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Mining

Mining is one of the most important aspects of the game. Mining removes terrain and gives you a resource depending on the area that is being mined.

Method

Alert Ore Pickup

Default Key: L-Mouse Button, R-Mouse button, F
Mining in Empyrion can be done through a variety of methods; hand-held tools (the drill and survival tool), hover vessel drill modules, and capital vessel drill turrets. Mining is performed by looking at a part of the terrain and pressing the Left Mouse Button by default. The Right Mouse button is used with certain tools. The Basic Drill can change between terrain mining and rock mining modes, and the T2 Drill changes between a variety of modes. Currently, the Right Mouse Button has no use for Drill Modules and Turrets.

Using the basic Drill results in small chunks of ore dropping after mining a piece of terrain. However, the T2 Drill places mined ore directly into your inventory, and ship-based drills place them into any attached Harvest Boxes.

In previous versions of the game, the Left Mouse Button would drill quickly, using more fuel, and the Right Mouse button would drill slower and using less Drill Charge.

  • Rock Layer on the planet Omicron
    Rock Layer on the planet Omicron
  • Ore chunks on the ground
    Ore chunks on the ground

Reputation Loss

Mining on a Resource deposit inside an other factions territory can cause a reputation loss.

Terrain Flattening

The drill comes equipped with a terrain flattening mode. This mode excavates parts of the terrain much quicker than the default mining mode, but gives no chunks. It is most useful for removing large areas of land that you need to flatten for building bases underground.

Terrain Filling

In older versions of the game, a filler and flattening tool existed to handle flattening and filling, but now this functionality is added to the Drill, which you can use to fill in areas you didn't mean to drill into. This is very handy when trying to fix any structural integrity issues in bases that you build.

Sources

Promethium Meteorite

There are three types of sources of resources which can be mined to get resources.

Resource Meteorites and Resource Deposits drop the respected resource they are made of while mining and rock layer drops Crushed Stone while mining.

Experience

Mining gives experience. Destroying a terrain/deposit/meteorite with tools gives a constant amount of 2xp/drill charge and gives certain amount of XP depending on the type of resource if a resource chunk drops. There are no explicit deposits for sulfur and salt. They are byproducts in other deposits.

Ore Deposit Asteroid
Graphite ✔ ✔
link=Crushed Stone}} Crushed Stone ✔ ✔
link=Iron Ore}} Iron Ore ✔ ✔
link=Copper Ore}} Copper Ore ✔ ✔
link=Cobalt Ore}} Cobalt Ore ✔ ✔
link=Silicon Ore}} Silicon Ore ✔ ✔
link=Magnesium Ore}} Magnesium Ore ✔ ✔
link=Promethium Ore}} Promethium Ore ✔ ✔
Pentaxit Ore ✔ ✔
link=Neodymium Ore}} Neodymium Ore ✔ ✔
link=Titanium Ore}} Titanium Ore ✔ ✔
link=Sathium Ore}} Sathium Ore ✔ ✔
link=Erestrum Ore}} Erestrum Ore ✔ ✔
link=Zascosium Ore}} Zascosium Ore ✔ ✔
link=Aluminum Ore}} Aluminum Ore ✔ ✔
link=Platinum Ore}} Platinum Ore ✔ ✔
link=Gold Ore}} Gold Ore ✔ ✔
Ice Chunk ✔ ✔
Tungsten Ore ✔ ❌
Silver Ore ✔ ❌
Magmacite Ore ✔ ❌
Sulfur ✔ ❌
Salt ✔ ❌

Dense and Rich Asteroids

Special drills are required to mine Dense and Rich asteroids. These can either be purchased from the Colonist Scapyards or crafted from a blueprint that are sold at the UCH Research Vessel. The destructor breaks the ores down into these components:

Dense Ice Neutronium Irtite Protonium Dronite Legacite
link=Water Container}} Water Container Toxic Waste Toxic Waste Toxic Waste Toxic Waste Toxic Waste
Coolant Neutronium Powder Irtite Powder Protonium Powder Dronite Powder Legacite Powder
Deuterium link=Silicon Ingot}} Silicon Ingot link=Silicon Ingot}} Silicon Ingot link=Promethium Pellets}} Promethium Pellets link=Zascosium Ingot}} Zascosium Ingot Platinum Ingot
link=Copper Ingot}} Copper Ingot link=Cobalt Ingot}} Cobalt Ingot Pentaxit Magmacite Ingot link=Copper Ingot}} Copper Ingot
link=Iron Ingot}} Iron Ingot Titanium Ingot link=Erestrum Ingot}} Erestrum Ingot Platinum Ingot Titanium Ingot
link=Magnesium Powder}} Magnesium Powder link=Sathium Ingot}} Sathium Ingot link=Magnesium Powder}} Magnesium Powder link=Iron Ingot}} Iron Ingot
link=Aluminum Powder}} Aluminum Powder Silver Powder Silver Powder Silver Powder
Tungsten Ingot link=Gold Ingot}} Gold Ingot link=Gold Ingot}} Gold Ingot link=Erestrum Ingot}} Erestrum Ingot
link=Sathium Ingot}} Sathium Ingot link=Gold Ingot}} Gold Ingot
link=Silicon Ingot}} Silicon Ingot Tungsten Ingot

Voidium

Voidium is used for the items from the "Research" skill tree. It can only be mined with a special Voidium mining tool which is available in three versions. They all require fragments, which can be farmed in the Progenator area. In addition to the Voidium, the tool also exctracts Xenomaterial and raw diamonds from the Voidium Shards and Crystals.

Note: To get the Voidium from the shards with the Advanced Voidium Extractor, use the right mouse button.

Tool Voidium per Shard Voidium per Crystal
Voidium Extractor 1 ❌
Advanced Voidium Extractor 1 5
Voidium Drill 1 10
Planets with Void Formations:
  • Mire
  • Barren
  • Core