after using it. Can be worn on the belt slot to prevent death on chasms. 750 Points File:Kinetic crusher.png Proto-kinetic Crusher A powerful two-handed melee weapon. Shoots kinetic bolts that don't deal damage, but can mark large creatures making the hammer deal increased damage (20→50 Brute) when used on them. It will deal even greater damage (80) on backstab. What makes the Crusher special, is that enemies killed by it have a chance to drop trophies, powerful “modkits” that can be attached to the Crusher. 750 Points File:KineticAccelerator.png Proto-kinetic Accelerator The classic mining weapon. Buy it from here if you did not get one at roundstart. 750 Points File:MiningScanner.png Advanced Mining Scanner A upgrade over the default Mining Scanner. This tool has a much larger detection radius of seven tiles (the entire screen), and updates more frequently. 800 Points File:Resonator.png Resonator Another deadly tool. This will, when used on rock or an empty space, create a field on that spot that lasts until detonated, causing serious damage (60 Brute) to anything standing on it. Has 2 modes: Automatic detonation after 2 seconds, or manual which triggers after you hit a field with resonator. You can activate it in your hand to switch mode. Fields can chain detonate. Just like the kinetic accelerator, it does reduced damage (20) in pressurized environments. Using it on an already-marked spot will instantly rupture the field. 800 Points File:Luxury Medipen.png Luxury Medipen Cutting edge bluespace technology allowed Nanotrasen to compact 60u of volume into a single medipen. Contains rare and powerful chemicals used to aid in exploration of very hard enviroments. WARNING: DO NOT MIX WITH EPINEPHRINE OR ATROPINE. Takes 10 seconds to inject and only injects half the reagents unless done in low pressure environment, where it's instant. Contains 10u Salbutamol, 10u Penthrite, 10u Oxandrolone, 10u Salicyclic Acid, 10u Omnizine, and 10 Leporazine. 1000 Points File:Fulton pack.png Fulton Extraction Pack A balloon that can be used to extract equipment or personnel who are outside (not within the station or the mining base) to a Fulton Recovery Beacon. Anything not bolted down can be moved. Swap which beacon the pack is aiming at by using the pack in hand. It has a limited number of uses, examine the pack to check how many are left. 1000 Points File:Lazarus hypo.png Lazarus Injector A miracle injection capable of reviving simple living beings from death, making them friendly to you and the crew. Useless on humans, monkeys, and other complex living beings. Resurrect Ian for all access from a thankful Head of Personnel! Or make yourself a pet Goliath. The lazarus injector can be EMP'd to make revived mobs hostile to everyone but you. Also useful for bartering with the HoP or any staff with a pet. Expect R&D to want one, as it has high research value. 1000 Points File:Pickaxe.png Silver-plated Pickaxe Slightly better than the default pickaxe, but still a lot worse than your starting KA. 1000 Points File:Dufflebag.png Mining Conscription Kit Contains a proto-kinetic accelerator, survival knife, seclite, mesons, an ore scanner and satchel, an explorer suit and gas mask, a supply encryption key and a card which adds mining access to IDs. a 1500 Points File:Mining jetpack.png Mining Jetpack Upgrade A jetpack that you can attach to any hardsuit for better mobility. Useless on Lavaland but great back on the station. 2000 Points File:Cash 1000.png Space Cash A thousand credits, to spend however you want! Of course, it's almost completely worthless on the station. 2000 Points File:Mining Hardsuit.png Mining Hardsuit A nostalgic suit piece from the older days of asteroid mining. Useless on Lavaland but great to explore space. Can be upgraded up to 3 times with goliath plates. 2000 Points File:Pickaxe.png Diamond Pickaxe For when you want something shinier and better than your default pickaxe and the scientists are either too lazy or too dead to make drills or jackhammers. STILL worse than a basic KA. 2000 Points File:Resonator.png Super (Upgraded) Resonator Like the regular resonator, but able to have 6 fields active at a time - with no damage penalty for fields that are detonated early. Also comes with a third mode: Matrix traps, which makes fields detonate when someone walks over them. 2500 Points File:Jump boots.png Jump Boots A pair of boots that allow you to jump over three tiles, skipping chasms. Does not prevent lava damage, however. 2500 Points File:BScapsule.png Luxury Shelter Capsule Tired of cramped shelter capsules? This is for you! Comes with a three-course meal, a deluxe companion and much more. 3000 Points File:BScapsule.png Luxury Elite Bar Capsule A luxury bar in a capsule. Bartender required and not included. 10000 Points File:Modkit.png KA White Tracer Rounds Mod A modkit that makes your KA's projectile flight path visible, in a white color. 100 Points File:Modkit.png KA Adjustable Tracer Rounds Mod A modkit that makes your KA's projectile flight path visible. Use in hand to cycle between colors. 150 Points File:Modkit.png Super KA Chassis Mod A modkit that makes your KA look yellow, like one of the no longer existing Super-Kinetic Accelerators. 250 Points File:Modkit.png Hyper KA Chassis Mod A modkit that makes your KA look orange, like one of the no longer existing Hyper-Kinetic Accelerators. 300 Points File:Modkit.png KA Range Mod A modkit that increases your KA's range by 1. 1000 Points File:Modkit.png KA Damage Mod A modkit that increases your KA's damage by 10. 1000 Points File:Modkit.png KA Cooldown Mod A modkit that reduces your KA's cooldown by 0.25 seconds. 1000 Points File:Modkit.png KA AoE Damage Mod A modkit that makes your KA hit in a 3×3 AoE, dealing 20% of the original damage per modkit. 2000 Points File:MiningDrone.png Mining Drone This helpful little guy goes around collecting loose ore so you don't have to. Will drop its haul when you hit it with the mining scanner. Clicking on it with an empty hand will toggle it between ore collection and wildlife fighting mode, where it will attack xenos with its built-in kinetic accelerator and drill. Will not pick up sand with no nearby ore around, for some reason. Comes with an upgraded welding tool if redeemed via voucher. It cannot be repaired while it is fighting. It can be further upgraded with special modules bought from the vending machine to increase its effectiveness. 500 Points File:Circuitboard.png Drone: Melee Upgrade Increases the Drone's melee damage. 400 Points File:Circuitboard.png Drone: Health Upgrade Increases the Drone's health. 400 Points File:Circuitboard.png Drone: Ranged Upgrade Decreases the Drone's ranged weapon's cooldown. 600 Points File:Circuitboard.png Drone: AI Upgrade Installs a high tech AI into the Drone (grants a ghost control over the Drone). 1000 Points
Free Golem Equipment Vendor
The Free Golem ship has some extra goodies:
Golem Equipment Vendor List Item Description Price File:Id regular.png Extra ID An extra ID that works for holding money and entering the station. 250 Points File:Science Goggles.png Science Goggles A pair of regular science goggles. 250 Points File:Monkey Cube.png Monkey Cube A single monkey cube. Just add water. 300 Points File:Utilitybelt.png Toolbelt A toolbelt, like the ones on station. 350 Points File:Sheetrd.png Royal Cape of the Liberator A replica of the Liberator's cape. A must-have for every Free Golem. 500 Points File:Slimegrey.png Grey Slime Extract Ever wanted to do Xenobiology on Lavaland? There you go. 1000 Points File:Modkit.png Trigger Guard Modification Kit A trigger modkit that allows golems to use the Kinetic Accelerator. 1700 Points File:Box.png The Liberator's Legacy A box with all circuit boards needed to build your own RnD department! The RnD console synchronizes with the station's server. 2000 Points RnD Gear The following is a list of advance items that can be acquired from your departmental techfab after research.
RnD Gear Item Description File:Miningdrill.png Mining Drill Can be acquired early on from RnD. It's twice as fast as the standard Pickaxe but is quickly superseded by better variants and is expensive for what it gives. File:Diamonddrill.png Diamond Tipped Mining Drill Very powerful drill, able to almost instantly mine mineral walls. Very expensive in terms of Diamonds needed to produce however. File:Sonicjack.png Sonic Jackhammer The epitome of mining. Can practically instantly mine through rock and walls. But it requires three times the Diamonds of a Diamond Tipped Drill. File:Modkit.png KA Triggerguard Mod A modkit that will allow species that cannot normally fire guns to use the KA, such as golems and hulks. File:Modkit.png KA Range Mod A modkit that increases your KA's range by 1. File:Modkit.png KA Damage Mod A modkit that increases your KA's damage by 10. File:Modkit.png KA Cooldown Mod A modkit that reduces your KA's cooldown by 0.25 seconds. File:Modkit.png KA AoE Mining Mod A modkit that makes your KA mine rocks in a 3×3 AoE. It does not, however, deal AoE damage. You're usually better off carrying a plasma cutter to deal with rocks and keep the KA for combat. File:Plasma Cutter.png Plasma Cutter A fast mining (and welding) tool. Shoots rock-breaking bolts that pierce up to 5 rocks per shot. Rechargeable by inserting plasma ore or sheets into it. Less efficient in combat than a KA, however, and even less when in high pressure. File:Adv plasma cutter.gif Advanced Plasma Cutter A very fast mining (and welding) tool. Shoots rock-breaking bolts that pierce up to 10 rocks per shot, basically allowing you to pierce rock as fast as you can walk. Rechargeable by inserting plasma ore or sheets into it. File:Bluespacemining.png Mining Satchel of Holding Very cheap mining satchel that can hold an unlimited amount of minerals and ore. File:NV meson glasses.gif Night Vision Mesons These glasses work like normal mesons, but they can see perfectly in the darkness negating the need for flashlights in lavaland.
All of this gear is printed out at the supply department protolathe.
The Wildlife Lavaland is filled with a variety of bloodthirsty alien lifeforms populating the caverns, walking just fine over the ponds and puddles of lava. Fortunately, you can fight them whilst taking minimal damage, if you have the know-how.
Useful items can be harvested from these creatures' corpses should you triumph; butcher them with a knife by attacking the corpse on Template:Combat Mode and the goods will spill out!
Wildlife Creature Description Threat Legion.png Legions Considered annoying at worst, and a free minor heal at best. These creatures unleash legion skulls, one after another at you whilst trying to keep a distance. Fortunately, each of its spawn dies in a single hit (even a single punch), and deal tickle damage to you; the legion itself can't directly hit you. It's best to go on the aggressive against these with pickaxe in hand, advancing constantly whilst picking away each of its brood. Once you've closed the gap or have it stuck in a corner, it's toast. If you fall unconscious while you're being attacked, however, you will instantly die and be turned into a Legion.
It drops a core when killed. Hit yourself with the core and it will give you a slowdown immunity for a while and slight heal. Don't think you can store these for later, though – they will spoil after a few minutes unless you use a stabilizer from the vending machine. However active legion cores can be inserted into one's chest (as an organ) through surgery to provide a hands-free use of it, which will automatically activate if you fall into crit. tl;dr strategy: Attack with your pickaxe/knife. Hack your way through the legion and its heads until the host is mush. Alternatively, two KA hits kill a Legion, or one KC mark detonation.
Low File:Watcher.png Watchers Fierce, territorial beasts capable of firing freezing beams, cold enough to inflict serious freeze burns while the watcher closes in and attacks its immobilized target. Fortunately, they don't attack unless someone comes close to them, so if you don't feel confident, you can just wait until you have a few more goliath plates, or maybe some gibtonite.
Butcher a watcher for 2 pieces of diamond ore. Use your ore box for cover while shooting them with your KA from a distance. Alternatively, with a KC, close the distance before it shoots you, then alternate marking it and hitting it, and pop a survival pen afterwards. Tip: Watchers are notably weak to explosions due to the nature of their bodies, taking over half their health in damage from even the weakest of explosions.
Medium File:EdgyGoliath.png Goliaths The bane of many careless miners. These monsters carry a hefty health pool, a mean wallop, and a deceptively dangerous ranged tentacle attack. They are inherently resistant to lasers, so using a KA is the best option regarding dealing with these. They move at a slow pace, stopping every couple seconds to burrow tentacles under you. These will trap you for a long duration if you stand on top of them for too long.
Fighting them is simple: Shoot, step back, shoot, avoid tentacles. Repeat this process until it stops moving. Alternatively, with a KC, get in mark range, mark it, run in, hit it, run out, avoid tentacles, repeat. Butcher a goliath for its hide and its meat. Goliath plates can be used to reinforce your hardsuit and helmet a maximum of three times, allowing you to turn your suit into something closer to a piece of riot gear if you hunt some Goliaths. The meat can be cooked in lava.
High File:Tendril.png Necropolis Tendrils Huge spikes of organic matter, from the base of which crawl out countless monsters. Each Tendril only spawns one kind of monster, between legions, goliaths and watchers, every once in a while. The tendrils themselves are fairly fragile and will die in a few well-placed shots, if you can fight through the other mobs. Once killed, it will drop its loot, shake the earth around it for a while, and then spawn a huge chasm around it, destroying anything that did not get out of the way in time. Chasms are deadly even after formation and should be avoided.
Fighting them can involve killing all its protectors patiently, or using tactics like gibtonite. Either way, once killed, ignore the remaining monsters, grab the chest, and RUN. When killed, they spawn necropolis chests which can contain a variety of useful artifacts, that usually cannot be found anywhere else. See the table below for the possible loot.
Medium to Very High File:Goldgrub.png Goldgrubs Mostly harmless and quite rare. These creatures swallow up any loose, valuable ore they can find and flee when approached by a human, smashing through even solid rock on their path of escape before burrowing into the ground. A tactic toward killing one is to throw an ore towards it, and quickly charging in to kill it while it's busy eating, but note that kinetic accelerator shots do nothing against these. Their skin is reflective, requiring a pickaxe melee smackdown to ensure a kill.
When killed, they spit up multiple pieces of ore, based on what they ate. Feed them many different types of ore before killing them, and they'll spit out more of each type than you gave it! Just don't let it get away after spooking it.
None File:Ash drake.png Megafauna Extremely big and powerful creatures, that randomly spawn in lavaland. Each one of these emits a GPS Signal that can be tracked with your own GPS, to either seek or avoid them. To beat them and get their valuable loot, you must either have good equipment or be VERY good at dodging their attacks, as failure usually means not only death, but gibbing as well. Their slow speed means that you can usually outrun them, although you should be careful of not letting them hitch a ride in the mining ferry, as the station has very few weapons that can damage megafauna.
EXTREME Shiny Mobs Common lavaland mobs now have rare mutations. Common mining mobs have a 1% chance on initialize to gain a new appearance and new stats, however, this is 5% for legions.
Wildlife Creature Description Threat File:Dwarflegion.png Dwarf Legion On the rare occasion that a human with dwarfism falls to a legion, they can become infested like any other. Dwarf legions have 20 less health but move slightly faster.
It drops a soul, the exact same soul as dropped by the normal legion.
It's still rather harmless. 2 KA shots kill it, a couple of pickax swings will knock it out.
Low File:Magmawingwatcher.png Magmawing Watcher Whenever a shiny watcher appears, (which is a 1% chance), there's a 75% chance that the mutant is going to be a magmawing watcher, and a 25% chance that it is going to be an icewing watcher. When raised very close to lava, some watchers adapt to the extreme heat and change coloration. Such watchers are known as magmawings and use intense heat as their tool for hunting and defense. The magmawing watcher shoots scorching blasts instead of freezing blasts, which heats you up and can set you on fire.
Unlike normal watchers, a shot from this watcher will set you on fire, and trying to roll it out will only result in the watcher getting more free shots on you, which means that you're pretty much forced to man up, pop a survival medi-pen, and melee it to death while you lose half of your HP to fire.
It has normal watcher loot. It's really simply just not worth fighting.
High File:Icewingwatcher.png Icewing Watcher Whenever a shiny watcher appears, (which is a 1% chance), there's a 25% chance that the mutant is going to be an icewing watcher, and a 75% chance that it is going to be a magmawing watcher. Very rarely, some watchers will eke out an existence far from heat sources. In the absence of warmth, their wings will become papery and turn to an icy blue; these watchers are fragile but much quicker to fire their trademark freezing blasts. The icewing watcher has 50 less health and fire shots 33% more often, as well as dropping 5 diamonds and no sinew
It's a beefed up watcher which is more tanky and shoots more often. Treat it like a normal watcher, except you have to get into cover a bit quicker each time.
It has normal watcher loot, but drops 5 diamonds instead of 2, and drops no sinew.
High File:Ancientgoliath.png Ancient Goliath Goliaths are biologically immortal, and rare specimens have survived for centuries. This one is clearly ancient, and its tentacles constantly churn the earth around it. Tentacles constantly extrude from the ground around it, even when it is not aggroed to any particular object.
It is recommended that you clear an area around the ancient goliath so that you can take shots at the ancient goliath without getting snagged by the tentacles. Once you've done that, just run circles around the thing while shooting at it, and dodging any emerging tentacles.
When killed, they drop their goliath hide directly, more can be obtained through butchering.
Very High Necropolis Chest Loot Necropolis Chests are guaranteed whenever you destroy a tendril or a pulsating tumor. They also drop from the Legion megafauna, when you kill a Stage 3 skull.
Necropolis Chest Loot Name Description File:Paradox bag.png Paradox Bags A pair of bags with a linked storage: anything that is put in one can be pulled out of the other and vice versa. File:Soulstone.png Soulstone A soulstone much like the kind used by a Blood Cult or by the chaplain on MetaStation, except it can be used multiple times. When used on an unconscious person or on a corpse it disintegrates it, and traps the soul inside the gem. The soul can then be released as a weak ghost bound to the will of the soulstone's owner, or it can be put into a construct shell, if you somehow own one. File:Katana.gif Cursed Katana A very sharp katana for ninja enthusiasts. It deals 40 damage to unarmored targets (energy swords, for comparison, deal 30). It also has a 50% chance of deflecting melee attacks. But it's cursed so you cannot drop it and it gives you a brain trauma that make you stalked. File:Godeye.gif Eye of God A strange eye. It can be worn on the glasses slot to gain x-ray vision plus night vision, but it cannot be removed. If you find a second Eye of God, you can wear that on top of the existing one to form a pair of Eyes of God, which looks cool but has no real benefit. File:Flight potion.png Flight Potion (“Strange Elixir”) A bottle containing 5 units of flight potion. Ingesting flight potion will turn the drinker into an angel: a human with wings. Wings allow jetpack-like movement wherever there's air when activated, also giving increased speed and free movement over tables and chasms. You lose your back slot as an angel. It only works when drinking at least 5 units, so do not dilute or split the content. Does 20 brute damage when drunk.
File:Cursed heart.gif Cursed Heart A cursed heart. When used, it grants fast regeneration, but it must be pumped manually at least once every 3 seconds and one second early to account for lag. Screen turns red if you miss a beat and lose 100u of blood but gain 50u every successful pump. Warning though, there is no warning except by medical scanner on how close you are to death. Before use I recommend that whoever uses this has a blood bag ready for transfusion and a medical scanner to keep an eye on your blood level. File:Bottled ship.png Ship in a Bottle When used, spawns a Mysterious Boat, which can travel over lava without need for oars. File:Champion hardsuit.png Champion's Hardsuit A hardsuit coming from a Khorne BerserkerChampion. It's fairly resistant, has no slowdown, and is immune to fire. melee = 65, bullet = 50, laser = 50, energy = 50, bomb = 50, bio = 100, rad = 100, fire = 80, acid = 80
File:Sord.png Sord An unbelievably shitty sword. File:Dusty shard.gif Dusty Shard When used, spawns a power miner bound to you. The type is chosen at random. File:Warp cube.gif Red/Blue Cube A pair of cubes. When one is used, it teleports the user to the location of the other cube, with no cooldown. File:Wisp lantern.png Wisp Lantern A lantern containing a wisp. When used, it releases the wisp, making it orbit around the user's head and granting it thermal vision and serving as a light source. It can be returned to the lantern by using it once again. The lantern does not otherwise need to be carried or protected for the effect to persist. File:Immortality talisman.png Immortality Talisman A magic talisman. When used, it makes the user invulnerable but immobile for ten seconds. Being invulnerable does not protect from instant death effects such as singularities or point-blank bombs. Has a 60 seconds cooldown. Summon spellbook.png Instant Summons Spellbook A spellbook that grants you Instant Summons. When first used, it binds the item currently in your hand; every time it is used after will teleport the linked item (and any container it should be inside) to your hand. File:Voodoo.png Wicker Doll A voodoo doll. To link it to someone, grab a small item they have touched and insert it into the doll; using the doll will allow you to choose a target based on the fingerprints on the inserted item. When using a hot item on it (I.E. welder/match/lighter) it will heat the target. When using a sharp item on it it will cause severe pain to the target, stunning it. When using a bike horn on it it will HONK him, also dealing ear damage. Setting the doll on fire will also set the target on fire. When using the doll while targeting the head, it will make the target dizzy. When using the doll while targeting an arm, the target will use that hand, or any item on it, on a random nearby mob. When using the doll while targeting a leg, it will move the target randomly by a step. When using the doll while targeting the eyes, it will allow the user to see through the target's eyes for ten seconds. When using the doll while targeting the mouth, it will force the target to speak a user-inputted sentence. Radio prefixes such as ; can be used. After being used, the doll has a chance of revealing its general direction or, more rarely, the room it's in, to the target. If it's set on fire, it has a 100% chance of revealing the room. To remove the linking item from a doll, use it while you're targeting the chest.
File:Book1.png Book of Babel Instantly teaches you all languages. One time use only. File:Ladder00.png Jacob's Ladder A ladder that extends all the way to a different Z-level. File:Modkit.png KA Death Syphon/bounty Modkit Disk Allows you to make a modkit that when killing or assisting in killing a creature permanently increases your damage against that type of creature. File:Modkit.png AoE Hybrid Modkit Disk A disk that allows you to make a Kinetic Accelerator Modkit that allows it to both mine and deal damage in a 3×3 AoE. Secondary targets receive 25% of the original target's damage, up from the 20% of the normal AoE damage modkit File:Modkit.png KA Rapid Repeater Modkit Disk Allows you to create a modkit that greatly reduces the KA's cooldown on striking a living target or rock, but greatly increases its base cooldown. Don't miss! File:Modkit.png KA Resonator Blast Mod Disk A tech disk that allows you to create a mod that uses the kenetic accelerator to fire shots that leave and detonate Resonator blasts. File:Modkit crystal.png Lifesteal Crystal Modkit A mod kit that, like the name suggests, steals life from enemies you attack. Comes with a free cult blankie! File:Memento mori.png Memento Mori A necklace that once equipped links your life to it. You cannot die while it is equipped but if removed turns you into dust. Note: Megafauna are the exception and will still turn you into gibs if you're knocked into critical condition.
File:Asclepius active.gif Rod of Asclepius A rod that can be used to make yourself start swearing an oath. If you finish the oath, the staff will bind to your hand, giving you a healing aura and pacifism. You will also gain the ability to perform multiple surgeries at once. File:Concussive gauntlets.gif Concussive Gauntlets Jackhammer in the shape of gloves, for fast mining without needing to hold any tools. For the bosses' loot, see Megafauna.
Pulsating Tumor See Pulsating Tumor
Crusher trophies Each time you kill a Lavaland enemy with the Crusher, there is a chance that it drops a trophy. These can be attached to your Crusher for unique effects.
Item Enemy Description File:Legion skull.png Legion skull Legion Makes your Crusher recharge faster. File:Goliath tentacle trophy.png Goliath tentacle Goliath Mark detonations deal more damage the more health you're missing. File:Watcher wing.png Watcher wing Watcher Mark detonations delay some creatures from using certain attacks for 0.5 seconds. File:Magma wing.png Magmawing Watcher wing Magmawing Watcher After a mark detonation, the next destabilizer shot will deal damage. File:Ice wing.png Icewing Watcher wing Icewing Watcher Similar to normal Watcher wings, but lasts 0.8 seconds over 0.5 seconds. File:Hunter eye.png Eye of a blood-drunk hunter Blood-drunk Miner On mark detonation, gain stun immunity, damage-slowdown immunity and 90% damage reduction for one second. File:Tail spike.png Tail spike Ash Drake Mark detonations deal area damage and push enemies back. File:Demon claws.png Demon claws Bubblegum & Wendigo Melee hits deal bonus damage and heal you. 500% as strong during a mark detonation. File:Blaster tubes.png Blaster tubes Colossus On mark detonation, the next shot moves slower, but deals damage. File:Vortex talisman.png Vortex talisman Hierophant Mark detonations create barriers that only you can pass. File:Iceblocktalisman.png Ice block talisman Demonic Frost Miner Mark detonations freeze and immobilize its target. Craftables Not only can you kill the local fauna, you can also cobble together items from their smashed remains. Open the crafting menu for this.
Item Description File:Dragon armor.png Ash Drake armor A really strong, storm proof hardsuit that doesn't slow you down. 5 Ash Drake hide, 2 Watcher sinews, 10 bones. melee = 70, bullet = 30, laser = 50, energy = 40, bomb = 70, bio = 60, rad = 50, fire = 100, acid = 100.
File:Goliath cloak.png Goliath Cloak Weaker than the standard explorer suits and can't be upgraded, but way more stylish. 2 leather, 2 Watcher sinews, 2 Goliath hides. To get leather, strip goliath hide with your knife, wash it in the sinks on the mining base, then throw it in the microwave. ALSO: This may call itself a cloak, but it goes in your bodywear slot, like a hardsuit or the explorer suit. It's not a real cloak. melee = 35, bullet = 10, laser = 25, energy = 10, bomb = 25, bio = 0, rad = 0, fire = 60, acid = 60
File:Goliath boat.png Lava Boat A boat that can travel over lava, but is terribly unsafe as it'll usually set both you and held items on fire. Needs an oar to move. Crafted from three Goliath hides. File:Oar.png Goliath Bone Oar An oar crafted from two Goliath bones. Robust. File:Bonfire.png Bonfire Perfect for roasting lizard tails over. Five tower-cap logs. File:Mushroom bowl.png Mushroom Bowl A bowl made out of mushrooms. Crafted from five Polypore mushroom shavings.
