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