View source for Mining the Career Agent Missions

[[Category:Guides]][[Category:Tutorials]][[Category:Missions]]

'''Starting out a Trial Account Miner'''

I'm assuming for this part of the article that you have only a trial account.  That will mean no [[Industrial|Industrial]] ships which are designed for hauling large quantities of cargo.  If you are starting a paid for account with no other characters setting you up with a nest egg, most of this will apply.  The main difference is you'll want to get an [[Industrial|Industrial]] into play as soon as possible.

This walk-through is based on a [[Gallente|Gallente]] start.  For other [[Races|races]], the series of missions I take though the Advanced Military missions to get to Weapons of Choice for the [[Gallente|Gallente]] drones isn't necessary, but it will give you more punch for your combat on everything else you do in the Career [[Agent|Agent]] missions.

'''Attribute Remap'''

Since this [[Capsuleer|capsuleer]] will be focusing mainly on mining and later other [[Industrial|industrial]] skills, an attribute remap to speed up training time for those skills will be helpful.

Start by remapping your default [[Attributes|attributes]] to:
:Intelligence – 27
:Perception – 17
:Charisma – 18
:Willpower - 17
:Memory – 20

This will give your character the fastest training time in the [[Industry|industry]] skills or what we are most interested in, Mining.

Starting Skills that pertain to flying the [[Navitas]]:
:[[Gallente Frigate]] II – when in the [[Navitas|Navitas]], 20% bonus to mining turret yield per skill level.
:[[Mining]] II – 5% bonus to mining turret yield per skill level.

Find the Career [[Agent|Agent]] that teaches [[Exploration|Exploration]].  Accept and complete the first mission.  This will give you a nice sum of money to make some purchases needed for mining

Skills needed:
:[[Hull Upgrades]] 54,000 ISK
:[[Energy Grid Upgrades]] 71,100 ISK

For [[Amarr|Amarr]] and [[Caldari|Caldari]] starts purchase [[Drones]] (17.800 isk) and [[Scout Drone Operation]] (36,000 isk) also.  Then you'll need to buy a drone.  [[Hobgoblin I]] is favored as the best drone to use.  [[Gallente|Gallente]] pilots may want to get Scout Drone Operation also and upgrade drones used.

Make sure you buy the skill books from one of the [[Npc|NPC]] sellers (expires in 354D plus) rather than an overpriced book from a player trying to make some money off of his mistake.  On the other hand, some players will sell lower than the NPCs just to get something back.

Having skills with drones allows you to put a drone in the [[Drone_bay|drone bay]] of the [[Navitas|Navitas]] for self-defense.  This holds true for the [[Caldari|Caldari]] [[Bantam]] and [[Amarr|Amarr]] [[Tormentor]], also.  [[Minmatar|Minmatar]] [[Burst]] cannot equip drones.  One [[Hobgoblin_I|Hobgoblin I]] will easily handle the asteroid pirates you will run into during the most Career [[Agent|Agent]] missions.  

Hull Upgrades will allow you to fit your ship with [[Expanded Cargohold I]]'s.  The mining frigate has the highest cargo capacity of all the [[Frigates|frigates]], so until you get a destroyer, it will be your [[Hauler|hauler]].  It would be worth training Hull Upgrades up to level II to get the [[Expanded Cargohold II]]  which will increase carrying capacity from +17.5% per extension to +27.5% per extension.  It does come at a price though with each Expanded Cargohold II costing in excess of 500,000 ISKs.  A [[Navitas|Navitas]] without the modules will carry 236 m3, including the 5% bonus per frigate level.  With the [[Expanded_cargohold_i|Expanded Cargohold I]], 326 m3.  With Expanded Cargohold II, 384 m3.  If you plan on staying in the frigate, you could add up to three [[Small Cargohold Optimization I]] rigs, adding 15% each to the cargo capacity.

The [[Energy Grid Upgrades]] skill is needed for a [[Cap Recharger I]].  This [[Module|module]] will allow you to recharge the capacitor faster allowing you to run everything without running out of energy.  You can do without this initially, but in the long run, you will  need this skill and [[Cap_Recharger_I|Cap Recharger I]]'s on all your [[Frigates|frigates]] if you play [[Gallente|Gallente]].
 
Equipment needed:

	Before you buy any of these items, show info on them, then click the Variations tab.  Show [[Market|market]] information on each variation to see if a [[Meta|meta]] variation is at a price you can afford.  I managed to find 2 [[EP-S Gaussian I Excavation Pulse]] [[Lasers|lasers]] (the [[Meta|meta]] 1 variant) for 5,500 isk each, while the [[Miner I]] was priced at 8,500 isk.

