Mining Finders and Returns: What you can do to improve them!

Unfortunately the modifications done to the mining system have destroyed tried and true mining methods. I suspect anyone doing gridline mining will lose their bottom dollar in a hurry. You can no longer just run and drop, turn around and dig up your finds... Simply because mining in such a way won't give you much to dig!!!

This is only one small problem compared to how many new finders there are available.. All of them are L, too. I hope better UL finders are on their way some day. In any event the old tried and true finders are not working as well as they once did in the areas they were great in. Here's how I started fixing this problem:

If you have a bit of a bankroll and want to become a REAL prospector in Entropia (The difference between a prospector and a miner is, a prospector looks for a place good enough to mine and a miner stays in a place that is good enough to mine once it's been found through prospecting) You need to pick a few finders, do a few runs on each in a few of your favorite places.

The result of my doing this has confirmed that indeed some finders work better than others in certain regions. If you regularly suffer heavy losses with one finder, switch to another. Is it better or worse? And keep working your way through finders until you can't find one that gets you any better results.

At present, I am very happy using the F-213 on calypso. It is doing better than my old 105 was after the alterations to the mining profession. I just got tired of bad mining returns and had to do something about it, but the last thing you want to do is buy new finders because you don't know how much ped will be wasted along the way, but I realized I was losing a lot more by not doing what needed done.

You also need to watch the ground. If the ground has the appearance of a certain ore, that ore is probably found there, as I mentioned before. Places that don't look like they would have something probably don't. You can't just keep dropping bombs and expect the system to compensate you.

I suspect results will vary from person to person as to which finder works best due to your play style and skill level... There quite probably is no "one finder fits all" approach. The F-105 USED to be the considered "one finder fits all" but not any more. As soon as someone figures out how to make ends meet, MA moves the ends. It never fails.

I hope this gives you a good starting point in rebooting your successful mining, as it has for me.

ANNOUNCEMENT: 1st Book Published by This Author!!!

Normally... I hate to post anything not related to Entropia in this blog. Even though once in a while I have been I promise to keep it only to a very minimum amount. For me, this is quite big news... My start as an author, hopefully. I have lots of ideas I want to publish but it will take time and work. I am pondering say, writing a guide about Entropia for the things I have not revealed. For instance, I know where to go with the F105 and hit ONLY Niksarium every claim. The only thing that will happen if I were to give that to everyone would be the Niks market might get flooded and or MA will change the spawns so this is no longer true. Some things just aren't profitable for me to share.I know there is a lot of free information out there... My blog is one such resource. 99% of everything I know, I post... Well... Let me put it this way... When I post something, I do not hold back any info. There is no "This is the way it is" and at the same time thinking "But on the other hand..." I don't do that. If there is something I don't want to share, I won't even let anyone know I know it. You may find the link to my book on the right side tool bar, can't miss it... Unless I set it up wrong :P

But the above is just an example as to why there is always some information we must keep to ourselves. Once the golden goose is exposed for all to see... MA moves or changes the goose. No... It is not an exploit, let's be perfectly clear. I buy my bombs, and lose a crapload of them like everyone else does... But when you are needing Niksarium for crafting, why buy it when you can mine it whenever you want not worrying about hitting lysterium or belkar because the only thing on that spot is Niksarium. However... Out of fairness... I will give two hints. If you can figure it out, bully for you:

Hint 1: The area is guarded by Motorheads on Rocktropia.
Hint 2: It is not a very large region.
Hint 3: If you hit something besides Niks, it definitely isn't the same spot.

So... Having said all that... I need to get back to work on some things, and think about my plans for the next couple days, I still need to get Entropia updated, all I have been doing is writing and creating graphics for the past week...

Treasure Hunting Arkadia: Will It Ever Be Released?

I am GREATLY frustrated. The KEY element ensuring the success and driving the anticipation behind Arkadia was TREASURE HUNTING. I remember last year the release date was expected to be August. Obviously that didn't happen. But guess what?! I just read on the forums that the new expected date of arrival is JUNE OF THIS YEAR! Well... Multiply it by a few more years and it MIGHT be out by then.

You can't advertise something that isn't true. Arkadia is NOT a treasure hunting MMO. It WILL be if they ever get off their a$$e$ and make it happen. If they are having trouble figuring out what items to make as treasure, and what can be done with them, well, just listen to everyone's suggestions!

