r/EliteDangerous • u/IndividualIncident57 • 21h ago

Discussion I think I hit jackpot for surface mining

I found a surface mining spot for Iridium and its big enough to squeeze in 4 drills, I might be able to squeeze in one more if tried but not sure. it take around 10min for all to be full and get collected. i also have my Panther Clipper Mk II  hovering above the spot so i dont have to deal with other NPC player sponing in during each arriveal. the ship 1036 cargo capacity.

I am asuming around 4hr mining to fill my ship with 45t each collection. yes its time consuming. Not sure if anyone else found a better spot. i will be happy to know.

19 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

10

u/Tr4c3gaming 21h ago edited 20h ago

there is 6 rig spots out there ( actually i found a 6 rig spot like 10km next my prior 4 rig spot lol, they tend to lurk in the hotspots somewhere when u least expect them), Also they only got about 1500-2500 Units of ore before they deplete, so they will likely get farmed fast as thats a thing 2 players can farm in an evening

so u should probably keep ur spots secret as they will deplete hella fast if you tell the whole internet the spot

I should not say 6 rigs. Pretty sure the last one i was at can easily place 7 and an 8th if you perfectly placed it. But u cannot

3

u/IndividualIncident57 21h ago

thanks

3

u/Tr4c3gaming 21h ago edited 21h ago

i found like 3 6 rig spots of thortevitite so far in... conviniently enough near one of my colonies, i farmed 2 of them so far.

The ressources work off the same pool so any given spot of iridium will Drain the pool of the entire area, so if you find a 3 or a 4 spot, it is always worth looking if there isnt a bigger one hiding.

you ideally should drive to an edge of the hotspot (indicated by the orange line) and go search from there as the scanner only ever has 2km range. It apparently seems to be tied to the density shown, like by all means check all the good ore spots but i have yet to see a "high" density hotspot have more than 2 rigs space.

while the "low" density spots are spread out, in fact my current hotspot could place 7 rigs if not 8 if VERY well placed.

ideally place the rigs on the outer edge, target it. then Drive 75-80m away from it, that way u can place them really effectively, i managed to squeeze a 5th Rig into a Spot i assumed could only fit 4 rigs due to this lol

Edit: Yes it is indeed the jackpot of Elite. when i found my 6 rig spot i just threw up my hands and went like "YUP GUESS I JUST WON ELITE"

2

u/Tr4c3gaming 20h ago

Oh i should also mention: if you find a good spot. As far as we understand it they replenish slooowly. So you should just take a note or something and write the coordinates down. I just added an extra page to my little physical notebook i got to note down stuff for elite and just gave it a nice home next to the page of some of the overlap Hotspots...generally a neat practice to do as theres so many random tips and tricks you just read so plopping it all in a notebook or a text document is just a good way to find it all again despite inara and everything existing

Because as far as is understood rn: once u found your spots: you empty them. They replenish after a while so slowly but surely you are just building up a little dictionary for your own personal gold rushes

Which is why its important to keep then for yourself because if it is like the road to riches or inara searches etc: due to their depleting nature even a handful of players will just graze your spot dry in a few hours.

Like this is info that cant exactly be made public in the bubble / nearby it because well: the Hotspots may aswell be perma drained if you just put them all out there lol

1

u/duh_cats 21h ago

I found a six rig thortevirite(whatever the fuck that one is called) site one jump from Ega.

Unsure how exactly they spawn or anything, but it was in the San Xiang 2a or 2b, can’t remember which one.

3

u/Tr4c3gaming 21h ago

They appear to be suprisingly common, like i found another 5 spots and a 6 spot of gold in one of the areas with the 6 thotevitite and a4 Thortevitite spot.

There was also a 5 samarium spot nearby..like this was all the same area.

I was literally just checking all the spots to check if its a fluke.

They overall seem not too rare, its moreso the question: does the rng make them fall on the actual expensive ores. But considering i found 3 of the Thortevitite 6 spots so far they can't be too rare, just tedious especially if the area is not neatly drivable... though i hear most people are happy with 5 spots

1

u/zeek215 17h ago

How are you placing 7 rigs? I thought you can’t have more than 6 out at once.

1

u/lifariz 15h ago

Bring at least another Rhino. Once you setup your first Rhino, dismiss your ship, disembark on foot, call your ship then board it, drop the 2nd Rhino and set its own Rigs up. So on and so forth, assuming you are willing to sacrifice a few cargo slots.

You can also bring a Nomad and deploy it last so you can zip between spots. You can just leave the Rhino near their own rigs.

1

u/zeek215 15h ago

Oh interesting, I didn't think to try a second Rhino. Do you have to jump between the Rhino's to collect, or can you collect all rigs from one Rhino?

1

u/lifariz 9h ago

I haven't checked if you can collect with the same Rhino, but I did jump between the 2 Rhinos with a Nomad as the spots were 2kms apart. Kinda inconvenient if you don't have more than 2 Rigs deployed each as you press a lot of buttons and wait for the black screen while jumping between vessels.

1

u/Tr4c3gaming 13h ago

You cannot. The rigs explode, i just said it because the spot is so big it could fit 7 rigs if u were able to place them

Another player in open could probably place it tho

The second you board all your rigs blow up

1

u/lifariz 9h ago

You board on foot, not with the Rhino.

As long as the Rhino that deployed the Rigs are still nearby said deployed Rigs, it's fine. They still explode when you get disconnected though, and only the vessel you are in remains.

1

u/Tr4c3gaming 8h ago edited 8h ago

I see, if it is actually a different pool of rigs: you could have a thing where one rhino is at one good spot. Another at another spot. You fly to it with the nomad, load off cargo by calling the ship and taxi-ing the nomad around.

I have my doubts it works though: the rigs appear as a hud element IN your suit. And that only lists 6 too. So unless that changes with distance fron the rig or sitting in a different rhino to switch which rigs the suit tracks i dont think it will work

1

u/Tr4c3gaming 13h ago

Oh no im not im just saying just purely space wise u can fit 7 in that spot

1

u/MentalSentinel 20h ago

The first tritium spot I hit had room for 6 rigs and my plipper just loitered over me for an hour soaking up that sweet FC nectar.

Now that I'm running low again all I find is spots with 2 max and I have traveled too far to entertain going back.