Ore Detector question

[Gamedan]

Funny enough I was under the impression it was a tool that you carried around, lo and behold ... it ain't! lol

Anyway - if I've made a "main base" and haven't found an ore that I need (SILVER! MY GODS I NEED SILVER!) do I go a few (5-10km) away from my base and set up a smaller base, power it and then add a ore detector?

Now that I've typed that , it sounds like a sound strategy anyway ...

[ShadedMJ]

The hand held drill does have an ore detector in it. Its range is 20m.
Small-grid ore detector range is 50m.
Large-grid ore detector range is 150m.
There are various workshop mods that have enhanced range ore detectors.

[Idomeneus]

Put the ore detector on a mobile platform to do a search. If you are on a planet, learn to recognize the blotchy ground markings which indicate deposits below.

[glabifrons]

One important tip: When you add an ore detector to anything (rover, ship, base), go into it's configuration and crank up the range. For unknown reasons, it infuriatingly defaults to 50% of its actual capability.

[ostlandr]

Important note: In order for your suit to receive data from a ship or vehicle ore detector, you need the following:

1. Ship/vehicle ore detector is powered and switched on.
2. Ship/vehicle has an antenna which is powered and switched on.
3. Both the ship/vehicle and your suit need to have comms switched on (hotkey "O").
4. You need to have the drill equipped.

As mentioned, go into control panel and crank up the sensitivity on the ore detector to max. Why that's a setting, or at least why max isn't default, I have NO idea.

Pro tip: Mount the ore detector as low in the vehicle/ship as possible, not on top like I was doing.

Also, listening to WIND ROSE's cover of "Diggy Diggy Hole" on your suit radio while mining is always a good thing. Or, the Dwarf Fortress soundtrack by Dabu and/or Simon Swerwer.

[Candarian]

one thing u might forget
ore detector only have half the detector range on building(for whatever reason-i mean is there even a reason that u can put it on less than 100% range? )

[Gamedan]

Originally posted by edwardsbc:

Put the ore detector on a mobile platform to do a search. If you are on a planet, learn to recognize the blotchy ground markings which indicate deposits below.

Thanks - I watched a Splitsie video about the blotchy spots on the ground - are they grey'ish/almost sand-like?

[Gamedan]

Originally posted by ostlandr:

Important note: In order for your suit to receive data from a ship or vehicle ore detector, you need the following:

1. Ship/vehicle ore detector is powered and switched on.
2. Ship/vehicle has an antenna which is powered and switched on.
3. Both the ship/vehicle and your suit need to have comms switched on (hotkey "O").
4. You need to have the drill equipped.

As mentioned, go into control panel and crank up the sensitivity on the ore detector to max. Why that's a setting, or at least why max isn't default, I have NO idea.

Pro tip: Mount the ore detector as low in the vehicle/ship as possible, not on top like I was doing. :sefacepalm:

Also, listening to WIND ROSE's cover of "Diggy Diggy Hole" on your suit radio while mining is always a good thing. Or, the Dwarf Fortress soundtrack by Dabu and/or Simon Swerwer.

Thanks! Especially for the music tips! :)

[BaseWall]

try and find deep ores like Cobalt/Mag...in my xp sometimes there is even a deeper ore like silve/gold.
its like i found Fe in +30m depth...+50m deeper was cobalt.....and even deeper was the gold..
were talking about +300m deep ^^
useally Si/Ni can be founs easy and most times they are acompied by even deeper ores.

so yeah i need silver 2 ^^

[Blueberry Muffins!]

is there even a reason that u can put it on less than 100% range?

Power draw is a thing, it can matter If there is, I don't know it, it might be just oversight. But it seems to me a lot of the early game is throwing solvable frustrations at you, that's how hints are delivered, got a problem, put on your engineer's hat, explore your tools, fix it, learn by doing. I'm slow, I only just figured out the drop pods tumbling sometimes is also a solvable frustration.

[Dan2D3D]

HI, I see Veteran players already shared the important and I will add a good Tip :

We have to explore all the different Custom Worlds one time only to know where the Rich ore spots are, custom worlds are not all the same but the Rich ore spots are always at the same GPS coords on creating a new custom world.

-> Rich ore spot = Where all ores can be found within 1Km.

I can tell it takes a lot of time to explore the one named "Star System" to find all its Rich ore spots and I recommend to try all Moon starts if you want to have all ores very early in survival.

-> Moons have all ores -1 that is Uranium but a lot can be found faster by exploring the asteroids around all Moons, also Trade Stations are closer so we can buy the needed at their Store very early (Moon, Europa and Titan).

Edit
Sorry corrections made.

[Blueberry Muffins!]

Originally posted by REALRACE:

have you tested this?

Nope, I had that wrong, i just assumed. There's some oversight here, either them forgetting to link up the power draw or me and lots of people not understanding the hint involved, maybe playing with the range can help identify deposit extents/shapes? I've so steadily found hints in frustrating situations and rewards in solving them that I'm acquiring a lot of faith in the devs' choices.