Mining and Finders

Entropia Universe Professions Mining & Resource Gathering
1

Accepting your 5 pec’s worth :wink:

I’ve primarily been mining from November 2012 up to now (have had the occasional hunt or crafting run), and I’m about to hit rank 20 in prospecting soon. In this period I’ve kept myself afloat without depositing. My float has been anywhere from 1-2.5k ped depending on how the auctions have been turning out. I recently lost it all and had to sell some stuff so now my float is back to 1k.
I have some ok spots and some sweetspots, mostly I mine at RT or ARK.
Been using Level 1-8 Amplifiers as I have progressed, the last 4 months I’ve been using D-Class Mining Amps.
I have always been using finders I have maxed from F-210-F212, I have stayed on F-212 and used Depth enhancers as the finder levels up. I am now wondering if this is a bad idea.
Cause even though these 10 months have been the most economical months I’ve ever had in Entropia, I have only had 8 globals and 1 hof(500ped) in this period.

So 2 questions:

Is a finder with low/mid depth w/enhancers more “economical“ than a high end finder with more decay?
Does the “Finder” affect you findings, other than the depth?

Looking forward to some good input.

Sumo

2

first of all, don’t care about the swirlies. they should be a bonus if not working with too big amps. as always, but especilly with mining, money is in the markup. if you’re buying lvl 8 amps at 185 ped, you need to cover 25 peds of markup long with the tt. Depending on where you mine, this will or will not be possible. but if you are carefull, you will always be able to recover cost, and probably profit in the longer runs. (1-2k drops tends to balance things out nicely). Don’t expect money on lvl 13 amps unless you are finding 180% average returns (and im talking planetside, not FOMA/HELL, things work different there and that’s fine but not my style of play)

as for depth/finders: at lvl 20 prospecting and i presume surveying not far behind, grab a tk120 or tk220, use it unamped only. get a feel for what you get where, and experiment with enhancers if you wish. with higher depth finders you tend to find deeper deposits, but the frequency goes down. if you want a close to tt return, use low depth finders (amping especially) if you want the markup, use the deep finders. along with this keep in mind that deeper resources will often be limited in amp size, and the extremely rare ones will be pretty much impossible or extremely hard to find. (otherwise you’d see people hoffing on redulite/kanerium/ruga/frakite etc. with lvl 13 amps)

watch the markup. if you can, save the stuff that get’s sold for low %, or use it to craft with yourself and sell the skills/residue/bp’s you get that way. don’t get pulled into condition crafting unless you can afford it or want to do a small gamble, but be prepared to loose it all. on quantity there won’t be that much of a problem.

once you start finding high markup resources, try to avoid the auction. contact those high end crafters that spam the hof boards and the auction pages/shops, and sell them the rares directly. if you buy amps alot, it’s usefull to contact a crafter of those amps and save the 1-5 ped per amp, after 10’s of amps it really adds up. you both save the auction fees, which means slightly lower prices but the difference will be that the money goes to the both of you instead of auction fees (on anything over 150% it starts adding up quick)

most importantly, keep records. note down where you find stuff, or use the LMBL program if you want (search for it on forum).

that’s all i can give you for now… you might already be doing some of it, but i can’t read your mind so i posted it anyway. oh, and if you get bored, just do a hunt or 2. you will be feeling refreshed and go back to mining again soon enough :slight_smile:

3 Likes
3

Greater decay should result in more skill gains, not more loot IMO. I would mine at any depth you choose to, you do not have to go deeper and deeper as rarer resources don’t often have better market value. Find a depth/finder you like, but I would be careful with those higher efficiency amps, you can loose your shirt fast with them. All three of my towers were the result of low level amps and years of clicking between each one.

1 Like
4

Thank you both for great answers.

first off, my surveying skill is still at rank 10 I believe, been focusing on prospecting alone. (mistake?)
My experience was a bigger return on prospecting, mining runs with prospecting and surveying usually ended in big losses, especially with amps. Cause the minerals I found had very low MU.
Especially mining on RT, Cocktails and whatnot are hard to get rid of, I still have several stacks of RT minerals that I just can’t seem to sell (but as you said maybe a trader can solve the selling problem, but not the MU).

Second, my float has been relying on my income from selling ores I mine, this is the achilles heel of a miner (Me atleast..).

And third, what does the amp do? I remember a reading a post that said amps increase your turnover, nothing more. Like dice with 12 sides instead 6. If this is the case does that mean poor and small deposits are as rare as … anything that globals?

