This guide is for players who already know the basics of the game. If you didn't go through all the tutorials - Do it now. It may seem very long and sometimes a bit boring, but trust me, it's worth your time. You should also be familiar with mining itself and know how to jump directly into a station. Especially the jumping is a life-, time- and fuel-saver.

As far as the equipment goes, you should absolutely have:

• A tractor/mining beam
  
• A deploy constructor
  
• The best jumpdrive you can find - C5 is widely available and there is a somewhat more rare jumpdrive that gets you up to 10 sectors away in one jump
  
• A target scanner (don't worry about it - It's somewhat rare and you should just pick it up when you find it. This thing is very nice to have, but not crucial)

That's for the equipment itself. The next thing to consider is your ship. Choose a frame you like and can afford, but don't go for the ultra-heavys just yet. Navigating in an asteroid field is easier with a smaller, more agile frame - But in the end it's your choice. As a recommendation - I'm using an eagle frame at the moment and I'm thinking about swapping to the sabre. The only restriction, your ship should have 10 cargo bays. Again, this is not crucial, but the more the better.

Before I continue: I'm only going to speak about the mining of asteroids. You can mine planets and other stuff, but this isn't my business. Take this into consideration while reading this.

So - You got your frame, you have the equipment and you want to make some cash. Now it's important to know, how you can take those ressources out of their cage aka asteroid. Basically, there are three ways:

• You mine those asteroids
  
• You let those asteroids getting mined by a machine
  
• You let those asteroids getting mined by somebody else

We'll cover all of these methods and start with the first and most commonly known: Doing the dirty work all by yourself.


The basics are more or less simple. To mine an asteroid, approach one until you're about 100-150 away from it. At that point, come to a halt and turn off IDS. If you're activating the mining beam (default b), you should see some sparks flying off the asteroid. Important: You need to keep the beam activated. There's also a keybind for that - Default alt+b. If you're still not seeing those sparks coming out, you're too far away.

My normal mining distance is exactly 100. At this point, you're not colliding with the boulder and your beam reaches almost every spot. If you're a lazy person, then you just activate the beam and... Do something else. You should here a metallic "CLANK"-sound in periodic time intervalls. Every CLANK indicates one piece of a ressource that has gone in one of your cargo bays. The problem lies in the time it takes to fill up 10 cargos bays, because it's everything but quick.

On the other hand - If you want to read the section news, now is the time to do it. I often find myself mining and just reading some stuff in my log or whatever... That's fine, but it's not perfect.

You can accelerate the mining process by moving your beam around. Stay exactly where you are, speed absolutely zero, and in inertial mode. GENTLY move your beam around - You don't need to swing it like a highlander in a battle. Doing this increases the speed of the ressources going into the cargo bay and it's hearable. Try it out a bit to understand how fast you need to move the beam for getting this bonus. Usually it's enough to swing the beam slowly in a circular pattern on the asteroids surface.

This is also the preferred method by a new miner to get some money for another frame or some equipment. At this point, there is something REALLY important to do: Sell HIGH. If you're mining this way, it means you don't have access to the other, more quickly and more easier ways of mining. If that's the case. then you should really carefully search for systems that pay high prices for your cargo. It took a long time aquiring that stuff, so don't give it away for free!


You have a deploy constructor? You have 2 metal in your cargo bay? Great! The first thing you want to do is this: Find a sector with a) an space station and b) some asteroids. Approach the asteroids as you would do normally, but now - Open the build menu (default F2). While targeting an asteroid, the build constructor will always target this particular asteroid while attempting to build a mining probe. Do it. The probe is built instantly and you're now seeing an countdown of about 200s (or 190s? I'm not sure).

What you're doing now is up to you, as long as you're obeing one rule: DON'T leave the sector. You can jump to the station and start doing contracts, you can harass enemy NPC's or start mining yourself. As long as you're stying in the sector, you're free to do whatever you want. If you want some money - Mine. Yes. While the mining probe is mining, you should be mining yourself. The easiest asteroid to mine is usually the one with the probe in it, because you've already approached it to build said probe.

