Impact Mining Guide

Impact Mining is a specialised skill that allows you to mine asteroids for consumables using your ship's weapons. Unlike traditional mining methods, impact mining involves careful planning, precision targeting, and a bit of luck to avoid catastrophic damage and maximise your haul.

Getting Started with Impact Mining

Locate an Asteroid Field

• Begin by orbiting an asteroid field that supports impact mining.
• Open Engineering Panel
• Access the Engineering window and select Impact Mining from the options.
• Select an Asteroid
• A list of mineable asteroids will appear. Choose one to begin mining.

Understanding the Mining Grid

The asteroid surface is divided into a grid, and the size of the grid depends on the size of the asteroid you're mining. Targetable Tiles are marked with an explosion icon, usually starting at the edges. These are the only tiles you can initially fire at.

Consumable Tiles show a gold or orange icon, indicating a consumable is present and listing its type and quantity. Empty Tiles are inaccessible unless revealed by mining actions.

Destroyed Tiles are marked with an X after they've been affected by a mining action.

Mining Mechanics & Tile Outcomes

Every time you target a tile, one of the following outcomes can occur:

Success – Direct Hit
The selected tile is destroyed.
The consumable (if present) is released and added to your inventory.
Minimal collateral damage.

Success – Radial Destruction
The selected tile and adjacent tiles are destroyed.
All consumables in affected tiles are lost.

Failure – Radial Explosion
The selected tile and adjacent tiles are destroyed.
Any consumables in those tiles are lost.

Failure – Horizontal Line Explosion The selected tile and the entire row are destroyed.
All consumables in that row are lost.

Failure – Vertical Line Explosion The selected tile and the entire column are destroyed.
All consumables in that column are lost.

The chance of failure or excessive collateral damage is reduced with higher Impact Mining skill.

Strategy Tips for Efficient Impact Mining

Plan Your Path: Consumables must be adjacent to at least one destroyed (exposed) tile to be recovered. Build your path carefully to avoid triggering chain reactions.

Avoid Direct Hits Early: Never target a tile with a consumable directly unless you are confident in the result. Instead, mine adjacent tiles to create safe paths.

Edge First: Start from corners or edges (e.g., A1, A5, E1, E5) to minimise the risk of triggering wide-scale damage. Use the Grid Logically: If a consumable is at C3 (centre), avoid mining tiles in the same row (A3, B3, etc.) or column (C1, C5) early, to avoid a line explosion wiping it out.

Monitor the Consumable List: If a consumable disappears from the list, it has been destroyed. Once all are gone, there's no reason to continue mining that asteroid.

One Shot Per Asteroid: Consumables do not regenerate. Once mined (or destroyed), you must move to a new site. Ships like the Borehead, however, have the chance of creating new asteroids when they mine the asteroid field.

Skill Impact

Your Impact Mining skill level directly affects:
The chance of a clean extraction.
The reduction in harmful collateral results.
Your ability to salvage high-value consumables effectively.

Final Advice

Impact Mining is a high-risk, high-reward activity requiring tactical thinking and good spatial awareness. Map consumables in your head, choose your shots wisely, and improve your skill level to turn volatile asteroid fields into valuable resource troves.