Mining

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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:

  1. You must have a ship with a Mining Array equipment slot.
  2. You must have a Mining Array mounted.
  3. You must have a mining faction's ID.
  4. 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.

Mining Arrays are mounted in a dedicated equipment slot and share a space with Cruise Disruptors.
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

Press F8 to view your repsheet. Your IFF will be flashing yellow at the bottom of the sheet. An IFF is a faction name that is displayed in front of your name, so other players can quickly see who you are affiliated with.

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.

To check for mining zones, click F6 to open your NavMap, and toggle on the Mining Zone filter. Areas containing minable Ores will be highlighted. You can hover over the Mining Buoy icon for a tooltip telling you what Ore is available there.

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).