Question: What finder, excavator and refiner to aim for?

Ned Flanders

Guardian
Joined
Aug 2, 2012
Posts
234
Since I have decided to go with mining as main profession, I'd like to know what finder and excavator one should aim towards, out of a functional and economical perspective.

I am currently using a z5 I believe it is called, I have maxed it, but rather than go one step up I decided to just use it until it breaks.

F104-F105 seems to be the two UL people stick to once they max em, are they the best choices for a newbie (when you max them ofc, or at least close to maxing them)?

When looking at lowest decay on finders (entropedia), the MD series seems to be good, I know from Klown's selling thread on MD50 that it is rare and expensive to buy for a newbie, but the MD40 or perhaps even MD30 might be a good choice? (Based on the entropedia MU pricing on them, I am guessing that they aren't as rare as the MD50)

How about excavators? I am using the Calypso tt excavator, but I am guessing out of an economical point of view I should find another eventually? I have been told that when it comes to excavators you will pretty much have to decide on speed or eco, so either slow and economical or fast and "less" economical.

Same thing here looking at Effect/PEC there seems to be two good choices (for anyone not willing to pay 2k+ MU for the really good ones) and that is the Arkadian TT finder that is L (so I guess I'd have to fly there get about 100 of them, since they are 2ped each and simply keep stocking up when I get low) or I get a UL RE-101 that isn't as good as the Arkadia TT one. Have I gotten this right or you veteran miners have a better suggestion?

Refiner seems fairly easy to pick if the stats on entropedia is right, MR400 seems to be the most eco of all, but unsure if the suggested MU of 260ish PED is correct or not, a better choice for a newbie might be T-104? Not a lot of MU and good eco and perhaps work my way up to buying a MR400?

Not gonna ask about amps and enhancers atm, feel that I should get some more skills before looking at that.
 
Nothing complicated there.

Basically use the Calypso TT finder for the 0-300m search depth, F103-105 for the 300-800 range, and the limited finders for the 800 and beyond.

The old unlimited finders like F103, F105 etc, max out pretty fast technically, but as your skills increase, the average search depth seems to increase, and you start hitting stuff at 750m +

You can use only the limited finders - climbing the (L) ladder will guarantee the fastest skill progression, as you increase the tools (in corelation to decay increase ofc) By the end of the ziplex Z-series ladder you will know, why and when to use finders with deeper search range.

Things like MD50 and stuff are oddballs, and they shouldn't be your main focus at this point.

Excavator:
Pretty straightforward. Calypso TT extractor is good enough for a good start. Alternatively you can use the Demonic Excavator (L) from RT - speedier and more economical than Caly TT tools, but (L) so pack a plenty.

There is really no need for higher excavators, at the beginner level, if you are mining without amping it up.
When you start amping and doing large runs, then it becomes a necessity.
If you absolutely gotta have a bigger excavator, then probably RE-104 will serve you a long time.

Refiner: Anything goes. Its not that important actually, until you start hitting massive quantities of stuff The bigger the better of course, but then again, I refined my first uber loots with a bunch of TT refiners, so...

Bottom line: Simple gear does the job well. I'd rather allocate most of my budget to buying bombs/amps, instead of getting decked with gear that has no effect on anything, at the beginner level.
 
Excavator:
Demonic Excavator (L) from RT -

I can highly recommend this excavator, for eco this even beats the improved and mod excavators

For refiner, get a 105 transformer, 30% more efficient than the others

As for finders. A word of advice.

Example: if you mine in a belk only area, there is no point in having a finder that goes 1000m. You might as well stick to the cheapest to drop ie tt finder.

For general areas i would the use the old 211(L) if they are still around. Awesome depth and pretty damn eco. Untill you max the f105. Then stick with that untill you can or want to afford the f106.

Depth enhancers are pretty useless on the whole. It is far cheaper and more eco to use a deeper limited finder eg tk320, vrx2k etc if you want to search deep, than to use enhancers. (this is personal choice of course, but i am talking from experience of being lv63 prospector)

Rgds

Ace
 
Bottom line: Simple gear does the job well. I'd rather allocate most of my budget to buying bombs/amps, instead of getting decked with gear that has no effect on anything, at the beginner level.

This.

You can survive in mining with ANY gear.

Before tuning your supercar - learn to drive on something simple.

As a beginner you have most important advantage - your stuff is in small amounts: smaller stacks sells for way better MU than big ones, use this. Avoid resellers, put stuff on AH - don't listen scary stories about "fees".

You already digging well, with all that information in your post. But a bit early.
 
Hello,

Id agree, that anything (L) that is within bonus of your skill would do the job. The faster you can unlock some of the hidden skills the better IMO, you can do that with the right (L) tools.

Hunting for a particular ore can be aided by the depth chosen to mine with. And generally the deeper you can go, the better chance for the rares to be found. Plenty of regular ores above those depths though,and even at ultra low depths and skills to match, the chances (like high amps) are slimmer overall, with a higher possible reward, generally/hopefully via MU.

Generally lower depths, need higher skills. But even at shallow depth mining works for many.

The MD series is very good (best eco), and the lowest concentrated range you can find. ( the MD have a lower range, lowest) at 53 m.

