kingofaces
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- Jun 10, 2013
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- Tony KingofAces Hans
I've mentioned this a few times over the years, but I thought it's time to give a mini-guide on where UL vs. L finders are better in terms of depth. Many times I see people pushing depth on UL finders when an L finder would actually be cheaper.
Limited finder costs
For some short mechanics, remember that finder decay affects your claim size. That helps simplify things a bit since you can just calculate MU paid per drop =( TT+MU)/total uses. With a TerraMaster3 (L) for instance at 112.6%, TT of 95, and 2945 total uses, you'd be paying 0.406 PEC per drop.
Unlimited finders + enhancer costs
If you're using an UL finder and trying to increase depth, TT of the enhancer is returned as shrapnel, so let's assume you're converying it to UA. Then you just need to figured out MU paid per drop knowing what your enhancer break rate is to get MU paid per drop. For most F-106 is the most accessible UL finder with decent depth. In the case of an F-106, it's about a 0.3% break rate per enhancer slot, and just giving a ballpark of 170% MU: (170%*0.8-0.8*1.01)*0.3% = 0.001656 PED MU/enhancer/drop.
From there you can determine how many enhancer slots are needed to reach a target depth to get your MU drop cost, especially if you calculate it for the same depth as an equivalent L finder. You can then compare the two MU cost values for the L finder or using an UL finder with enhancers like in the table below:
These are the roughly more accessible L finders out there with some ballparks on MU I've been able to get. In short, your MU costs are going to be 0 if you only use an UL finder with no enhancers, so if you are at the depth you want with an UL finder, just use that. If you want to go deeper through, low MU (110-120%) finders like TerraMasters are almost always going to be cheaper than using an F-106 with enhancers to reach that same depth, moreso if you were using an F-105 instead to reach these depths. The gap between UL vs L only widens are you go to deeper finders too like TM8 (L) vs F-106.
It's only when the "old" high MU finders are the only option that UL+enhancers makes sense. Assuming the break rate stays the same for a an UL TerraMaster 3, L finders still come ahead too. In general, tiering UL finders for depth generally doesn't give a return on investment when you have L finders available.
This means if you can't yet reach the depth you want, you sure can temporarily use enhancers on an UL finder to do that, but you're often better off just skilling until you can use the next available L finder. That applies even more if you're using both an L finder and enhancers. The short of it is that I generally don't recommend depth enhancers unless you are in that narrow window where you absolutely want to get a certain depth and cannot wait to get to a needed profession level after you can use an F-106. It's also why I quit using UL finders years ago. f you're not quite able to use an F-106 yet, other UL finders are easy to get, and some L finders are good to fill in the gaps between professions like the F-200 series.
I included this range up to TM8 (L) because that is the deepest L finder, and most of the time when enhancers are being discussed, it's usually for this 600-1000m depth target range. For those who use enhancers on something like a TM8 (L) or an UL version, that's probably a different conversation to be had. I know some folks have preferences related to depth enhancers for other reasons, but I thought it would be good to show some of the numbers for the cost side of things so others can see how they add up.
In short, don't assume UL with enhancers is always cheaper. Check the math on whatever UL finder you plan to use vs what L finder you could use instead.
Limited finder costs
For some short mechanics, remember that finder decay affects your claim size. That helps simplify things a bit since you can just calculate MU paid per drop =( TT+MU)/total uses. With a TerraMaster3 (L) for instance at 112.6%, TT of 95, and 2945 total uses, you'd be paying 0.406 PEC per drop.
Unlimited finders + enhancer costs
If you're using an UL finder and trying to increase depth, TT of the enhancer is returned as shrapnel, so let's assume you're converying it to UA. Then you just need to figured out MU paid per drop knowing what your enhancer break rate is to get MU paid per drop. For most F-106 is the most accessible UL finder with decent depth. In the case of an F-106, it's about a 0.3% break rate per enhancer slot, and just giving a ballpark of 170% MU: (170%*0.8-0.8*1.01)*0.3% = 0.001656 PED MU/enhancer/drop.
