Ancient mining charge

The ancient mining charge is an explosive device found very frequently in Odyssey-related ruins along with the larger, immobile ancient explosives crate. It is useful for mining and demolition, but is also a potential danger in Ancient_ruins_(Odyssey).

Acquisition[edit]

Despite the description listing "refined chemfuel" as a material of the charge, it can either be crafted nor deconstructed. Ancient mining charges are only found in the following Odyssey-related sites:

Ancient Chemfuel Refinery Explosives Room
Ancient Chemfuel Refinery Workshop
Ancient Ruins Frozen Lab
Orbital Storeroom
Orbital Ruins Storeroom
Basic Asteroid
Ancient Quarry

Summary[edit]

The radius of the ancient mining charge

When detonated, an ancient mining charge will begin to spark and emit a hissing sound for 480 ticks (8 secs) before exploding, dealing 100 MiningBomb damage in a 3.9-tile radius. The final damage applied depends on the type of object. MiningBomb damage does 30x damage to impassable structures (like walls and ore), 5x damage to passable ones and 10x to plants, which is enough to destroy most walls and structures in a single detonation.

Mining charges are volatile, detonating instantly if destroyed, and igniting from any lesser amount of damage.

Analysis[edit]

When encountered in ancient ruins by themselves, ancient mining charges are not much of a threat because of their long wick ignition time and small damage radius. However, they are more dangerous when found with the fixed 2x2 Ancient explosives crate buildings with a 5.9-tile explosion radius because of chain-reaction explosions. Additionally, fuel nodes, turrets, hostiles, intercepted shots and especially hunter drone traps can also trigger ancient mining charges.

Ancient mining charges can be uninstalled by player-controlled colonists and workers and reinstalled elsewhere to be detonated. Additionally, ancient mining charges yield 100% (difficulty-adjusted) of resources from ore tiles destroyed by them, equivalent to a skill of 8 in mining. Aside from mining itself, all other damage types produce a minimum 1 resource from a mineable body, making mining charges potentially useful for a skill-insufficiency situation. Compacted plasteel and uranium ore have high enough hit points to require multiple charges.

Placement for mining yield[edit]

Maximum number of ores that can be destroyed by a single charge (19)

Explosive damage is absorbed by ores and other solid objects, so an ancient mining charge will not be able to clear out all ores in its explosion radius if some are blocking others, regardless of the max hit points of the ores. The maximum number of ore tiles that can be destroyed by one ancient mining charge is 20 if all the ores are on the perimeter of the charge's blast radius, but only 19 is realistically possible in a playthrough as there will need to be at least one gap in the ores in order for a pawn to place and detonate the charge.

However, in order to achieve the shape for the maximum amount of ores destroyed in a single blast, a pawn will have to mine out a shape for the ancient mining charge. A simpler method would be to place the charge next to the ore without mining a space for it first, but the maximum amount of ore tiles blasted from a single charge in this way is only 7. Ancient mining charges cannot be bought or crafted, so maximizing the speed and value of limited charges is best with gold, silver or jade, high value, "soft" ores that don't drop limited-hp raw resources. Components should be collected and cleared between repeated detonations.

Placement for combat purposes[edit]

Ancient mining charges also deal 1,5000 damage to fortified walls, requiring 6 charges to destroy a wall. They can also be used to destroy buildings with high hit points like psychic or defoliator ships, but it may be practical to use a breach axe instead.

Additionally, ancient mining charges are not traps, so they can be placed adjacent to IEDs for chain-reaction explosions.

As a detonator[edit]

Ancient mining charges do equal explosive damage to all tiles in their radius, and detonate instantly on destruction, making 'daisy-chain' explosives relatively safe and straightforward to setup.

Roof Fall Trap[edit]

Mining charges have a larger radius than a high explosive IED, meaning a falling trap with a charge as its main sequence detonation can have a slightly larger radius than a normal one. The larger radius also means that overhead mountain roof that are supported outside the range of a single tile can also be collapsed, potentially enclosing a cone of collapsed rocks with a hollow core. This could require a high-hp secondary explosive or a supporting tile capable of resisting the explosive. Experiments are encouraged.

Trivia[edit]

The explosives expert backstory will have 1 ancient mining charge in the pawn's inventory.

Version history[edit]

Odyssey DLC Release - Added.
1.64566 - drops more than 1 mined resource from detonated ores, equivalent to mining yield
1.6.4630 - Fix: Some explosive buildings explode twice when the wick ends.

Ruins

Ancient concrete barrier • Ancient lamppost • Ancient band node • Ancient basic recharger • Ancient exostrider cannon • Ancient exostrider head • Ancient exostrider leg • Ancient exostrider midsection • Ancient large mech gestator • Ancient mech gestator • Ancient standard recharger • Ancient toxifier generator • Ancient ATM • Ancient air conditioner • Ancient barrel • Ancient bed • Ancient car • Ancient car frame • Ancient comms console • Ancient container • Ancient crate • Ancient cryptosleep pod • Ancient display bank • Ancient dropship • Ancient dropship engine • Ancient enemy terminal • Ancient engine block • Ancient equipment blocks • Ancient fence • Ancient generator • Ancient giant wheel • Ancient hydrant • Ancient jet engine • Ancient kitchen sink • Ancient lamp • Ancient large crate • Ancient locker bank • Ancient long crate • Ancient machine • Ancient macro-engine block • Ancient mech drop beacon • Ancient mechanoid shell • Ancient mega-cannon barrel • Ancient mega-cannon platform • Ancient microwave • Ancient nav beacon • Ancient operating table • Ancient oven • Ancient pipeline section • Ancient pipes • Ancient pod car • Ancient postbox • Ancient razor wire • Ancient refrigerator • Ancient ruined APC • Ancient ruined tank • Ancient security turret • Ancient shopping cart • Ancient small crate • Ancient storage cylinder • Ancient stove • Ancient system rack • Ancient tank trap • Ancient terminal • Ancient toilet • Ancient troop carrier • Ancient truck • Ancient unstable fuel node • Ancient vending machine • Ancient warspider remains • Ancient warsprinter remains • Ancient warwalker claw • Ancient warwalker foot • Ancient warwalker leg • Ancient warwalker shell • Ancient warwalker torso • Ancient washing machine • Ancient wheel • Ancient antenna • Ancient armchair • Ancient brewery • Ancient butcher table • Ancient chembarrel • Ancient chembarrel pallet • Ancient chemtruck • Ancient cold storage • Ancient crate pallet • Ancient drill rig • Ancient drug lab • Ancient electric tailor bench • Ancient excavator • Ancient explosives crate • Ancient fueled smithy • Ancient hand tailor bench • Ancient heat vent • Ancient industrial shelf • Ancient machining table • Ancient military barrier • Ancient military generator • Ancient mining charge • Ancient pipe • Ancient plant pot • Ancient safe • Ancient smoke vent • Ancient toxic vent • Ancient transport pod • Ancient tunneler claw • Ancient tunneler husk • Ancient uplink • Ancient wind turbine; Broken autocannon turret • Broken uranium slug turret • Busted mortar • Busted television; Ruined crane arm • Ruined crane arm • Ruined crane base • Ruined crane column • Ruined forklift; Rusted bed • Rusted double bed • Rusted industrial truck • Rusted lockers • Rusted metal crate • Rusted microwave • Rusted open container