Deep Space Mining, Part 1

Beginning to Mine in Deep Space

by CmdrBond

You’re planning to enter Deep Space; or, you’ve finally made it to Deep Space, and you are ready to begin mining Grade 4 resources. Where do you go? And, how do you get there?

The first two mining locations that you will be able to reach are Nikola and Sotavi. (See Figure 1 & Figure 2). Both of these systems require a warp range of 61. In Nikola you will find Grade 4 Ore and Crystal. (See Figure 1). In Sotavi you will find Grade 4 Ore and Gas. (See Figure 2). Ideally, you should plan ahead before you enter Deep Space so that you can reach warp 61+ with either a mining ship or your Discovery with summoning capability (so that you can summon your mining ship).

Figure 1: Nikola

Figure 2: Sotavi

Obviously, having your mining ship capable of warp 61+ is preferable so that you are not using up your Mycelium. But this means you will need a maxed ECS Horizon with Warp research or one of the faction miners (USS Antares, K’Vort, or Valkis) nearly maxed with Warp research. Also, don’t forget that you can use Cadet Scotty to increase the warp range of your miner. With that in mind, there may be scenarios where using the Discovery is the better option or the only option for you. For example, since the Discovery research comes before the Warp Range research you will most likely be using your Discovery at first to reach these mining spots.

Whether you need the Discovery Research or the Warp Range research they can be found in the Galaxy Research Tree (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Galaxy Research Tree

With the Discovery option, you will want to research three things in the Galaxy Research Tree: USS Discovery Summoning, USS Discovery Warp Range, and Cultivated Mycelium Jump Efficiency. (See Figure 4)

Figure 4: USS Discovery Research

Also, since your Discovery is an Explorer, you can use TOS Scotty in the Captain seat to increase your warp range. You can also place one or two of the other TOS officers on the bridge with TOS Scotty to achieve synergy which will increase the warp range a little further.

If you want to do the Warp research, which is called “Enhanced Warp Cores,” you can find it in the Galaxy research tree farther to the right than the Discovery research (See Figure 5).

Figure 5: Enhanced Warp Cores

Once you are able to reach Nikola and Sotavi you should note that the mining nodes in these systems behave similar to the mining nodes in the Willenia and Niawillen systems. This means that when you reset the node it might change to the opposite mineral in that respective system. Lastly, each of these systems have 18 mining nodes that max out at 100,000.