I think it would be great, especially with gold at $1,750 an ounce, to slip a few 1 gram, or 1/10th ounce bars of gold into the loot pool to be found while treasure hunting, and ship them out. This would be a great way to kickstart the treasure hunting. And the cost of a one ounce bar of silver to slip in the loot pool would only be about $35 right now... So you give a few hundred peds in real treasure to your prospectors... Do you know how popular this would make Arkadia? Virtual treasure is fine, but it seems to me, if you have a real cash economy, you might as well throw in some real treasures as well.. I mean, they throw in laptops to the mining pool... SERIOUSLY!

There are so many great things that can be done... IF THEY DON'T SCREW IT UP. Please voice your ideas to their development team... If you like any of mine, the more of you passing them on the more likely they will listen to popular demand. The old adage in business is, the customer is always right. Customer choices and habits, also desires dictate what directions companies will take their products. Otherwise, if you run your company the same way a government operates, you might put snorkels on airplanes!!! It is ridiculous and an inefficient waste of resources. But that's what happens when companies don't listen to their customers.

I am sorry to ramble. I see a lot of hits coming in from people wanting to know about Arkadia and the treasure hunting. It is very irritating to me that it is not here. I went to Arkadia because I thought that next vu it would be out and I wanted to be there the first day and see what could be found. But it never happened. And I lost too many peds waiting to see. I also had a bad experience with eBay and a customer, you may check my eBay blog to read about that if you are curious.

But... Now that I have vented... Let's get back to business as usual, shall we?

Also, I want to thank all of you for making this blog a big success. The traffic I generate on a daily basis here is mind blowing for me. Never in a hundred years did I expect to start a blog or site that would bring in upwards of 200 hits on a good day most of them unique. If you have a website you would like to advertise, I am willing to negotiate terms to give you your own placement for your ad on this blog for a month, or a year at a time. It will cost, but where else do you have such a niche of targeted traffic? Otherwise I will just keep running the current ads.

I plan to streamline the look of this blog soon, but I am currently authoring several books that will be released on Kindle, hence you may have noticed my poll. I expect to upload my first finished book to Amazon today. It is about real life gold prospecting, and no doubt a post on it will soon follow on my prospecting blog.

Just as our environment has random variables, and certain laws of physics... The fact that Entropia is a computer program does not negate the fact that it too is an environment much like our own, with certain rules and laws that govern how it operates. This leads to peculiar and unique patterns in prospecting there too. It is not as scientific as real life prospecting is, but somehow, I can't help but feel my vast knowledge and love of prospecting has translated into my success where prospecting in Entropia is concerned.

It is further sad to note... That after running my sluice box for an hour, the dollar amount present in the cleanup even from poor gravel, is anywhere from 50 to 200 peds worth, and my best day of prospecting in todays value yielded what would have been around 3800 peds in game if I were to have sold and deposited my gold.

But still... There is a unique excitement in seeing those large roman numerals showing up on your finder. It isn't the same as seeing a nugget in your pan... But unfortunately may be the closest thing you will ever experience to hitting the motherlode.

ROCKTROPIA: Mining Advice

First... I am going to reconfirm what I already posted about the arctic:

All I can hit there is Oil and Lysterium, but there is such a high density of it all over the place that I'd say if you need lyst or oil, is safe to go there and drop a few probes! And there is a crafting terminal on the great big building next to the one with the hole in the floor that you drop down to hunt Things. I only say this because Lyst and Oil makes Standard Dampers and Basic Filters, and I have had great results crafting in the Arctic.

Second...

I average 1 hit for every 10 drops in Hell. And the smallest claim I get for Ore is a IX, and smallest for EnMatter is VII. I am working on bringing you a comprehensive list of ores in each Hell Mine, as well as the mobs in each one and what their levels are. The hofs and globals seem to be very deep here, with my 105 I was able to hit a blausariam global at about 1100M depth, and my depth enhancers only took me down to 600m. So I got lucky I think.

And Last:

Rocktropia ores and enmatters are incredibly shallow. All my big claims on the surface are between 200 and 600m. So while the Demonic Dector is a Hell blueprint, it doesn't work for crap in Hell, I surmise it might work good on enmatters there, but certainly not so great on ores. On the surface however, yes. You are going to do well with it, and it is pretty easy to craft requiring only Lysterium and Alternative.

