Editing Guides:Empire Mining

{{Template:Stub}}This guide will show you the basics of [[mining]] and how to move on to become a professional miner. As you start out in [[EVE]] you don't have many skills and their levels aren't very high, so you need to get more [[skill]]s and train them. To get more skills you need money. Currency in EVE is called [[ISK]]. Mining is one of the simplest ways of getting money in EVE.

=Starting out=
All you need to start mining is a ship (like the [[rookie ship]] you start with), a [[mining laser]] (you start out with a [[Civilian Miner]]), and some skill in mining.

The basic equipment important to mining (at the beginning of the game) are:

* [[Mining laser]]s
* [[Cargo expander]]s
* [[Survey scanner]]s

Mining lasers extract ore from [[asteroid]]s. They are fitted in [[high slot]]s. Different lasers extract ore at different speeds, and sometimes you will need special lasers to extract certain ores. To begin mining, get in range [usually within 10km for starting lasers], [[target]] an asteroid, and then activate your laser. It will then start to extract the ore from the asteroid, putting it in your cargo hold.

Cargo expanders are used to create more space in your ship's cargo hold. This lets you fit more ore in your ship so that you don't have to travel back and forth between your base and your asteroids as often. They are fitted in the [[low slot]]s of your ship. There is a fixed speed penalty associated with using cargo expanders, but in most circumstances this still is deemed worthwhile.

Survey scanners are useful for [[farming asteroids]]. They can tell you how much ore remains in an asteroid, allowing you to turn off your lasers before the asteroid is destroyed. This isn't terribly important if you're a new player, but if you're trying to maximize efficiency, turning off your lasers in time can end you up with a lot more ore in less time.[[asteroid belt| ]]

==Your starting equipment==

Which ship you first mine in depends on which Career Agent you start with after leaving Aura's orientation.  Both the Industry and Business agents will give you the Venture mining frigate and the Mining Frigate skill book you need to train to fly it by the end of the second mission.

'''The Industry Agent'''

If you start with the Industry agent you will make a few trips to mine in your Rookie ship (Impairor for Amarr, Ibis for Caldari, Velator for Gallente and Reaper for Minmatar).  These ships are all very similar.  The Velator has a little more cargo room, the Reaper is a little faster, the Ibis the most CPU and the Impairor a little more power.  You only need use it for a couple missions, but you will learn a little about fitting.

For lasers, it is recommended you start out with [[Miner I]]. They are much faster than the Civilian Mining Laser you are first given with your rookie ship. You will only be able to fit one on your rookie ship due to limits of its [[CPU]], but this is all you need to complete the first two missions. If you do not turn in your mission immediately, you can make more trips to mine the mission asteroid to earn extra ISK.  As soon as you turn in the mission it will disappear.  

You will have no trouble fitting Expanded Cargohold I in both low slots. You will need to train the Hull Upgrade skill 1 level in order to use them. '''Before you buy anything, make sure you have the required skills to equip it on your ship.'''  Click the blue circle next to any item for information (or right-click and choose Information from the contextual menu).  The Prerequisites tab will list all the skill needed to use a module.  Skills you have will show a green checkmark next to them.  A yellow circle means you have started training the skill, but not yet reached the necessary level.  A red X means you do not have that skill yet and need to buy it to train.

The second Industry mission gives you the Mining Frigate skill for accepting the mission - and the Venture frigate for completing it.  Before you do anything else, put that skill at the front of your training qeue. That way you will be able to use the ship as soon as you complete the mission  This mission also tells you the basics of refining.


'''The Business Agent'''

The first mission has you transport some Data Sheets to a station in another system.  The reward for completing it is the Mining Frigate skill book.  Again, immediately put the skill at the front of your training qeue.  The second mission introduces Salvaging and gives the Venture frigate as a reward.

==The Venture Mining Frigate==

Early in the history of EVE, each race had its own frigate with bonuses for mining. Now the ORE Company's Venture fills that role.

