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 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.
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.
Ores and Mining Zones
To mine Ores you must be in a designated mining zone. These are small zones inside asteroid or gas fields that are marked with a Mining Buoy and Asteroid Miners. When entering a mining zone, you will receive an on-screen area message confirming 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).
| Ore | System | Location | Mining Factions (bonuses) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aluminium Ore | Sigma-15 | 8H | DHC (3.0), Kishiro (3.0), Kruger (3.0), |
| Azurite Gas | Omicron Minor | 4F | Core (3.0), Order (3.0), Technocracy (3.0) |
| Copper Ore | Coronado | 1H | BMM (3.0), Bristol (3.0), DSE (3.0), IMG (2.0), Xenos (3.0) |
| Gold Ore | Dublin | 6F | BMM (3.0), Corsairs (3.0), IMG (2.0), Mollys (3.0) |
| Helium-3 | Sigma-13 | 5G | GMG (3.0), Kishiro (3.0), Kruger (2.0), Samura (3.0) |
| Iridium Ore | Omicron Delta | 2E | Core (3.0), Order (3.0), Zoners (3.0) |
| Molybdenum Ore | Zurich | 4E | DHC (3.0), GMS (3.0) |
| Niobium Ore | Tau-23 | 6D | BMM (3.0), GMS (3.0), IMG (3.0), Outcasts (2.0), Samura (3.0 |
| Platinum Ore | Galileo | 4D | DSE (3.0), Kishiro (3.0), Samura (3.0) |
| Silver Ore | Omega-7 | 2C | BMM (3.0), DHC (3.0), IMG (3.0), Kruger (3.0), |
| Uncut Diamonds | Omega-11 | 6D | DHC (3.0), IMG (3.0), Kruger (3.0), Red Hessians (2.0) |
| Xeno Excavations | Planet Knossos | 5D | Core (3.0), Corsairs (3.0), Order (3.0), Outcasts (3.0), Technocracy (3.0) |