But I Surmise that the Z5 and Z10 finders will work great, as will the 103's and 104's. I would love to try an F-211 or a eMine... With what I've seen so far, an F-211 might produce some awesome results! But this is mere speculation.

If you want some great areas with what seems to be high density of Alternative, I will reveal a couple of my choice locations: East of City of Dreams... The stadium construction site... And East and South of Mulholland Way TP.

I have hit Frigulite, Garcen, and Blues at the Construction site... I have hit Melchi and Lytarian along with the Alternative and Lysterium and Blues over by Mulholland. I have even hit Dianthus east of CoD.

FURTHER NOTES:

If you can't hit within the first 3 bombs, go to another area if you aren't seeing skill gains. If seeing skill gains, try a few more and then move if nothing.

If you are getting double and triple skill gains with a single drop, it means you are at the right depth for hitting what is there. 90% of the time I will usually global if I get double and triple gains, on the same finder that I got those gains.

Beware that the game is dynamic, which means everything is a variable and the system changes to fit those variables. I.E. It can't know where we will be mining or what we will be spending, but it can know where to put loot and what to put there for loot. I am beginning to understand more about how the claims spawn. There are certain mobs for instance, that won't respawn unless you kill all of them. Once the last one is killed, then they respawn. Since programmers like to recycle code to save production costs and time, I like to think of Mobs as claims but we don't know if they have loot or not. It is forseeable that before an area will spawn new ore deposits, all existing ones must be hit, or else it will automatically respawn and redistribute them every night during whats known as Lagoclock, since unless you are in a dome, it is unlikely every claim in a given area will be hit.

And if you are having bad luck mining still.. One more place I recommend trying is near London Blockade.

Also, Some days I hit better with combo drops, others, just doing ore or just doing enmatter. If you are doing something and it isn't working, change, and you will get different results, not necessarily better or worse, but different.

Hope this bit of information helps and will tide you over until I can provide something a bit more substantial..

There is quite a bit of info that I have not shared with you and will not until I feel the time is appropriate. A lot of what I have I am still verifying and doing more research.

If any of you wish to contact me or add me to your friends list, feel free to use the Player Register I posted about earlier inside the Entropia Universe and search for Goldbaron Goldbaron357 Maximus. I will be glad to chat with my readers when I am online. I'd like to hear what you think and it would be great if you tell me anything you want to see me to add to this blog. It can be tough writing, because some days you just don't have any ideas, and others, like today, you are clacking away at full speed on a keyboard trying to write everything before you go insane and forget it all!

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.

Amplifier Effects: Angel Scales and Hansidian Finds Multiplied Also!

This just in... My good friend who has gone through my blog decided I should add here some vital information. Generally, when we hit Angel Scales unamped, you get about 30 peds with markup worth, so like 100 to 200 scales. Well, back in the day of the old mining amps, he was bombing along with an OA-109, and hit angel scales along with his claim. It gave him 4K scales.

This is definitive proof for me that amps amplify not only the claims you hit, but the things found with them. And rumor has it also, that if you happen to find an unlimited amp while mining, it is going to be of the same level as the amp you discovered it with. I cannot confirm this, but it does seem fair and logical.

Also, I want to point out... Hansidian isn't just found while prospecting and angel scales aren't just found while surveying. I have recently hit angel scales while prospecting for ores only.

A Look at Level 2 Amplifier Lights

Every time I am doing very well, with great returns, and put a level 2 light on my finder, my returns go way down. It has never failed. But if I use a level 2 non light, I get good returns. There is no statistical difference between the two amps, but I don't know if anyone else noticed this streaky trait. I have no explanation, but it would be logical to advise you to run with non-light amplifiers if you can afford to.

There may be hidden characteristics between a 2 and a 2 light that do not show in item information. But I would also suspect that the amp you use the most, will return the most. I used to do very well on level 2's and 3's, but when I run anything bigger, my returns go as nearly zero as statistically possible. I literally had about 20 peds returned on a level 8 amped run. I am advising to stick to a ratio between 5 and 10 levels of skill per level of amplifier. It has been the golden ratio for me, and any time I stray above that, I suffer horrible returns. There are people out there no doubt that can prove me wrong, it is entirely possible you could buy a level 13, drop one bomb and hit a tower.. However, it could be simply a result of how many peds you lost hunting and crafting, and the system decided to balance itself out. Who really knows. But I tend to Mine and Craft equally. My crafting losses tend to be made up while mining, and mining losses tend to be made up crafting. But who knows if it is the crafting making up for the crafting losses from earlier, at a later time and likewise for the mining. There really is no way to know.

