Mobile Mining is a completely new system in LU which completely replaces the vanilla version. New ships, lasers, and commands.
Introduction
Here’s the quick and dirty. The Mobile Drilling System and Ore Collector have been re-purposed. Hit a rock with your MDS, and you have a chance of your ore collector popping something into your cargo bay. It’s as simple as that. Care was taken to ensure that the efficiency of miners was the same out of sector as it would be in sector.
Mobile Drilling System Is Different
Hitting a debris rock with the MDS is now the only way to mine. When the debris rock is hit, there is a chance for a mineral or crystal to be “loosened”. The Ore Collector will beam the loosened material into the cargo bay, which all happens automatically. Depending on the rock size, it can only take so many hits before breaking apart. The larger the debris rock, the more hits it can take. Larger debris rocks will break into smaller debris rocks. The calculation is performed every time a laser bullet hits a rock; so yes, the more lasers, the faster the mining.
Only the new miner variant of ships can actually equip MDS lasers.
NOTE: You must install Mobile Drilling Systems in all compatible slots for the mining commands to work. For example, if you got Chimera Miners you need to fill all eight of the main weapon slots with MDS lasers, otherwise the mining commands will be unavailable.
Rare Minerals and Crystals
Some of the time when you hit a rock, you’ll get a mineral like ore, silicon, ice, or nividium. Rarely, you’ll end up with a rare mineral or crystal.
Upon an MDS hitting, the ship has a chance of loosening a material. If something is loosened, it could be a resource ware, a rare mineral, or crystal as per the following table. Note that small variations in the table’s percentages are based on the type of debris. Ice has a slightly higher chance of yielding crystal, and Nividium has a slightly higher chance of yielding both rare minerals and crystals.
| Material | Rarity |
| Debris Resource | 92% |
| Rare Mineral | 5.5% |
| Crystal | 2.5% |
If the material loosened is a rare mineral, it could be one of the following:
| Material | Rarity | Average Price |
| Red Mineral | 55% | 15,828 Cr |
| Orange Mineral | 27% | 34,868 Cr |
| Purple Mineral | 10.8% | 96,415 Cr |
| Blue Mineral | 4.5% | 254,788 Cr |
| Green Mineral | 1.5% | 862,549 Cr |
| Silver Mineral | 0.6% | 2,385,051 Cr |
| Gold Mineral | 0.4% | 3,740,752 Cr |
| White Mineral | 0.2% | 8,075,251 Cr |
If the material loosened is a crystal, it could be one of the following:
| Crystal | Rarity | Average Price |
| Red Crystal | 72% | 28,164 Cr |
| Yellow Crystal | 21.1% | 109,997 Cr |
| Blue Crystal | 5.3% | 509,786 Cr |
| Green Crystal | 1.3% | 2,425,814 Cr |
| Black Crystal | 0.3% | 12,351,797 Cr |
Mining Outposts
Plutarch, NMMC, Pirates, and the USC have all setup Mining Outposts stationed throughout the Universe. They’ll buy mineral resources, rare minerals, and crystals. Rare Minerals and Crystals will be consumed at these docks at a far quicker pace than other wares would be.