SRV salvage hotspots

[Arya]

Hi guys. I'm looking to stock up on Engineering mats, I know I can target specific mats at Signal Sources or gather bulk from destroyed ships, but I want to try something different. As I understand it, there are some locations where engineering mats spawn on the ground at outposts and reset when you relog. I even wrote down the system, but I've misplaced the note.

I've tried Googling it but couldn't find anything; am I remembering wrong, or could one of you kindly point out where that is? Thanks.

[cybul]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2TqKwBPdgo

[Arya]

Thanks! Much appreciated.

[Tokfan]

To be completely honest, Dav's is pretty crap at the moment (and will be until they fix the respawning HGE signal sources) not to forget it spawns grade 1 materials now more frequent than grade 5's.

https://canonn.science/codex/bug-killer-crashed-anaconda/
For raw materials combined with data, fill up then head to the trader. Takes roughly 15-20 minutes to fill up on Ruthenium, Tellerium & Antimony but you'll also fill up on Adaptive Encryption Data & Modified Embedded Firmware too in that time.
There's one crashed conda on Orrere 2b but it's on a stupid slope and the stupid materials starts to roll around all the place into stupid objects. Seriously that slope is not fun, stick with bug killer, it's flat.


https://canonn.science/codex/cmdr-john-jameson-crashed-cobra-mkiii/
For pure data, takes about 5 minutes to max out on Adaptive Encryption Data & Modified Embedded Firmware.

As for manufactured materials, grab any ship with a size 6 cargo rack and a few collector controllers, head out to imperial/alliance/anarchy/federal systems - check for a faction in boom (or alliance/independant in Outbreak/Unrest but gl. with those) jump there, scan nav beacon. If lucky head straight to the closest High Grade signal source with 15+ minutes left.
If unlucky, relog and switch mode, rescan beacon.
If you're still unlucky, switch system.

Once you do get lucky and get a HGE, drop in release your drones, when they're done, relog (same mode), hit SC, turn around and drop into the same signal. Repeat until you've fully stocked up on the mats you got;
Empire - Imperial Shieldings
Federal - Core Dynamics Composites
Independant - Proto Light & Proto Radiolic
Alliance - Proto Heat
Shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to fill up, but going for a 15+ minutes signal will let you take a smoke/coffee/bio break w/o feeling stressed out.

Ofc, none of those places will probably give you the exact thing you'll want so;
https://inara.cz/galaxy-nearest/25/
There's where the traders comes in.

Note: Eventhough the signal sources are fast to get grade 5 mats from it's probably better to do a few laps of VIP sightseeing in Robigo -> Sothis for Exquisite Focus Crystals because once you need those you'll be wanting quite a few for those resistance shield boosters. Doing those runs will also give you Biotech Conductors.

But if you want to try something different, sure go to Davs. It's a change of pace, but well... I wouldn't it's wasting time.

[s0laris]

@Tokfan: Thanks a lot man, saved your post to sticky notes, gonna come in handy when i get back to engineering stuff.

[Tanyon]

I didn't think Dav's Hope was terrible. I did enough runs to run out of fuel in my SRV. and got a lot of stuff. I was there primarilly for Chemical Distillerys/Manipulators and Processors. I found plent of those along with a lot of other things. I have also done pirate hunting and gathering stuff from destroyed ships and signal sources. Roaming around on your SRV is a nice change of pace.

[Tokfan]

Originally posted by Darth:

I didn't think Dav's Hope was terrible.

Not terrible in itself no, but by comparsion it's terrible.
Say it takes 15 minutes to grab your ship, pop off to system X and find a HGE. Then add 10 minutes of filling up on whatever grade 5. Add another 10 to get to a trader.
In roughly 30 minutes (let's say 40 and we're being very generous here, it's probably going to take way less time) You'll have a storage of 100 G5 materials.

We trade those 100 for grade 4 chemical manipulators at a rate of 2 for 1, ending up with 50 manipulators.
Let's round the numbers and say we got 40 units in 40 minutes, that's 1 unit per minute or one pickup every 3 minutes.

One lap at daves + relog will roughly be the same time.
But are you getting manipulators every lap? Sometimes you won't get any and on some rare occasions you'll get two.

But the more realistic numbers are 20 minutes for 50 units, or 2 units / minute or 1 pickup every 1½ minute. So basically doing the HGE is equals 2 pickups / lap at Davs.
Then instead of heading to the trader, head straight for the next matieral... 35 minutes for 100 units since you've already got your USS diving ship stocked with limpets, then add 15 minutes per G5 you decide to get.
If you stick with Federal/Empire/Alliance you get 150 units for 45 minutes of work. or 1 pickup at Dav's every minute.
Yeah, by comparison Dav's fades here.
One could stay put and relog at a spawn spot though and not go the lap but I dunno if you get lucky every spawn and/or load the instance fast enough or if the canister bounces off you so you have to move before you can react and open the cargo bay. This I have to test some day.

Now yes, you might get other useful stuff at Dav's I give you that like Polymer capacitors but that too is a grade 4. Phase Alloys is useful too but that's a G3 and a Radiolic downgrade which you'll find in HGEs.

