Kanly's Mining Manual
Introduction:
This is a short mining manual that contains the techniques, tricks and theories I use
personally for mining. I've grown a bit tired of typing this over and over again, as new
recruits come into the society and want to start mining, so I've decided to write it all down in
one easy to grab PDF.
Table of contents:
I – Basics.
II – The Lingo: Finders, Extractors, Refiners and Claims.
III – Mining Patterns.
IV – Skill Reading*
V – Amps.
VI – Advanced theory and practice:
– Bots!
– Unreachable Claims
– Double Bombing*
– A tale of three depths*
VII – Frequently Asked Questions.
The asterisk denotes Theory subject to debate, some people believe in it, some don't, some
of it is my own speculation based on observation, most of this is heavily debated in
entropiaforum.com. The rest is cold hard fact.
I – Basics
So you've decided to start mining! Mining is (at least for me) the most profitable
profession in Calypso. If you know what you're doing, and use the right equipment with the
right areas for your skill, even a bad mining run can turn profitable. This is because of
Markup on ores or enmatter, even when you spend 50 peds on probes/bombs, and come
home with only 40 ped TT value found, the markup on certain ores/enmatters can make up
the difference. So now we'll start making sure that you know what you're doing.
First you have to decide what are you going to start mining. On calypso there are two
types of mining: Ores or Enmatters, which one you choose is entirely up to you, and you can
also mine for both in the same run, but I have a few suggestions to help you decide which
way you may want to go:
If you deposit, and money is no object:
Go for ores!!! the highest markup can be found on them. But early on you won't be
getting much stuff with nice markup. I would still recommend trying enmatters first, as the
cost per probe is half of a bomb. Early on you make mistakes, and mistakes in mining can be
costly.
If you deposit but PEDs are tight:
Go for enmatter for awhile, until you “learn the ropes”. This will also help you raise
your professional level for ore mining, so you won't have to go thru the “newbie” period with
ores, and will make you able to find ores with nice markup once you start.
If you don't deposit and are part of the inventory at Nea's:
Go for enmatter!, you can get Force Nexus straight away and combine it with sweat to
make Mind Essence. This enables you to sell your sweat for a premium! And this can turn a
good run into Great Profit!, and make you recover all your peds on a bad run.
So now that you've decided which type of mining you'll do, go to the Trade Terminal, in the
mining section and get the following:
For ores:
Ziplex Z1 Oreseeker (this is the finder)
Genesis Star Earth Excavator (this is the extractor)
Omegaton Seismic Bomb (this is the ammo)
For Enmatter:
Ziplex Ju10 Matterseeker (this is the finder)
Genesis Star Enerby Excavator (this is the extractor)
Omegaton Survey Probe (this is the ammo)
Now you need to bind the finder and extractor to some keys, it's done the same way
as with weapons, and the game has the F6 map set aside for mining, no need to put the
bombs/probes on the quickbar, they are used up by the finder just like a weapon uses ammo.
Also, you might want to carry two TT extractors with you, just in case you get a large
HOF, and your extractor decays all the way to zero, you won't need to go back to the Repair
Terminal for awhile. For this same reason, getting a refiner is a good idea, find it under the
Tools Section, and buy the appropiate one. Refiners are also discussed in more detail in the
next section.
100 bombs/probes are what is generally accepted as a mining “run”, you can use less,
or you can use more, but by using 100 you're spreading your risk. This means that with less
bombs/probes, you could end up with a nice profit, or a very bad run, I've gone for 30 bombs
without a claim, and at the end of the bad period started hitting quite nicely, even globaled,
so the 30 bombs didn't affect me too much and it all ended up more or less even.
II – The Lingo: Finders, Extractors, Refiners and Claims.
In this section I will explain a bit about the stats of the various items you use/find
while mining.
