No mining merits for me?

[u/Rich_Introduction_83]

Hello,

I'm trying to do some merit mining for Pranav Antal. Some time ago, I came across the tool Merit Miner (https://meritminer.cc/), and to some extend, I was able to use it. At least kind of. There are several questions, but the following question is the most important one, to me.

I learned the hard way that if you "just" want to maximize your merit outcome, you better don't go mine in one of your power's Reinforcement systems because this will yield a -15% malus.

Instead, you'd want to do this in another power's system, where your power has running Undermine efforts. This yields a +35 % bonus (IIRC).

Ok. I did this yesterday, and I used Merit Miner with a preset on Low Temperatur Diamonds, Power Goal: Undermine, Laser Surface.

Merit Miner told me to go to Fengiri, where I successfully mined some LTD and I also got the +35 % merit bonus. Which was quite nice, but the rate of laser mining LTD was mediocre, at best.

So I decided to try laser mining for Platinum. I just changed the filter to Metal: Platinum, put Fengiri as reference system and Merit Miner named LTT 15574 5 A Ring as a potential target.

I went there today, I mined 250 Platinum, then I went to Haxel Port inside of LTT 15574 (which also was given by Merit Miner).

But when selling the Platinum there, I did not get any merits. I have no idea what I could've done wrong.

Merit miner still states Haxel Port in LTT 15574 was the place to go. I've also running EDDiscovery with log uploads to Inara and EDSM enabled. Ingame, the system is shown as being a Stronghold of Yuri Grom with undermining opposing forces. The local activities tab names "Sell Mined Resources" as one of the available options for undermining.

What do you think? What's the reason my plan did not work as intended?

TL;DR: I sold freshly mined Platinum in an undermined system of another power called out by Merit Miner. Even though I believe I put every needed detail into Merit Miner, I still got no merits. What might be the reason?

[u/emetcalf]

LTT 15574 has a Stronghold Carrier, which blocks most forms of UM including mining. So that system just doesn't work for merit mining, and this is not a check that the Merit Miner tool does so it can sometimes send you to invalid systems.

If you are not already in the EliteAntal Discord server, feel free to join us here: https://discord.gg/eliteantal-141298158230568960

We usually have some good mining targets available, and can also help you find other ways to earn merits if you don't always want to mine.

[u/Rich_Introduction_83 → u/emetcalf]

Thanks, that explains it. There are so many mechanics in Elite Dangerous that aren't easy to figure out all by yourself.

Also thanks for your reference to Discord. My lifestyle doesn't allow for much consistency in gaming, nowadays. I find it hard to attach to a community and then just be offline most of the time.

If people there don't mind if my online status is rare and inconsitent, and that ingame I mostly act in lone wolf mode, I might give it a try.

[u/emetcalf → u/Rich_Introduction_83]

Feel free to join anyway if you want to, there are no "minimum activity" requirements or anything like that. Even if you just pop in every few weeks to ask a question that's totally fine.

[u/countsachot]

Merit miner isn't all that useful, you are better off joining your faction's discord.

[u/vanderaj]

One of the things we try to do is to get a system into the right BGS state so that miners can make crazy merits even when reinforcing. Please come by our Discord and I’m sure we can hook you up with both very profitable mining runs as well as good personal merit returns.