Xenoforms You're not always the only sentient being on the planet. Aside from the lovecraftian horrors living down there you may also content with several groups or factions of beings on the planet. Some hostile, some friendly.
The follow is a list of all known sentient groups found on the planet based on information sent from recon squads.
Podmen Recon Expedition #4 Threat Level: Minimal, Non Hostile Note: A small group of podmen were observed living inside a sealed vault. They appear minimally armed and seem to avoid leaving their home.
Golems Recon Expedition #9 Threat Level: Minimal, Non Hostile Note: A unidentified flying object was seen crashing by Recon Team Charlie during expedition #8. Alpha team on expedition #9 located a group of golems, the golems appeared utterly uninterested in their surroundings all things considered.
Ashwalkers Recon Expedition #13 Threat Level: Medium, Hostile Note: It appears a group of Basiliscus Lizretus, also known as Lizardmen, live on the planet, they are hostile to all intruders. These 'ashwalkers' only started to appear when mining operations started, they are agile but lightly armed, wielding primitively forged armor and spears. They appear to also have a hostile relationship with the wildlife, having been observed killing and dragging wildlife corpses away, as to why they need these corpses the recon team is unable to ascertain.
Syndicate Agents Recon Expedition #45 Threat Level:Extreme, Hostile Notes: It has come to attention that the syndicate (direct corporation/group unknown) has recently set up a large compound in lavaland. This may explain where expedition #38-44 has gone. They are equipped with high end weaponry and has been stated that trace bits of gunpowder has been found around the lava moat that the base is stationed in, suggesting that this base may be wired to self-destruct. We also detected radio waves coming and going from the compound. If found, turn back and report to your superiors immediately.
The Ores These are what you should be looking out for, generally try and get a good mix of the more exotic ore types. Iron ore is ok but it sells for little and is highly abundant on the station already.
Name Wall Raw Ore Money Reward Value Processed Ore Frequency Uses Iron File:Ironwall.png File:Ironore.png 1 File:Metal.png Very Common For just about everything. Sand File:Minefloor.png File:Sandore.png 1 File:Glass.png Very Common For making glass, which has a plethora of station applications. Activate sand in your hand to make sandstone bricks. These can be used to make dirt which can be used to grow plants. Plasma File:Plasmawall.png File:Plasmaore.png 15 File:Plasmadone.png Common Ship sheets back to Centcom for bonus money to the cargo budget. Silver File:Silverwall.png File:Silverore.png 16 File:Silverdone.png Semi-Common Making dosh, mechs, and researching Bluespace. Gold File:Goldwall.png File:Goldore.png 18 File:Golddone.png Semi-Common For making various electronics or pimping out Beepsky. Titanium File:Titaniumrock.png File:Titaniumore.png 30 File:Titaniumdone.png Uncommon For high-tech mechs or R&D components. Also for building shuttle walls and floors. Uranium File:Uraniumwall.png File:Uraniumore.png 30 File:Uraniumdone.png Uncommon For making you radioactive (notice: no joke, this shit is deadly as a wall or a door). Delicious cocktails. Diamond File:Diamondwall.png File:Diamondore.png 50 File:Diamonddone.png Rare For making mech parts, among other industrial uses. Bluespace Crystal File:BluespaceCrystalWall.png File:Bluespace Crystal.png 50 File:BS polycrystal.png Rare These crystals can be used in various ways. Give them to science to increase bluespace science, hold onto them to use as a risk free jaunter, or throw them at people to make them teleport randomly (often into space.) Bananium File:Bananimumwall.png File:Bananimumore.png 60 File:Bananiumdone.png HONK! A rare and unusual mineral found exclusively in clown-controlled space. Used only for the H.O.N.K. mech and other clownlike items. Gibtonite File:Gibtonitewall.gif File:Gibtoniteore.png N/A Uncommon For trolling miners blowing shit up, whether they be solid asteroid or other things. Hitting it with your mining tools will start a chain reaction. If you don't stop the reaction with your mining scanner in time, the gibtonite will explode. If you do, you can mine the ore, pick it up (you need both hands free) and use it as an explosive. The closer the gibtonite was to exploding before defused, the more potent its power. Cannot be forged or turned in to the Ore Redemption Machine Ore Redemption Machine, so don't bring any of this to the station or else you'll be arrested ignored by security because they don't know what the hell it is. Gibtonite can be used to craft a Chemical Payload File:ChemPayload.gif. How to obtain Gibtonite: Hit ore, count to 8 flashes of the ore then hit it with your scanner. Gibtonite varies in the number of reactions it has, so you may get lower quality ore. Use 2 of the 0 reaction ores (the most potent) to blow open the AI core and make it cry at it's malf failure!
Alloys Some ores can be smelted to produce alloys.
Plasteel
Plastitanium Plastitanium Found in: Syndicate spacecraft Used for: Evil walls and floors Strategy: Use it to create the walls and flooring used in a Syndicate spacecraft Description An alloy of plasma and titanium. Who Needs What Miners don't have to deliver ores directly to departments – they can if they want, or if those bastards are too lazy to leave their fortress of autism science – but it never hurts to know what to aim for.
Scientists at least a bit of every ore. In exchange, they may research upgrades for your Kinetic Accelerator, a Plasma Cutter, a Mining Satchel of Holding, and, if you're lucky, Night Vision Meson Scanners or a Bag of Holding! Roboticists need diamond, uranium, silver and gold for building mech parts. Give them enough and you've indirectly helped out most of the departments on the station if the Roboticists are competent enough to build helpful stompy mechs for everybody! Too bad the lavaproof Firefighter is the only good mech for mining. Get a Clarke and reap the profits. The Quartermaster may want mineral sheets to trade them in for bonus supply credits. Plasma in particular is both common and valuable. Everybody could always use more iron, glass and plasteel, but especially Roboticists and Station Engineers. The Chemist and Xenobiologist will all appreciate having extra plasma. A competent Virologist can use several sheets of uranium to create incredibly powerful healing viruses that let you heal out of crit in two seconds. A Clown with Bananium is a grateful and dangerous ally. The Bartender can use a few sheets of uranium or iron to craft some of his rarest cocktails. Secrets of Lavaland While on Lavaland, you may come upon artificial structures. They can have items ranging from magical artifacts, to other lifeforms, to alien facehuggers. If you are at all unsure, always let your mining buddies know using :u before going in: some ruins can be very dangerous.
Tips Always go with at least two other people when mining. Not only can you mine faster together, the chance that they could both be 'lings/traitors is rather low. Pickaxe to the skull tends to put down most people. You can view the contents of a mining satchel as if it were a backpack. Middle mouse click swaps your hand, allowing you to shoot minerals and grat them with the satchel quickly. Minebots are great at distracting monsters. Just walk near and bash the distracted target with your drill. They can take quite a beating, though goliaths can take them down pretty quickly if you're not quick enough. Plus they collect all the crap gibtonite left. The Proto-kinetic Accelerator can destroy electrified grilles without needing a pair of insulated gloves. The Proto-kinetic Accelerator will obliterate a space carp in one hit while in space. You can dual wield PKAs. Use Template:Combat Mode to fire both at once. The Head of Personnel may reward you with all access if you resurrect Ian. Also, sometimes the Research Director will reward you for a pet gold grub. If you're expecting trouble on the station, consider taking out a window on the mining shuttle before you return to make a quick getaway so you're not trapped like a rat in a cage. The mining drone can be repaired with a welding tool, but not in the middle of a fight. A goliath will always win in a one on one fight with a mining drone. You could alternatively buy the drone, fully upgrade it, give it an AI Module, and tell it to go valid-hunt. A mining drone dragging a bar of soap is surprisingly robust against even changelings. Life improving things: Mining suit upgrade : Goliath plates add +10% melee resist each time when applied to a suit. The plates will stack until they reach 30%, which may help you live in case a goliath grabs you. Security Jumpsuit : This gives a +10% melee resist to everywhere but your head. Nag the QM or HoP to give you one. Augmentations : Augs are VERY useful for miners, as healing with a welder is ultimately easier. Plus they work differently than armor when it comes to protection, instead reducing all brute damage taken by an augmented body part by 5 (4 for burn). Also they are ashproof. If you get fully augumented, you are ash storm proof. Downside : EMP vulnerability. Kinetic accelerators can be used as infinite tools to navigate space, since every time you fire, it'll throw you in the opposite direction. Sentient minebots can very easily be commanded to go help security if there is an imminent threat to the station. Their melee saw is very robust, and works just as well as on the station as it is on lavaland. The proto-kinetic accelerator that they are equipped with is very robust when in space. If you dont have a mining satchel of holding, and no ore box, you can deconstruct tables in the library (the curator is probably too busy organizing a game of D&D to really care much) to obtain wooden planks. You can then use these wooden planks to fabricate an ore box. If science hasn't researched Advanced Mining Technology within 10 minutes of the start of the shift, please remind them. There is normally at least 1 single person in science competent enough to do so. Dead Space A traitorous miner has a lot of advantages. You have a space suit for free right away and a robust pickaxe. Certain minerals you'll find have more “specialized” uses – uranium structures will irradiate people, plasma can start fires, gibtonite goes boom. You can also buy dangerous “mining” tools and possibly even revive those monsters you've been fighting. As long as you have some mineral wealth or an ore box with you, no one will suspect your presence around the station, even in highly restricted areas like robotics or toxins, and if you are smart enough, you could get a big stompy mech to drill people to death! In addition, Lavaland is isolated, dangerous, and as expansive as you're willing to dig out. Plenty of room for somebody to get lost in… Forever!
Tips for Traitoring If you're a miner and you have to kill another miner; there's a really easy way to block communications one way so he can't call for help. Grab a multitool, go to the mining communications room. Use the multi tool on the relay and make sure the relay isn't sending, meaning your headset won't go to people on the station. Kill your target with their shouts for help unheard. You can get plasma at exactly the heat you need for canister bombs by welding a plasma door in vacuum. Use an air pump to take it, then put [REDACTED] KPa into an empty large tank (the size of plasma, emergency O2, etc). You can then ignite it with a can of pure O2 set to release at 1013.25 KPa. This is the Shaft Miner's canister bomb. It's easy to set up on Lavaland. More than one uranium wall is hilariously deadly, as they give off a pulse of radiation every couple of seconds. This pulse makes other uranium walls in range pulse as well, and they all run on their own timer. Tiers 0-1-2-3 can gib bodies, remember mining suits take 50% of damage away from bombs, so strip miners you want to make disappear forever first. Ripley is a fairly robust murdering tool, if you can, convince robotics to put a gravity catapult on it. SLAM PEOPLE INTO WALLS. THE SUFFERING NEVER ENDS. Space is your best ally. Your weapons are more lethal in space, and anyone who wants to chase you will need access to a jetpack and EVA gear. Make people fight on your terms by blowing up the station with various Gibtonite charges, or bust in, stun and drag targets into space. You can make a chemical payload container using any shitty bit of gibtonite. This can be useful for making chemical bombs, but it relies on knowing how to obtain specific chemicals that can be robust and accessible to a Miner. Tips for Culting If you're a miner, Mining Station is the perfect hive for a cult. The back room can easily be broken down by Constructs, runes can be placed, and a single artificer can make it very difficult for Security to try and raid. Remember to cut cameras, so a Non-Asimov AI doesn't bolt and electrocute every door. Remember to use Teleport other to get Cultists off station and into safe custody. Warning: Teleporting from Lavaland will make the destination rune glow brightly and open a rift in reality that may not only reveal the rune, but the location of your base as well.
Workin' In The Coal Mine Mining Dock The Mining Dock is your access to the Mining Station. Being a miner can be somewhat tedious, but you serve a crucial role in the R&D food chain, and can accrue some decent personal rewards. Just follow a few guidelines to keep yourself from becoming dead in the mines.
Your workplace, Lavaland, has some hazards:
Ash storms will cut right through your clothes, dealing constant burn damage if you are outside. A rain of dark particles outdoors indicate an ash storm. Lava - one step in and you'll be badly burned and on fire. Chasms - Anything that falls into one will disappear from this world. The risk of these hazards can be reduced by watching your step and being aware of your surroundings. Don't walk into lava, chasms, or outside during an ash storm. You'll get a text warning not long before a ash storm is about to begin, so long as you stay near shelter (or have a bluespace shelter capsule with you) then you'll be fine.
You can click on an adjacent rock or run directly into it to begin picking or drilling the rock, but the Kinetic Accelerator is much faster and more efficient and you should be using that instead of a pickaxe or basic mining drill. Keep in mind that if you do decide to pick or drill your way through rock, you can have multiple dig jobs running at the same time to mine faster.
Working With Your Boss Who is your boss? You answer to the Head of Personnel, much like the rest of Supply – but usually, you'll just be talking to the Quartermaster or other Miners. He can watch cameras on lavaland and has full access to Mining, so keep that in mind.
The Objective You're here to mine, so get digging! Once you're full to bursting with ores, drag your ore box back to the station and head to cargo where the Ore Redemption Machine Ore Redemption Machine sits. Insert your ID and, drag the box next to the machine to automatically offload your ores and have them instantly processed into sheets. Then click “claim” to retrieve money as a reward to your currently work ID. Now print new gear from the supply techfab and buy new gear from the mining vendor, then take your crate and head back to lavaland!
How to Do This Gearing up Gear up! From the mining equipment locker, you will need Meson Scanner goggles, a mining scanner, your pickaxe (optional), a bluespace shelter capsule (DON'T FORGET!) and your standard issue proto-kinetic accelerator. If you want, there is also an additional mining satchel, and a shovel for digging up ash (for glass). Attach your seclite and knife to your proto-kinetic accelerator to save space, and to let you bash things harder without having to take out your knife. Use your voucher on a mining vending machine to select your choice of advanced mining tools, listed below. Go to the Lavaland Mining Station and get an explorer suit, breath mask, and oxygen tank from Mining 'EVA'. On the western side of the base, there is a mini-Medbay where you can find first-aid kits, and a maintenance room where you can top off internals. The nearby storage room has more gear lockers and Ore boxes. Before you go, you'll want an Ore Box, which can hold an infinite amount of minerals. Ore boxes are available on the mining station, the mining shuttle and rarely on the field. More can be built with wood planks. For extra safety, grab a GPS device, set it to your name and tell the QM and other miners about it. If you're lucky, they will drag your lifeless body back to cloning. Smashing rocks Find minerals. The further north, the better ore. Activate your scanner and shove it into your bag or internals box. Every once in a while it sends out a pulse that lets you see deposits in the rock a few tiles away from you. Try to get a mixture of every type of mineral. Pick up minerals by either having your mining bag in your belt slot or pockets, then just walk over the minerals. If you're dragging an ore box behind you, you'll automatically deposit minerals into the box instead of your bag. Once you've had enough, return to the main station with your Ore box. Do not deliver ore to the processing plant on the lavaland mining base, as that room is outdated. Recommended: Ask RND to upgrade the Ore Redemption Machine (ORM) Ore Redemption Machine. Miners have access to the science channel (with :n), but if they are just a bunch of braindeads you can go to the next step. Drag your ore box to the delivery tile next to the ORM Ore Redemption Machine (usually north or south of it, depending on station). That'll automatically empty the box into the ORM Ore Redemption Machine. Take your mining satchel into your hand and activate it while standing on the same delivery tile next to the ORM Ore Redemption Machine. This will empty any ores in the bag into the ORM as well. Ores inserted directly into the ORM may give no credits (due to a bug)!(this issue was supposedly fixed) Already processed sheets inserted into the ORM do not give any credits. Only raw ores count. Click “Claim”. You do not need to insert your ID. Go to a mining equipment vendor to buy advanced equipment with the credits you've gained. Life beyond smashing rocks Use your better gear to push deeper into Lavaland. Print Advanced Plasma Cutters and Mining Satchels of Holding at the cargo protolathe for even more efficient mining. If you feel robust enough, explore some ruins and die horribly get amazing rewards. If you feel VERY robust, look for Megafauna with your GPS and try to kill it, for extremely valuable loot. Voucher equipment You start the shift with a complimentary mining voucher, worth one free item out of a selection of four. These items, and their strengths, are:
Survival Capsule and Explorer's Webbing: The webbing (you put on your belt slot) allows you to carry even more mining equipment - having a second shelter capsule is nice too. 900 pts value. Resonator Kit: Comes with a resonator, explorer's webbing, mini extinguisher and advanced scanner. While the resonator is underwhelming, the advanced scanner has almost twice the scanning range and updates much faster. 2100 pts. Mining Drone: A little companion that helps in storing ore and hunting wildlife. Only useful once you install the sentience upgrade module. Comes with an industrial welding tool, a welding mask and a KA modkit that allows shots to pass through the drone. ~800 pts. Extraction and Rescue Kit: Contains a fulton extraction pack and a beacon, which allows you to send back home minerals, items and dead miners without having to use the ferry. As a bonus, you get 30 marker beacons too. 1700 pts. Crusher Kit: Contains a proto-kinetic crusher, a chest webbing like the capsule kit, an advanced scanner and a mini fire extinguisher. The crusher is two-handed and hard to use without getting hit, but has a chance to make fauna drop powerful trophies. 2450 pts. Mining Conscription Kit: A duffle bag full of basic items for one conscript - Proto-kinetic accelerator, survival knife, seclite, explorer's suit, mesons, mining scanner and satchel, gas mask, a supply radio key and a special card that adds mining access to IDs. Good for when you want to recruit metafriends fresh conscripts. 1500 pts. For Great Profit! Mining for the sake of it can only get you so far. By mining minerals and returning them to the station you'll accrue credits, you can then use these credits to buy better and more powerful equipment and supplies from an equipment vendor. You can then in turn use these items to push further into Lavaland to mine more minerals, fell stronger wildlife and find greater treasure. Consider it all an investment.
Survival Medipens can help you in a pinch for example, or a Wormhole Jaunter can help you escape what would have been a death trap. Or using Legion Stabilizer on Legion Cores, to let you save their heal and anti-slowdown effects for later. Or you can spend it all on booze and cigars.
Default Gear The following is a list of default mining equipment:
Essential Equipment Item Description Explorersuit.png Explorer Suit This comes with a inbuilt hood. It provides some protection against heat and cold, and works as decent armor with no slowdown. It is not spaceproof, but can hold a full-sized oxygen tank or other mining gear. You can also reinforce it with goliath plates. ExplorerGasMask.gif Explorer Gas Mask and Oxygen Tank So you can have oxygen when mining. Oxygen tanks are available from the tank storage unit, and can be worn on your suits storage slot. You can also use your emergency oxygen tank which can be placed on your suit. Running out of oxygen is unlikely with the full sized tank. MGlasses.png MiningScanner.png Meson Scanners and Automatic Mining Scanner Activating the scanner will briefly flash any ore on screen - it works even inside a box. Can be used to stop gibtonite from exploding. GPSm.gif Global Positioning System, GPS The crew monitoring console back on the station won't catch your suit sensor signal from all the way down on the planet. Having one of these on you will help others track down your body if you happen to develop a case of the dead. In addition it can be used to locate other miners (who bothered to take it) as well as “lost” signals. Megafauna, necropolis tendrils, and certain ruins emit GPS signals. Be wary. Be sure to set your name on the GPS. KineticAccelerator.png Proto-kinetic Accelerator A standard issue gun. The good part is that it packs a punch in a low pressure environment, is very good at digging and has infinite shots. The bad part is that it tickles in pressurized environments, has a cooldown after each shot, and has a range of three steps. Can be dual wielded at the price of lower accuracy and speed. KAs deal brute damage (40 standard/10 in pressurized rooms), but count as explosive versus armor. That way, suits like bomb suits and the RD hardsuit can negate 90% of the damage dealt.
Survivalknife.gif Survival Knife Use it for butchering the wildlife (hit while on harm intent). It's as strong against mobs as a pickaxe, but you can't mine with it. You can store it in your boots to save space, but remember to alt-click the boots to draw the knife back out. Alternatively, stick it on your KA. Stimpen.png Survival Medipen A cocktail of powerful healing chemicals. Contains Salbutamol, Leporazine, Epinephrine, Mining Nanites and Omnizine. Heals all types of damage and stabilizes body temperature. BScapsule.png Bluespace shelter capsule Activate this in your hand, and it'll near instantly produce a beautiful shelter. Ash storms do not hurt you inside, but wildlife can break through the walls. The shelter contains a cupboard which contains a guitar (or dice) and some donk pockets. It also has a stasis bed which requires another person to use. Never leave home without one. You're issued one for free in your the mining lockers on station. OreSatchel.png Ore Satchel For carrying ore without using a mining cart, holds 50 ore nuggets. Empty it into boxes by using the satchel on them. Newbie tip: Put it in one of your pocket slots, then start dragging an ore box. Any ore you walk over will be transferred to the box. OreCrate.png Ore box Used for carrying huge amounts of ore. While a satchel can only hold 50 nuggets, this can hold an unlimited sum. You cannot carry it, but you can drag it with you. Use your satchel on the box to empty it into the box. Even better: Drag it behind you with an ore satchel in your pocket.
Voucher.gif Mining Voucher Found in your backpack, exchange this at the mining equipment locker for one of several selections which include various mining items. Seclite.png Seclite A beefed up flashlight. Put this on your KA to free up inventory space. Miscellaneous Equipment Items that, while not critical to take, can be situationally useful.
Item Description Pickaxe.png Pickaxe Somewhat antiquated thanks to the prevalence of the proto-kinetic accelerator and resonator. Nevertheless it can be used to dig wide tunnels, robust things in melee combat and as a backup if you lose your resonator. It can also fit inside a belt chest webbing. Shovel.png Shovel Gathering sand. You can stick this in your backpack. A crappier version of a compact pickaxe Crowbar.png Crowbar For removing KA mods, or just in case when there is a blackout. Spawns in your box. Advanced Gear The following are more advanced items that need to be purchased from a mining equipment vendor, with credits:
Voucher/Reward Equipment These items can either be acquired from a voucher, or can be bought with money/credits, usually earned from delivering ore to the Ore Redemption Machine Ore Redemption Machine on the station. Prices are included.
