Guide to Mining
REASON: The guide needs updating for Lavaland. It currently references the Asteroid, which is no longer in use.
At roundstart, you will spawn at the Mining Dock. If not, go east from Arrivals until you hit the Auxiliary Tool Storage, then go south until you reach the Cargo Office.
Equipment
Every miner starts with the following equipment:
Image | Name | Description |
---|---|---|
Survival Medipen | An emergency autoinjector for miners facing the harsh conditions of Lavaland. 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. | |
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. |
At the lower half of the Mining Dock you can find three lockers with the following equipment:
File:Miningequipmentvendor.png Mining Equipment Vendor
If you visit it the first time, insert the Mining Voucher and get a Kinetic Accelerator.
Later as you bring back ores to the ORM, you will get points that you can spend on the following items. Insert your ID card before purchasing anything but don't forget to eject it before you leave!
Image | Name | Cost | Description |
---|---|---|---|
1 Marker Beacon | 10 | Prism-brand path illumination device. Used by miners to mark paths and warn of danger. | |
10 Marker Beacons | 100 | Like above, but there's 10 of them. | |
30 Marker Beacons | 300 | Like above, but there's 30 of them. | |
Whiskey | 100 | The true reward for your endeavors. | |
Absinthe | 100 | Almost potent enough to make you forget the ash in your lungs. | |
Cigar | 150 | A premium cigar for a premium price. | |
Soap | 200 | A cheap bar of soap. | |
Laser Pointer | 300 | To make presentations more interesting. Or to shine it in someone's eyes. | |
Alien Toy | 300 | A facehugger toy. | |
Stabilizing Serum | 400 | Stabilizes regenerative cores, allowing them to be used at a later time. | |
File:Spacecash.png | Space Cash | 2000 | A stack of 1000 credits. Can be placed into an ATM to transfer it to your bank account. |
Point Transfer Card | 500 | A card preloaded with 500 mining points. Swipe your ID over it to claim it. | |
Fulton Beacon | 400 | When placed down, can be targeted by a Fulton Extraction Pack. | |
Shelter Capsule | 400 | Use it in your hand and then drop it to spawn a 5x5-tile shelter. | |
GAR Mesons | 500 | Same as any other Optical Meson Scanner, but more fashionable. | |
Explorer's Webbing | 500 | Used to hold shelter capsules, medipens, and marker beacons. | |
Survival Medipen | 500 | An emergency autoinjector for miners facing the harsh conditions of Lavaland. WARNING: Do not inject more than one in quick succession. | |
File:Brutekit.png | Brute First-Aid Kit | 600 | Contains 4 healing patches; a health analyzer; an auto-injector, and a roll of gauze. |
Tracking Implant Kit | 600 | Contains 3 tracking implants; an implanter; an implant modifier, and an implant locator. | |
Jaunter | 750 | A weapon creating unsafe wormholes. | |
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. | |
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. | |
Advanced Scanner | 800 | Scans more frequently and has a higher radius than the basic one. | |
Resonator | 800 | A device creating small fields of energy that eventually detonate. Works better in a low-pressure environment. | |
Fulton Pack | 1000 | Use it in your hand to link it to a placed Fulton Beacon, then use it on any unbolted object or person to extract them to that point. | |
Lazarus Injector | 1000 | Revives small animals and Lavaland monsters, making them docile. The Head of Personnel will usually ask for this if somebody kills Ian. | |
Silver Pickaxe | 1000 | Stronger than the regular pickaxe. | |
Mining Conscription Kit | 1500 | A duffelbag containing everything someone needs to start mining. Buy this if the Head of Personnel hires a new miner and the lockers have been looted already. | |
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. | |
Mining Hardsuit | 2000 | Necessary to survive in the hazardous Lavaland wastes. Better than the basic explorer suit due to its padded armor and ability to install a jetpack. | |
Diamond Pickaxe | 2000 | Stronger than the silver pickaxe. | |
Super Resonator | 2500 | The same as the normal resonator, but this one can have 5 fields active. | |
Jump Boots | 2500 | Allows you to dash forward 5 tiles; meaning you can clear a 4-tile gap. Presumably helpful for jumping over chasms. | |
Luxury Shelter Capsule | 3000 | Spawns a needlessly luxurious shelter. Requires a 7x7 clearing. | |
Nanotrasen Minebot | 800 | A little drone to help you with mining. | |
Minebot Melee Upgrade | 400 | Increases the mining drone's melee damage by 7. | |
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 AI Upgrade | 1000 | Offers the mining drone sentience. Save points to buy one of these for Science, as it boosts their research levels. | |
KA Minebot Passthrough | 100 | Allows your proto-kinetic accelerator shots to pass through minebots. Pretty much required if you utilize minebots. | |
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. | |
KA White Tracer Rounds | 100 | Causes the proto-kinetic accelerator bolts to have a white tracer trail. | |
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 Super Chassis | 250 | Changes the proto-kinetic accelerator chassis to a yellow-orange color scheme. You can remove it with a crowbar. | |
KA Hyper Chassis | 300 | Changes the proto-kinetic accelerator chassis to an orange-red color scheme. You can remove it with a crowbar. | |
KA Range Increase | 1000 | Increases the kinetic accelerator's range by 1 tile. Occupies 24% of the KA's mod capacity. | |
KA Damage Increase | 1000 | Increases the kinetic accelerator's damage by 10. Occupies 30% of the KA's mod capacity. | |
KA Cooldown Decrease | 1000 | Decreases the kinetic accelerator's cooldown by 2 seconds. Occupies 30% of the KA's mod capacity. | |
KA AoE Damage | 2000 | Causes the kinetic accelerator do AoE damage to mobs. Does not destroy multiple rocks at once. Occupies 30% of the KA's mod capacity. |
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.
