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 types of miners available: Portable Miner, Miner Mk.1, Miner Mk.2 and Miner Mk.3.

Portable Miner (see below) is an equipment that has to be held in the hand slot 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 Build Gun instead. Only one Miner building can be built on a resource node, and the resource node must be free of obstruction caused by resource deposit or crackable boulders. Miner buildings require power to operate. They output mined resources to a connected Conveyor Belt, which allows the process 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 Conveyor Belt and Power Line.
 * Only one Miner can be built on each resource node.

Building upgrades

 * Once the higher tier of Miners are 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 a Uranium miner, as the Uranium ore is strongly radioactive when carried.
 * A Conveyor Lift directly connected to a Miner will become disconnected after the Miner upgrade, observe the flexible connector of the lift become retracted as an indication. Rebuild the Conveyor Lift.
 * In case the Engineer's Inventory is full when upgrading the Miner, the returned material will still be stored in the Dismantle Crate, which will be hidden below the Miner. Dismantle the Miner to find it.
 * You will still need to have the required number of Portable Miners in your inventory when upgrading, despite them also being a part of the returned parts.

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 Miners.
 * This is provided the foundations laid are not too high above the resource node.
 * If desired to cover foundations higher, consider using corner ramps as they lack collision box, and thus allow clipping.
 * If covering foundations are higher and the miner is unable to find the node, alternatively to placing corner ramps, place foundations while leaving any portion of the node visible. When placing the miner, point your gun at the node and the miner should be placed at the appropriate height.

Starting time
A Miner, once it receives power, requires 10 seconds to start up. During the startup period, it consumes power, but no ore will be mined.

Mining speed
where and

100% Clock Speed= 150% Clock Speed= 200% Clock Speed= 250% Clock Speed=
 * Mining speed can also be set by typing a desired number in the "parts per minute" under the "Target production rate:" instead of the sliding bar, or percentage.
 * 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 items/min.

Overclocking
Miners can be overclocked up to 250% speed, at the cost of greatly increased power consumption. When aiming for a higher mining rate, using a higher mark miner is preferred over overclocking, as per the 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%

Maximum ore throughput with Miner Mk.3 on every ore node
* Limited by Conveyor Belt Mk.5 speed which is 780 items/min.

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. It has no Conveyor Belt connections which means its mining process cannot be fully automated.

Alternate recipes analysis
Alternate recipes analysis for is not applicable as there is only a single recipe to automate the production of Portable Miner.

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 its interface will always say "1 per second".

Dismantle
As a Portable Miner is considered as equipment, not a building, you cannot dismantle it with. Manually approach it and press the 'Pick Up Miner' button to remove it, including its contents.

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.

It only hold one stack of ore (usually 100). When the miner is full, it will stop mining, displaying an animation sequence and making noise, and you can interact with it and click 'Grab All' to take out the ores.

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.

Although Portable Miners are primarily an early-game tool, they can still find some use in mid-game situations to allow semi-automated collection of far-away resource nodes, without the player having to set up power lines or resource transport to those nodes.

History

 * Patch 0.4.0.12: Fixed Miners not being able to be upgraded/downgraded, this time for real™
 * Patch 0.4.0.11: Reverted the fix in Patch 0.4.0.10. Proper fix for the Miners not being able to be upgraded/downgraded soon™.
 * Patch 0.4.0.10: Fixed a bug that prevented Miners from being upgraded/downgraded.
 * Patch 0.4.0.0:
 * Introduced Portable Miner alternate recipe, allowing it to be automated
 * Changed the cost of Miner Mk.3
 * Patch 0.3.4.10: Portable Miner's cost changed to 2 Iron Plates and 4 Iron Rods
 * 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.
 * Unknown Alpha/Pre-Alpha build: The Portable Miner was "very portable" and capable of walking itself to a spot on a resource node from which to start mining.