After the countdown is down to zero, you will get a message that informs you about a cargo crate. Simply jump back to your asteroid and look onto your radar. There should be a gray point nearby, that's your crate. Simply approach it, pick it up with your mining beam and you've got some ressources. To make this profitable, immediately set up a new mining probe, before you start selling the newly aquired ressources. Just don't forget: STAY in the sector.

This last point shows off one little flaw. You can't mine a lot and then fly to the places that buy it high. It's easier to find a sector with asteroids and a station that pays somewhat moderate for everything you get (diamonds, platinum and metal). That's because you will be selling everything to this station, until the prices drop too low. That's when you need to move on.

One last piece of advice for this method: Keep some metal. The mining probe needs 2 metal to be built. Once I stood in a platinum field without metal and... Let's just say that's embarassing.


This one is easily overlooked and so damn handy when you're finally realising it. First - Find some NPC's. After that, approach one of them close enough for the trade menu to be active (less then 1000 away from each other). Now - Open the trade menu (default F4) and hire them. That's right, you get yourself a mining buddy that will obey each and every command of yours. Be warned - NPC's demand money for their tasks, but that's okay. What we're doing with them is lucrative enough to easily outweigh their costs.

The next step requires - Again - to approach an asteroid of your choice, in a sector with a space station. The NPC should be happy to follow you along the way. Fly to the asteroid, target it and then give your fleet (your buddy, to be precise) the command: Mine asteroids. At this point, you can forget worrying about him. Whenever a "Mining Cycle" is through, you get a message and the NPC will put a cargo crate into space around him. As long as you don't tell him something else, run out of money or leave the sector (Actually, I'm not sure about this one, but I think he will follow instead of continue to mine) he will be mining forever.

At this point, you can do the same thing as if you were mining with a mining probe. Help him - Do contracts - Fly around and burn through your fuel - Whatever. Your main job is to pick up the cargo crates, jump into the station nearby, sell everything and doing this for quite some time. Hiring more NPC's means more payments to do, but also more ressources in a faster time - It's up to you. Again: As long as you don't leave the sector, the crates will stay and you don't have to rush. After awhile you'll have that perfect way of "Jumping to crate", "Pick up", "Jump to station", "Sell", "Repeat".


In my experience, the ultimate way to mining is to combine all of the above. Get an NPC, get a deploy constructor with 2 metal and then get started.

Tell the NPC's to mine, place your mining probe on the same asteroid and start mining it yourself. As soon as your cargo bays are full, jump to the station and sell everything, except 2 metal. Jump back, set up a new mining probe, pick up every crate you can und then just repeat this. You're basically just shipping the crates to the station while periodically setting up a new mining probe. One NPC and one mining probe seems just enough to keep you always busy and you will see - This is a fast way of getting money. The NPC is usally a very quick miner and the probe... Well, 190 (or 200)s.

If you don't believe me, just do the math. If you're selling the contents of one cargo bay for 10'000 and you can do this every 2 minutes or so, then you're making some cash - All the while being busy and not just staring at your mining beam. Even when the prices start to drop, it's still worth it to continue for a bit, because the frequency of your sales will usually outweigh the sinking amount of reward.

After reading this guide, I assume that you're familiar with the various ways of slicing up asteroids and selling their dead bodyparts for some cash. Now it's time to go into some details and some nice toys for the really addicted miners like myself.


Carefully reading the manual gives away that there is more then just one mining beam. As far as I know, there are four of them.

• Tractor/Mining Beam
  
• Metal Mining Beam
  
• Platinum Mining Beam
  
• Diamond Mining Beam

The first one is pretty cheaply aquired and is considered one of the absolut must-haves on every ship. It mines asteroid, picks up stuff and looks pretty amazing. The other three... Well...

You can create the other three beams in the engineering lab, if you've gotten the recipe from a friendly NPC or something else. They're also available to be bought at space stations, but they're quite rare, require a high tech-level in the local sector and aren't really cheap.