Mining Equipment Vendor Mining Equipment Vendor Mining Equipment Vendor List Item Description Price 1 Marker Beacon A glowing prism stone that you can anchor to the ground. Useful if you tend to get lost. 10 Credits 10 Marker Beacon Same as above, but 10 beacons. 100 Credits 30 Marker Beacon Same as above, but 30 beacons. 300 Credits Whiskey bottle.png Whiskey A bottle of alcohol, helps you forget you literally work in hell. 100 Credits Absinthe bottle.png Absinthe A bottle of alcohol, helps you forget you literally work in hell. 100 Credits Cigar.png Cigar A high-quality havana cigar. 150 Credits Soap.png Soap A bar of slippery soap. 200 Credits Laser pointer.png Laser Pointer Just a laser pointer, don't shite it into people's eyes. Useful against rogue Cyborgs. 300 Credits Facehugger.png Toy Facehugger An extremely realistic-looking facehugger toy, to prank the crew with. Latches onto faces and tears off masks. 300 Credits Bottle17.png Stabilizing Serum Can be used on legion souls to prevent them from decaying. 400 Credits Fulton beacon.png Fulton Beacon Creates an anchored beacon when used in hand that fulton packs can target as a drop-off point. 400 Credits BScapsule.png Bluespace Shelter Capsule The Shelter Capsule is indispensable for long expeditions: it creates an ash-storm proof 3×3 room complete with breathable air, a sleeper and some warm donk-pockets. 400 Credits Gar mesons.png GAR Mesons A pair of very sharp meson scanners. Can be thrown as a weapon, with a chance to embed. 500 Credits Miner webbing.png Chest Webbing Can be worn on the belt slot, stores mining equipment. 500 Credits Stimpen.png Survival Medipen Contains several healing and heat-stabilizing chemicals. Using more than one in a short period will cause several overdoses. 500 Credits Box.png Brute First-Aid Kit Contains bandages and brute-healing patches. 600 Credits Implanter.png Tracking Implant Kit Contains three tracking implants and a locator; useful if you want others to find your corpse for up to 10 minutes after death. 600 Credits Jaunter.png Wormhole Jaunter One-use item that creates a wormhole to a random beacon on station. The portal is unstable and will make you dizzy after using it. Can be worn on the belt slot to prevent death on chasms. 750 Credits Kinetic crusher.png Proto-kinetic Crusher A powerful two-handed melee weapon. Shoots kinetic bolts that don't deal damage, but can mark large creatures making the hammer deal increased damage (20→50 Brute) when used on them. It will deal even greater damage (80) on backstab. What makes the Crusher special, is that enemies killed by it have a chance to drop trophies, powerful “modkits” that can be attached to the Crusher. 750 Credits KineticAccelerator.png Proto-kinetic Accelerator The classic mining weapon. Buy it from here if you did not get one at roundstart. 750 Credits MiningScanner.png Advanced Mining Scanner A upgrade over the default Mining Scanner. This tool has a much larger detection radius of seven tiles (the entire screen), and updates more frequently. 800 Credits Resonator.png Resonator Another deadly tool. This will, when used on rock or an empty space, create a field on that spot that lasts for about five seconds before rupturing, causing serious damage (60 Brute) to anything standing on it. Just like the kinetic accelerator, it does reduced damage (20) in pressurized environments. You can activate it in your hand to switch the field to last between 3 and 5 seconds. Using it on an already-marked spot will instantly rupture the field. 800 Credits Fulton pack.png Fulton Extraction Pack A balloon that can be used to extract equipment or personnel who are outside (not within the station or the mining base) to a Fulton Recovery Beacon. Anything not bolted down can be moved. Swap which beacon the pack is aiming at by using the pack in hand. It has a limited number of uses, examine the pack to check how many are left. 1000 Credits Lazarus Injector A miracle injection capable of reviving simple living beings from death, making them friendly to you and the crew. Useless on humans, monkeys, and other complex living beings. Resurrect Ian for all access from a thankful Head of Personnel! Or make yourself a pet Goliath. The lazarus injector can be EMP'd to make revived mobs hostile to everyone but you. Also useful for bartering with the HoP or any staff with a pet. Expect R&D to want one, as it has high research value. 1000 Credits Pickaxe.png Silver-plated Pickaxe Slightly better than the default pickaxe, but still a lot worse than your starting KA. 1000 Credits Dufflebag.png Mining Conscription Kit Contains a proto-kinetic accelerator, survival knife, seclite, mesons, an ore scanner and satchel, an explorer suit and gas mask, a supply encryption key and a card which adds mining access to IDs. a 1500 Credits Mining jetpack.png Mining Jetpack Upgrade A jetpack that you can attach to any hardsuit for better mobility. Useless on Lavaland but great back on the station. 2000 Credits Mining Hardsuit.png Mining Hardsuit A nostalgic suit piece from the older days of asteroid mining. Useless on Lavaland but great to explore space. Can be upgraded up to 3 times with goliath plates for up to 60 melee resistance. 2000 Credits Pickaxe.png Diamond Pickaxe For when you want something shinier and better than your default pickaxe and the scientists are either too lazy or too dead to make drills or jackhammers. STILL worse than a basic KA. 2000 Credits Resonator.png Super (Upgraded) Resonator Like the regular resonator, but able to have 6 fields active at a time - with no damage penalty for fields that are detonated early. 2500 Credits Jump boots.png Jump Boots A pair of boots that allow you to jump over three tiles, skipping chasms. Does not prevent lava damage, however. 2500 Credits BScapsule.png Luxury Shelter Capsule Tired of cramped shelter capsules? This is for you! Comes with a three-course meal, a deluxe companion and much more. 3000 Credits BScapsule.png Mining Camp Capsule For the miner who wants a homebase in hell, the mining encampment comes with standard shelter amenities and more, including tolietries and a personal equipment vendor for multiple miners to really call home.( EXPERIMENTAL ITEM. NOT IMPLEMENTED INTO GAME YET.) 7500 Credits??? BScapsule.png Luxury Elite Bar Capsule A luxury bar in a capsule. Bartender required and not included. 10000 Credits Modkit.png KA White Tracer Rounds Mod A modkit that makes your KA's projectile flight path visible, in a white color. 100 Credits Modkit.png KA Adjustable Tracer Rounds Mod A modkit that makes your KA's projectile flight path visible. Use in hand to cycle between colors. 150 Credits Modkit.png Super KA Chassis Mod A modkit that makes your KA look yellow, like one of the no longer existing Super-Kinetic Accelerators. 250 Credits Modkit.png Hyper KA Chassis Mod A modkit that makes your KA look orange, like one of the no longer existing Hyper-Kinetic Accelerators. 300 Credits Modkit.png KA Range Mod A modkit that increases your KA's range by 1. 1000 Credits Modkit.png KA Damage Mod A modkit that increases your KA's damage by 10. 1000 Credits Modkit.png KA Cooldown Mod A modkit that reduces your KA's cooldown by 0.25 seconds. 1000 Credits Modkit.png KA AoE Damage Mod A modkit that makes your KA hit in a 3×3 AoE, dealing 20% of the original damage per modkit. 2000 Credits MiningDrone.png Mining Drone This helpful little guy goes around collecting loose ore so you don't have to. Will drop its haul when you hit it with the mining scanner. Clicking on it with an empty hand will toggle it between ore collection and wildlife fighting mode, where it will attack xenos with its built-in kinetic accelerator and drill. Will not pick up sand with no nearby ore around, for some reason. Comes with an upgraded welding tool if redeemed via voucher. It cannot be repaired while it is fighting. It can be further upgraded with special modules bought from the vending machine to increase its effectiveness. 500 Credits Circuitboard.png Drone: Melee Upgrade Increases the Drone's melee damage. 400 Credits Circuitboard.png Drone: Health Upgrade Increases the Drone's health. 400 Credits Circuitboard.png Drone: Ranged Upgrade Decreases the Drone's ranged weapon's cooldown. 600 Credits Circuitboard.png Drone: AI Upgrade Installs a high tech AI into the Drone (grants a ghost control over the Drone). 1000 Credits
Free Golem Equipment Vendor Free Golem Equipment Vendor
The Free Golem ship has some extra goodies:
Golem Equipment Vendor List Item Description Price Id regular.png Extra ID An extra ID that works for holding money and entering the station. 250 Credits Science Goggles.png Science Goggles A pair of regular science goggles. 250 Credits Monkey Cube.png Monkey Cube A single monkey cube. Just add water. 300 Credits Utilitybelt.png Toolbelt A toolbelt, like the ones on station. 350 Credits Sheetrd.png Royal Cape of the Liberator A replica of the Liberator's cape. A must-have for every Free Golem. 500 Credits Slimegrey.png Grey Slime Extract Ever wanted to do Xenobiology on Lavaland? There you go. 1000 Credits Modkit.png Trigger Guard Modification Kit A trigger modkit that allows golems to use the Kinetic Accelerator. 1700 Credits Box.png The Liberator's Legacy A box with all circuit boards needed to build your own RnD department! The RnD console synchronizes with the station's server. 2000 Credits RnD Gear The following is a list of advance items that can be acquired only from RnD, using a combination of minerals and high tech research.
RnD Gear Item Description Miningdrill.png Mining Drill Can be acquired early on from RnD. It's twice as fast as the standard Pickaxe but is quickly superseded by better variants and is expensive for what it gives. Diamonddrill.png Diamond Tipped Mining Drill Very powerful drill, able to almost instantly mine mineral walls. Very expensive in terms of Diamonds needed to produce however. Sonicjack.png Sonic Jackhammer The epitome of mining. Can practically instantly mine through rock and walls. But it requires three times the Diamonds of a Diamond Tipped Drill. Modkit.png KA Triggerguard Mod A modkit that will allow species that cannot normally fire guns to use the KA, such as golems and hulks. Modkit.png KA Range Mod A modkit that increases your KA's range by 1. Modkit.png KA Damage Mod A modkit that increases your KA's damage by 10. Modkit.png KA Cooldown Mod A modkit that reduces your KA's cooldown by 0.25 seconds. Modkit.png KA AoE Mining Mod A modkit that makes your KA mine rocks in a 3×3 AoE. It does not, however, deal AoE damage. You're usually better off carrying a plasma cutter to deal with rocks and keep the KA for combat. Plasma Cutter.png Plasma Cutter A fast mining (and welding) tool. Shoots rock-breaking bolts that pierce up to 5 rocks per shot. Rechargeable by inserting plasma ore or sheets into it. Less efficient in combat than a KA, however, and even less when in high pressure. Adv plasma cutter.gif Advanced Plasma Cutter A very fast mining (and welding) tool. Shoots rock-breaking bolts that pierce up to 10 rocks per shot, basically allowing you to pierce rock as fast as you can walk. Rechargeable by inserting plasma ore or sheets into it. Bluespacemining.png Mining Satchel of Holding Very cheap mining satchel that can hold an unlimited amount of minerals and ore. NV meson glasses.gif Night Vision Mesons These glasses work like normal mesons, but they can see perfectly in the darkness negating the need for flashlights in lavaland.
All of this gear is printed out at the supply department protolathe.
The Wildlife Lavaland is filled with a variety of bloodthirsty alien lifeforms populating the caverns, walking just fine over the ponds and puddles of lava. Fortunately, you can fight them whilst taking minimal damage, if you have the know-how.
Useful items can be harvested from these creatures' corpses should you triumph; butcher them with a knife by attacking the corpse on Harm intent and the goods will spill out!
Wildlife Creature Description Threat Legion.png Legions Considered annoying at worst, and a free minor heal at best. These creatures unleash legion skulls, one after another at you whilst trying to keep a distance. Fortunately, each of its spawn dies in a single hit (even a single punch), and deal tickle damage to you; the legion itself can't directly hit you. It's best to go on the aggressive against these with pickaxe in hand, advancing constantly whilst picking away each of its brood. Once you've closed the gap or have it stuck in a corner, it's toast. If you fall unconscious while you're being attacked, however, you will instantly die and be turned into a Legion.
It drops a soul when killed. Hit yourself with the soul and it will give you a slowdown immunity for a while and slight heal (100 burn and 100 brute over time). Don't think you can store these for later, though – they will spoil after a few minutes unless you use a stabilizer from the vending machine. Using more than one legion soul while another one is active will give you a virus that has to be cured with one of the Lavaland plants (use Health Analyzer for full info about cure) if you don't succeed, you're forever bound to lavaland unless your fellow Miners save you and clone you. Fun fact: Only active legion souls can be inserted in one's chest through surgery to provide a hands-free use of the legion soul, that will automatically activate if you fall into crit. tl;dr strategy: Attack with your pickaxe/knife. Hack your way through the legion and its heads until the host is mush. Alternatively, two KA hits kill a Legion, or one KC mark detonation.
Low Watcher.png Watchers Fierce, territorial beasts capable of firing freezing beams, cold enough to inflict serious freeze burns while the watcher closes in and attacks its immobilized target. Fortunately, they don't attack unless someone comes close to them, so if you don't feel confident, you can just wait until you have a few more goliath plates, or maybe some gibtonite.
Butcher a watcher for 2 pieces of diamond ore. Use your ore box for cover while shooting them with your KA from a distance. Alternatively, with a KC, close the distance before it shoots you, then alternate marking it and hitting it, and pop a survival pen afterwards. Tip: Watchers are notably weak to explosions due to the nature of their bodies, taking over half their health in damage from even the weakest of explosions.
Medium EdgyGoliath.png Goliaths The bane of many careless miners. These monsters carry a hefty health pool, a mean wallop, and a deceptively dangerous ranged tentacle attack. They are inherently resistant to lasers, so using a KA is the best option regarding dealing with these. They move at a slow pace, stopping every couple seconds to burrow tentacles under you. These will trap you for a long duration if you stand on top of them for too long.
Fighting them is simple: Shoot, step back, shoot, avoid tentacles. Repeat this process until it stops moving. Alternatively, with a KC, get in mark range, mark it, run in, hit it, run out, avoid tentacles, repeat. Butcher a goliath for its hide and its meat. Goliath plates can be used to reinforce your hardsuit and helmet a maximum of three times, allowing you to turn your suit into something closer to a piece of riot gear if you hunt some Goliaths. The meat can be cooked in lava.
High Tendril.png Necropolis Tendrils Huge spikes of organic matter, from the base of which crawl out countless monsters. Each Tendril only spawns one kind of monster, between legions, goliaths and watchers, every once in a while. The tendrils themselves are fairly fragile and will die in a few well-placed shots, if you can fight through the other mobs. Once killed, it will drop its loot, shake the earth around it for a while, and then spawn a huge chasm around it, destroying anything that did not get out of the way in time. Chasms are deadly even after formation and should be avoided.
Fighting them can involve killing all its protectors patiently, or using tactics like gibtonite. Either way, once killed, ignore the remaining monsters, grab the chest, and RUN. When killed, they spawn necropolis chests which can contain a variety of useful artifacts, that usually cannot be found anywhere else. See the table below for the possible loot.
Medium to Very High Goldgrub.png Goldgrubs Mostly harmless and quite rare. These creatures swallow up any loose, valuable ore they can find and flee when approached by a human, smashing through even solid rock on their path of escape before burrowing into the ground. A tactic toward killing one is to throw an ore towards it, and quickly charging in to kill it while it's busy eating, but note that kinetic accelerator shots do nothing against these. Their skin is reflective, requiring a pickaxe melee smackdown to ensure a kill.
When killed, they spit up multiple pieces of ore, based on what they ate. Feed them many different types of ore before killing them, and they'll spit out more of each type than you gave it! Just don't let it get away after spooking it.
None Ash drake.png Megafauna Extremely big and powerful creatures, that randomly spawn in lavaland. Each one of these emits a GPS Signal that can be tracked with your own GPS, to either seek or avoid them. To beat them and get their valuable loot, you must either have good equipment or be VERY good at dodging their attacks, as failure usually means not only death, but gibbing as well, meaning that unless you were clone-scanned your body is unrecoverable. Their slow speed means that you can usually outrun them, although you should be careful of not letting them hitch a ride in the mining ferry, as the station has very few weapons that can damage megafauna.
EXTREME Shiny Mobs Common lavaland mobs now have rare mutations. Common mining mobs have a 1% chance on initialize to gain a new appearance and new stats, however, this is 5% for legions.
Wildlife Creature Description Threat Dwarflegion.png Dwarf Legion On the rare occasion that a human with dwarfism falls to a legion, they can become infested like any other. Dwarf legions have 20 less health but move slightly faster.
It drops a soul, the exact same soul as dropped by the normal legion.
It's still rather harmless. 2 KA shots kill it, a couple of pickax swings will knock it out.
Low Magmawingwatcher.png Magmawing Watcher Whenever a shiny watcher appears, (which is a 1% chance), there's a 75% chance that the mutant is going to be a magmawing watcher, and a 25% chance that it is going to be an icewing watcher. When raised very close to lava, some watchers adapt to the extreme heat and change coloration. Such watchers are known as magmawings and use intense heat as their tool for hunting and defense. The magmawing watcher shoots scorching blasts instead of freezing blasts, which heats you up and can set you on fire.
Unlike normal watchers, a shot from this watcher will set you on fire, and trying to roll it out will only result in the watcher getting more free shots on you, which means that you're pretty much forced to man up, pop a survival medi-pen, and melee it to death while you lose half of your HP to fire.
It has normal watcher loot. It's really simply just not worth fighting.
High Icewingwatcher.png Icewing Watcher Whenever a shiny watcher appears, (which is a 1% chance), there's a 25% chance that the mutant is going to be an icewing watcher, and a 75% chance that it is going to be a magmawing watcher. Very rarely, some watchers will eke out an existence far from heat sources. In the absence of warmth, their wings will become papery and turn to an icy blue; these watchers are fragile but much quicker to fire their trademark freezing blasts. The icewing watcher has 50 less health and fire shots 33% more often, as well as dropping 5 diamonds and no sinew
It's a beefed up watcher which is more tanky and shoots more often. Treat it like a normal watcher, except you have to get into cover a bit quicker each time.
It has normal watcher loot, but drops 5 diamonds instead of 2, and drops no sinew.
High Ancientgoliath.png Ancient Goliath Goliaths are biologically immortal, and rare specimens have survived for centuries. This one is clearly ancient, and its tentacles constantly churn the earth around it. Tentacles constantly extrude from the ground around it, even when it is not aggroed to any particular object.
It is recommended that you clear an area around the ancient goliath so that you can take shots at the ancient goliath without getting snagged by the tentacles. Once you've done that, just run circles around the thing while shooting at it, and dodging any emerging tentacles.
When killed, they drop their goliath hide directly, more can be obtained through butchering.
Very High The Loot Necropolis Chest Loot Crusher trophies Each time you kill a Lavaland enemy with the Crusher, there is a chance that it drops a trophy. These can be attached to your Crusher for unique effects.
Item Enemy Description Legion skull.png Legion skull Legion Makes your Crusher recharge faster. Goliath tentacle trophy.png Goliath tentacle Goliath Mark detonations deal more damage the more health you're missing. Watcher wing.png Watcher wing Watcher Mark detonations briefly delay some creatures from using certain attacks. Magma wing.png Magmawing Watcher wing Magmawing Watcher After a mark detonation, the next destabilizer shot will deal damage. Ice wing.png Icewing Watcher wing Icewing Watcher Identical to regular Watcher wings. Hunter eye.png Eye of a blood-drunk hunter Blood-drunk Miner On mark detonation, gain stun immunity, damage-slowdown immunity and 90% damage reduction for one second. Tail spike.png Tail spike Ash Drake Mark detonations deal area damage and push enemies back. Demon claws.png Demon claws Bubblegum Melee hits deal bonus damage and heal you. 500% as strong during a mark detonation. Blaster tubes.png Blaster tubes Colossus On mark detonation, the next shot moves slower, but deals damage. Vortex talisman.png Vortex talisman Hierophant Mark detonations create barriers that only you can pass. Craftables Not only can you kill the local fauna, you can also cobble together items from their smashed remains. Open the crafting menu for this.
Item Description Dragon armor.png Ash Drake armor A really strong, storm proof hardsuit that doesn't slow you down. 5 Ash Drake hide, 2 Watcher sinews, 10 bones. Goliath cloak.png Goliath Cloak Weaker than the standard explorer suits and can't be upgraded, but way more stylish. 2 leather, 2 Watcher sinews, 2 Goliath hides. Goliath boat.png Lava Boat A boat that can travel over lava, but is terribly unsafe as it'll usually set both you and held items on fire. Needs an oar to move. Crafted from three Goliath hides. Oar.png Goliath Bone Oar An oar crafted from two Goliath bones. Robust. Bonfire.png Bonfire Perfect for roasting lizard tails over. Five tower-cap logs. Mushroom bowl.png Mushroom Bowl A bowl made out of mushrooms. Crafted from five Polypore mushroom shavings.
Xenoforms You're not always the only sentient being on the planet. Aside from the lovecraftian horrors living down there you may also content with several groups or factions of beings on the planet. Some hostile, some friendly.
The follow is a list of all known sentient groups found on the planet based on information sent from recon squads.
Podmen Recon Expedition #4 Threat Level: Minimal, Non Hostile Note: A small group of podmen were observed living inside a sealed vault. They appear minimally armed and seem to avoid leaving their home.
Golems Recon Expedition #9 Threat Level: Minimal, Non Hostile Note: A unidentified flying object was seen crashing by Recon Team Charlie during expedition #8. Alpha team on expedition #9 located a group of golems, the golems appeared utterly uninterested in their surroundings all things considered.
Ashwalkers Recon Expedition #13 Threat Level: Medium, Hostile Note: It appears a group of Basiliscus Lizretus, also known as Lizardmen, live on the planet, they are hostile to all intruders. These 'ashwalkers' only started to appear when mining operations started, they are agile but lightly armed, wielding primitively forged armor and spears. They appear to also have a hostile relationship with the wildlife, having been observed killing and dragging wildlife corpses away, as to why they need these corpses the recon team is unable to ascertain.
Syndicate Agents Recon Expedition #45 Threat Level:Extreme, Hostile Notes: It has come to attention that the syndicate (direct corporation/group unknown) has recently set up a large compound in lavaland. This may explain where expedition #38-44 has gone. They are equipped with high end weaponry and has been stated that trace bits of gunpowder has been found around the lava moat that the base is stationed in, suggesting that this base may be wired to self-destruct. We also detected radio waves coming and going from the compound. If found, turn back and report to your superiors immediately.
The Ores These are what you should be looking out for, generally try and get a good mix of the more exotic ore types. Iron ore is ok but it sells for little and is highly abundant on the station already.
Name Wall Raw Ore Money Reward Value Processed Ore Frequency Uses Iron Ironwall.png Ironore.png 1 Metal.png Very Common For just about everything. Sand Minefloor.png Sandore.png 1 Glass.png Very Common For making glass, which has a plethora of station applications. Activate sand in your hand to make sandstone bricks. These can be used to make dirt which can be used to grow plants. Plasma Plasmawall.png Plasmaore.png 15 Plasmadone.png Common Ship sheets back to Centcom for bonus money to the cargo budget. Silver Silverwall.png Silverore.png 16 Silverdone.png Semi-Common Making dosh, mechs, and researching Bluespace. Gold Goldwall.png Goldore.png 18 Golddone.png Semi-Common For making various electronics or pimping out Beepsky. Titanium Titaniumrock.png Titaniumore.png 30 Titaniumdone.png Uncommon For high-tech mechs or R&D components. Also for building shuttle walls and floors. Uranium Uraniumwall.png Uraniumore.png 30 Uraniumdone.png Uncommon For making you radioactive (notice: no joke, this shit is deadly as a wall or a door). Delicious cocktails. Diamond Diamondwall.png Diamondore.png 50 Diamonddone.png Rare For making mech parts, among other industrial uses. Bluespace Crystal BluespaceCrystalWall.png Bluespace Crystal.png 50 BS polycrystal.png Rare These crystals can be used in various ways. Give them to science to increase bluespace science, hold onto them to use as a risk free jaunter, or throw them at people to make them teleport randomly (often into space.) Bananium Bananimumwall.png Bananimumore.png 60 Bananiumdone.png HONK! A rare and unusual mineral found exclusively in clown-controlled space. Used only for the H.O.N.K. mech and other clownlike items. Gibtonite Gibtonitewall.gif Gibtoniteore.png N/A Uncommon For trolling miners blowing shit up, whether they be solid asteroid or other things. Hitting it with your mining tools will start a chain reaction. If you don't stop the reaction with your mining scanner in time, the gibtonite will explode. If you do, you can mine the ore, pick it up (you need both hands free) and use it as an explosive. The closer the gibtonite was to exploding before defused, the more potent its power. Cannot be forged or turned in to the Ore Redemption Machine Ore Redemption Machine, so don't bring any of this to the station or else you'll be arrested ignored by security because they don't know what the hell it is. Gibtonite can be used to craft a Chemical Payload ChemPayload.gif. How to obtain Gibtonite: Hit ore, count to 8 flashes of the ore then hit it with your scanner. Gibtonite varies in the number of reactions it has, so you may get lower quality ore. Use 2 of the 0 reaction ores (the most potent) to blow open the AI core and make it cry at it's malf failure!
Alloys Some ores can be smelted to produce alloys.
Plasteel Plasteel
Plastitanium Plastitanium Found in: Syndicate spacecraft Used for: Evil walls and floors Strategy: Use it to create the walls and flooring used in a Syndicate spacecraft Description An alloy of plasma and titanium. Who Needs What Miners don't have to deliver ores directly to departments – they can if they want, or if those bastards are too lazy to leave their fortress of autism science – but it never hurts to know what to aim for.
Scientists at least a bit of every ore. In exchange, they may give you upgrades for your Kinetic Accelerator, a Plasma Cutter, a Mining Satchel of Holding, and, if you're lucky, Night Vision Meson Scanners or a Bag of Holding! Roboticists need diamond, uranium, silver and gold for building mech parts. Give them enough and you've indirectly helped out most of the departments on the station if the Roboticists are competent enough to build helpful stompy mechs for everybody! Too bad the lavaproof Firefighter is the only good mech for mining. The Quartermaster may want mineral sheets to trade them in for bonus supply credits. Plasma in particular is both common and valuable. Everybody could always use more iron, glass and plasteel, but especially Roboticists and Station Engineers. The Chemist and Xenobiologist will all appreciate having extra plasma. A competent Virologist can use several sheets of uranium to create incredibly powerful healing viruses that let you heal out of crit in two seconds. A Clown with Bananium is a grateful and dangerous ally. The Bartender can use a few sheets of uranium or iron to craft some of his rarest cocktails. Secrets of Lavaland While on Lavaland, you may come upon artificial structures. They can have items ranging from magical artifacts, to other lifeforms, to alien facehuggers. If you are at all unsure, always let your mining buddies know using :u before going in: some ruins can be very dangerous.
Tips Always go with at least two other people when mining. Not only can you mine faster together, the chance that they could both be 'lings/traitors is rather low. Pickaxe to the skull tends to put down most people. You can view the contents of a mining satchel as if it were a backpack. Middle mouse click swaps your hand, allowing you to shoot minerals and grat them with the satchel quickly. Minebots are great at distracting monsters. Just walk near and bash the distracted target with your drill. They can take quite a beating, though goliaths can take them down pretty quickly if you're not quick enough. Plus they collect all the crap gibtonite left. The Proto-kinetic Accelerator can destroy electrified grilles without needing a pair of insulated gloves. The Proto-kinetic Accelerator will obliterate a space carp in one hit while in space. You can dual wield PKAs. Use harm intent to fire both at once. The Head of Personnel may reward you with all access if you resurrect Ian. Also, sometimes the Research Director will reward you for a pet gold grub. If you're expecting trouble on the station, consider taking out a window on the mining shuttle before you return to make a quick getaway so you're not trapped like a rat in a cage. The mining drone can be repaired with a welding tool, but not in the middle of a fight. A goliath will always win in a one on one fight with a mining drone. You could alternatively buy the drone, fully upgrade it, give it an AI Module, and tell it to go valid-hunt. A mining drone dragging a bar of soap is surprisingly robust against even changelings. Life improving things: Mining suit upgrade : Goliath plates add +10% melee resist each time when applied to a suit. The plates will stack until they reach 30%, which may help you live in case a goliath grabs you. Security Jumpsuit : This gives a +10% melee resist to everywhere but your head. Nag the QM or HoP to give you one. Augmentations : Augs are VERY useful for miners, as healing with a welder is ultimately easier. Plus they work differently than armor when it comes to protection, instead reducing all brute damage taken by an augmented body part by 5 (4 for burn). Also they are ashproof. If you get fully augmented, you are ash storm proof. Downside : EMP vulnerability. Kinetic accelerators can be used as infinite tools to navigate space, since every time you fire, it'll throw you in the opposite direction. Sentient minebots can very easily be commanded to go help security if there is an imminent threat to the station. Their melee saw is very robust, and works just as well as on the station as it is on lavaland. The proto-kinetic accelerator that they are equipped with is very robust when in space. If you don't have a mining satchel of holding, and no ore box, you can deconstruct tables in the library (the curator is probably too busy organizing a game of D&D to really care much) to obtain wooden planks. You can then use these wooden planks to fabricate an ore box. If science hasn't researched Advanced Mining Technology within 10 minutes of the start of the shift, please remind them. There is normally at least 1 single person in science competent enough to do so.