1 [[Miner_I|Miner I]], around 8,500 ISKs
1  [[Hobgoblin_I|Hobgoblin I]], around 3,000 ISK assuming you trained up Scout Drone Operations.  [[Gallente|Gallente]] capsullers will receive 2 [[Civilian Hobgoblin I]]'s during one of the missions I'll lead you to.
2 [[Expanded_cargohold_i|Expanded Cargohold I]], around 3,000 ISKs each
1 Cap Recharger, around 27,500 ISKs

Skills optional (if you have space to train after the needed skills are placed on the training docket):
	[[Gallente|Gallente]] Frigate to level IV
	Mining to level IV

I should have been given [[Repair Systems]] in the initial missions given by [[Aura|Aura]], but was not so I had to buy it to be able to repair my ship.  I arrived at Clellinon with 7,000 isk, was given 2,000 isk for bounties from the [[Aura|Aura]] missions, then with that first [[Exploration|Exploration]] mission received 87,000 isk.  With 96,000 isk in my pocket I made my initial purchases:  Repair Systems, Hull Upgrades, 2 [[Expanded_cargohold_i|Expanded Cargohold I]] and 2 EP-S Gaussian I Excavation Pulse [[Lasers|lasers]], leaving me with 825 isk in my wallet.

Of course you'll have other skills you need to train for the various missions.  Go ahead and place those at the top of the training queue.  They'll only take a few minutes.

Take the first Military mission, Cash for Capsuleers (1 of 10).  You are still in a [[Velator]] with one [[Blaster|blaster]] and [[Small Armor Repairer I]].  This mission will give you a railgun and more importantly more ammo.  After killing off the required [[Rats|rats]], return to station and mount a mining laser and swap the repairer for an expanded cargo hold.  The [[Velator|Velator]] can't mount both mining [[Lasers|lasers]], so take along your [[Blaster|blaster]] for self defense.  You'll have between 4.5 and 4.75 hours before you have to complete the mission for the bonus ammo.  Head back to the mission area and start mining.  Set the timer on your jet can for 1.5 hours.  Since you need to haul the ore in the rookie ship with a cargo capaciy of 141 m3 with the cargo [[Module|module]], you won't mine a lot because of the time it will take to haul it all.  By the way, my mining pulses have a base extraction rate of 42 m3 per minute.  With Mining II, the actual rate was 46.2 m3.  Those little increases will add up the longer you mine.

Mining rates for [[Meta|meta]] upgrades:

:[[Tech_1|Tech 1]]  [[Miner I]]                                        40 m3

:[[Meta|meta]] 1  [[EP-S Gaussian I Excation Pulse]]     42 m3

:[[Meta|meta]] 2  [[Dual Diode Mining Laser I]]            44 m3

:[[Meta|meta]] 3  [[XECL Drilling Beam I]]                   47 m3

:[[Meta|meta]] 4  [[CU Vapor Particle Bore Stream I]]  49 M3

:[[Tech_2|Tech 2]]  [[Miner II]]                                      60 m3

There's also a racial miner and ORE miner, but they don't give anything more than the T1 and [[T2|T2]] respectively.

So, after 30 minutes mining, I decided to haul the ore into the station.  Total [[Veldspar|veldspar]] mined was 16,146 which took 12 trips to haul over 35 minutes.  I elected to sell it outright at 9.27 isk a unit and made 149,499 isk for 1 hour of work.  If I had more to sell, I would have placed a sell order at 10 isk per unit.  Actually if you can get 9 isk a unit on an immediate sell to one of the buy orders at the station, sell it outright.  As it is, there were a couple of sellers selling low volumes at less then 10 isk.  Sell the ore rather than refining it and selling the [[Minerals|minerals]].  If you try to refine it, you'll have a lot of waste initially (27.5% waste).  You'll also have high taxes at first.  In missions where you need the [[Mineral|mineral]] to complete it or build something, refine just what is needed.  For all the ores except one, 333 units are needed for a refining operation.  Kermite requires 400 units for refining.
	
Run the mission [[The_Swap|The Swap]] given by the Advanced Military Career [[Agent|Agent]].  After completing requirements the mission, you'll have around two hours before you have to officially complete the mission.  Time to mine another 30 to 60 minutes and move everything to the station.  Since I completed Mining III before doing this mission, my mining laser is now picking up 48.3 m3 a minute.  I used another character for hauling.  By chance he also has Mining Foreman III so I set him to be squad leader and squad booster for the last round of mining.  Doing this, my mining inscreased to 51 m3.  Total haul for the trip was 28,486 units sold at 9.27 each for a total of 261,424.57 isk after transaction tax.

Take the next Advanced Military mission, [[Angel_of_Mercy|Angel of Mercy]].  Don't forget to buy [[Insurance|insurance]] for the ship you are given, don't put anything on it, and make sure you fly it to completion.