The main difference lies in the fact, that these beams mine ONLY the material they are listed for. A platinum mining beam won't fill your cargo bays with diamonds or metal and now it's pretty obious why these things are so nice. If you find a system that has a strong demand for... Let's say diamonds. Then you could just equip your diamond mining beam and start making a fortune. The mining probe and your NPC will still bring up the other ressources, but it's still a pretty big advantage.

The metal mining beam serves another purpose: Station building. If you're going to build some stations for whatever reasons (waging war, securing a system, setting up a mining place near some asteroids), then you're going to need A LOT of metal. The metal mining beam is real charm in that regard.


if you find a nice asteroid field in a system with nice prices, consider setting up a station. Fill your cargo bays with metal, fly to that new asteroid field and put down a command station. You're getting a discount there, but thats neglectable.

A better way to consider is this: Store everything. That's right. 25 Hangar bays in your new station and you're going to fill those up. As soon as you're done with mining, begin trading. This way you can mine without leaving the sector and still sell everything in another place. The only drawback is the hangar fee that is needed to pay.

Also, if you want to build alot of new stations, consider filling up an existing station with metal. 25 hangar bays with metal, added to the 10 cargo bays on your ship filled with metal... That's already 3 new stations waiting to be built.


I mentioned the target scanner in the needed equipment for mining. The reason is this: A target scanner shows you the contents of an asteroid. If you're close enough to an asteroid and have a target scanner installed, it will show something like this: Metal 0%, Diamond 32%, Platinum 68%.

With this little tool, you can exactly pinpoint which asteroid is the right one for your mining desires. Want to build a station? Search for metal-rich asteroids. Want to sell platinum but diamond is low in demand? Target scanner! You're usually using the target scanner and switch to a special mining beam if desired.

The only drawback is the fact, that the target scanner isn't cheap and somewhat rare. It took me quite some time to get one in a tech-level 100 sector. I don't recommend searching for this little gem, just picking it up whenever you get a chance to do so.

Important: I really mean target scanner. The cargo scanners are not rare and they don't show you the asteroids contents. You've been warned, because I did the same mistake and sold the cargo scanner right after understanding my mistake.


If your current ship configuration and your wallet can afford it, it may be a good idea to think about taking some company into space. Hiring a science officer will increase your mining speed even further, especially if it's one with a high skill level. I haven't really tested this by myself, because I'm not a fan of ongoing on payment, but it is an absolutely useful addition to further increase the somewhat slow mining process.


The fuel converter is a piece of equipment that is always useful. It allows you to gather fuel out of nebulas and some other things (like a nearby star - Never tested that, so I can't really tell you the needed distance to the star for gathering fuel from it). The drawback lies in the fact, that you can't gather the ressources from the nebula, because the beam will always convert it to fuel. It's a minor complaint, but one that needs to be known.

Why am I telling you this? That's because there are places where asteroids are placed inside nebulas. The fuel prices have been nerfed recently, but it's still possible to sell some of your fuel and then going to mine in a nebula. While approaching and while leaving the nebula field, you just leave your mining/tractor-beam on. The fuel tanks will fill themselves and you just generated some profit out of nowhere. Depending on the amount of fuel sold, this can be quite lucrative (2000 units of fuel at a price of 75 => 150'000 profit). Just leave around 500 units of fuel in your ship, just in case something happens. If you're wondering how you're supposed to sell fuel - Just buy some of it, but enter a negative value like -1000.

There's a little warning to this strategy. Dense nebula cloud zones are places, from which you can't jump. This means, that you have to fly out rather slowly, before you can jump to a station and sell your ressources. The positive thing is the absolutely beautiful look from those nebulas.

I'm pretty new to evochron myself and I got a lot of information from user made content. This guide is my little thank you to all those people who posted their knowledge online and made it open for everybody - I hope this guide has the same effect on other new players out there who are searching for some advice.

If you know something that my guide is missing, if you've seen a wrong explanation of mine or just found some wrong typed words - Contact me. I'm not perfect, basically a noob myself and english isn't my native language, so just point it out and it will be fixed.

Edits / Changes

• 2016-03-19 Guide creatd
  
• 2016-03-19 Added content about "science officer" and "fuel converter" - Thanks to Oblivion Wolf for the information