Asteroid Harvesting

Asteroid Harvesting is a fleet-based resource extraction system where players deploy Orbital Refineries to process finite asteroid nodes.

Unlike mines, asteroid nodes:

Have finite resource pools
Require active fleet deployment
Scale by realm
Become contested in higher realms

System Overview

Asteroid harvesting consists of:

Discovering a node
Scanning it for composition
Deploying Orbital Refineries
Extracting refined resources
Transporting output via Orbital Refineries or Cargo ships

Nodes are temporary and disappear when fully processed.

Node Discovery

Spawn Sources by Realm

Realm	Discovery Source
Realm 2	Pirate Bases drop node coordinates
Realm 3	Expeditions reveal anomalous clusters
Realm 4+	Legendary pirate raids and alliance events

Nodes are visible and can be harvested immediately.

Node Properties

Each asteroid node contains:

Finite resource pool
Mixed composition
Possible rare drops

Node Size by Realm

Realm	Node Size Range	PvP Risk
R2	5,000,000 – 30,000,000	None
R3	10,000,000 – 60,000,000	Pirate convoy risk
R4+	30,000,000 – 100,000,000	Full PvP enabled

Resource Composition

Resource Type	Distribution
Regular (Steel, Quartz,)	70–80%
Rare Traces (Realm-dependent)	20–30%
Special Drops	2-3%

Rare trace resources by realm:

Realm	Rare Resources
R2	Iridium (5–10%)
R3	Silicium (10–15%), Iridium (5%)
R4+	Elerium (10–20%), Silicium (10%), Iridium (5–10%)

Special Drops may include:

Relic pieces
Boost items

Fleet Requirements

Orbital Refinery (Mandatory)

The Orbital Refinery is required to process asteroid nodes. To improve harvest capacity and increase harvest cycle, Advanced Resource Extraction and Debris Mastery researches.

Base Stats by Realm:

Realm	Processing Power	Refinery Hold Capacity
R2+	3,000 units/cycle	40,000

Functions:

Extracts and refines raw asteroid materials
Stores processed output internally
Halts if internal storage becomes full

Cargo Ships (Optional)

Cargo ships:

Remove refined resources from refinery hold
Allow continuous processing
Prevent idle time

At later realms, without cargo ships, refineries frequently stop due to full storage.

Processing Mechanics

Core Processing Formula

Processing Time = Node Size ÷ (Number of Refineries × Processing Power)

Example (Realm 2, 200,000 node):

1 Refinery:
200,000 ÷ 2,000 = 100 minutes
3 Refineries:
200,000 ÷ (3 × 2,000) = ~33 minutes

Untouched asteroid ore growth

Some asteroid fields slowly gain more ore over time if no one has mined them. Once players start taking ore from a field, it stops growing this way until it is fully untouched again (same amount left as when it was last “full”).

Which ones qualify

The field must be completely untouched: no ore has been removed yet.
The field must have been idle long enough (about a day of real time between growth steps—exact timing can be tuned for balance).
Growth is not unlimited: each field has a maximum size it can reach.

Maximum size

The cap is based on the realm and how rich that asteroid type is (density). Richer fields can grow to a higher cap than sparse ones. The cap is a multiple of what a “very lucky” fresh spawn of that type could roll—so growth rewards quiet, unmolested fields but does not exceed a designed ceiling.

How growth works (simple)

Each time a field is eligible, its total ore is increased by a percentage, and that percentage stacks over time:

Think of each idle day (approximately) as one growth step.
Each step multiplies ore by roughly (100% + growth rate). For example, with a 5% growth rate per step, one step is about ×1.05.
If a field has been idle for several days before the game applies growth, it may apply several steps at once—but only up to a small cap on how many steps can fire in one go (so a field does not jump from empty-to-cap in a single instant).

In short:

new ore = min(realm cap, current ore * (1 + r)^n)

(r) = growth rate per step (e.g. 5% → use 0.05 in ((1+r))).
(n) = number of idle steps applied that time (at least 1, limited to a small maximum so catch-up is controlled).
Result is rounded down and cannot exceed the field’s cap.

After a growth step, the clock for “idle time” starts again from that moment, so steady growth feels like roughly one step per idle period, unless the field sat idle longer and catches up a few steps at once.

What players should remember

Untouched fields in eligible realms slowly grow toward a cap.
Mining stops this flow and then it will be in auto deplete flow if not depleted by the player.
Growth is percentage-based and compounds; long idle periods can apply a few steps at once, but the rules limit how extreme that catch-up is.
Exact percentages, timing, and caps are balance settings and may change; the behavior above stays the same in principle.