Best mining Weapon?

[Torkkar]

Ok guys so this is a simple discussion about Weapons & Tuning in order to break ringroids fast but also NOT!! blast the BE nuggets off like Team rocket after Failing to catch that electric rat.

to this end I've become a Drift Miner my rig is this:

Ship: Cothon - 217 "Bender"
Refined Cargo storage: 108,000 Combined
Hard points: 2 Point Defence Microwave Emitters, 2 MLF HAUL Drones
Autopilot: NDCI Autopilot
Reconnaissance Craft: Obonto-USV-GOT

Tuning: Microwave Generators Maxed out Drones tuned for long range with 0m close range.

Using this rig & targeting W, V, PD, & BE I'm pulling in 600,000 to 1mil per run BUT it still has the above issues of 1 the ringroids take a while to break up & the BE just seems to go blasting off, is their a better weapon for bustin up Ringroids?

[Nero]

My Bender is running with a pulse laser and microwave point defense in the front slots and haul + tug drones in the back
Its far from a perfect setup but it gets the job done

I might get rid of the tug drones because they eat a lot of drone components and still struggle with the nugget output from the microwave defense (30mw and 90% water)
They can reliably stop Be nuggets from escaping if you mine really slowly (~less than one nugget/seconds) and stay close (~100-300 meters) to the ringoid but you have to set them to unmarked and thats pretty hungry on the drones

I really enjoy the laser because of its precision and its also pretty fast in breaking the ringoids

In the end it seems better to prepare the equipment for tungsten instead of beryllium unless you marked a hotspot

[Ed86]

you're drifter, not chaser, BE is just a bonus, focus on W
and no there is no weapon for your needs, BE will be always blasting

you can setup 1 beam laser, 1 haul drone for identified ore, 2 tug drones for unidentified ores

[Torkkar]

good shout Ed86 I may need to update that build for the 223 with mono cargo pods & just go at it.

[ostlandr]

This may not be the "best" but on my massively upgraded starter ship I'm running a CL-150 Mining Laser on the center hardpoint and MWG Microwave Emitters on the port and starboard hardpoints. See my post "I think my ship build broke the game." A more powerful ship could mount heavier versions of both.

No drones yet for me, but I sort of like chasing Beryllium nuggets. Sort of a puzzle where you try to calculate in real time the path with the least Delta-V to connect all those moving dots. I also enjoy zooming in close and picking off EVERY rock. Even the smallest ones. As quickly and efficiently as possible.

IMHO the PDC microwave emitters are too weak to do the job they're supposed to do, based on their performance on the level 1 cargo ship. It's the big rocks you need to worry about, not the little ones. And I had a stray shot from one of them hit a habitat station. They were NOT happy. Had to pay some old-skool 5th to 11th Century Weregeld.

(Love that word- "man-price." Same as werewolf = man-wolf. That's Saxon; in Old Norse it's þegngildi, "thing-geld." Back in those happy days murder was a capital crime, but manslaughter was a civil offense.)

In my rig, if there's a rock straight ahead of me and it hasn't exploded by the time the ship is going to hit it, I just kick in the forward thrusters (I am generally braking like hell anyway) and the rock very politely vaporizes and the ship goes right through undamaged.

[Drascalicus]

My go to is the antoff titan with the 6 cargo bays. 1 high tier laser turret, The high efficiency MPU, 1-2 haul drones, 1-2 tug drones for stopping ores, and how ever many mono-cargo containers I can fit after that.

[climbingeastofwinter]

Be is more of an agile ship target than a large hauler target. If you're intent on farming Be with a large ship, you could try a 150 mining laser which does a pretty good job of not imparting much velocity, but like others have said tungsten is probably a better target - it'll drop in heavier (20kg+) quantities so the energy it releases with doesn't translate into as much velocity. You won't have to worry about it flying away before your geologist has time to identify it. Also, if your ship is capable of mounting a grabber arm, you can use that to bring small roids into your ships excavator for nomming, and usually the arm, if properly configured, will instantly grab whatever pops out of the roid if necessary so you don't have to chase at all.

Personally, I like the Kitsune in the early game and looking for Be then. It has the speed and efficiency to break things with its thrusters and then chase down the valuable chunks. Once I've transitioned to a larger ship it usually just makes more economic sense for me to trade in whatever I can find a contract for, or tungsten.

[SenorGrande]

 Comment to save this discussion for later. 

[Aaron]

The best mining weapon is the cargo door of the OCP-209 combined with the Ore-Purifier.
Can easily gather 300-500k worth of unrefined ore chunks in a few minutes.

Basically you put 2 Arms on the high stress points and install the most wasteful thrusters to get rid of the oceans of H20. Why oceans of H2O? Because the ships cargo door is big enough to chug medium sized asteroid whole. If it doesnt fit, you simply close the door and it forcefully crushes any asteroid caught in its jaws. but most importantly, the ore-purifier melts any unbroken asteroid into chunks almost instantly which is awesome because its already inside the cargo and cant fling off lol.

I suggest disabeling the autopilot compensation for variable geometry, it takes some practise with manual sideways flying to avoid spilling 300m² of chunks while chewing on asteroids.

[Axiolot]

Originally posted by Aaron:

The best mining weapon is the cargo door of the OCP-209 combined with the Ore-Purifier.
Can easily gather 300-500k worth of unrefined ore chunks in a few minutes.

Basically you put 2 Arms on the high stress points and install the most wasteful thrusters to get rid of the oceans of H20. Why oceans of H2O? Because the ships cargo door is big enough to chug medium sized asteroid whole. If it doesnt fit, you simply close the door and it forcefully crushes any asteroid caught in its jaws. but most importantly, the ore-purifier melts any unbroken asteroid into chunks almost instantly which is awesome because its already inside the cargo and cant fling off lol.

I suggest disabeling the autopilot compensation for variable geometry, it takes some practise with manual sideways flying to avoid spilling 300m² of chunks while chewing on asteroids.

i tried it in a "sandbox" save and ♥♥♥♥ you are right, its also very funny with 2 manipulator arms. just looks like its eating.

[Aaron]

Originally posted by Axiolot:

i tried it in a "sandbox" save and ♥♥♥♥ you are right, its also very funny with 2 manipulator arms. just looks like its eating.

I wonder if you can eat other ships, you could 100% fit the shuttle, maybe bigger too

[Axiolot]

Originally posted by Aaron:

Originally posted by Axiolot:

i tried it in a "sandbox" save and ♥♥♥♥ you are right, its also very funny with 2 manipulator arms. just looks like its eating.

I wonder if you can eat other ships, you could 100% fit the shuttle, maybe bigger too

that might be harder to try i might have to "make" salvage. i'll report back

[Axiolot]

Originally posted by Axiolot:

Originally posted by Aaron:

I wonder if you can eat other ships, you could 100% fit the shuttle, maybe bigger too

that might be harder to try i might have to "make" salvage. i'll report back

OK SO you can fit like 3 quarters of a K37 (if i didnt ♥♥♥♥ up the name)

[hev]

Originally posted by Aaron:

I wonder if you can eat other ships, you could 100% fit the shuttle, maybe bigger too

you can, and I think you can eat up to three with the OCP!