Finders
This is the basic tool for mining, with this you drop probes/bombs in the ground, and if
you find something they print out claims. Now that you have a finder let's open the info
window:
Let's see what these fields mean:
Recommended level
This is the professional level requirement to use this finder, since it's 0.0, this means
anybody can use it, higher level finders have higher requirements, this number will tell you
the level you have to reach, and the skill progress field will tell you how close you are to
reaching that goal. Do not use finders where the skill progress is less than 100%.
Learning Period
This field tells you if you still get a Skill Increase Bonus when using this particular
finder. Until you reach lvl 10 in your professional level, you want this field to always say “Yes”,
unless you're using an amp, I explain why in the amp section.
Average Search depth
Notice how this field gives you two numbers. The first one is your average search
depth with your current skill level, and the second number is the maximum depth for this
finder. These numbers are an average, so you will get claims deeper than these numbers, and
some claims shallower than those numbers too. Generally speaking deeper average search
depth won't give you more claims, but it will allow you to find rare ores/enmatter more easily.
Also, some people say a finder can only be used to it's maximum efficiency when
maxed. This means that while you haven't maxed your finder, you'll get less claims and
smaller size, but you get a skill increase bonus.
Range
This field tells you the radius of the search that the finder does. Usually between 53-
55mts. What does this mean? Well, this means you should try to walk/run at least 100mts in
between probes/bombs. Ideally you want to do something like this:
How far is 100mts in game?
Press P, walk what you think is 100mts in a cardinal direction (North, South, East or
West) and press P again.
The timer method
Some people count the seconds it takes them to run 100mts, this is fine if your agility
is above 40, below 20 one point of agility is quite a dramatic improvement, so if you try this
method, recalibrate your 100mts often. Another shortcoming of this method is that if you're
going uphill, your speed is reduced, and viceversa for downhill, keep that in mind if you
decide to use this method.
The eyeballing method
Find a flat area, drop an object on the ground, zoom out as much as you can with the
mousewheel and measure 100 mts with the Pos key, turn around and see how far the object
is. Now that you have a measure, try to calculate the same distance to the object in a
different direction, practice this until you can eyeball 100mts in any direction and then
practice this around uneven ground.
Why can't I simply use P everytime? Because more likely than not, you'll be moving along two
axis, X and Y, and it won't be as straightforward to calculate.
Durability
This field tells you how bad the decay is on your tool. The higher level tools decay
more per use than the lower level ones.
Uses per minute / max
Again, there's two numbers here, as your skill rises, you can drop more probes per
minute.
Extractors
These are used to extract the ores/enmatter from a claim, you have to use the ore
miners for ores and the energy extractors for enmatters, they only work for their respective
type. Let's take a look at the info window of two extractors, the TT extractor and a OM-104:
Notice that a lot of the fields are very similar to the finder info window, most of them
work in the same way, but there's a few differences.
Excavation efficiency:
Again there's two numbers there, the first being your efficiency with your current skill
and the second one what your efficiency will be when you have it maxed. The higher your
efficiency, the more ores/enmatter you'll get per use/pull. Notice how on higher level tools
you can extract more per pull too.
Durability:
Higher level extractors will cost more per use. The TT extractor is always more
economical to use, but it's slow, and has low TT value, this means that you might have to
leave a claim and run to the nearest repair terminal because it's decayed all the way before
you could extract that big HOF! One solution is to always carry two.
Uses per minute:
More uses per minute and more mats per pull means you'll be done much more quickly
excavating that big HOF!
Refiners:
This is a very useful tool. When you're doing well mining, usually means you got a lot
of ores/enmatter in your inventory, now this can weigh you down and make you run slower, if
you're counting the seconds to know when to drop the next bomb/probe, this could be a real
problem. Refining ores or enmatter doesn't affect the TT value of whatever is refined, but it
does reduce its weight. In most cases (but not all!), it also raises the markup of the refined
materials.
Let's take a look now at a MatterTransformer info window:
Not much info, and all of the fields we've already covered. One field that's absent is
the efficiency field. With most tools, the TT equipment is always the most cost-efficient. Not
with refiners. The TT refiner costs 0.031 pec per use, and the 104 costs 0.023 pec per use,
now consider refining 3k of raw enmatter/ore, every day for a month...
