So we gave you a Harvester (Basic) and now you are wondering what to do with it. Harvesters are the backbone of Planetary resource Collection. You use your Mining drones and personal mining lasers to collect space based Asteroid Resources, and Harvesters to collect planet side ones.
First you need to locate an O.R.S.A Office. This is where you can deploy the Harvester. To find one the quickest way is to open the Navigation Console. That’s the one you have been using to find planets and asteroid fields, the first blue icon on the left.
Once open look down the icons of the locations for a ‘Pick Axe’ icon. This denotes there is an O.R.S.A Office at that planet location. Travel there and locate the office.
Each planet provides four specialised resources for that type. Below is a list that shows what type of planet provides which resource.
Desert Planet
Arid worlds with mineral-rich sands. Resources: Cinderstone, Ferric Sand, Kethite Glass, Xenocrete Powder.
Earth-like worlds with diverse ecosystems. Resources: Geolith Fragments, Ironwood Timber, Skyroot Fiber, Terraglass.
Ice World
Frozen planets with crystalline deposits. Resources: Cryolith Crystals, Frostmetal, Glacite Ore, White Iron.
Gas Giant
Gas Planets with rare gas deposits. Halon Mist, Auric Gas, Zephyr Flux, Hydra Gas
Ocean World
Vast Ocean worlds with aquatic deposits. Resources: Hydrosilicates, Nautilene Fibers, Kelp Resin, Coralite Nodules
Toxic World
Toxic Wolds with varied Gases and rare highly toxic elements. Decaystone, Toxmetal Deposits, Mutagen Gel, Chloracite Ore
Rent & Deploy
Now the folks at O.R.S.A. won’t look after your harvester for free. In fact, you need to cover this cost by renting a Slot. Generally speaking they are 10K for 30 days from the point of hire. Go ahead and rent one.
This will give you a Blue ‘Deploy Harvester’ button, from there you will be given a screen to choose the resource you wish to deploy on. Your harvester and any others you own will be in the left window and the window on the right displays the Four resources for that planet and the current resource spawn sizes.
Resources to the Commercial Store
One very important thing to mention, as your Harvester extracts resources those kind folks over at the O.R.S.A office transfer them directly to your Commercial Store. So at any time you can freely pick up the Harvester and nothing is lost.
Everyone Shares
O.R.S.A Spawns are located all the time and Captains share the spawn points. Over time those spawns are mined out and new ones replace them. If your Harvester is on a spawn when it expires it will stop mining and need to be collected and placed on a new spawn.
If your harvester is still on a slot when the rented slot expires it will be lifted for you and returned via courier to your ship.
Harvester Review
You will of course receive an email from the O.R.S.A guys if the spawn expires or if your Slot expires. But in the meantime why not keep an eye on their progress. To do this, on the main screen the third icon down on the left you will find the ‘Information Centre’. From there select the Harvester tab from the top row.
This will display the Harvesters and their progress and what they are extracting, and the amounts completed so far.