Thank you for reading my guide, any constructive feedback is greatly appreciated. My girlfriend (Trouble Maker) and I have been working this method for a little over a month and so far it's working fairly well. I decided to share it for several reasons and I hope that folks find it useful. The goal we had starting out is to level her mining skills to a point where she is using at least the tt mining gear efficiently and also for her to be able to play daily without depositing (yet). First you will need to download Little Big Mining Log. There is a lot of information on LBML all over the forums/internet so I won't go into detail about that. Also a two monitor set up is REALLY important to keep you sane while you skill up. You will use the second monitor to read forums, watch videos and all that fun stuff while you're sweating. Also LBML is a lot less crowded if you have two monitors. We're going to assume that you started out on Arkadia and that you haven't blown through all of your starter ammo yet. Oh you have? In that case you are going to have to sweat until you have at least three peds. 2k worth of sweat should do it if you can find a good buyer. If you haven't then you will want to do all the starter missions, to include the ones that take you to 8 coins, conserve your loot. Once you get to celeste quarry grab all the quests you can and make your way to Relentless Firebase Academy. Do the missions you can there and once again conserve your loot and ammo. At this point you should be able to tt all of your non-mining loot and ammo and pick up mining probes from the tt. Before dropping a single probe head back to Celeste Quarry and start sweating Caraboks. This is where you will be using that second monitor to learn as much as you can about mining. Research what resources are where, what the current market/markup is and all of that fun stuff. Once you have some idea what you are looking for head out on your first mining run using LBML your goal is 3.1 (tt) peds worth of ore. Once you've reached that or run out of probes head back to Celeste Quarry and start sweating those Caraboks again. Once you've got 3.1 ped of ore and 1k of sweat head to the quarry or wherever you like to sell and post your offer. We word it something like this: Package deal! 3.12 ped (tt) of ore +1K sweat for 5 ped! Lysterium Ingot (44), Kaz Ingot (10), Ospra Ingot (10). PM me. with that first 5 ped just buy probes and go mining and sweating again. We were able to buy a tt finder after the second run and a tt digger after the third. In ten runs we had two runs that yielded less than 3.1 ped ore and our average return has been around 3.3 ped (tt). During sweat events go to Celeste outpost and group sweat the Nusuls otherwise sweat the Caraboks at Celeste quarry until you have enough evade to sweat the Gallards at Celeste Outpost. It shouldn't take too long to make this transition. Using this method you should be able to play consistantly and skill up your mining skills and evade skills without depositing. We're focusing on just one resource (ores first) at a time. this seems to make it easier to sell the resources.
Maybe add some specifics, of which finder to use. As is I don't see anywhere in the post that mentions the Rookie finder. ...use TerraMaster Trainer (L) you got from the starter mission until it breaks, then buy a Rookie TerraMaster.... etc Certainly your guide relies on the low cost per drop of a Rookie finder to work at all, yet no where in the post did you mention this specifically. A true noob could easily misread this and buy the TerraMaster 1 (L) (also from the TT), make 3 drops for NRFs and then wonder where his 3 peds have gone. Also, would be good to give a suggestion of a "first mining spot" to try. This area should have mostly shallow ores, that can be easily found by a shallow finder such as the Rookie TerraMaster, this should increase odds of good hitrate on their first run. I applaud your efforts to help new miners/players, nice work.
I recommend starting at 8 coins with the rookie finder. Wenrex can often be found shallow and will give you good MU.
Nice, though I was hoping for a little more specific details like places to mine, strategy in probe dropping (and not just "use LBML"). And speaking of LBML, what to do if someone don't want to use that additional program.
This is a somewhat questionable practice. To my knowledge, there are no blueprints that use kaz+sweat, so the chance of finding someone who needs both at the same time might be slim. Lyst+ospra+sweat, on the other hand, is fine - this combination is consumed in large amounts in crafting welding wire.
You are absolutely right about which finders to use, the TerraMaster 1 (L) would burn through peds way too fast. As far as "first mining spot" to try I'm not too sure how relevant that is to this method for an absolute newbie. On one side this method only relies on a 62% return rate in order to break even and we've found that that it's common using both the TerraMaster Trainer (L) and the Rookie TerraMaster to regularly hit above the 62% mark pretty much everywhere we've mined. With that said we've also focused on exploring accessible areas around tps that don't have a lot of aggressive mobs. Through that exploration we've found a lot of great spots on Arkadias surface. As far as mining for a specific ore like wenrex or the combination of Lyst and Ospra I don't see a lot of value in that early on. I don't know how common Wenrex is but isn't 8 coins taxed land? I would be curious, but not willing to test it myself, if mining a taxed land area for an uncommon ore on a really tight budget would yield good results. We have ended up with a lot of Lyst and a lot of Ospra but with such a tight budget players need to be able to sell what they have. The example of how we offer it is not meant to lay what specifically should be sold every time and in what proportions but only to show how players might word selling whatever it is they found on that run.
For the new players that are reading this, pro-tip; If you are thinking about mining (actively) then please remember yourself to ask (a lot) of questions to an active miner willing to answer them. There are a lot of things about mining one does not just pick up. There is a lot of information on this forum about mining and a lot more on the PCF forum. First you need to know where to mine and what. For the finder suggested in this post (I am unaware if this finder is still available currently in the TT) you can only find shallow ores. Oil, Lysterium and Melchi are as far as I know the most common ones, so you'd have to find out where to find them best. Going to a random position and dropping a probe is not always a very good plan. Eventually if you keep asking questions about mining you will find out a lot more. Like the depths of ores, eco, what tool to use where and why (there was a spot on caly where you would only use an F-103 to get Narc, any bigger finders and you get lower MU ore finds instead and using an 103 would avoid those problems.) But that's enough in dept stuff I'm willing to type out tonight as I am getting well tired. Just remember to ask a lot of questions. Oh, and before I forget, good post OP. It can help those on the smallest of budgets to get something out of the game.
Sadly with the latest update there are no more rookie terramasters available at the trade terminals so that really makes mining like this pretty much impossible if players can't get their hands on 1/2/3 finders (vs. the standard 10/20/30 finders) such is the way of Entropia I guess. EDIT: Disregard the above please!! The Terramaster tt (L) is a 1/2/3 finder.
You might be lucky and find a few players who have an unl version of this finder. But it's going to be rare very soon.
Yes, TechKen. Do not ever get rid of it! (beside, it only haves a 1 ped value, so no real reason to TT it)
