Mining is one of the most important aspects of the game. Mining removes terrain and gives you a resource depending on the area that is being mined.
Method
Alert shown when pointed at a Ore chunk
Default Key: L-Mouse Button, R-Mouse button, F
Mining in Empyrion can be done through a variety of methods; hand-held tools (the Drill and T2 Drill), hover vessel Drill Modules, and capital vessel Drill Turrets. Mining is performed by looking at a part of the terrain and pressing the Left Mouse Button by default. The Right Mouse button is used with certain tools. The Basic Drill can change between terrain mining and rock mining modes, and the T2 Drill changes between a variety of modes. Currently, the Right Mouse Button has no use for Drill Modules and Turrets.
Using the basic Drill results in small chunks of ore dropping after mining a piece of terrain. However, the T2 Drill places mined ore directly into your inventory, and ship-based drills place them into any attached Harvest Boxes.
In previous versions of the game, the Left Mouse Button would drill quickly, using more fuel, and the Right Mouse button would drill slower and using less Drill Charge.
Rock Layer on the planet Omicron
Ore chunks on the ground
Terrain Removal
The T2 Drill comes equipped with a Terrain Removal mode. This mode excavates parts of the terrain much quicker than the default mining mode, but gives no chunks. It is most useful for removing large areas of land if you do not have access to vessel-based drills.
Sources
A Promethium Meteorite
There are three types of sources of resources which can be mined to get resources.
- Resource Deposit
- Resource Meteorites
- Rock Layer
Resource Meteorites and Resource Deposits drop the respected resource they are made of while mining and rock layer drops Crushed Stone while mining.
Experience
Mining gives experience. Destroying a terrain/deposit/meteorite with tools gives a constant amount of 2xp/drill charge and gives certain amount of XP depending on the type of resource if a resource chunk drops.
| Ore | Experience |
|---|---|
 Iron Ore
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 Copper Ore
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 Cobalt Ore
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 Silicon Ore
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 Magnesium Ore
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 Promethium Ore
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 Crushed Stone
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 Neodymium Ore
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 Sathium Ore
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 Erestrum Ore
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 Zascosium Ore
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