When examined (exhaustively, and at very close range) with Fault Tracker, crystalline asteroids, both metallic and non-metallic, never seem to have any fault zones (red circles).

At the same time, when Scanned, many crystalline asteroids, and especially the huge metallic 'Face of Gozu' asteroids, have multiple (2-6) units of ore, obtanium, gold, etc, embedded.

(For the unfamiliar, you have to have the laser group precision control turned on, and the lasers focused on a particular asteroid in order to Scan the asteroid payload. Then use the Scanner [Tab on PC] per normal.)

Since there are no identifiable faults on these asteroids, is there any way to release the full mineral content of these asteroids?

Devs, if you're out there, or anyone who has managed to do this?

Anti-matter probe detonation, perhaps? That's about the only thing I have not tried.

I know it's been awhile but generally anything that doesn't have a red circle on it is because while the elements within them are rarer they're worth more money. Crystal asteroids drop diamonds and ice asteroids can drop things like gold and faces. That's why you only get one drop from them.

Huh. That's good to know. I've not really been doing mining and the few times I did, I didn't get much that I felt worth doing (also I avoided the stuff without red fault circles). I'll try to mine out some crystals and ice next time.

You won't always find something. Make sure to get the equipment that cleans up jammed scans and scan inside stuff before you try mining it. Also make sure your graphics are set high enough because at low settings the red circles won't show up.

Hey, Zidders,

Looong time since I've "spoken" with you, on ANY of the games we share interest in.

Recently returned to RG, and I've been reviewing the on-line info & discussions.

In my original post, what I was trying to get at was not so much that there were no Fault Tracker circles on the huge metal crystal asteroids (although that IS true.)

The point that I was trying to get at, and ask if there was a reason/solution for, is that when you scan those asteroids, in addition to finding a single Face of Gozu, you also find that each appears to contain MULTIPLE Gold Ingots items. (Between 3 and 6, actually.) However, since there are no "faults" in the asteroids to be precisely attacked, there does not appear to be any way to get the extra Gold out!

If you blow any asteroid without precision fault targeting, you will get a drop of one item of each TYPE of mineral contained within. When you use a Fault Tracker and precise aiming at detected faults, you get "all the candy".

There doesn't seem to be any way to do that with crystalline or obsidian shard asteroids, as they never show any faults. It isn't particularly a problem with the obsidian shard asteroids (sometime home of the elusive antimatter speck), because although there is occasionally more than one mineral inside, I have never encountered an obsidian asteroid that had more than one instance of each included mineral.

Not the case with the big metal crystals - they ALWAYS have multiples of that tantalizingly unreachable gold, Gold!, GOLD! (maniacal laugh).

So what I was trying to do was ask if anyone knew a way to get the other gold out of the metal asteroids, whether it involved the Fault Tracker or not.

(BTW, Zid - I have never seen a metal/crystal asteroid drop Meteoric Diamonds, nor have I seen an Ice shard drop either gold or a Face. I think maybe you stated that backwards.)

(Also - you don't need the Nebula Mitigation software (scan stabilizer) to reliably scan the interior of asteroids. You just have to put you targeting controls into Laser Turret mode (default button 4), then put the reticle on the asteroid you intend to deep scan, then turn on the Scanner (default Tab), then hold right mouse button to deep scan. It works regardless of nebula interference.)

Whichever way it is It's a trade off. Regular asteroids give you a chance of getting lots of ore but even then it's still not worth much. On the other hand the other ones give you faces and diamonds-which are worth real money-but you get a small amount of drops per. There are no rings on the latter for that reason.

I don't hink I have ever seen a tetrahidrite or an obsidian asteroid produce diamonds. Those come primarily from ice, although rocky asteroids will yield one on rare occasions, and they are reasonably often found in the black pyroclastic "spindles" in rocky asteroid fields.

Rocky asteroids yield lare amounts of metal ore, usually 2-3 per minable rock, and occasionally 1 obtainium. On rare occasions 2 obtainium will in the matrix. (Once or twice I've seen three.) In very rare instances, a rock will yield a gold ingot, or even more rarely, a meteroic diamond.

The rocky fields also usually have 0 to 3 black pyroclastic spindles, which most often yield 3 to 5 obtainium, but occasionally have 1-3 gold ingots. Moderately rare drops from spindles are 1-2 metoric diamonds, or 1-2 alien artifacts. This is the primary source for alien arifacts.

Ice fields are spread out far more than most asteroid belts, and they have a far sparser density of mineable "lumps". Instead of ~20 mineable items in a typical asteroid field, a typical ice field might have 4-5 worthwile exploitable "bergs". I believe 9 in one really gigantic ice field spread out over about 70sm id the most I have ever seen. However, the value of most of the minable deposits is far higher than the bulk of the output from rocky asteroid fields. About one berg out of five will have just a bit of near worthless metallic ore. The other deposits will be about equally distributed densities meteroic diamonds, tachyon salt, and pure water. Ice bergs are the only environmental sources for tachyon salt and pure water, and the ice is also the primary source for meteroic diamonds.

