FPS Mining and Harvesting

[Mastersan]

Hi All,

I was TESTing some FPS Mining and Harvesting recently.

I've tried finding some info on the web, and it's available piecemeal here and there, and some info is not available, which means it was time to TEST things up. So I thought it may be handy for other TESTies to have some info on how and what you can get and how much you can sell it for when you mine and harvest, so that you can prioritise things that you pick accordingly.

I've only been doing FPS mining in Caves and I've come across only a few items so far, so later I may add info on other items, or please feel free to add info to this thread.

A couple of points on how to FPS mine, if you haven't done it before:

• Get a Grey Cat Multi Tool and a Mining Attachment (Levski / Lorvile / Area 18).
• Get a Backpack to store the stuff you pick up - look for an armor shop, get a MacFlex "Rucksack" armor (it's nice yellow TEST colour sheme). You can also buy a full Yellow MacFlex suit - looks nice, also the helmet has extra 4 LED lights to help in dark places (but those don't work, a bug or a feature).
• You may also use a flare. They are handy for dark caves. Get them in a weapon shop. Better buy a few. Some more info below.
• Find an FPS rock to mine: either on asteroid (ship scanning), or on moon/planet surface (ship scanning), or in a cave (easiest to get a search mission). Beware of trolls who wait around the caves and shoot you down (they may use torpedoes, e.g. Vanguard Harbinger etc).
• Attach your mining tool.

In an asteroid field on on a planet surface it's pretty straight forward, in a cave it's a bit trickier, as you need to look for the stuff.

Flares:

• Equip one as a tool from the equipment manager.
• Press 4 to select.
• Drop/place on a floor.
• Hold F over the flare, select Activate.
• The flare lights up.
• You can try activating while holding in hand.
• You can leave the flare where it is, or hold F over it, select Carry. This way you will be walking around with immediate area around you lit by a flare, and a flashlight lighting the point you look at. Also, I found it convenient to turn the flashlight off when picking stuff / harvesting, and mining with a multi tool - just can see better, as the flashlight glares a lot.
• The flare lasts for about 10-30 minutes (haven't timed it though, just from feelings).
• It's also handy to leave flares on key points like turns, different corridors to indicate your way out. Some caves are very large and multi level, and the longest time I've spent in a cave to explore it all was around 4 hours.

Some areas in a cave are available through prone. You may think the cave has ended, but there may be a tiny gap between a wall and the floor, and if you crawl there, there may be an even larger cave there.


Mining with Multi Tool (needs Mining Attachment):

• Equip one as a tool from the equipment manager.
• Press 4 to select.
• Find a rock.
• Right mouse click to scan the rock: the tool will show the material (the name of it), the quantity (e.g. 0.1 = 10 crystals), the instability and the resistance.
• Scroll mouse wheel up to get to 100% power.
• Left mouse click to start mining.
• You will see White and Red Zones with Green Zone in between - different rocks have different zone levels.
• As you approach the green zone, reduce power and keep the power such that it stays in the Green. If you stay in White - you can't break up the rock. If you stay in Red, the rock will explode and can kill you.
• When the rock is cracked, collect the crystals (hold F, select Stow).

Try not to wear super heavy armor and stuff, as you may need to do some jumping (including run and jump) in a cave, so the lighter the better, but full MacFlex works OK.


Backpack:

• Has 120,000 μSCU (micro SCU), otherwise displayed as "120K SP". This is 1/8 of a standard SCU, Since you can hit the "box" icon in Inventory (press I), which will put all the backpack contents into a 1 "mission box", 8 of which form 1 SCU.
• Can store 8 types of items. The same type of items will be in the same slot. E.g. if you have 2 crystals of the same mineral, it will occupy 1 slot and will have a counter of 2. If you have 2 different minerals, they will appear in 2 different slots.
• You can fill the backpack up, put into a mission box, and continue harvesting into the backpack.
• Combat armors normally don't have storage space.
• Some exploration armors have 1 or 2 "K SP".

Stuff you can mine, store and sell:

Item	Commodity	μSCU	Sell Price	Appearance
Ranta Dung	Agricultural Supply	700​	44​	See below
Amoishi Plague	Natural	1200​	13.2​	See below
Dolivine	Mineral	1000​	130​	Green vein in a rock, green crystals
Hadanite	Mineral	1000​	275​	Purple vein in a rock, purple crystals
Aphorite	Mineral	1000​	152.5​	Purple vein in a rock, purple crystals

Ranta Dung:

Amoishi Plague:

Backpack	μSCU	aUEC
Total Cargo Space	120,000​
Max Ranta Dung	171​	7,542.86
Max Amoishi Plague	100​	1,320.00
Max Dolivine	120​	15,600.00
Max Hadanite	120​	33,000.00
Max Aphorite	120​	18,300.00

1 Backpack = 1/8 SCU
	aUEC
1 SCU of Ranta Dung	60,342.86
1 SCU of Amoishi Plague	10,560.00
1 SCU of Dolivine	124,800.00
1 SCU of Hadanite	264,000.00
1 SCU of Aphorite	146,400.00

So, in general, prioritise minerals, especially Hadanite. Amoishi Plague isn't worth much - the full backpack only brings 1.3k aUEC.


Hope this helps. Feel free to add and expand, as I may not have been able to mine all that could be mined and harvested (like plants etc.).

Cheers!

 

[Xist]

Amazingly comprehensive info, thanks!

 

[Schmunkel]

Great guide! I had the bug where anything I mined did not yield any chunks, even if kept at the correct levels. Also, caves are super dangerous as you can get stuck in them if you go too far down and can't climb out.

 

[Black Sunder]

Great info.

