Choose My Adventure: Blowing up rocks for fun and profit in Elite Dangerous

When I first started my run in Elite: Dangerous for this week’s Choose My Adventure, I was just barely over the amount of credits I would need to spend in order to get the Type-9 space truck and all of the modules I wanted as suggested by last week’s poll results.

By the end of the weekend, I was so far above that total that I could afford the insurance cost of that spaceship about five times over. And I feel like I was doing things pretty casually. That’s how almost immediately profitable core mining ended up being, which only enhanced my enjoyment.

Like most everything else in E:D, core mining is something I haven’t done in a long while, so some refreshers were in order, especially since it seemed as if at least one site that I relied on for information had been shuttered. Luckily for me, I found some more recent information that got me back into the swing of things without any fuss whatsoever.

I have to give props to CMDR Dituri’s YouTube channel for his guide on the subject, particularly since his channel’s core vision aligns with my own regarding this game.

With knowledge back in my head and a big hearty pile of limpets in my hold, I made way for the rocky planetary ring that was going to hold the mineral that was selling for some of the highest profit possible at the time: monazite. Turns out this particular resource was in pretty heavy demand during the days I was in the cockpit. Lucky me.

As I headed towards the designated planet on my first ride, I had gotten a bit worried when I arrived at the star system that price tracking aimed me to, primarily because there were no less than three fleet carriers parked up at a planet nearby. I was nervous that they were following the same instructions and the deposits were tapped out. Regardless, I resolved to push on if for no other reason than to get some practice under my belt.

It’s here that I should point out how core mining is my preferred method of mining over laser mining. Sure, laser mining is perfectly fine, and like any other resource gathering activity in this game, it can turn some hefty profit if you follow what sells. Still, it’s just a bit less engaging and involved than core mining, where I was responsible for not only seeking out the right kind of asteroid but also responsible for placing explosives enough that the rock could be cracked open safely.

So yes, I admit it, the fact that I’m basically strip mining space rocks with explosives is a huge draw. But I think regular players of the game can agree just how satisfying it is when everything’s set up just right.

For those who don’t understand what I’m on about, allow me to explain: Not every asteroid that can be mined has a core, so first I had to fly through the rocky ring, engaging a pulse wave to find rocks that lit up, then determining if their shape and signature was identifiable as a core asteroid, aka a motherlode. This is a skill that I’m still very slowly beginning to develop, but before then it was a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. Luckily I had plenty of videos to listen to as I sniffed out some tasty rocks.

Once I did find an appropriate asteroid, it was time to set my seismic charges. That’s done by targeting fissures in the rock, then firing explosives at them with one of three charge levels ranging from low power to high power, all while a timer ticked down. The goal is simple on the face of it – set enough charges to hit a specific butter zone where the rock blows but deposits aren’t destroyed within 20 minutes – but the whole exercise once more engaged my brain owing to the careful flying and planning needed.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I was flawless every single time, but messing up two detonations out of several after being away for so long was pretty good in my book.

Once the rock cracked, it was time to open my cargo scoop, send out my little limpet bots to gather the goodies, and use a blaster to free other minerals on the surface of the now-split asteroid. It all just felt perfect, like I was running a personal little mining operation out of the seat of a single spaceship. It satisfied a very deep urge inside of me, the sort of inner kid who literally sat for hours at the top of a hill watching construction vehicles do their thing. I don’t think I’ve really fully grown up from that; it’s probably why I like mecha so much. And core mining, for that matter.

And then, of course, there was the profit. When I finished up my mining trip (purely because I had to stop to make dinner), I ended up raking in a surprisingly fat stack of about 30M credits. Just from the one run. And as I said, I was pretty sure I was doing this casually! If I were better at identifying motherlodes, I probably could have made away with more.

Core mining in E:D once more reminded me of those simple pleasures that have accented this return trip, and I think I’m pretty much finding what it was that made me care about this game in the first place. But I’ll share those thoughts for another time. Right now, there’s one last activity to settle on here. So yes, that means one more poll – the same question I want to ask of you all one final time. I suspect I know which one will win, but I’m going to ask anyway.

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Ah, but wait! There’s one more poll to answer! Since we’re nearing the finale of this return trip to the world of Elite, that means it’s also time to consider what game we should travel to next. So let’s tie that down ahead of time.

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Polling finishes on August 2nd at 1:00 p.m. EDT as usual. Until then, I think I’ll blow up a few more rocks. I might have enough credits to get that Type-9 but I could always have more credits…

Welcome to Choose My Adventure, the column in which you join Chris each week as he journeys through mystical lands on fantastic adventures – and you get to decide his fate. Which is good because he can often be a pretty indecisive person unless he’s ordering a burger.