Guides/Mine Mixing

Mine Mixing

What to carry and where to sit

Introduction

Lots of people don't mine mix anymore. They say it's because of the bagjumpers, but I and a few others I have spoke with on this matter haven't seen really an increase in bagjumpers. The percentage seems about the same.

So why has the numbers of mine/bag mixing decreased? I really don't know myself. But one thing I can tell you: how to prevent a big loss, while saving hauling time.

How To

The first thing you need to know is to bring the other ingredients to the most heaviest ore/mineral of the recipe.

• For example, let's mix Fire Essences:
  • Red Rose: 1 EMU
  • Red Snapdragons: 1 EMU
  • Sulfur: 2 EMU
• So you would bring the red roses and snapdragons to the sulfur, since the sulfur has the highest EMU.

Sometimes, it is not as clear cut to decide which is the heaviest ingredient.

• Now, let's make some Earth Essences:
  • Coal: 2 EMU
  • Swamp Candles: 1 EMU
  • Sulfur: 2 EMU
• Since coal and sulfur weigh the same, which one do you bring the other ingredients to? The answer is found in the quantity of each ingredient needed to make an Earth Essence: 2 Coal, 1 Swamp Candle and 1 Sulfur. So, you would want to bring sulfur and swamp candles to the coal, since combined they only weigh 3 EMU, whereas if you took coal and swamp candles to the sulfur, you would end up carrying 5 EMU.

Setting up your Inventory

• The next thing to do is properly set up your inventory to mix. Depending on the amount of food needed and how much you can carry, you need to place 5-10 fruit in your inventory, this is to offset food used when mining. You might need some experience to get this part down just right, sometimes even I bring too little or too much fruit.

Next, depending on how much you're mixing, you'll want at least 2 - 3 of the tools with you. You'll also want at least 4 Health Essences (if you can restore), your Excavator Cape and your Harvester Medallion, if you have one.

Now you need to do some math. You'll need to figure out the ingredient weight (besides the mineral/ore you're going to go to) plus the food cost weight.

For Example: If you were to mix HEs, and goto the silver ore deposit, you would need to bring 1 flower, but you'll also need food weight, to determine this, divide your food's point value into your food's weight value (BONE: 0.1 emu, FP: 0.1 emu, Toads: 0.2 emu, fruit: 0.05 emu) then multiply that number by the food cost of the item. In this case it's 8, so use the chart below for every HE mixed at the silver:

• BONE: Each HE would be 1.8 emu including the flower
• FP: Each HE would be 1.8 emu including the flower
• TOADS: Each HE would be 2.6 emu including the flower
• FRUIT: Each HE would be 1.02 emu including the flower

Bringing Food

OKay so how do you determine how much of the food to bring? Takes a lot of math huh? Lets, see. Now that you figured out how much each HE weighs when running up to the mine with the ings, you have multiply that number with the food cost, then divided by the amount of points your food gives. Say you had 120 emu left over to stock up on the ings, this means you can make 66 HEs at the mine if you used FPs or bones as food(120/1.8). The chart will help you understand the math you'll need to do:

• BONE : 66(HEs) * 8(food cost) = 528 (total food cost) / 10 (Food points from bone) = 52.8 bones
• FP  : 66(HEs) * 8(food cost) = 528 (total food cost) / 50 (Food points from FP) = 10.56 FPs
• TOAD : 66 (HEs) * 8(food cost) = 528 (total food cost) / 10 (Food points from toad) = 52.8 toads
• FRUIT : 66(HEs) * 8(food cost) = 528 (total food cost) / 20 (Food points from fruit) = 26.4 fruit

So, you should have every thing you need now. Once you head to the mine, you notice you're full! No worries, just drop 25 flowers on the ground and mix until you have enough room to pick them up and have room to harvest/mix (I usually do this at 46 free emu, that way, when I pick up the flowers, i have 21 emu free to harvest,allowing me to collect 10 silver ore, and 1 emu left over to mix). If you teleport off the bag, it's only 25 flowers lost if someone BJ, so no big loss.

This method also allows you to bring BACK some of the item you harvested because of the left over space. In this case of 66 HEs, if you used bones as your food, you'll get to bring back 26 or so silver (weight of the food).

I would say it's a lot faster than go to the silver mine 2 or 3 times for that same amount of HEs to mix at the storage (and that's just the silver). This method is much better used with things that need iron though.

I do this successfully with Steel Bars. Bringing coal/FE to the iron mine. It allows to me to carry about 1/3 of the iron I use back to the storage.

Mine Mixing versus Bag Mixing

One last thing. People often ask me what the difference between Mine Mixing and Bag Mixing is. I define it as this:

Mine Mixing: Bringing most of the ingredients to the heaviest part of the recipe, placing down minimal items down on the ground in a bag until you can hold it in your inventory and harvest. This decreases the chance of being bag jumped AND drastically the amount of a lose IF you do get bag jumped.

Bag Mixing: Harvesting most or all of the ingredients on the same map (or close to each other) and piling the bag up with massive ingredients to "usually" mix later. Sometimes this involved placing in hyperspace. This is VERY risky, and normally ends up being a big mess in bag jumping.

Feel free to pm Lexi in game if you need further help.