ANNOUNCEMENT: My First Four Digit HOF!

I have done it finally!!! I hit my first four digit hof! After four years! Just shy of level 25 prospector, I hit a XXI Cobalt, Unamped, 1322 Peds! Of course it kind of sucks because Cobalt is down to about 122% on orders, from it's usual 135% to 150%... But everything else is super cheap now too so it's a buyers market at least.

This is the only place on the web I will post the full screenshot with the coordinates not blotted out. Everywhere else that I post, is going to have the coords blacked out. This is done as a thank you to my loyal readers who have made the success of this blog possible.

My instinct tells me this is only the beginning!!!

FAQ: Mining Amps

I have took it upon myself to post common questions and the best answer I have for them regarding mining amps.

1. Is it worth amping?
- Generally, yes. What one has to realize though is, you might be able to afford 300 unamped bombs, but if you amp with say a level 4, you might only afford 100 drops. What happens is you are spending more ped in a shorter amount of time, so your finds will be larger, but you have 1/3rd less chances to hit your claims. However, not only do Amps amplify your claim sizes... They will multiply your losses as well, so if you can only afford one or two amps, consider it high risk, and if you should only get 50% of your investment back, try another unamped run with your remaining Ped, it's not uncommon for me to global unamped after a bad amped run.

2. Is there a strategy to mining with amps?
- In my experience, if you are going to amp, you need to amp every bomb, otherwise it's like playing a progressive slot machine at the casino. Does it make sense to only play max bet once in a while when the jackpot could hit on a lesser bet and you miss the big payoff?

-Also... Don't be afraid of giving some distance between drops. If you spread them out a bit, I find my returns are much better as opposed to dropping as fast as I can.

3. How much decay is there if amping on enmatters?
- Since all of the changes to the amplifiers and mining went into effect, your amp will now decay at the same rate for ores or enmatters. So if the decay is 1 ped per drop, if you mine for both, the decay becomes 2 peds per drop.

4. Are amps required for big hofs?
-No. They may improve the odds and frequency of big hofs, but they will still happen unamped. In fact, one friend has hit many towers without amps, but it took a lot of prospecting to get them. Another friend hits his four digit hofs unamped too. As for me, my biggest hof of 908 peds was hit with an OA 102 (near as I can tell is equivalent now to a level 4). I don't think I have ever had a three digit that was unamped to be honest with you.

5. Is there any other advice I might be able to use?
-Yes... Always look for the lowest markup you can get on amps. If you can get a level 3 for 110% and a level 4 for 120%, it is better to go with the level 3. The closer you get things to TT, the less losses you will have in the long run.

- If you get numerous NRFs in a row, switch to another area. I was so far in the hole, and decided with my last few drops on my level 3, that I would try shinook. First bomb just away from TP hit a 66 ped alferix global. I continued mining, and only ended up down about 25 peds which wasnt a big deal on a 250 ped run. I've made that loss back crafting.

-Don't worry about getting big hofs. Even the globals will happen when you least expect them. Funny how that works too.

6. What level should I be for what amp?
-My best results have always been by following the rule of thumb, that says 5 levels of prospecting for every level of amp. So a level 4 amp would be good idea to use at level 20 prospect or survey. I find if I take out bigger amps, my returns sink lower, and lower on average. This is my opinion, but it is also based on my experience. I think you will agree its a good formula. But you are free to disagree as well.

I will expand this as time goes on... Thanks for reading!

ADVICE: When Double-Bombing Is A Good Idea

This is just a matter of opinion based on my own experiences. Results may vary.

I seldom double bomb... But if I hit an unknown ore with an unknown size, I go back and mine it, then I head out to about where I dropped the bomb that found that claim then I drop again, and almost always , say 85% of the time, I will find a claim not far from where the first one was.

Double bombing is kind of a yes/no/maybe so thing. It's never guaranteed.

