The Complete Miner's Guide by Halada
20Version 2.2
3.2.1 Cycles and yield interaction
Cycles and yield are directly linked. Because of the cycle time difference between strips
and mining lasers, it makes it difficult to directly compare the yield of a barge with the
yield of a battleship. We could divide the barge's yield by three to bring it to 60 seconds,
or bring both of them on a per hour ratio, but this is not precise because of the way EVE
truncates the number of units of ore you get per cycle.
Since we know strips do 20 cycles per hour and mining lasers 60 cycles per hour, to
make the comparisons as accurate as possible, we will use Omber as our basic ore
comparison unit throughout the guide, and compare how many Omber units a ship
would mine per hour compared to another. This will increase accuracy by a small but
still important factor.
If the cycle of your mining laser (again, ice harvesters act differently, this will be covered
later) is interrupted for whatever reason (the asteroid pops or you stop the laser
prematurely) , you will still get ore for the duration of the cycle you mined. For example,
if the cycle stops after 30 seconds, you will get 50% of what you normally get for a full
cycle.
Here's a table to summarize the different base yield of each laser and their cycle times
| Laser | Base Yield (in m3) | Cycle time (in sec) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miner I | 40 | 60 | |
| Miner II | 60 | 60 | |
| Strip Miner | 540 | 180 | For barges and exhumers only |
| MSM2 | 360 | 180 | Uses crystals, for barges and exhumers only |
| MDCM2 | 120 | 180 | Uses crystals, fits all ships |
| MDCSM2 | 250 | 180 | Uses crystals, used to mine Mercoxit only, for barges and exhumers only. |
For now don't be alarmed about the crystals, they will be covered in another section. It's a nice reference to have for those who are confused about how to calculate your actual ISK/hour rate (more on that in another section).