Mining Ships in EVE Online: Frigates

Starting out in EVE, you are pretty much limited to using frigates for some time before you can train up to cruisers and the rest of the ship classes. Nor should you really rush into using more advanced (and considerably more expensive) ships before training up all of the other supplementary support skills, but that's besides the point. When starting out in mining, all of the four races have a frigate that's more suitable for job.

EVE Incursion: Changes to Planetary Interaction

The new EVE expansion, termed "Incursion", is set to be released in November of this year. Aside from improvements to the player's character avatars, changes are coming to the Planetary Interaction aspect of the game.


Quoting CCP Omen:

• Upgradable Command Centers will allow players to increase and decrease the CPU/Power capabilities of their colony without having to tear it all down (existing undeployed command centers will be migrated to the new system).

• Only the first Command Center must be bought and hauled in space, after that there is no longer a need to haul command centers in order to upgrade

• Surveying has been radically revamped and will allow players to create extraction programs that span anything from an hour to 14 days!

• Extractors can now be moved when in program creation mode

Read the full devblog here


In my opinion, the ability to upgrade the command centers without having to tear down several million ISK worth of other structures is the most important improvement to planetary interaction. It makes it much easier to attempt planetary interaction while you are still in the process of learning skills or if you want to scale up your resource extraction due to market demand/etc.

Allowing the extractors to be moved around is an interesting feature that should allow sacrificing some CPU/Power for gains in harvesting yields once the resources inevitably run dry in the immediate area. This once again should save the player from having to dear down the colony in order to relocate elsewhere on the planet.

Only having to haul the first command center is big benefit for those who extract their resources on planets in 0.0 or WH space (or even low-sec for that matter). This should serve as an incentive for more competition. Competition inevitably drives the prices down, but such is the nature of the market.

The 14-day extraction program also sounds like a great idea for passive income. Just click and forget about it, letting the commodity accumulate. But just like in the case of the current 96-hour program, it is likely to come with severe reduction in yield per cycle coupled to the total yield..

Overall, these are much needed improvements to the current mechanics of Planetary Interaction that should streamline installation and maintenance of your colony.

Mining Kernite: the most profitable high-sec ore

Of all the common ores, kernite is the most lucrative one to mine. It is partly due to the level 4 storyline mission "Materials for War" which requires 8000 units of kernite. As a result, it is generally more profitable to sell the normal kernite ore (not its fiery or luminous variants) directly on the market, but it depends on the regional prices of the ore and its corresponding minerals. Regardless of whether you sell the ore directly or refine it into minerals, it is still the most profitable ore that is found in high-sec systems.

The trick of course is finding kernite asteroids, as they tend to be quickly depleted. The only high-sec places to find kernite are the systems under the sovereignty of the Amarr Empire. Just about any 0.7 or lower system in Amarr space will have kernite.

Unlike other common ore asteroids, kernite asteroids will only contain on average 5000 units of ore, rarely exceeding the 10000 units per asteroid. So it is a good idea to find a system with no stations. Those systems generally have bigger asteroids and less competition from other miners. Of course, in this case your traveling time to offload the ore will increase, especially due to the fact that kernite is very bulky, taking up 1.2 cubic meters per unit in your cargohold.

It is possible to find kernite in Caldari and Minmatar space if you don't want to travel to the Amarr space, but then you have to run the risk of mining in systems with 0.4 security rating and lower. Unless you have a Hulk and low-sec doesn't bother you, I would recommend mining in the safety of high-sec. In my opinion the profit margin of kernite is not enough to support the costs associated with mining in low-sec. There are other more profitable ores (for example, hedgergite) in there.