From there you can determine how many enhancer slots are needed to reach a target depth to get your MU drop cost, especially if you calculate it for the same depth as an equivalent L finder. You can then compare the two MU cost values for the L finder or using an UL finder with enhancers like in the table below:
| Name | Depth | Auction MU % | L MU cost (PEC) | F-106+enhancer MU cost (PEC) | Cheaper finder type |
| Finder F-106 | 582.1 | 0 | |||
| Finder F-212 (L) | 592 | 119.85 | 0.27 | just use regular F-106 | |
| Ziplex Z25 Seeker (L) | 626.9 | 115 | 0.49 | 0.33 | F-106 + enhancer |
| Finder F-213 (L) | 631.8 | 123 | 0.38 | 0.33 | F-106 + enhancer |
| TerraMaster 3 (L) | 631.8 | 112.6 | 0.41 | 0.33 | F-106 + enhancer |
| TerraMaster 3 Gold Rush | 631.8 | 0 | 0.33 | TerraMaster 3 Gold Rush | |
| eMINE FS (L) | 676.6 | 115.6 | 0.27 | 0.5 | eMINE FS (L) |
| Ziplex TK120 Seeker (L) | 701.5 | 180 | 1.44 | 0.5 | F-106 + enhancer |
| Lost Soul Seeker (L) | 721 | 594 | 18.28 | 0.66 | F-106 + enhancer |
| TerraMaster 4 (L) | 741.3 | 108 | 0.3 | 0.66 | TerraMaster 4 (L) |
| Ziplex TK220 Seeker (L) | 776.1 | 220 | 4.75 | 0.83 | F-106 + enhancer |
| TerraMaster 5 (L) | 830.8 | 109.76 | 0.4 | 0.99 | TerraMaster 5 (L) |
| Finder F-213 (L) Customized | 850.8 | 127.03 | 0.72 | 1.16 | Finder F-213 (L) Customized |
| Ziplex TK320 Seeker (L) | 850.8 | 220 | 5.16 | 1.16 | F-106 + enhancer |
| TerraMaster 6 (L) | 885.6 | 118.08 | 0.79 | 1.33 | TerraMaster 6 (L) |
| TerraMaster 7 (L) | 925.4 | 115 | 0.68 | 1.33 | TerraMaster 7 (L) |
| Ziplex VRX2000 Seeker (L) | 925.4 | 206 | 4.93 | 1.33 | F-106 + enhancer |
| TerraMaster 8 (L) | 1000 | 115.9 | 0.78 | 1.66 | TerraMaster 8 (L) |
These are the roughly more accessible L finders out there with some ballparks on MU I've been able to get. In short, your MU costs are going to be 0 if you only use an UL finder with no enhancers, so if you are at the depth you want with an UL finder, just use that. If you want to go deeper through, low MU (110-120%) finders like TerraMasters are almost always going to be cheaper than using an F-106 with enhancers to reach that same depth, moreso if you were using an F-105 instead to reach these depths. The gap between UL vs L only widens are you go to deeper finders too like TM8 (L) vs F-106.
It's only when the "old" high MU finders are the only option that UL+enhancers makes sense. Assuming the break rate stays the same for a an UL TerraMaster 3, L finders still come ahead too. In general, tiering UL finders for depth generally doesn't give a return on investment when you have L finders available.
This means if you can't yet reach the depth you want, you sure can temporarily use enhancers on an UL finder to do that, but you're often better off just skilling until you can use the next available L finder. That applies even more if you're using both an L finder and enhancers. The short of it is that I generally don't recommend depth enhancers unless you are in that narrow window where you absolutely want to get a certain depth and cannot wait to get to a needed profession level after you can use an F-106. It's also why I quit using UL finders years ago. f you're not quite able to use an F-106 yet, other UL finders are easy to get, and some L finders are good to fill in the gaps between professions like the F-200 series.
I included this range up to TM8 (L) because that is the deepest L finder, and most of the time when enhancers are being discussed, it's usually for this 600-1000m depth target range. For those who use enhancers on something like a TM8 (L) or an UL version, that's probably a different conversation to be had. I know some folks have preferences related to depth enhancers for other reasons, but I thought it would be good to show some of the numbers for the cost side of things so others can see how they add up.
In short, don't assume UL with enhancers is always cheaper. Check the math on whatever UL finder you plan to use vs what L finder you could use instead.
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