Creating an Alt Miner

Are you bored doing missions?
Are you stuck in station during a war?
Are you looking for new avenues of making ISK?

Creating an Alt Miner can help you get started mining and fly a Retriever in 7 days or a Hulk within a month and a half.

Introduction

Take consideration into whether you want to start a new account or train an in-account alt, depending if you are interested in creating an industrial alt in the future. You cannot train skills simultaneously on the same account between two different characters without paying for Dual Character Training with PLEX. If you choose to create an in-account alt and decide you want to go into industry, you'll have to retrain a new account or pay an account transfer fee.

Please note that post-Vanguard patch, all players start with 400,000 additional skill points trained.

Training a new avatar to fly a Retriever from scratch using this guide will take about 7 days 17 hours, or 6 days 17 hours if you use +3 implants. Training a new avatar to fly a Hulk from scratch using this guide will take about 49 days 12 hours, or 43 days 1 hours if you use +3 implants. These can be done slightly faster if you're willing to spend two neural remaps.

The requirements are:

• Brand new avatar with no training
• 69M ISK
  • Approximately 34M ISK for four +3 implants (except for CHA)
  • Approximately 30M ISK for skill books
    • This is only about 1M ISK if you want to fly only a Covetor

Because this can be done within 48 days, you can create a new account via the Buddy Trial (21 days), and add a PLEX to the account (30 days). If the buddy trial was given from your main account, your main will be credited for 30 days of play time.

Preparation

Prepare your new character for training by having these items available:

• Implants (+3 Implants)
  • Ocular Filter - Basic
  • Cybernetic Subprocessor - Basic
  • Memory Augmentation - Basic
  • Neural Boost - Basic
• Skillbooks
  • Cybernetics
  • Astrogeology
  • Mining Barge
  • Exhumers

Remapping

If you wish to save a couple of days, remap your starting attributes to:

• INT: 23
• PER: 25
• Everything else minimum (17)

This eliminates 3 days 2 hours off the training time and ensures the 48 days maximum training period. This is also a reasonable setup for learning many combat skills. It will leave you with another remapping to use, but if you're certain you will keep this alt for mining only, there's a different option that will further shave off some time (see below).

The Training Plan

1. Spaceship Command IV
   • 18 hours
2. Industry II-V
   • 5 days 2 hours 33 minutes
3. Mining IV
   • 18 hours
4. Astrogeology I-IV
   • 2 days 17 hours 35 minutes
   • No later than this point, plug in your +3 PER/WIL implants
5. Mining Frigate II-III
   • 7.5 hours
6. Mining Barge I
   • 30 minutes
   • At this point you can fly any mining barge fitted with Strip Miners I and a Survey Scanner II
7. Mining Barge II-V
   • 20 days 14 hours
8. Astrogeology V
   • 12 days 17 hours 25 minutes
9. Exhumers I-III
   • 19 hours 19 minutes

And you're ready to get into your Hulk (with Strip Miner I).

Alternative plan

Note that if you're determined to produce a mining alt before switching to your main again forever, you can make use of the two neural remappings available to new characters in different ways. The most direct way is to use the first remapping to max out Intelligence and put the rest in Memory. The other three attributes are kept at the minimum 17. Then train the industrial and science skills:

1. Cybernetics I - plug in implants when this is done
2. Science IV
3. Industry V
4. Mining IV
5. Astrogeology V

Now remap again by maxing out Perception and putting the rest in Willpower. The other three are kept at the minimum 17. Now train the Spaceship Command skills:

1. Spaceship Command IV
2. Mining Barge V
3. Exhumers III

Please note this leaves you with an alt primed for flying skills. Of course you can use the first industrial remapping to train up more mining skills like Mining V and processing skills before you switch to the Spaceship Command skills.

Going Further

To be the best miner you can be, the following skills are excellent choices to train.

Mining skills

• Exhumers V (For the best yield, lowest cycle time on ice)
• Mining V (For Modulated Strip Miner IIs)
• Target Management IV (without this you can only target 2 rocks and in a covetor you have three strip miners. Training to this III or IV is a very short train and will give you up to 6 targeted rocks at the same time}
• Long Range Targeting III (if you plan to fly under an orca with 25k range boosts then you might need this to target 25k rocks. Its possible the orca or someone else is giving a boost for targeting range as well but in my experience this is not always the case. most orcas focus on yield, strip miner range, and cycle time bonuses)
• Mining Upgrades IV (For Mining Laser Upgrade II)
• Drones V and Light Drone Operation I (good for flying 2 drones to shoot rats if you plan to mine in 0.8 or lower)
• Ore Processing IV (for T2 crystals): All highsec ores, especially [[Skills:Veldspar Processing IV]], [[Skills:Plagioclase Processing IV]], [[Skills:Scordite Processing IV]]
  • Also [[Skills:Omber Processing IV]] if you're in Minmatar space; [[Skills:Kernite Processing IV]] if you're in Amarr space
  • Requires Reprocessing V
• Ice Harvesting V (if you're an ice miner)
• Cybernetics V (for the yield implants)
• Mining Drone Operation V
• Drone Interfacing V

Fitting skills

• CPU Management IV (if you want to fit a full load of strip miners IIs in the high slots, a survey scanner II in the medium and full load of mining laser upgrade IIs in the low slots on any mining barge then you will find you need level IV of this skill. Additional skill might be needed for depending on how you fit your exhumer)
• Capacitor Management IV
• Capacitor Systems Operation IV

Tanking skills

• Shield Operation III (or higher)
• Shield Management III (or higher)
• Shield Compensation III (or higher)
• Tactical Shield Manipulation IV (allows for Adaptive Invulnerability Field II)
• EM/Thermal/Explosive/Kinetic Shield Compensation III (or higher)

Leadership skills

These skills allow you to boost a squad in a large op.

• Leadership V
• Mining Foreman V

Implants for improved yield

• Inherent Implants 'Highwall' Mining MX-1001(-1003/-1005) (Slot 10)
  • 1-5% improved mining yield, costs 1M-150M ISK (as of this writing)
• Michi's Excavation Augmentor (Slot 7)
  • 5% improved mining yield, costs 1.1B ISK (as of this writing)

Other useful skills

• Refining skills (for refining your ores)
• Trade skills (for selling your minerals)

References

• Forum thread
• Ultimate Mining Setups