Type-8 TransporterMining

The Type-8 Transporter's huge medium-pad hold makes it a natural high-volume miner. With over 400 tonnes of capacity, it carries a full mining suite — refinery, prospector and collector controllers — and still has room for one of the biggest ore holds available on a medium pad. That means longer sessions before you have to dock, and bigger hauls of valuable ore per trip.

It's tough and reasonably quick for its size, and its medium pad reaches ring systems and stations the large miners can't. It can't fight off pirates the way a Python can, so it relies on a shield and a quick escape if interdicted — but for pure laser-mining throughput on a medium pad, nothing holds more. For a commander whose mining is about volume, the Type-8 is the capacity king of its class.

Four things make the Type-8 a top volume miner:

• The biggest medium-pad ore hold. Over 400 tonnes of capacity — the most ore per trip you can land on a medium pad.
• Room for a full suite plus huge cargo. Refinery, prospector and multiple collector controllers, and still a vast hold.
• Tough and fairly quick. A durable modern hull with enough speed to escape interdiction better than the big freighter-miners.
• Medium-pad and rank-free. Reaches ring systems and stations the large miners can't, with no rank gate.

Class-leading medium-pad ore volume (~406 t) on a cheap, rank-free hull carries the score; escape-only survivability with small hardpoints is the limiter holding it below the Python and Type-11.

The 84/100 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 is fitted.

Same class — medium-pad miners

The Type-8 has the biggest hold of any medium miner by a clear margin. The Python mines more safely with self-defence, but holds less; for pure ore volume on a medium pad, the Type-8 is unmatched in its class.

Other classes — the dedicated and capital miners

The capital miners out-haul the Type-8, but all need a large pad. Notably the Type-8 out-holds the large-pad Type-7 while landing more flexibly — making it the smartest high-volume miner short of committing to a large hull.

At ~34.8M Cr the Type-8 is mid-priced — cheaper than the Python and far cheaper than the capital miners — with no rank gate. A mining fit keeps the all-in cost around 52M Cr.

It's the value high-volume miner: the most ore per trip on a medium pad, on a durable modern hull, for a fraction of a capital ship's cost. For commanders mining safe, rich hotspots, it's the smart pick.

A high-volume laser-mining fit built around a huge ore hold and a defensive shield. Initial is buy-only; A-rated is the mining baseline; Engineered focuses on the ship's mobility, defence and heat — the mining tools are not meaningfully engineered.

Buy-only is a bare shell: the stock Lightweight Alloy bulkheads, a single 2D Mining Laser (Fixed) on the medium hardpoint, and the stock E-rated core modules with a 5C Fuel Tank.

Slot two ore racks straight away — a 7E and a 6E Cargo Rack — and leave every other slot empty (—): no extra mining lasers, abrasion or sub-surface tools, no refinery, prospector or collector controllers, no scanners.

The bi-weave shield and its boosters also wait for the A-rated pass; buy-only just gets you cutting ore on day one.

A-rating priority for a volume miner:

• 1Power Distributor → 4A — Four mining lasers and a limpet swarm draw continuously; the engineered roll adds Cluster Capacitors for WEP/ENG uptime. ~5M Cr
• 24A Refinery + 5A Collector Limpet Controller — The throughput core of the mining loop. ~3M Cr
• 3Mining hardpoints — Fill the bare smalls: two more 1D Mining Lasers (three small plus the medium = four cutting at once), a 1D Abrasion Blaster and a 1B Sub-Surface Displacement Missile for surface and sub-surface deposits.
• 4Thrusters → 5A — Escape interdiction when laden. ~5M Cr
• 5Shield Generator → 6C bi-weave — Tank a pirate while you boost away. ~3M Cr
• 6Power Plant → 5A — Run the whole suite; engineer Armoured for integrity and power headroom, not Stealth — a hungry miner needs the margin. ~5M Cr
• 7Frame Shift Drive → 5A — Reach distant hotspots and haul ore home.

Mining engineering is light and targets the ship, not the tools. Felicity Farseer (maxed) carries the FSD; pin blueprints for remote G1→G5 application.

Recommended order

• 1Engineer the ship for escape and survival — thrusters, bi-weave shield, boosters — not the tools.
• 2Low-Emissions plant for cool, long mining sessions.
• 3FSD Increased Range to reach distant hotspots and haul ore home.
• 4Leave the mining lasers stock — they take no blueprint; the refinery and limpet controllers need only light mass/integrity passes at most.

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

Engineered, the Type-8 cuts with four mining lasers into a ~340t hold on a medium pad — the longest sessions and biggest medium-pad hauls in the game. Lightweight, Deep-Plated bulkheads add a little hull without costing jump range, but it still can't trade blows with pirates: mine richer-but-safer hotspots and keep the bi-weave to escape. Its single medium hardpoint makes it a laser specialist — for deep-core motherlodes, swap that laser for the medium-class Seismic Charge Launcher. For volume, nothing its size matches it.

• Volume is the point — fill the hold; mine richer hotspots to make the big capacity pay.
• It can't fight pirates — keep a shield, mine safer systems, and boost away if interdicted.
• Don't engineer the mining tools; engineer the ship's escape and survival instead.
• For self-defence in dangerous rings, the Python is safer; for pure volume, the Type-8 wins.