Nitra is NOT the objective.

[Lythe]

OK, this needs to be said. Nitra is never the primary (or secondary) objective.

It can be useful to collect, sometimes even, it's necessary. But it's ALWAYS a poor use of time. The more time you spend collecting nitra, the bigger the difference between how good you think you are and how ♥♥♥♥♥♥ you really are.

Collecting nitra slows down the mission. More time means more attack waves, which costs more ammo, which means you have to collect more nitra. Diminishing returns sets in. At higher hazzard and with longer missions this becomes a fatal problem.

By all means, collect nitra when it's convenient, but don't let it slow down the mission. At lower difficulty you'll often as not end up leaving unused supply caches behind, a sure sign you wasted too much time collecting nitra. Time is precious, don't waste it. At higher difficulty, it you waste time, you ain't comin' home.

[The Grand Mugwump]

If you don't rock and stone, you ain't goin' home.

[Rob]

I think you have to start by saying gold is never the mission, then maybe you can move on to nitra. Good luck though

[Chibbity]

I mean, with a decent team no vein of Nitra should take more than 15-30 seconds to mine, but I agree an over fixation on Nitra can be problematic if the team is floundering and taking forever to get it.

[sanxsor]

It is a problem when only one dwarf is mining, 4 dwarf in a mineral goes in less than 5 secs

Or one sec with the drillers gun, so most of the time there is no excuse to live nitra

[Syncourt]

If you're using nitra faster than you're mining it, you've got bigger problems to worry about.

The only real exception to that is on PE where swarm size rapidly increases over time. Mining too much nitra at the start can make it difficult to collect aquarq later. But most missions you'll either have no large swarms or they'll only come every 5-7 minutes. You should usually find at least an ammo pod worth of nitra in that time unless you're really slow.

[Mage Hand, Wizard Brand]

Never knew I'd see the day about someone complaining about people collecting nitra outside of the Dives. Trully a magical time

[Ragnaman]

Getting 80 Nitra is #1 priority on any mission. However this is often the scout's job if we are talking about PE. 80 Nitra reserve -> hard to reach aquarqs -> hard to reach secondary objectives -> stay alive -> revive team.

No nitra no game.

[onewhofound]

Leave minerals lying about? What do ye think we are, elves?!

Seriously though, an extra 10 seconds here and there to mine a vein of nitra isn't going to break any team's effort. However, being out of ammo has broken any number of missions I have been on.

[ShugoTheRipper]

Priority list:

1. Having Fun
   
2. Staying Alive
   
3. Primary Objective
   
4. Secondary Objective
   
5. Machine Events
   
6. Cargo Crates
   
7. Lost Backpacks

By extension to stay alive and have fun you need ammo. Nitra is the true primary objective. If it takes over 10 seconds to get that Nitra the team is doing it wrong.

[The_Technomancer]

You talk as if the downtime between swarms is 30 seconds and not a few minutes. I'd argue when you first land getting 80-160 nitra is top priority, depending on how long you think the mission will go. Besides it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

[Dr. Albert Meowsker]

True dwarfs gather everything they see. We're not bloody pointy eared leaf lovers.

[Lunacy]

Each of that nitra is also +1 base exp for bigger payload but then you'll say it's just better to speedrun every mission
to each their own let them have their own fun

plus there's been some missions where we've used every last drop of nitra

[Fryskar]

There is no such thing as too much dakka.

[slood]

nitra is always main priority because without ammo you will likely die to upcoming swarm, better to mine what you can instead of going back to it later, but there are exceptions like point extraction missions or if there is already enough nitra to use (240+)

[V0lcanF1re]

The moment when you don't find nitra and missing like 15-5 chunks (to call supply) that hiding inside loot bugs you won't think the same. You'll need those nitra and is cost 1 trusty pickaxe hit per good collect of worthy vine.