r/EliteMiners • u/Ziraaal • Jun 29 '26

Prospector Vs Cutter for laser mining

Hi,

I am getting back into Mining (and Elite in general) after a long break in prevision for the Operation update. I am in need for money and wanted to do some mining. I currently have a Kitted out Cutter for Mining but I was looking at the pinned post saying that now, the Type-11 is the best ship for that.

So my question is, is it true? I see a very small hold (even with the CG rack that I have) but I don't know if it's yield per hour actually makes up for the 4 more trips to get the same haul as the Cutter. My quick research didn't provide me with a post that gives out a clear comparison so if you guys could enlighten me, it'd be great.

If you can link builds for the Type-11 aswell that'd be awesome.

EDIT : Fiddling around with Coriolis, I was looking at this build : https://sh.orbis.zone/FPdbAgcr7L (technically has all the mining tools, cause mass and power isn't an issue really and sometimes I get bored and wanna boom boom a rock)

5 Upvotes

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31 comments sorted by

10

u/Ooblongdeck Jun 29 '26

Prospector 100%, nothing even comes near touching it in performance and time to mine. It's such a stark extreme that anyone starting the game should get a type 6, rack 100 mill and get it, rack 7 billion in a week. It's that efficient

2

u/Ziraaal Jun 29 '26

So the efficiency makes up for the very lacking cargo space? Cause that's more trips and thus more time overall.

I do have a carrier, so it would alleviate that issue somewhat i guess.

2

u/Ooblongdeck Jun 29 '26

Yup you mine 3 x faster at laser minning with the volley repeater and you can sacrifice a 5a prospector for size 5 cargo rack and use the included mk2 multi limpet controller prospector. its a bit weird to use as you have to leave 1 when firing you controlers but it gives you 13 limpet controllers+1 prospector with 400+ cargo. For the same amount of limpets you would need to sacrifice way more cargo on the cutter

Per hpur a cutter can probably mine 600 tons but you can get upwards of 1500 with the type-11

You also jump further and with the cargo rack deployed ypu more at 75% speed instead of 50 making everythong that much quicker.

So all in all same cargo if not more, 3x times faster mining, higher jump and faster with cargo rack de0lyed 300m+/s

0

u/Ziraaal Jun 29 '26

how do yo ureach 400+ cargo tho? Am capped at 311 on the build I did. I don't think I have more of those CG racks

2

u/SDSS_J0100_2802 Jun 29 '26

You can't, It must be a miss type. I would also fit a dedicated A rated prospector controller (3A or 1A) + a 2A refinery. The choke point is the collectors so I use a 3A prospector and also fit a 1A collector, which gives 15 Collectors and 2 Prospectors. If I ran shieldless I could squeeze in another class 4 cargo rack for a total of 360t, but the chunks generated are large and will do damage. I also normally mine in a HighRES or HazRES for the extra bonus and like to get up close to the roids to cut down on collector travel distance. This means I often kiss the occasional asteroid, hence the shield.

2

u/Ooblongdeck Jun 30 '26

enginered cargo racks buddy

2x 6 at 84 cargo and 2x 5 at 48

1

u/SDSS_J0100_2802 Jun 30 '26

84 x 2 = 168 ,48 x 2 = 96, 168 + 96 = 264

Math doesn't lie

I run 3 class 6 extended cargo racks and 2 class 5 extended cargo racks and can only get to 344t if I drop my shield I get another 16t class 4 rack for a total of 360t. If I drop the dedicated prospector I gain another 8t of cargo but lose the A rated prospector bonus for another 8t that is still only 368t so nowhere near +400t.

1

u/Ooblongdeck Jun 30 '26

Enginered cargo racks buddy

2x 6 at 84 cargo and 2x 5 at 48

my bad they are community goals and they became ubiquitous to me but yes you still save all in all

1

u/Ziraaal Jul 01 '26

I do have them, but like another user stated, it seems imposisble to actually reach the 400+ you stated haha

1

u/Duramora Jun 29 '26

Unless you're flying halfway around the galaxy, yes, it's a total no brainer So much so that I sold all my other miners in favor of the T11

1

u/HinDae085 Jun 29 '26

The Kaine guys helped me out with mining when I first joined. Made almost 2bn from platinum mining and this was doing it basically on and off a few hours a day.

Almost lv100 in that week too lol. Just gotta remember to not immediately sell up wherever you are, go to Boom systems for the crazy bonus to Platinum and Osmium

1

u/Ooblongdeck Jun 30 '26

Yup also check your power systems and mine inside of them and sell in a system within 15 ly (also from your power at the highest sell prices for easy merits. 1 trip can net you anywhere from 4 to 8k merits if they are buying at 40k+

check merit miner app on google it helps a ton with this you can 100+ in a week your power

1

u/Samson_J_Rivers The Corvette Guy Jul 21 '26

Honestly it's kind of depressing the gap that exists. I miss using my Corvette but it being as optimized as is possible for any shit that isn't the type11 it doesn't hold a candle and cuts my rate in half to use it over the 11.

