Any way to get a walker brain...

[Horror Pigeon]

...without fighting a walker? I don't have stun grenades right now
walker brain is so I can make a conflict detector so I can find an outlaw place
so I can smuggle stuff so I can do an omega phase 3 mission

[Smoking Flowerpot]

If you've done enough regular missions at the booth near the trading terminal in regular systems, then the guild booth next to that will start giving you gifts (between the mission guy and the cartographer). If you're at that point, then go around to all the non-outlaw systems and collect your gifts. Once in a while it's a walker brain if there's a mercenary guild at that station. And buy up all the suspicious packets at outlaw stations.

The wiki gives this list:
Loot from a Sentinel Walker
Mercenaries Guild Envoy
Suspicious Packet (Goods)
Mission Board missions
Nexus missions

[Smoking Flowerpot]

Usually if you smuggle things, you won't even get searched by the space sentinels anyways. But, if you do, and if you don't want to interact with them, just call up the Anomaly and go into it. As soon as you do, they lose you and the chase is off.

Also, you only need an economy scanner. It shows either 'pirate' or 'outlaw' on part of the economy line. The conflict scanner works too, but all you need is the economy one.

[Horror Pigeon]

I do have the economy scanner, but probably have not visited enough systems
for an outlaw system to show up. thank you for your help

[Guyver8]

@Horror Pigeon
one of the milestone rewards is a 'ticket to freedom' which will leads you to a nearby outlaw system (no scanners needed)

fyi: you don't need the conflict scanner to find outlaw systems, the economy scanner is enuf... it will describe the trade economy as 'black market' with a little skull icon.

[smurfy]

Originally posted by Opal Cruder:

The wiki gives this list:
Loot from a Sentinel Walker
Mercenaries Guild Envoy
Suspicious Packet (Goods)
Mission Board missions
Nexus missions

You can add Harmonic Scrap on Dissonant planets.
I have a pacifist save that has never fired a shot at a Sentinel or Starship (Pirate or Civilian) and it has a stack of Brains, mostly from Dissonant scrap piles. Of course, you'll find other stuff more often, but 10 Brains are definitely one of the RNG rolls.
Most of the Nexus or Station missions that reward brains are combat oriented.

Originally posted by Horror Pigeon:

...
walker brain is so I can make a conflict detector...

Farm a dissonant planet for downed Sentinel Interceptors. A or S class have a high chance (IME) to have a cargo scan deflector or conflict scanner pre-installed which can be packaged up and installed in your ship of choice.

[Raven]

Originally posted by Horror Pigeon:

...without fighting a walker? I don't have stun grenades right now
walker brain is so I can make a conflict detector so I can find an outlaw place
so I can smuggle stuff so I can do an omega phase 3 mission

NipNip is also 'contraband' Some players have provided NipNip farms along the expedition route, or you can buy some from the 'free trader' NPCs that land in the wild, or hail you in space. This can then be sold at any trade terminal on planet or space for that mission.

[Zak]

Originally posted by Opal Cruder:

Suspicious Packet (Goods)

Yup. I just started a new save yesterday and I got two Walker Brains this way without ever fighting them by visiting few Pirate Stations. I also needed it to build the Conflict Scanner. Those packets can drop some useful and valuable goodies.

[Smoking Flowerpot]

Originally posted by Horror Pigeon:

I do have the economy scanner, but probably have not visited enough systems
for an outlaw system to show up. thank you for your help

When you're in the galaxy map, expand the system descriptions. You'll be able to see the pirate systems right away within the details, on the economy line.

On the PS controller, the down button on the left (d pad or whatever it's called) toggles the system descriptions between the compact format that it starts with, into a more detailed dropdown type of thing.

The galaxy map is very difficult to maneuver. It starts in an especially hard to use state. The first thing I do in there, is to get rid of the planets and orbit rings showing. That enables an easier way to move around and look for other systems. Then, I also expand the descriptions. After that, it's easy to just look around at different systems' descriptions until you find an outlaw system that's within your hyperdrive's range.

[Smoking Flowerpot]

Originally posted by Guyver8:

fyi: you don't need the conflict scanner to find outlaw systems, the economy scanner is enuf... it will describe the trade economy as 'black market' with a little skull icon.

Oh yeah, that was it. It says black market, not pirate or outlaw like I wrote earlier.

[Nettle]

For what it's worth there's an outlaw system right next to the start point.

Can't recall the name off the top of my head. Starts with a 'B'.

Amusingly, taking a mission to smuggle goods from there led me to an oddly busy spot in another nearby system where I found a little Gek fellow named... Ahti.

[Geldric™]

The Outlaw system name is:

Bandab

You can almost walk there from the Expedition starting system; 8LY away
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3171582819

"Ticket to Freedom" is rewarded from the milestone "One Man's Treasure", phase 3, milestone 1.
Just dig up three buried items such as mineral, cache or organic

[Felis_Exploria]

They regularly appear as rewards in anomaly missions. I can usually find one within 4 or 5 visits to the anomaly.

[wkitty42]

Originally posted by Horror Pigeon:

I do have the economy scanner, but probably have not visited enough systems
for an outlaw system to show up. thank you for your help

FWIW: outlaw systems are obvious due to the skull icon beside them when you are looking at a star system's expanded data in the Galaxy map...

[Masque]

Originally posted by I am HERA. Shun LETO.:

Originally posted by Horror Pigeon:

...without fighting a walker? I don't have stun grenades right now
walker brain is so I can make a conflict detector so I can find an outlaw place
so I can smuggle stuff so I can do an omega phase 3 mission

NipNip is also 'contraband' Some players have provided NipNip farms along the expedition route, or you can buy some from the 'free trader' NPCs that land in the wild, or hail you in space. This can then be sold at any trade terminal on planet or space for that mission.

For that mission I just went to the mission-giver at the outlaw station and chose a delivery mission. Instead of delivering the 10 expensive items, I sold them to a trader who appeared during a pulse drive for a few million units. Mission complete, then just abandoned the guild mission in the UI.

[Nox]

Also if nobody else has mentioned it you can get a walker to spawn and then jam the console and shut down all sentinels on the planet and that will kill it leaving the loot.