I believe im on the right track, like the post said I have been playing almost a year without depositing, and for me that’s a step up :wink: , but we can always do better :wink:

5

Pretty much what Pretenders said is good advice. I personally used Of-211 until I could use Tk120. Then after some experiment I figured out which areas contained the rares I could find with the TK120 and used that there, if there was no rares or just shallow semi-rares I used the Of-211. To put it this way, my biggest finds have come with with the OF-211 but I’ve made more money with deeper finders because of rare mu. I rarely amp over a Level 2 with the deeper finders, unless there is a shallow crappy base mu and a deeper better base mu with no rares.

Lets do some math. Unamped at 90% returns you need to average 112% mu to pay for decay and probes. With a D class (113%) with 90% returns you will need to average 126% mu to be profitable. Two reasons this makes it difficult for this obviously you paying Mu on your amp, Two it makes it harder if not impossible to hit rares with a D class, this makes MU harder to get to 126%. Average current Ore Mu is like 114% excluding rares.

Key to mining is three things I feel. Location, Math and Location. :smiley: Location is important if you can’t tell.

1 Like
6

study the ore market from time to time to see trends…sometimes the mu of some resources changes drastically within a week.

as for finders, if i would mine today, i would buy different ones to cover different depths…if in an area the lower mu ores are deep and a good mu ressource is near the surface, why use a deep finder?..
match the finders to the target ores i would say..

1 Like
7

as for finders, if i would mine today, i would buy different ones to cover different depths…if in an area the lower mu ores are deep and a good mu ressource is near the surface, why use a deep finder?..
match the finders to the target ores i would say..

… Am I realy that far of base?
Does that mean a finder with a depth of 700’ish will/can skip a find at dept 200-300’ish?
I usually do a second drop if the find is within 29 meters.

8

i don’t think the ores are already in the ground. i think the deposit is created while dropping the bomb…and this deposit is created by taking the depth of your finder into account…so nothing gets skipped, because it is not there…(thats just my theorie)

so if this is true, if you use a deeper finder, the possibility to find a deep ressource is higher…so if you use a lower depth finder, the possibility to find a deep resource is lower..

PS: the depth on the finder is called “average depth” and not “maximum depth”..i think this means a finder only covers a certain depth interval…or statistically it is more possible to find ores with depths around this average…

9

No, you’re wrong if with deposit you mean claim. Claims are on the ground. Meaning there is no such thing as your mining field or my mining field, which makes overmining possible. So claims have X,Y. Also, as a sidenote it seems claims doesn’t have Z (depth). Atleast I haven’t ever got claim with second drop with different depth finder after I have got NRF.

1 Like
10

ok, i am wrong then, thanks for clarifying..

11

Thanks for all the good advice.

Been reading a lot about loot theories the last year, and there are a lot of them, for me the simplest has been working .

“the world is flat, I have a 55meter radius around me. Anything within the 110meter diameter is mine for the taking. If I get a claim within 29meters I stand in the same spot and drop another probe“.

For me this has worked, and I have never gotten a second claim closer than the first claim in one spot. So there may be something to this.

But in the end all it Is, Is a theory, if anyone ever cracked the system, the game would probably die.. Or be altered :wink:

Now I’m off to buy some new finders, tk120 to even up my surveying skill, and tk220 to keep prospecting skill advancing.

Thanks again for everyone’s participation + rep to all

Sumo

12

Why drop another bomb in the same radius and why 29 meters? I am new so some explanation/evidence would be nice.

Cheers

13

Just a voodoo stuff, don’t rebomb.

14

As with everything in this game, there are alot of myths and theories, but few facts..

The theorie I’ve been pulling towards is this:
-The world is flat , more or less..
-Mining range is usually 50m radius gives 100 diameter, so If i get a find withinn 29 meters radius, only 58 meter diameter has been searched.
Few ppl will agree with me on this, but for me it has worked. And I still keep doing it.

The main reason I still do it is because:

I have never ever ever gotten a find closer than the first drop!
And more often then not, I find a second claim when the claim is closer than 29 meterrs radius.

But again, all myth and theorie, and I dont have the answers

15

Well, all of you know this, if there is a claim on 1k meters for the pro-miner, there is also a claim in same place around 300-500m for the med-miner. and a shallow find for the rookies on 5-200m.

16

Sorry, but this is BS.