The description even states that the lower range has a chance to find more concentrated ores, which may be why they removed them, in my wild theoried opinion....they have an amp effect already, kinda like going to foma, without the trip, and a smaller foma multiplier. :) I know my 1st big hit was made using one of these back in the day about a month in for a 4kish melchi (still my 2nd best after unknown 10ks of ks probes dropped with amps). They had no amps back then, amps came around the time they removed these finders. Take that for what you will. )

Due to rarity not a massive benefit for the ped until you get to md-40 and md-50 which are pricey and fairly rare. They were the old finders way way back, so limited in supply. I have an MD-10 I don't use, mainly because there are alot of other options and more optimal depths for the ores I need. I also feel TT finders don't go deep enough for me personally. I am more comfortable within 300-700.

The best (L) series aside from those is the F-2xx for economy. F-211 (L) is Decent depth and near md-40 eco, perfect for many FOMA ores, and early maxxing.

F-105 is used by many for tier-ing as well. (they get to .9 for someone interested in gaining tier skill)
Or if you tier them, the high tier UL finders have a nice price tag on em. A tad of a double bonus on UL finders.

F-106 is pricey to make as well so F-105 is pretty much the best general UL option right now. And it is a great common range finder, has bonus even past F-211 for example.

Tiers on (L) move like mad usually, and can be easier to get a high tier one vs UL. Considering that, the combination of many finders + enhancer depths is pretty wide ranging.

Extractors

For the extractors I would look at (L) again for the skill bonus, get to unlocks faster. After that, go with whats more convenient, some like volume/speed over eco. Really not much difference overall though. Of course you can look at some miners logs and that small % adds up to alot given enough ped dropped, not seen at low volumes too easy though.
The RE-2xx series and even the arkadian (rockripper) /RT (L) versions are great eco and nice bonus overall. (these are more limited supply as they come generally at a few (L) bp clicks per month.)

I use and tier UL RE-105 always myself, though overall I am sure the (L) would suit me better in skills.

Transformers

Transformers are pretty limited choice as it is, the t-104 is about the best you can get IMO, the main benefit on them is the capacity, you can refine a nice load of ores with a t-104 before it needs repair again.

T-105 like the F-106 need Dunkel, hard to get and pricey to boot. Plus, when I get Dunkel, F-106 gets it 1st, simply much more worthwhile to use it for.

I prefer the UL for the convenience, but there are other (L) options to consider from other planets too.


Hope that helps,

And of course I should disclose my shameless plug that I can make all of the above items.

For any finders I cant do:

F-210 (L) and F-213 (L) contact Buzz. He may be the only owner of those BPS, not positive, but he makes them and I believe stocks them at his shop.

Hope that helps some, and Good luck in your profession.
 
Thanks everyone, really grateful for all the great feedback...time to drop some bombs =)
 
The description even states that the lower range has a chance to find more concentrated ores, which may be why they removed them, in my wild theoried opinion....

Larger claims - rare finds = nothing changes.

Maybe they was just too eco, that's the reason.
 
You can use only the limited finders - climbing the (L) ladder will guarantee the fastest skill progression, as you increase the tools (in corelation to decay increase ofc) By the end of the ziplex Z-series ladder you will know, why and when to use finders with deeper search range.
.

Hello,

Id agree, that anything (L) that is within bonus of your skill would do the job. The faster you can unlock some of the hidden skills the better IMO, you can do that with the right (L) tools.
.
The SIB bonus for using an Unmaxed L Finder is only 10%. Against that, it can never be proven if the return rate is not lower, but it would be if Finders worked the same way as Hunting weapons, where it can be proven. And there would be no point of Skill Enhancers if it wasn't. So my advice is not to use Unmaxed Finders, and many other miners agree. (I do currently have an Unmaxed VRX2000, but am using 3 Skill Enhancers).

Note that the rate of skill gain is exactly the same on all maxed L Finders and the UL ones, the decay amount doesn't affect it. (Zan Zan has been proven to be mistaken here). Adding Amps does, in proportion to the bomb size, but you would be wise to wait until you are around Level 10 before using one.

The F105 is the best mid-level Finder, it has similar depth to the L Finders, but lower decay.

I personally believe Tiering is an expensive mistake, and I have never used Depth Enhancers. I have never seen any figures which even suggest they improve return rate, let alone prove it. Of course Miming returns are so variable it's not possible to prove any correlations, players just have to follow their intuitions.
 
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I recommend sticking to the Z5-Z25 SIB ladder rather than the UL finders. Some of the UL ones have VERY long learning periods. As someone already mentioned, SIB for finders is a little mysterious and I like to avoid it whenever possible. For excavator, use whatever has good efficiency per pec on entropedia and a T-104 refiner and you'll be set.
 
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Note that the rate of skill gain is exactly the same on all maxed L Finders and the UL ones, the decay amount doesn't affect it. (Zan Zan has been proven to be mistaken here). But adding Amps does, in proportion to the bomb size.

Orly_cat.jpg
 
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duplicate post
 
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Adding a Level 2 amp and bombing Ore, which increases the bomb size from 1 Ped to 2 Ped, doubles the rate of Skill Gain.

You didn't know this?

My apologizes! I misread about decay, not skill gains. Yes, you right.
sorry.jpg
 
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