Laser Drill



Greetings, rookie.

Did you see Korolev’s new toy flying over your head? Yeah, I mean the Laser Drill. Yes, the thing that sits idly in the upper atmosphere until it finds the time to set down and start digging.

The laser drill is a very good source of VP if you do it right and survive.

The Process
When you go down to Fortuna III, your capsule usually scans the surface for easy to reach deposits of Lethium Gas and Veltecite. What you didn’t know is that Korolev’s orbital satellite network does heavy sub-surface scans at the same time.

Whenever they find something worthwhile they’ll send one of these metal behemoths down to the surface in an automated flight pattern to the points on the map with the most concentrated deposits of Lethium, and Veltecite.

Those points will be marked on your map with the slightly transparent laser drill icon and "next location," for the next location that the drill will land. As soon as the drill is spotted, you’ll get notified and the drill itself will be visible on the map in solid color, using the same icon as its landing spots. Try to catch the drill when it sets down at any one of them!

In order to trigger the contract, you have to manually activate the drill by interacting with the console on the second floor of the platform.

As soon as you activate the drill you’ll have to defend it. There will be a LOT of monsters, not to mention other meddling Prospectors that will surely be inbound to contest your claim on the drill. We really advise bringing some backup. Alone, you’ll quickly be overwhelmed by Fortune III creatures or enemy prospectors.

You are also rewarded a small amount of points towards the drilling contract by killing the creatures attacking the drill, this means that even if the drill has left its drilling location you can get points towards the contract by killing any left over creatures.

Number of drill locations: 3

Drill core Health: 3000

Drill active for 150 seconds per spot

Final Notes
You can use the platform as a convenient means of transportation over long distances every time it finishes a drill-cycle and relocates to another resource point.

First in, last out, stay alive and bring your friends. And don’t let anything or anyone destroy the reactor core.

It is highly advised that you do other contracts while the drill is moving to its next location, you don't receive any VP while the drill is moving and that time could be spent giving you that extra boost your enemy might not have.

Lore
This sound file and the following quote are connected. "To sadder news, I think enemy prospectors have been hacking into our laser drill platforms. We have many times inspected yields and gotten only dirt or pig metals instead of letium, and our servers restart every time the platform docks with its retrieval ship. - Vadim Tanayev"