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Verios44

Apr 20, 2021 @ 3:58pm

Noob: Crystal Mining Help

I am new to this game. I am trying to find some crystals to mine in Argon Prime. I keep reading "look for sparkle" but I am seeing absolutely nothing like that. I think I do and its just a reflection of sunlight.

Any tips or assistance would be appreciated. I do have an auto miner out, so I have some slow income cming in, but just getting a bit frustrating.

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Showing 1-10 of 10 comments

Dervrak

Apr 20, 2021 @ 4:20pm

It is rather difficult to see, but once your see it and realize what it is, you'll be able to find it easy in the future. Basically it's just a white flash several pixels wide that occurs at certain spots on asteroids (you might want to look at various YouTube videos on the subject), You'll know it's a mineral deposit and not sun glint because it will reoccur at regular intervals (every five seconds or so). Best advice is just to fly into the middle of an asteroid belt and cruise very slowly just staring at the asteroids.

That being said, crystal mining has been nerfed so it's no where near as profitable as it use to be. You use to be able to make 10's of millions of credits at the start of the game. Now the rare (and more valuable) crystals are on a cooldown timer, so you will only find one rare about once every half an hour or so and the rest will be the common purple. Still at the start of the game mining and selling the purple crystals at 1k each can earn you some respectable money, at least enough to upgrade your ship or buy a miner or trader, but nothing like the quick vast fortunes they use to provide.

Verios44

Apr 20, 2021 @ 4:30pm

Originally posted by Dervrak:
It is rather difficult to see, but once your see it and realize what it is, you'll be able to find it easy in the future. Basically it's just a white flash several pixels wide that occurs at certain spots on asteroids (you might want to look at various YouTube videos on the subject), You'll know it's a mineral deposit and not sun glint because it will reoccur at regular intervals (every five seconds or so). Best advice is just to fly into the middle of an asteroid belt and cruise very slowly just staring at the asteroids.

That being said, crystal mining has been nerfed so it's no where near as profitable as it use to be. You use to be able to make 10's of millions of credits at the start of the game. Now the rare (and more valuable) crystals are on a cooldown timer, so you will only find one rare about once every half an hour or so and the rest will be the common purple. Still at the start of the game mining and selling the purple crystals at 1k each can earn you some respectable money, at least enough to upgrade your ship or buy a miner or trader, but nothing like the quick vast fortunes they use to provide.

Thanks!

About 10 seconds I found two crystal nodes back to back. Still not really sure how as I swear I never saw a twinkle. Either way, only two so far. Not bad I would sY. My silicon miner is doing its thing, and soon will get another miner, and another and then compound income sources will begin in ernest.

Regarding main quest (I think?) I am to the point where its asking me to expand on a station. Still very early I believe.

Zloth

Apr 20, 2021 @ 6:53pm

Originally posted by Verios44:
Regarding main quest (I think?) I am to the point where its asking me to expand on a station. Still very early I believe.

Oh yeah, you've just begun!

I still haven't seen any of the rarest crystals yet.

I made my first piles of cash via missions. The ones where you place satellites can give you 400,000 credits for the price of about a dozen small satellites. Finding resources CAN be easy but often times you're stuck looking all over a sector. You've got a mining ship so you can also start doing missions where you show NPCs how to do mining.

Have you joined a trade guild yet? The Teladi trade guild offers lots of profitable missions. If you got the Cradle of Humanity, the Pioneers do the same thing over on the Terran side of the map.

Nash

Apr 20, 2021 @ 9:55pm

A way to see the 'pling' of the crystals more easily is when you make a full stop with your ship and press also CTRL+H (so that you can see more of the space around you because the cockpit furniture is disabled ;) )

What you also might try is instead of flying from one point to another with your ship and stop there...You might click on one asteroid and press F3 so that you focus on that one. As soon as you press a second time F3 you can zoom in and out a bit and see some asteroids around there.

Also after some seconds if there might sparkle a crystal on one of those asteroids. If so, click on that asteroid. If you do, you will have it marked as target and as soon as you return to your ship (by pressing F1) you can fly there.

Gregorovitch has X4: Foundations

Apr 21, 2021 @ 5:19am

One tip for crystal mining is to always have the sun behind you so the asteroids you are checking lie against the darkest possible background.

Another is that if ever you spot two or more twinkles at the same time, which actually happens quite frequently, target one by clicking on it and mine the other first. Otherwise you'll never find the first one again once you take your eyes off it.

Last edited by Gregorovitch; Apr 21, 2021 @ 5:19am

Big Papa

Apr 21, 2021 @ 9:13am

I'm finding them by stopping all motion, being perfectly still, and visually scanning across lots of rocks close by, being patient. finding lots of crystals this way. seems like the motion of your ship prevents noticing of 'sparkles' sometimes.

Screamingiraffe has X4: Foundations

Dec 31, 2023 @ 12:25pm

Originally posted by GCGB_Nash:
A way to see the 'pling' of the crystals more easily is when you make a full stop with your ship and press also CTRL+H (so that you can see more of the space around you because the cockpit furniture is disabled ;) )

What you also might try is instead of flying from one point to another with your ship and stop there...You might click on one asteroid and press F3 so that you focus on that one. As soon as you press a second time F3 you can zoom in and out a bit and see some asteroids around there.

Also after some seconds if there might sparkle a crystal on one of those asteroids. If so, click on that asteroid. If you do, you will have it marked as target and as soon as you return to your ship (by pressing F1) you can fly there.

A very old topic but helpful, thank you. Happy New Year

Gibbo

Dec 31, 2023 @ 1:08pm

I love crystal hunting and have become quite good at it.

Argon Prime is not good. Heretics End can make you a fortune. You have a SCA station there that will buy everything (including illegal crystals) and it is rich if you spend the time to look. An hour in there will get you a L miner. A top spec one if you're lucky. But according to the devs and the mod who isn't a dev, but wears dev tags, anyway they all say the more dangerous sectors have the best crystals and they may be right. Although crystal hunting should never be your main source of income. It's handy when you need something though and if you find a couple of those orange beauties or God forbid a white one you're laughing.

I still do it now. I have nearly 30 billion in spare change. Over a dozen fleets that all have 10 Asgards, 10 Syns, an Aux and 100 fighters with carrier. Even with all that power at my fingertips I still hunt for crystals. Love it. Fly to the edge of an asteroid field. Get the sun at your back. Turn off distracting hud and sit and wait for that twinkle. That's money baby!

Last edited by Gibbo; Dec 31, 2023 @ 1:11pm