Welcome, Shaft Miner, to the wonderful caverns of this colony.
Contents 1 Chatting it Up 2 The Objective 2.1 Who Needs What 3 Smelting Chatting it Up You can talk with all of your mining buddies, as well as the other cargo technicians and the all-important Chief Executive Officer, over the Supply channel using :u or :h.
The Objective You're here to mine, so get digging! Put on your mining hard-suit (make sure to put a large oxygen tank in your suit storage or at least refill your emergency tank in case of cave ins), check your internals, and cycle yourself out the airlock. Then grab your drill in one hand, click on an ore tile, and pick up the ore with your mining satchel. You can then empty the satchel into an Ore Box, so it's probably best to drag one around with you.
If you prefer heavy machinery, you can use a mining drill to dig into the asteroid for you. This is the only way to get hydrogen.
Once you're full to bursting with ores, drag your crate to the conveyor belt outside of the airlock. From there, you can use the machines and computers to smelt raw ore to its finished state and stack them up to 50-count piles. From there, it's off to wherever those resources need to be, but hopefully you have a Cargo Technician for that. Back to the mines!
Details on how do to your job can be found in the Guide to Mining.
Who Needs What Scientists want a little silver, gold, plasma, uranium, diamond, and solid hydrogen. Refine a little of each for research (5-10 blocks each should do it; 2-5 for the diamond and hydrogen). In exchange, they may give you more advanced mining tools (like a sonic jackhammer), for even faster digging. Roboticists need metal, plasteel, diamond, uranium, silver and gold for building mech parts. Give them enough and you might get a big, fancy machine for your troubles! The Ripley is the best mech for mining. Everybody could always use more metal and glass, but especially Guild Adepts. Smelting Processing method Name (Raw ore) Smelting Compressing Alloying Rough Diamond Diamond Sheets Hematite Iron Ingot Steel Sheet Raw Hydrogen Tritium Ingot Metallic Hydrogen Sheet Native Gold Gold Ingot Native Silver Silver Ingot Plasma Ore Explosion Plasma Crystal Plasteel Sheets, Borosilicate Glass Sheets Pitchblende Uranium Sheet Pitchblende Brick Graphene/Raw Carbon Plastic Sheet Graphene “Sheet” Steel Sheet Raw Platinum Platinum Ingot Osmium Ingot Sand Glass Sheet Sandstone Borosilicate Glass Sheet Alloying Ingredient Ingredient Result 2 Steel 1 Plasma Ore Plasteel Sheet 2 Sand 1 Plasma Ore Borosilicate Glass Sheet 1 Hematite 1 Graphene/Raw Carbon Steel Sheet
Workin' In The Coal Mine Mining Dock The Mining Dock is your access to the Mining Station. Being a miner can be somewhat tedious, but you serve a crucial role in the R&D food chain, and can accrue some decent personal rewards. Just follow a few guidelines to keep yourself from becoming dead in the mines.
Your workplace, Lavaland, has some hazards:
Ash storms will cut right through your clothes, dealing constant burn damage if you are outside. A rain of dark particles outdoors indicate an ash storm. Some items of clothing can grant protection to ash storms. Lava - one step in and you'll be badly burned and on fire. Chasms - Anything that falls into one will disappear from this world. The risk of these hazards can be reduced by watching your step and being aware of your surroundings. Don't walk into lava, chasms, or outside during an ash storm. You'll get a text warning not long before a ash storm is about to begin, so long as you stay near shelter (or have a bluespace shelter capsule with you) then you'll be fine.
If you run into rock with a pick or drill in your inactive hand, it will automatically start digging for you. ALSO, it is important to note that you are able to click more than ONE square of rock or sand at a time when mining or digging for sand! As long as it's accessible, you don't have to wait to finish digging before you start digging again, so you can have several dig jobs running in parallel. Just don't change hands or move until all dig jobs are done.
The minerals on Lavaland have two different levels of hardness. Level 1 minerals are light grey, and can be broken in 1 hit. Level 2 minerals are found on Hardened Basalt, a darker type of rock that needs 2 hits to be broken, and spawns more ores once broken.
Working With Your Boss Who is your boss? You answer to the Head of Personnel, much like the rest of Supply – but usually, you'll just be talking to the Quartermaster or other Miners. The Quartermaster can watch cameras on lavaland and has full access to Mining, so keep that in mind.
The Objective You're here to mine, so get digging! Once you have a sufficient amount of ores to deposit, be sure to empty your orebox with the ORM and claim your points. With the points you've claimed, you can get some pretty robust gear from the Mining Rewards Vendor. After you've done this and gotten your upgrades and extra equipment, head back down there and get back to work!
How to Do This Gear up! From the mining equipment locker, you will need Meson Scanner goggles, a mining scanner, a bluespace shelter capsule (DON'T FORGET!) and your standard issue proto-kinetic accelerator. If you want, there is also a additional mining satchel, and a shovel. Use your voucher on a mining vending machine to select your choice of advanced mining tool, listed below. Go to the Lavaland Mining Station and get an explorer suit, explorer gas mask, and oxygen tank from Mining 'EVA'. On the western side of the base, there is a mini-Medbay where you can find first-aid kits. There is also a maintenance room adjacent to it where you can top off internals. Before you go, you'll want an Ore Box, which can hold a massive amount of minerals. The mining base and mining shuttle have multiple of these for you to use.. Make sure you've packed a bluespace shelter capsule if you plan on a long distance expedition, it can shield you in the event of a nasty storm. Find dem minerals. Click the scanner in hand to activate it: every once in a while it sends out a pulse that lets you see deposits in the rock a few tiles away from you. Try to get a mixture of every type of mineral. Pick up minerals by walking over them with a mining satchel on your person. If you're pulling an ore box, this will automatically pick them up with the ore box aswell. Go to the ore redeemer and get points. If R&D is proactive, the ore redeemer can be upgraded for extra mineral counts and point redemption. At the mining rewards vendor and the supply techfab, you can get upgrades that make mining a lot easier on yourself. Use your better gear to push deeper into Lavaland. If you feel robust enough, explore some Ruins and die horribly get amazing rewards. If you feel VERY robust, look for Megafauna with your GPS and try to kill it, for extremely painful death valuable loot. Voucher You start the shift with a complimentary mining voucher, worth one free item out of a selection of seven. These items, and their strengths, are:
Bluespace Capsule and Explorer's Webbing: The webbing (you put on your belt slot) allows you to carry even more mining equipment - having a second shelter capsule is nice too. Resonator Kit: Comes with a resonator and mini extinguisher. Mining Drone: A little companion that helps in storing ore and hunting wildlife. Only useful once you install the sentience upgrade module. Comes with an industrial welding tool, a welding mask and a KA modkit that allows shots to pass through the drone. Extraction and Rescue Kit: Contains a fulton extraction pack and a beacon, which allows you to send back home minerals, items and dead miners without having to use the ferry. As a bonus, you get 30 marker beacons too. Crusher Kit: Contains a proto-kinetic crusher and a mini fire extinguisher. The crusher is two-handed and hard to use without getting hit, but has a chance to make fauna drop powerful trophies. Mining Conscription Kit: A dufflebag full of basic items for one conscript - pickaxe, kinetic accelerator, explorer's suit, mesons, mining scanner and satchel, gas mask, a supply radio key and a special card that adds mining access to IDs. Good for when you want to recruit metafriends fresh conscripts. Bag of Lesser Mining Charges: A duffelbag containing 3 lesser mining charges. For Great Profit! Mining for the sake of it can only get you so far. By mining minerals and returning them to the station you'll accrue mining points, you can then use these points to buy better and more powerful equipment and supplies from a equipment vendor. You can then in turn use these items to push further into Lavaland to mine better minerals, fell stronger wildlife and find greater treasure. Consider it all an investment.
A Wormhole Jaunter can help you escape what would have been a death trap. Or saving up for a Legion Stabilizer can let you save their instant healing heart for later. Grabbing Survival Medipens is also a great investment as the robust healing mix provided can save you when you're in a pinch.
Gear The following is a list of mining equipment:
Essential Equipment Item Description Explorersuit.png Explorer Suit This comes with a inbuilt hood. It provides some protection against heat and cold, and works as decent armor. It is not spaceproof, but can hold a full-sized oxygen tank or other mining gear. You can also reinforce it with up to six goliath plates, with three going on the suit and three going on the hood. Gasmask mining.pngOxygentank.png Explorer Gas Mask and Oxygen Tank So you can have oxygen when mining. Oxygen tanks are available from the tank storage unit, and can be worn on your suits storage slot. Running out of oxygen is unlikely with the full sized tank. You can also collapse your mask to eat if you are hungry. MGlasses.png MiningScanner.gif Meson Scanners and Automatic Mining Scanner Mesons allow you to see the layout around you, useful when hunting megafauna and used with a light source. Activating the mining scanner will briefly flash any ore on screen - it works even inside a box. Can be used to stop gibtonite from exploding by tapping it with the scanner. GPSm.gif Global Positioning System (GPS) The crew monitoring console back on the station won't catch your suit sensor signal from all the way down on the planet. Having one of these on you will help others track down your body if you happen to develop a case of the dead. In addition it can be used to locate other miners (who bothered to take it) as well as “lost” signals, be wary. Be sure to set your name on the GPS. Knife survivial.png Survival Knife Use it for butchering the wildlife (hit while on harm intent). It's as strong against mobs as a pickaxe, but you can't mine with it. You can store it in your boots or proto-kinetic accelerator to save space, but remember to alt-click the boots to draw the knife back out. BScapsule.png Bluespace shelter capsule Activate this in your hand, and it'll near instantly produce a beautiful shelter. Ash storms do not hurt you inside, but wildlife can break through the walls. The shelter contains a cupboard which contains a guitar and some donk pockets. It also has a sleeper which requires another person to use. Never leave home without one. You're issued one for free in your the mining lockers on station. OreSatchel.png Ore Satchel For carrying ore without using a mining cart, holds 50 ore nuggets. Empty it into boxes by using the satchel on them. Put it in one of your pocket slots, then start dragging an ore box. Any ore you walk over will be transferred to the box. KineticAccelerator.png Proto-kinetic Accelerator A gun. The good part is that it packs a punch in a vacuum and has infinite shots. The bad part is that it tickles in pressurized environments, has a cooldown after each shot, and has a range of three steps. Each blast can clear a rock wall if you feel like digging using this, which it can do well. Standard issue equipment you can get from your mining locker. Modifications found in the vendor or from the protolathe if researched. Miscellaneous Equipment Items that, while not critical to take, can be situationally useful.
Item Description Bodycam Miner.png Miner Body Camera A wearable camera, capable of streaming a live feed. Provides a live feed to anyone viewing the linked camera network. Very useful for locating you if your GPS is turned off or lost. Pickaxe.png Pickaxe Somewhat antiquated thanks to the prevalence of the proto-kinetic accelerator and resonator. Nevertheless it can be used to dig wide tunnels, robust certain monsters in melee combat and as a backup if you lose your resonator. It can also fit inside a belt chest webbing. Shovel.png Shovel Gathering sand. You can stick this in your backpack. Orebox.png Ore box Used for carrying huge amounts of ore. While a satchel can only hold 50 nuggets, this can hold an unlimited sum. You cannot carry it but you can drag or push it with you. Use your satchel on the box to empty it into the box. Crowbar.png Crowbar Just in case when coming back from the mines there is a blackout. Spawns in your backpack. Stimpen.png Survival Medipen A cocktail of powerful healing chemicals. Contains Salbutamol, Leporazine, Tricordrazine, Epinephrine, lavaland extract and Omnizine. Voucher.gif Mining Voucher Found in your backpack, exchange this at the mining equipment vendor for one of several items. Seclite.png Seclite A beefed up flashlight. Put this on your KA to free up inventory space. Advanced Gear The following are mining items available from vending machines, protolathes or necropolis chests.
Mining Vendor Equipment Mining vendor default.png These items can either be acquired from a voucher, or are bought with points earned via mining via the redemption machine on the station. Prices are included.
Mining Equipment Vendor List Golem Vendor Equipment Mining vendor default.png These items can be bought with points earned via mining via the redemption machine on the free golem ruin. Prices are included.
Golem Equipment Vendor List Protolathe Gear ProtoAni.gif The following is a list of advanced items that can be acquired from protolathes once researched.
Protolathe Gear List Necropolis Chest Loot Necrocrate.png The following is a list of items that can be acquired from necropolis chests, obtainable by defeating necropolis tendrils. For the bosses' loot, see Megafauna.
Necropolis Chest Loot List The Wildlife - Non-Sentient Lavaland is filled with a variety of bloodthirsty alien lifeforms populating the caverns, walking just fine over the ponds and puddles of lava. Fortunately, you can fight them whilst taking minimal damage, if you have the know-how.
Useful items can be harvested from these creatures' corpses should you triumph; butcher them with a knife by attacking the corpse on Harm intent and the goods will spill out!
Legion Legion.png Considered annoying at worst, and a free medkit at best.
Statistics Difficulty: Easy
Speed: Slow
Attacks The legion itself cannot harm you directly. It will retreat from you constantly: maintaining a distance while attacking.
The legion attacks are as follows:
Unleashes legion skulls which seek out a target. Each of these skulls die with a single hit and deal light damage to the target. If a skull attacks an unconscious being, it kills it instantly and transforms it into a legion. Loot When a legion dies, its original form is revealed. Legions do not drop any crafting materials, but they are valuable sources of healing to both miners and ash walkers, as they drop valuable legion cores which heal you greatly. The body they spawn once dead can be very useful to ashwalker reproduction.
It leaves behind the following: 1. The original body of itself. Usually these will be dead ashwalker bodies, but there may be a miner or something special that appears occassionally too! 2. A legion coreLegionsoul.gif. Hit yourself with the soul and it will instantly heal 25 brute and burn damage, and remove slowdown from damage for a minute. Don't think you can store these for later, though – they will spoil after a few minutes, making them completely useless until you use a stabilizer from the vending machine. However, legion core can be inserted in one's chest through surgery as an organ to provide a hands-free full heal.
Other variants There is one other version of the legion that is possible to come across, this has a 5% chance of appearing and a 100% chance of appearing in the Cafe of Broken Dreams Lava land ruin.
Dwarf Legion Dwarflegion.png On the rare occasion that a human with dwarfism falls to a legion, they can become infested like any other. Dwarf legions have 20 less health but move slightly faster. It's still rather harmless. 2 KA shots kill it, a couple of pickax swings will knock it out. It has the same loot as a normal legion.
Watcher Watcher.png A levitating, fierce, territorial eye-like creature held aloft by winglike formations of sinew. A sharp spine of crystal protrudes from its body.
Statistics Difficulty: Medium
Speed: Very Slow
Attacks Despite the slowdown they give to a target once hit, watchers can be kited. They will not attack unless you get close to them. They are very weak to explosions.
The watcher attacks are as follows:
Fires freezing beams at a target, cooling their body temperature and causing them to become slower. Hits a target in melee range, dealing mild brute damage. Loot Watchers leave behind a body to butcher.
When this body is butchered, it leaves behind the following: 1. 2 pieces of diamond oreDiamond ore.png. 2. 2 pieces of watcher sinewSinew.png. 3. 1 boneBone.png.
Other variants There are two other versions of the watcher that are possible to come across, these have a 1% chance of appearing.
Magmawing Watcher Magmawingwatcher.png The most common variant, when raised very close to lava some watchers adapt to the extreme heat and change coloration. Such watchers are known as magmawings and use intense heat as their tool for hunting and defense. The magmawing watcher shoots scorching blasts instead of freezing blasts, which heats you up and sets you on fire. Unlike normal watchers, a shot from this watcher will set you on fire and trying to roll it out will only result in the watcher getting more free shots on you, which means that you're pretty much forced to man up, pop a survival medi-pen, and melee it to death while you lose half of your HP to fire. It has normal watcher loot when butchered.
Icewing Watcher Icewingwatcher.png The least common variant, some watchers will eke out an existence far from heat sources. In the absence of warmth, their wings will become papery and turn to an icy blue; these watchers are fragile but much quicker to fire their trademark freezing blasts. The icewing watcher has 50% less health and fire shots 33% more often. Getting hit by a blast from an icewing watcher freezes you in a block of ice for a very short amount of time. Their loot is similar to the normal watcher when butchered: 5 diamond ore but no sinew.
Goliath EdgyGoliath.png The bane of many careless miners. These monsters carry a hefty health pool, a mean wallop, and a deceptively dangerous ranged attack. They are inherently resistant to lasers, so using a KA is the best option regarding dealing with these.
Statistics Difficulty: Hard
Speed: Slow
Attacks Goliaths will chase you down slowly, stopping every couple seconds to attack. Fighting them is simple: Shoot, step back, shoot, avoid tentacles. Repeat this process until it stops moving. Goliaths are much more lethal in groups, as you'll need to dodge tentacles more often and even two goliaths can stunlock you to death if one hits.
The goliath attacks are as follows:
Burrows tentacles underneath the target, trapping anything caught for a long duration. Slams itself into the target, dealing medium brute damage. Loot Goliaths leave behind a body to butcher. Goliath plates can be used to reinforce explorer suits, mining hardsuits and mechs. The meat can be cooked in lava.
When butchered, the body releases the following items: 1. 2 pieces of goliath meatGoliathmeat.png. 2. 2 bonesBone.png. 3. 1 goliath hideGoliathhide.png.
Other variants There is one other version of the goliath that is possible to come across, this has a 1% chance of appearing.
Ancient Goliath Ancientgoliath.png This one is clearly ancient, and its tentacles constantly churn the earth around it. Tentacles constantly extrude from the ground around it, even when it is not aggroed to any particular object. When killed, they drop their goliath hide directly, more can be obtained through butchering.
Goldgrub Goldgrub.png Quite rare, these creatures swallow up any loose, valuable ore they can find and flee when approached by a human, smashing through even solid rock on their path of escape before burrowing into the ground. A tactic toward killing one is to throw an ore towards it, and quickly charging in to kill it while it's busy eating, but note that kinetic accelerator shots do nothing against these. Their skin is reflective, requiring a pickaxe melee smackdown to ensure a kill.
Statistics Difficulty: Easy
Speed: Very Fast
Attacks The goldgrub has no attacks.
Loot When killed, they spit up multiple pieces of ore, based on what they ate. Feed them many different types of ore before killing them, and they'll spit out more of each type than you gave it! They also drop gold grub guts when butchered, which can be ground up for a potent medicinal reagent. Use caution when consuming it however, it can cause severe liver damage if too much is ingested!
Marrow Weaver Marrow.png A violent, venomous arthropod. Its 8 legs allow it to scuttle across the basalts quickly, and its hard outer chitin makes it a tough foe for the unprepared.
Statistics Difficulty: Medium
Speed: Fast
Attacks A threatening spider that is harmless at a range, but can inject toxin and heal from eating the guts of corpses. Not too big of a threat, but the toxin damage is tricky to heal on the go.
The marrow weaver attacks are as follows:
Hits a target in melee range, dealing mild brute damage and injecting 5 units of toxin. Loot Weavers leave behind a body to butcher.
When this body is butchered, it leaves behind the following: 1. 4 pieces of weaver chitin. Weaver Chitin.png 2. 2 pieces of watcher sinewSinew.png. 3. 3 bonesBone.png. 4. 2 pieces of uranium oreUraniumore.png.
Gutlunch Gutlunch.png A scavenger that eats raw meat, often found alongside ash walkers. Produces a thick, nutritious milk.
Statistics Difficulty: Easy
Speed: Slow
Attacks The gutlunch has no attacks.
Megafauna For details on megafauna, click here.
Elites For details on lavaland elites, click here.
Necropolis Tendrils Tendril.png Huge spikes of organic matter, from the base of which crawl out countless monsters. Each Tendril only spawns one kind of monster, between legions, goliaths and watchers, every once in a while, up to a maximum of three living monsters per tendril. The tendrils themselves are fairly fragile and will die in a few well-placed shots, if you can fight through the other mobs. Once killed, it will drop its loot, shake the earth around it for a while, and then spawn a huge chasm around it, destroying anything that did not get out of the way in time. Chasms are deadly even after formation and should be avoided.
Statistics Difficulty: Medium to Very High
Speed: None
Attacks The tendril itself has no attacks. Instead it spawns other mobs at a fast rate, the attacks of which are listed previously above.
Loot When killed, they spawn necropolis chests which can contain a variety of useful artifacts.
Crusher Trophies When killing certain enemies with the Kinetic Crusher there's a chance for them to drop trophies, powerful mods that can be attached to the Crusher.
Name Effect Dropped By Broodmother Tongue Has a 10% chance to summon a patch of goliath tentacles at the target's location on detonation. Broodmother Goliath Tentacle Does 2 more damage for every 10 health you are missing on detonation. Goliath Watcher Wing Prevents ranged creatures from shooting for 0.5 seconds on detonation. Watcher Magmawing Watcher Wing Makes the next destabilizer shot deal 5 damage. Magmawing Watcher Icewing Watcher Wing Prevents ranged creatures from shooting for 0.8 seconds on detonation. Icewing Watcher Legion Skull Kinetic Crusher recharges 0.3 second/s faster. Legion Eye of a Blood-Drunk Hunter Grants stun immunity and 90% damage reduction for 1 second on detonation. Blood-Drunk Hunter Tail Spike Does 5 damage to nearby creatures and pushes them back on detonation. Ash Drake Demon Claws Melee hits do 0.2 more damage and heals you for 1, with 5x effect on mark detonation. Bubblegum Blaster Tubes Makes the next destabilizer shot deal 15 damage but move slower. Colossus Vortex Talisman Creates a barrier you can pass on detonation. Hierophant Malformed Bone On detonation, has a 40% chance to mark nearby creatures. Megafauna Legion The Wildlife - Sentient You're not always the only sentient being on the planet. Aside from the lovecraftian horrors living down there you may also find several groups or factions of beings on the planet. Some hostile, some friendly.
For more information on these, click here.
Podmen A small group of podmen were observed living inside a sealed vault. They appear minimally armed and seem to avoid leaving their home.
Statistics Threat Level: Minimal
Hostile: Non-Hostile
Golems An unidentified flying object was seen crashing by Recon Team Charlie during expedition #8. Alpha team on expedition #9 located a group of golems, the golems appeared utterly uninterested in their surroundings all things considered.
Statistics Threat Level: Minimal
Hostile: Non-Hostile
Ashwalkers It appears a group of Basiliscus Lizretus, also known as Lizardmen, live on the planet, they are hostile to all intruders. These 'ashwalkers' only started to appear when mining operations started, they are agile but lightly armed, wielding primitively forged armor and spears. They seem to follow a being of greater strength than the others, described as the Chieftain. They also appear to also have a hostile relationship with the wildlife, having been observed killing and dragging wildlife corpses away, as to why they need these corpses the recon team is unable to ascertain.
Statistics Threat Level: Medium
Hostile: Hostile
Outpost Vets A bluespace anomaly ripped these poor souls from their home planet, and threw them into this hell hole. You can call it bad luck or maybe you can call it fate. They don't seem very prone to Nanotrasen rule however, as their highest ranking officer abides to his or her own rules. It'd be risky to try to strike a deal with them, but overall they seem non hostile.
Statistics Threat Level: Minimal
Hostile: Non-Hostile
Syndicate Scientists Multiple facilities have been spotted by recon officers, but they are usually boarded up and appear to be abandoned. No expense was taken to collect information given that they were hidden behind large gaps of lava. Any attempt made must be recorded, and reported back to Nanotrasen. We don't know what could be behind those walls. Rumors have spread that there are scientists behind those walls, and others opened up that the Syndicate is targeting Nanotrasen again.
Statistics Threat Level: High
Hostile: Hostile
The Ores These are what you should be looking out for, generally try and get a good mix of the more exotic ore types. Mine gibtonite by hitting the ore with a mining tool then hitting it with your scanner. Don't wait too long or it will explode!
Name Wall Raw Ore Point Value Processed Ore Frequency Iron Ironwall.png Ironore.png 1 AniMetal.gif Very Common Sand Minefloor.png Sandore.png 1 AniGlass.gif Very Common Plasma Plasmawall.png Plasmaore.png 15 Plasmadone.png Common Silver Silverwall.png Silverore.png 16 Silverdone.png Semi-Common Gold Goldwall.png Goldore.png 18 Golddone.png Semi-Common Titanium Titaniumrock.png Titaniumore.png 50 Titaniumdone.png Uncommon Uranium Uraniumwall.png Uraniumore.png 30 Uraniumdone.png Uncommon Diamond Diamondwall.png Diamondore.png 50 Diamonddone.png Rare Bluespace Crystal BluespaceCrystalWall.png Bluespace Crystal.png 50 Bluespace Polycrystal.png Rare Dilithium Crystal DilithiumCrystalWall.png Dilithium crystal.png 50 Dilithium Polycrystal.png Rare Gibtonite Gibtonitewall.gif Gibtoniteore.png N/A N/A Uncommon Bananium Bananimumwall.png Bananimumore.png 60 Bananiumdone.png HONK! Plasma Magmite PlasmaMagmiteOre.png Plasmamagmiteore.png N/A N/A Rare Alloys Some ores can be smelted to produce alloys.
Plasteel Metal r.png Obtain by: Smelting plasma and iron.
Plastitanium Plastitanium.png Obtain by: Smelting plasma and titanium.