However.. I have known of people to double bomb after they hit a global, and they sometimes hit another global or even a hof. You just don't know.

But my best odds have been double bombing an unknown claim.

MINING: Arkadia / Rocktropia Ores / Enmatters Average Depths!

I promised it, and here it is! Again compiled from stats found at www.mininglog.com... No, i'm not affiliated with them in anyway, just their method of collecting data allows for relative accuracy over the long run, and is as scientific as one can get in Entropia.

Along with the Calypso average depths posted here for ores and enmatters in earlier posts,

Here are the remaining average depths for any exclusive ores and enmats to Rocktropia and Arkadia.

ORES:
-----------------------------------
Alternative Rock ~413
Banite Stones ~597
Blues Rock ~310
Folk Rock ~468
Glam Rock ~704
Grunge Rock ~398
Hard Rock ~1052
Hebredite Stones ~748
Jazz Rock ~646
Kaz Stones ~935
Lidacon Stones ~846
Ospra Stones ~447
Punk Rock ~547
Telfium Stones ~678
Veda Stones ~433
Wenrex Stones ~644
Yulerium Stones ~650
Zulax Stones ~738
------------------------------

Enmatters:
------------------------------
Florican Mist ~576
Hurricane Cocktail ~884
Hydrogen Steam ~656
Mai Tai ~478
Pel Crystals ~756
Pina Colada ~373
Quil Sap ~580
Somin Tar ~498
Star Particles ~817
Vorn Pellets ~802
Xelo Haze ~685
Zolphic Oil ~450

And that concludes the average depths for the Current Entropia Universe.

As more planets with more resources are added, I will do more posts to keep a list going here.

I am not familiar with planet specific finders... However, a safe bet is to use eMine or F-105's for finding most everything...  But if you can use the super high level finders and afford them, by all means go that route. The main thing is, target the average depth of that which you are seeking, and you will more likely find it if you are in the right place for that resource to be found.

Good luck and happy prospecting!

The Differences Between Surveying and Prospecting

We use mining as an interchangeable term that covers both prospecting and surveying. But one is not the same as the other. Prospecting is the search for ores, and mining is the extraction of them. Surveying is the search for enmatters, and drilling is the extraction of them.

But the main difference is... Unamped, surveying costs half as much, and while the average claim sizes tend to be greater than in previous version updates, they are still significantly smaller than the average ore claim.

Though, perhaps an equalizer to this is amping. It would seem now that if you amp, the amps decay the same amount for ores as they do for enmatters, meaning proportionately larger claim sizes from amping.

However, I tend to surmise that you have a greater chance at overall profit with surveying. You will have more probe drops for your gains to balance out your losses, losses will be slower and smaller than if looking for ores. And it doesn't take a very big claim to correct a 10 or 20 probe NRF streak.

And as unbelievable as it sounds... I have heard of people hitting unamped enmatter towers long before they ever hit their first unamped ore tower... But this is going to change depending on what you do the most I think.

If you drop 5 or 10 in a row and find nothing, move to another area, a cold streak in Entropia seldom will turn around by trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip.

Good luck!  And happy mining!

Mining: Ore Finders Vs. Average Search Depth for CALYPSO ORES

I just compared the average depths as logged by www.mininglog.com... This is data taken from their members mining results, and they average it out... And I know that it is possible to be mining past the depth for certain ores and enmatters, so it pays to pick the one finder that can find what you are looking for and try to keep from going past the depth too far that it is usually found at. Sure, you may still hit it at a much deeper depth, but it could just be a fluke, the system correcting for your losses for example.

As I understand it though, the higher the level the finder is, the more shallow of deposits will turn up. The lower the finder, the closer your finds will be to the average depth. So if you are using a Tk or VRX, I wouldn't worry much about this, and if you are using those then you already know what you are doing!