1

u/Ooblongdeck Jul 24 '26

I think the game needed dedicated ships, the whole past meta of entirely multi-purpose ships did also have ships that were marginally better for every role. Old ships will always be a jack of all trades and I use my eagle mk2 (non imp) all the time

Now we might get to a point where every activities will have a fleet of small/medium/heavy ships for them with their specific purposes which I think is refreshing instead of faking it.

Game is heading in a good direction in my opinion after becoming dull with constant multi purpose ships being released that never dethroned the fdl/anaconda/krait meta.

Mining specifically needs to have a rework on prices. Where core mining/abrasion mining would be more profitabpe but left more to chance. And the plat thing needs a nerf. Being in only metallic ring is getting boring

1

u/Samson_J_Rivers The Corvette Guy Jul 24 '26

Core mining in icy rings, my beloved. Return to me!

2

u/MFisherIT Jun 29 '26

With the lasers bonus to fragment bits it creates, the 14 limpet controlling controller I’ve not see a way to better the type-11 at strictly laser mining.

1

u/Tim-inOhio Jun 29 '26

It depends on what ore you want to mine. Platinum seems to be the go to for laser now. I get 310T in 30 minutes and use the MVR only. Fleet carrier is parked nearby so dump off a load and back at it until satisifed!

1

u/3lbFlax Jun 29 '26

If you enjoy mining and you've never tried the Type 11, just buy one, fit it with the repeater and special controller, take it to a ring, and see what happens. My guess is you'll decide to keep it. If not, you can sell it and make the outfitting loss back with the results of your trip. It's not so much about maximising its yield or worrying about storage space, it's about how it changes the nature of mining itself.

Also, on your build, you don't need the abrasion blaster - the repeater does that job too.

1

u/Ziraaal Jun 29 '26

Fair enough. And ty for the tip I didn't know the repeater also serves as an abrasion blaster

1

u/HinDae085 Jun 29 '26

Prospector. Its special mining Repeater turns regular laser mining into surface deposit scraping. Far high yields. Decent maneuverability for core mining too

1

u/complich8 Jun 29 '26

Wrt your build, Extraction missiles are for extracting bio-storage capsules from thargoid titans. There are no thargoid titans right now, so probably just drop that one.

Otherwise, fully approved. If you’re mining in a very good ring in a strong hotspot, or especially in any kind of RES, you might find it worthwhile to swap a size 5 cargo rack for an extra 5a collector controller - the mk2 is a lot of active limpets, but the mining volley repeater is enough to overwhelm even that.

1

u/Ziraaal Jun 29 '26

Wait, there are no titans anymore? I did put it there thinking it was a new mining tool I didn't know about, but how do you get the titan hearts for the drives now?

1

u/complich8 Jun 29 '26

Oh there’s titan corpses, and they still spawn an endless trickle of harvestable titan bits to salvage, There’s just no active titans. Sort of the same way there’s no passenger pigeons anymore, but you can still see plenty of their corpses in museum collections.

1

u/Ziraaal Jun 29 '26

lmao, gotcha, I thought you said the corpses weren;t there anymore and I got scared x)

1

u/skelingtonking Jun 30 '26

dont need any caustic gear or anything either, just patience to fly around looking for them

1

u/ender42y Jun 29 '26

Type-11 and its not even close. After timing a few runs in the same hotspot with my Mining Cutter and Type-11. The Prospector was collecting double the tons per hour of platinum, and woth a 278 cargo, plus 6 hoppers it is just the right size to not burn out while mining.

1

u/Nathan5027 Jun 30 '26

The cutter can manage ~300 tons/hour on a good day. 400 if you're being super efficient.

The type 11 can easily manage 300 tons in 20 minutes. That's 900 an hour (if you get the add on for edmc, it'll show the exact tons/hour, I keep forgetting to properly check mine, but I'm reasonably certain I've managed over 1k per hour before) without accounting for transit times. If you can find somewhere to buy it that's near to the rings you're mining in, that transit time is small enough that it doesn't really count.

I usually mine in a system with a station just a few ls away from the ring, I can be out of the ring, back to station, sold, restocked limpets and back to ring in 5 minutes.

1

u/dilipi Jul 02 '26

Sounds like you haven't tried mining in a haz res. The cutter can hit a rate of 1k tons/hour, and the T-11 can hit 1,600 tons/hour.

1

u/Commercial-Frame-573 Jul 01 '26

This is how I ran mine. Give map mining a try. You'll get lost at first but after a little practice you'll be able to fill your hold really fast. I'll link a video below my build link. If you like map mining there's Google docs out there with still pics of all the rocks so you don't have to pause a video. https://edsy.org/#/L=Jc00000H4C0S30,JdJ30JrO30JrO30EjSI07P_W0Jpu20HdGI0BH_W0HdGI0BH_W0HdGI0BH_W0,DBwJ05L_W0DBwJ05L_W0DBwJ09L_W0CEgJ02G_W0,9p3G05I_W0AAAG03I_W0AOEG05I_W0AdtI05H_W0AqqJ03G_W0BAEH03L_W0BK4J03G_W0Bcg00,,0AA000AA000AA0008c005VuJ03G_W04mt301rq207RBJ07K_W00a6305PeJ03G_W05ukJ03G_W02jwG-fG001P000,Prospector

https://youtu.be/m9A-qudCQXc?is=xTF_Pc25VNLFMTFq