Solo Porpoise vs. Retriever

I’ve been hauling in the Plagioclase with my Retriever for quite some time now and I’m happy with the results. It allows me to bring in a full load (33k m3 or about 7m ISK compressed) in just under 30 minutes with my current skills and fittings. Being bored out on the belt the other day I decided to spec out a Porpoise to see how that might compare (mainly so I could just compress out on the belt and not run back and forth). Here’s what I found.

The Retriever running 5 drones and two "Strip Miner I” will pull about "1241/60s or 20.5 m3/s” and the Porpoise with just the 5 drones (along with 3 augmented miner drone rigs) only pulls in "455/60s or 7.5 m3/s”.

I tried many different fittings but I can’t find anything much better. I can pull in quite a bit more with the Retriever (~50%) if I update to better mining lasers but then crystals come in to play and there is a lot more wasted ore (residue).

Keep in mind I did this without any of the other bonuses or boosting from the Porpoise as I’m not skilled into that yet. I doubt it makes up the difference though. That’s a pretty drastic gap.

Retriever +5 drones = 20.5 m3/s

Porpoise +5 drones = 7.5 m3/s

Unless they eventually give the Porp some turrets, I’m afraid it’s not really viable as a solo mining solution. I think it looks a lot cooler, but it’s just meant to be in a Fleet Support ship. However, If I end up mutil-boxing with an alt, that would be the way to go.