Basic Mining Guide Part 3: Understanding The Nature of Ore Spawns

Every ore, and enmatter is found in only certain areas. No one really knows where the boundaries of these spawns exactly are located. However, there are some things we do know for sure.

You will only find a certain mix of deposits in a given area. And this mix changes from area to area. For instance, you can mine all you want on Treasure Island and you will not hit any Lanorium or Alferix. But you can go to Shinook and never hit any Cobalt. You also will not find any Lysterium on Treasure Island for that matter.

But let's look at the rarer stuff. Take land areas for example... Let's use Miners Heaven for my example, even though I am not affiliated with the owners, it is a wonderful place to mine and I don't mind putting in a good word for it, since I have globalled unamped lots of times, and have even hit a fair share of Kanerium and Redulite there.

I have only found Redulite on the very west end of the land area. Gazzurdite and Durulium are somewhat abundant too. I have not hit Redulite on the East end of the land area. As you head towards the middle and then the east, you start hitting mostly iron with some gazzurdite and durulium. But I never hit iron on the west end of the land area. And on the very east end, I tend to hit more durulium than anything else.

To put this into perspective, A large portion of the area may yield most of those ores. But there is one very small zone in all of that land maybe several hundred meters accross only, that is capable of producing Kanerium and Redulite.

I believe the scarcity of ores is controlled by how large the spawn areas are to some extent, because the smaller the spawn area is, the less likely you are to be directly over it when you are mining, and the less of it that will be produced.

So you will want to write down your coordinates of any rare finds. I think you will find that as you get more and more of these deposits, you will notice in a big search area, they will be mostly congregated in a somewhat small area.

You may have heard theory about veins, and from my experience, they do exist, but most people don't tend to follow them. See... I took the care to chart out where my hits on TI were one day. I mine north to south and south to north. Each pass I move over a hundred or two meters and go back. What I had noticed is, 80% of my claims lined up almost perfectly on a northwest south east axis. What was really interesting, was my globals lined up on these axis almost perfectly.  I do plan to do some runs and I will print out a map of where I mine, and mark down the approximate claim locations with pen, and then put this map of my run up on the blog so you can kind of see what I am talking about.

So I want to stress... LOCATION is VERY important... If your finder matches the average depth for Niksarium, you should be mining where Niksarium is found. If it matches for gazzurdite or durulium, you should go where those are found. There are areas where you are mostly going to hit rare ores if you hit anything at all, but these areas are not practical for most of us to go for.

So the lesson I wish to convey here is this:

1. Not every ore can be found in every location.
2. Pay attention to the specific areas you are finding something you want to find.
3. Watch for patterns and veins.
4. You might do well to track your claims... Make an Excel spreadsheet. If you don't have microsoft office, go to openoffice.org and install a free office suite. As my programming skills improve I hope to make a utility that you can load your spreadsheets and it will translate all the coordinates into spots on a map of the Entropia Universe. But tracking the areas where you are finding what will give you an idea of specific areas and relative concentrations of the ores so that way when you take up crafting for instance, or when prices skyrocket on one ore or another, you know where to go and can take full advantage of this.
5. Take rumors with a grain of salt. If testing theories, take notes, and don't risk peds you can't afford to lose.
6. Keep checking my blog for new information :-) And I am thinking about announcing a contest for my blog. I have some blueprints that aren't selling so I am going to find a unique way of giving them away. I will make this announcement once I've devised a way to do this. I have a 100QR BSM print and a 60 some QR MannMPH dlxe print. I will start planning something...

Good luck,,,

And in the words of Mr. Spock (sort of), "Live Long and Prospect" :-)

Mining Basics Part 2: Controlling Your Costs

Seems appropriate to make this the next topic of discussion. This is a continuation of the following post: http://entropiauniverseguide.blogspot.com/2011/12/mining-basics-part-1-pointers-for-noobs.html#comments

If you don't like the standard costs for prospecting (1 ped / 20 probes) or surveying (0.50 Ped / 10 probes), there is another option.

You may obtain a rookie finder and use rookie bombs. I believe it is 10 pecs per drop each for ore or enmatter, and 20 pecs if dropping both.  So you are spending 2 probes for ore and 2 probes for enmatter.

Your claims are going to be much smaller too, but people still global and even hof on a rookie finder. I have hit VIII's with my first few rookie bombs. This is useful for skilling, or testing a new area you aren't sure if you want to risk a more costly run on. And if you come by your peds the hard way and don't want to lose them fast, this might be a safer option for you.

If unamped mining is too low of a stake for you, you may join the "high rollers" and purchase amps.

The amplifiers will increase your cost per drop, thereby increasing your claim sizes. I believe every claim has a base size, and that your decay puts into effect a multiplier value that is unknown to all but the system. In this way, everyone is proportionately rewarded according to their spend.

However, it is curious that you might not hof or global with an amp but soon as you take it off, your hofs and globals start happening. Don't be discouraged. I recommend you follow the rule of thumb of 5 levels of skill per level of amp. And I don't recommend going past a level 2 or 3 until you are well above level 20.

By the time you reach the biggest of the amps, you are spending up to 10 peds to drop for ore. And if what I hear about amps costing the same decay no matter what you do, then it reasons that enmatters will cost about 9.50 peds per drop, or almost 20 peds when combined, and this doesn't take into account the markup of the amp. As you can see, it is quite possible to wager a significant amount if you so choose, or you may play for almost literally, peanuts.

Mining Basics Part 1: Pointers for Noobs to Get Started :-)

I wanted to thank Luizeba for the kind comment I just received... In response, I've decided to go ahead and spend a few posts focusing on the beginning miner.