Tetrahidrites are clumps of near pure metal crystals, with the typical crystal "prismatic" or "spear" shapes sticking out of the body. (These things really exist in nature under rare conditions, but the game presumes really huge ones, and occasionally really really very huge ones, forming in space.)
Tetrahidrite asteroids yield small amounts (singles) of metallic ore, very occasionally obtainium (maybe 1 or 2 in a belt), rarely a gold ingot, and really, really rarely a Face of Gozu.
(Except in the special, no-more-than-once-in-any-system, "field of gigantic tetrahidrites", each of which shows a Face of Gozu and several gold when scanned, but only yields a Face + 1 gold.)

Obsidian/flint/glassy asteroids look like lumps of black or brown volcanic glass. Well, actually that's what they are. Obsidian asteroids yield low yields of metallic ore and obtainium, just like the tetrahidrite fields. The super extra rare drop that is possible in an obsidian asteriod is an antimatter speck, sometimes in combination with a gold ingot. I believe I have found this twice, once with gold, once without, in the several hundred glassy asteroids I have mined. I don't think I have ever found a separate deposit of gold in an obsidian field, but it wouldn't surprise me. This is apparently the only mineable source of antimatter specks.
(There is also a special no-more-than-one-field-per-system variation for glassy asteroids. It has a small number (2-4?) of gigantic obsidian asteroids, each of which contains an antimatter speck. At least some of them have a gold ingot.)

A small number of rocky asteroid fields have an admixture of crystaline asteroids of various colors, mostly dirty yellow, pinkish, or greenish. When these are designated as mineable they contain about the same proportions of metallic ore/obtainium as most of the rocky asteroids. Crystaline asteroids only have one deposit in them, AFAIK. They also have no detectable fault points.

Once in a blue moon made from cheese (and note that all the moons in Rebel Galaxy are gray), a rocky asteroid field will include a large striking-looking crystalline asteroid with blue crystals growing from a lavender-ish rock base. At least sometimes, such an asteroid contains a Progenitor Shard. This appears to be the only mineable source of Progenitor Shards in game.

Whew. What I started to be a short response to Zid seems to have turned into my essay and resource page on all mineable items in Rebel Galaxy. I like mining in the game and I have mined a lot (a LOT - est. 10,000+) of asteroids and bergs. Please let me know of any omissions or errors, or new tidbits, and I will add them.


Special Note on Scanning for Miners.
IF you have a laser turrret (considered by the game to be the minimum of mining gear...although you really have to have a tractor beam as well, to pick up the extracted valuable bits), you can scan the interior make-up of mineable asteroids. This allows you to:
a) pick out the best deposits to extract to fill your limited hold space; or
b) see which asteroids have multiple deposits, and therefore require a fault tracker to get full value from heat extraction (i.e. blowing up the asteroid with a laser); or
c) identify asteroids that only have single deposits of any given mineral, thereby saving a little time since you don't have to carefully mine them with a fault tracker.
d) identify the many asteroids that contain only Metallic Ore, and aren't worth bothering with. (It would take ~10 initial SHIPLOADS of Metallic Ore to even pay for your basic Tractor Beam and Mining Laser.)

To scan an asteroid interior:
a) Pulse the asteroid field to identify the mineable resources / rocks / bergs.
a) Switch your weapon control to Laser Turrets.
b) Place the aiming reticle / cursor on a mineable asteroid.
d) Scan by holding down the LMB.

After a moment, the detected interior depoisits will be listed below the other scan data at the upper right of the screen.

Special Note on Asteroids with Multiple Mineral Deposits, and Mining Technique.

If an asteroid has multiple types of mineral deposits, and you just blast it apart without a Fault Tracker to guide your shot, it will still yield 1 tonne of EACH TYPE of mineral that is present. This means that if you find an asteroid that has 1x Metallic Ore, and 1x Obtainium, there is no need to worry about finding the right spot to shoot to extract both items; just blast it.

If the scan shows multiple deposits of the SAME mineral, to get the full yield of everything you will have to Pulse with a Fault Tracker installed, and shoot at one of the target spots identified by the Fault Tracker (red tic mark circles). Believe me, if you scan a lump of lava with 2x Alien Artifacts imbedded, you're really going to want to do everything you can to carefully extract BOTH of them. Oh, and your ship will need to be within ~1.4 sm of the rock for you to SEE the fault target circles.

Your laser targeting system can still pick up the fault targets out to the limit of your laser's range; it will soft lock the laser aim point on the fault. However, if you can't see the red aiming circle, the fault might be on the opposite side of the rock. You can chance the shot, but if you shoot through the body of the rock to hit the locked fault, you will get minimum yield just as if you had shot center of mass. With practice, you can get a feel for the way the lock point moves with the rotation of the asteroid and get better at identifying when the fault is in direct line of fire, but it is still best to SEE the Fault Tracker target circle and be sure.

Thanks for that post dreamrider!
Myself I've played throught the game several times and tested the ships, equipment and missions a lot. Nice to know I'm not the only one that have obsessed over the game. :) Maybe I'll even take up mining someday? ;)