F-105 Untiered (Avg Depth 522m)

Alferix ~569
Belkar ~507
Blausariam ~514
Caldorite ~553
Cobalt ~484 (Perhaps a F-104 work best for Cobalt, but I hit it good with the 105)
Copper ~586
Erdorium ~614 (Untiered E Mine should work great here)
Frigulite ~549
Gazzurdite ~574
Ignisium ~604 (Untiered E Mine should work great too)
Iron ~568
Lysterium ~519
Narcanisum ~550
Niksarium ~572
Zinc ~592
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

E-Mine (No Depth Enhancer) (Average 676m)

Adomasite ~677
Dianum ~598
Durulium ~651
Erdorium (See under 105)
Eironite ~697
Himi ~652
Ignisium ~604
Kanerium ~641
Megan ~666
Quantium ~624
Zinc (See under 105)
--------------------------------------------

E-Mine +Tier 1 Depth (Average 727m)

Azzurdite ~716m
Petonium ~700
Pyrite ~ 745

--------------------------------------------

E-Mine + Tiers 1-3 Depth (Average 827m)
(Another tier of depth might not hurt for some of these deeper ones)

Ganganite ~845
Gold ~ 821
Iolite ~828
Kirtz ~ 935
Langotz ~ 831
Maganite ~ 827
Morpheus ~ 996
Platinum ~ 904
Redulite ~ 1042
Ruga ~ 839
Tridenite ~ 874
Terrudite ~ 870
Valurite ~ 913
Versperdite ~ 1006
Xeremite ~ 892
Zanderium ~ 932
---------------------------------------

Coming up on the next post: The same chart for Calypso EXCEPT I will do a list of enmatters!

After that, I plan to do lists with all other planets ores and enmatters for your convenience.

This list took quite a while to research and break down, I hope you find it useful, and if you know anyone else that can, feel free to givem a link!

Utilities: Mining Claim Logger / Depth Charts / General Ore Locations

Well... Information is crucial to success for the prospector. And with the ever changing updates, Finally we have a reliably updated list of depths, min, average, and max that are derived from over 100,000 claims from nearly 200 users.

http://www.mininglog.com/ appears to be an awesome utility and the stats are priceless!

Now, you can pick an area, and target the average depths of everything you want to find by either tiering with depth enhancers or using different finders!

I have yet to download the utility and try it, but it's 30 + megs, and I am on dialup so it's not happening any time soon LOL.

You do have to register with the site, but it is worth it in my opinion because the data gathered and compiled is indeed priceless beyond measure. Even if the depths change, the changes will be reflected in the statistics. It is a dynamic way of assembling such an amazing collection of information!

Mining: Why I Think It Has Best Chance Of Globalling

Anyone really serious about wanting to get globals and hofs I think is best to stick to mining. Learn all you can about it. Always used a maxed finder and don't fall for that SIB crap. I have always skilled faster on a finder that's already maxed.

See... Hunting seems to require a HUGE amount of peds to be cycled before you can even think of a global. For instance... I have killed many thousands of mobs since starting 4 years ago. Only global I got was two years ago on a Drone Generation 1. I had hunted so much that both my Laser and BLP are nearly 3K, my rifle is around 3K... Seriously, that's a lot of peds spent hunting. Then I decided to start being serious about the Argo challenge. I got a global half way through my 1K mission. That means, it took me about 600 to 700 kills to even global, not counting what I blew killing other mobs. I spent nearly two full days hunting drones and minerbots. Since my global, I have killed over 1000 more argo with no global. I seriously doubt a hof is possible hunting. Check my entropia tracker page and have a good laugh. Seriously. Goldbaron Goldbaron357 Maximus.

Crafting tends to require high QR blueprints. If you are of moderate or low skill, you don't have a snowballs chance in hell of a global or a hof unless it is an expensive item to craft. And then its only because you lost so many peds you globalled. I am not knocking crafting, but its not something where you can do say, 5K clicks and guarantee a global.

Prospecting on the other hand... I will say surveying too, but in general the surveying claims are much smaller than an ore claim, because surveying costs half as much per drop to do... However, it is great to skill up your geology first before moving onto ores if you so choose, but now, with being able to mine for both at once, I'd say do both at once from the very start, that way your prospect and survey should remain about equal, and I highly suspect it is a hidden amping effect if you hit one and not the other.

But as long as you have sufficient number of bombs to drop... I would recommend at least 100 bombs to drop (That's 100 peds worth if ore, or 150 peds if both), but the more the better, and if one area not doing good, go to another area and increase the distance between drops. You will find a lot of times you can hit good size claims if you are down a bit and balance back out. Markup on ores is a huge deal, because most hunting loot is TT food, I mean, sure, you might get 100.1% on oils, but unless you sell directly to a crafter, you can't afford to pay auction fees to fill orders on some of that junk.