Mining Ships in EVE Online: Mining Barges

Once you have decided to seriously pursue mining career in EVE Online, training for the mining barges is the next step up from using frigates, destroyers, or cruisers for mining. It is quite an undertaking in terms of skill training time, especially if you're aiming for the top of the line mining barge, but it pays off tremendously in the amount of ore you can mine. One of the biggest advantages of using a mining barge is the ability to install strip miners, which can only be fitted either on the mining barges or exhumers. Comparing the Strip Miner I to the ordinary laser Miner I, the cycle time of the strip miner is 2 minutes longer, but it is able to harvest 500 more cubic meters of ore than the mining laser (more depending on your mining skill). Of course, the strip miners don't come cheap (~1.0-1.2 million ISK) and require mining skill level of at least IV.

A handy tool for mining: Survey Scanner

Recently I have found about a very useful tool for mining - Survey Scanner. It fits in the medium power slot of the ship and once activated it shows what kind of ore and how much of it is available in the 15km radius. This way you can see if it`s worth mining a particular asteroid.

The survey scanner is very cheap and requires Electronics skill only at level 1. If you spend majority of your time mining, there's no reason not to have this equipment installed to help you pick the right asteroids.

Survey Scanner displays how much ore is available in each nearby asteroid

EVE Mining: Using Secure Containers vs Jetcans

Due to a rather limited cargohold capacity of mining ships (although better than cargohold of combat ships), you end up having to do multiple trips between the asteroid belts and the station. And unless you have someone with an industrial ship to haul your ore, you have to resort to storing your mined ore on location before you can hop over to your own industrial ship. As such, you have an option of storing your ore in either jettison canisters (jetcans) or secure containers. Here is the summary of pros and cons of each method.

Avoiding Pirates in High-Sec Space

Don't be baited by pirates. There's a few tricks they use to get you to attack them so that they can retaliate without getting killed by the CONCORD.

If you're a miner, the first thing they do is steal the ore from your jetcans. The moment they do that, they are flagged red for you. If you take that ore back ore if you fire on them, then they are free to attack you, and CONCORD won't interfere.

Also be wary of the pirate's corpmates, who may be nearby in the asteroid belt. If you take your ore back and try to run, then you will be flagged red for the entire corp and they will be free to attack you.

If instead of the jetcans, you are using the secure containers, then they may try to provoke you by shooting their own jet canisters. When they fire on a canister, they will be flagged red for nearby miners. Don't try to engage them, because they still can't attack you without CONCORD retaliation. And don't be afraid for your secure container, unlike in the case of the jetcans, the CONCORD will retaliate if they fire on it.

The pirates resort to conniving tricks in high-sec space to try to fight you. Rest assured, the CONCORD will step in and protect you if a pirate attacks you. Don't try to retaliate in cases other than a direct attack on you unless you're absolutely sure of being able to win, because otherwise you're on your own.

Character Creation

When it comes to character creation in EVE Online, there are ample opportunities to customize the look of your avatar. There are four races to choose from, each subdivided into three bloodlines, that are further subdivided into three different lineages and there is a unique background story for each of the choices at every turn of the character creation process. The look of each character can be morphed to your liking, although it is somewhat constrained to the overall look of the bloodline. Nevertheless, there are a lot of customization options to make your character look just the way you want to.

Keep in mind that once the character is created, you will not be able to change the character's name. It is possible to change the look of you character, but CCP charges a fee for that service and you will be limited to the same race and bloodline. If you are not satisfied with something, you will have to create a new character.

However, one thing to note is that you won't be seeing your character in game unless it is through the character information sheet. As much as a visual look and the background story of the character are important, the overall race/bloodline/lineage combination affects the character's attributes which have a direct impact on how fast you can train certain skills.

In EVE Online, you are never limited in what you can do in game with a particular character, but you may experience much longer skill training times. For example, it will take you longer to learn business skills with a character that is more suited for combat.

When you're first starting out, you may not know which aspect of EVE you like better or what you will ultimately end up doing in New Eden. For your first time, I would recommend selecting a very balanced character that would let you be the jack of all trades so that you could sample every gameplay aspect there is before focusing on something particular. Akita T wrote an excellent guide on new character creation. The article ranks different races and bloodlines according to versatility.

