Ore Ships
Small barge: I can't even recall it's name right now, but the time to train from this to Retriever is minimal, skip ahead rather than stopping here and spending your isk!
Retriever: This is really the first mining barge, able to fit two Strip Miners with ore-specific crystals. This barge is quite good enough to mine in empire while you finish up your skills for a Covetor. In high security sectors, it's able to tank the damage the NPC's do, and even dispatch them with the use of drones.
Covetor: The larges T1 mining barge. It allows the use of 3 mining lasers, (Strip Miner II's being the best), and T1 or T2 mining crystals. It (I believe) has bonuses to mining amount, and with skills and mining laser upgrades, cannot be out-mined easily. 5punkorp has raped entire belts of their ore using a fleet of these in very short time.
Skiff: The skiff is the first level of Exhumer that you can fly once you've mastered Mining Barge V. It has more shield tanking ability than it's T1 small barge counterpart, yet can only fit a single mining laser. It has a bonus to mining a particular ore type that cannot be found in Empire space. Strongly suggested that you train for a Mackinaw and use it's bonuses for ice, or train for the Hulk and high shield skills to mine in 0.0, as the NPC's out there will kill you if you mine alone!
Mackinaw: The Mackinaw is the second ship in the Exhumers line, and has highly specialized systems for mining ice. While it does cycle slightly longer while mining ice, it mines double the amount, outmining a Hulk when mining ice. It can handle two mining lasers, but stick to mining ice with it, as it lacks enough mid slots for an easy 0.0 tank.
Hulk: The Hulk is the best solo-mining ship in the game in terms of tankability and survivability. Able to field a decent shield tank w/ skills and some high-end shield bits, the Hulk also has extensive bonuses to mining amount, and can fit 3 mining lasers. It also has a nice sized cargo bay for holding all that ore, but you'll still have to jet-can if you want to mine for two complete cycles or more.
Rorqual: The first ORE capital in game. It's designed to support mining by providing bonuses, support, and also by reducing hauler needs by compressing minerals and ice by use of it's onboard processing plant and blueprints to produce compressed versions of the same. It can fit capital sized tractor beams to pull ore cans to it from 200km, enabling it to cover ships spread across entire asteroid belts. The onboard clone vat allows pilots to clone jump directly to the ship, and it's hangar array can hold several Hulks. Information about it's drone bay, hangar array capacity, and cargo hold are available in game.
