Mining is one of the ways players can make money in Discovery Freelancer. This is done by shooting asteroids with a Mining Array to obtain Ore commodities. These Ores can then be sold to nearby NPC bases for a moderate profit, or taken to a Player Owned Base (POB) with an Industrial Refinery module, and transformed into a valuable Refined product.
Setup - Equipment and Factions
To receive dropped commodities from mined asteroids, you must be properly equipped. This means:
- You must have a ship with a Mining Array equipment slot.
- You must have a Mining Array mounted.
- You must have a mining faction's ID.
- You must have a mining faction's IFF.
We will explore these in more detail below.
Mining Ships
Ships that are capable of mining have a specific Mining Array equipment slot. Some ships provide an additional bonus to the amount of goods you receive when mining.
| Name | Class | Tech Type | Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gitano | Light Fighter | Junkers | 1.2 |
| Tournez | Light Fighter | Gallic Civilian | 1.2 |
| Bull Dog | Heavy Fighter | Junkers | 1.2 |
| Courbe | Heavy Fighter | Gallic Civilian | 1.2 |
| Surveyor | Heavy Fighter | Sirius Civilian | 1.2 |
| Collector | Very Heavy Fighter | Junkers | 1.2 |
| CSV | Very Heavy Fighter | Junkers | 1.2 |
| Plier | Very Heavy Fighter | Gallic Civilian | 1.2 |
| Scraper | Very Heavy Fighter | Sirius Civilian | 1.2 |
| Arrastra | Fighter-Bomber | Sirius Civilian | 1.2 |
| Recycler | Fighter-Bomber | Junker | 1.2 |
| Annapurna | Freighter | IMG | 1.2 |
| Aurochs | Freighter | Gallic Civilian | 1.2 |
| Camara | Freighter | Sirius Civilian | 1.2 |
| Celestra | Freighter | Crayter Republic | 1.2 |
| Clydesdale | Freighter | Bretonia Civilian | 1.2 |
| Correo | Freighter | Corsairs | 1.2 |
| Courier | Freighter | Gallic Unlawful | 1.2 |
| CSF | Freighter | Junkers | 1.2 |
| Draugr | Freighter | Edge World | 1.2 |
| Dromedary | Freighter | Border Worlds | 1.2 |
| Drone | Freighter | Kusari Civilian | 1.2 |
| Garanchou | Freighter | GMG | 1.2 |
| Grizzly | Freighter | Liberty Civilian | 1.2 |
| Humpback | Freighter | Rheinland Civilian | 1.2 |
| Kestrel | Freighter | Sirius Civilian | 1.2 |
| Kin | Freighter | Sirius Civilian | 1.2 |
| Leatherback | Freighter | Gaian | 1.2 |
| Mule | Freighter | Black Market | 1.2 |
| Ferry | Freighter | OS&C | 1.2 |
| Rhino | Freighter | Liberty Civilian | 1.2 |
| Sunburst | Freighter | Generic Civilian | 1.2 |
| Tarvos | Freighter | Gallic Unlawful | 1.2 |
| Voyager | Freighter | Sirius Civilian | 1.2 |
| Yari | Freighter | Blood Dragons | 1.2 |
| Armored Transport | Transport | Sirius Civilian | 1.0 |
| Asteroid Miner | Transport | Sirius Civilian | 1.0 |
| Civilian Armored Transport | Transport | Sirius Civilian | 1.0 |
| Civilian Ferry | Transport | Sirius Civilian | 1.0 |
| Gallic Mining Ship | Transport | Gallic Civilian | 1.0 |
| IMG Transport | Transport | IMG | 1.0 |
| Kusari Mining Ship | Transport | Kusari Civilian | 1.0 |
| Kusari Transport | Transport | Kusari Civilian | 1.0 |
| Large Transport | Transport | Sirius Civilian | 1.0 |
| Liberty Transport | Transport | Liberty Civilian | 1.0 |
| Retrofit Explorer | Transport | Sirius Civilian | 1.0 |
| Rheinland Armored Transport | Transport | Rheinland Civilian | 1.0 |
| Rheinland Mining Ship | Transport | Rheinland Civilian | 1.0 |
| Transport | Transport | Sirius Civilian | 1.0 |
| Salvager | Frigate | Junkers | 1.0 |
Mining Factions and IDs
In addition to needing a Mining Array and a ship that can mount one, you must belong to an appropriate faction with mining bonuses. The below table will list which Ores each faction has a bonus on, with the size of the bonus in brackets next to the Ore.
To receive a mining bonus, you must have a matching ID and IFF. You can check what your IFF is by pressing F8 and looking at your repsheet. The faction you have displayed as an IFF will usually have a full green rep bar, and will always flash yellow.
