## FANDOM

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 A Metal Mine is a building that produces Metal. Metal is one of the 3 basic resources required by all emerging and established empires for the construction of structures and ships, and researching.
Base Cost
Metal: 60
Crystal: 15
Deuterium: 0
Energy: 0

## In-Game Description Edit

Metal is the primary resource used in the foundation of your Empire. At greater depths, the mines can produce more output of metal.You can use the available metal for use in the construction of buildings, ships, defense systems, and research. As the mines drill deeper, more energy is required for maximum production. As metal is the most abundant of all resources available, its value is considered to be the lowest of all resources for trading.

## Requirements Edit

• Available from the start

Is Required for:

• N/A

## Statistics Edit

### Costs by Level Edit

$\text{Cost} = \text{Base Cost} \cdot 1.5^{\text{Metal Mine Level}- 1}$

(Base Cost is 60 Metal and 15 Crystal)

### Production Edit

$\text{Production} = 30A \cdot M \cdot 1.1^{M}$

$A \equiv \text{Universe Acceleration Factor}$

$M \equiv \text{Metal Mine Level}$

Please keep in mind, that this is only the Metal produced by Metal Mines. There is also a base production that each planet puts out without any mine. This number can be seen under the resource settings and is equal to 30 times the acceleration factor. With that factored in, production will equal:

$\text{Production} = 30A \cdot M \cdot {1.1}^{M} + 30A$

Additionally production could depend on Plasma Technology Level. e.g.

$\text{Production} = 30\left(1 + \frac{PT}{100}\right) \cdot A \cdot M \cdot {1.1}^{M} + 30A$

$PT \equiv \text{Plasma Technology Level}$

(Note that Plasma Technology does not affect the base resource generation rate)

### Energy Consumption Edit

$\text{Energy} = \left\lfloor 10 \cdot \text{Metal Mine Level}\cdot 1.1^{\text{Metal Mine Level}}\right\rfloor$

## Resource Stat Table Edit

Level Metal
Cost
Crystal
Cost
Energy
Use
Metal Production
Per Hour Per Day Per Week
0 0 0 0 30 720 5,040
1 60 15 11 33 792 5,544
2 90 22 25 72 1,728 12,096
3 135 33 40 119 2,856 19,992
4 202 50 59 175 4,200 29,400
5 303 75 81 241 5,784 40,488
6 455 113 107 318 7,632 53,424
7 683 170 137 409 9,816 68,712
8 1,025 256 172 514 12,336 86,352
9 1,537 384 213 636 15,264 106,848
10 2,306 576 260 778 18,672 130,704
11 3,459 864 314 941 22,584 158,088
12 5,189 1,297 377 1,129 27,096 189,672
13 7,784 1,946 449 1,346 32,304 226,128
14 11,677 2,919 532 1,594 38,256 267,792
15 17,515 4,378 627 1,879 45,096 315,672
16 26,273 6,568 736 2,205 52,920 370,440
17 39,410 9,852 860 2,577 61,848 432,936
18 59,115 14,778 1,001 3,002 72,048 504,336
19 88,673 22,168 1,163 3,486 83,664 585,648
20 133,010 33,252 1,346 4,036 96,864 678,048
Level Metal
Cost
Crystal
Cost
Energy
Use
Per Hour Per Day Per Week
Metal Production
Per Hour Per Day Per Week
21 199,515 49,878 1,555 4,662 112,608 783,216
22 299,273 74,818 1,791 5,372 128,928 902,496
23 448,909 112,227 2,060 6,178 148,272 1,037,904
24 673,364 168,341 2,364 7,091 170,184 1,191,288
25 1,010,046 252,511 2,709 8,126 195,024 1,365,168
26 1,515,070 378,767 3,099 9,296 223,104 1,561,728
27 2,272,605 568,151 3,540 10,619 254,856 1,783,992
28 3,408,907 852,226 4,038 12,113 290,712 2,034,984
29 5,113,361 1,278,340 4,601 13,800 331,200 2,318,400
30 7,670,042 1,917,510 5,235 15,704 376,896 2,638,272
31 11,505,063 2,876,265 5,951 17,850 428,400 2,998,800
32 17,257,595 4,314,398 6,757 20,269 486,456 3,405,192
33 25,886,392 6,471,598 7,665 22,992 551,808 3,862,656
34 38,829,589 9,707,397 8,687 26,058 625,392 4,377,744
35 58,244,384 14,561,096 9,836 29,507 708,168 4,957,176
36 87,366,576 21,841,644 11,129 33,385 801,240 5,608,680
37 131,049,864 32,762,466 12,582 37,744 905,856 6,340,992
38 196,574,796 49,143,699 14,214 42,640 1,023,360 7,163,679
39 294,862,195 73,715,548 16,047 48,139 1,155,336 8,087,417
40 442,293,292 110,573,323 18,104 54,311 1,303,464 9,124,265
Level Metal
Cost
Crystal
Cost
Energy
Use
Per Hour Per Day Per Week
Metal Production
Per Hour Per Day Per Week
41 663,439,939 165,859,984 20,412 61,235 1,469,640 10,287,480
42 995,159,908 248,789,977 23,001 69,002 1,656,048 11,592,336
43 1,492,739,863 373,184,965 25,904 77,709 1,865,016 13,055,112
44 2,239,109,795 559,777,448 29,157 87,468 2,099,232 14,694,624
45 3,358,664,692 839,666,173 32,801 98,402 2,361,648 16,531,536
46 5,037,997,039 1,259,499,260 36,883 110,647 2,655,528 18,588,696
47 7,556,995,558 1,889,248,890 41,453 124,358 2,984,592 20,892,144
48 11,335,493,337 2,833,873,334 46,569 139,704 3,352,896 23,470,272
49 17,003,240,005 4,250,810,001 52,293 156,876 3,765,024 26,355,168
50 25,504,860,008 6,376,215,002 58,696 176,086 4,226,064 29,582,448
Notes:
1. Information in this table is based solely on the formulas found on this page
2. In the above figures reference should be made to 'game hours', particularly on servers with increased speed
3. This does not count possible lack of energy
4. All Numbers are rounded down except for "Energy Use", which is rounded up in order to maintain accuracy with the tested in-game values. Not all in-game values were tested

