Finding Exotic/Squid ships?

[Nimarus]

I'm tired of always having to resort to using a portal to go to a spot where someone already found one. That, or using the save editor to just edit the ship into my inventory. For once, I figured I'd try to find one on my own the old fashioned way. I've been camping at trading posts in wealthy systems and...nothing. Load, wait for ships to land, see they are all generic B-C class ships, reload save, rinse and repeat. I've tried this at 5 different systems, reloading my save countless times so far and thought I'd maybe get something. Best I've seen is the occasional Solar.

I guess Exotic/Squid has a 2% chance of appearing. Is there some criteria that I'm overlooking to improve the odds? Lol, you'd think someone would open up a Starship Dealership by now.

[RustyNail]

Originally posted by WaterPiglet:

Ive probably played 2000 hrs in total over 3 platforms and I can honestly say Ive never seen one yet

I've seen a couple Squids in normal play in ~3000hrs (not counting the ones I obtained via other means). 1st one was way back years ago; then another on a space station recently.

[Jibayang]

Originally posted by Galadhlinn:

I have saves where I have never even seen a squid in any system. My current save, I have three systems where squids have come into the space stations. Squids are rare. If you only want a squid, don't limit yourself to 3 star economy systems. Every system has one exotic, so every system has the potential for a squid. My method is to land in the space station and reload 3-4 times. This gives me a decent picture of ships that are on rotation for the SS. Then I land on at least two trading outposts on the planets and reload 3-4 times. I also look around the outside of the SS, as there are always ships flying about. If you see a squid flying, then that system's exotic is a squid. Finally, anytime you enter a system with a freighter battle/rescue going on, look at the ships flying around in the battle area. Again, if you see a squid then that system has a squid, and you know where to camp.
My current squid:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2808948014

May I ask how long is the interval between each load? should I start loading after entering the space station, or wait for 5 or 6 minutes to load after entering the space station?

[Jibayang]

Originally posted by Comradovich:

Every system has exactly one exotic. Once you've seen it, if it isn't what you want move on. That's how the exotics get listed on the coordinate exchange in the first place. Someone went out and found this cool ship, and it's located over here.

If you want to ship hunt, and exotics are what you're after, then you'll be visiting lots of systems. It's always one per system. My advice is:

1. Enter system.
2. Enter nearest planet's atmosphere and pop your economy scanner to locate a trading post.
3. Land on trading post and set your save beacon up on top. (The top of the post has the widest field of vision).
4. manual save and reload until the exotic shows up.
5. If it's cool, share it. If not, pick your beacon up and head for the next system.

That's how ship hunting is done.

May I ask how long is the interval between each load? Should I start loading after entering the space station, or wait for 5 or 6 minutes to load after entering the space station? How long should I wait before the next load?

[Krash Megiddo]

Originally posted by Jibayang:

Originally posted by Comradovich:

Every system has exactly one exotic. Once you've seen it, if it isn't what you want move on. That's how the exotics get listed on the coordinate exchange in the first place. Someone went out and found this cool ship, and it's located over here.

If you want to ship hunt, and exotics are what you're after, then you'll be visiting lots of systems. It's always one per system. My advice is:

1. Enter system.
2. Enter nearest planet's atmosphere and pop your economy scanner to locate a trading post.
3. Land on trading post and set your save beacon up on top. (The top of the post has the widest field of vision).
4. manual save and reload until the exotic shows up.
5. If it's cool, share it. If not, pick your beacon up and head for the next system.

That's how ship hunting is done.

May I ask how long is the interval between each load? Should I start loading after entering the space station, or wait for 5 or 6 minutes to load after entering the space station? How long should I wait before the next load?

You wait until ships stop landing. During that lull in activity is when to reload.

[cattivision]

I suspect one of the reasons I have only found a couple of squid ships but many guppy ones in thousands of hours is that the more obvious sound of a guppy landing in a space station while you are shopping/getting words/missions etc they are very loud so I notice them, the squids seem to not be so loud to me (unless this is just me!), so I have probably missed many more than I've seen.

[Krash Megiddo]

Originally posted by cattivision:

I suspect one of the reasons I have only found a couple of squid ships but many guppy ones in thousands of hours is that the more obvious sound of a guppy landing in a space station while you are shopping/getting words/missions etc they are very loud so I notice them, the squids seem to not be so loud to me (unless this is just me!), so I have probably missed many more than I've seen.

The real reason is because there are only 1/20 systems with Squid as its assigned exotic ship.

[Minnie]

If you dont have the one you love, love the one you have.♥

[chipmonk]

Only inhabited systems supposedly have exotics and the class of the system really has little to do with an exotic/squid showing up. As far as squids go, I see one about once a month. I saw 2 systems that had yellow squids along the route during the outlaws expedition If I recall. They differed in that they had different names. I picked up both of them and made a squid squad with them by selling them to npcs at space stations then recruiting them after i sold the squids to them.

[nasjaskylane]

There is a way to find squid exotics *relatively quickly*. You may find one very soon or after several hours.. but I practiced it before, and now there is a video about it. Save your game before you enter a fleet battle.
Then jump into the system. Battle will take place. Check if there are 5 or 8 pirates. If there are 8, reload instantly. If there are 5, check what exotic is in battle.
I have found multiple squids that way. For me personally, a lot of red squids (5 or so) and 1 white one.
Here is the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gPDDk7gav8

[Raven]

I have never gone Exotic 'hunting'. I find that if I visit my freighter bay once in a while they will land. That's how I've collected any Exotic (including Squids), I've ever had.

[Darth Cervantes]

Ive never seen one in the wild, ever. The squid I have is from a youtube video (which disappeared after the polestar update). I have found a decent amount of first and non first wave exotics but NONE have been squids.

[taniwhat]

One of my saves has two squids in the squadron. They aren't rare and I don't go hunting them, I just picked them up when I saw them.

I'll concede IF I wanted one I'd find it annoying but they are out there.

[Asmosis]

Originally posted by SaD-82:

How goes the famous advice?
"If you're searching something, stop searching and you will find it by accident in no time."
This is true for ships, too.
Stop searching. Stop save scumming. Stop waiting.
Just play the game and you will find them without problems.
Imagine all that time you've waited at trade and space stations - all that time you could have played the game, visited various systems and maybe already have found several exotic ships. Don't look for them. Atlas can smell your desire.

Yup. Last expedition i stumbled upon a squid ship crashed on a planet when all i'd done was land nearby to collect some research data.

[Teratus]

Never found it all that hard tbh, Exotics and Solars just show up after a while for me and I usually just play normally until I find one.

I've never used a portal to track down a specific ship etc before.. it's takes some of the fun out of the game for me since one of the biggest points of playing is exploration and discovery.. finding my own ships, weapons, pets, freighters etc is part of the experience that would be cheapened if I just went somewhere and grabbed something I knew was there because someone else told me.