new mining barges: ice harvesting

(see part 1)

Edit: New Kronos-era fits are available here.

The new medium ice harvester accelerator rig extends some of the Mackinaw’s old ice bonus to all barges, which is a big deal for new or thrifty players who want to mine ice in a tech 1 mining barge.

Note: Pre-Odyssey stats

These fits were calculated pre-Odyssey, so if you fly these in more modern times, you’ll get twice the ice yield as described here. The relative yields between each fit haven’t changed though.

Procurer

Mining ice safely is the kind of thing that the Procurer excels at. Its ore hold can store twelve blocks of ice, which is less of a problem when mining ice because the yield is much lower.

Tanky (28.8 blocks/hour)

The tanky fit is as tough as a cheap battleship, and still mines a respectable 1 block every 125 seconds (filling the cargohold in 25 minutes)

Yield (39.5 blocks/hour)

Fit for Ice yield, the Procurer can pull down a block of ice in 91.1 seconds (18min 13 seconds for full cargo) while still being as tough as a battlecruiser. If you want a tank somewhere between tanky and full yield, a Damage Control II will add about +16k effective hp.

Retriever

The Retriever is the ultimate afk ice mining boat, with a 27.5k ore bay (of which, realistically, only 26k is available when mining ice optimally)

Tanky (39.5 blocks/hour)

The Reriever will never have a decent tank, but sometimes you don’t need an awesome tank; just a better tank then the guy floating next to you. Yield is 2 blocks every 182 seconds, or a full cargohold in just under 40 minutes.

Yield (43.3 blocks/hour)

Fit for yield, the dual Ice Harvesters have a 166s cycle time, pulling down 26 blocks in just under 36 minutes. The tank is necessarily lacking, due to the processor overclocking rig. The lone mid slot is also constrained by the low CPU –  an Electronics EE-603 implant still isn’t enough to fit an invulnerability field, which again doesn’t improve the tank beyond about 10.9k EHP.

Covetor

If you’re mining ice in a Covetor without Orca support, you’re doing it wrong. The ore bay can only hold three cycles, so any gain in yield is more han offset by the hassle of offloading the ice once it’s harvested.

Tanky (42.3 blocks/hour)

Three 255-second harvesters will fill the ore bay in 8.5 minutes – about the same rate as a Retriever fit for yield, but more fiddly.

Yield (46.5 blocks/hour)

Fit for yield, the Covetor is a much different beast. A trio of 232-second harvesters will fill the cargohold in seven and a half minutes. The tank is woeful, but, then again, you don’t even bring out the Covetor if you’re worried about tanking.