Almost everything in Stationeers starts with ore. It sits in veins in the ground; you extract it with a pickaxe, a drill or a charge and then smelt it in a furnace. This page sums up what the game data says about veins, tools and carrying ore home.
Where the ore is
Every world has two ore profiles: one for the surface (ore density 0.6) and one for the underground (ore density 1). Each profile is a list of veins. The weight says how often a vein of that kind appears compared with the others – higher means more common. The yield is how many pieces one mined block of the vein delivers. The game data gives a range such as 3 to 6, but the game only rolls up to one below the upper limit – the table shows what actually occurs. This applies to the Normal and Stationeer difficulties; on Easy you get twice as much, on Creative five times. The mining time is a factor on the tool's time: a gold block with factor 5 takes five times as long as an iron block with factor 1.
The underground profile on Mars, the Moon and Europa:
| Ore | Weight | Yield per block | Mining time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ore (Iron) | 90 | 3–5 | 1 |
| Ice (Oxite) | 60 | 5–9 | 2 |
| Ore (Coal) | 60 | 2–4 | 3 |
| Ore (Copper) | 40 | 3–4 | 2 |
| Ore (Silicon) | 40 | 3–5 | 4 |
| Ore (Gold) | 30 | 2–3 | 5 |
| Ice (Volatiles) | 25 | 5–9 | 2 |
| Ice (Water) | 20 | 5–9 | 2 |
| Ice (Nitrice) | 20 | 5–9 | 2 |
| Ore (Cobalt) | 10 | 3–4 | 5 |
| Ore (Silver) | 10 | 5–9 | 5 |
| Ore (Nickel) | 10 | 5–9 | 5 |
| Ore (Lead) | 10 | 5–9 | 5 |
| Ore (Uranium) | 5 | 2 | 5 |
Iron is by far the most common ore and the fastest to extract. Gold takes five times as long as iron. Uranium only appears in the underground profile; you will not find it on the surface. At the very bottom it ends: below height 0, the bedrock, nothing can be mined.
Differences between worlds
- Venus and Vulcan: the profiles contain no ice at all – no water ice, oxite, volatiles or nitrice. You have to get water and oxygen some other way there.
- Mimas: no water ice, but oxite, volatiles and nitrice.
- Moon: three extra rich surface deposits with ore density 1.5 and 2.5.
- Vulcan: the surface has ore density 2.5, but its iron veins are smaller.
All values per world are on Planets.
The tools
| Tool | Powered by | Mine amount (density per stroke) | Mining time (s per stroke) | Power while mining |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pickaxe | muscle | 0.5 | 0.5 | – |
| Mining Drill | battery | 0.2 | 0.11 | 30 W |
| Mining Drill (Heavy) | battery | 0.4 | 0.05 | 150 W |
| Pneumatic Mining Drill | gas canister | 0.4 | 0.05–0.2 | – |
This is how the values fit together: every block of terrain has a density from 0 to 1. One stroke takes the mine amount from the block you aim at and lasts the mining time times the factor of the vein. A block of an ore vein releases its ore as soon as it drops below half density.
Worked example
A full iron block (factor 1): the pickaxe needs two strokes of 0.5 s, 1 s in total. The drill needs three strokes of 0.11 s, about 0.33 s. The heavy drill does it with two strokes of 0.05 s in 0.1 s. With gold (factor 5) everything takes five times as long: pickaxe 5 s, drill about 1.7 s.
The heavy drill takes twice as much per stroke as the basic one and finishes faster, but it draws five times the power. It needs a tier 2 Tool Manufactory. Both battery drills have two modes: Default (0) and Flatten (1), which by its name is meant for levelling terrain.
How long does the battery last?
The drill holds a Battery Cell (Small) with 36,000 J. While drilling the basic drill draws 30 W, idle 1 W. Important: the game calculates in ticks of 0.5 s, and "W" there means joules per tick. While drilling both values run together, i.e. 31 J per tick:
- 36,000 J / 31 J ≈ 1,160 ticks, about 580 s – just under 10 minutes of pure drilling.
- The heavy drill at 150 W plus 2 W idle only manages about 237 ticks on the same cell, just under 2 minutes. With a Battery Cell (Large) (288,000 J) it is about 16 minutes.
Take a spare cell on long trips.
Finding ore
The Ore Detector shows ore nearby. Its mode selects the kind: iron, coal, copper, gold, ice, nickel, lead, silver, silicon, oxite, volatiles, cobalt or nitrice. Uranium is not on the list. It runs on a battery cell and draws a constant 25 W, i.e. 25 J per tick – a small cell lasts 36,000 / 25 = 1,440 ticks, which is 720 s or 12 minutes. Switch it off when you are not searching.
Blasting
For large amounts there are explosives:
| Mining Charge | Demolition Charge | |
|---|---|---|
| Explosion radius | 5 m | 6 m |
| Explosion force (damage at the centre) | 50 | 2,000 |
| Countdown | 10 s | 15 s |
| Remote detonation | no | yes |
| Stack | 3 | 3 |
| Printer tier | 1 | 2 |
The damage drops evenly from the centre to 0 at the edge. The terrain loses density across the whole radius, and in the inner area up to about 2 m (for the mining charge) it disappears completely. Every ore block that drops below half density releases its ore – as much as when mining by hand.
You arm the mining charge with the secondary action in your hand: one piece drops to the ground and the countdown runs. If you pick it up again, it is disarmed. Keep your distance – the radius applies to you and your buildings as well. A tip from the recipe data: in the Security Printer the mining charge costs iron 1, gold 1, silicon 3 and takes 5 s. In the tool manufactory it needs silicon 5 and 60 s.
Carrying ore
Ore stacks up to 50 per slot. How much you can carry depends on belt and backpack:
| Equipment | Tool slots | Ore slots | Ore in total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mining Belt | 2 | 8 | 400 |
| Mining Belt MK II | 2 | 13 | 650 |
| Mining Backpack | – | 24 | 1,200 |
With mining belt and backpack together that is 1,600 pieces of ore per trip. The two tool slots on the belt hold the drill and the ore detector.
Common mistakes
- The drill stops: the battery cell is empty. Check the charge, carry a spare cell.
- No ice on Venus: the profile has none there, searching will not help.
- The detector shows nothing: wrong mode. The detector only ever looks for one kind.
- Backpack full, belt empty: ore only fits into ore slots, tools only into tool slots.
Further reading
- What each ore contains and which gases melting releases: Ores and what they contain
- Extracting ore automatically: Deep miner and automatic mining
- Turning ore into ingots quickly: The arc furnace: ore to ingots with electricity
- Values per world: Planets and Planet data sheet