Hiveminds are what most players run into as Hardened Resin, however, it is at the core of this collection of Hardened Resin which players can find the Hivemind itself!
A Hivemind will accept food collected from mynocks on unprotected conveyers, which in turn will cause the Hardened Resin arms to grow towards the CPH. If these arms reach the CPH you are in trouble! (25 blocks of growth for each item consumed by a Mynock)
The Hardened resin surrounding a hivemind can be destroyed using Chargable Explosives or harvested using the Laser Resin Ablator and Laser Resin Liquifier. the player can either chose to farm the hivemind for Refined Liquid Resin or deal a decisive final blow using Chargable Explosives to the hivemind core to permanently destroy the hivemind.
Upon destroying the core depending on the current size of the hive, you will be showered in Pristine Drops, most commonly Phosphorecent Glands and Pristine Faceted Eyes. which can be used as a source for higher tier machinery and defense systems like the MK3 Laser Turret. The hive mind will also drop a piece of Hive Brain Matter usable in the Laboratory and needed for the Spiderbot Particle Rifle.
The amount of Pristine drops given depends on how much feeding and growing the hive did since the last server restart. If the goal is the drops, feed it as much as possible without restarting the game before destroying it.
Inactive hivemind farm
In order to start Tier 4, the Frozen Factory Expansion, you will likely need over 4000 Refined Liquid Resin. As this requires 40000 Hardened Resin to make setting up a Hivemind farm is a good idea. In order to do so you must locate the Hivemind. The Hard Resin Detector can assist with this.
Inactive hiveminds will regenerate their initial shell when the world is loaded. When this happens the inactive hivemind will attempt to place blocks until the shell is complete. By ablating the resin faster than it can place the blocks this initial shell formation can be farmed continuously without feeding mynocks and without needing to encase it. If power is interrupted for any reason the shell will complete itself and not re-form until the next world load. In single player this means simply restarting the game if it turns off, but this may not be an option in multiplayer. Many ablators are needed to melt the resin faster than it can form, which translates to very large power demands of around 2.5k-4k pps. Position the ablators as close as possible (7 blocks) to minimize the amount of time they spend searching.
Choose a hive close to where you need materials to reduce logistic issues. Resin blocks placed during shell formation are slightly slower than active hivemind tentacles, so multiple farms may be needed if a high throughput is desired. Inactive hiveminds also replace ablated resin with fresh blocks before the liquifier can collect. This is normal but it hapens much more frequently with inactive hiveminds due to the small working area. This means some power is wasted on ablating the same blocks over again. An active farm should be considered if power efficiency is an issue.
The main benefit of using an inactive hivemind is it's safer and simpler to set up. The main drawback is that it requires large amounts of power, meaning it may not be an option if you want resin early in the game.
Farming an active hivemind
The active hivemind will show up on the holobase display, default key is "K". Once you have the active Hivemind located, building a large(25x25x25 or larger) cage around the Hivemind's core made of Reinforced blocks will make farming the hivemind a lot easier and make the chances of the Hivemind getting free to near 0. Make sure you leave a small opening, facing away from your machines, as a 'safety valve'. Completely enclosing a hive mind will cause it to hold the blocks it should build, and it may eventually break through even reinforced blocks, or an accidental right-click could cause it to rapidly grow resin out the hole. Hiveminds will eat through space windows - if you want a viewport, use signs or a machine block.
After completing the cage you should build a large number of Laser Resin Ablators, Laser Resin Liquifiers and Liquid Resin Refiners. Once done locate a nearby ore vein close to where Mynocks can spawn. Use the ore to feed the Hivemind and let it expand so that the resin handlers can farm it.
Zipper Merge Counters
Using 3n1 zipper merge,zipper merge , and Advanced Conveyor Filter , it is possible to build a "counter" that counts the amount of liquified resin produced and only feeds the Mynocks once an appropriate number has been liquified. With 25 resin it will feed 1 'garbage' block to the hive mind. Thanks to Zombie Bait for this video
1. resin input > 3n1 < garbage (3 resin to 1 garbage)
2. output from previous stage > 3n1 < resin (15 resin to 1 garbage)
output is filtered to send resin to refiner but pass through garbage
3. resin input > 3n1 < garbage from previous stage (18 resin to 1 garbage)
output is filtered to send resin to refiner but pass through garbage
4. resin input > 3n1 < garbage from previous stage (21 resin to 1 garbage)
output is filtered to send resin to refiner but pass through garbage
5. resin input > 3n1 < garbage from previous stage (24 resin to 1 garbage)
output is filtered to send resin to refiner but pass through garbage
6. resin input > zipper merge < garbage from previous stage (25 resin to 1 garbage)
output is filtered to send resin to refiner, garbage is sent to mynocks < -75
This is an alternate option that requries less merges and filters (3 3n1s and 6 advanced filters vs 4 3n1+zipper and 10 advanced filters). It feeds 1 block per 27 resin, which means over time it will ablate more than the 25 the hivemind will create, but preloading the feeding loop with a couple coal ore will provide quite a bit of time before it runs out, and on restart any hivemind will grow a few layers of resin around it.
1. resin output > 3n1 < copper ore (hopper has at least 4)
output is filtered to send resin to refiner but pass through ore (3 resin to 1 copper)
2. copper ore > 3n1 < lithium ore (hopper has at least 4) (3 copper to 1 lithium, or 9 resin to 1 lithium)
output is filtered to send copper ore back to first stage and pass lithium
3. lithium ore > 3n1 < coal ore (off extractor or large storage) (3 lithium to 1 coal, or 27 resin to 1 coal
output is filtered to send lithium ore back to second stage, coal ore goes to
<-75 in a mynock feeding loop, ie four conveyors in a circle.
To prevent the hivemind overgrowing, on the way down the feeding loop, use a matter transmitter over the "relief valve" opening out of the hive mind cage. If it grows out of the cage, it will block the opening until the lasers catch up.
Gated Power Feeding
As an alternative to counting output (liquid resin) vs input (food), you can set up a growth-gated feeding system by beaming power across the hivemind's cage.
This works by having the hivemind only fed by way of a Matter Transmitter which is powered by a laser going through the space where the hivemind will grow. When the hivemind has been eaten back by your Resin Ablators and Resin Liquifiers, it will unblock the laser and allow it to be fed. When it is fed and grows, it will block the laser going through its cage, stopping it from being fed further. This system will automatically compensate for occasional accidental feeding, as extra growth will just block the laser for longer, no manual intervention required.
With a single LPT1 you can grow up to 25 growth/food * 1 food/64 power * 10 power/sec ~= 4 blocks of growth per second, with some losses due to inefficient scanning by your ablators, which can theoretically feed 24 refineries. In reality this number is much lower, and a second laser across the cage will ensure more reliable growth patterns.
Alternatively, the matter mover itself can go across the cage, and will similarly be blocked by hardened resin once enough has been formed. Keep the buffer in between the matter mover and the mynocks low, as it will continue feeding so long as the buffer lasts, even after the matter mover becomes blocked.
Trivia
Even if the hivemind does not steal ore, it will create a small shell of hardened resin around itself slowly if its core is exposed.