I decided, rather than continuing the Advance Military line right now, I would to get a frigate with some lasting power.  I've already got two mining [[Lasers|lasers]] and two expanded cargohold modules, so I went back to the [[Exploration|Exploration]] Career [[Agent|Agent]] to get the next mission, which provides a [[Navitas|Navitas]] upon excepting the mission.  Fitted to mine, I proceeded.  I filled up the cargo hold with [[Veldspar|veldspar]] once I got to the room with it, but with the two accelerators to move through and the second one you have to slowboat to, decided not to spend any more time there.  There's more mining to come.  Take note, mining amount is now increased due to frigate level.  I mine 67.62 m3 per laser each minute.  Make that there's more serious mining to come.

Back to the Advanced Military [[Agent|agent]].

Accept and complete [[A_Friend_in_Need|A Friend in Need]].
Before accepting the next mission, [[The_Stand|The Stand]], right click your active ship and Leave Ship.  This will put you in a [[Capsule|capsule]].  Head to the closest solar system that has at least two stations. Dock at each in your [[Capsule|capsule]], you'll have a new rookie ship waiting for you.  At the second station, get in the ship and fly back to the first station.  Transfer the civilian weapon to one ship and get into it.  Equip both civilian weapons and trash the mining laser and rookie ship you are not in.  Then fly your civilian equipped rookie ship back to the Advanced Military [[Agent|agent]] and accept [[The_Stand|The Stand]].  Tranfer the civilian weapons to the [[Atron|Atron]] you are given and equp a civilian shield booster if you have one.

Accept and complete [[Don't_Look_Back|Don't Look Back]].

Finally we get to the real reason we are doing the Advanced Military missions first, [[Weapon of Choice]].  Hopefully you started training Drones when it was awarded to you, but if not it only takes nine minutes.  Get that trained up before accepting the mission.  In fact, train it to Drones II which will allow you to control two drones.

Fly the [[Velator|Velator]] for this mission because it will allow you to deploy two drones.  If you have the [[Imicus|Imicus]], you can deploy three drones after training Drones III.  While waiting for training, run as many [[Exploration|Exploration]] missions as you can.

Once you have Drones II, accept the Weapons of Choice mission.  Don't forget to put your drones in the [[Drone_bay|drone bay]].  Complete it.

At this point I have a [[Navitas|Navitas]] equipped with 2 [[Meta|meta]] 1 mining [[Lasers|lasers]], 2 expanded cargoholds,   My [[Velator|Velator]] is equipped with 2 [[Meta|meta]] 2 railguns, a cap recharger, and a [[Meta|meta]] 2 armor repairer.  I've also got 2 civilian Hobgoblins to transfer between ships as needed, 1 on the [[Navitas|Navitas]] or 2 on the [[Velator|Velator]].  Between the mining and missioning, I've accumulated 1.2 million isks.  I might be 20% done with the missions.  I've trained to Mining III and have Mining IV and [[Gallente|Gallente]] Frigate III in the training queue.  Once I have Mining IV, I'll be picking up two [[Miner_II|Miner II]] modules for a huge increase of mining amount per laser.  I'll continue training to [[Gallente|Gallente]] Frigate IV, then train to [[Gallente|Gallente]] Cruise II once I can afford a [[Vexor|Vexor]] and mining drones.  Time since character creation, 12 hours with sleep and family time interspersed in there.

You are all set to mine during the missions now.  Complete the Exploration line to get the [[Imicus]] with it's base 320m3 cargo hold.  Until you get a destroyer, it's the biggest hold you'll have.  Most of the mining opportunities you have will be for [[Veldspar|veldspar]].  There are three missions where you can get other [[Asteroids|asteroids]]:

Military - Cash Flow for Capsuleers - Mission 6 of 10.

:[[Plagioclase|Plagioclase]] refines to make [[Tritanium|Tritanium]]. [[Pyerite|Pyerite]], [[Isogen|Isogen]]
:[[Pyroxeres|Pyroxeres]] refines to make [[Tritanium|Tritanium]], [[Pyerite|Pyerite]], [[Mexallon|Mexallon]], [[Nocxium|Nocxium]]
:[[Veldspar|Veldspar]] refines to make [[Tritanium|Tritanium]]

Advanced Military - [[Glue|Glue]].

:[[Scordite|Scordite]] refines to make [[Tritanium|Tritanium]]. [[Pyerite|Pyerite]]
:[[Veldspar|Veldspar]] refines to make [[Tritanium|Tritanium]]

[[Industry|Industry]] - Making Mountains of Molehills (9 of 10).

:Kermite refines to make [[Tritanium|Tritanium]], [[Mexallon|Mexallon]], [[Isogen|Isogen]]

Of these, [[Pyroxeres|Pyroxeres]] is the most important.  Mine as much of it as you can.  [[Nocxium|Nocxium]] will be needed in some of the [[Manufacturing|manufacturing]] you need to do, and it's normally only available in low-sec systems.  It's available on the [[Market|market]], but I've seen prices range from 500 isk to 900 isk for 1 unit.