Is there an easier way to find unidentified rocks and plants?

[Koven]

I'm pretty new still, so I'm hoping that there's just some trick I don't know. I have some quest for the Explorer's Guild (I think that's who they are) where I have to identify 6 animals (I did that) and like 17 rocks and 17 plants. I have 16 plants found and 14 rocks. I just spent 4 hours of real time walking everywhere on this terrible planet just trying to scan or put my cursor on everything to see if it's unidentified. I looked everywhere underground also. I don't think there's any water on this planet (It's "parched").

So, I'm really hoping there's some other trick because this is driving me insane.

[Jaggid Edje]

If you're talking about the exploration 'mission' that shows up all by itself in your log, that's not actually a quest, or even a mission, that you have any real reason to do. It will update on every single planet you land on for that planet.

And there is absolutely no reward for 'completing' it. You get the scan rewards, as you scan, of course, but those are a per-scan basis and have nothing to do with actual completion of 'scanning them all'. The only thing you get an extra reward for scanning all of is fauna, and that reward is collected from discoveries, so also has nothing to do with that exploration 'mission'.

I'm basically telling you this, because unless you pick up an actual mission on a space station or the nexus which asks you to scan 'x number of flora/fauna/minerals' there's no reason to worry about getting all of them on any planet, other than fauna.

As for tips, if you haven't gone spelunking yet, or diving (if the planet has water), there's more minerals and plants in both caverns and underwater.

[Koven]

Oh, man, I really wish I knew that 4 hours of wasted life ago. haha

Is there a way to delete missions in my list? I don't like seeing stuff there that I don't plan on ever doing. I know you can drop Space Station missions at the place. Just wasn't sure if there's a way to get rid of the ones in my log.

[Guyver8]

there are usually 2 types of cave marrow, sometimes there two types of snappy plants and two types of those balloon plants
so don't ignore these just cos you got one
EDIT: +1 to wot Jaggid Edje said
you can usually abandon missions (option should show if you make the mission active in the log)

[chipmonk]

Many of the rocks and plants that may look like ones you have already discovered have different names. I would suggest trying to look at some of the plants you've already seemingly identified because they may have a different names especially as you move from area to area on the planet.

[Koven]

Okay, thanks. I'll give that a shot.

[Unlucky]

If you had a mission for the explorer's guild to identify 6 animals and did that already then you're done and need to return back to the Space Station mission recruiter to turn in the mission.
Guild or race missions only ever require you to do a single task. (Occasionally two if you count dropping the initial items you get off, at a certain location, a secondary task.)

The other things you're referring to is just a list of the total number of plants and minerals on the planet. It's just a checklist and you don't have to complete it. As Jaggid already stated, it has no reward.

There's no 'trick' to completing the checklist, but sometimes to find all of the things (if that is your goal) you need to go all the way to another part of the world (I like to go all the way to the other side of the planet). Often times you'll find a "new" species of dangerous flora, high-oxygen/sodium plants, or occasionally various other things you didn't find the first time (even though they look exactly the same as the ones you saw before!).
You'll also need to find a CRATER at some point to check off all of the minerals on the list. Craters are areas where it is pretty much nothing but dirt and small rocks within a certain radius. Each kind of the small rocks (usually about 2-3 of them) need to be scanned to finish the mineral checklist.

[Koven]

Ah, yeah, I've seen craters on other planets. I'll have to fly around and look for one on this one. But yeah, this isn't the normal little list on the Discoveries for a new planet. This is something in my Secondary Mission's list. It's got a Yellow border in the title of the mission (I think?).