Traits:<br />Mining Frigate skill bonus per level:<br />5% bonus to mining yield<br />5% reduction to gas cloud harvesting duration per level

Role Bonus:<br />100% bonus to mining yield and gas cloud harvesting<br />+2 warp core strength

Features:<br />5,000 m3 ore bay (ore feeds directly here from your mining lasers)<br />10 m3 drone bay (to carry combat or mining drones)

You will want to start training drone skills if you have any interest in pursuing a mining career further.  Drones are a miner's friend -- whether it is to use Mining Drones for a little extra yield or Combat Drones to fight off NPC pirates (since you don't have guns) that show up in belts below 0.9 security level.  Your base control range for drones is 20 kilometers.  This can be increased with certain skills and modules.
#Train Drones to at least level 2.  Each level allows you to use one more drone to a maximum of five.  The Venture's 10 m3 drone bay can hold two Mining Drones or two Light Combat Drones.
#Train Mining Drone Operations.  Each level will add 5% yield to any mining drones you use.
#Train Scout Drone Operations.  Each level adds 5,000 meters to your drone control range.<br />


A typical Venture fitting includes:
*2 mining lasers in the two turret High slots. You should have 2 Miner I.  You will want to consider getting a better model to increase your yield (how much ore you mine in each 1-minute cycle).  Click on the Information link for your Miner I and go to the Variations tab.  This will show a list of all variations of a Mining Laser.  At the bottom is the Compare button.  This will let you create a table showing different features of the modules - CPU and power used, yield, mining range.
*The third high slot is what is called a utility slot.  This can hold modules like a Salvager or Tractor Beam that require a high slot but not a turret or launcher hardpoint.
*The three mid-slots can hold a Survey Scanner (shows a tabbed list of all asteroids in its range by type and how much ore is in each rock), Afterburner (to let you move around the asteroid belt quicker), a shield module for defense from NPC rats (Shield Booster, Shield Extender, hardeners, amplifiers).
*The single low slot commonly holds a Mining Laser Upgrade I or II.  You need to train the Mining Upgrade skill to fit these on your ship.  An alternative is a Damage Contol Unit.


Later on in the game, you'll need different equipment, ships, et cetera. If you're in a [[corporation]], it's best to ask them for recommendations. Else you can always join the Help Channel.

----

==Equipping modules and mining==

Before you can start mining, you must equip your lasers, cargo expanders, et cetera. First, open the [[station]] fitting window.  Most, but not all, stations have a fitting service.

In the station fitting service, you can see all the slots that are in your ship. You have high slots for [[turret]]s (which include mining lasers and guns), missile hardpoints and utility slots. You have [[mid slot]]s, for equipment like scanners, Afterburners and shield upgrades. Finally, you have low slots, for things like cargo expanders, mining upgrades or armor upgrades. It is best to fill as many of your slots with modules as possible, provided you meet the CPU, [[power grid]] and skill requirements, however in the beginning this is usually not necessairy.

Right-click the [[module]] you want to fit to a slot and choose 'fit to active ship', or just click and drag the module you want to equip to its appropriate slot. Most modules require you to have at least a certain level of a particular skill, like mining or [[electronics (skill)|electronics]], to equip them. You can see what skills you need by looking at the item properties and the Prerequisites tab. To take out a module to open up a slot, left-click on the module and drag it to your cargo hold or [[hangar]] space or hover the mouse over the module then move down the list of options and click the arrow.

Once you've equipped all your modules, you can go mine. Close the fitting window and undock from the station.

Once you are outside the station you need to tell your ship computer where you want to go. You do this simply by right-clicking in empty space so you get the context menu. From there, go to 'asteroid belts' and pick one of the belts in the list. Choose "warp to location" to make your ship [[warp]] to that location.  You will exit warp out in the center, about 20km from the actual asteroids.

Once there, choose an asteroid to mine, right-click it and choose 'lock target'. When your target is locked you will be confirmed by an icon image appearing in the top right section of your screen.

If you are outside of range, just right-click it and choose 'approach'. Once you've reached the mining laser range of an asteroid, right-click your ship and choose 'stop my ship' or click on the minus sign at the left side of your speed indicator.

Next, activate your mining lasers; you do this by clicking on them. They are in the bottom center of the screen. Another way of activating them is to click the appropriate function key.  Hover your moise over the module symbol and it will tell you which key activates it (usually F1 and/or F2). Once your lasers are activated their images will blink green. You're now extracting ore from the asteroid, and you should see how the mining lasers shoot at the targeted asteroid. The laser(s) will take 1 minute to cycle, at the end of this time the ore you collect will be placed in your cargo hold. Once your hold is full of ore, your mining lasers will automatically stop, and you should then go to the nearest station to drop off your ore. Once you're docked just open your ship's cargo again, left click the ore in your cargo bay and drag it to your item (personal) hangar and let go. Now undock and start mining again.  When you are done mining you can either [[refining|refine]] or sell the ore.

