Topic

Spelunking: Is It For You?

So I went ahead and put together a makeshift data table of the costs and profits of mining for low level players (mainly only have level 1 mining). It's pretty rough, and could have a look over or 2 for errors or miscalculations. But I think it gives a decent overview of the profession. Well, lets have a gander. 

Spark (sparkly) - market sell = 6c.
Blue (Beryl) - market sell = 4c.
White (Dullite) - market sell = 3c.

Node energy cost 12; time 20s. 
Basic food; 23c = 23e ( I only suggest this due to it's easier not to over eat, thus wasting money per energy gained)
Median ore obtained: 7

Math time :D

~~~~~

Spark spawns roughly every 5-8 minutes (for the sake of the equation). Near 8 "mines" per node, which would be 2m40s, and 96 energy used. Food needed to restore would be 4 (23 energy per food at 4 times, is 92) costing only 92c. 

☻Food cost: 92c
☻Time taken to find / mine node: 9m (again, sake of later equations)

☻Total ores gathered: (how many times you mined the node * 7); 56

☻Profit from ores: (How many ore you obtained * vendor price of ore) 

=> (56*6) => 336c

☻Net gain: (profit from ores - cost of food) => (336c - 92c) => 224c

☻Gain per "run": net gain / time spent => 224c/9m => 24.8c/m

☻Gain per "hourly run": "run" gain * 60 => 24.8c/m * 60 => 1493c/h

~~~~

Blue spawns are pretty common, not quite as common as white, and tend to be seen at least every 1-2 minutes. Again, same median ore looted, and same times / energy. 

☻Food cost: 92c
☻Time taken to find / mine node: 4m (sake of conversions)

☻Ore gathered: 56

☻Profit of ore: 56*4 => 224c

☻Net gain: 224c - 92c => 132c

☻Gain per "run": 132c/4m => 33c/m

☻Gain per "hourly run": 33c/m * 60 => 1980c/h

~~~~

White spawns are the top dog of common, you should be finding one at most every minute. Loot amount, time, etc, all the same again. 

☻Food cost: 92c
☻Time taken: 3m (kind of short, but I hate conversions :D)

☻ore gathered: 56

☻Profit: 56*3 => 168c

☻Net gain: 168c - 92c => 76c

☻"run" gain: 76c/3m => 25.3c/m

☻"hourly run" gain: 25.3/m * 60 => 1520c/m

~~~~~ 

Now this is just a sample table, not including many, many other variables (like levels of mining, if other people help you, if you find gems, AH supply and demand vs vendor, spawn rates of nodes, time running back to vendor, etc). Just a rough, rough idea of how much cash flow is going into mining for a new player. As it seems for now, blue ore is the most profitable to harvest and sell directly to vendors. I know spark ore vendors for more, but it's rate of loot vs vendor price just isn't comparable to blue's ore rates & vendor prices. 

From this data (how inclusive it might be) the priority chart for mining would be blue, sparkly, white. Don't bother with iron for now, as it's vendor price is very low, and doesn't spawn with the other ores deep in caves. If you can, buddy up. It helps remove non sparkly nodes faster, and adds a bonus to looting ores. Also, it's nice to not be alone for so long. With a buddy, time to mine a node also drops, which reduces energy costs, which improves net profit gains. Always a plus. 

PS: don't forget to dump some ore into the giants, as the food vendors in caves don't sell drinks, and your mod will drop over time, thus lowering xp gains. :)

Posted 15 months ago by We Got Dodgson Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • Sparkly are still top priority in a street, but if there are also beryls its not worth going to another street to look for sparkly before mining those.

    You are letting out my strategy of doing laps mining beryl. :(
    Posted 15 months ago by Hameigh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • There's another of these number crunching threads for mining somewhere around here. I'd love to find it and compare the numbers now. I'm pretty sure, that starting out you get less chunks.

    Another thing to consider is Earthshakers. The first time I started mining, I either bought, found or was given, Earthshakers. That cut down on energy expended before I learned Mining II.
    Posted 15 months ago by Jarhaven Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Sorry, Hameigh, It's free info that I'm just trying to share across to everyone who's starting or struggling to make ends meet. And besides, if more people understand that group mining is faster, more mats per energy spent, and is a little bit more fun than solo, perhaps we'll all get a raise in net profits :D

    And I wouldn't doubt there's another infograph of this somewhere, Jarhaven, I just didn't take the time to see (curse my laziness). As far as the earthshakers, I left those out due to 1 problem I foresaw. Price in Caves vs price in West Spice. The vendor in West Spice sells them for a low 140c or so (can't fully remember), yet the ones in the Cave sell them for a mean 400+c. Obviously, the cave ones are a ripoff, and reduce your net income by a lot. Why is this relevant? People are lazy and would just buy the cave ones, and still running to West Spice would lose time mining, thus lower net profits (you could try and buy before you start mining, but what lowbie has that kind of cash?). 

    I haven't done the math behind the +3 min of free energy for mining, but that 3 min I know only grants at most (at level 1 mining) 9 "mines" total. 
    9 * 20sec = 180sec = 3min. 
    Now the amount of chunks you get (again, lvl 1 mining, and solo) is still around 7. 
    7 * 9 = 63 = Sparkly ( 378c), Blue (252c), White (189c)
    Now that we know the total profit of mining those, sub the cost of the earthshaker.
    West Spice is something around 140c; Sparkly (247c), Blue (112c), White (49c)
    Caves is something around 400+c; Sparkly (-22c), Blue (-148c), White (-211c)

    These figures are just from what I can remember about prices. As far as I can see, the Earthshaker is very neat, as you don't have to worry about your energy, the problem I see however, is that the shake doesn't allow freedom of movement, and once you drink it, you better get all 3 min worth of mining. While as food allows the freedom of search, and doesn't restrict you to a 3min window. 

    In short, earthshakers bad low level. Good later levels. You can farm more, faster, and get more later on, which would balance the cost of the earthshaker, versus a lower level only being able to get a small amount of ore per node. 
    Posted 15 months ago by We Got Dodgson Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Math hurts my brain, I can't even read that stuff without getting angry!  -head explodes-
    Posted 15 months ago by Serra Subscriber! | Permalink