 

[Joker72]

I heard there are some fps nodes attached to surface ship minable nodes. Any insight into this ? Thanks

 

[Mastersan]

I heard there are some fps nodes attached to surface ship minable nodes. Any insight into this ? Thanks

Not sure if I've got what you mean. I think you are talking about rocks and asteroids that you can mine using a ship (e.g. Prospector), and on which there are some parts that can be mined in FPS. Yes, those exist, it's like - you can first FPS mine the most valuable stuff on a rock/asteroid, and then use the ship to mine the remaining rock/asteroid.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

I picked up a couple of things that apparently have the plague but don't know where to sell them...?

 

[Printimus]

Nice writeup!

 

[Mastersan]

I picked up a couple of things that apparently have the plague but don't know where to sell them...?

If it's just the plague - any trading console. Some consoles don't accept though, - for example in Port Olisar the consoles on the admin desk do accept, but those on the walls next to admin desk didn't accept when I tried.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

If it's just the plague - any trading console. Some consoles don't accept though, - for example in Port Olisar the consoles on the admin desk do accept, but those on the walls next to admin desk didn't accept when I tried.

Many thanks :)

 

[Mastersan]

I've been trying to harvest stuff, other than what you can find in the caves, like fruit. Looking at screenshots those should be found on Hurston in forest/savanna biomes. I've travelled around Hurston quite a bit and checked those biomes (good that now Ursa fits into the Connie, so I could cover much greater distances while on the ground). However, I was not able to find any harvestables. Did anyone come across those? If yes, where did you find them?

 

[Deroth]

I've been trying to harvest stuff, other than what you can find in the caves, like fruit. Looking at screenshots those should be found on Hurston in forest/savanna biomes. I've travelled around Hurston quite a bit and checked those biomes (good that now Ursa fits into the Connie, so I could cover much greater distances while on the ground). However, I was not able to find any harvestables. Did anyone come across those? If yes, where did you find them?

I haven't gone looking myself but from those I've spoken with in-game the non-cave harvestables on Hurston are concentrated at the north and south poles.

 

[Mastersan]

I haven't gone looking myself but from those I've spoken with in-game the non-cave harvestables on Hurston are concentrated at the north and south poles.

Interesting, as I've been focusing on the green areas near the water, just like on RSI website screenshots (see below). Thanks for the info, I'll check those out. I guess the only thing left is to know how to find the north and south poles on Hurston, as there are no ice caps. Just where those should theoretically be from planet's position in ecliptic?

Checked the ARK StarMap (see below), the image is different from the in-game image.

Also, I've found that star map in-game is likely to be bugged - the planet's skin rotates, e.g. you may find a HDSF in the middle of the green on the map, but shortly you will find that the same HDSF is drifting from that point into desert. Moreover, you could set course to that point to QT, but when you arrive you will find out that the surroundings are different from those you've seen on star map when choosing the destination.


RSI website screenshot with fruit (you can clearly see Hurston forest/savanna biome and water) :

Hurston and it's north poles on ARK StarMap (Lorville is marked as the main landing zone):

 

[CosmicTrader]

Yopu have been busy.

 

[maynard]

min-maxers want to know

Credits/hour so far?

 

[Mastersan]

Yopu have been busy.

Indeed. Well, I did more search around the Hurson poles, this time having a Drake Dragonfly in the Connie. The Dragonfly is really good for this type of activity, when you need to scout the area with rugged terrain, and the atmosphere is not toxic and breathable, and you don't need to carry supplies, - very handy: good view, and very comfortable - you don't need to leave the bike to look for stuff. So, I've scouted a few places with about 50km search radius, - still found nothing harvestable. Either it's wrong places, or wrong planet. The screenshots appear to show Amoishi Plaque on Aberdeen, so maybe there is something else there, but so far found nothing on Hurston.

 

[Mastersan]

min-maxers want to know

Credits/hour so far?

I think Caves and Hadanite, if you are lucky, you may get 33k in 30-60 minutes. Other minerals are less common. The harvestables are probably not so good for minimaxers. You may go for a mixture of Hadanite and Ranta Dung. Just run around the cave, picking Ranta Dung, there's a lot of it laying around, and if you stumble across a Hadanite or other mineral vein - mine it.

 

[Mastersan]

On a subject of minimaxing and availability of a ship that can scan for resources. If you want to try your luck, you may try to scan planetary surface for minerals. Sometimes you get clusters of mineral veins, and other times you scan for a long time and get nothing. In a cave I believe you would always find enough minerals and you won't need a ship with a scanner, just something to get to the cave.

Here is an example of a Hadanite cluster (72 pieces of Hadanite in total):

The annoying thing is that some of the stones may not be mineable, and some shards may not be pickable:

Still, OK'ish payout, since I've spent 2 about hours looking for stuff, and some Hadanite vein I've found were not mineable and the only Hadanite I was able to mine is that cluster above (1 stone wasn't mineable and some shards weren't pickable.

 

[Zookajoe]

On the subject of Harvestables, I understand there are some plants outside of Lorville that are hand pickable. They seem to be few and far between though, but can be detected with the 4 ship types with scanners that work. I have yet to verify this.

 

[Mastersan]

An update with some more TESting:

• A flare appears to stay alight for 30 minutes +1-2 minutes. Tested a few, none were alight for less than 30 minutes, always more for 1-2 minutes.

• Another TEST on caves versus Active search on planetary surface: 2 hours scanning for minerals on 3 moons/planets - nothing, only found plenty of ore. Entered a cave and in 1 hour 22k profit: prioritised minerals, filled the remaining space with Danta Rung.

• Some observations on mineral occurrence in caves:

Item	Occurrence
Hadanite	39%​
Dolivine	35%​
Aphorite	26%​
Total	100%​

Conclusion: prioritise the Total out of all minerals, since Total occurs most often.