==Cargo==

There are two ways to deal with the ore you mine. The first and easiest way is to just [[haul]] the ore to the nearest station yourself. However, there is a much more efficient way to transport ore. It is known as jetcan mining.

You can't jetcan mine unless you have an [[industrial ship]] and the skills to fly it, or you find someone with an industrial ship who is willing to help you. You will need to warp back to your station and drop the ore off there.

To jetcan mine, mine as usual, only once your cargo bay is near full of ore right click your ore and choose 'jettison'. This will launch your ore into space inside a [[cargo container]]. This cargo container has a life span of approximately 2 hours. The beauty of this cargo container is that is can hold up to 27,500m<sup>3</sup>, which is a whole lot of ore.

So once you've jettisoned your ore, find the container that is floating in space next to your ship. Right click it and choose open cargo. Now place that window right next to your ships cargo bay window.

You can now take the ore that the mining lasers extracted into your cargo bay and move it to the floating cargo container so your cargo bay doesn't fill up. Just left click the ore in your cargo bay, hold down, drag it to the floating cargo container and let go. You will see how the ore gets transferred into the floating cargo container.

If you are mining with the help of someone with an industrial ship (henceforth called a "hauler"), the hauler will take the ore straight from the container and put it into their hold, being sure to always leave somthing in the container to keep it from dissapearing. Usually you should just separate the ore into two piles, by holding shift and dragging the stack of ore to the side, then putting 1 in the stack size field. This will give you a separate stack of 1 ore, which you will leave in the container until you're done mining. Make sure that you don't drop your harvested ore onto the stack of 1, or you'll have to separate it again.
Alternatively you can place some other item in the container, like a single round of ammo. Once the hauler has no more cargo space, he or she goes to the nearest station and drops of the ore. When everyone is done mining, the hauler sells the ore and divides up the profits between himself and the miners. Make sure you agree on how to divide up the cash before you start mining.

This proccess involves at least one miner and one hauler, but you can actually have as many miners and haulers as you want. Usually it's best to have one hauler and as many miners as you can get together, all dropping into the same container.

If you are jetcan mining by yourself, just keep on mining until you have filled your floating cargo container. Right click the container and "Save Location As" , give it a name and save it in Personal Locations.  This gives you a bookmark.  Then go and dock with your mining ship, jump in to your industrial ship, warp back to the cargo container and take the ore in it and transport it back to your station.

Take into mind that there is a risk, however, to this method. Once you jettison your ore into space, other people are also able to take from that container. You will notice a "can flipper" as they are called, when they turn red while flying next to one of your container, which probably means they stole ore from it. Can flippers can also be spotted when he warps into your belt and starts flying towards your container. Once red, you are allowed to shoot at them. However this is often what they want, since once you shoot at them, they are allowed to shoot back at you without, the Empire police, [[CONCORD]], coming after them. More often than not they have either friends or a bigger ship nearby in which they intend to kill or ransom you. '''The best advice to be given to new players when encountered with can flippers, is to turn the other cheek and ignore them, and definately not shoot at them. ( not kidding they will kill you)'''

=== Naming the Cargo Container (CC) ===

A side note there, as you can see when right clicking your jettison cargo container that is floating in space you can also name it. This is a useful feature; you can name your cargo container so that you can see how long it's been in space, making it easier for you to keep watch of the life span time limit.

Also, naming it a certain way will make it easier for the one hauling the ore to see which one to grab from ones the come out of warp. In Intermundia we use a special way to name our jettison cargo containers, especially at corp. mining operations.

1. ABC 23:34
2. ABC 23:55
And so forth.

Number = 1, 2, 3, and so forth. This is to make it easy to FAST find what containers is the first one or the latest one.

ABC = our corporation ticker symbol. You might have others mining in the same belt, this part of the tag separates your containers.  It also lets people coming in to the same belts as you know this is not an abandoned container.

