Gameplay
Mining is a skill in Vendetta Online, which allows a player to extract various minerals and ores from asteroids and crystals in the universe. These ores can then be sold to stations for profit, or potentially used for other purposes. Minerals are extracted through the use of a Mining Beam, which is equipped exactly like a weapon. Mining Beams come in both Small and Large port sizes, but most are designed for Large Port usage. Once the Beam is equipped, you may leave the station and find an asteroid or crystal. Point your ship at it and select it using the lowercase "b" key. Once you close to within 100 meters of the selected object, you may press the fire button you have associated with the Mining Beam to begin mining. The beam will continue mining until you fly outside of mining range (100m) or press the fire button again to abort mining. A progress bar on your HUD displays the filled percentage of the current crate you are mining. If you abort mining in the midst of filling a crate, you lose however much you had mined into that crate. Only completed crates are retained in your hold after the mining beam is aborted.
Mining Heat - The act of mining heats up the object being mined. As the object increases in heat, it becomes less efficient to extract minerals or ores from the object. Larger objects heat more slowly than smaller ones, but also take longer to cool (days, even weeks). The heat of the object is displayed on the HUD after being selected. It is possible to continually mine any object, but the process of mining will become very slow. It is best to then find another object suitable for mining.
Mineral Scanning - A Mineral Scanner addon is also available, which can be equipped to display information on the contents of the individual asteroid or other object. Different objects can contain varied percentages of ores and minerals. Certain minerals are much more valuable on the open market, and are much rarer. The percentage of a given ore in an asteroid demonstrates the chance of mining that ore, assuming you have a generic Mining Beam. For instance, if an asteroid has 42% of ferric ore, and 58% of xithricite, you will have a 42% chance of receiving ferric ore in each individual crate you mine. These chances can be improved by purchasing a special Mining Beam that is tuned to a particular type of mineral or ore. Mineral and ore deposits are spread throughout the galaxy, and their locations are affected by a number of factors. The only way to find certain types of these resources is to explore, scanning various objects and noting their location (or asking other players what they have found).
Group Mining - Mining with friends is more efficient than mining alone. If you group with other players to mine a specific asteroid, your Mining Beams will operate In Phase and reduce the overall heating of the object, allowing you all to mine more quickly and effectively. Equipping multiple Mining Beams on a single ship also gives an efficiency benefit, but not as great as with multiple players.