You can get the crafted refiners in auction, under Tools Mining → → Ores/Enmatter →
refiners.
Claims:
When you drop a probe/bomb, and you get a claim, a loot window appears, a claim is
automatically generated and appears in your inventory next to your PED card. When you
double click the claim, the information window appears, and the map with a marker of it's
location pops up as well, this is very useful because you can always look at the map to find
your claim again in case you die.
To find your claim, you must follow the arrows on your finder window or go to the
indicated coordinates.
Depth
How deep the claim is.
Size
This gives you an approximation of the PED value of the claim. Check the following
table for more information, the “Expires” column is the amount of time in hours you have to
excavate the claim before it disappears. Minimal claims no longer appear in game. Also for
claims above 4k PED you get an Extraction Tower, so you don't have to extract yourself, it
gives you batches of about 3-4k ped every 24 hours, you do have to wait the 24 hours for the
first extraction. Double clicking on the tower gets you the mined materials.
Size Level From To Expires
Minimal I 0.16 1 1
Tiny II 0.19 0.99 1
Very Poor III 1 1.99 1
Poor IV 2 2.99 1
Small V 3 4.49 1
Modest VI 4.5 5.99 1
Average VII 6 7.99 1
Medium VIII 8 11.99 1
Ample IX 12 17.99 2
Considerable X 18 24.99 3
Sizable XI 25 34.99 6
Large XII 35 49.99 10
Abundant XIII 50 74 18
Great XIV 75 124 24
Substantial XV 125 204 24
Significant XVI 200 299 24
Plentiful XVII 300 449
Huge XVIII 450 639
Extremely Large XIX 650 786
Massive XX 801 1176 72
Vast XXI 1172 2349
Enormous XXII 2523 4862 120
Rich XXIII 5015 23000
Gigantic XXIV 25606 93072
Mammoth XXV 109107 158000
Colossal XXVI
Immense XXVII
PED PED Hours
• table taken from entropedia.info
Resource
The type of resource you claimed.
Time Left
Time left before the claim expires and the claim marker disappears
Position
Coordinates to find the claim again, if needed. Some people prefer to extract large
claims at the end of the run, this way a large find won't stop them there for ½ hour of
extracting and it won't weigh them down either. On large claims especially, you have plenty of
time to extract, so no need to worry about the claim expiring while you go mine the rest of
your run.
III - Mining Patterns
There are several schools of thought on how mining works. I'll briefly describe the two
main camps:
Mining Veins exist.
This theory says that there are sequential sets of claims on the ground, so where you
found one claim, there's a high chance that other claims can be found if you travel in the
direction of the vein. Mining veins run from SSW to NNE, or ENE to WSW, or any combination
of directions, usually in a straight line or mild curve. Ideally you want to follow the vein, and
get to the claims sequentially. I'll explain this in more detail in the skill reading section
Mining Veins do not exist.
Pretty self explanatory.
This doesn't mean that one theory is wrong and the other is right. They are more like
different styles of mining, but once you pick one, I recommend to stick to it, some people say
that your mining skills develop according to the mining style you use, and changing your style
every other day is not advisable.
As you can imagine, these differences translate as very different approaches to mining.
Most of the “Mining veins exist” camp tries to follow the veins, and within this same group,
there are those that believe in skillreading, and those that don't. And amongst the “Mining
veins do not exist” unbelievers, there's the carpetbombers and straight-line miners.
Straight-Line mining
As the name indicates, these people run in a straight line dropping bombs/probes
periodically, every 100 mts.
Vein mining
Basically the same as straight-line, except that you don't run in a straight line, you let
the claims tell you what to do. Say you drop a bomb/probe and get a claim:
Next step is trying to identify where the vein is going, some people bomb/probe in the
cardinal directions, some people try different things:
The Green circles is the area where the claim was found, the white circle are areas bombed
looking for the vein.