Time = this is so you can keep track of how old the container is, use the time from the eve clock in game. That is GMT; don't use your own local time or any other time since you might be mining with people that aren't in the same time zone as you.

== Hauling ==
The industrial ship has a much larger cargo bay then the regular ships, so it can take a lot more ore each time it goes to the station. Many people choose to specialize in hauling, buying an industrial ship and filling it with cargo expanders and the like, and then offering hauling services to miners (for a part of the profit, of course). This is a very good way to make money, because the skills and equipment used in hauling is very different than those used in mining.

When hauling, remember that there are a few drawbacks to using a jettison container to mine in.

It has a limited life span, when it has been in space for 1.5 hours you have to start to haul (transport) your ore to the station or move it to newer container. If you leave a jettison container too long in space it will implode and all items and ore in it will be destroyed. And no, the life span doesn't get any longer because you keep on putting ore in to it. The life span cycle starts from when you jettison it into space.

Anyone can take from a jettison container. There are people that like to take ore from other people. Anyone can come to your jettison container and take ore from it, and people who do are called ore thieves. There is nothing you can do about it; if you choose to use this method to mine you are also allowing other people to take from you. The best defence against ore thieves is to take the ore straight into your cargo hold as soon as it it is put into the container.

If you're above 0.4 security system and mining and some one takes ore from you, you may shoot them down and their gang/corp will be unable to help them. Keep in mind they are then allowed to shoot back! And, once they have the right to shoot you, they also have the option to go back to the local station, where they have a battleship docked, switch into that, blow your ship up, and then salvage the wreck, and take your ore. The only thing they aren't allowed to do, without losing their ship, is destroy your pod.

The best thing to do when some one takes ore from you is to warp back to your station, change to your industrial ship and go back to pick up any ore that might be left. Also tell on the ore thief in local chat window. Type something like, "name" is an ore thief, watch out he just stole ore from me.

At least you may have prevented the ore thief from taking any ore from some one else, and this may also make the ore thief move to another system since there might be no business for him in the system you are in.

== Pirates ==
[[Pirates]] are the bane of all miners. Pirates are pilots both [[NPC]] and [[PC]] who will try to destroy your ship and/or steal your ore.

[[NPC]] pirates - commonly referred to as 'rats' - show up in the belts of any system with a security level lower than 0.9.  The lower the security rating, the bigger the risk of a pirate attack, and the stronger the pirates are likely to be.  The Venture and all of the mining barges and exhumers have a drone bay.  The Venture's bay is 10 m3 and can hold two light combat drones that should be able to handle NPC rats in .8 space (and can work down to .5 space - though multiple rats in the lower security systems may force you to warp away). The mining barges and exhumers all have at least 25 m3 of drone bay. To use drones, you need to train the Drones skill.  Each level of that skill will allow you to use one more drone up to a maximum of five.  Other skill such as Combat Drone Operations and Scout Drone Operations will increase the effectiveness of your drones.  Also train the Targeting skill to let you target more ships or asteroids up to the ship's maximum.

PC pirates can be anywhere and come in a few different forms.

#Can flippers have already been mentioned.  They take ore from your jet-can into their cargo hold.  Or they will create a jet can of their own and move the ore from your can into theirs.  Either action will cause them to be flagged to you or your PLAYER corporation. The general motive behind such an act is to incite you or your corp-mates to either attack them or "take your ore back".  Taking wither action will cause you to be flagged to them,  giving them the right to shoot at you without Concorde intervention.  The can flipper and any of his friends are likely fit for combat waiting for a response. This is all used in the attempt to cause your death, loss of ship, and sometimes ore. A good way to defend against such an attack is to employ a "corp-mate" form your player corporation to stand guard or to completely ignore the act.  Though the latter causes a loss in ore mined while you are still alive, this is only done in .5 and above as in .4 and below they'll just shoot you without warning.
#Outright ore thieves.  These are people who initially act like the can flippers -- stealing ore from your jet can -- but don't stick around for the reaction.  Instead they fly away to a station to wait out the suspect flag.  One version of this has the thief flying an Industrial ship.  He lines up your jet can with a station in the system.  Then he flies toward the station, coming past your can.  When he is in range (< 2,500 meters) he opens your can and scoops as much ore as he can fit into his cargo hold then warps to the station.
#Their are groups that like to bump miners out of range of asteroids.  Their main target is the part of the miner population that mine all or partially AFK (away from the keyboard).  If the miner is moved out of range of the asteroid(s) he is mining before the Miner's cycle is complete he gets no ore.
#Some also try to extort a "permit" fee out of miners not to be bothered, for protection from those selling the permit.   Visit this site for more information: [http://minerbumping.com/p/the-code.html Miner Bumping]  A note - someone who bumps miners may not be a member of this or affiliated groups.  They may just be "having fun".
#Suicide gankers.  These are pilots in high DPS or "alpha" ships that plan attacks on mining and industrial ships for profit (though the practice is also part of the program of the "miner bumpers" above).  They are referred to as suicide gankers since Concorde will respond to any unjustified attack in high security space and destroy the ganker's ship.  This response may not happen until after they have blown up your ship, though. 


