Krait PhantomMining

The Krait Phantom is the Krait Mk II's leaner, longer-legged sibling — it drops a hardpoint and the fighter bay for less mass and more range. That trade reads well for exploration; for mining it's a mixed bag. The Phantom still fits a complete mining suite across its two large and two medium hardpoints, carries a refinery, limpet controllers and a respectable ore hold in its nine optional internals, and lands on a medium pad with no rank or permit. It mines perfectly well.

What holds it back is the comparison to its own neighbours. With only two large mounts it has one fewer mining-tool slot than the Python, its ~190 t maximum cargo is mid-pack for a medium, and its light hull and modest base shield make it a poorer brawler when a pirate interdicts a laden run. Where it pulls ahead is reach: a premium FSD and good speed let it strike distant or freshly-discovered hotspots, run ore to far high-price markets, and outrun trouble rather than tank it. For mining, treat it as the explorer-miner — capable, fast and far-ranging, but not the one you buy purely to crack cores.

What the Phantom brings to a mining session:

• Fits the full tool set. Two large mounts take a mining laser and a seismic charge launcher; the two mediums take a sub-surface missile and an abrasion blaster — laser and core mining covered.
• Deep internals for a real suite. Nine optionals hold a refinery, prospector and collector controllers, a surface scanner and a worthwhile ore hold together.
• Reach and speed. Premium jump range strikes distant hotspots and runs ore to far markets; good speed lets it escape an interdiction it can't out-fight.
• Medium-pad and rank-free. Lands at most stations and ring systems; anyone with the credits can fly one.

A complete tool fit, premium range and rank-free medium-pad access earn a solid 70, held there by mid-pack ~190 t cargo and a light hull that escapes pirates rather than fighting them.

The 70/100 headline is a verdict against the mining role's priority-ordered factors. Each factor carries a weight (its share of 100); this hull earns part of each based on how it performs against the whole field. The points sum to the rating.

Both tables rate ships for mining specifically. The role column is the maximum cargo capacity in tonnes — though practical ore capacity is lower once the mining suite (refinery, limpet controllers) is fitted.

Same class — medium-pad miners

Within its own class the Phantom sits mid-pack. The Python, Krait Mk II and Type-8 all out-haul it and most can fight pirates better; the cheaper mediums below it carry far less. The Phantom's edge over its near-neighbours is range and speed, not mining throughput — which is exactly why it scores where it does.

Other classes — the dedicated and capital miners

The capital miners and the dedicated Type-11 dwarf the Phantom's haul, and even the medium-pad Type-8 carries far more ore. The Phantom doesn't compete on tonnage anywhere — its only structural advantage over these is jump range and a medium pad, useful for reaching and supplying remote rings, not for filling a hold fastest.

At ~35.7M Cr the Phantom is cheaper than the Python but pricier than the dedicated trade-miners, with no rank gate. A mining fit — tools, refinery, limpet controllers, ore racks and a light shield — brings the all-in figure to around 68M Cr once the FSD and core modules are engineered.

The honest read: you don't buy a Phantom for mining. If you already own one for exploration or multipurpose work, fitting a mining suite is a sensible second loadout that exploits its range. As a from-scratch mining purchase, a Python, Krait Mk II or Type-8 returns more ore per credit.

A complete mining fit for laser and core work that leans on range and a light shield rather than a brawl. Initial is buy-only; A-rated is the mining baseline; Engineered focuses on range, mobility and heat — the mining tools themselves are not meaningfully engineered.

Buy-only is deliberately bare. The hull keeps its stock Lightweight Alloy bulkhead — the lightest, cheapest plating, and exactly what a range-led miner wants, so there's no armour spend here. Fit a single 1D Mining Laser on the first large mount and leave the second large, both mediums and all four utility mounts empty (—) — the seismic launcher, sub-surface missile, abrasion blaster, Pulse Wave Analyser, shield booster and heat sinks all wait for the A-rated pass.

Core internals stay stock E-rated — 7E plant, 6E thrusters, 5E FSD, 4E life support, 7E distributor, 6E sensors and the 5C fuel tank — enough to fly the hull to outfitting but not to mine hard.

Internals carry only a single 6E cargo rack; the refinery, prospector and collector controllers, the surface scanner, the bi-weave shield and the extra ore racks are all left empty (—) until the A-rated upgrade. Buy-only doesn't mine — it's a hull on credits, ready to kit out.

The buy-only hull is bare, so this is where it becomes a working miner: the seismic launcher, sub-surface missile and abrasion blaster join the upgraded 2D laser, and the refinery, prospector and collector controllers, Pulse Wave Analyser, surface scanner, a light 5C bi-weave shield, a 0A shield booster and two heat sinks all go on. The bulkhead stays the stock Lightweight Alloy — a Phantom miner runs, it doesn't tank, so the hull stays as light as possible for range and speed. A-rating priority for a range-led miner:

• 1Power Distributor → A — Mining lasers and limpets are power-hungry; A-rate first. ~7M Cr
• 2Power Plant → A — Run tools, limpets and shield together without browning out. ~6M Cr
• 3FSD → A — The Phantom's whole case is reach; the A-rated drive comes early. ~6M Cr
• 4Refinery + limpet controllers — The heart of the mining loop. ~3M Cr
• 5Thrusters → A — Speed to break interdictions and reposition over rocks. ~5M Cr

Mining engineering is light and focuses on the ship, not the tools — the mining hardware itself isn't meaningfully engineered. Felicity Farseer (maxed) carries the FSD; pin blueprints for remote G1→G5 application.

Recommended order

• 1FSD Increased Range first — it's the reason to mine in a Phantom at all; it strikes far hotspots and hauls ore to distant markets.
• 2Low-Emissions plant keeps heat down through long mining sessions.
• 3Dirty Drive thrusters give the speed to break interdictions the light hull can't tank.
• 4Leave the mining lasers, limpet controllers and refinery stock — they don't benefit meaningfully from engineering.

Approximate progression across the three states (figures are representative, not exact rolls):

Engineered, the Phantom mines a useful ~150 t of ore, reaches distant hotspots in a handful of jumps, and is fast enough to break most interdictions rather than tank them. The bulkhead is deliberately the stock Lightweight Alloy with a G5 Lightweight roll — it sheds mass rather than adding armour, feeding the jump range and speed the whole build turns on. It hauls less and tanks worse than the Python or Type-8, but none of those reaches a far ring as quickly — reach, not raw haul, is what the upgrades buy.

• Play to range and speed, not tonnage or toughness — the Phantom mines best where reach matters and you can run from trouble.
• Don't engineer the mining tools — they don't benefit; put the work into the FSD, thrusters and shield instead.
• A-rate the distributor and plant so lasers and limpets run together without browning out.
• For maximum ore or a miner that fights pirates, the Python, Krait Mk II or Type-8 beat it in its own class — pick the Phantom for the range.