Shaft Miner

Welcome Miner, to the wonderful caverns of this Nanotrasen Claimed Asteroid.



Workin' In The Coal Mine
Being a miner can be slightly boring as of now, but that's soon to change. Just follow a few guidelines here to keep yourself from becoming dead in the mines. ALSO, it is important to note that you are able to click more than ONE square of asteroid at a time when mining or digging for sand! As long as it's accessible, you don't have to wait to finish digging before you start digging again, so you can have several dig jobs running in parallel. Just don't change hands or move until all dig jobs are done and save yourself some time!

Take your Mining Pick in one hand and your Satchel in your active hand. Run into a rock. You're now automatically digging in it. Use this to mine using only your keyboard, for a quicker done job.

Working With Your Boss
Who is your boss? The answer is the Quartermaster. Generally he won't butt into any of your affairs other than (if he knows what he's doing) attempt to coordinate your efforts for the good of the station. After returning to the station with a load of minerals, send them his way with the belt connecting mining and cargo bay. That is what it is there for, after all.

The Objective
You're here to mine, so get digging! Once you're full to bursting with ores, drag your crate to the smelting room just across the way from the shuttle you took to get to the mining station. There, you can use the machines and computers to smelt raw ore to its finished states and stack them up to 50-count piles. From there, just ship everything to the Cargo Bay and it's off to wherever those resources need to be. Hopefully you have a Cargo Technician for that. Back to the mines!

The Gear
The following is a complete list of mining equipment: Gear that will be very handy, but not included:
 * RIG.png ZIS Space suit and Helmet - Used so you don't freeze to death in the airless tunnels of the resource-rich planetoid.
 * BreathMask.png Breath Mask and Oxygen Tank - So you can have oxygen when mining. Get an O2 tank from the tank dispenser, and wear it on your back suit.
 * MGlasses.png Meson Scanners - See where the ore you want is at.
 * MiningPick.gif Mining Tools - For tunneling through everything. Place this on your belt, it saves room. Alternatively, you can get various drills and other tools from science. These will dig faster, and may have other advantages!
 * Shovel.png Shovel - Gathering sand. You can stick this in your backpack.
 * Lantern.png Lantern - For seeing in the dark. Put one in your pocket. Or three.
 * OreSatchel.png Ore Satchel - For carrying ore without using a mining cart, holds 50 ore nuggets. Get at least one of these, make sure to set the bag to "all on tile". Use in conjunction with an ore crate. (Newbie tip: This does not work like a backpack.  Hold it in your hand and click the ore with that hand to pick it up.)
 * OreCrate.png Ore Crate - Used for carrying huge amounts of ore. While a satchel can only hold 50 nuggets, this can hold an unlimited sum. Use your satchel on the box to empty it into the box, place the box in the unloading machine's input slot to unload it.
 * Crowbar.pngar - Just in case coming back from the mines you notice there is a black out. Spawns in your backpack.
 * Ripley.png Ripley - Just because these mechs are awesome at mining. A Ripley equipped with a drill and with an ore box loaded up (using the Hydraulic Clamp) mines three squares at a time and automatically picks up any ore gained from the squares. It also mines about as fast as a diamond pick.

Who Needs What

 * Scientists just want a little uranium, plasma, and gold. Refine a little of each for research (5-10 blocks each should do it). In exchange, they may give you a bomb or more advanced mining tools (like a sonic jackhammer), both for even faster digging!
 * Scientists may ask you for plasma or uranium coins, too. Head to the mint to make these, but remember that you can't actually retrieve the coins yourself (unless you break a window), only make them. Ask the AI for assistance, or the captain if they have free time (which is never).
 * Roboticists need diamond, uranium, silver and gold for building mech parts. Give them enough and you might get a big, fancy machine for your troubles! Too bad the Ripley is the only good mech for mining.
 * The Quartermaster would want you to send them plasma sheets so they can trade them in for bonus supply points.
 * Everybody could always use more iron, glass and plasteel, but especially Station Engineers and Roboticists.
 * A Clown with Bananimum is a grateful and dangerous ally.

Buried Secrets
Deep within the asteroid resides strange and unusual artifacts just waiting to be found. If you notice something unusual on your Meson Scanners, check it out!

Structures
While on the asteroid, you may come upon small boxed structures, usually made of plasma or reinforced walls, use the blue toolbox in the zis suit room to break down that wall and discover your prize! The two main thing you will usually find are diamond drills or alien facehuggers, a plasma wall doesn't necessarily mean an alien, always check. If you are at all unsure, always let your mining buddies know using :d before you tear down that wall.

Dead Space
A traitorous miner has a lot of advantages. You have a space suit for free right away, a pair of gloves, and your mining tools are robust as fuck too! As long as you have some mineral wealth on you, no one will suspect your presence around the station, even in highly restricted areas like robotics or toxins, and if you are smart enough, you could get a big stompy mech to drill people to death! In addition, the mining station is isolated, hard to get to, and as expansive as you're willing to dig out. Plenty of room for somebody to get lost in... Forever!