Once you have established the direction of the vein, you keep on going in that direction, until
you don't find anything. Some veins “skip” a claim, (mainly because of straight-line miners
that have been on the area before you, or so the theory goes), so one bomb without a claim
doesn't mean that you've finished the vein. Also most veins do not travel on a straight line, so
be sure to compensate for any deviation you see between claims. Some people leave objects
on the ground to make sure they know where they found the first claim on a vein, some
people don't extract the first two or three claims to have an idea of how is the vein traveling.
Carpet Bombing:
Pick an area you will carpetbomb, and the bombing pattern usually looks like this:
and so forth, it doesn't have to be 5 bombs to a side, can be whatever number you want.
IV – Skill Reading
This is a very controversial theory, some people will tell you that this certainly works,
while some people will tell you that it absolutely doesn't work. Some people say it used to
work in the past, but doesn't work anymore, while some people swear by it. If you go to
entropiaforum.com, in the mining section you can even find videos on how to do this and
plenty of people that laugh at fools that believe in this nonsense.
Now here is a list of the mining skills and how to ”read” them:
Prospecting/Surveying:
You're facing in the wrong direction.
CGA(Calypso Ground Assessment):
This means there's a claim in front of you in a 180° arch, range is 100 mts. (yellow
area), this is also an unlockable skill you won't get straight away.
Geology:
This means there's a claim behind you in a 180° arch, range is 100 mts. (blue area)
Perception:
This is one of the most controversial, in this order: There's a large claim nearby, there's
a rare find nearby or there's a vein nearby. Range is 400mts
Intelligence:
Same as perception, but in a different order: There's a vein nearby, there's a rare find
nearby or there's a large claim nearby. Range is 400mts
And the million ped Question: does it work?
V- Mining Amps
Amps increase the size of your claims by the efficiency factor listed in their information
window, amps decay really fast, so in practice, what you're doing is betting more per
bomb/probe. This means that instead of a probe worth 50 pecs, you're putting in the ground
the equivalent of the probe and the decay of the amp, for example on an Enmat Amp 101,
the decay is 30 pecs per use, so you will be getting the yield of a probe worth 80 pecs.
As a very basic example (note that amplifiers don't quite work like this! This is a very
simplified example, only for illustrative purposes), if you were to drop a bomb, and your claim
is a Very Poor (III) and you extract say, 1.20 PED worth of mats, if you had used an amp with
an efficiency factor of 2.5 (OA-101), your claim would've been a Small (V), and you would
have extracted 3 PED worth of materials.
Let's take a look at the information window of an EnmatAmp 101 and a 106
Required Level
The professional level you should have in order to be able to use the amplifier. Please
note that just because you have the level to use doesn't mean you should.
Skill Progress
How close you are to being able to use this amplifier, once this field shows you 100%,
you'll be able to use the amplifier. However, having just reached the level and trying out one
of these amps is a recipe for disaster, you should wait until you have a much higher level than
the recommended one to make it worthwhile.
Efficiency
This is the multiplier that gets applied to the claims you find. For example if you were
to get a claim of crude oil worth 1 ped, using the 101 you'll get a claim worth 1.30 PED, and
with the 106 you should get a claim worth 12.5 ped, but in my experience it doesn't work
that way, and I'll tell you why: even while using the 106, I've found tiny claims.
