Stellar Tactics 1.0 Mining & Refining AFK Guide: How To Actually Make Millions

If you want a mostly hands‑off way to stack credits in Stellar Tactics 1.0 on PC, the best long‑term method is to combine planetary mining drones, a ship‑mounted refinery, and the Trade‑Net economy loop. The official game description and wiki both confirm that you can mine asteroids, refine raw ore, trade commodities on the Trade‑Net, and use mining drones to harvest planetary resources as “a great way to earn money” and eventually “earn millions of credits” for ships and gear. This works especially well for solo players who enjoy exploration and background money‑making rather than constant manual asteroid mining.

At a high level, your AFK‑leaning loop looks like this: scan planets, drop mining drones on good ground resource nodes, let them fill up and auto‑sell at stations, then use your own refinery and Trade‑Net access to squeeze more value out of ore you recover and refine yourself. Mining, trading, and refining are all directly called out by the developers as viable paths to “earn millions of credits” over time, so you are not cheesing anything here—you’re just leaning into the game’s economic systems.

Fast overview: AFK‑leaning mining & refining loop

1. Get out of the starter ship and into a miner‑friendly hull with more cargo and equipment slots (community players note the starter ship is bad for mining).

2. Unlock and buy mining drones, then start doing missions and early combat to fund a small fleet of drones.

3. Scan planets in systems with decent mining ratings to reveal ground resource nodes and drop drone harvesters on them.

4. Let drones mine until full; in automatic mode they fly to the nearest station, unload, and sell at the base universal price, which tutorial footage shows can reach around 30,000 credits per cycle with maxed capacity.

5. Use the Trade‑Net to buy ore when it’s cheap, then refine it in your ship’s refinery and sell refined ore or crafted items for a higher margin.

6. Invest mining perks and refinery perks to cut refining waste and speed up cycles so more ore turns into refined product per hour of actual play.

7. Keep repeating this loop as you explore and run missions, letting drones tick away in the background while your trade network and credit balance snowball.

How AFK‑style mining works in Stellar Tactics

The AFK part of the strategy comes from mining drones and the way they behave on planetary resource nodes rather than classic asteroid mining. The official “How to play” text and the about page explain that scanning planets reveals resources that can be harvested by mining drones, and describe drone harvesting as “a great way to earn money,” with ground‑based nodes that “earn you extra money as you take missions and explore”. That means you can be in a completely different system running content while your drones quietly work in the background.

Developer‑approved tutorial footage shows drones have a maximum capacity of 1,000 units, fly to a targeted planetary resource node, mine until full, then automatically head for the nearest station to unload and sell their cargo at a base universal price. The same footage mentions that a single drone trip can reach roughly 30,000 credits when it’s full, which gives you a realistic ballpark for per‑drone income without promising a fixed “credits per hour” value that could change between patches. Another tutorial confirms that crew assigned to the ship’s weapon station gain mining experience while drones are mining, so the system passively levels your mining skill too.

Simple AFK drone setup

1. Build up some starting cash through ground missions and early combat.

2. Buy several mining drones and keep them on your ship.

3. Jump into a system, scan planets, and find resource nodes worth mining.

4. Deploy drones on those nodes and set their AI to automatic so they mine, fill, fly to station, unload, and sell.

5. Keep playing missions or exploring; check in now and then to reinvest profits into more drones or better ships.

Mining vs refining vs Trade‑Net: why you shouldn’t just auto‑sell

Drones selling ore directly is convenient but not the maximum profit line. A content patch announcement explicitly states that mining drones now sell ore at a reduced price “to balance the economy” and that “retrieving ore, refining it and then selling it” is the more profitable path once the Trade‑Net is in play. That tells you the intended high‑end loop: let drones generate raw ore and credits, but personally handle the refine‑and‑trade part when you want to push into “millions of credits” territory.

The official wiki notes that refined ore is used for crafting items and can be traded across the universe on the Trade‑Net, and that you can purchase and equip a refinery at any ship equipment vendor. A community guide and tutorial video show what that looks like in practice: you buy a refinery module, slot it into your ship, then drag ore from your cargo into the refinery UI so it can start processing. Perks in the refining line reduce ore waste and increase refining speed, meaning a higher percentage of each batch becomes refined product and you get more cycles done per play session.

Core money loop with drones + refinery

• Let drones auto‑sell some ore at base price for passive cash while you play.

• Use the Trade‑Net to create buy orders for specific ore types when they’re cheap in other systems.

• Bring that ore to your ship, refine it using a refinery with efficiency‑boosting perks, then sell the refined output or craft with it.

• Repeat as your trade beacon network grows, giving you access to more stations and better price spread on the Trade‑Net.

AFK mining tips for different players

A general Steam discussion thread points out that the starter ship is “not suitable for mining” and recommends using early combat and missions to fund upgrades, then focusing on FTL, mining drones, and systems with good mining ratings. That matches how the game’s economic systems are laid out: there are “many ways to make money,” but mining, trading, and refining are highlighted as the path toward bigger ships and better gear.

Tutorial and guide content also show that if you want to actively mine asteroids, you now have to deal with the updated mining “heat” mechanic, where you manage turret energy to keep asteroid temperature in a sweet spot for bonus ore, and falling outside that band reduces yield and depletes the asteroid faster.

The developers’ own site and “How to play” documentation explicitly state that mining, trading, and refining “can be a way to earn millions of credits to buy a new ship and gear up your crew”. That statement is broad on purpose: it doesn’t promise a specific rate or a single best build, but it confirms that the systems you’re using here—drones, refineries, Trade‑Net—are meant to scale into late‑game money. You will not hit “millions” in a single night of AFK drone cycles, yet over a long campaign those cycles, plus refining and trade margins, add up.

What can’t be stated honestly are hard numbers like “exact credits per hour” across every patch and save. Drone earnings depend on node quality and how many drones you run, Trade‑Net profits depend on the price spread you find with your beacons, and refining value depends on what you craft or sell. The part you can rely on is the structure: drones give you low‑touch ore and cash, refining raises the value of ore, and Trade‑Net lets you buy low/sell high across systems.