R&D can upgrade the ORM to make it produce more sheets for fewer ores (and consequently, making your points skyrocket).
Mining
When you're geared up and ready to go, head to the airlocks to your west. Buckle up, then use the Mining Shuttle Console and send the shuttle to the lavaland mine.
If you head down and west from where you dock, there is a break room should your character get hungry. There is also a small medical bay in case you get injured, and then a storage room with five more lockers and an equipment vendor for additional miners.
Preparation
Once the shuttle docks, head straight east. You'll immediately see the EVA equipment room.
- Equip an explorer suit and an explorer breath mask from the File:Suitstorage.png suit storage units.
- Dispense an Oxygen Tank from the Tank Storage Unit.
- File:GPS2.png (Optional) Take a GPS from below the blue mechanical toolbox. It can come handy should any kind of accident happen to you. If you click on it while it is in your hands, you can set your own tag.
- Grab an Ore Box from anywhere on the station and pull it after you (with control-click). You will empty your Mining Satchel into it frequently as the satchel itself is rather small.
From here you have two choices. You can leave to the safe eastern side where there are far less minerals but no monsters whatsoever - or take the more dangerous but more rewarding western path.
Process
To mine a rock, click them with your 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 sand, which is needed to make glass.
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.
Result
Miners don't have to deliver materials directly to departments - you can if you want some upgrades from R&D or a Ripley from Robotics.
- Scientists need everything (except for plasma glass) but little metal and glass. In exchange, they may give you a Mining Satchel of Holding (which is an infinite ore satchel), night vision meson scanners and much more.
- Roboticists need everything (except for plasma glass), especially metal and glass, for building exosuits, upgrading cyborgs and implanting people.
- Cargo Technicians can ship plasma sheets for supply points.
- Engineers use metal, glass, plasteel (and sometimes plasma glass) for building and repairing.
- The Clown and the Mime can make use of bananium and tranquilite as the Roboticists can make exosuits for them. These exosuits almost never get approved, though.
- The Bartender can make cocktails from uranium and silver. They are as healthy as they sound.
- Medbay might need gold for curing very rare viruses.
Bonus Loot
There are items, crates, and small rooms scattered around on the asteroid, all waiting to be looted. The crates are password locked and they can be opened after solving a mastermind puzzle (with the help of a multitool) or by shooting it enough times in vacuum with your Kinetic Accelerator.
Every asteroid monster has its own drop. Basilisks and Goldgrubs drop diamond and uranium. Hivelords drop hivelord remains that fully heal people upon consuming it (including regrowing limbs and fixing internal damage) - however, they go inert in 4 minutes, unless they are stabilized. Goliaths drop goliath plates that can be attached to mining hardsuits or Ripleys, increasing their defence.
File:Firstaidkit2.png Dangers
Mistakes can and ought to happen when you are working in a dangerous environment.
- Have a GPS on you and activate your suit sensors (by right-clicking on your jumpsuit).
- Ask for help. There are usually two or three miners working out there and the Quartermaster can ask for a Paramedic if everything else fails. If you start to suffocate, bleed or you collapse, use the cargo frequency (:u) and announce it immediately.
- Similarly, if another miner is in trouble, consider lending a hand. Use your GPS to locate them.
- A dead miner is a bad miner. If you are injured and unsure about your condition, head back and get checked out. Playing the hero out there most often ends in an untimely death.
- If you are on the verge of collapsing and/or you start stammering, open the box in your bag and use the emergency autoinjector.
Suffocation
The asteroid has no breathable atmosphere. Always have internals on! If for some reason you lost your oxygen tank or your breath mask, use the one in the box located in your bag.
Physical Trauma
Every asteroid monster deals brute damage when they get in melee range.
- If you start bleeding, use a Healing Patch to fix yourself up. If you still bleed, head back to the Mining Station. There is a small Infirmary on the west side with a first aid kit.
- If you bleed even after you are seemingly fine (no bruises), run straight to Medbay. You have internal bleeding.
- If you are about to collapse, stab yourself with an emergency autoinjector (found in the box in your bag).
- If your bones move in your chest/groin or you keep dropping items, go to Medbay for a surgery.
- If you start gasping because of broken ribs, announce it over the radio and then start running.
- Every kind of injury can be healed with Hivelord Remains, including lost limbs.
Freezing
One of the asteroid monsters, the basilisk, freezes its target. Some races don't react to it well.
- Use Burn Patches against burns, located in the First Aid Kit in the Infirmary (west side of the Mining Station).
- Teporone is a chemical that restores your body temperature to normal. You can find it in Teporone MediPens or in the MediPen Bundle, both purchasable from the Mining Equipment Vendor.
Tips
- If you have your satchel in your hand, pocket or on your belt, it loots everything as you walk.
- There is a small medbay on the left side of the mining station with a Sleeper.
- There is a small kitchen on the left side of the mining station with Donk Pockets. Warm a donk pocket in the microwave then eat it. You'll produce Omnizine.
- You can ask for a Kinetic Accelerator AoE mod from R&D. It makes your kinetic accelerator destroy multiple rocks at once.
- Kinetic Accelerators can destroy electrified grilles without electrocuting you.
- Sonic Jackhammers (random loot on the asteroid) can take down airlocks and walls, including reinforced ones.
- Monsters revived by a lazarus injector will be only hostile towards other, aggressive monsters. Unless they are emagged, then they will be hostile to everything but you
- Pickaxes are great against space vines.
- Mining drones can be repaired with a welding tool.
- Kinetic Accelerators and Resonators work best in vacuum. If you have to fight, try to bring the fight to underpressurized areas.