Durability
How bad the tool decays. Here's a table from entropedia.info, decay is in pecs:
Name Type Eff. Decay Max.TT Req Source # of uses
eMINE EA (L) Enmatter 3.8 75 105 3 Crafted 136
EnMatAmp MA-101 Enmatter 1.3 25 78 1 Mining 303
EnMatAmp MA-101 (L) Enmatter 1.3 25 78 1 Crafted 303
EnMatAmp MA-101 Light (L) Enmatter 1.3 25 30 1 Crafted 117
EnMatAmp MA-102 Enmatter 2.5 50 100 2 Mining
EnMatAmp MA-102 (L) Enmatter 2.5 50 100 2 Crafted 195
EnMatAmp MA-102 Light (L) Enmatter 2.5 50 50 2 Crafted 98
EnMatAmp MA-103 (L) Enmatter 5 100 114 3 Crafted 111
EnMatAmp MA-104 (L) Enmatter 7.5 150 150 4 Crafted 98
EnMatAmp MA-105 Enmatter 10 200 200 5 Mining 98
EnMatAmp MA-105 (L) Enmatter 10 200 200 5 Crafted 98
EnMatAmp MA-106 (L) Enmatter 12.5 250 250 6 Crafted 51
EnMatAmp MA-107 (L) Enmatter 25 500 260 10 Crafted 51
EnMatAmp MA-108 (L) Enmatter 37.5 750 300 15 Crafted 39
EnMatAmp MA-109 (L) Enmatter 50 1000 350 20 Crafted 34
And here's the table for ores:
Name Type Eff. Decay Max.TT Req Source # of uses
eMINE OA (L) Ore 7.5 150 105 3 Crafted 68
OreAmp OA-101 (L) Ore 2.5 50 78 1 Crafted 152
OreAmp OA-101 Light (L) Ore 2.5 50 50 1 Crafted 98
OreAmp OA-102 Ore 5 100 100 2 Crafted 98
OreAmp OA-102 (L) Ore 5 100 100 2 Crafted 98
OreAmp OA-102 Light (L) Ore 5 100 75 2 Crafted 73
OreAmp OA-103 Ore 10 200 114 3 Mining 56
OreAmp OA-103 (L) Ore 10 200 114 3 Crafted 65
OreAmp OA-104 Ore 15 300 120 4 Mining 39
OreAmp OA-104 (L) Ore 15 300 120 4 Crafted 39
OreAmp OA-105 Ore 20 400 160 5 Mining 39
OreAmp OA-105 (L) Ore 20 400 160 5 Crafted 39
OreAmp OA-106 (L) Ore 25 500 200 6 Crafted 39
OreAmp OA-107 (L) Ore 50 1000 230 10 Crafted 23
OreAmp OA-108 (L) Ore 75 1500 255 15 Crafted 17
OreAmp OA-109 (L) Ore 100 2000 340 20 Crafted 17
I was told once to stay away from amps until I hit level 10, it was very good advice,
when you reach level 10, you should have developed several areas that you know are good,
identified some veins, and more or less know where they run and what time is good to mine
there. If you really want to go mining with amps, no one is stopping you, but I would not
recommend it, and if you really want to go with amps before level 10, I would suggest to
stick to 101's and maybe 102s. Do take into account that the higher level of amp, less claims
you'll find. Amps seem to concentrate claims around you and just give you one big hit, this
you can't see with the 101, but you start feeling the effect with the 102.
Just in case you missed it: Stay away from amps. Wait until you are level 10
prospector/surveyor. Only use amps with finders you know well and in areas you know they
work. Only use amps on finders that you've already maxed, or in the last 50 meters of search
depth. Once you've maxed a finder, it's said to be working at maximum efficiency, just like
weapons, on a maxed weapons you get the full damage possible, less missed hits and more
criticals. Same applies to finders, if you're going to risk PEDs on amps, at least give yourself a
better chance and do it with maxed finders.
VI – Advanced theory and practice
Bots!
Every once in awhile you will get a strange signal on your finder and it will flash red.
You have found a spaceship!
Mark your position with “p”. Follow the arrows on your finder until you can see the bots
and the spaceship, try not to die on the way. Once you know where the spaceship is (it can
be quite far away from where you dropped the bomb/probe), check again your position with
P. Bots can be quite tough, and you won't be able to take them down with an opalo. Two
solutions for this, shout in soc channel that you've found a spaceship, and surely someone
that can take them will show up to your location. Another solution is to just forget about
killing the drones, get close to the spaceship, drag the button away from it, and operate. This
works best when you have a bit of dodge.
