Miner

A Miner is a type of resource extractor that automatically extracts solid resources when built or placed on top of a resource node. There are 4 total miners available: Portable Miner, Miner Mk.1, Miner Mk.2 and Miner Mk.3.

Portable Miner is a piece of equipment that has to be held in the hand slot in order to be placed on a resource node. Multiple Portable Miners can be placed on the same node, as long as there is space for them.

Miner buildings (mark 1 to 3) are constructed with the Construction Tool instead. Only one Miner building can be present on a resource node at a time, and can only be placed on nodes where the resource deposit has been cleared. Miner buildings require power to operate and output to a connected conveyor, which allows for all following parts to be fully automated.

Building placement

 * Scan for the target resource node with Resource Scanner.
 * Manually mine out the resource deposit on top of the node, if present. If cracked boulders are present, remove them with a Nobelisk Detonator.
 * Place the Miner down. Connect conveyors and power.
 * Only 1 Miner can be built on each resource node.

Building upgrades

 * Miner Mk.2 and Mk.3 are unlocked at Tier 4 and Tier 7 respectively. Once unlocked, you can upgrade (and downgrade, if you wish) the existing miner in-place.
 * Aim the hologram of the higher mark Miner at the existing Miner and to upgrade it.
 * The Power Line and Conveyor Belt connected to it will remain connected. However, its stored ores and Power Shards will be returned to the engineer's Inventory.
 * Take note when upgrading Uranium miner, as the Uranium ore is strongly radioactive when carried.
 * In case the Engineer's Inventory is full when upgrading Miner, the returned material will still be stored in the Dismantle Crate, hidden below the Miner. Dismantle the Miner to find it.

Foundations
A Miner can be built on a resource node even if the entire node is covered by foundations. This does not apply to Portable Miner.

Mining speed
where and 100% Clock Speed= 150% Clock Speed= 200% Clock Speed= 250% Clock Speed=
 * Same mining speed applies to all kinds of resource nodes, such as Iron Ore, Copper Ore, up to Uranium and Bauxite.
 * *Limited by Conveyor Belt Mk.5 speed which is 780 item/min.

Overclocking
Miners can be overclocked up to 250% speed, at the cost of greatly increased power consumption. When aiming for higher mining rate, using a higher mark miner is preferred over overclocking, as per example below:
 * Running a Miner Mk.2 at 100% has the same mining rate as a Miner Mk.1 at 200% with reduced energy consumption (12 MW instead of 15.2 MW).
 * Running a Miner Mk.3 at 100% has the same mining rate as a Miner Mk.2 at 200% with reduced energy consumption (30 MW instead of 36.4 MW).
 * Running a Miner Mk.3 at 50% has the same mining rate as a Miner Mk.1 at 200% with reduced energy consumption (9.9 MW instead of 15.2 MW).

Miner Mk.3 extraction limit
The Miner Mk.3 extraction speed on a pure node is limited by the throughput of Conveyor Belt Mk.5. As it currently stands, the Mk.5 conveyors have a transportation rate of 780 units per minute. In contrast, the Miner Mk.3 can produce 1,200 units per minute on a pure resource node when overclocked to 250%. The maximum clock rate the Miner Mk.3 should be set at on a pure node is calculated as follows:

(mining speed) = 480 * (overclock percentage)

(mining speed) = 780

(overclock percentage) = 162.5%

Rounded up to 163% for maximum efficiency.

This will overproduce by 2.4 units per minute, filling up the Miner's output cargo slot in 41 Minutes and 40 seconds.

Note: This throughput limitation will be removed with the addition of Conveyor Belt Mk.6. as it has been confirmed it will have the transportation rate of 1200 units per minute.

Portable Miner
"We don’t want you to harm yourself mining for ore bare-handed"

- Caterina Parks's assistant Steve

A Portable Miner is a small, portable version of a miner. As the first available mining machine, it is used to semi-automate the mining process in the early-game. It can be crafted at the Equipment Workshop after completing the Tier 0 Milestone - Hub Upgrade 1. It requires no fuel nor power, but has no Conveyor Belt connections. It only hold one stack of ore (usually 100).

Mining Speed
A Portable Miner mines at a speed of 20, 40, and 80 items per minute for impure, normal, and pure nodes respectively, although the interface will always say "1 per second".

Usage
Open the inventory and Double  the Portable Miner to equip it in hand. Then find a resource node with the Resource Scanner, such as an Iron Ore node. At any location on the deposit where you have the prompt to pick up ore, to deploy the miner. It will display a deploy animation, but will begin mining as soon as it leaves your hand.

When the miner is full, it will stop animating and making noise, and you interact with it and click 'Grab All' to take out the ores. You can pick up the miner by clicking 'Pick up Miner' in its UI.

Used to craft
It is advised to place several Portable Miners in an arc shape so that the engineer is not required to move around when interacting with the next portable miner. As soon as the is unlocked, build it next to the mining site for ore-buffering.

History
This history is incomplete.


 * Patch 0.2.1: Made the Miner Mk.3 available.
 * Patch 0.1.5: Miner Mk.2 cost changed from 1 Portable Miner, 4 Encased Industrial Beam, and 10 Cable to 2 Portable Miners, 5 Encased Industrial Beam, and 15 Cable.