Pioneering Mining Operations

While training for mining barges and ultimately, exhumers, I tried out the mining destroyer, the Pioneer.  I was quite impressed.  It doesn’t mine quite as much as a barge, nor does it have a huge ore hold.  If you are in a fleet with an Orca with ore compression, the ore hold size isn’t really a big deal.  Does it fit in betwixt the mining frigate and a mining barge.  I feel like it does.  It’s a nice little ship.  It can hold 8 drones, so you can bring along your mining drones and still have a capable flight of scout drones for protection.  The biggest limitation I found was with CPU and capacitor charge.  Maybe it was my fit. 

While I don’t recall the exact fitting, I found it’s a bit squishy with passive shield mods.  If you’re in a fleet, it really isn’t a big deal as the barges/exhumers/command ships can cover you with their drones to take out the belt rats.  I don’t think I will bother with the T2 variant, the Outrider.  I quickly switched to training barges after I had enough skills to make them effective. 

I think it is worth a shot to train if you are new and want to focus on mining.  Going to barges requires a lot of tertiary skills to make it an efficient choice.  The Pioneer is a good steppingstone or if you just want to mine on the side.  That’s just my two cents.  This is just a quick shout out about the Pioneer and their faction counterparts, not a detailed use case.

Anyway, fly safe.