Unreachable Claims:
Underwater claim?
Simply equip your extractor, get in the water and go into first person view, you can
select your claim when you're in the water, but not from the surface.
Claim on a cliff
Run around the mountain, climb it and drop on top of the claim marker, if you can
stand on it, you can drill it.
No way up the mountain? Then get some furniture and jump on it. Shelves are
particularly good for this task.
Double bombing
When to re-bomb? Some people bomb again the same area when they get a large hit,
I use a bit of skillreading to tell me when to re-bomb. When I get a shallow claim and a skill
gain at the same time, I double bomb. A shallow claim is for example, when you get a claim
at 200 mts depth when your finder has an average of 500, anything under 50% of the
average of your finder/skill is a shallow claim. This does not yield a second claim 100% of the
time, the skill might be for a claim further ahead, but I do get double claims over 50% of the
time using this method. Some of the people that I've helped with mining have gotten up to 4
finds within 5 meters of each other using this method.
A tale of three depths
Apparently there's three different depths for claims, shallow, mid and deep. This
means that three different finders will find different claims at different depths, this also
means that different finders might or might not work with an area.
This means that the shallow claims won't appear for a mid or deep finder, except in
certain ocassions. This means that even if an uberminer was in the same area you are about
to search, shallow claims will still be there.
FAQ
– Where do I mine?
This isn't a simple question, depending on your skill/finder, new areas open up to you and
some areas stop working. It really depends on your skill/finder, there's a sticky thread in the
mining section of Entropiaforum.com with all the enmatter and ores depth range. After you
study this and find what ores/enmatter are within your reach, you can go to the sticky with
the mining maps of eudoria/amethera, all the resources are listed per area, so pick an area
where you'll be likely to find good stuff, and try your luck.
– Can I go mine in CP?
There's no mining up in CP, only in CND.
– Can I go mine in CND?
You can, of course, but I don't think you should. There's special rules for CND and the whole
asteroid works like a 102 amp, and on top of that most people mine on CND amped, but as I
mentioned before, you shouldn't touch amps until level 10 prospecting/surveying, so I would
recommend not going to CND until you're level 10 on your profession.
– Is there a better way to keep track of your claims and profit/loss than pen and paper?
Yes, you can look into NRF, a program that keeps track of even your skillgains, and also
iFound. NRF works based on screenshots, and iFound you have to manually enter the data,
both will help, find the threads about each of them with download links in the forums.

IV – Skill Reading
This is a very controversial theory, some people will tell you that this certainly works,
while some people will tell you that it absolutely doesn't work. Some people say it used to
work in the past, but doesn't work anymore, while some people swear by it. If you go to
entropiaforum.com, in the mining section you can even find videos on how to do this and
plenty of people that laugh at fools that believe in this nonsense.
Now here is a list of the mining skills and how to ”read” them:

Prospecting/Surveying:
You're facing in the wrong direction.

CGA(Calypso Ground Assessment):
This means there's a claim in front of you in a 180° arch, range is 100 mts.
area), this is also an unlockable skill you won't get straight away.

Geology:
This means there's a claim behind you in a 180° arch, range is 100 mts.

Perception:
This is one of the most controversial, in this order: There's a large claim nearby, there's
a rare find nearby or there's a vein nearby. Range is 400mts

Intelligence:
Same as perception, but in a different order: There's a vein nearby, there's a rare find
nearby or there's a large claim nearby. Range is 400mts

And the million ped Question: does it work?

Thx 2 Jens Rabmund - er hat uns diese Info zur Verfügung gestellt!

mach ich bei schelechenheit dann - wichtig ist punkt IV - hab ich jetz absätze - hab ich als antwort gepostet
^^

Jau - muss am Sonntag ma kukn ob Eruth erreichbar ist - dieser Guide verfügt noch über Grafiken die ich nicht kopieren konnte - Eruth wollte sich drum kümmern.