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Mining is one of the most profitable jobs inStar Citizenand includes multiple levels for any player with almost any amount of budget. If you know what and where to mine, you can get rich quite, quite fast, but the mining process itself could sound a bit confusing for newcomers.
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Mining does require its own set of tools, be it a small gun-size mining tool, a ground vehicle, or a ship. In this article, we will only focus on mining Gemstones, which is an affordable way of mining and can be done using either a Multi-Tool or special ground vehicles.
What Are Gemstones
Gemstones are small mineable rocks scattered around planets and moons. Most Star Citizen playershead to Daymar, a moon of Crusader, to mine Gemstones as the moon is a great source of Hadanite, one of the most expensive Gemstones in the game. Our guide is also based on Daymar, but Aberdeen, Cellin, and other moons in Stanton also host mineable Gemstones as well as mining facilities.
Mining With Ground Vehicles
The first thing you need to do is to spawn your ground vehicle. Greycat ROC series are the best ground mining vehicles in Star Citizen. If you already own one, head to a mining facility on Daymar to spawn it. Daymar has two major mining facilities: Shubin Mining Facility and Arc Corp Mining Facility. You can pinpoint both of these locations viaQuantum Travelbefore entering Daymar’s atmosphere.
Once you land next to a mining facility, look fora small building with a blue antenna. Go inside and use the terminals to claim and retrieve your Greycat ROC. The vehicle will spawn on a parking space next to the building. Hop on the Greycat,press “U” and then “I"to engage systems and turn on the engine. Now,press “Tab” to run a scan, which will reveal a number ofblue cubeson the UI, showing the location of mineable resources. You can also spot how far each mineable resource is located from you.
Ground vehicles can only mine Gemstones, but Star Citizen also features another mineable resource called “Ore,” which can be mined only using ships. Now, the mineable resource that you can spot on your UI with a cube sign can be either a Gemstone or an Ore. There is no way to know it before moving close enough to the mineable resource.
Keep in mind that the scanned resources disappear from the screen after several seconds, and you need to run another scan to locate them again. You will know thetype of resourcewhen you getwithin 2,000 metersof it. If you arecloser than 2,000 metersto the target and thecube sign disappearsorturns into a white shuriken sign, this meansthe resource is an ore. However,if you get closer than 2,000 meters and theresource’s sign still remains as a cube, that is Gemstone. This type of resource receives a white shuriken sign when you enter within 1,000 meters of it. When you are less than 500 meters away from theGemstones, the shuriken sign will turn into ablue diamond sign, whileOre’s signturn into ablue rockwithin 1,200 meters of it.
Gemstones are usually a bunch of rocks next to each other. Based on your chance, you may find Hadanite, Dolovin, or Aphorite on Daymar. Now that you are standing next to a Gemstone, it’s time to start mining.
If you own aGreycat ROC,press “M” to turn on Mining Mode, but if you have aGreycat ROC-DS, you should get off the driver’s ship and thenget on the mining seaton the right side of the vehicle. Now interact with the buttons on top of the mining screento turn on Mining Mode.
Once the Mining Mode is one, you will have a new mining crosshair beneath your original crosshair. Target the Gemstones with that crosshair and allow the car to run a scan on it. After a few seconds, you will spot the details of the Gemstone on your screen.
Theleft baron the mining screen shows theMining Power, which is simply the amount of energy you apply to a rock to break it. On theright side, you haveCharge Level, with two colorful zones. Your main task in mining is toadjust the Mining Powercontinuously tokeep the Charge Level inside the green zoneto fully fill in the green box next to it. If you apply more power than required, the Charge Level will raise to the Red zone.Press Right-Mouse-Button to start applying energyand useAlt+Mouse Wheel to adjust Mining Power.
Perfect mininghappens whenthe green box fully fillsand thered box remains empty. If you fully fill both red and green boxes, you will destroy all the mineable Gemstones, which is a waste of time and resources. You might need to continuously raise or reduce the Mining Power to keep Charge Level inside the Optimal Zone. If you unintentionally go into Overcharge Zone, lower the Power, but if the situation is more critical, turn off the energy. Wait a few seconds until the rock gets colder, and then continue the mining process again.
Based on arock’s Instability, thegreen zone could be smaller or bigger.
Also, theResistanceof a rock determines theminimum Power needed to trigger the Charge Level. For smaller Resistance, you’re able to trigger the Charge Level with 5% of Power, but harder rocks may require up to 40% of Power to start getting hot.
Once you break the rock, theGemstones will scatter around. If you do a perfect mining, the Gemstones will scatter in the same areas as the rock was located, but if you had overcharged the rock, the Gemstones will scatter farther, which will require you to move the vehicle to collect them.
In order tocollect the Gemstones, you need toswitch to Extraction Modeby pressing theRight-Mouse-Button. Now, pressLeft-Mouse-Button to start extracting, and point the crosshair on Gemstones. Sometimes, it might take several seconds - or even a minute - for the car to start collecting the Gemstones due to server lag.
The Gemstones are stored inside the vehicle’s inventory. You can access the inventory on the vehicle’s back. You can add other items to the vehicle’s storage as well, like nutrition, but this is only possible in ROC-DS which has a much bigger storage space.
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Mining With Multi-Tool
Greycat Pyro Multi-Tool is a pistol-size tool that can be used for multiple purposes, including mining Gemstones. You canpurchase a Multi-ToolfromRefinerystores,Cargo Centerstores, and someweapon stores. In addition to Multi-Tool itself, you need topurchase its Mining Attachment, painted in yellow and red. Once you have both,press “I” to open your inventory. Pick Multi-Tool and put it onto a blue slot next to your foot. Thendrag the Mining Attachmentanddrop it on a slot on Multi-Tool.
Once you equip Multi-Tool, you should be able to see a yellow screen on it, which belongs to mining. You can equip the Multi-Tool by pressing one of the numerical buttons on top of the keyboard - it’s usually 2, 3, or 4.
Now, you are good to go. Hop on a ship and enter Daymar’s atmosphere. Scan for resources and find Gemstones. Then you may hop off the ship and start mining.Equip the Multi-Toolandenable Aim-Down-Sight (ADS). Point the gun at a Gemstone rock and wait until it runs a scan on the rock. On theleft sideof the gun, you can see the sameOptimal (green) and Overcharge (red) zones. TheMining Powerindicator is also on thegun’s original screen. Turn on the energy byLeft-Mouse-Buttonand adjust the power to trigger the Charge Level. Keep in mind thatMulti-Tool has a battery lifeshowcased next to the Mining Power.
Once you break the rock, you need tocollect the Gemstones personallyas the Multi-Tool doesn’t have an Extraction Mode. You are advised to bring a backpack with your self to store the Gemstones inside it without wasting so much time.
How To Sell Gemstones
Now that you have mined Gemstones, it’s time to sell them. You cansell Gemstones via any Commodity Shopterminal in the universe, but all mining facilities feature a similar terminal, so you don’t need to travel a long distance. Look fora small building with a red antennain the mining facility, quite similar to the same one that you used to get your Ground Vehicle. Inside, you can find a terminal.Click on “Sell”, and thenpick your inventory. Your Greycat ROC should be in the mining facility’s range to be included among the options, though you can simply transfer all Gemstones from the vehicle’s inventory to the facility’s storage as well.
Now, you can sell all types of Gemstones you have mined. You will receive the money right away.