## Production and Profit vs Cost Edit

$\text{Time (hours)}=\frac{3}{4\cdot\text{Metal Mine Level}}\cdot\left(\frac{15}{11}\right)^\text{Metal Mine Level}$

The formula above gives the amount of time in which the total metal production reaches the cost of that level of the metal mine.

The graph above says that, for example, if you built metal mine mine level 12, it will take less than 5 hours to take back your metals which you used to built that level. Metal mine level 12 costs 5189 metal, and produces 1297 metals per hour. Indeed it takes about 4 hours to take you metal back.

Example:

From the graph we observe that if you built metal mine level 30, it will take it 20 days to produce as much as metal you used to built that level.

Metal mine 30 costs 7670042 metals, and it produces 15704 metals per hour. That makes 7670042 / 15704 = 488.41 hours = 20.35 days to produce as much as metal you used to built metal mine level 30.

$\text{Time (hours)} = \frac{20}{\text{Metal Mine Level} + 10} \cdot {\left(\frac{15}{11}\right)}^{\text{Metal Mine Level} - 1}$

The formula above gives after what hours the profit of upgrading metal mine adds up to catch the cost of upgrading. In other words, upgrading your metal mine will cause an increment in your metal production, if you integrate this increment over time, after some time this integration will be equal to the cost of the upgrading. This formula gives this time period.

The graph above says that, if you upgrade your metal mine from level 13 to level 14, it will take approximately two days to start harvesting your investment.

If we do the calculations with actual data, upgrading from level 13 to level 14 gives 1594 - 1346 = 248 metal/hour. Metal mine level 14 costs 11677 metal. So the time to start making profit is

$\frac{11677 \; \text{metal}}{1594 \; \frac{\text{metal}}{\text{hour}} - 1346 \; \frac{\text{metal}}{\text{hour}}} = 47.08 \; \text{hours}$
$\frac{20}{14 + 10} \cdot {\left(\frac{15}{11}\right)}^{14 - 1} = 46.98 \; \text{hours}$

From the graph above, we observe that if one upgrades his metal mine from level 31 to level 32, he will start to make profit out of it after one year, for level 39 to level 40 it becomes 3000 days!

Note that, all these production and profit calculations are considered only on metal production. We assume that crystal and energy is free. If we were to consider crystal and energy issues, the formula would have been multi-variable, the graph would have been 4th dimensional. And also if we considered fusion reactor and solar satellites as energy source it would have been a total mess. So in order to keep things simple, it is only explained on metal production.

Note furthermore, that one should take into account the opportunity cost of the metal used. The opportunity cost  is the sacrifice related to the second best choice available to someone. In this case for example, however difficult to determine, one could consider expanding his or her fleet to increase income from raiding. If the expected additional income from raiding exceeds the increase of metal production, one should choose to expand his of her fleet instead.