You are able to cycle a greater number of peds faster, with better average returns so long as you are wise about where you are searching and what finders you are using. I wouldn't worry about amps until you get a feel for where things are found, and what is a good reliable area for your skillset and equipment. Then after you find an area you are getting a good hit rate in, maybe consider amping... But I recommend one level of amp for every 10 levels of skill for best return. It would seem if you reach past this rule, returns will often jump off a cliff. I speak from many thousands of lost peds from doing so.

A global is 50 peds. You are dropping 1/50th a global when looking for ore. Most times you get a great return if not a profit. If you keep cycling your peds, you should quite easily find a global within a day or two of solid mining. I have hunted for 18 hours a day several days straight and not hit even one global. I have crafted a lot of clicks on things i used to global and hof a lot on, and nada. But mining, I was able to hit 5 globals in two days recently.

My mentor always said if you want to global or hof, MINE. Now I know why after 4 years of playing Entropia.

Speaking of mentoring, if MA finally does actually come out with the updates that are supposed to happen, and they do eventually bring back mentoring, I will be happy to take on some disciples and teach everything I know about mining and crafting. Just leave a comment here or email g o l d b a r o n 3 5 7 at g m a i l . c o m, just remove the spaces.

Mining Amps: The New Changes Explained

I was stunned to do the math and research to find out that a Level 3 Finder Amplifier is now equivalent to an OA102. However, it would seem that because it charges the same decay for enmatters, that it is equivalent to an MA103 in that regard.

The eMine amps have maintained their effectiveness. However, if you look at the item info on an eMine I vs. eMine II, you get the best bang for your buck with the I.  Notice the efficiency is 3.8, and the II is 7. This means for half the cost you are getting a little more than half the performance.

It is important to always consider all economic sides of every tool, attachment, or item you otherwise use in Entropia. A lot of you may only lose 10 peds per hunt, or 20 peds. But when you go through and fine tune your economy side of hunting, you can find that those 10 and 20 ped losses would have been avoided by being as efficient as you can.

Mining is the same way. However, to be successful at mining, you have to eliminate volatility. A run of say 500 drops will be less volatile than a run of 100 drops. A longer run gives you more chances for any losses to balance out and maybe hit a big hof or a tower. I would find it hard to believe anyone could run more than a 1000 bombs and not global or hof, but not that it hasn't happened.

I am not positive why it made sense to go to 13 levels of amp, and I am not even positive why they would make the decay the same for ores as enmatters, but you should notice significantly larger than average claims while just surveying.

Personally I find the new system confusing, but am getting used to it now that I understand what the changes are. Also it makes room for more crafting opportunities and allows more control over how much amping you want to do.

Good luck and happy mining!

Mining Research: Mine for Ores, or Enmatters, or Both at once???

It would seem that the more confusing MindArk makes elements of the Entropia Universe, the more money people will lose before they figure out what they are doing wrong. This was almost me being the victim again. Fortunately, I have been able to reproduce my results. Not saying it's going to be 100% right. Fact is, you could be most opposite of my conclusion and still manage, in even a small remote possibility, of hitting two towers on one drop. That doesn't prove I am wrong, that only proves you are lucky to the tune of one in many billions. There is always room for an exception to occur. But let's make luck the rule rather than the exception, shall we?

By stretching your ped roll as long as possible, you give yourself more chances at hitting a home run. If you spend wrecklessly, you actually get fewer chances at a jackpot. What we are all about here is the law of large numbers. The more you do something, the more likely you will succeed. Many times playing Video Poker, I have literally hit a straight flush or four of a kind on my last 25 cents. If I would have missed one proper play. If I would have accidentally thrown out a pair of jacks or kings, I would not have had the stake to make the last bet that ended up winning me enough to keep playing and come home a winner. It is the same way here. If you spend wrecklessly, you may go broke before your jacpot comes along. That is why what I am telling you here is important.

So...

Yesterday's test involved a Finder 105, two Level 2 Finder Amplifier, two Level 3 Finder Amplifier... And a few hundred peds in probes. I spent most of it mining in the same general region.

For the first three amps, I burned up a level 2 light searching for both ores and enmatters. That was something like 100 peds or so spent, my return was eh, 70 peds with markup. Not tooooo bad, but my average finds were level III and IV. It just didnt seem like I was getting anywhere.