To start with... You will have the ability to use only the basic mining equipment. The TT finder which is the Ziplex Z1 I believe. As you max this out, it is common to move on to the F101, F102, etc. However, I STRONGLY urge you pay no mind to the skill increase bonus. I have always gained skills faster and had better returns with equipment I've already maxed out. Skills are not so important as it is to be economic and efficient. When you follow the SIB, you become less efficient and less economical. I only advise moving on to the next finder when it is maxed out for you. And I have noticed no difference in the rate of skill gain between SIB and non SIB. If it didn't benefit Mindark to have SIB, they wouldn't have gone through the trouble to add it.

I believe you will do well to move on to the Z5 as your second finder. It has served me very well. In fact, I hold the Z finders in high regard... However, the F105 is considered the "gold standard" for the average prospector.  I will save this for one of the next parts to this series of posts.

What I am getting at is, you have low skill, low level finder, so you should target areas where there are high concentrations of common low level ores and enmatters. It will do you little good to go into an area that is mostly deep and high markup ores with shallow finder and little skill.

Here's a few rules for you to follow to get off to a good start:

1. If you go to any location, and hit 5 NRF's in a row, go back to the TP, and go to a different area. Many areas have different servers, and if one is on a very cold cycle, another one is probably doing better. If searching for Ores, if you don't hit in the first 3 bombs, it's usually going to be a bad run in my experience. I have had 20 or 30 NRF's in a row expecting it to turn around and it didn't, so it makes a difference to move.

2. If you get a claim in a seemingly unmineable spot, get as close as you can, and right click your deed and click "summon claim". It will put it right next to you so you can mine it.

3. Don't get in a hurry to bomb all over the place. Take your time. Put about 8 to 12 seconds between bomb drops if you are running. If NRF's keep persisting, increase the distance to 15 to 20 seconds. I know it is hard to bomb so slowly, but it does help most of the time.

4. If you are not getting claims OR skills, the area is likely very cold, and is best to go somewhere else.

Treasure Island is good for starting out on... Sweetstuff, Force Nexus, Typonolic, Lytarian... As a rule, most enmatters are quite easy to hit. But if looking for ore you can expect a lot of blausariam and some cobalt and little durulium and gazzurdite.

The islands directly south of Port Atlantis ONLY yield Oil and Lyst... It might be worth a try if you are just using the TT finder.

My own personal recommendations of areas to hit as a noob, and test are, in no particular order:
Nymphtown (Ignisium and Dianthus), Fort Troy, Fort Ithaca, Ashi (I've globalled on oil a few times here), Shinook River (Lumis Leach), New Switzerland, The area surrounding Twin Peaks (quite a bit of mineable area with low level mobs or no mobs if you are careful. Lots of Belkar, Oil, and some Melchi and Blaus).

The other option is to go to www.mininglog.com, and look at the map. Look for the regions with the highest % of claims for common ores. Blausariam, Belkar, Lysterium, Oil, Nexus, Sweetstuff, Typonolic, Lytarian, etc.

Target the common stuff, the more valueable stuff will come with it now and then. If you target just the valuable stuff as miners tend to want to do, you are cutting your returns in the long run. Sure, the system eventually will balance it out, but keeping your returns as good as you can is the difference between depositing a little, or a lot before you see your first big hof.

Some areas are less hospitable to low level miners than others. If you follow my advice, you should see some improvements in your return... But I will expand this post as necessary. I will post again within the next 12 to 24 hours, and will be a bit more specifc and thorough on exact locations you should focus on exploring and testing.

Standard Damper and Basic Filter Crafting: YES THEY GLOBAL

I know the first stop in skilling in crafting is filters and dampers. I know of no actual use in the game for the filters other than to be TT food. Dampers, I really have never seen anything that needs them, but maybe I am wrong as people seem to buy them.

What is nice about crafting them is, you can deposit $10, and 100 peds will buy you a LOT of Lysterium and Oil. TT cost per click for filters is 5 pecs, 7 pecs for dampers. In small lots you should be able to get oil and list for about 110% markup or so. In 100 peds, you should get 1800 clicks or so with markup. Now, with the autoclick feature at the terminal, all you have to do is set it and forget it. Don't worry about your first hundred or two clicks. They may be doing great, they may be doing horrible. But over 1800 clicks, your run will balance out. That is why you get 300 residue drops or maybe some K's of residue...

I ONLY recommend doing this if you have decent skill and decent QR... But if you want a global faster and don't care about smaller amounts of loot, slide the slider to condition. More filters and dampers will drop on a success. More residue too. In fact, your residue tends to be worth about 109% on orders in auction because it is used by limited item crafters. They can take 50 peds of residue at 110%, add it to a 300% markup craft, and essentially are making triple their initial investment back on that residue. Now how many clicks they may have lost to get a success cuts into their profit margin.

If you start with a 1QR blueprint... I will advise you that on full quantity (It just means a higher number of your clicks will succeed, versus a lower number of higher value successes on condition), I can honestly say that you can expect a global around 75 to 85 QR. You should be able to hof after you hit 100 QR and keep going for some time.

Also, STAY AWAY FROM S.I.B. anything.. Skill increase bonus is just a marketing gimmick. A fully skilled tool, weapon, or blueprint will give you more skills than one that you aren't maxed out on.

Do not recycle any of your materials until you are done with your run, and then start again. If you keep rolling what you got back over, it will generally balance out, and you shouldnt suffer any real big losses. I played for 6 months on my first 100 ped deposit, and I was mining, crafting, hunting, you name it.

Just be aware there is a lot you will want to do but not have the skill to do. Be patient, if you don't it going to cost you a LOT in the long run.

Good luck and go get your globals!

Oh, and you can check what items have globalled and what their record highs are for loot on www.entropiatracker.com.  It will also track your globals too!