The Ice Mining Skill Plan

So, you’ve heard about the ice changes and you want a piece of the action but you have no idea where to start?

Well, this plan will get you in a max yield retriever as soon as possible.

Cybernetics III

Assuming this is a new character specifically created to munch on ice, get yourself some implants to make the whole process go a bit faster, and this will also give you access to the 3% yeti implant!

Mining Frigate III

This is only needed post odyssey but I’m including it now so this guide won’t need updating after odyssey (also, I hear venture gangs are awesome in pvp).

There’s no real reason to train this other than it becoming a prerequisite for the Mining Barge skill in odyssey.

Science IV, Mining IV, Astrogeology III, Industry V

None of those are useful for ice mining, but like Mining Frigate they’re a prerequisite for the Mining Barge skill. So, grin and bear it.

Mining Barge I

This is what we’ve been waiting for, the glorious Mining Barge skill. Now you can fly something that can harvest ice!

Ice Harvesting I

This will let you strap T1 Ice Harvesters on your glorious new ship. Now you can become some type of ice baron! You might want to take this to III if you’re mining while still skilling up, to III doesn’t take very long and will give you another 10%, everyone loves an extra 10% right?

Mining Upgrades I

Fitting Ice Harvester Upgrades will reduce your cycle time and make you more isk/hour, and the first rank is very quick to train, so there’s no reason not to do so.

Mechanics III, Jury Rigging I

These skills can be skipped, if you are able to get someone else to rig your ship for you. However they’re fairly short trains and the EHP boost from mechanics is never a bad thing. The rigs you’ll be interested in are the Medium Ice Harvester Accelerator I, and the Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I.

Ice Harvesting V

Why did we wait until now to do this? Well, yield vs training time, this is the best way to do it. Also, this will give you access to t2 Ice Harvesters. On the bright side, not far to go now, we’re almost at the top of the hill.

Mining Upgrades IV

This gives you access to t2 Ice Harvester Upgrades, pure and simple. Nothing special here.

Electronics V

Although, to fit a full rack of t2 IHUs, you’re going to need lots of CPU as they’re quite CPU hungry, and you’ll need an extra source of CPU (implant, rig, etc).

Now, you have a max yield retriever. As a starting point for ice mining it’s pretty solid, aside from the fact it’s ore bay won’t be the biggest (you’ve only got mining barge I), and it’s a mining barge so it’s paper thin and there’s not much you can really do about that.

The Retriever fit should look something like…

Alternatively an Exhumer isn’t so far out of reach.

Mining barge V, Spaceship command IV, Astrogeology V, Exhumers I

Those are the skills you’ll need to seat yourself in an exhumer.