Mining in Odyssey, part 1: Miner evolution

• see also: Mining in Odyssey, Table of contents

Miner evolution

Education of any profession in Eve begins with a study of relevant skills. The first skill that we need - Mining. The first level of this skill is given when creating a character, so no need to buy the book. Put the right to learn it to the fourth level (strictly speaking, to the fourth level of learning is not necessarily immediately, but at 3 this skill is learning very quickly, you do not have time to get the books to other skills), and begin to make isks for the further progress of the character.

After that, if you have just created the character, then the best option for further action will be passing the training course for the extraction and production. During this course you will be able to get some initial capital. Course consists of about a dozen missions, however, the actual mining devoted only a portion of them. and generally you only need the first two: the first gives a mining laser Miner I, and the second - a book with skill Mining Frigate and frigate Venture. I advise you to immediately learn the skill Mining Frigate at least to the second (the best is to third) level (with partially studied Mining nothing happens, it automatically will study later). Strictly speaking, it is possible to stop Tutorials, and plunge into the extraction of minerals - nothing particularly valuable you do not get it.

Further evolution  of the miner is     studying the appropriate skills. In addition to the mining skills is to learn at least up to the third level of the so-called "support service-skills" to facilitate the fitting of ship: a mining equipment is very demanding on the resources of the ship, and without studing these skills, for example, the installation of two Miner II and Mining Laser Upgrade will eat all possible resources at Venture, and it will be impossible to put the defense.

At a certain point further development becomes practically impossible due to the limitations of trial account - many of the skills are not available on it

In principle - you can get an invitation to the miner's corporation in the zeros, and still dig for PLEX on trial (Without skills on Venture you can get  1.5-2KK per hour solo, then, with skills, turn into a 4-5KK per hour, in the null-sec - about half as much, if you find a perfect bonuses - that has twice as much, that is - really go for 10kk per hour on trial Venture), but if you have brains in your head solved the problem of trial payment is much simpler than vigorous pressing of minerals for almost a hundred hours. Spend a few days of pure time to save very little money…

The next major milestone in the career of a miner is learning the skill Mining Barge. It allows you to manage specialized ships , whose effectiveness in comparison with others, above the fold in two. To study this skill will have to first study the skill Astrogeology, but considering that this skill adds 5% to the extraction of ore per skill level - it's still worth downloading.

Very quickly you will have to think over the question - how to ensure your ships a sufficient level of security? You're safe when you dig veldspar on Venture in the system with SS 1.0. But the barge is already significantly more expensive Venture and you want to mine something better than veldspar.

Whatever one may say, it is better to start with the fighting and support skills (drones, shields, armor, rigs). In particular, I would like to pay your attention to the drones. In fact, the only weapons that you can equip mining barge.

Further evolution  of the miners - the study skills Exhumers, to fly on T2-versions of the mining barges. It's already hard enough skill with a bunch of prerequisites.

Exhumers even more expensive, and fly it to the belt-up that you have learned the necessary skills related to the shields, armor, rigam, drones ... a kind of suicide. These skills are not specified in the prerequisites, but you have your head to think.

After studying the Exhumers in 5 and ore processing in the 4 (for T2 versions mining crystalls), the evolution of the solo miner actually ends. Further evolution is possible in either direction collective mining (bonuses, leadership, etc.), or to the side of production. There is still a couple of additional, very specific directions. It’s harvesting of ice, gases and  fullerenes.

Skills planning

I strongly recommend to go completely the initial tutorial missions and learn at least to 3 levels all the skills you need in them. As has already been said - shields, armor, rigs, drones, electronics, energy system. It will take 1-2 days

Then:

• Science 3
• Cybernetics 2

Now you can must use implants

• Mining 3
• Mining Frigate 1-3
• Mining 4
• Science 4
• Astrogeology 1-3
• Mining Upgrade 1-3
• Industry 1-5
• Mining Barge 1-4
• Astrogeology, Mining Upgrades, Engineering, Electronics, Energy Management 4
• Spaceship Command 4
• Astrogeology, Mining Barge, Mining 5
• Exhumers 1-4

It remains to decide - whether you need it?

In general, mining is good for everybody if you have the opportunity to engage them in half afk. Just look down every 15-20 minutes and sometimes get distracted for a few minutes to take the ore to the station. 8 hours per day, five days per week, about 10KK per hour ... 1.5B/mo if you do not lose your job. Worth It? - You decide.

If you want to not just make isks (on the PLEX / ships, etc.) but role playing, you should pay close attention to the corporation ORE, gas havesting and wormholes.

One more thing – in EVE, you will be very hard without multi account. On the second account you will train perfect scout, tackler, logist (and after then - anyone else). It will be useful if you are not going to sit only in the Empire.