Store Page
Elite Dangerous
All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos News Guides Reviews

Elite Dangerous

Store Page
Bishop-Six Dec 18, 2018 @ 1:45am
Surface Mining
Is it worth it?
What can i get from surface mining what makes it special?
How can i make surface trips more interesting and/or rewarding?
The author of this topic has marked a post as the answer to their question.
Click here to jump to that post.
Originally posted by _mitchlel:
As Chro has said, surface mining is mainly used to gather materials used in engineering.

To surface mine, outfit any ship of your choice with a Planetary Vehicle Hangar. Purchase an SRV and you are ready to go! An optional module that may come in use is the Detailed Surface Scanner. The DSS allows you to fire probes at planets and map them, which can show any geological, biological or xenological sites.

Your first task is to find a landable planet to mine on. Take note of three things: the type of planet, the gravity on the planet and the materials the planet offers.

Icy bodies are generally the best as their surfaces are normally smooth and easy to drive on. Rocky planets contain lots of craters and you can easily damage your SRV and lose control by hitting something.

A planet's gravity is important to note. Low-gravity planets will be easier to land on, but when you mine materials, they will take forever to settle on the ground. Higher-gravity planets between .8 and 1.5 G are the best, as the materials settle on the ground quickly.

To surface mine, drive around on the planet until a rock that you can select appears on your radar. Metallic meteorites are the best - they give you more valuable materials. Bronzite Chondrites are the worst. You can also find Outcrops and Mesidorites.

To mine, drive up to the rock and shoot it. The rock will break and materials will scatter from it. Scoop these up with your SRV's cargo scoop.

Have fun!
< >
Showing 1-11 of 11 comments
Chro (Banned) Dec 18, 2018 @ 1:47am 
surface mining is used to gather materials used at the engineers, while doing it u can come across various things such as crash sites which may contain valuable commodities and/or escape pods and such
#1
Bishop-Six Dec 18, 2018 @ 1:52am 
Thank you. Are there tips how to find crash sites and escape pods?

#2
Chro (Banned) Dec 18, 2018 @ 1:53am 
once in ur SRV, check ur radar and the sound each signal make, crash sites have a very distinct sound
#3
Bishop-Six Dec 18, 2018 @ 1:55am 
Got it. In the last patch they said something about new POI help for planets or something right?
#4
Chro (Banned) Dec 18, 2018 @ 2:00am 
indeed, you can outfit ur ship with a surface scanner and map the planets with probes, on landable planets the probes can detect geological,biological and xenological signal sources on the surface, once found they will be marked on ur navigation tab so u can easily go to them
#5
Bishop-Six Dec 18, 2018 @ 2:02am 
Originally posted by Chro:
indeed, you can outfit ur ship with a surface scanner and map the planets with probes, on landable planets the probes can detect geological,biological and xenological signal sources on the surface, once found they will be marked on ur navigation tab so u can easily go to them

Ha thank you very much! Patch notes were so big, i didnt get everything. So i could add the surface scanner to my mining ship, then i can find these things better?

Thats would be cool and make it more worth with a mining ship.
#6
Chro (Banned) Dec 18, 2018 @ 2:05am 
a mining ship is not really required since u will do the surface mining in ur SRV, but equipping a surface scanner on ur mining ship u can launch the probes at the planet rings and find hotspots to mine asteroids and on these hotspots there is a bigger chance of finding extremely valuable commodities which can be sold at stations once refined
#7
Bishop-Six Dec 18, 2018 @ 2:08am 
Originally posted by Chro:
a mining ship is not really required since u will do the surface mining in ur SRV, but equipping a surface scanner on ur mining ship u can launch the probes at the planet rings and find hotspots to mine asteroids and on these hotspots there is a bigger chance of finding extremely valuable commodities which can be sold at stations once refined

Then i have to do this. Thx :)
#8
Chro (Banned) Dec 18, 2018 @ 2:09am 
Fly safe cmdr o7
#9
The author of this thread has indicated that this post answers the original topic.
_mitchlel Dec 18, 2018 @ 3:17am 
As Chro has said, surface mining is mainly used to gather materials used in engineering.

To surface mine, outfit any ship of your choice with a Planetary Vehicle Hangar. Purchase an SRV and you are ready to go! An optional module that may come in use is the Detailed Surface Scanner. The DSS allows you to fire probes at planets and map them, which can show any geological, biological or xenological sites.

Your first task is to find a landable planet to mine on. Take note of three things: the type of planet, the gravity on the planet and the materials the planet offers.

Icy bodies are generally the best as their surfaces are normally smooth and easy to drive on. Rocky planets contain lots of craters and you can easily damage your SRV and lose control by hitting something.

A planet's gravity is important to note. Low-gravity planets will be easier to land on, but when you mine materials, they will take forever to settle on the ground. Higher-gravity planets between .8 and 1.5 G are the best, as the materials settle on the ground quickly.

To surface mine, drive around on the planet until a rock that you can select appears on your radar. Metallic meteorites are the best - they give you more valuable materials. Bronzite Chondrites are the worst. You can also find Outcrops and Mesidorites.

To mine, drive up to the rock and shoot it. The rock will break and materials will scatter from it. Scoop these up with your SRV's cargo scoop.

Have fun!
Last edited by _mitchlel; Dec 18, 2018 @ 3:25am
#10
Bishop-Six Dec 18, 2018 @ 3:33am 
Thank you Sir o7

My problem with these new modules is the foreign language. They are all soundung so similiar and the translation in german is good, but the terms are just slighlty different.

I really have to look which scanner is for which activity. And dont get me started with setting controls in options for these. I have no idea which button belongs to which scanner.

Edit:
Example: A-Scanner, Zus.-Scanner, Oberflächenscanner, VSS and so on. :/


Last edited by Bishop-Six; Dec 18, 2018 @ 3:34am
#11
< >
Showing 1-11 of 11 comments
Per page: 1530 50

Elite Dangerous > General Discussions > Topic Details
Date Posted: Dec 18, 2018 @ 1:45am
Posts: 11

Discussions Rules and Guidelines