Who Needs What Scientists at least a bit of every ore. In exchange they may upgrade your protolathe, allowing for you to get more advanced mining items. Roboticists need diamond, uranium, silver and gold for building mech parts. Give them enough and you've indirectly helped out most of the departments on the station if the Roboticists are competent enough to build helpful stompy mechs for everybody! Too bad the Ripley is the only good mech for mining. The Quartermaster may want mineral sheets to trade them in for bonus supply credits. Plasma in particular is both common and valuable. Everybody could always use more iron, glass and plasteel, but especially Roboticists and Station Engineers. The Chemist and Xenobiologist will all appreciate having extra plasma. A competent Virologist can use several sheets of uranium to create incredibly powerful healing viruses. A Clown with Bananium is a grateful and dangerous ally. The Bartender can use a few sheets of uranium or iron to craft some of his rarest cocktails. The Atmospheric Technician, though only a select few, can use dilithium crystals to incredible effect in their fusion reactions. If an atmos tech asks you to supply a few, you might want to pay attention. The Wonders of Plasma Magmite Plasma Magmite is a rare ore that spawns exclusively in Hardened Basalt. It can only be dropped if destroyed by an explosion (gibtonite, mining charge, etc).
Take it to the World Anvil located in a guaranteed spawn ruin emitting a tempered signal letting you use your GPS to find it. The World Anvil must be heated first by using Gibtonite. Once heated, placing a piece of Plasma Magmite on it will forge it into Plasma Magmite Upgrade Parts UpgradeParts.png that when used on a Proto-Kinetic Accelerator, Advanced Plasma Cutter or Plasma Cutter Shotgun it will upgrade them to their mega version. If the upgrade parts remain unused for 10 minutes they will become inert and need to be reheated at the World Anvil. The mega weapons are:
KineticAccelerator mega.pngThe Mega Proto-Kinetic Accelerator: This functions the same as the normal PKA but has 120% mod capacity (up from 100%) Adv plasma cutter mega.pngThe Mega Advanced Plasma Cutter: This functions the same as an Advanced Plasma Cutter but goes 7 tiles with a bonus range of 7 tiles (up from 5/5) Miningshotgun mega.pngThe Mega Plasma Cutter Shotgun: This functions the same as a Plasma Cutter Shotgun but goes 7 tiles with a bonus range of 3 tiles (up from 5/2), it will also automatically defuse Gibtonite without needing an additional upgrade. WorldAnvil.png Secrets of Lavaland While on the planet, you may come upon artificial structures. They can have items ranging from magical artifacts, to other lifeforms, to alien facehuggers. If you are at all unsure, always let your mining buddies know using :u before going in, as some ruins can be very dangerous.
Tips Going in pairs or in groups while mining decreases your likelihood of dying from fauna. This increases your lifespan while mining, but decreases the amount of ore mined generally. Alternatively, go completely solo to lower the chance of friendly fire, increase your mining speed, and so you can keep the mining treasures for yourself. If you aggro a megafauna, run AWAY from the mining outpost. Most megafauna can be easily outpaced but have a much higher aggro range while and shortly after chasing someone, and it becomes incredibly difficult to leave the planet when an ash drake is lounging around in the mining shuttle. Your mining satchel will automatically pick up ores as long as it is on your immediate person (in pockets, on belt, in hands, etc.) If you are dragging an ore box, ores will automatically be dumped into that instead. Minebots are great at distracting monsters. Just walk near and bash the distracted target with your drill. They can take quite a beating, though goliaths can take them down pretty quickly if you're not quick enough. Plus they collect all the crap gibtonite left. The Proto-kinetic Accelerator can destroy electrified grilles without needing a pair of insulated gloves. The Proto-kinetic Accelerator will obliterate a space carp in one hit while in space. The Kinetic Crusher is a robust melee weapon even on station. If you're expecting trouble on the station, consider taking out a window on the mining shuttle and bringing an RCD before you return to make a quick getaway so you're not trapped like a rat in a cage. The mining drone can be repaired with a welding tool, but not in the middle of a fight. A goliath will always win in a one on one fight with a mining drone. Life improving things: Explorer suit upgrade : Goliath plates can be added to both an explorer suit, aswell as the hood that goes with said suit. Each part of the suit can hold 3 plates, stacking to 30% on each plate added. The plates will stack until they reach 60%, which may help you live in case a goliath grabs you. Security Jumpsuit : This gives a +10% melee resist to everywhere but your head. Nag the QM or HoP to give you one. Augmentations : Augs are useful for miners, as healing with a welder is ultimately easier. Plus they work differently than armor when it comes to protection, instead reducing all brute damage taken by an augmented body part by 5 (4 for burn). Downsides : EMP vulnerability and inability to heal augmented body parts normally. Getting your hands on a Mining Satchel of Holding is a game changer. You're able to hold an infinite amount of ores with just a small satchel, which allows for ore gathering at much higher speeds. Kinetic accelerators can be used as infinite tools to navigate space, since every time you fire, it'll throw you in the opposite direction. Dual Kinetic Accelerators allow you to do much more immediate damage, at the cost of slower recharge speed. Doing dual Kinetic Accelerators is advisable for new miners fighting megafauna, because it allows one to focus on dodging longer. The Hierophant can be manipulated and brought to the corners of the arena or out of it if you wish to smash ore at great yields. Just make sure to bring an ore box if you wish to do this without a satchel of holding. The Ore redemption machine can be unbolted and put on the mining shuttle then re-bolted for quick access. This saves you from taking the shuttle all the way back to the station just to dump your ore before going back. The pressure on lava land is actually harmless and is just enough for your Proto-kinetic Accelerator to do its maximum damage. The reason you have a suit is so you can have access to an oxygen tank and some reliable amour against the hostilities of lava land. But do know, the explorer suit does not work in space on the station Z level, but you can always buy a miner's hardsuit from the miner vendor machine for 2000 points, which will work in space. It is a very bad idea to mine with 2 PKAs on harm intent. If you were to come across a gibonite you would hit it twice and it will immediately detonate, likely within the range of killing you. Hope you have a good mining medic. Dead Space A traitorous miner has a lot of advantages. The treasures on lavaland are among the most powerful and dangerous of any jobs. Certain minerals you'll find have more “specialized” uses - uranium structures will irradiate people, plasma can start fires, gibtonite goes boom. Robotics are generally willing to make you a mech, which you can use instead of fighting fauna to murder people on station. Megafauna and tendril treasures can be more powerful than even your uplink. In addition, lavaland is isolated, hard to get to, dangerous, and as expansive as you're willing to dig out. There is plenty of room to fight a guerilla war against the ones foolish enough to pursue you. However, you also have the weaknesses of being suspicious when on station, and the best loot is dangerous to obtain and/or time consuming.
Tips for Traitoring If you're a miner and you have to kill another miner; there's a really easy way to block communications one way so he can't call for help. Grab a multitool, go to the mining communications room. Use the multi tool on the relay and make sure the relay isn't sending, meaning your headset won't go to people on the station. Kill your target with their shouts for help unheard. More than one uranium wall is hilariously deadly, as they give off a pulse of radiation every couple of seconds. This pulse makes other uranium walls in range pulse as well, and they all run on their own timer. Tiers 0-1-2-3 can gib bodies, remember mining suits take 50% of damage away from bombs, so strip miners you want to make disappear forever first. Ripley is a fairly robust murdering tool, if you can, convince robotics to put a gravity catapult on it. SLAM PEOPLE INTO WALLS. THE SUFFERING NEVER ENDS. Space is your best ally. Your weapons are more lethal in space, and anyone who wants to chase you will need access to a jetpack and EVA gear. Make people fight on your terms by blowing up the station with various Gibtonite charges, or bust in, stun and drag targets into space. Survival Medipens and Legion Cores are extremely useful to counter the stations foolish attempts to kill you. Stuns are the bane of any miners existence, using your TC to counter this is advisable. Though the Hierophant staff loses its offensives capabilities on the station, the Hierophant's Antenna, which can be purchased as a traitor Miner, will allow the staff to work as it would normally do on lava land. Without the Hierophants Antenna it is still a very strong and prominent kidnapping tool. You could stun your target and teleport them off the station onto a different Z level in seconds alone onto your playing fields and to crew it would seem as if they got erased from reality by a Chrono Legionnaire.
Mining 101: You Probably Haven't Played This Game Before Shaft Miner is a popular profession of choice for new and developing players. There's many reasons for this: You don't have to deal with the crap that goes on all over the station, you get to work at your own pace and learn the ropes of the game, and it's one of the most rewarding jobs in the game when you get good at it. Unfortunately, most of the skills you learn as a miner don't translate to the other jobs, but it is at the very least fun.
So if you get slotted in as a Shaft Miner at the start of the shift, you'll spawn in the mining portion of the cargo bay. You'll most likely be next to two or three or four other folks who won't say a word to you and will promptly go to lavaland themselves because this is literally their first time playing the game. That's fine, that's normal. Leave their corpses for the Paramedics to find. If someone tries to talk to you, ignore them. You have more important things to focus on right now. Concentrate on getting your sea legs.
The Hard Part Now, before you do anything, there's three things you should do:
First, hit the tab key. This will activate hotkey mode. Normally you can only move around with the arrow keys, which is an uncomfortable setup for anyone using a right-handed mouse. This allows you to use WASD to move around instead, a far superior setup, though at a price. In order to speak or type in commands in the command bar, you have to first click on that bar in order to select it now. When it's selected, the keyboard will only type into it. To deselect it, simply click in the game window, and the hotkeys will be active again. Alternatively, you can tap the tab key again to disable hotkey mode, type whatever you need to type, then tap it again to re-enable it.
Second, click on the ID in your ID slot on the terrible user interface. Yes, it's atrocious. This will put it in your hand. Then, click on the PDA in your belt slot. This will insert your ID into your PDA. Click on the PDA again to take it off of your belt, then click on your ID slot to put your PDA into your ID slot. This is a lot of hassle, but it frees up a valuable inventory slot which we will use to carry the most important tool of all miners later. You can use this trick in many professions too, but keep in mind that if your ID or your PDA with your ID inserted in it aren't on your ID slot, you will appear to be “unknown” to other people, which is very suspicious and could get you in trouble.
Next, click on the backpack icon. This will open it up and reveal several slots in which items can be contained above the backpack icon. There will be a few things here: a crowbar, a box, a mining satchel, and a mining voucher. Ignore the other three things and click on the box to take it out of your bag. Then, click on the 'switch hand' button just above your hand icons, or press the x key if you have hotkey mode enabled. Click on the box again to open a new set of item slots which the box contains. Click on the extended-capacity oxygen tank to pull it out, the click on one of your pocket slots, which are to the right of your hand slots.
Then, move the mouse all the way to the bottom left corner and click on the body icon to open up your apparel menu. Click on the breath mask, then click on the face icon in the apparel menu to put the breath mask on. That's the hard way to do it. You can also simply tap the e key while holding the breath mask in your active hand to automatically equip it. Then, click on the drop button on the screen to drop the box, or if you feel grumpy, click throw and then click in a direction around your character to throw the box elsewhere. You have cleared out a little bit of space in your backpack, and also set yourself up with internals. I'll go over internals more later.
Side note: you can use the e key for most equipable items unless there is already something in that slot, in which case it will fail. You'll have to first drop the item you want to equip, then click on the item in the apparel slot you want to take off, drop that, then pick the original item back up and press e or click on the appropriate slot to put it on. Whew, what an unintuitive, time-wasting mess!
The Vital Stuff As I mentioned before, most new players get themselves killed almost immediately the first time they play. You, on the other hand, are using this guide; and aside from being incredibly handsome, you also know you need to grab basic mining gear from a mining locker, which consists of the following:
-Optical Meson Scanner (These let you see tiles you normally wouldn't be able to (obstructed or too dark), but not their contents) -Seclite (The planet is dark. Really dark.) -Proto-Kinetic Accelerator -Mining Satchel -Mining Scanner -Survival Capsule
A mining locker (brown locker with a purple pickaxe on it) can be found to your right and below you if you're on the boxstation map. If there are no lockers in those directions, you're probably on a different map, in which case you should seek out the nearest brown locker. Once you are beside one, simply click on it to unlock it, then click on it again to open it. Inside will be a huge pile of crap, but you only want a few things from it. Press alt, then click on the stack of items to make a list of all the items in it appear in the upper right hand panel. Then, click on each of the items listed above.
Put on the optical meson scanners (they go in your eyewear slot). Use the seclite in hand (click it or press Z while it's in your active hand) to turn it on and put it either in a pocket slot or on your kinetic accelerator. Put the kinetic accelerator in your backpack or on your belt if you've put the seclite on it. The belt slot is the only slot that can carry pickaxes, mining drills, sonic jackhammers, and et cetera aside from your back slot, but you want your backpack on your back slot as that is the only slot that can carry a backpack. Luckily the kinetic accelerator makes pickaxes (mostly) obsolete. Put the mining satchel in one of your pockets. Use the mining scanner in hand (click it or press Z while it's in your active hand) and put it in your backpack or internals box.
Getting to the Lavaland Congratulations! If you've made it this far, you have taken your first step on the road to understanding the godawful user interface and how to play the game. You should be able to mess around with it for a while and slowly develop a sense for the weird logic behind how it all works. Now, let's see if we can get you suited up and actually out into the Lavaland!
Run your mouse over the things around you to read their names. If you're curious about them, don't hesitate to press shift and then click on them to quickly examine them and see what they're about. Right now, you should take an interest in the mining shuttle console which is normally to your left after you spawn on the boxstation map. If you've taken your time following the prior instructions, the other miners that know what they're doing might have already left on the mining shuttle. The shuttle is a small structure with white walls and blue floors that is always through a set of two airlocks to your left.
If it's gone, simply walk up to the mining shuttle console and click on it to open a menu. Click “call shuttle” to send it back to the station, then close out of the menu as you no longer need it. Wait for a few seconds, and eventually the shuttle will appear.
If the shuttle is there, walk into the airlocks and they will open for you. Walk through both of the red airlocks and the white shuttle doors, then walk onto the frontmost chair which is just below another mining shuttle console.
All ships in this game move at such incredible speeds that you must be buckled into a chair if you wish to not topple to the ground. To buckle yourself in, click on your character and drag the cursor onto the chair. If you do it right, the text logs will say “__ has buckled themselves in!” You can also buckle other people into chairs by clicking them and dragging the mouse onto said chair.
If you had to call the shuttle the first time, you know how to do this next part. Click on the console in front of you, click “send shuttle”, and it will wait for a few seconds before going into hyperspace for a few seconds, then landing at the mining outpost. Do NOT leave the mining shuttle before it exits hyperspace if you like being alive. If you buckled in, you'll be just fine right now. If you didn't, you'll be laying on the ground for a few seconds before you get back up. To unbuckle yourself in the former case, simply click on the chair and you will be free again.
The Other Vital Stuff Now that you're on the mining outpost, exit the shuttle and head to the right. The big green square things with the blinking lights are what you want. They're the mining vendor machines, and you have a voucher for them. Open you bag, take out the voucher, and click on one of the vendors with it in your hand. A menu will pop up with three options:
-Proto-kinetic Crusher (High risk/reward substitute weapon for the kinetic accelerator, still breaks rocks just as good. Requires two hands to carry. Comes with a pocket fire extinguisher)
-Miner's Webbing (Belt slot storage item for useful mining items, comes with a survival capsule)
-Resonator (Drops delayed traps that can be used to break rocks, comes with a pocket fire extinguisher)
-Fulton Extraction set (Comes with a fulton beacon and fulton kit, the beacon can be used in hand to deploy it after a few seconds, and the kit can be used in hand to link it to the beacon, hitting anything with the kit will send it to the beacon after a short delay)
-Mining Bot (Automatic ore box that has a kinetic accelerator that can be upgraded, comes with a minebot passthrough upgrade, a large welder, and a welding helmet for repairs)
Go east to a room with three suit storage units (if you're on Yogstation). By now, a few of them have already been ransacked most likely. Walk up to one and either open it and click on the explorer suit buttons in the menu. Use your apparel menu again. Put the suit on in the middle armor icon, and put the gasmask on your face icon. Or, like before, simply tap e for both.
This suit is lightly armored and will help protect against burning, which is common on Lavaland. With that, a gas mask, and an oxygen tank, you are fully prepared to go on walks. Now while you already have an emergency oxygen tank in your internals box (the box in your backpack), emergency tanks generally last only a few minutes and you'll be outside breathable atmosphere far longer than that. Thankfully, there is an oxygen tank dispenser in that very same room. It has blue tanks on it. Walk to it, click on it, and in the menu that appears, click oxygen tank to dispense one. One will appear over the dispenser. Pick it up and put it on with the e button, and notice which slot it goes to. This is your suit storage slot. If you are wearing anything in the suit slot, which is where your suit is, you will be able to add certain items to the suit storage slot. As a miner you will mainly use it for carrying oxygen tanks. A full sized oxygen tank will last you the whole round.
Now you're fully equipped as a miner!
My First Walk Now, if you glance at the right side of the game screen, you'll see an icon that says 'internals'. Click it, and it will light up green and say 'on'. Now you are breathing directly from the oxygen tank in your suit. The red airlocks beside the oxygen tank dispenser are your next destination. Walk through them, and after passing through the second one, click the airlock to close it behind you and prevent too much air from escaping the mining outpost. You are now standing on volcanic floor. You are in the lavaland proper, and there is grey rock all around you.
You can use a pickaxe, kinetic accelerator, kinetic crusher, or resonator to break rocks. Certain rocks will have ores in them, and breaking them will drop the ores.
There's one other thing you can do to mine, and that is sand. To dig up sand, use a pickaxe or shovel (the shovel is faster) on the planet surface, and you will promptly dig up several piles of ash (sand). Sand is used to make glass in the ORM. It's not worth very much, but sometimes there will be shortages of glass on the station and you will be asked to bring some ash back with you.
Striking Gold Being able to break rocks is great and all, but what you really want to find is ores. If you've activated your automatic mining scanner (screen is green instead of black), you'll see rocks flash with different colored icons every few seconds. These rocks contain ores (or gibonite, which will be discussed shortly). Generally, you'll want to collect some of everything as new mining tools require a variety of ores, but diamonds and bluespace crystals are the rarest and most valuable materials you can collect. Ores are an item and can be stored anywhere, but your mining satchel is a fast way to pick them up. Walking over ores while a mining satchel is in your pocket or on your belt will automatically place it in the satchel. Thing is, the satchel has limited space.
This is where ore boxes come in handy, an ore box can hold unlimited ores, but you'll need to pull it around to use it effectively. Either hit the ore box with your satchel to unload any ores in the satchel into the ore box, or drag the box behind you when picking up ores to automatically dump them into the satchel.
Danger, Will Robinson! Being a miner isn't all that easy even after getting the hang of the process, unfortunately. There are three primary threats to a miner on the lavaland: gibtonite, a highly explosive ore often found alongside other ores, the monsters, and lava.
Gibtonite is a crystalline substance that can be found using the mining scanner. It is blue with a orange-ish core. If you attempt to mine a tile with gibtonite in it, it will react to the kinetic energy of your swings and begin to detonate. At this point, you have two options: run the hell away, or click on it with your mining scanner to disarm it. Running away is just fine. Disarming it is fine too, but there's some advantages to letting it detonate on its own, which will be covered in Mining 201. Either way, it is not much of a threat to you unless there are multiple gibtonite deposits in close proximity and they chain react before you can evade them or some fauna decides to smash into the gibonite and detonate it.
As for the monsters - the lavaland is full of plasma, which is a mysterious substance which mutates and corrupts lifeforms. What may have once been innocuous, gentle alien lifeforms have become true, territorial monsters that will stop at nothing to kill any who tread on their domain. If you are digging and find a tunnel about two tiles wide that turns diagonally at random intervals, you have most likely found a monster tunnel and you should be ready to either fight or flight as necessary. Thankfully, an experienced miner can defeat these monsters and even profit from them. There are four monsters common to the lavaland:
Legions These weird things are all swirly and stuff. They can detach parts of themselves to attack you at a distance, and always try to stay several tiles away from you. You can catch up with them, however, by smashing all of the hivelord broods that block your way or trapping them in a corner. They do not deal significant damage to you, so you can basically ignore the broods and go straight for the hivelord itself. Killing it drops a hivelord heart on the ground, which you can pick up and eat by clicking on yourself with it in your active hand. It fully heals you and removes all hunger and various other side effects.
To experienced miners, these guys are basically walking medikits. Your pickaxe is actually the best weapon for dealing with these guys, as the accelerator and resonator simply do not attack as quickly and you have to chase them around.
Watchers Nasty pieces of work. They're big walking crystal things. They are not particularly fast, but they have icy stares that slow you down to a crawl and cause freezing damage to you. They hit harder than a full pack of hivelord broods, and combined with their stare, they are quite dangerous. However, perhaps counter-intuitively, the easiest and safest way to fight them is to use your pickaxe or resonator and fight them in melee. They will take off most of your health if you fight them toe-to-toe, but if you start with full health you can definitely defeat one. On death they drop two or three diamond ores.
The real secret to dealing with them is that they have a very small aggro range. Staying out of that range is wise, as they always hurt you more than its worth fighting them for. If you absolutely must fight them, teamwork will make short work of them and the cost in health will be miniscule.
Goliaths The worst thing you can meet in the tunnels. These assholes are big, mean, killing machines and are the number one cause of miner deaths. They hit harder than any other monster on the asteroid, able to send someone into critical status within six or seven hits. They're slow, but they don't need to be fast. Every ten or so seconds, they will dig their tentacles under the ground and they will appear underneath you in a partial cross with one missing tile. If you do not move, or if you move into one of the tiles with a tentacle on it, you will be tripped and stunned for several seconds while the Goliath can beat the tar out of you. You must move into a tile unoccupied by any tentacles to avoid the tripping attack, or you will definitely die.
On some servers, you can avoid the initial tentacle attack, then engage them and spam attacks with your pickaxe until they die. On more advanced servers, like Yogstation, there is a cooldown timer on attacks against all of the mining monsters. If you try to fight a Goliath with a pickaxe directly, with no backup, you will die. There is no chance involved. It's a certainty. This is where your resonator, kinetic accelerator, or mining bot shines.
You must create energy bubbles with the resonator and let the Goliath move into them before they pop, dealing minor damage. Or, you must stay roughly two tiles away from the Goliath at all times and slowly plink him to death with the kinetic accelerator. If you set your minebot to combat mode, and you both attack it, you may be able to kill it but at significant cost of health (need to do more research). My personal preferred method is using the kinetic accelerator. It's easier to handle than the resonator and you can kill a Goliath without taking any hits if you're robust.
Killing a Goliath nets you one set of Goliath hide plates. If you pick these up and click on either your mining hardsuit or hardsuit helmet, you will upgrade it slightly. Each upgrade gives you 18% damage reduction against brute damage - which is most forms of melee damage, including the kind the mining monsters dish out. You can upgrade both your helmet and your suit up to five times, to a maximum of 90% brute damage reduction, which means you become a goddamn tank. This is by and far the best reward any monster can drop, and experienced miners will sometimes go Goliath hunting solely to get as many hide plates as they can.
In short, Goliaths will kill you many times until you figure out the art of how to fight them, and even then, they'll still kill you every now and then. Because they are such a problem, there will be an extensive section on them in Mining 201.
Gold Grubs These are the only non-threatening monsters on the asteroid. They eat ores and burrow around. They are cowardly and flee if they see you. If you catch one, and kill it, it may drop some ores that it ate. Usually they just aren't worth your time, though. They do not attack you.
And Knowing Is Half the Battle! Now that you have a basic understanding of the mining part, there is only one more thing to learn - how to redeem your ores for points. First of all, return to the mining station and board the mining shuttle and go to the main station. Feel free to turn off your internals once you get indoors, it saves oxygen. Make sure you bring your ore box with you, too. Once you're back at the station, go back into the mining room and head north into the main cargo foyer. There's usually some loser sitting at the desk there doing paperwork. Ignore him because he's a loser and walk past him and head through the door just north of him.
This is the disposals room. You will see a ORM in the bottom right corner. Push the ore box into the dotted square behind it and let it sit there for a while until you click on the box and see that it is empty. All the ores have been loaded into the machine. If you have ores in a satchel as well, click the satchel while standing in the dotted square to dump all the ores out and watch them all get sucked up by the machine.
Click on redeem points to add all the points you've earned to your ID. You can also select the ores in the menu to dump them out, but you should usually just leave them alone - someone else will get them sooner or later.
Now that you have a bunch of points, go back to the mining station and go to a vendor machine. Click on one with your ID in hand to insert your ID and open a menu of things you can purchase with your points. There is no particularly useful or valuable reward there, so you can mess around and buy things you think might be cool. The alien toy is a favorite of most miners - just take it back to the main station and throw it at someone and run away.
Now, you have finally learned the basics of being a miner. You definitely could have figured it all out on your own, like I did - but where's the fun in that? After playing a few shifts as miner, if you feel confident enough, feel free to look at Mining 201 for advanced mining tips and tricks.
Mining 201: Advanced Dwarven Tactics So you're familiar with the piss poor user interface and how to use it to mine! Congratulations. The hard part is out of the way, and we can get into the nitty-gritty of how to be a robust miner. This will cover a variety of important topics for any miner aspiring to greatness.
Efficiency The most important trait of any miner is their efficiency, or rather, how quickly they can complete their job at a minimum of loss of health and potential scores. There are a number of methods you can use to increase your efficiency, and while I will not list all of them, I will offer a few suggestions that any miner could benefit from, assuming they don't already use them.
Health Getting hit is unavoidable, and you will eventually need to heal yourself in the field. Luckily, there are several easy ways to regain health, to list a few:
- Legion cores will regenerate 25 brute/burn and remove damage slowdown for a minute, good for if you need to top off on health and have a spare unstable core lying around or need to run at full speed while at orange health or below.