I went on to a Level 3 amp. I probably recovered 25 or 30 peds on that one, again doing both.

I did my last level 2 light, and again right around 50% return. Mining for both.

I realized some things of importance. First, by bombing for both, if you don't increase your mining run to account for the extra cost in mining for both, you are actually cutting your possibilities of hitting a hof or a global. By mining for both, you are dropping 1/3rd less bombs total. That is 33% less possibilities at hitting something big.

Second, I realized that my Prospecting is level 23, and Surveying is around level 17 or so. It made me realize that there is such a large gap that my surveying skills would be giving me less of a return than my prospecting skills, lowering my average return. To this time, I was still only pulling average of V's, thats even with a Level 3 amp too.

So I decided ok. I am going to burn the entire last amp just mining Ores. It will give me more drops, and more chances to get some peds back. Also, my prospecting skill gave me confidence, it's one of my highest skill sets, if not the highest.

I started hitting VIII's all over the place. Almost every bomb hit. Gazzurdite, Cobalt, Durulium... Azzurdite... 10 points extra credit if you can identify where I was mining just by those resources :) Towards half way through, I hit a 155 Cobalt I think it was. I didnt mine it right away, figuring if I am on a warm cycle, I will keep mining. I only extracted my smaller claims. Then, I hit a 65 ped Durulium I think it was. Two globals on one amp... I dont usually do that, but considering the heavy losses I suffered the previous three amps maybe the servers were balancing out my losses for me... BUT... Fact is...

1. Average claim size went up a great deal.
2. By sticking to my highest skill, I got the best return.

I speculate that if your Surveying and Prospecting are more closely matched then you should comfortably be able to mine for both, though I recommend any time you mine for both, you want to extend your budget by 33% to give you the same chances of hitting something good accross the board.

So out of 500 peds, I came out with around 600 to 700.

Now today, I am again mining just ores. I have hit a 50 ped blausariam... My initial finds were far and few between, but I ended up with a 40 ped gain after running through half a 102, not light that is.  So 150 ped run yielded 190 with markup. I am now off to finish my other half of the run and see if my findings still hold true!

Good luck and happy mining!

______________________________________

UPDATE!!!
--------------------------------------------------------

I just concluded the second half of my run.

Another global on Cobalt of 68 peds I think, and a level XII gazzurdite one or two stones away from a global.  I ended the second half of my run which cost around 150 peds (Whole level 2 run takes around 300 peds without markup), second half ended at about 200 peds. A rough gain of about 50 peds.

The whole time I was mining in one region. I haven't moved areas all day. I want to do another amped run and see if I can work up into a hof, but I gotta get my nerves to calm down first! I need my peds to keep going up because there's so much I want to do. But mining is my strongest profession. Crafting used to be, but I chipped up my prospecting and I think that pushed my tendency to be a good miner even higher. Still I have never had a hof over three digits. And that was 908 I think gazzurdite with a OF 105 and a OA102 (which if you want to convert into the new amp system, a 103 is equivalent to an OA102), second biggest hof was crafting at around 500 and some I think it was. I have yet to hof on hunting, but I am still working at it!

I think whatever you do the most is going to be your best profession. Although I do a lot of hunting and crafting, my avatar STILL wants to be a miner!

MINING CHANGES EXPLAINED

I just wanted to clarify some of the changes you will see in mining...

Your OF 105 has become F-105... Your eMine OFS has become the eMineFS... All of your finders seem to have been converted, but they could have appeared as anything, who knows... I am still a bit confused and somehow feel we didn't get fully compensated for the values of the converted finders...

But in any case, you can now mine for Ores AND EnMatters AND Treasure (if on Arkadia), or any of the three... I have dropped for both Ores and EnMatters with one drop and hit BOTH DEPOSITS ON THE SAME DROP. So... Guess what? Probes have become like Ammunition.

A probe costs 5 pecs. It still costs a ped to drop for ore, 20 probes, and 50 pecs to drop for enmatters, or 10 probes. Or you can do both for 30 probes, or 1.50 ped.

Amps still work the same way, just don't let their new names confuse you.

I really do like the changes despite the confusing nature of them. Hope this helps you! Thanks for reading! More great posts coming soon!!!