New Mining Character Day 16 - The Retriever

The time has come to upgrade the mining cruiser to a dedicated mining barge. All of the skills have been trained and more than enough ISK has been earned. From this point forward, the only major step left is to train for the mining end game: The Hulk. The Retriever will provide a solid base whether you want to advance further in mining or just rely on casual mining for passive ISK grinding.

The mining stats for the Retriever with my current skill load-out are as follows: 2x Strip Miner I collect 1695.16 m3/cycle or 565.05 m3/min. That's 167.61 m3 of ore more than Osprey's yield. The 3251.3 m3 cargo hold capacity is also very sizable and allows for almost two cycles without jettisoning the ore.

The way I initially fit the Retriever was to maximize the cargo hold capacity without the use of rigs.

High Slots:
2x Strip Miner I

Medium Slot:
1x Survey Scanner I

Low Slots:
2x Expanded Cargohold II

Drone Bay:
5x Warrior I

It is possible to customize the Retriever fit to the particular mining ops you're in. Ideally, the low slots should be fitted with Mining Upgrades to increase the mining yield with the Medium Cargohold Optimization I rigs installed in empty rig slots to maximize the cargo hold capacity.

To summarize, here's the list of skills I trained in order, with the optional skills not necessary for flying the Retriever italicized:

01. Mining III 02. Drones I 03. Industry I 04. Mining IV 05. Caldari Frigate III 06. Scout Drone Operation I 07. Hull Upgrades I 08. Targeting I 09. Shield Operation I 10. Shield Upgrades I 11. Shield Management I 12. Tactical Shield Manipulation I 13. Science IV 14. Shield Operation II 15. Shield Management II 16. Caldari Industrial I 17. Caldari Frigate IV 18. Drones II 19. Drones III

20. Astrogeology I 21. Astrogeology II 22. Astrogeology III 23. Caldari Cruiser I 24. Caldari Cruiser II 25. Astrogeology I 26. Astrogeology II 27. Afterburner I 28. Hull Upgrades II 29. Astrogeology III 30. Caldari Cruiser III 31. Caldari Industrial II 32. Caldari Industrial III 33. Astrogeology IV 34. Industry I 35. Industry II 36. Industry III 37. Mechanics III 38. Survey I

39. Survey II 40. Survey III 41. Refining I 42. Refining II 43. Refining III 44. Refining IV 45. Jury Rigging III 46. Refining IV 47. Industry V 48. Drones IV 49. Warp Drive Operation 50. Astronautics Rigging 51. Mining Barge I 52. Mining Barge II 53. Mining Barge III 54. Ice Harvesting I 55. Ice Harvesting II

If you really streamline the skills queue, it is possible to fly the Retriever by a few days earlier than 16. It all depends on how you would like to play the game.

This concludes the small experiment of trying to see how fast I can fly the Retriever only relying on mining income. A few times I tried salvaging and mission running, but it was more for entertainment and comparison rather than the need for ISK. Generally, I was only limited in skill training time. Playing only about an hour or even less a day provided me with more than enough ISK to fund the Retriever.

I hope you found this series of posts useful. Have fun mining out there and stay tuned for similar posts for other career avenues in EVE!

Thank you for reading,


A Fledgling Capsuleer