You should also read up on the background stories and look at the ships that each race manufactures to find out what you like more. Although any character can fly any ship in the game, you have to devote additional time to train ship command skills in order to fly the ships that are not of your race.

If you are more or less certain what you would like to do in game, then you can use third party tools such as EVEMon. There you can select which skills you want to train and the software will tell you the most suitable character you can pick.

Abundant Asteroid Belts

Shortly after getting more serious about mining, I have ran into a problem of asteroids being depleted very fast. I have chosen a system close to Jita for mining to save on the travel time, but as you can imagine, I was not the only one who likes being in close proximity to the trade hub. Although there are 7 asteroid belts in the system, there's no shortage of miners grabbing whatever ore they can get their hands on (not to mention a fair share of can-flippers roaming around, making jet-can mining impossible). So "the asteroid has been depleted" has become quite a familiar tune. Aside from the initial pride in the whole "I have just mined out the entire asteroid belt by myself!" feeling, the lack of ore has become quite an annoyance. But there are several ways to get a whole load of asteroids all to yourself.

My first skill at level 5

I've finally trained a skill to level 5 for the first time. With the Refining 5, I am able to train Kernite and Omber processing, although given my current location (Caldari Empire space), it's Kernite that I'm more interested in (there is no Omber in Caldari space).

I'm always in need of large quantities of Isogen and Mexallon for manufacturing, and kernite is the best common ore for refining into Isogen and the best overall ore for refining into Mexallon.

The only problem with getting Kernite is that I have to venture out into at least 0.4 sec systems in Caldari territory. And there it's not a question of if, but the fact of when you'll get ganked.

The bigger the risk, the higher the payoff.

Now onto Learning 5...

Piracy in High-Sec: A story of stolen ore

Yes, there is piracy even high-sec empire space and I have found out about it the hard way. It was a little bit unexpected for me to be blown up and then extorted by a pirate corp in a high-sec space. It was a 0.7 system, to be exact.

I was mining some pyroxeres ore in an asteroid belt and putting the ore into a jetcan. There were about 5 people along with me in that belt. A few of those had the yellow pirate label on their names, but so far it was quite common for me to see those and I've never been bothered by those people, so I didn't give it any second thoughts when I started mining.

Upgrading the trial account

My 14-day trial account has expired, and I have made the decision to upgrade to a subscription. I have definitely enjoyed playing EVE Online and would like to see what else the game has to offer. With the trial restrictions being lifted, I am able to train for a much needed industrial ship to haul all of my ore.

If you're interested in trying out EVE Online, I am also now able to give out a 21-day trial of the game through CCP's Buddy Program. Please, contact me if you are interested. The only benefit for me is that I get free 30 days of game time if you sign up for a subscription after the trial.

A New Player's Guide to EVE Online

Hello, Reader!

I have recently started playing EVE Online. Although I am not new to gaming, I have never played any other massively multiplayer online games and very likely never will. I have decided to try out EVE Online because it is a very unique, completely user-controlled game and the style of this game is of particular interest to me.

I was expecting the learning curve to be quite steep and I have been reading up on a lot of guides to help in the first stages of the game. However, there is so much information out there, that it's tough to sort it all out at first. That's why I have decided to create a guide for new players based on my own experiences of starting-up in the New Eden.

I have been researching every obstacle that I have encountered in game, so I might as well post what I have learned and hope that somebody will find the information useful. At the very least, you can read and laugh at the mistakes that I've made.

The more I progress in the game, the more detailed information will be provided on a particular topic. And with every post I make, I will provide links to more in-depth guides if you're interested in learning more.

If you ever thought of trying out EVE Online or you thought that this is a game that you might like, but were put off by the whole idea of MMORPGs (like I am), you can't go wrong with trying the game. EVE Online creator CCP offers a 14-day trial. They don't ask for anything besides a valid e-mail address to create a trial account. The size of the game you have to download is 2.5GB and the final size the game will take up on your harddrive is 5.7GB. You can check out minimum and recommended system requirements here.

I have started playing the game on a trial account and I am enjoying the experience so far.