Vital to the economics of your team is mining Helium3 asteroids for income.

Each team receives one miner at the beginning of a tech tree game, and as many as four miners per team can be built. As soon as the game begins, the commander or investor should immediately begin building more miners. If there is a Helium3 (He3) asteroid in the team's home sector, a new miner will automatically go to that asteroid and start mining.

Only one miner can mine an He3 asteroid at a time. It will mine at that asteroid until its inner containment field is full, it is commanded to go elsewhere, another miner approaches that asteroid, or too many enemies in the sector scare it off.

A miner will return to the base closest to the asteroid it is mining. When the miner docks at any base, its cargo is transformed into money for the team.

Once an He3 asteroid is depleted of He3, a miner will automatically go to the next He3 asteroid in the same sector. If a miner cannot find any He3 asteroids, it will become idle for a time before returning to the nearest base. It will issue a message stating that there is no He3 to be found. In this case, the commander should use the expanded Map display to locate a neutral sector with He3 asteroids, and then command the miner to go mine an asteroid in that sector.

One of the most important responsibilities of the commander is the protection of miners. A miner should never be without a nearby escort or bodyguard, as an attack on mining operations can cripple a team's progress. Miners left idle are particularly vulnerable and should be diligently micromanaged to avoid attack. Along these lines, keeping an eye out for enemy mining operations and carrying out surprise attacks is a solid way to beat down the enemy through economic ruin.

The shields and armor of a miner are not very strong, and a miner will flee for base once it has lost 75% of its shields. If a miner is waiting for its chance to mine an asteroid and it is attacked, it will head for the base once its shields drop to 50%. Once at base, it will stay docked until all enemies are out of scan range.