Revision as of 03:30, 21 October 2013

Location

Gas clouds are found inside wormholes and known Space in low sec and null sec. They are only found very rarely in high sec and then only via Exploration or level 4 mining missions.
Unlike most exploration sites, gas clouds are not randomly distributed throughout the universe.
They are located in specific regions and places. See Exploration sites : Gas for some specific locations.
For wormhole specific gas mining see Gas in W-space

To mine a gas cloud you will need the skill Gas Cloud Harvesting. The skill book currently runs 21.6M isk, and is available from all normal NPC sellers.
To learn the Gas Cloud Harvesting skill you need Mining at level 4.
You can only install one gas cloud harvester per trained skill level. Note that this is very different from normal mining, where you can fit one mining laser per turret slot. Also note that currently EFT allows one additional gas cloud harvester, but this has been tested and found not correct.
Using a Venture you either want to train this to 2 (to use both harvesters) or 5 (to use T2 harvesters)
It is worth investing in training it to 5 as T2 harvesters give a 50% increased yield over T1
If using a Venture you should train Mining Frigate to 3 or 4 at least as it gives an increased yield per level

You will need a ship that has enough high slot turrets.
Unlike other mining, gas cloud mining can not be performed in any type of exhumer. (They can not mount high slot turrets.)
You will also need at least one Gas Cloud Harvester. You can only mount one harvester per trained skill level, and each one uses a turret slot.
The Venture is the most common ship for gassing as, due to its bonuses, it has the same yield with its 2 turrets and Mining Frigate trained to 4 (with Mining Frigate 5 it gets higher yield) as an unbonused ship with 5 harvesters. Additionally it is far more agile than the ships which would be able to fit 5 harvesters.
The alternative is a battlecruiser or a cruiser with 5 turret slots such as a Thorax.
Unlike regular mining there are no modules or rigs to increase yield. Ie, there are no gas equivalents to the Mining Laser Upgrade.
A ship with gas harvesters attached appears to have nozzles coming from the body of the ship. The number of nozzles does not necessarily match the number of gas harvesters fitted.
The Venture's ore bay can also hold gas, however other ships will probably want to fit Expanded Cargoholds in their lows as gas is bulky.

To be able to target a gas cloud you need it selected to display on your overview.
To do this, right click the overview, select open overview settings, select the filter tab, open the celestials folder, and check the Harvestable Clouds box (see screenshot right).
Find a harvestable cloud.
Move within 1500m of the harvestable cloud (the range of a Gas Cloud Harvester module).
And start your harvesters. Note that unlike regular mining, there's no pretty visual effect. The gas just appears in your cargo hold.
With a Gas Cloud Harvester 1 you will receive 10m3 (1 unit) of gas per 30 seconds (1 cycle). T2 harvesters are faster, yielding 20 m3 every 40 seconds.
At 10m3 each it does not take a lot of gas to fill most ships' cargo holds.
Unfortunately, High sec gas does not sell well or for much ISK, but nullsec, lowsec, and w-space gas can be more profitable.
Gas from wormhole sites can be very profitable.

Gas from gas cloud sites is used in the manufacture of Boosters.
Gas of the Fullerite variety from wormholes is not used in booster production but instead is used in T3 manufacturing. This can be extremely profitable.
Gas from high / low sec exploration sites is of the Mykoserocin variety. These produce the basic synth boosters.
Synth boosters are NOT illegal and have no possible side effects.
Other gases from low and null sec make higher grades of boosters that are illegal and have "possible" side effects.
On these boosters you are guaranteed the good effect, but there are 4 "possible" bad side effects. (You may get none, you may get all 4; there is a percentage chance for each side effect, modified by various skills.)

(Special Thanks to Artemeo for finding a ladar site in high sec, that allowed the pictures on this page.)

@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 *You will also need at least one Gas Cloud Harvester.  You can only mount one harvester per trained skill level, and each one uses a turret slot.
 *The [[Venture]] is the most common ship for gassing as, due to its bonuses, it has the same yield with its 2 turrets and Mining Frigate trained to 4 (with Mining Frigate 5 it gets higher yield) as an unbonused ship with 5 harvesters. Additionally it is far more agile than the ships which would be able to fit 5 harvesters.
-*The alternative is a battlecruiser a cruiser with 5 turret slots such as a Thorax.
+*The alternative is a battlecruiser or a cruiser with 5 turret slots such as a Thorax.
-*Unlike regular mining there are not any modules or rigs to increase yield. Ie there are no gas equivalents to the Mining Laser Upgrade.
+*Unlike regular mining there are no modules or rigs to increase yield. Ie, there are no gas equivalents to the Mining Laser Upgrade.
 *A ship with gas harvesters attached appears to have nozzles coming from the body of the ship.  The number of nozzles does not necessarily match the number of gas harvesters fitted.
-*The Venture's ore bay can also hold gas however other ships will probably want to fit Expanded Cargoholds in their lows as gas is bulky.
+*The Venture's ore bay can also hold gas, however other ships will probably want to fit Expanded Cargoholds in their lows as gas is bulky.
 =The process of Gas Cloud Harvesting=