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How mining works

By MrPengujn · Updated 11 Oct 2026

Mass, resistance and instability, what lasers, modules and gadgets do, and planning a rock with the calculator and live sessions.

Ship mining is a balancing act: put enough energy into a rock to break it, but not so much that it blows up. This guide covers what the scanner tells you and what your laser and its add-ons change. It also shows how the rock calculator tells you, before you fire, whether your ship can break a rock, or your group’s ships together.

Reading a rock

Scan a rock and three numbers decide how hard it is to break:

Type these into the calculator as the rock is, before anything changes them. Gadgets on the rock and modules on your laser change what the scanner shows. Read the rock with nothing attached, or with your laser in extraction mode.

Breaking it

Your laser pours energy into the rock. The charge bar has a green band, the optimal charge window. Hold the energy in the green until the rock fractures. Too little energy and nothing happens. Push past the green into overcharge and the rock can blow up, hurting anyone close.

Three things decide how that goes: whether your lasers together have the power the rock needs, how wide the green is (the charge window), and how fast the energy climbs (the charge rate).

Lasers, modules and gadgets

• Laser heads set the power and the range. Full power reaches to the head’s optimal range, then falls away to nothing at its maximum range, so stay close. A crafted head can be a little stronger or weaker than one from a shop.

• Modules fit into the head. Passive ones are always on. Active ones are switched on for a short while, and have a few uses. Each trades power against resistance, instability and the size of the window.

• Gadgets go on the rock itself, and change its resistance, its instability or its window. The game intends one gadget per rock, so plan with one.

The calculator covers ship mining with the Prospector, the MOLE (three turrets, each manned or not) and the Golem. Hand mining and the ROC are not in it.

Using the calculator

1. Pick your ship, its laser heads and its modules. Up to four ships can work one rock. Each extra ship adds power, but also makes the rock harder to hold steady.

2. Type the rock’s mass, resistance and instability, and, if you know it, how far each laser is from the rock.

3. Read the verdict: Easy, Moderate, Tight or Can’t break, with how much power you have to spare, or are short.

4. Under Set your lasers to, each laser gets a power setting. One laser is the lead: the others fire at full, and you steer the energy with the lead.

The charge bar under the verdict shows where the energy will sit. In the green is what you want. If even the lead at its lowest pushes past the green, switch a laser off to keep control.

Let it choose

Propose the best loadout tries the modules and gadgets, and the heads too if you allow it. It shows the five best loadouts that break the rock with the energy held in the green. Sort them by control (how much of the lead’s slider stays in the green), spare power, instability, window or fewest items, and press Apply on the one you like.

Saving and sharing

• Once you are signed in, Save setup on a ship keeps its heads, their quality and their modules under My setups, ready to load next time.

• Start a live session and share the link with your crew; you need to be signed in to start one. Anyone with the link can join, signed in or with a nickname, and everyone sees each change at once. It helps on a MOLE, with each gunner at their own turret. The session ends when you end it, or 12 hours after the last change, and Take it into my calculator keeps a copy.

After the break

Once the rock fractures, draw the pieces that are small enough into your ship’s hold, and take the ore to a refinery. Then sell what comes out, or bring it to the Exchange, where OFFTC buys at a posted price.

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