Science & Industry

The only "safe" way to mine in lowsec is to live there. Know the system you are in. Know the locals. Make as many blue contacts as you can,run d-scan like a maniac and keep a weather eye on local. Stay aligned,to a gate,station or your own POS tower if possible. DO NOT hang around the belt if reds or neuts enter the system,you must assume they are already warping to you and planning to ruin your day. Warp out as soon as you see them.

What makes lowsec mining worthwhile for me is that the belts are usually untouched,so you don't have the frustration of trying to scratch a living in belts that have been emptied by other players. It is VERY risky,I have lost a couple of exhumers in my time because I have let my guard down.

If you want to Troll, at least learn how to do it well first.

If nobody in EVE did any mining,you wouldn't have any ships,drones,modules or ammo to play with.....

Why bother trolling the experts who know better? Get back to GD.

Also, learn how to quote proper.

At this point I just have to quote the movie critic in the SF Chronicle today:

"it's like taking an amusement park ride through the curves of someone's mind and finding a sudden plunge into darkness each time you expect a synapse."

I'm looking for more isk/hr when mining not going to low sec to mine anytime soon, same as with 99% of HS miners. Not even null is worth the trouble anymore.

Lowsec mining: the holy grail of mining dreams.

Now I'm going to sound like one of those crusty war vets by saying this, but I've been around long enough to have mined every corners of eve, and I've tried most every technique. First off, it's actually quite simple to set up and profit from a low sec mining operation. If you are already comfortable with the general flow of PVP, you'll find lowsec mining to be quite simple, following most of the same principles you're already familiar with.

Now the very vocal detractors in this thread dohave avery good point to make; lowsec mining is quite simply alot more effort for what results in only a few isk per m3 in improved yeild. You are introducing a huge X variable in your calculations when trying to factor in the very volatile world of low sec warfare, both the FW and pirate flavors. A high sec mining operation is quite simply muchmore predictable, for nearly equal yeild.

The detractors will also point toward joining a 0.0 based corp as a more lucrative alternative. This is in principal true, 0.0 space is in general a far more stable and predictable environment. Most of the same logistical problems that you will find in lowsec have already been solved by the alliance's infrastructure and pilots. However not all aliances are equal, and some, while neglecting the belts in their own systems charge extortionate taxes on their own pilots.

Lowsec does offer some advantages over both highsec and 0.0, you have deserted neglected systems to yourself, and can oftentimes find greater profit in low volume production byselling directly to those pirates trying so hard to gank you. Also, you're your own boss, unconcerned with the military support of an alliance, or extortionate taxing. These are all benefits, but ultimtely they must be earned with greater investment of time, effort and treasure. Surely you'd be happier with a belt in a nice quiet 0.5, right?

Well currently a miner with good skills and good fleet boost can make 20-25M per hour. Far better than the 10M it used to be.

True a mission runner can make 40-60M per hour. With far higher investment and skill required to do so however.

It is very easy and safe to make 25M per hour mining, and can very easily be muti boxed for equal income from each additional miner. Mission running does not scale the same. Mission running requires much more attention, at least to hit the 40-60M mark. AFK mission running while it can be done is more in the 10-15M per hour range. Drones are just not that efficient when not controlled.

Not to mention a poorly skilled mission runner that spends 2-3 hours to complete a level 4 mission is making 15-20M per hour not 40-60M.

When I log in all 4 of my accounts a can easily make 100M per hour mining. Using all 4 accounts to try to multibox missions I can match that. but if I had 6-10 accounts mining would win by a landslide.

So mission running is really only better isk than mining when running solo or 2-3 accounts. At 4 accounts it is about even. More than 4 accounts mining wins.

Another advantage of mining is I can do it at work semi afk. When I can not pay much attention to what is happening. Got work to do after all. If I try that with missions I would lose a lot of ships. So mining can be done at times when mission running can not.

So tell me again why mining sucks and is only done by bots?

I am an avid mission runner, but I find many situations where running my 4 accounts in a mining fleet makes me more isk than I could make running missions. And at times when I otherwise would not even be logged in.

In theory, based on what I have seen on recent kill boards, the best isk/hour you can get in high sec is actually ganking freighters. You need at least a 10 man fleet to do it right, and consistently make big isk. A couple scouts to find the juicyest targets, and 8-10 Talos to pull of the actual gank. I have seen many recent freighter kills where over 1 bil worth of loot dropped. That is easily over 500M profit if set up right. Say you are well organized and can pull off 4 ganks per hour. That is a conservative 2 billion isk profit split say 12 ways. that is over 150M each per hour. Based on the kill board stats it would often be higher than that. You think the GOONS do it for kicks? No they do it for profit. The kicks is just an awesome bonus that keeps the gankers entertained.

What other activity can you do in high sec that makes well over 100M/hour? Exploration? maybe on occasion, but not consistently. trading for sure if you are really good and have the capital to work with. Not much else.

This thread's about low-sec mining, what's with all the figures for high-sec mining?
60,000,000+ per hour on one character works nicely for me

Generally, people complain about my fits causing them cancer and blindness, but if you really want some low sec mining, this fit might not be too bad:

The targeted region has Blood Raider rats which do EM and Thermal damage, so change the EM/Thermal resistance items to suit the region you hang out in. I've found that the alt using this fit needs much better drone skills (I put Hob2 in this fit as T1 drones don't cut it) as you'll encounter cruiser rats in 0.4 (and below) which simple tech 1 drones have a hard time handling. With 2 warp core stabilizers, someone trying to point your ship is going to need a faction scrambler, and that's going to be very expensive (cheapest one on eve-marketdata is 70M). It is my guess that if you replace 1 or both of the warp core stabilizers with a Mining Laser Upgrade, you'll get scrambled and blown up. The stabilizers reduce your targett

If the adaptive invuln needs too much skill, go with "limited adaptive invulnerablity field".
If the T2 amplifiers need too much skill, go with similar type ones that say "upgraded".
If the shield extender needs too much skill, go with the on "medium F-S9..." (the meta 4 one).

Eventually, you want to replace the T1 strip miner with a T2 one and use the appropriate crystals.

Eve Fitting Tool says this has 57k EHP with all level 5 skills, and 37k with no skills.

Even though the other players say that lowsec mining is a bad idea, it is something everyone should try. The belt rats in low sec will eat your Venture very quickly, and a Retriever lacks the tank needed.

If someone has better ideas, or even what a better fit would look like, I would be interested in knowing as well.