- Survival medipens will heal you over time and are injected instantly, you'll start with one and can purchase more for 500 mining points each. They are however much slower acting than legion cores and you can overdose if you take too many in short order.
- Medical kits from the station contain several items that can heal you quickly, but patches, basic mesh and sutures take time to administer. You can also buy a brute medical kit for 600 mining points.
- Cacti and leafy mushrooms contain vitrium froth, a chemical that will slowly heal you when ingested. Eating too much will cause you to get fat and slow you down, however.
- Donk pockets contain omnizine when heated in a microwave, which can also slowly heal you.
Inventory Management This is a more controversial topic, and I've already covered some the core tenets of it in Mining 101 by teaching new players to put their ID in their PDA and get rid of the internals box and so on. Of more importance is the ever-broiling argument over mining satchels vs. ore boxes.
That is to say, some miners prefer to carry two mining satchels instead of a mining satchel and an ore box. Sounds strange? You are not wrong.
See, with two mining satchels you can pick up up to 100 rare ores. That is quite a lot and on average, one mining satchel full of rare ores is worth about 1000 mining points when redeemed. However, you are explicitly abandoning any thought of taking iron ores or sand. In this situation, it is prudent to discard your shovel as you won't be needing it and it frees up space in your backpack. The second mining satchel occupies the freed space, more or less.
But why, you might ask, would you go without an ore box and thus forsake the lesser ores as well as be forced to return to the station more regularly? It is quite counter-intuitive. There's a few reasons for that. First, pacing oneself is vital to a miner. “One more vein of plasma” you might say, and then get killed by a goliath. If you regularly make trips to and from the station not only does the station get to benefit from your rare ores more quickly, but you also get mining points more quickly, and RnD will be able to make advanced optical meson scanners and mining drills or even diamond mining drills for you earlier in the shift. With an ore box, there is no hard pace setter and you may be tempted to simply go for a full circuit of the entire asteroid before redeeming your ores. This is terribly inefficient.
On top of that, some miners get tired of having to ctrl+click ore boxes and then let go of them to fight monsters and then pull them again. Then you also have to keep track of it, and losing your ore box is a terrible prospect. They also obscure a portion of your vision while you're pulling them and can obscure rock while you're mining if they're beside you, which means you have to spend a couple more seconds digging, which can be frustrating.
On the other hand, some miners prefer to literally pick up everything and kitchen sink and while it won't increase their profit margins all that much, it will potentially appease their obsessive-compulsive disorder. Double satchels is technically more efficient if you do get upgraded mining equipment from it, while the ore box would be more efficient if there is no upgraded equipment available and you intend to make only a single, broad trip through the entire asteroid without having to stop and go back to redeem your ores. There is no necessarily right or wrong choice here, only a matter of personal preference.
Equipment From the get-go, miners have to choose between three essential pieces of equipment. On top of that, they have the chance to acquire improved gear from research and development, assuming the scientists aren't useless twats that shift. Here is a breakdown of these items and how they can affect your mining style and experience.
Resonator These things are fairly simple melee weapons that can also be used to mine. They can mine multiple tiles of rock at the same time, but in exchange, they cannot instantly break a tile of rock and the cooldown between hits is shorter than the time it takes for a pickaxe to break through rock. I've seen many miners eschew pickaxes entirely in favor of these and just dig one tile wide tunnels through the asteroid. You do move faster than digging three tile wide tunnels with a pickaxe that way, but you are endangering yourself by doing so as you do not leave an avenue for escaping or fighting goliaths. This is an absolutely shitty practice and anyone who does it should feel bad because you are not following the dwarven way. Loser.
Resonators do create little energy bubbles when you swing them, and said bubbles last for a few seconds before popping. When they pop, they deal a little bit of damage. It is possible to kill goliaths by luring them into the bubbles, but it is a feat of timing and patience that I do not personally care for as the bubbles last far too long to be practical in battle.
Proto-Kinetic Accelerator “This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me my rifle is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must fire my rifle true… My rifle and I know that what counts in war is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our burst, or the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count. We will hit.
My rifle is human, even as I am human, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strengths, its parts, its accessories, its sights and its barrel… We will become part of each other.” - excerpt from the Rifleman's Creed
The kinetic accelerator is the bread and butter of mining on lavaland, it's roughly as fast as a pickaxe and its projectiles have a range of three tiles. The damage it deals out of atmosphere is heavy enough to make it competitive with the fauna's health, if you're careful, you can kill basically anything planetside without taking a single point of damage.
Each shot from one of these in a vacuum deals 40 damage, and the kinetic accelerator can be upgraded with modkits, which each take up a % of its mod capacity:
Damage: Increases damage by 10, uses 30% mod capacity
Cooldown: Reduces the kinetic accelerator's cooldown time, uses 30% mod capacity
Range: Increases the kinetic accelerator's range by 1 tile, uses 25% mod capacity
AoE: Gives the kinetic accelerator's blasts a 3×3 area of effect attack, with a variant for mining, for damaging, and a rare variant that does both, uses 30% mod capacity
There are some other special modkits that can be found from destroying necropolis tendrils which have unique effects but aren't as all around applicable as the basics
Advanced Mining Scanner An automatic mining scanner similar to the one you start with except it has a much larger range and pulses much more often. Buy it if you want to find ores better.
Mining bot It's shit. Don't waste your time with it. You have to pull it behind you, which means you can't use an ore box (double satchels method is fine, but it sucks for other reasons too). It has two settings, ore collection and wildlife combat. If you set it to ore collection it will go around collecting ores on the ground for you, but unlike an ore box it does not have infinite space inside it. If you set it to combat mode, it will engage the nearest monster with its kinetic accelerator and mining drill. Unfortunately, it will shoot you in the fucking back with its gun because it has no sense of friendly fire. Which hurts. A lot.
You can kill a goliath by working together with this thing, but you will still take huge amounts of damage and this thing will almost certainly be destroyed, leaving you with nothing. Avoid this pile of junk like the plague. It's not that it doesn't have uses, but rather that the other two options are far superior to it. You can repair any damage caused to a mining drone by clicking on it with a welder in your active hand with the help intent, but if it's destroyed, you cannot fix it. Everything changes of course, when you apply AI upgrade to it, then it becomes controlled by a player and will help you fight even the megafaunas.
Optical Meson Scanners These allow you to see through walls and see rare ores when you use a mining scanner, which means all tiles of rock, so you can see where iron veins and other tunnels are from your position. Moreover, they work even without a light source, but you will not see items or actors (people, monsters, etc.) without a light source and your range of vision of items and actors is still limited by the brightness of your light. It's not strictly essential to miners since you can find rare ores just fine without it, but if you're trying to avoid monster tunnels or trying to FIND monster tunnels, feel free to use this.
Mining Drill, Sonic Jackhammer, and Diamond Mining Drill These are straight upgrades of the pickaxe, greatly reducing the time it takes to dig through a single tile of rock in order from most time to least time spent digging. Mining drills and diamond drills require rare ores, so it is in your interests to deliver them to science so that they'll have the materials to make such things. Sonic Jackhammers can be purchased from mining vendor machines for 500 points and they are superior to standard mining drills but still inferior to diamond drills in terms of how quickly they dig. All of these deal the same amount of damage as a pickaxe. With a diamond drill, digging is almost instantaneous. You have a chance of finding sonic jackhammers and diamond drills laying in randomized rooms on the lavaland by a corpse, usually with an oxygen tank nearby as well to prove that they were once miners. There will be more on artifacts later.
Plasma Cutter These can cut massive lines of rocks and cut off limbs, but have very weak damage output. The default one can destroy a line of up to 7 rocks, while the advanced one can destroy lines of 10. Advanced cutters also use less plasma per shot, fire faster, and deal slightly more damage. They can also function as a fast welder, but using them as such will eat a decent amount of charge.
Gibtonite Gibtonite as equipment? Huh? Well, if you disarm gibtonite with your mining scanner, you can mine through the rock around it and it leaves the deposit sitting there. You can pick this up (it takes both hands) and carry it around and drop it anywhere you want. Clicking on it with your pickaxe or resonator or shooting it with your accelerator will re-arm it and it will explode. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, gibtonite has a much smaller explosion radius after it has been disarmed once, and it is difficult to use them as portable bombs to clear rock away. It is usually far more efficient to simply let them explode in the place you find them, as the explosion is much larger and clears much more rock.
Ripley Mining Mech This is the standard mining mech, which robotics might give you. The advantages of these that they have their own health, their own atmospheric systems so you don't need a suit (but you should wear a hardsuit anyways), and they mine very quickly especially if they're equipped with a diamond drill. Also, you can instantly crit anyone by mining them with your drill, but that's more useful for antags. Unfortunately, these are not particularly durable things and goliaths will make short work of you. On top of that, you need to charge it every now and then at one of the mining stations or it will run out of power and shut down. Plus, they're slow and turn slowly. A redeeming quality is that their armour can be upgraded by applying Goliath plates, which means that the more Goliaths you kill, the easier it is to kill them. It has a limit of 3 Goliath plates on a Ripley. They're an option you can mess around with, but I personally prefer to just hoof it.
Goliaths The bane of all miners, everywhere. Responsible for 99% of miner deaths. Literally unbeatable in solo melee even with a resonator. And here's how you kill them. If you do it all correctly, you might even take no damage.
Set the Stage If you've been mining three tile wide tunnels like I instructed you to do in Mining 101, then you are already doing this to an extent. The goliath tentacle attacks that trip and stun you are their most frightening weapon. To evade them, you require at least one empty tile in all four cardinal directions around you. That is, an empty tile to the north, south, east, and west. If you do not have openings, the tentacles can pin you against a rock wall and unless you have a resonator or diamond drill, you won't be able to break the wall and move into the empty space in time to avoid being stunned. Three tile wide tunnels are the bare necessity for fighting goliaths provided you stay in the center of them, but not the ideal. The ideal is a wide open area, such as what gibtonite creates when it explodes. In these areas, you should be moving back so that you're at least two spaces away from the goliath at any given time, as well as slowly moving diagonally away from the goliath so that you can make a wide circle. If you do this, you will be able to kite the goliath eternally provided you don't screw up evading the tentacles.
DOOOOOOODGE Evading the tentacles is not just about having the room to do it, you also need to get a handle on the timing. They appear once every ten or so seconds, which is about enough time to get in two or three kinetic accelerator shots. While you're moving so that you're always around two tiles away from them, you need to get an instinctive grasp on the tentacles' timing so that you know when to simply stand still and wait. If you move at the wrong time, you'll move right into an erupting tentacle and get stunned. Even if the goliath moves up to you and starts hitting you, waiting is preferable to getting stunned and letting it hit you a lot more times. Also, moving into melee with the goliath causes the timer to be reset; they will not use their tentacles while beating up on you. Keep that in mind.
Shoot Them Shoot them. Or use your resonator bubbles. Do something to actually hurt them that doesn't mean getting into melee with them. Make sure you keep your distance and you don't back into a corner.
Rinse and repeat these three steps, with a bit of experience, and you should soon be able to kill goliaths while taking little to no damage each time. It feels good. Here's some other advice on dealing with them:
-Gibtonite explosions, while clever use of your environment, do not hurt them that much even if it's point blank. After all, a miner can survive a point blank gibtonite explosion too. Don't get cocky just because you blow them up a bit, it's a difference of like one hit at best. What these are good for is clearing an arena for fighting the goliath. -don't be afraid to clear rock out even in the middle of a fight - use your accelerator or your resonator to break tiles of rock a bit at a time and make your arena more ideal. Just remember to watch for the tentacles. -laser guns, energy guns, etc. are very ineffective against them. Projectile weapons that deal AT LEAST OR MORE THAN 30 damage per hit will be fully effective, but laser guns and energy guns do not. Use laser cannons, shotguns with solid slugs, et cetera. -Teamwork can make short work of them if two or more miners get their pickaxes out and wail on the goliath. -Don't be afraid to flee and get healing if the goliath beats up on you and you're nearly dead. -Goliaths deal 15 brute damage per hit on you.
Revel in Your Victory Now that you've killed a goliath, you can take their hide plates and put them on your armor. This increases your brute damage reduction by 10% each time and your helmet and your hardsuit can each be upgraded three times.
Goliaths and all mining monsters only attack your torso and limbs, so upgrading your hardsuit before you upgrade your helmet is advisable. With just three hardsuit upgrades the goliaths will hit you for way less damage than before! That means being stunned is not as big of a deal. With five hardsuit upgrades, you're nearly a tank - each hit will only deal 7.5 damage! You can literally just stand there and beat up on goliaths with your pickaxe until they die, though you'll still hurt quite a bit from it.
However, if a human player intends to robust you, they will most likely attack your head region, and having an unupgraded mining suit helmet means you are as vulnerable as a baby to griefers and antagonists. Still, if you do manage to get a fully upgraded suit and helmet, you can basically tank any antag you feel like in melee. Keep this in mind.
Miscellaneous Advice -Grab a GPS and turn on your suit sensors. The paramedics and CMO can see your location and vitals on their crew monitoring console if they're activated, as long as you are on the station. The GPS is useful because if something were to happen to you, your GPS would point them directly to your corpse.
-Teamwork is never a bad thing except if you actually care about getting lots of mining points (not much reason to, though. The rewards aren't all that great…)
-If you're a traitor, why not use traitor items for mining? An e-sword is twice as powerful as a pickaxe. You might even be able to kill a goliath with one in melee. Food for thought.
-Talk to your other miners, talk to the station, just talk and make friends and so on. It alleviates some of the boredom of a long trip and gets you in on the happenings of the shift even though you're technically absent. Talk when you're about to go fight a goliath, or if you're stunned and about to go into crit, scream on the radio and let everyone know so you have the best odds of being retrieved.
Wrapping Up Well, that's about all the advice I can dispense that I can think of. If you follow my instructions, you should become quite the robust miner. If you get good enough, the title of “Honorary Space Dwarf” may be bestowed upon you for your valor and efficiency, reminiscent of the space dwarves. Or at least, that's what should happen. Unfortunately miners are a pretty undervalued profession and you rarely, if ever, get noticed by the heads for being good at your job. Still, there is a certain amount of fun to be had in collecting goliath hide plates and just being competent in general.
The profession is somewhat limited by the quality of its earnings with mining points and the time limit on shifts. Some shifts don't even last thirty minutes, not even enough time to fill up a single mining satchel (~1000 points). Clock cult shifts in particular are egregious for this. It's not bad, but it's not as good as it could be.
Well, that's about all I have to say. I hope this helps someone, anyone. There's still some secrets to the mining gig that I've left out, like artifacts, and the location of bananium, but I won't spoil the fun of discovering things. Go forth, and may your pickaxes be sharp.
Workin' In The Coal Mine Mining Dock The Mining Dock, connected to Cargo, is your access to the Mining Station. Being a miner can be somewhat tedious, but you serve a crucial role in the R&D food chain, and can accrue some decent personal rewards. Just follow a few guidelines to keep yourself from becoming dead in the mines.
Hazards, Summarized Your workplace, Lavaland, has several hazards.
Native creatures will attempt to kill you in all sorts of horrific ways. Ash storms will cut right through your clothes, dealing constant burn damage if you are outside. A heavy rain of dark particles outdoors indicates an ash storm. Lava - one step in and you'll be badly burned and on fire. Chasms - Anything that falls into one will disappear from this world. This includes miners - if you fall in one, you can't get cloned. The risk of these hazards can be reduced by watching your step and being aware of your surroundings. Don't stand in lava, walk into into chasms, or wander during an ash storm. You'll get a red text warning in chat not long before an ash storm is about to begin, so long as you stay near a structure (or have a bluespace shelter capsule with you) then you'll be fine.
If you’re worried about not being robust enough to notice these hazards, there’s gear and strategies that can mitigate or nullify the danger.
If you accidentally stand in lava, you can always “stop, drop, and roll” by spamming Resist on the HUD. (Make sure you aren't standing on lava when you do this, or you'll just get set on fire again!) Wearing a Wormhole Jaunter on your belt slot will cause it to teleport you if you fall into a chasm. Running away is (almost) always an option. Mining’s Transferable Skills Mining is an excellent job for familiarizing yourself with Hotkey mode (accessible via pressing TAB), as there are multiple opportunities to utilize them while out in the field. Robust miners often end up ALT+clicking a container in their backpack to access its contents, CTRL+clicking their ore box to drag it with them quickly, using SHIFT+E to move their Proto-Kinetic Accelerator in and out of their belt slot, and quickly shifting through intents with the 1-4 numbered keys, among others.
Working With Your Boss Who is your boss? You answer to the Head of Personnel, much like the rest of Supply – but usually, you'll just be talking to the Quartermaster or other Miners. He can watch cameras on the Lavaland Mining Base and has full access to Mining, so keep that in mind in case you want access to the Gulag.
The Objective You're here to mine, so get digging! Once you've had enough, drag your ore box back to the station and head to cargo where the Ore Redemption Machine Ore Redemption Machine sits. Insert your ID and, drag the box to the yellow indicator on the floor next to the machine to automatically offload your ores and have them instantly processed into sheets. Then click “claim” after clicking on the ORM to retrieve mining points as a reward to your current work ID. Now print new gear from the supply techfab Techfab for free and/or use those mining points to buy new gear from the mining vendor Mining Vendor, then take your crate and head back to Lavaland!
How to Do This Gearing up If you’re still unfamiliar with the HUD, it’s explained in the Starter Guide.
You’ll need to know how to view your worn equipment in order to equip new gear. If you can find it, it’s under the Backpack button on the bottom left. (Not the backpack you’re wearing, the other one.)
Gear up! From the mining equipment locker, the very basics you will need are Meson Scanner goggles, a mining scanner, a bluespace shelter capsule, and your standard issue proto-kinetic accelerator. You should also use your voucher on a mining vending machine to select your choice of advanced mining tools. If you really want the extra defense, you can ask Security (or the QM) for a Security Jumpsuit to replace your current one. It gives you +10% melee resist to everywhere but your head. Before you go, you'll want an Ore Box, which can hold an infinite amount of minerals. You can’t pick up the box, so you’ll have to pull it behind you. (The “Pull” command can be found under the right-click menu.) If you forgot something, don’t worry! The Mining Station has extra mining lockers and ore boxes for exactly this scenario. They even have mining vendors down there!
Down on the Lavaland Mining Station, accessible via the Mining Shuttle, you’ll want to take an explorer suit, breath mask, and oxygen tank from Mining 'EVA'. While not necessary, it is highly recommended that you take a GPS device, set it to your name, and tell the QM and other miners about it. If you're lucky, they will drag your lifeless body back on-station and clone you. Smashing rocks Find minerals. The further from other miners, the better ore. Make sure your scanner’s on! If it’s on, it’ll send out a pulse that lets you see deposits in the rock a few tiles away from you every once in a while. Pick up minerals by having your mining bag in either your belt slot or pockets when you walk over the minerals. If you're dragging an ore box behind you, you'll automatically deposit minerals into the box instead of your bag. Once you've had enough, return to the main station with your Ore box. Do not deliver ore to the processing plant on the Lavaland Mining Station, as that room will not give you mining points. Drag your ore box to the delivery tile (yellow arrow) next to the ORM Ore Redemption Machine. That'll automatically empty the box into it, earning you mining points. If there's minerals still in your mining satchel, you can take your mining satchel into your hand and click it while standing on the same delivery tile next to the ORM Ore Redemption Machine. This will empty the bag into the ORM as well. Ores inserted by hand into the ORM may give no points (due to a bug)! Already processed sheets inserted into the ORM do not give any points. Only raw ores count. Click on the ORM, then click “Claim.” You no longer need to insert your ID, thank god. Go to a mining equipment vendor to buy advanced equipment with the points you've earned, or the Cargo techfab Techfab to craft advanced items that can be unlocked only by RnD. Before going back to Lavaland, you should probably use the science channel (:n) to gently remind RnD to upgrade the Ore Redemption Machine (ORM) Ore Redemption Machine so they get more of those minerals they’re always short on. (ex: “:n Hey, RnD. Have you upgraded the ORM yet? We just finished our first load.”) Life beyond smashing rocks Mining, of course, isn’t just a cycle of “mine ore, deliver ore, repeat.” There’s a bunch of extra stuff you can do while taking care of your job’s main responsibility.
Butcher (harm intent, knife or PKA) dead Goliaths for their hide, and put it on your explorer’s suit to upgrade its damage resistances. This can be done up to 3 times, giving you +10% melee resist each time. Use your better gear to push deeper into Lavaland and explore some ruins and die horribly get amazing rewards. Print Advanced Plasma Cutters and Mining Satchels of Holding at the cargo protolathe/techfab/whatever it’s called for even more efficient mining. If you feel VERY robust, look for Megafauna signals with your GPS and try to kill them for extremely valuable loot. Voucher equipment You start the shift with a complimentary mining voucher, worth one free item pack out of a selection of six. These packs are:
Survival Capsule and Explorer's Webbing: The webbing (equipped on your belt slot) allows you to carry even more mining equipment - the extra shelter capsule is nice too. 900 pts value. Resonator Kit: Comes with a Resonator and brute treatment kit. While the resonator is underwhelming - especially if used incorrectly - the brute treatment kit can come in handy on Lavaland. 1350 pts. Mining Drone: A little companion that helps in storing ore and hunting wildlife. Very good at taking hits for you, but will never win a 1-on-1 fight with a Goliath. Becomes even more useful once you install the sentience upgrade module. Comes with a KA modkit that allows shots to pass through the drone, as well as an industrial welding tool and a welding mask for repairing your new friend. ~800 pts. Extraction and Rescue Kit: Contains a fulton extraction pack and a beacon, which allows you to send back home minerals, items and dead miners without having to use the ferry. Oh, and you get a stack of 30 marker beacons too. Not sure why they’re in there. 1700 pts. Crusher Kit: Contains a proto-kinetic crusher and a mini fire extinguisher. The melee-only crusher is hard to use without getting hit, and its ranged 'mark' cannot be used unless you equip it with both hands (click it while holding it in your selected hand), but it has a chance to make fauna drop powerful trophies. 800 pts. Mining Conscription Kit: A duffle bag full of basic items for one conscript - Proto-kinetic accelerator, survival knife, seclite, explorer's suit, mesons, mining scanner and satchel, gas mask, a supply radio key and a special card that adds mining access to IDs. Good for when you want to recruit metafriends fresh conscripts. 1000 pts. For Great Profit! Mining for the sake of it can only get you so far. By mining minerals and returning them to the station you'll accrue mining points; you can then use those points to buy better and more powerful equipment and supplies from an equipment vendor. You can then in turn use these items to push further into Lavaland to mine more minerals, fell stronger wildlife and find greater treasure. Consider it all an investment.
Later, you might find that you're running out of room to store your gear. Here's some ways to save space:
Your PDA can hold your ID, but this makes your ID vulnerable to PDA bombing attacks from traitors. Your seclite and knife can be attached to your proto-kinetic accelerator by clicking on it with a seclite/knife in hand. Aside from saving space, it also lets you butcher corpses (on Harm intent) without having to take out your knife and helps you bash things harder! Your mining scanner and GPS are small enough to fit in your boots. Make sure they’re both on and put them in there just like how you attached your seclite and knife to your PKA - click on your boots with the item in hand. (To retrieve items, alt+click your boots.) Your explorer suit can also hold small items. To access its inventory, drag it from your inventory to your character. (You can access an extra slot by pulling up the hood via clicking the button at the top of your screen that has the explorer suit icon.) Survival Medipens can help you in a pinch, for example, or a Wormhole Jaunter can help you escape what would have been a death trap. Or you could spend it all on booze and cigars. We won't judge.
Mining Gear Default Gear The following is a list of default mining equipment. You usually won't have to pay for this:
Essential Equipment Item Description Explorersuit.png Explorer Suit Provides some protection against heat and cold, and works as decent armor with no slowdown. It is not spaceproof, but can hold a full-sized oxygen tank or other mining gear in the suit storage slot. You can also reinforce it with goliath plates, up to 3 times, for +10% melee resist each. Can store up to 2 small(er) things - you open its inventory by dragging it to you. ExplorerGasMask.gif Explorer Gas Mask and Oxygen Tank So you can have oxygen when mining. Oxygen tanks are available from the tank storage unit, located right around where you find your suit, and can be worn on your suit's storage slot. Running out of oxygen is unlikely with the full sized tank. MGlasses.png Meson Scanners Used for seeing walls and floors through anything - and ONLY walls & floors. Does not detect creatures, or objects (like ore boxes.) MiningScanner.png Automatic Mining Scanner Activating the scanner will briefly flash any ore on screen - it works even inside a box, or your boots. Can be used on activated gibtonite to pause the explosion and allow it to be relocated. Of course, you need both hands to pick up gibtonite, but we can't always get what we want. (For best results, count 8 flashes of the ore before doing so. This includes the large flashes at the start.) GPSm.gif Global Positioning System, GPS The crew monitoring console back on the station won't catch your suit sensor signal from all the way down on the planet. Having one of these on you will help others track down your body if you happen to develop a case of the dead. Be sure to set your name on the GPS. In addition, it can be used to locate other miners (who bothered to take it) as well as “lost” signals. Megafauna, necropolis tendrils, and certain ruins emit GPS signals. Be wary.
KineticAccelerator.png Proto-kinetic Accelerator A standard issue mining gun. The good part is that it packs a punch in a low pressure environment, is very good at digging small tunnels, and has infinite shots. The bad part is that it tickles in pressurized environments, has a cooldown after each shot, and has a base range of three steps. Good thing we have modkits. Can be dual wielded at the price of lower accuracy and speed. Some miners prefer mining with two of these.
