Super Motherload has two great ways to make more money of ores: Chains and Combos.

Let's say, you have 20 bronzium and 20 goldium ores next to you. You could either combine them to 20 katana gold or create a bronzium and a goldium chain. Now you may ask yourself what's better. This guide helps you to choose the most profitable option.

If you don't care about the details, skip to chapter Comparison and the following tables or to the Conclusion.

Chains can be created by digging the same ores in a row.
Collecting a different type of ore or selling your freight ends the chain. Items (bombs, repair, fuel) and obstacles (magma, rocks, metal plates) don't interrupt a chain. It's even possible to use the gas station, repair bay or shop, as long as you don't sell any ores.

Chains don't affect the collected ores. They are sold for the usual prices and eat up as much cargo space as every other ore.

You receive an immediate money bonus for every ore you mine in a row. The longer your chain, the higher the bonus. The bonus is calculated from the base price of the ore and a factor, which depends on the current length of your chain.






If we create a chain of 7 silverium (base price 100), then we get the following boni


Since we can sell the ores after the chain was created, we will earn a total of 145 + 7 * 100 = 845.




Chains can be created from nearly everything. Even an explodium chain is possible if you haven't bought the smelter.
Hammers, sickles, beacons and all types of bones ore sold immediately. This will look like the bonus of such chains is enormously higher. Don't get distracted by this - the old formula still applies.

Two ores can be combined using the smelter. The combination is called a combo. In most cases, a combo gives a bit more money than the sum of its ingredients.

To create a combo, you have to mine its ingredients in a row. The created combo will remove all ingredients from your cargo. Items (bombs, repair, fuel) and obstacles (magma, rock, metal plate) can be mined between the ingredients without any affect. It's even possible to use the gas station, repair bay or shop between the ingredients, as long as you don't sell any ores.

The order in that the ingredients are mined only matters if a combo is an ingredient of another combo. In this case you have to create the combined ingredient first.

Combos can't be used to create a chain.

All available combos are listed in the following tables.

The following two chapters list all available combos and compare them to the the chains.

We assume, that you have an equal number of ores from two types (A and B), needed to create a combo (C). There are two options for maximum profit: Combining all the ores or creating two chains. Splitting up the available ores (creating combos and chains) is always a losing deal!

What to choose depends on the number of ores. Combos are better for few ores and chains are better for many ores. The rightmost column (≤) is the maximum number of combos you should create from that ingredients. For more, you're better off with two chains.

We don't take into account that

• ... you have to buy the smelter.
  
• ... you may missing the cargo hold to create such a long chain.
  
• ... some formations can't be mined as chains, since the ores are nested.
  
• ... you need more fuel to create combos/chains with a certain formation.

S = Smelter Level
Benefits enclosed in ( ) are calculated from all 3 base ingredients.

Bomb combos have huge benefits, but their results cannot be sold!
Create them only if you need the bombs.

S = Smelter Level

You probably don't want to search this guide every time you have the option between chains and combos, so lets summarize the results in a few rules of thumb:

• Prefer the rare earth magnet combo over every chain.
  
• Avoid the white gold combo (unless you want to save cargo space).
  
• In most cases, Two chains with 7 or more ores are better than 7 combos.
  
• Create bomb combos if and only if you need the bombs.

Keep in mind, that it isn't a problem to combine a few ores, return to an outpost, sell them and then return to combine the rest. But it's very inefficient to sell your cargo load when you're in the middle of a chain! Make sure, that you have enough free cargo hold and fuel to use all ores in the chain!

We also see that it doesn't matter if we create combos with emeralds or rubies:
However it's better to use the emerald in the combo, if you can make a chain from the remaining ore, since rubies give a higher chain bonus.

Buying the level 5 smelter pays off - it amortizes itself after 6 electron bomb combos.