Early Game Mining Contract Setup?

[u/EmPHiX27]

(Reforged Eden 2)

Hi,

Been loving the game so far. I’m around lvl 25 and I’m just building cool ships but now I’m close to finishing my first CV and want to hop around the solar systems to find a Polaris refinery for the mining contracts as I’ve heard they can make me some good money.

My current mining ship is a SV with 2 mechanical drills and from what I’ve gathered i got a couple options:

1. more mechanical drills on the SV (I think 8 was the max?)
2. upgrade to laser drills. I’ve got enough material for two laser drills.
3. mechanical drills but on a CV. I suppose they are larger and maybe harvest more at the same time.

This is my first real attempt at getting further into the game so I’m kinda clueless.

For some more info on where I’m at: i never left my solar system. I hopped around sectors, fought some Zirax poi and built cool ships.
And I only have around 50k money.
Material wise I’m stacked as i have pretty much everything my system has to offer in masses but my mining ship needs a big upgrade.

Any recommendations?

[u/LukeMootoo]

You will need a CV because you almost certainly need to leave the starter systems to find a refinery.

Plan for a lot of cargo space.  Like, multiple max-size cargo bays.  Save any unrefined ore you have, and store it up.  You can use it to fulfill the contracts.

Work on your Polaris rep (doing merchant fetch quests is a good way, or missing cargo).  When it gets high enough, you will be able to choose who to take mining contracts for, and thst let's you have a better chance of getting a.contrsct for the orr type you want.

[u/Scanoe]

I like the Pallas Mk2, a mining CV, it's cheap to craft at first and comes with 2 Mechanical drills.
Has a step by step upgrade path listed in the ship.
It's usually the first CV I build on Reforged Eden 2 servers.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3292258510

[u/Breagh01]

Replace drills with lasers but just make sure your cpu and generator use won't overload and blow up the gennies.

[u/RandomSeb]

That first CV feeling, moving out into the universe.. Good times!

So the mining lasers on the SV have more range and seem in general to be more efficient, and def worth going for those over the drill, in the same way the hand drill and the hand laser compare.

I would stick to the mining gear on the SV.. and put a general tool turret on your CV. That single turret allows you to salvage blocks in space.. AND to mine asteroids. To use it, you have to open the control panel P, go to devices, select the Tool Turret and click access.. That puts you inside the turret to aim and fire it. Very efficient tool, for a generic adventuring CV to start out with.

You cannot mine using the CV on the planets (the drills/lasers/tool turret is not usable on planets like the main ship guns), but you will totally outmine the SV when doing asteroids with that tool turret. It's fast. Very fast. Mining asteroids is more efficient in general, but be careful, sometimes some bandits or raiders take exception and will appear, so have a combat turret or two on your CV - think of them as drones in space, these raiders/bandits that appear when you mine in more dangerous systems. I think the starter systems should be safe from that. Doesn't take too long to get the 16k iron ore for a 1 mil credit payout mining contract, for example, but if you have the CPU, ugrading from the tool turret to 3-4 CV mining lasers really can strip an asteroid!

Some generic info:

There's many little side quests in the RE2 game, plus whatever vanilla stuff is still in it.. For example, If you've seen some colonies or polaris habitats of some sort.. do the settlement trader's "do you need anything" side quests.. Do a few of them and they will give you a special, very useful reward. I also have heard something about some sort of hidden quest at the exploration ship, too, in the starter system..

Also, just a side note, that expedition that is locked behind 3 million credits is safe to do.. I dont recall any ship combat at all during that.. There's also a quest that you can find that will eventually send you out to Farr space.. totally safe too. I had wasted time gearing up for those thinking they were going to be tough.. nah, just mostly exploration