What this is about
This guide calculates nothing – it tells you what to calculate. A mining run has four items: time, amount, price and risk. Three of them you can estimate beforehand, the price you have to look up.
Preparation
Before launch you answer three questions:
- How far? Transit out and back is pure time without return. An area twice as far out must yield clearly more, not a little more.
- How safe? A run you fail to bring home 20 per cent of the time is worth 20 per cent less – plus repairs.
- How full on the way back? The return trip costs the same whatever the amount. Flying back half full halves the return per hour, not per run.
Tasks and roles
Solo you carry all four items yourself. In a crew the risk spreads: with security along you can mine further out; with your own cargo ship you do not have to break off to hand in. Both change the calculation – so crew size belongs in the planning, not only in the execution.
Equipment
What a material is worth and where it occurs is in understanding materials. What the refinery makes of it and what that costs is in refinery. Both guides show values from the game data.
When a mining run goes wrong the only things that count are whether you can dump the cargo and get out. Both are documented functions.
| Game action | Default keyboard/mouse | Default joystick | Trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jettison Cargo | Left Alt + J | not bound by default | single press |
| Boost | Left Shift | Button 8 | hold |
| Spacebrake | X | not bound by default | single press |
| Cycle Master Mode (Long Press) | B | not bound by default | single press |
| Cycle Lock - Attackers - Forward | 4 | not bound by default | single press |
| Toggle Scanning Operator Mode | V | not bound by default | toggle |
Game default binding, game version 4.10.0-hotfix (55227). If you rebound it yourself, your binding applies.
HOTAS/HOSAS: the joystick column is the default binding of ONE stick. On two sticks you assign pitch, yaw, roll and lateral strafe yourself – which axis a manoeuvre needs is listed in the HOTAS / HOSAS section.
Sequence
- Estimate first. Duration, amount, price – three numbers on a sheet.
- Fly the run.
- Compare afterwards. The same three numbers as actuals.
- Change one thing. Always only one – otherwise you do not know what worked.
- Repeat. After three to five runs a feeling has turned into experience.
- Goal
- Assess a mining run before launch – and compare the assessment with the result afterwards.
- Preparation
- A planned mining run, a note sheet, prices from the OMC trade hub with their date.
- Task
- Before launch write down three numbers: expected duration, expected amount, return at the trade hub price with its date. After the run write the same three as actuals next to them. Repeat three times – then you have your own basis of experience instead of a guess.
- Success criterion
- You have documented three runs with plan and actual and can say where your estimate is regularly off.
- Partner
- required
- Functions needed
- Jettison Cargo
- Boost
- Spacebrake
- Cycle Master Mode (Long Press)
- Cycle Lock - Attackers - Forward
- Toggle Scanning Operator Mode
Risk and reward
The three most common ways to lose a run:
- Flying back overloaded and therefore slow. Cargo makes you sluggish; a full hauler is an easy target.
- Too far out without a plan B. If the ship goes, the cargo goes with it.
- Staying in one place. Standing still for long gets you found.
The emergency brake is the “jettison cargo” function: without cargo you are faster and a less worthwhile target. That is not a pleasant decision, but one you should make beforehand – not while being shot at.
Typical mistakes
- Calculating return per run instead of per hour. The long run looks better and usually is not.
- Not pricing in risk at all. A lost run costs time, cargo and repairs.
- Prices from memory. Look them up, with a date.
- Changing everything after one bad run. One run is not a result.
Next step
Once you know what pays off you can set your ship up for it: specialised loadouts.