KAs deal brute damage (40 standard/10 in pressurized rooms), but count as explosive versus armor. That way, suits like bomb suits and the RD hardsuit can negate 90% of the damage dealt.
Survivalknife.gif Survival Knife Use it for butchering the wildlife (hit while on harm intent). It's as strong against mobs as a pickaxe, but you can't mine with it. You can store it in your boots to save space, but remember to alt-click the boots to draw the knife back out. Alternatively, stick it on your KA. Seclite.png Seclite A beefed up flashlight. Put this on your KA to free up inventory space. Gives off light even if it's in anywhere but your backpack. Stimpen.png Survival Medipen A cocktail of powerful healing chemicals. Contains Salbutamol, Leporazine, Epinephrine, Mining Nanites and Omnizine. Slowly heals all types of damage and stabilizes body temperature. You can overdose on these if you use more than one in quick succession. BScapsule.png Bluespace shelter capsule Activate this in your hand, and it'll near instantly produce a beautiful shelter. Ash storms cannot hurt you inside, but wildlife can break through the walls. The shelter contains a cupboard with a guitar (or dice) and some warm donk pockets. It also has a stasis bed which requires another person to use, and a nanomed on the wall above it with some gauze. Never leave home without one. OreSatchel.png Ore Satchel For carrying ore without using a mining cart. Holds 50 ore nuggets. Empty it into boxes by using the satchel on them. Newbie tip: Put it in one of your pocket slots, then start dragging an ore box. Any ore you walk over will be transferred to the box. OreCrate.png Ore box Used for carrying huge amounts of ore. While a satchel can only hold 50 nuggets, this can hold an unlimited sum. You cannot carry it, but you can pull it with you. Use your satchel on the box to empty it into the box. Even better: Drag it behind you with an ore satchel in your pocket.
Useful as cover from Watcher bolts.
Voucher.gif Mining Voucher Found in your backpack, exchange this at the mining equipment locker for one of several selections which include various valuable and useful items. Miscellaneous Equipment Items that, while not critical to take, can be situationally useful.
Item Description Pickaxe.png Pickaxe Somewhat antiquated thanks to the prevalence of the proto-kinetic accelerator and resonator. Nevertheless it can be used to dig wide tunnels and robust things in melee combat as a backup if you lose your PKA. It can also fit inside a belt chest webbing. Shovel.png Shovel Gathering sand. You can stick this in your backpack. A crappier version of a compact pickaxe. Crowbar.png Crowbar For removing KA mods, or just in case when there is a blackout. Spawns in your internals box. Markerbeacon.png Marker Beacon Stationary lights that you can color and toss everywhere to annoy the crew. Or light your way through Lavaland. That too. Plant bag.png Plant Bag Stores the plants you harvest on Lavaland. Botany will appreciate getting new plants. Advanced Gear The following are more advanced items that need to be purchased from a mining equipment vendor:
Voucher/Reward Equipment These items can either be acquired from a voucher, or can be bought with mining points. Mining points are usually earned from delivering ore to the Ore Redemption Machine Ore Redemption Machine on the station.
Mining Equipment Vendor Mining Equipment Vendor Mining Equipment Vendor List Item Description Price Markerbeacon.png 30 Marker Beacons A pack of 30 Marker Beacons, used to light your way through Lavaland. 100 Points BScapsule.png Bluespace Shelter Capsule The Shelter Capsule is indispensable for long expeditions: it creates an ash-storm proof 3×3 room complete with breathable air, a nanomed, a stasis bed and some warm donk-pockets. Of course, the donk pockets are better at healing you than the nanomed. The only useful thing the nanomed holds are its bandages.
400 Points Bottle17.png Stabilizing Serum Can be used on legion cores to prevent them from decaying. Legion cores give their healing instantly, compared to the healing over time from the Survival Medipen. 400 Points Stimpen.png Survival Medipen Contains several healing and heat-stabilizing chemicals. Using more than one in a short period will cause several overdoses. 500 Points Brutefak.png Brute First-Aid Kit Contains bandages, brute-healing patches, and a bicaridine pill bottle. 600 Points Bmed.png Burn First-Aid Kit Contains bandages, burn-healing patches, and a kelotane pill bottle. 600 Points Radfak.png Advanced First-Aid Kit Contains burn and brute healing patches, atropine medipens, and a pentetic acid pill bottle. 1200 Points Fulton beacon.png Fulton Beacon Creates an anchored beacon when used in hand that fulton extraction packs can target as a drop-off point. 500 Points Fulton pack.png Fulton Extraction Pack A balloon that can be used to extract anything outside that's not bolted down to a Fulton Recovery Beacon. Swap which beacon the pack is aiming at by using (Z or click) the pack in hand. It has a limited number of uses (usually 3 in a fresh pack); examine the pack to check how many are left. 1000 Points Jaunter.png Wormhole Jaunter A one-use item that creates a wormhole to a random beacon on station. The portal is unstable and will make you dizzy after using it. Can be worn on the belt slot to teleport you if you happen to encounter a chasm. 750 Points AdvancedMiningScanner.png Advanced Mining Scanner A upgrade over the default Mining Scanner. This tool has a much larger detection radius of seven tiles (the entire screen), and updates more frequently. 800 Points Miner webbing.png Explorer's Webbing Can be worn on the belt slot. Stores mining equipment. 500 Points Jump boots.png Jump Boots A pair of boots that allow you to jump over three tiles, skipping chasms. Does not prevent lava damage, however. 2000 Points Kinetic crusher.png Proto-kinetic Crusher A powerful melee weapon. Unless you have a Bag of Holding, you can only store this in the slot normally occupied by a backpack. If wielded in both hands (left-click it while it's in the selected hand), shoots kinetic bolts that don't deal damage, but can mark creatures making the hammer deal increased damage (20→50 Brute) when used on them. It will deal even greater damage (80) on backstab. What makes the Crusher special is that enemies killed by it have a chance to drop trophies, powerful “modkits” that can be attached to the Crusher. 800 Points KineticAccelerator.png Proto-kinetic Accelerator The classic modular mining weapon. Often called “P-KA” or just “KA”. If you forgot to get one at roundstart, or otherwise lack a P-KA, don't buy it from here - there's extra mining lockers in the Lavaland Mining Station's westward side with the same contents as those on the station. 500 Points Resonator.png Resonator This will, when used on rock or an empty space, create a field on that spot that lasts for about five seconds before rupturing, causing serious damage (60 Brute) to anything standing on it. Just like the kinetic accelerator, it does reduced damage (20) in pressurized environments. Using it on an already-marked spot will instantly rupture the field. With no fields up, you can activate it in your hand (Z) to switch the field to last between 3 and 5 seconds.
However, if there are fields up, activating it in your hand will rupture the fields early.
750 Points Resonator.png Super (Upgraded) Resonator Like the regular resonator, but able to have 6 fields active at a time - with no damage penalty for fields that are detonated early. Doesn't even give an extra tile of range. 1500 Points Pickaxe.png Silver-plated Pickaxe Slightly better than the default pickaxe, but still a lot worse than your starting KA. 500 Points Pickaxe.png Diamond Pickaxe For when you want something shinier and better than your default pickaxe and the scientists are either too lazy or too dead to research drills or jackhammers. STILL worse than a basic KA. Only useful for pretending you're playing Minecraft. 1000 Points MiningDrone.png Mining Bot Companion This helpful little guy goes around collecting loose ore so you don't have to. Will drop its haul when you hit it with the mining scanner. Clicking on it with an empty hand will toggle it between ore collection and wildlife fighting mode, where it will attack xenos with its built-in kinetic accelerator and drill. Will not pick up sand with no nearby ore around, for some reason. Comes with an upgraded welding tool if redeemed via voucher. It cannot be repaired while it is fighting. It can be further upgraded with special modules bought from the vending machine. 800 Points Circuitboard.png Minebot Upgrade: Melee Increases the Minebot's melee damage. WRITEME: Include capacity taken up. 400 Points Circuitboard.png Minebot Upgrade: Armor Increases the Minebot's health. WRITEME: Include capacity taken up. 400 Points Circuitboard.png Minebot Upgrade: Cooldown Decreases the Minebot's ranged weapon's cooldown. WRITEME: Include capacity taken up. 600 Points Circuitboard.png Drone: AI Upgrade Installs a high tech AI into the Drone (grants a ghost control over the Drone). WRITEME: Include capacity taken up. 1000 Points Modkit.png P-KA Upgrade: Bot-Friendly A modkit that allows your PKA to ignore minebots. Does not occupy any mod capacity. 100 Points Modkit.png P-KA Upgrade: Tracer Shots A modkit that makes your KA's projectile flight path visible, in a white color. Does not occupy any mod capacity. 200 Points Modkit.png P-KA Upgrade: Adj. T. Shots A modkit that makes your KA's projectile flight path visible. Use in hand to cycle between colors. Does not occupy any mod capacity. 300 Points Modkit.png P-KA Upgrade: Range A modkit that increases your KA's range by 1. Occupies 25% of mod capacity. Can usually be fabricated at the cargo techfab/protolathe - don't buy it here. 1000 Points Modkit.png P-KA Upgrade: Damage A modkit that increases your KA's damage by 10. Occupies 30% of mod capacity. Can usually be fabricated at the cargo techfab/protolathe - don't buy it here. 1000 Points Modkit.png P-KA Upgrade: Cooldown A modkit that reduces your KA's cooldown by 0.25 seconds. Occupies 30% of mod capacity. Can usually be fabricated at the cargo techfab/protolathe - don't buy it here. 1000 Points Modkit.png P-KA Upgrade: Damage Radius A modkit that makes your KA hit in a 3×3 AoE, dealing 20% of the original damage per modkit. Does not destroy rock. Occupies 30% of mod capacity.. 2000 Points Modkit.png P-KA Cosmetic Super Chassis A modkit that makes your KA look yellow, like one of the no longer existing Super-Kinetic Accelerators. Does not occupy any mod capacity. 200 Points Modkit.png P-KA Cosmetic Hyper Chassis A modkit that makes your KA look orange, like one of the no longer existing Hyper-Kinetic Accelerators. Does not occupy any mod capacity.. 200 Points Mining Hardsuit.png Mining Hardsuit A nostalgic suit piece from the older days of asteroid mining. Useless on Lavaland but great to explore space. Like the standard explorer’s suit, can be upgraded up to 3 times with goliath hide for up to 60 melee resistance. 2000 Points Extended Emergency Oxygen Tank.png Expanded E. Oxygen Tank An expanded emergency oxygen tank. Lasts for twice as long as the one in your internals box. Just get a normal oxygen tank from the Mining Station EVA, the shift'll never be long enough for you to need this. If you REALLY want one of these, go loot a dead Legion. (drag corpse to you) 1000 Points Dufflebag.png Mining Conscription Kit Contains a mini-pickaxe, mesons, an ore scanner and satchel, an explorer suit and gas mask, a supply encryption key which gives your headset access to the supply channel, and a card which adds mining access to your ID. a 1500 Points Survivalknife.gif Survival Knife A robust knife. Used to butcher fauna and hit harder with your PKA. Don't lose it! 1000 Points Implanter.png Tracking Implant Kit Contains three tracking implants and a locator; useful if you want others to find your corpse for up to 10 minutes after death. 1000 Points Point Transfer Card.png Point Transfer Card A small card that contains 500 Mining Points. Swipe your ID card over it to transfer the points, then discard. 500 Points Gar mesons.png GAR Mesons A pair of very sharp meson scanners. Can be thrown as a weapon, with a chance to embed. 500 Points BScapsule.png Luxury Shelter Capsule Tired of cramped shelter capsules? This is for you! Comes with a three-course meal, a deluxe companion and much more. 3000 Points BScapsule.png Mining Outpost Capsule For the miner who wants a homebase in hell, the mining encampment comes with standard shelter amenities and more, including tolietries and a personal equipment vendor for multiple miners to really call home. 7500 Points BScapsule.png Luxury Bar Capsule A luxury bar in a capsule. Bartender required and not included. 10000 Points Lazarus Hypo.png Lazarus Injector A miracle injection capable of reviving simple living beings from death, making them friendly to you and the crew. Useless on all player-controlled beings. Resurrect Ian for all access from a thankful Head of Personnel! Or make yourself a pet Goliath. The lazarus injector can be EMP'd (blend plasma+iron) to make revived mobs hostile to everyone but you. Also useful for bartering with the HoP or any staff with a pet. Expect R&D to want one, as it has high research value. 1000 Points Cash 1000.png1000 Space Cash One thousand credits in space cash! 2000 Points Pizzabox.pngPizza A 100 credit pizza. 200 Points Whiskey bottle.png Whiskey A bottle of alcohol, helps you forget you literally work in hell. 100 Points Absinthe bottle.png Absinthe A bottle of alcohol, helps you forget you literally work in hell. 100 Points Cigar.png Cigar A high-quality havana cigar. 150 Points Soap.png Soap A bar of slippery soap. 200 Points Laser pointer.png Laser Pointer Just a laser pointer, don't shine it into people's eyes. Useful against rogue Cyborgs. 300 Points Facehugger.png Toy Facehugger An extremely realistic-looking facehugger toy, to prank the crew with. Latches onto faces and tears off masks. 300 Points
Free Golem Equipment Vendor Free Golem Equipment Vendor The Free Golem ship has some extra goodies:
Golem Equipment Vendor List Item Description Price Id regular.png Extra ID An extra ID that works for holding money and entering the station. 250 Points Science Goggles.png Science Goggles A pair of regular science goggles. Helpful with locating scannable targets. 250 Points Monkey Cube.png Monkey Cube A single monkey cube. Just add water. 300 Points Utilitybelt.png Toolbelt A toolbelt, like the ones on station. 350 Points Sheetrd.png Royal Cape of the Liberator A replica of the Liberator's cape. A must-have for every Free Golem. 500 Points Slimegrey.png Grey Slime Extract Ever wanted to do Xenobiology on Lavaland? There you go. 1000 Points Modkit.png Trigger Guard Modification Kit A trigger modkit that allows golems to use the Kinetic Accelerator. Occupies 20% of mod capacity. Can also be fabricated at a techfab - and probably should be, with its huge point cost. 1700 Points Box.png The Liberator's Legacy A box with all circuit boards needed to build your own RnD department! The RnD console synchronizes with the station's server. 2000 Points RnD Gear The following is a list of advanced items that can be unlocked only by RnD, using a combination of minerals and high tech research. (RnD, if you're reading this - we like the KA Mods, Plasma Cutters, Mining Satchels of Holding, and Night Vision Mesons the best.)
RnD Gear Item Description Miningdrill.png Mining Drill Can be acquired early on from RnD. It's twice as fast as the standard Pickaxe but is quickly superseded by better variants and is expensive for what it does. Diamonddrill.png Diamond Tipped Mining Drill Very powerful drill, able to almost instantly mine mineral walls. Very expensive in terms of Diamonds needed to produce however. Sonicjack.png Sonic Jackhammer The epitome of mining. Can practically instantly mine through rock and walls. But it requires three times the Diamonds of a Diamond Tipped Drill. Modkit.png KA Triggerguard Mod A modkit that will allow species that cannot normally fire guns to use the KA, such as golems and hulks. Occupies 20% of mod capacity. Modkit.png KA Range Mod A modkit that increases your KA's range by 1. Occupies 25% of mod capacity. Modkit.png KA Damage Mod A modkit that increases your KA's damage by 10. Occupies 30% of mod capacity. Modkit.png KA Cooldown Mod A modkit that reduces your KA's cooldown by 0.25 seconds. Occupies 30% of mod capacity. Modkit.png KA AoE Mining Mod A modkit that makes your KA mine rocks in a 3×3 AoE. It does not, however, deal AoE damage. You're usually better off carrying a plasma cutter to deal with rocks and keep the KA for combat. Occupies 30% of mod capacity. Plasma Cutter.png Plasma Cutter A fast mining (and welding) tool. Shoots rock-breaking bolts that pierce up to 5 rocks per shot. Rechargeable by inserting plasma ore or sheets into it (max 20). Less efficient in combat than a KA, however, and even less when in pressurized environments. Adv plasma cutter.gif Advanced Plasma Cutter A very fast mining (and welding) tool. Shoots rock-breaking bolts that pierce up to 10 rocks per shot, basically allowing you to pierce rock as fast as you can walk. Rechargeable by inserting plasma ore or sheets into it (max 20). Bluespacemining.png Mining Satchel of Holding Very cheap mining satchel that can hold an unlimited amount of minerals and ore. NV meson glasses.gif Night Vision Mesons These glasses work like normal mesons, but they can see perfectly in the darkness - negating the need for flashlights and marker beacons in Lavaland. All of this gear is printed out at the supply department Techfab/Protolathe|protolathe/techfab/whatever they’re calling it now. Techfab/Protolathe. It's the thing that isn't the one that crafts basic stuff, okay?
Lavaland Loot Lavaland has more than just ores. There are several jobs that might want something from Lavaland. (note for future editors: add drops from
You can get RnD discovery points by using a Discovery Scanner to scan the corpses of Lavaland mobs. It’s recommended that you announce the mob being scanned in the science channel (:n) to notify other miners of what’s already been scanned (and also remind RnD that the miners are helping them, so they should probably research advanced mining already.)
RnD also appreciates Lazarus Injectors, from the mining vendor. You can get Cargo the tribal equipment they need for bounties, since it's crafted with the loot of Lavaland mobs. You can get Botany samples of plants from the surface. They especially appreciate Strange Plants, which can contain any chemical. You can buy Synthflesh for Medical in an emergency. Synthflesh can be found in the vendor’s Advanced Medical Kits. When they’re unlocked, remind medical that plasma cutters are great for removing limbs in emergencies. The Ores These are what you should be looking out for, generally try and get a good mix of the more exotic ore types. Iron ore is ok, but it sells for little and is highly abundant on the station already.
But if you see Bluespace Crystals, grab them. Diamonds are the only minerals of comparable rarity, and those drop from Watchers.
Name Wall Raw Ore Mining Point Reward Value Processed Ore Frequency Uses Iron Ironwall.png Ironore.png 1 Metal.png Very Common For just about everything. Sand Minefloor.png Sandore.png 1 Glass.png Very Common To obtain, use a shovel on an empty space. Used for making glass, which has a plethora of station applications. Use sand in your hand to make sandstone bricks. These can be used to make dirt which can be used to grow plants. Plasma Plasmawall.png Plasmaore.png 15 Plasmadone.png Common Ship sheets back to Centcom for bonus money to the cargo budget. Silver Silverwall.png Silverore.png 16 Silverdone.png Semi-Common Making dosh, mechs, and researching Bluespace. Gold Goldwall.png Goldore.png 18 Golddone.png Semi-Common For making various electronics or pimping out Beepsky. Titanium Titaniumrock.png Titaniumore.png 30 Titaniumdone.png Uncommon For high-tech mechs or R&D components. Also for building shuttle walls and floors. Uranium Uraniumwall.png Uraniumore.png 30 Uraniumdone.png Uncommon For making you radioactive (notice: no joke, this shit is deadly as a wall or a door). Delicious (and useful) cocktails. Diamond Diamondwall.png Diamondore.png 50 Diamonddone.png Rare For making mech parts, among other industrial uses. Bluespace Crystal BluespaceCrystalWall.png Bluespace Crystal.png 50 BS polycrystal.png Rare These crystals can be used in various ways. Give them to science to increase bluespace science, hold onto them to use as a risk free jaunter, or throw them at people to make them teleport randomly (often into space.) Bananium Bananimumwall.png Bananimumore.png 60 Bananiumdone.png HONK! A rare and unusual mineral found exclusively in clown-controlled space. Used only for the H.O.N.K. mech and other clownlike items. Gibtonite Gibtonitewall.gif Gibtoniteore.png N/A Uncommon For trolling miners blowing shit up, whether they be solid asteroid or other things. Hitting it with your mining tools will start a chain reaction. If you don't stop the reaction with your mining scanner in time, the gibtonite will explode. If you do, you can mine the ore, pick it up (you need both hands free) and use it as an explosive. The closer the gibtonite was to exploding before defused, the more potent its power. Cannot be forged, stored on your person, or turned in to the Ore Redemption Machine Ore Redemption Machine, so don't bring any of this to the station or else you'll be arrested ignored by security because they don't know what the hell it is. Gibtonite can be used to craft a Chemical Payload ChemPayload.gif. How to obtain high-quality Gibtonite: Hit ore, count to 8 flashes of the ore then hit it with your scanner. Gibtonite varies in the number of reactions it has, so you may get lower quality ore. Use 2 of the 0 reaction ores (the most potent) to blow open the AI core and make it cry at it's malf failure!
Alloys Some ores can be smelted to produce alloys.
Plasteel Plasteel Plastitanium Plastitanium Found in: Syndicate spacecraft Used for: Evil walls and floors Strategy: Use it to create the walls and flooring used in a Syndicate spacecraft Description An alloy of plasma and titanium. Who Needs What Miners don't have to deliver materials directly to departments – they can if they want, or if those bastards are too lazy to leave their fortress of autism science – but it never hurts to know what to aim for.
Scientists need at least a bit of every ore. They'll also appreciate you sending them Lazarus Injectors, and scanning the wildlife for discovery points. Roboticists need diamond, uranium, silver and gold for building mech parts. Give them enough and you've indirectly helped out most of the departments on the station if the Roboticists are competent enough to build helpful stompy mechs (and robots) for everybody! The Quartermaster may want mineral sheets to trade them in for bonus supply credits, and/or materials from Lavaland mobs to craft into Bounty objectives. Plasma and Bones in particular are both common and valuable. The Chemist and Xenobiologist will all appreciate having extra plasma. A competent Virologist can use several sheets of uranium to create incredibly powerful healing viruses that let you heal out of crit in two seconds. A Clown with Bananium is a grateful and dangerous ally. Good luck finding it, though. The Bartender can use a few sheets of uranium, plasma, or iron to craft some of his rarest cocktails. Everybody could always use more iron, glass and plasteel, but especially Roboticists and Station Engineers. At this point, you might be thinking, “Why should I help them?” Well, while not everyone has a way to help you, most of the jobs that you supply can aid you in turn.
Roboticists can give you immunity to the ash storm via completely replacing your body with augmentations, and/or allow you to cross lava without a boat in a lavaproof mech (the Firefighter). Scientists can unlock upgrades for your Kinetic Accelerator, a Plasma Cutter, a Mining Satchel of Holding, and, if you're lucky, Night Vision Meson Scanners or a Bag of Holding! A competent Virologist can use the Uranium you gave them to create incredibly powerful healing viruses that let you heal out of crit in two seconds. Station Engineers can create an Auxillary Base for you, summoned via the Auxillary Base Beacon found in the mining lockers. Toxins can give you grenades for use against Watchers due to their weakness to explosions. Alternatively, they can give you very useful mining bombs, clearing out screens of rock with one explosion. The Bartender can make useful drinks for you. An Icewing, a Toxins Special, or some Anti-Freeze can heat you up while fighting Watchers; Fetching Fizz will make it much easier to gather minerals after an explosion; the Bastion Bourbon (among other drinks) can heal you over time, etc. There's even a drink that'll allow you to breathe fire! Chest Loot Obtained from necropolis chests, which are dropped by necropolis tendrils. You must use a skeleton key, obtained at any mining vendor, to open these chests. For the bosses' loot, see Megafauna.
Necropolis Chest Loot Crusher trophies Each time you kill a Lavaland enemy with the Proto-Kinetic Crusher, there is a chance that it drops a trophy. These can be attached to your Crusher for unique effects.
Item Enemy Description Craftables Not only can you kill the local fauna, you can also cobble together items from their smashed remains. To craft these, you must open the crafting menu. (This is a major part of playing an Ashwalker.)
Listed here are the recipes that might be useful to miners. Note that Cargo may have bounties that require loot from Lavaland mobs, so it's a good idea to take most creature loot with you.
Item Description Materials The Wildlife Lavaland is filled with a variety of bloodthirsty alien lifeforms populating the caverns, walking just fine over the ponds and puddles of lava. Fortunately, you can fight them whilst taking minimal damage, if you have the know-how. (For instance: All of these enemies will attack shortly after they move. Afterwards, they will have a wide window to be attacked in.) Useful items can be harvested from these creatures' corpses should you triumph; butcher them with a knife by attacking the corpse on Harm intent and the goods will spill out!
Wildlife Shiny Mobs Common Lavaland mobs now have rare mutations. Common mining mobs have a 1% chance on initialize to gain a new appearance and new stats - 5% for legions.
Wildlife Xenoforms Check out Lavaland/Space_Role for more information.
You're not always the only sentient being on the planet. Aside from the lovecraftian horrors living down there, you may also contend with |several groups or factions of beings on the planet. Some hostile, some friendly. The following is a list of all known sentient groups found on the planet based on information sent from recon squads. (As a ghost, if you wish to become one of these, left-click on an unoccupied spawner. ex: broken rejuvenation pods in hospitals, ash walker eggs in their nest, unclaimed Free Golem shells, etc.) (If you can't find any, try the Spawners Menu, under the Ghost tab.)
Podmen Recon Expedition #4 Threat Level: Minimal, Non Hostile Note: A small group of podmen were observed living inside a sealed plant vault. They appear minimally armed and seem to avoid leaving their home.
Free Golems Recon Expedition #9 Threat Level: Minimal, Non Hostile Note: A unidentified flying object was seen crashing by Recon Team Charlie during expedition #8. Alpha team on expedition #9 located a group of golems, the golems appeared utterly uninterested in their surroundings all things considered.
(/tg/ has a cool page about these guys, but I can't link it here because the captcha required to post external links is broken.)
