Your first extraction

Facts checked 4 Nov 2026

You'll mine your first raw material on your very first day. You don't need to take a core sample first: your tutor crew already holds some, and the Academy sells used ones for a small price.

What a core sample is

A core sample, which the game also calls a deposit, records how much of one raw material lies under one lot. You can only extract from a lot where your crew holds a core sample. A new sample has never been extracted from. A used one has, but it often still holds thousands of tonnes, far more than one lesson needs.

Find a sample to use

• Your Crew's Own Samples: The tutor crews hold core samples on Adalia Academy, kept there for students. Using one costs nothing.
• A Sample to Buy: The Academy also offers core samples for sale, most of them used, all on lots with an Academy extractor. Prices are set by the seller and change from time to time; expect a few dozen SWAY for a used sample. You buy one as you start extracting.

Either way, the sample must be on a lot whose extractor you can lease. In the game, select a lot on Adalia Academy and open its resources: they list the core samples on that lot, showing which belong to your crew and which are for sale, with the price and the seller. If a lot's extractor isn't offered for lease, choose another lot.

Start the extraction

1. Select the lot's extractor and click Extract Resource.
2. Under Deposit, select the core sample.
3. Under Destination, choose your tutor crew's own warehouse (see Your warehouse).
4. Choose the amount. Start small, about 10 tonnes: from a well-filled sample that finishes in a quarter of an hour or so, so you see the whole job through, start to finish, in one sitting. Bigger amounts take many hours or days (see below). Room for the whole amount is set aside in your warehouse when you start, but a warehouse holds tens of thousands of tonnes, so there's plenty of space.
5. Check the times on the screen: Extraction Time, Transport Time, and Crew Travel, and the lease cost.
6. Click the start button. For your crew's own sample it reads Lease & Extract. For a sample that's for sale it reads Purchase, Lease, & Extract: one approval buys the sample, paying the seller, and leases the extractor for exactly as long as the job takes, paying the extractor's owner.
7. Approve in your wallet.

How long it takes

The extractor does the work. Your crew only travels to it, sets it going, and comes back, which takes about an eighth of the extraction time plus the journey. After that your crew is free for other jobs while the extractor runs.

The fuller a core sample, the faster each tonne comes out, and the last tonnes come out slowest of all. Extracting three quarters of a sample takes half as long as extracting all of it: the final quarter takes as long as the first three quarters together. So unless you need every tonne, stop well short of emptying a sample.

As a rough guide, from a sample with 4,000 tonnes left, before your crew's bonuses (checked 4 Nov 2026):

• 10 Tonnes: About a quarter of an hour.
• 100 Tonnes: About three hours.
• 500 Tonnes: About 15 hours.
• 3,000 Tonnes (Three Quarters): About five days.
• All 4,000 Tonnes: About nine and a half days.

Add your crew's journey to the extractor, which can be half an hour or more for a distant lot, so choose an extractor near your crew for your first job. The game shows the exact times before you start.

The lease is billed for exactly the time the job takes, at 100 SWAY a day, so a 15-hour job costs about 62 SWAY and a quarter-hour job about 1 SWAY.

Run more than one at once

Your crew is only busy while it travels to an extractor, sets it going, and comes back. Once it's back, it can start another extraction on a different extractor while the first one keeps running. Two or three extractors working side by side get far more done in the same time.

• One Sample Each: Each extraction needs its own core sample, on the lot of the extractor it runs on.
• One Job per Extractor: An extractor runs one extraction at a time, and each one is leased separately.
• Room in Your Warehouse: Space for every extraction is set aside when it starts, so all of them together must fit, though a warehouse holds tens of thousands of tonnes.

Leave some for the next student

• Take What You Need: If you're using your crew's own sample, take only what you need and leave the rest for the next student who hires your crew.
• Lease by the Job: Always start through Lease & Extract. Never lease through the extractor's own lease window, where it's easy to pay for days you don't need.

When it's done

When the timer runs out, the extractor's button changes to Finish Extraction. Click it and approve, and your material lands in the warehouse. The next lesson, Collecting your first output, covers it in more detail.