If you have accidentally set the wrong faction as your IFF, you can use the /droprep server command to remove it.
| Name | Type | Ore 1 | Ore 2 | Ore 3 | Ore 4 | Ore 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMM | Bretonian Corporate | Copper Ore (3.0) | Gold Ore (3.0) | Niobium Ore (3.0) | Silver Ore (3.0) | |
| Bristol | Independent Corporate | Copper Ore (3.0) | ||||
| Core | Independent Corporate | Azurite Gas (3.0) | Iridium Ore (3.0) | Xeno Excavations (3.0) | ||
| Corsairs | Independent Unlawful | Gold Ore (3.0) | Xeno Excavations (3.0) | |||
| Daumann | Rheinland Corporate | Aluminium Ore (3.0) | Silver Ore (3.0) | Uncut Diamonds (3.0) | ||
| DSE | Liberty Corporate | Copper Ore (3.0) | Platinum Ore (3.0) | |||
| Freelancers | Independent | Helium (3.0) | ||||
| GMG | Independent Corporate | Helium-3 (3.0) | ||||
| GMS | Gallic Corporate | Molybdenum Ore (3.0) | Niobium Ore (3.0) | |||
| IMG | Independent Corporate | Copper Ore (3.0) | Gold Ore (2.0) | Niobium Ore (3.0) | Silver Ore (3.0) | Uncut Diamonds (2.0) |
| Kishiro | Kusari Corporate | Aluminium Ore (3.0) | Helium-3 (3.0) | Platinum (3.0) | ||
| Kruger | Rheinland Corporate | Aluminium Ore (3.0) | Helium-3 (2.0) | Silver Ore (3.0) | Uncut Diamonds (3.0) | |
| Mollys | Bretonian Unlawful | Gold (3.0) | ||||
| Order | Independent Intelligence | Azurite Gas (3.0) | Iridium Ore (3.0) | Xeno Excavations (3.0) | ||
| Outcasts | Independent Unlawful | Niobium Ore (2.0) | Xeno Excavations (3.0) | |||
| Red Hessians | Rheinland Unlawful | Uncut Diamonds (2.0) | ||||
| Samura | Kusari Corporate | Helium-3 (3.0) | Niobium Ore (3.0) | Platinum Ore (3.0) | ||
| Technocracy | Independent Intelligence | Azurite Gas (3.0) | Xeno Excavations (3.0) | |||
| Xenos | Liberty Unlawful | Copper Ore (3.0) | ||||
| Zoners | Independent | Iridium Ore (3.0) |
Official Factions are player groups who have received their own personalised ID. Official Factions that represent mining factions usually have their own improved Ore bonuses. You can only use these IDs by being a member of that Official Faction.
| Faction Tag | Parent Faction | Ore 1 | Ore 2 | Ore 3 | Ore 4 | Ore 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMF- | BMM | Copper Ore (3.0) | Gold Ore (4.0) | Niobium Ore (2.0) | Silver Ore (4.0) | |
| Core| | Core | Azurite Gas (4.0) | Iridium Ore (3.0) | Xeno Excavations (4.0) | ||
| [TBH] | Corsairs | Gold Ore (3.0) | Xeno Excavations (4.0) | |||
| DTR- | Corsairs | Gold Ore (3.0) | Xeno Excavations (4.0) | |||
| {DHC} | Daumann | Aluminium Ore (4.0) | Silver Ore (3.0) | Uncut Diamonds (4.0) | ||
| GMG| | GMG | Helium-3 (4.0) | ||||
| IMG| | IMG | Copper Ore (3.0) | Gold Ore (3.0) | Niobium Ore (4.0) | Silver Ore (3.0) | Uncut Diamonds (3.0) |
| Kruger| | Kruger | Aluminium Ore (4.0) | Helium-3 (2.0) | Silver Ore (3.0) | Uncut Diamonds (4.0) | |
| RPA| | Mollys | Gold (4.0) | ||||
| Order| | The Order | Azurite Gas (3.0) | Iridium Ore (3.0) | Xeno Excavations (3.0) | ||
| HS> | Outcasts | Niobium Ore (2.0) | Xeno Excavations (4.0) | |||
| Samura|- | Samura | Helium-3 (3.0) | Niobium Ore (3.0) | Platinum Ore (4.0) | ||
| A/) | Technocracy | Azurite Gas (4.0) | Xeno Excavations (4.0) | |||
| XA- | Xenos | Copper Ore (3.0) | ||||
| OSI- | Zoners | Iridium Ore (3.0) | ||||
| (\^/) | Zoners | Iridium Ore (4.0) |
Ores and Mining Zones
To mine Ores you must be in a designated mining zone. For Ores these are small zones inside an asteroid field that are marked with a Mining Buoy and Asteroid Miners. You will receive an on-screen area message that will confirm you are in the right place.
Inside a mining zone, large amounts of small, moving asteroids will spawn. These can be easily spotted compared to normal dynamic asteroids because they have a highly visible 'tail'.
These asteroids contain Ores - to mine them, shoot them with your Mining Array. You can activate or deactivate individual weapons by left clicking on them on the weapons panel (bottom right).