What's the most efficient way to farm materials / a specific material?

[Olwart]

I'm building my base on the ledge of a "waterfall" that is located at the Giant Cove Tree area's entrance to the Lava Lakes. I need a huge amount of titanium and quartz to finish my base. How do I go about farming all of the materials, and what's the most efficient way of farming a huge amount of specific material in general?
P.S. Cyclops and Prawn Suit are fully upgraded, Cyclops is a moving house and Prawn Suit has a drill, heat->energy and storage upgrades.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2662635655 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2662635603

[Mr. Stuffy]

You build as many lockers as you can fit into your cyclops, go around on a mining trip until they're all full, go back home and enjoy your spoils
PS. Almost all of the dunes' ore is titanium and quartz so I'd start there

[Sputnik]

I find the Seamoth best for most resource scrounging - outfitted with four storage units. Using the Cyclops alone is quite slow due to the time it takes to enter and exit, plus it has poor visibility, plus it's a cow to drive. Drilling with the Prawn can be slow going.

With the Seamoth, the Safe Shallows and Aroura wreck zones offer plenty of easy titanium and quartz. For titanium, picking up wreckage is fastest (x4 ore per piece) . Hunt quartz at night i in the safe shallows, since it shines and really stands out.

[KippenKaasBaas]

Recommendations. I have a few!

1- I'd recommend using the scanner room. It's perfect for finding resources. And lots of it.

2- Titanium can be easily found in form of scrap metal. Look around in kelp forests and the west side of the Aurora. You'll soon have enough to fill all those lockers you have.

3- Titanium and quartz can also be found in large resource deposits all over the map. In the Lost River they are easily found. I build some MASSIVE bases with quartz and titanium, all found within the Lost River. I build this entire base with quartz and titanium from the Lost River and I still had about 9 lockers filled when I was done.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2619476929

4- I'd also recommend turning the lights on inside the cyclops. Especially when taking screenshots. Just saying.

[dreamrider]

Just to be sure you know, if by "farming" you mean causing the game to spawn or create those materials, as can be done in some games, that is not possible in SN.

Except for the relatively small amounts of shale outcrop materials kicked up by the Sea Treaders, and Stalker teeth, and organics from the plants, the mineral resources of SN are seeded in when the map is created for your playthrough. So, technically, though you can "gather huge amounts of titanium and quartz across the various biomes, you can't exactly "farm" an unlimited supply.

That having been said, if you build a Scanner Room at 0, 0, with full range extensions, you can gather at least 1000 units of titanium (scrap and outcrops), and ~300 - 350 quartz from just the central 1km circle of the map.
(Those amounts would include whatever you have already used from that area.)

Beyond that, Quartz occurs literally everywhere, especially in caves and on deeper slopes, and in the red grass.
Metal Salvage, try the Crash Zone western "apron", from the port side of the Aurora, and in the other portions of the Kelp Forest and the Grassy Plateaus.
Limestone outcrops, for titanium nodules - common in almost all the surface biomes, with the additional portions of the three central, shallow biomes, and their caves, being particularly safe places to gather a lot. (Not as much in the Mountains, or the Blood Kelp, perhaps, but everywhere else.)
Large deposits - quartz - try the Sparse Reef, and the Lost River Junction & Mountains corridor.
Large deposits - titanium - throughout the Lost River.

Build a portable Scanner Room. Move it around in the Cyclops. Clear out it's swept area almost anywhere on the map, and you should have more than enough to FILL your cavern with a base. Quite frankly, I can't imagine you wouldn't get enough for your needs just from sweeping the central 1km circle (500m radius) of the map.

Re: The lights inside the Cyclops.
a. They do not drain any power.
b. I have never found any creatures that appear to react to the INTERIOR lights. Not even crabsquids.

[grzegorz77]

Huge? Disaster zone, cyclop and prawn.
The enormity of titanium. Is shallow so larger storage in prawn. On the cyclop you can comfortably put 100 cabinets. Your inventory + prawn storage, give you a lot of space for collecting.

edit:
Of course, it all depends on what huge means to you.

[admiral1018]

For titanium, easiest biome is the crash zone. There is so much metal salvage that you should be able to fill all of those lockers in the Cyclops with a quick pass. After this, the Dunes is a great source. Metal salvage, in general, is a faster method than drilling titanium nodes.

For quartz, the two Blood Kelp zones are loaded. This will be a bit slower than harvesting titanium, but you can fill many lockers is a short time. You can use a scanner room in the area without range upgrades, but I actually find that makes it harder until quartz is mostly depleted. You'll get so many signals they will be useless. After this, the Dunes is again a good source, but make sure you have a Prawn with drill arms there.

[Mr. Stuffy]

Imagine they make a secret ending where if you harvest every single ore in the game you can rebuild the aurora and fly it out

[admiral1018]

Originally posted by Mr. Stuffy:

if you harvest every single ore in the game

I've actually done this before. Sadly, just a ton of resources in lockers to show for it.

[Mr. Stuffy]

Originally posted by admiral1018:

Originally posted by Mr. Stuffy:

if you harvest every single ore in the game

I've actually done this before. Sadly, just a ton of resources in lockers to show for it.

You probably have as many lockers as every NFL locker room combined

[admiral1018]

Originally posted by Mr. Stuffy:

Originally posted by admiral1018:

I've actually done this before. Sadly, just a ton of resources in lockers to show for it.

You probably have as many lockers as every NFL locker room combined

Believe it or not, every resource in the game fits into about 20 MP rooms loaded with floor lockers. I have a nice depot in the kelp forest with all of them.

[Mr. Stuffy]

Nice

[dreamrider]

Of course you have, Admiral. Of course you do, Admiral. Once again, you are my Hero.

[KippenKaasBaas]

Originally posted by dreamrider:

Of course you have, Admiral. Of course you do, Admiral. Once again, you are my Hero.

Some admiration for the admiral.