'''How to guard against pirates.'''

Be alert, watch local chat or ask corporation members for warnings about particular pilots or corporations that actively look for miners.  Learn how to set up the Overview to show only unknown, suspect and criminal ships in scan range and use D-scan to see past the local grid/belt.  Create contacts for any known gankers and/or their corporations with bad status and make sure to click the box putting them on your watch list. Use bookmarks (see below) to move in and out of the belt.  Stay aligned to your home station while mining, realign after moving.  Put some kind of tank on your ship.  Alter your habits periodically -- which systems and belts you mine, how you mine.  Give your ship a name ('Alfred' instead of 'John Smith's Venture').  Use [http://evemaps.dotlan.net/‎ Dotlan] to find quiet systems (ones with few kills and jumps into/out of the system) to mine in.

If there is a risk of pirate attack where you are mining, you may want to employ a fighter pilot (or several fighter pilots, if it's a bad system) to protect you and your mining group. If, by chance, you are mining without a bodyguard and you are attacked by pirates, you should immediately warp to a station. It usually doesn't matter which station, just warp to the first one you see. Some pirates have warp disruptors, which will prevent you from warping out. In that case, it's pretty much kill or be killed. Also note that even when you do have a bodyguard, many pirates will attack the weakest ships first, which usually means the miners. So, you may have to temporarily warp out anyway while your bodyguard destroys the pirate ships. Once the ships are gone, you should resume mining as normal.

== How to speed up your mining ==

Improve your mining skills; train them to higher levels to make you faster at mining. These are the skills that are valid mining skills.

*[[Mining]] (+5% yield per level plus level 4 lets you use mining laser 2, this will speed things up,)
*Mining Frigate skill (+5% yield per level also -5% gas cloud harvesting duration per level)
*[[Astrogeology]] (+5% yield per level, needs mining level 4 and science level 4)
*Industrial ship (the more you train your industrial ship skill, the more cargo space you get - use for hauling)
*[[Drones]] (the more drones you can use, the faster the mining will go with those drones)
*[[Drone Interface]] (causes drones' yield to increase substantially)
*[[Mining Drone operation]] (will make your mining drones yield more ore when mining and allows the use of better mining drones)
**Remember: when mining using drones, stay as close to the drones as possible, as that way they don't waste valuable time taking the ore back to your ship.

Having these skills at top notch will make you a faster miner, which in return will make you earn more money faster. Also getting in to better ships which have more slots for mining lasers will speed up things for you.

Teaming up, be 2 or more mining together. This means that one can haul and the others mine speeding up things.

Also, you might want to train for ''Mining Upgrades'' skill to be able to fit a ''Mining Laser Upgrade'' module (one for regular mining and one for ice mining). Those modules increase your mining yield at the slight expense of increased CPU usage by your lasers (10%).

A recently added skill, "Mining Foreman" listed under Leadership skills, adds a +2% mining bonus per level as long as you are in a gang that has been converted to fleet and you are the assigned booster.  You can also train the the Leadership skill to form fleets and act as booster.

