Science & Industry

I was mining over in Oisio in my retriever (can't fly or afford and Hulk because I'm new) earlier today, minding my own business, when a guy comes out of nowhere, jettisons a can, takes all of my ore from my can and puts it into his nice new one. I knew I couldn't fight him (I saw him kill a hulk earlier on) so I just warped out and docked, not even collecting my drones. He then apologised claiming he didn't know I was so new and left the ore he stole from me in his can. I went to back to the belt to take a look (foolish, I know) and he hadn't left the can blue. I figured he was cloaked or something, waiting for me to open it and then blast me to pieces. I figured I might as well just fly back to the station and cut my losses.

I wanted to know if there's a way to combat these kind of people? I know about secure containers but they can't hold anywhere near as much ore. They'd actually be no point as my retriever can hold a good 3000 m3. Thanks

Drop a bunch of secure cans. The idea is to cut out your travel time back and forth, so you drop a line of cans, moving along it and filling them as you go, before then coming and collecting the contents. Not as efficient as a jet can, but a hell of a lot more secure.

if you can afford it, set up a few lines in different systems. that way, if someone else munches all the rocks in range, you can move onto another line.


Or try and joining a mining corp, that runs ops. Or at least has people willing to haul. That's the better option. You'll have to pay them, but I'd expect them to save you at least 1 cycle in 4.

Mining is a decent way to make ISK that doesn't require a lot of concentration. If you want to be in-game but not totally paying attention then it's an enjoyable activity. If you want an activity to really make ISK then incursions or missions are probably the way to go. I haven't undocked my Hulk in months and prefer to go exploring instead.

At last month's ore prices I think a maximum skilled Hulk pilot with a mind linked Orca mining director might have been able to hit 10 million ISK per hour. Probably closer to 8 million but I'm not checking my numbers right now. Not great but its better than nothing if you are studying or working on something else.

you did the right thing honestly, he was bad at pvp so he needed to kill miners. the best thing u could have done was recall drones, fill your current cargo and warp back to station..
use secure containers if u dont have friend in an orca to haul for you.
they last like 20 days or something, worth it imo.

GSC? Flying back to the station? Don't do any of these things, the bother isn't worth it. Just accept that once in a while you'll lose a can of ore. Pirates get bored easily, so if one flips your can just do nothing and wait. He'll soon leave, but whatever you do, don't take back the ore.

One thing you can do is get a second account. With the buddy offers you'll often get a month or two free on it, more than enough time to train an alt to fly a hauler.

Try it. Once you realize how nice it is to be able to just transfer ore -> can -> hauler you'll realize how valuable having a second account for mining is.

Halada's Guide to Mining is an invaluable reference for the budding miner. Halada recommends the second account, and goes into more detail as to why.

Check out some Lv1 or2 mission sites ( the ones that contain asteroids) complete the combat element 'easy in a frig, destroyer or cruiser' but don't turn the mission in and voilà....your own private mining site where you can more pretty much jet can mine without risk of being flipped at all.
It something to consider until you can afford the hulk.

Another trick I saw is that you change to a noob ship and flip the can back. This way you get flaged but all the flipper can shoot is a noob ship, no big loss for you if it kills you and you can keep this up until he gets mad. The ore than you can retrieve using an alt or friend or wait out the 15min.

There are several ways.

First, don't jet-can :P

But seriously, there are options.
Like going to a bit more remote location to mine. There aren't as many jet-can pirates the further you go from main hubs.

Another option is using huge secure containers. They can't steal anything from those. They are pretty cheap and they only require anchoring level 1.

Another option is using bait, and as a friend to fleet with you, he will put the can, and if a pirate shows up, your friend can kill him if he has a decent ship and modules.

Other than that, as long as you jet-can mine, there aren't that many options. You can reduce the amount of ore you jet before getting your hauler, in order to save as much as you can from pirates.

Anyway good luck.
Mining is a decent quiet money making profession. Don't give up :)

I've been mining for years and have never once had a can of mine flipped. The best way to handle it is just to find a quiet backwater system and mine there in peace. Just find a dead-end system atleast 6-7j from any major trade hub with less than 10 belts and it should be pretty quiet most of the time.

Another option is to get a friend/alt with an Orca and mine into them, that completely removes the can and gives you a ton of room and some nice boosts. It's not for the solo miner though, mostly for small to med groups of miners.

how to deal with can flippers? easy, dont mine in densly populated areas. Mine in jita or rens and your can will be flipped, go some 5-10 jumps away and it'll happen a lot less(if at all depending on the system you are in)