I'm all for the change of pace, but the pace is slower and until Fdev fixes the respawning of signal sources I'd say go stock up while you can, especially once you learned the trick to save time by getting the signal to pop up infront of you saving you those precious 10 seconds of turning the ship around ;)
And if you just stumble upon a HGE with Pharma Isolators or Military Supercomputers you've struck gold. Those are really annoying to get hold of since the factions seem to rather give you their standard materials instead of the state specific materials.

I did go and test geological sites for Selenium, but first you need to find a good body that has both high % selenium and geo sites, then the travel time between sites are tedious and RNG determines what material that drops eventhough you spot the "right" kind of node.
Then you've gotta wait 2 weeks for them to respawn or go to a different moon.
Dunno which is more tedious: Planet jumping or listening to thargoids.

In the end, it's all the players choice, I'm only here to provide you with maybe not the best min-max method but a way to cut down on the time spent collecting materials.
I waste my time so you don't have to :)

[malorob]

i found if you need wake's then leave a station just out side the request docking range and just target the wakes, very easy matts.

as for minerals better just to land on a planet and do sum prospecting.
a few hours should give you enough to use or trade for other's
and prospecting you will learn about the different signals on your radar that mean different sources.

some time's looking for the simple solution can work out just as time consuming as the normal solution

[Tokfan]

Both your examples are at the very least 5 times as time consuming as the ways I've described above.

Wakes? You get one wake to scan every.... minute? half minute? Then you roll the die to get the grade 5.
Compare to Jamesons Cobra; Drive behind the ship, pop into the turret, spin a the turret and scan 4 beacons. Relog.
5 minutes max to get maxed on 2 other grade 5's. Those trades for 32 Data wakes (nearest trader to that place is Ray Gateway). 32 g5 data wakes every 5 minutes ~ 11 jackpot scans / 5 minutes or 2 per minute. Do you really get lucky twice a minute at a station? I know you sure as heck aren't at a Distribution Centre and that's where traffic is even higher.
Heck even the bug killer is better for data and at that place you get raw g5 mats at the same time.
As for the time to get there, should be two jumps to Jacksons then one jump to HIP 12099. So add 6-8 minutes of travel there then ~8-10 to get to Diaguandri.
Do that 3 times and you maxed out on Data wakes. Let's be generous with the math here;
10 (to get there) +5 (to scan) +10 (to go trade) +10 (to get back) +25 (scan and return) +35 (scan, go trade, head back & rescan). 10+5+10+25+35=85 -> 1h 25 minutes.
In about 1½ hour you've maxed out on 100 Data wakes and re-maxed on Adaptives & Firmware.

"some time's looking for the simple solution can work out just as time consuming as the normal solution"
The simple solution has been found, months ago. No time is wasted looking around. The "normal solution" simply is just a waste of everyone's time.

Driving your SRV at random, yeah maaaybe for Selenium maybe and that's only if you find a juicy planet with high % selenium AND get lucky.
Your goal is 1 selenium/ minute btw, should translate to 1 pickup every 3 minutes. Considering you'll get more than 1 chunk with the outcrops I'd wager that this gets pretty close.
For anything else? nah. You say hourS I say a hour tops, probably less maybe half.

It's your choice what you decide to do, but in the end it's all about the materials/minute and the amount you need (hello resist boosters, efficient lasers & reinforced hull platings).
If you like doing random things with little or no progression then sure go ahead.
If you feel burned out or everything feels like a grind then go for the fast way - cut that grind down to a minimum then go enjoy the game.
But claiming the simple solution is time wasting, I give you google & youtube, people already spent their time checking so you don't have to, just go straight for the thing.

[Tanyon]

I have no idea how material traders work.. I've never even been to one. I guess I'll have to check them out.

[semidomestic]

https://canonn.science/codex/surface-sites/ ... If you're bored and just want to do some exploring. If you're surface prospecting, also pay attention to the POIs. If you're in or even near a populated system, there are downed satellites, wrecked ships, pirate's stash etc scattered all over the place. There's all kinds of salvage to be picked up. Prospecting for nothing but raw mats can be boring, multitask.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Most Grade 5 Manufactured Materials (Only exceptions I know of are Improvised Components) can be salvaged from destroyed Anacondas. So if you like Bounty Hunting, that's an option.

All grade 4 Elementals (There is no grade 5 technically, though some of the game UI still shows them as grade 5) are super easy to get now, just go looking for Needle Crystals at geological sites on planets. You can explore and enjoy some of the huge payouts to exploration data now, to find your own geological/biological sites.

If you don't fancy spamming (See: Grind) the same thing over and over, most/All G5 Data can be awarded or acquired on missions. Modified Embedded Firmware is usually awarded in batches of 5 as a material award, and on certain missions (Planetary Scan Jobs) you can come away with all other data G5 sa ns Wake Exceptions. Good way to establish some reputations/rank.


Note that all 3 of these options combine multiple sources of income/gameplay, so you don't have to laser focus on any one thing. It's how I material farm personally, But I don't buy new ships very often, though all 9 of mine are fully and independendtly G5'd.

[Les Grossman]

Gathering mats myself for quite a while now, but need to stock up since I'm starting Engineer grind soon. Found this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHWXKM_UHGA
I'm particularly interested in top 1 (skip to 8:40). Video itself isn't exactly new, and I'm kinda curious if that's still a thing. Gotta say tho, this method looks quite effective. Whaddya say? Anyone tried it?