A general progression for ships for the would-be miner is as follows:


1. Any racial frigate - even the Rookie Frigates can be the first ship used. Skills Required: Frigate I

2. Venture Mining Frigate

3. For haulage: Industrial ship for your Empire (Sigil, Badger Mk I, Iteron, Wreathe)
Skills Required: Industrial I
:::The best of the industrial ships is in the [[Minmatar]] line, (Wreathe, Hoarder, Mammoth) At around 800,000 ISK, the Mammoth is quite cheap, and carries the second largest amount of Ore of the industrials. 
:::The tech 1 industrial with the most space is the Iteron V.
:::It could be usefull to equip a hauler with a Tractor Beam -- especially in a Fleet mining situation -- as the pilot can use the tractor Beam to haul in cargo containers within 19km.
::''Recommended to train at this stage: Mining IV or V, Astrogeology to IV, Refining V, Refinery Efficiency III''

4. There is great debate as to which Mining Barge to get first. The Procurer is cheaper and only has 12.000 m3 ore hold. It's single Strip Miner receives a bonus making it mine as quick as a Retriever.  The Retriever is more expensive and uses two Strip Miners.  It's ore hold starts at 22.000 m3 and increases 5% with each level of Mining Barge to a maximum of 27,500 m3.  The Covetor has three Strip Miners but an ore hold of only 7.000 m3 so it needs to be used mining to jetcans for a hauler or Orca.  From there, train Astrogeology to V, and then get your Mining Barge to V.
''Skills required for a Retriever (2 strip miners): Industry V, Mining IV, Astrogeology IV, Science IV''
''Additonal skills required for a Covetor (3 strip miners): Astrogeology V, Mining Barge V''
:''As you probably know you're serious about mining at this point (it takes at least a month to get from Retriever to Coveter, so it's probably not going to be trained by someone who isn't - it might be a good idea to get Mining V at this stage''

5. Mining exhumer.
These Tech II ORE ships have a similar set to the Mining Barges.  The Skiff has a single high slot, the Mackinaw has 2 high slots and an ore hold that increases with each level of the Exhumor skill and the Hulk.  These ships are better versions of the barges with more Powergrid, CPU and resists allowing them to tank more easily and larger drone bays.
''Additional Skills required: Industry V, Spaceship Command IV''

6. Orca (optional) - the Orca doesn't actually mine. It grants a large bonus to other miners in it group and functions as a massive industrial ship.
Skills Required: Mining Foreman V, Mining Director I, Industry V, Spaceship Command V

Additional skills for advanced mining:
''Refining'' - reduces the amount of minerals lost when refining ore at a station
''Refinery Efficiency'' - further reduces the amount of minerals lost when refining ore at a station
:NB. It is not recommended to train Refining and Refinery Efficiency to level 5 each, you can get a 100% yeild (minus tax) in empire space with Refining V, Refinery Efficiency III and the relevent skill with the Ore you're planning to refine at level III, also.
''Metalurgy'' - has nothing to do with mining, but is required to learn ''Mining Director''. It also speeds up training of the aformentioned Ore-specific refining skill 
''Mining Director'' - required to pilot the Orca, allows the use of modules that boost the mining rate of others
Ore Specific Refining Skills (required to use the crystals required as ammunition in the high end Strip Mining lasers that Mining Barges and Exhumers use - ie ''Veldspar Refining'') *edit*'''<u> metalurgy is not required for the orca and is only required for high refining skills like arkonor etc. not veldspar.</u>'''

== Bookmarks ==
But there are also other things you can do to speed up mining, maybe not the mining it self, but how you mine, Bookmarks.

Yes, bookmarks can speed up the whole mining process for you; these bookmarks will let you get out to mine and haul the ore faster.  Go through these steps for any solar system you plan to mine regularly.  Take a frigate equipped with an Afterburner, or even better a Microwarpdrive, and the People & Places window open to the Places tab and create these bookmarks.  It is important to note that the bookmark is not created when you push the Add Bookmark button.  It is actually created when you hit Return and the bookmark is saved to your Personal Locations.  It will actually say "spot in Albedo system".  You need to edit it to say something reflecting its position -- "Docking Albedo II" or "Albedo VI - 2" for an asteroid belt.

*'''A docking bookmark'''.  This is a little counterintuitive since you already can select the station and then choose "Warp to 0" or "Dock" from the Selected Items window.  But if you use the Dock button you often come out of warp up to 2,500 meters from the dock and it may take you some time approaching and getting towed into the dock.  Also, targeting asteroids as you work, you may not have the station selected but need to warp in to dock. This bookmark is another way to do that.  When you undock from a station it may take a while for the Overview to show any distance.  This is the docking perimeter which varies depending on station type.  You want to create a bookmark whithin the docking perimeter.  Manuever above, below or to one side of the station and Add a Bookmark.                                                                                                                               

*'''The asteroid belts'''.  The default warp-in points for each belt are out in the center of the belt some 20 km away from the rocks.  Instead make one of two bookmarks. 

