Perfect mining

This page should be updated due to game changes.
Reason: Orca command bursts still listed in pre-2017 nomenclature. Page should be reviewed for other similar outdated info due to December 2021 mining changes or other recent game changes.

The perfect miner is something that many of us wish to attain. Since we spend all day staring at our mining lasers, we have nothing better to do than to research and analyze how we can get a better yield from our mining lasers, or how to mine faster. It really boils down to: "How can I make as much money in the smallest amount of time?"

The perfect ore miner consists of three things. The perfect Hulk pilot, the perfect Orca pilot, and the perfect refiner. The Orca pilot will be able to boost the Hulk pilot to maximum yield, range, and minimum cycle time.

The perfect Hulk pilot

Skills

• Exhumers V (5x)
• Astrogeology V (3x)

Is the long skill time for Exhumers V worth it?

If you make 200M ISK per week, a 3% boost will give you an additional 6M ISK per week.

My advice is that it is worth it, but only as the last skill that you will train.

Implants

• Hardwiring - Inherent Implants 'Highwall' MX-1005 - This can be found for about 120M ISK on the market
• Michi's Excavation Augmentor - This is a COSMOS item and can be found for about 2.1B ISK on the market. At such a high price it's probably not worth it, but you need it to maximize your yield.

Is the high price for the implants worth it?

• Highwall: If you make 200M ISK per week, a 5% boost will give you an additional 10M ISK per week. At that rate, the implant will pay for itself in 12 weeks or about 3 months.
• Michi: If you make 200M ISK per week, a 5% boost will give you an additional 10M ISK per week. The implant will pay for itself in 210 weeks or a little more than 4 years at that rate.

My advice is only to purchase them if you want perfection or have a lot of ISK to burn. The Michi doesn't seem very feasible to me.

The Perfect Orca Pilot

In order to maximize the mining mining laser range, and minimize the mining laser cycle time for a mining fleet, you need to have a perfect Orca pilot.

Skills

• Leadership V (1x)
• Mining Director V (5x)
• Command Burst Specialist V (6x)
• Industrial Command Ships V (8x)
• Cybernetics V (3x)

Implants

• Mining Foreman Mindlink - This is available on the market for about 50M ISK. It provides a +25% bonus to Mining Foreman Burst effect strength and duration.
  • The Mining Foreman Link - Laser Optimization will give a boost of 18.75% to your cycle time and capacitor usage rather than just -15%. With all other skills maxed out it comes to ~32.3% before and ~40.4% after total cycle time reduction or a 54.1% before and after a ~67.7% increase in m3/s.
  • The Mining Foreman Link - Mining Laser Field Enhancement will give a boost of 50% rather than just 40% to your range. While the increased range doesn't really equate to increased profit directly, it will increase your efficiency, which will eventually equate to increased profit.

Is the price worth it?

If you make 200M ISK per week, the increased boost of ~8.0% will give you an additional 16M ISK per week which will pay for itself in about 3 weeks.