Ashwalkers Recon Expedition #13 Threat Level: Medium, Hostile Note: It appears a group of Basiliscus Lizretus, also known as Lizardmen, live on the planet. They are hostile to all intruders. These 'ashwalkers' only started to appear when mining operations started, they are agile but lightly armed, wielding primitively forged armor and spears. They appear to also have a hostile relationship with the wildlife, having been observed killing and dragging wildlife corpses away, as to why they need these corpses the recon team is unable to ascertain.
Syndicate Agents Recon Expedition #45 Threat Level: Extreme, Hostile Notes: It has come to attention that the syndicate (direct corporation/group unknown) has recently set up a large compound in Lavaland. This may explain where expedition #38-44 has gone. They are equipped with high end weaponry and has been stated that trace bits of gunpowder has been found around the lava moat that the base is stationed in, suggesting that this base may be wired to self-destruct. We also detected radio waves coming and going from the compound. If found, turn back and report to your superiors immediately.
Secrets of Lavaland While on Lavaland, you may come upon artificial structures. They can have items ranging from magical artifacts, to other lifeforms, to alien facehuggers. If you are at all unsure, always let your mining buddies know using :u before going in: some ruins can be very dangerous.
Tips General Tips If you're new to the job, take a GPS and “check in” on Supply comms (:u) every ash storm. This ensures that, when you meet a terrible (and non-Chasm) fate, the other miners will probably notice and take steps to get you revived. You can also try sticking close to a more experienced miner, but that means you’ll both get less mining points. The cacti down on the surface slowly heal minor wounds. You can view the contents of a mining satchel by alt-clicking it. This works on other containers too, like backpacks and boxes. Make sure to familiarize yourself with other useful Keyboard Shortcuts. Middle mouse click swaps your selected hand, ctrl-click pulls an object/person you're standing next to, the DELETE key makes you stop pulling that object/person, etc. Clicking on a space with an empty hand while pulling something will attempt to move that object to the targeted space. You can slip up to 2 small objects - for instance, your Mining Scanner and GPS - into your boots. Alt-click to remove them. Your explorer's suit can store up to 2 small objects as well. To access this inventory, drag it to your character. You can put your ID into your PDA, freeing up your belt slot to hold your Seclite, or the Proto-Kinetic Accelerator it's attached to. At the start of the shift, ask Science for a Discovery Scanner. As long as you can see them, you can scan Lavaland enemies (dead or alive) for discovery points - Watchers and Goliaths give 2,000, Goldgrubs 1,000, and Megafauna give a whopping 10,000 discovery points when scanned. However, the real benefit is that it reminds science that Mining exists. As a result, hopefully they'll remember that Mining's helping them out and research stuff that benefits mining in turn. Every little bit helps - especially when they can simply refuse to research Advanced Mining Technology. As an extension of the previous tip: Science also appreciates you gifting them a Lazarus Injector, as they are extremely useful to them. Minebot Tips: Minebots are great at distracting monsters. Just walk near and bash the distracted target with your weapon of choice. They can take quite a beating, though goliaths can take them down pretty quickly if you're not quick enough. Afterwards, as long as you're not in a fight, you can repair it with a welding tool. Minebots collect all the crap that gibtonite explosions leave, saving you a bunch of trouble. On the station, a sentient mining drone dragging a bar of soap is surprisingly robust against most enemies - even changelings. You'll have to give it an AI module first, though. Their melee saw is very robust, and works just as well as on the station as it does on Lavaland. Furthermore, when in space, the proto-kinetic accelerator that they are equipped with is also very robust.
Proto-Kinetic Accelerator Tips:
The Proto-kinetic Accelerator can destroy electrified grilles without needing a pair of insulated gloves.
The Proto-kinetic Accelerator will obliterate a space carp in one hit while in space.
The Proto-kinetic Accelerator can be used as an infinite tool to navigate when there’s no gravity. Every time you fire, it'll throw you in the opposite direction.
Equipment tips:
Mining suit upgrade : Goliath plates add +10% melee resist each time when applied to a suit. The plates will stack until they reach 30%, which may help you live in case a goliath grabs you.
Security Jumpsuit : Can be worn under your mining suit. Gives a +10% melee resist to everywhere but your head. If you're not feeling confident, ask the QM or HoS to give you one.
Bone Talisman : Crafted with 2 bones and 1 watcher sinew. Attached to your jumpsuit. Provides a 5 boost to base protection but a 20 boost to explosive and biological protection.
Augmentations : Augs can be very useful for miners, as healing with a welder is ultimately easier and harder to completely use up. Plus they work differently than armor when it comes to protection, instead reducing all brute damage taken by an augmented body part by 5 (4 for burn). Furthermore, if you get fully augumented, you're actually ash storm proof. Downside : EMP vulnerability.
Other helpful tips:
If you don't have an ore box, and no mining satchel of holding, you can deconstruct tables in the library (the curator is probably too busy organizing a game of D&D to really care much) to obtain wooden planks. You can then use these wooden planks to fabricate an ore box.
Don't yell at science for not researching mining stuff first. It's rude. You can, however, politely remind them to research mining gear if you're about 30 minutes into the round.
The Head of Personnel may reward you with all access if you resurrect Ian. Yes, you have the tools to do so - the Lazarus Injector, at 1,000 points.
Sometimes, the Research Director will reward you for a pet gold grub.
If you're expecting trouble on the station - and your mining shuttle doesn't come with two doors - consider taking out a window on the mining shuttle before you return to make a quick getaway so you're not trapped like a rat in a cage.
While Lavaland does change from shift to shift, there's a few things that stay the same. For instance, the Mining Station is always in the bottom-left corner of Lavaland, the Necropolis is always the top border of Lavaland, and the bomb testing site (cordoned by fences) is always a little bit below and to the right of the Mining Station. (There's usually some decent ores at the bomb testing site, and it's close to base.)
Dead Space
A traitorous miner has a lot of advantages. You have a space suit for free right away and a robust pickaxe. Certain minerals you'll find have more “specialized” uses – uranium structures will irradiate people, plasma can start fires, gibtonite goes boom, etc. You can also buy dangerous “mining” tools and possibly even revive those monsters you've been fighting. As long as you have some mineral wealth or an ore box with you, no one will suspect your presence around the station, even in highly restricted areas like robotics or toxins, and if you are smart enough, you could get a big stompy mech to drill people to death! In addition, Lavaland is isolated, dangerous, and as expansive as you're willing to dig out. Plenty of room for somebody to get lost in… Forever!
Tips for Traitoring If you're a miner and you have to kill another miner; there's a really easy way to block communications one way so he can't call for help. Grab a multitool, go to the mining communications room. Use the multi tool on the relay and make sure the relay isn't sending, meaning your headset won't go to people on the station. Kill your target with their shouts for help unheard. You can get plasma at exactly the heat you need for canister bombs by welding a plasma door in vacuum. Use an air pump to gather the gas, then put all of the plasma gas produced into an empty large tank (the size of plasma, emergency O2, etc). You can then ignite it with a can of pure O2 set to release at 1013.25 KPa. This is the Shaft Miner's canister bomb. It's easy to set up on Lavaland. More than one uranium wall is hilariously deadly, as they give off a pulse of radiation every couple of seconds. This pulse makes other uranium walls in range pulse as well, and they all run on their own timer. Tiers 0-1-2-3 can gib bodies, remember mining suits take 50% of damage away from bombs, so strip miners you want to make disappear forever first. (Are they talking about gibtonite, here?) Ripley is a fairly robust murdering tool, if you can, convince robotics to put a gravity catapult on it. SLAM PEOPLE INTO WALLS. THE SUFFERING NEVER ENDS. Space is your best ally. Your weapons are more lethal in space, and anyone who wants to chase you will need access to a jetpack and EVA gear. Make people fight on your terms by blowing up the station with various Gibtonite charges, or bust in, stun and drag targets into space.
You can make a chemical payload container using any shitty bit of gibtonite. This can be useful for making chemical bombs, but it relies on knowing how to obtain specific chemicals that can be robust and accessible to a Miner. Blending Plasma and Iron together creates an EMP explosion that messes with suit sensors and bricks headsets.
Tips for Culting
If you're a miner, the Mining Station is the perfect hive for a cult. The back room can easily be broken down by Constructs, runes can be placed, and a single artificer can make it very difficult for Security to try and raid. Remember to cut cameras, so a Non-Asimov AI doesn't bolt and electrocute every door. Remember to use Teleport other to get Cultists off station and into safe custody. All the station needs is a Medibot and you are golden.
Mining Mining is the Supply department's bread and butter; apart from exporting crates and manifests, the ship relies on the Prospector to mine and process enough minerals in order to obtain those sweet, sweet extra credits. Given that in-lore the Prospector is assumed to be experienced, this is a relatively safe job; but every miner must keep their wits about them and be careful, lest they be a feast for hungry xenofauna.
Equipment Your equipment storage is in Mining Prep, to the aft of the Hangar (on Deck Five). There are two lockers, plus a table of other assorted tools you'd be advised to pick up.
Locker Equipment
Mining Prep and EVA Storage Webbing vest: Equipping this on your jumpsuit will provide you with three extra storage slots. Gas analyzer: Clicking on the ground around you will provide information about the atmosphere around you. Considering some planets are extremely hot, cold, have an atmosphere toxic to humans, or are even flammable, it's best to go in knowledgeable. You also have a built-in gas scanner in your PDA. Mining satchel: Click on a tile with it in your hand to pick up every ore on that tile. You can also empty it into an ore box once your satchel is full. Lantern: Portable light source. Mining drill: Walk into rocks or click on them to drill through the rock. Optical Meson Scanner: Lets you see through walls with a green tint. An absolute must for mining, as you can see all of the ore that is on your screen. Optical material scanner: Lets you see only objects through walls. Ore detector: Click on the ground while holding this to obtain a mineral survey of the tile. An excellent tool for figuring out where to set the mining drill head. You can also print out the ore surveys and give them back to supply to gain credits, but it's very little. Tool belt: For holding tools, naturally. Some tools, like screwdrivers and an upgraded welder, spawn on the table in Mining Prep. Shortwave radio: For staying in contact, calling out for help, and just chatting with your team, or yourself. Essential. Relay positioning device: This will show your coordinates (written like x-y-z) on your status tab if the RPD is in your pocket. This is essential for figuring out where your ship is parked and where you are at the moment. Research & Development can get you upgraded tools relatively early in the matrix process, such as advanced mining drills or plasma cutters. You can also ask for upgraded micro-lasers, matter bins, and power cells to make the big drill more efficient.
EVA Equipment North of Mining Prep is the EVA room. Unlock and open a storage unit, and take out everything. If you are a different species than Human, use the Mining Suit Cycler in the southwest corner of the room to adjust your suit. (Note: The suit cycler can just be unlocked by pressing 'unlock unit'.) For more details on EVA equipment, see Guide to EVA and Internals.
Your oxygen tank that comes in a storage unit will only be half-full by default. Make sure to fill it at an oxygen canister.
If you want to make sure you don't run out of air, take a second oxygen tank from the Tank Storage Unit above the canister and fill it too.
Expedition Storage
Expedition Storage To the fore of the hangar is storage that contains your big drill and other assorted equipment (mostly for the exploration team).
Mining drill parts: Can mine ore automatically from one spot. You need the drill head and two braces for it to work properly. They also run on power cells, meaning it's a good idea to grab a couple extra. Ore boxes: An infinite ore storage unit; you should only need one, unless another prospector wants to drag one behind them while they mine on their own. You can empty the contents of your satchel and the big drill into it. Floodlights: Can illuminate a larger area around you, though you should have mesons already. Industrial suit control module: A hardsuit designed for experienced Prospectors. To equip it, put it in your backpack slot and select the 'Hardsuit' tab to see options for activating it. It comes with built-in mesons and a plasma cutter, but it limits your vision and you can't use binoculars while you're wearing it. See Guide to Hardsuits for more details on hardsuit operation. Preparing an Expedition At the start of the round, it's advised to ask the bridge crew or the Deck Chief for the Torch's sensor readings. These will give you a list of locations you can go to alongside a bearing. A bearing works on a 360 degree measurement (like a protractor) to tell you which direction to fly to get to said away site.
Your navigation console will also tell you the coordinates (x-y) of an away site at round start.
Team or alone? You have two options when going out on a mission; you can use your access to Exploration comms (:y) to coordinate with the Pathfinder or Shuttle Pilot about heading out on the Charon, or you can head out on your own or with a fellow prospector on the General Utility Pod, or GUP. Both have their own pros and cons; you'll have backup in the form of a team when going with Exploration, but you'll get to be your own boss and fly on your own terms when heading out by yourself.
Going it alone If you decide to go on your own, or there's no exploration team to go with, talk to the supply team about getting the GUP fueled and fully aired. The GUP uses CO2 for moving on the overmap, and hydrogen for making transitions between the Torch, a planet, or open space. The amount of air you have in the ship indicates how much you can cycle the GUP's airlock and how much of a breathable atmosphere inside the ship you have.
You can check how much CO2 you have by checking the orange-screened thruster console. The GUP does not need much thrust, and as such it's advised to lower the percentage of thrust on the console so you use less fuel (it can go as low as 10% thrust and still beat the Torch in a race, depending on circumstances).
The GUP's airlock (and how to use it) The GUP has one door (and one back hatch), and as such the entire ship acts like a large airlock. To properly cycle the GUP and learn how not to inhale chlorine, follow these simple instructions.
On the right side of the GUP, there is an Airlock Controller. Click it, and it will bring up a menu. On the menu, you have three options; Purge Air, Equalize With Exterior, and Hold. There is also a meter that shows the air pressure of the GUP. Turn on your internals. Turn on your magboots. Select Purge Air. The atmosphere in the GUP will be drained. Once the meter reaches 0-5 kPa, select Hold. This will keep the atmosphere at whatever enters it. Unlatch the doors with Override door safeties. Exit the GUP, and go mining. Once you return to the GUP and are ready to go back to the Torch, head to the controller and select Purge Air again. This will drain all of the planet's potentially toxic air. Wait until the meter says the atmosphere is at 0kPa again. Under the seat next to where your air canister would be hooked up, there is a valve. This controls the air supply to the ship. Click it to open it. Wait until the pressure is livable (90-101kPa, roughly), then close the valve again. Congratulations! You can now head back to the hangar without Engineering wanting to skin you alive for gassing the ship.
Extra safety tips Keep track of your internals under the 'Status' tab. If your tank pressure is too low, it might be time to swap out your oxygen or return to the ship. The supply warehouse has medical supplies in a cabinet nearby the stairs. It's a good idea to take some supplies in case you're severely injured, to hold out until medical can reach you. Duct tape can patch up suit breaches. Always keep your shortwave radio and relay positioning device on hand. Never be afraid to ask for help. Both the GUP and the Charon have long-range holopads you can use to contact the supply office or the bridge; just step on the pad and click it to bring up who you want to call. The plasma cutter can ignite a flammable atmosphere. Be careful where you use it. Mining Mechanically, mining is simple. To mine ore, click on a rock that has a mineral vein in it; this will bring a little progress bar up. You can click on more than one vein at a time. Once the rock is mined, click on the tile with your mining satchel to pick up the ore. When your satchel is full, empty it into an ore box.
Mining Drill 101
Inactive drill (above), set up drill (below). The mining drill, as seen to your left, can be bulky and requires some setup to use properly. However, it can be a very powerful tool, and provides a consistent source of minerals.
Setting it up To set the drill up, you will need a wrench and possibly a screwdriver.
Use the ore detector to find a good spot for the drill. The higher the number, the better the ore. Drag the head where you scanned, and wrench it together as you found it in storage; head in the middle, braces on either side. Click the head with an empty hand. The drill will start up with an animation. Usage and Maintenance If there is a pulsing green light on the head, it means that the drill is now working! Occasionally, however, it will flash a red light and stop. Click it with an empty hand to restart it and see the error message:
Resources depleted: Wrench the braces and move the drill elsewhere. Insufficient storage space: The drill is full. Put an ore box above or below the head, right-click the head and select “Unload Drill”. The drill is unpowered: It lacks a (charged) power cell. Click the head with a screwdriver to open its panel, click on it with an empty hand to remove the power cell. Take a charged cell into your hands, click the head to insert it, then use a screwdriver to close it. Click the head again to re-activate it. Refining After a successful mining expedition, ideally, you will come back with a large amount of multiple different ores. In order for them to be worth anything or used in any projects on the Torch, you must refine them using the refinery on the aft (east) edge of the hangar.
1. Put the ore box one tile to the left of the “unloading machine”.
2. Click the “mining conveyor” below the box to send the ores into the “material processor”.
3. Select the “mining console” to operate the furnace.
To alloy/alloying means to combine multiple ores to make products (see below).
Supply will mostly be using your ore to gain credits. If Research or Robotics is active this shift, they can also send them some materials such as uranium, phoron, silver, etc.
IMPORTANT: If you don't select the right method for each ore, they will turn out to be useless slag.
Processing method Name (Raw ore) Smelting Compressing Alloying Rough Diamond Diamond Gem Hematite Iron Ingot Steel Sheet Raw Hydrogen Tritium Ingot Metallic Hydrogen Sheet Native Gold Gold Ingot Native Silver Silver Ingot Phoron Phoron Crystal Pitchblende Uranium Sheet Pitchblende Brick Graphene Plastic Sheet Graphene “Sheet” (Is ingot icon) Steel Sheet Raw Platinum Platinum Ingot Osmium Ingot Plasteel Sheet, Borosilicate Glass Sheet Bauxite Aluminium Sheet Bauxite Brick Sand Glass Sheet Sandstone Borosilicate Glass Sheet Quartz Quartz Pyrite Pyrite Spodumene Spodumene Cinnabar Cinnabar Phosphorite Phosphorite Rock Salt Rock Salt Potash Potash Tetrahedrite Copper Rutile Titanium
Alloying Result Ingredient Ingredient Ingredient Ingredient Osmium-Carbide Plasteel Sheet 5 Plasteel 3 Osmium Plasteel Sheet 1 Platinum 2 Steel Borosilicate Glass Sheet 1 Platinum 2 Sand Steel Sheet 1 Graphene 1 Hematite
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. Depending on your luck with mob spawns, mining can range from a nuisance threat level to high likelihood of death.
The Mining Dock, containing the shuttle to the Mining Outpost, is located just below the Cargo Office.
The Equipment The following is a complete list of mining equipment:
32px Mining Hardsuit or voidsuit and helmet: Used so you can mine with impunity on the airless, cold, resource-rich planetoid. 32px 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. 32px Material Scanners: Lets you see where the ore is through the rock. MiningPick.gif Mining Tools: For tunneling through everything. Place this on your belt; it saves room. Alternatively, you can get various drills and other tools from science. These will dig faster, and may have other advantages. 32px 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. 32px Lantern: For seeing in the dark. Put one in your pocket. Or just use your suit helmet. 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.) 32px 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. 32px 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 mech. Gear that will be very handy, but not included:
Crowbar.pngCrowbar: To remove the power cell from the drill. Also handy in case you come back from the mines to a power outage. Screwdriver tool.pngScrewdriver: Needed to open the maintenance hatch on the drills. Also generally handy. Wrench.pngWrench: To secure the drill parts together. px Multitool: Used for cracking the code on the abandoned crates that are occasionally found buried out on the asteroid. Ripley.png 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. 32px Mining charges: A devastating bomb you can request from science which will destroy rock and dig up ore in a large radius. Use in combination with the ore detector. 32px Anti-particle projector pistol: A fairly powerful antimatter gun which only works in vacuum. Can be ordered through a belt miner crate. Old-school Mining Before you embark on a mining adventure, it is highly advised that you obtain a proper mining hardsuit, material scanners, an ore satchel, and a mining drill. 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.
If using mining charges, simply find a suitable place to drill away from outpost structures to set the charge. If using a timer, announce setting the charge over public radio, set the timer, place the charge, and clear the area. If using a signaler, set the charge, clear the area, announce you've placed the charge (preferably with a countdown), then detonate the charge. Ore will be left exposed over a wide area to gather with a mining satchel and ore box.
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.
The Ores Wall Raw Ore Smelted Compressed Coin Door Name Uses Hematite unmined.png Ironore.png Iron None None Door Hematite For use in steelmaking. Minefloor.png Sandore.png Glass.png Sandstone None Sanddoor.gif Sand For making glass, which has a plethora of station applications. Gold unmined.png Goldore.png Golddone.png None Goldcoin.png Golddoor.gif Native gold For making various electronics. Silver unmined.png Silverore.png Silverdone.png None Silvercoin.png Silverdoor.gif Native silver Making mechs and for material research. Phoron unmined.png Phoronore.png None Phoronone.png Phoroncoin.png Phorondoor.gif Phoron The reason you're here. Diamond unmined.png Diamondore.png None Diamonddone.png Diamondcoin.png DiamondDoor.gif Diamond For making mech parts, among other industrial uses. Uranium unmined.png Uraniumore.png Uraniumdone.png None Coin Door Pitchblende For various radioactive tasks. Carbon unmined.png Coalore.png Plastic.png None None None Carbon For use in steelmaking and plastics. Platinum unmined.png Platinumore.png Platinum Osmium None None Platinum For making osmium or selling to Centcomm via Cargo. None Hydrogenore.png Tritium MHydrogen None None Hydrogen For making tritium fuel or metallic hydrogen for shipping. Marble unmined.png Marbleore.png None Marbledone.png None None Recrystallized Carbon Hard and pretty. Used for tables and counters Verdantium unmined.png Verdantiumore.png None Verdantiumdone.png None None Verdantite For making advanced power manipulation deceives. Lead unmined.png Leadore.png Leaddone.png None Coin Door Lead For making radiation-resistant technology. Do not consume 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, as well as Mech. Diamondore.png Platinumore.pngCoalore.pngIronore.png Durasteel Incredibly tough and also reflective. The inner walls of the AI core are made of this. Reflects Lasers ———-Platinumore.pngSandore.png Borosilicate glass Used in engineering, for high strength windows in locations such as the super matter engine. Mining Vendor Rewards 10 - 1 Marker Beacon - A small, stationary light source you can place anywhere. It needs no external power, but is somewhat dim. Can change light into a varaiety of options. 100 - 10 Marker Beacons - Ten for the price of Ten! 300 - 30 Marker Beacons - No discount for mass purchase. 125 - Whiskey - The 'Special Reserve', one of the better Whiskey around. 125 - Absinthe -The Jailbreaker is a open source alcohol. 150 - Cigar - Cigar, Single. 200 - Soap - Smells of Capitalism. 900 - Laser Pointer - Point in Style. Do not point at eyes. 750 - Geiger Counter - Tktktk. Useless, except if it warns you, then it is a lifesaver. 300 - Plush Toy - It's very cute. 200 - Umbrella - Can stop rain and hail, but beware of wind. 500 - Point Transfer Card - Exactly what it says on the tin. If you want to share points, use this. 500 - Fishing Net - For catching fish alive. But they die outside of water. 1000 - Titanium Fishing Rod - High performance fishing. Be carefull where you point the thing! 10000 - Industrial Hardsuit - Control Module - Description. 800 - Industrial Hardsuit - Plasma Cutter - Description. 5000 - Industrial Hardsuit - Drill - Description. 1000 - Industrial Hardsuit - Ore Scanner - Description. 1250 - Industrial Hardsuit - Advanced Optics - Description. 1250 - Industrial Hardsuit - Maneuvering Jets - Description. 2500 - Hardsuit - Intelligence Storage - Description. 32000 - Hardsuit - Smoke Bomb Deployer - Description. 3000 - Industrial Equipment - Phoron Bore - Designed as a fast tunneling-tool by Grayson, its production got stopped once terrorist got ahold of it to tear down steel walls in great speed. Requires Phoron, a capacitor and a industrial-sized power cell to operate. 500 - Industrial Equipment - Sheet-Snatcher - A ore-bag for processed ores. 500 - Digital Tablet - Standard - Description. 1000 - Digital Tablet - Advanced - Description. 500 - Fine Excavation Kit - Chisels - For the nerds from Xenoarcheologie. Chances are you dig out something that can kill you… 125 - Fine Excavation Kit - Measuring Tape - Chisels helper. 375 - Fine Excavation Kit - Hand Pick - Mainly for Archeologist, it is a small, slow pick. 1500 - Explosive Excavation Kit - Plastic Charge - A mining explosive. It is not as strong as a respective charge using phoron, but you also need no scientist to operate it. For mining only, NT trusts you on that! 500 - Injector (L) - Glucose - A hypoinjector filled with glucose, used for critically malnourished patients and voidsuited workers. 500 - Injector (L) - Panacea - This one has three chemicals, one of them is an antibiotic spaceacillin, the other is a extreme radiationt treatment, arithrazine, and the other is Ryetalyn, a genetic treament kind of chemical should you get hit with radiation and you become blind, or deaf, or something like that. Genetic abnormalities get corrected to base line. 500 - Injector (L) - Trauma - Bicaridine is a medication for treating abrasion, open wounds and stuff like that. A sufficent dosis would even help with internal bleeding, to degree. 1000 - Nanopaste Tube - For all prosthetic repair needs. 400 - Defense Equipment - Phase Pistol - Phase Weapons are using special energy-projectiles more effective against wildlife, and with wildlife, we mean giant spiders. This one is smaller then the explorers equipment, as pistols tend to be. 100 - Defense Equipment - Smoke Bomb - SMOKE BOMB! Vanishing not included. Breaking sightline can confuse drones and wildlife and may save your life. 1000 - Defense Equipment - Razor Drone Deployer - Description. 1500 - Defense Equipment - Sentry Drone Deployer - Description. 500 - Defense Equipment - Steel Machete - Small things are hard to hit with a pistol, the blade has the advantage that you do not run out of ammo when wildly swinging it around. Shipping the Ores One half of of the main reason why the NSC Northern Star 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.