#After jumping to the default warp point, fly to a spot just above the center of the belt and stop your ship.  Click the Add Bookmark button.  Edit it to say "System I - 2" '''[''' meaning Planet I - belt 2 in System ''']''' and save it in Personal Bookmarks.  From this spot you have a good view of the whole belt and can see what rocks are still present and choose where to work.  This bookmark means "".

#Create a 'tactical bookmark' for the belt.  When you arrive at the default warp-in fly straight up or down until you are at least 150km from the original spot.  Add a Bookmark (Return).  Edit this one after you have taken it.  The 150km is the minimum distance you can warp.  From this spot you can see the whole belt and any ships already working.  You can pick a particular rock and "Warp to 0" - or to 10km.


While you work an asteroid belt, you may want to make temporary bookmarks to help you efficiently mine and clear a particular belt.
*Individual rocks or just a spot as areas of the belt are depleted
*Wrecks of NPC pirates to loot
*A hauler may want to right click a jet can or wreck and "Save Location" as a new warp in point to be closer to the miners.  If the miners and hauler are in a fleet, the hauler can also use a Fleet feature to "warp to member".


=== Creating Folders in your People and Places ===

You may want to create folders in your people and places window to organize your bookmarks. For example, if you have a lot of bookmarks for Ellmay mining fields create a folder and name it Ellmay Mining fields. Then move your Ellmay mining bookmarks to that folder. Yes it's a little work, but on the other hand, it's a few minutes work to keep your bookmarks in order and you will be thankful for it in the future when you have a few hundred bookmarks and are wondering what the hell bookmark number 21 named blabla does.

Any bookmarks you save in Personal Locations will show up at the bottom of the contextual menu,  Bookmarks you made in the Ellmay system will not show up when you are working in Vaere.  If the bookmarks are saved inside a folder you will have to scroll down to the folder, then to the belt, then choose "Warp to".



=== Sharing bookmarks ===

Ok so say you've made bookmarks and want to share them, so how do you do this?

It's easy, have your people and places window open, make sure you have clicked the Places tab. Find the bookmark/s you want to share and click it once to highlight it, push down the keyboard key shift and hold it down, left click the bookmark and hold down the mouse button. Now drag it to either your personal hangar, your cargo bay or the corps' hangar.

Just make sure the surface you drag it to is empty, then let go. You should now see an exact same bookmark labelled the same way where you dropped it.

If you're the one that wants to import a bookmark, just left click it, hold down, drag it to your personal hangar or cargo bay (you can only import a bookmark from one of those places). Then make sure your people and places window is open, hit the tab places, now drag the bookmark from your cargo bay or your personal hangar to your places window. Same thing there make sure you drop it in an empty area other wise the bookmark will not import.

If you're having problems understanding the basics of making bookmarks, ask one of the more experienced members to help you with it. Because bookmarks is something almost everyone uses, and therefore something you need to learn how to both make and use.

Also remember, bookmarks are often something important, made by either you or some one in your corporation. You don't want to share them with others, don't have them lying around in a floating container in space or in your cargo bay.

Why not?

Because say you're mining in low sec or travelling in low sec using bookmarks. Let's say you've made copies for a friend but haven't handed them over yet, or you just joined up in the mining operation and just got the bookmarks from a friend and have them in your cargo bay.

Then a pirate shows up, he blows up your ship and finds the bookmark in the debris.

The pirate now has a way to direct warp to the group who is mining if he comes back later, or if it's a safe spot bookmark (safe spot is a place in space where you make a bookmark so no one else can reach you) he can now then warp to that safe spot and if the others are there waiting for the pirate to leave, well you can imagine the rest.

Don't travel around with bookmarks in your cargo bay, don't have them lying in a jettison cargo container for someone else to pick up.


===Other bookmarks===
You may want to explore bookmarks further as they come into play in PvP combat and corporate wars.  You will learn how to make safe spots, distant safe spots, insta-undocks and gate ovservation spots among others.
[[Category:Guides]]