Exploration mode?

[1singur]

What's the best approach to just explore? I am not that much interested in making huge money or fighting, just wanna go see places. Probably some weapons on me for unexpected encounters and some money making from time to time for unexpected expenses, but mainly I would explore.

[Noob Van Noob]

load up EDSM and hit up the galactic map, then use the PoI filters to find places that are interesting to you. you can also check out the Routes section, plenty of sightseeing routes on there!. Alternatively, join one of the many expeditions coming up. Whatever you choose, i do recommend grabbing the EDMC tool so you can auto upload to EDSM/EDDB any unexplored systems you come across.

as for stuff to bring, definitely bring a DSS. it'll let you scan precise locations for planetary bio and geo sites, as well as a nice cash bonus for any ELW/WW/HMC/Terra worlds. ideally you'll want the best FSD you can get your hands on, engineered if possible, and a guardian FSD booster for extra oomph.weapons outside of mining tools are pretty useless outside the bubble, as you won't really run into anyone, and no NPC's unless you're carrying mission items in your cargo. You'll also want an AFMU for repairs as stations are few and far between. Planetary Vehicle hangar is nice for gathering mats for jumponium or synthesis, and some people like to bring a fighter to fly around some of the more interesting planets such as Labirinto: https://www.edsm.net/en/galactic-mapping#6/-310/0/4135|geyserPOI,planetFeatures,surfacePOI|735.
EDIT: Oh and don't forget a fuelscoop.

[Agony_Aunt]

Second star from the left and straight on until morning.

[Sapyx]

You don't need weapons at all on an Exploration ship. To quote the grizzled old Commander Lorn from the FE2 short story book: "I don't waste credit on weapons. I might start getting crazy ideas about fighting instead of running." As a general rule, if you've got millions of credits worth of exploration data sitting on board, you don't want to be putting that at risk by deliberately standing into danger. "Run away" should be the default response to hostile action for an explorer.

Exploration is not the top-earning way of getting credits, but it pays well enough that you don't actually need to do any of the other things in game. I've earned 4 billion credits from exploration over the past two years; that's 3.5 billion more credits than I actually need.

You can do some pretty basic "exploration" within inhabited space: any star system with a population under 1 million people is classified as "unexplored", and Universal Cartographics will pay you for "exploring" them. Weird, but true. It's relatively easy to earn the few million credits you need for a fully kitted out AspX or DBX, and you're all set for your first deep-space jaunt. Head out for a couple thousand LYs, spend a few weeks out in the black, find a few dozen terraformables and maybe an Earth-like or two, fully scan the valuable stuff and after you return you should have more than enough credits to buy and kit out pretty much any ship you choose.

Now, this course of action will disallow you from obtaining certain ships (the Superpower rank-locked ones) which will take you some rank-grinding, which will probably need to involve you shooting at stuff. Likewise, the Engineers and Guardians equipment you need to do to truly max out your exploration ship may also involve some non-exploration-related grunt-work. But you don't actually need to do any of that to get yourself a perfectly serviceable starship.

[AirborneMuffins]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Second star from the left and straight on until morning.

You know what, OP? This.

[HeraldOfDoom]

If you head out for exploration, the most important piece of equioment you want to get is a Fuelscoop.

Of course if you don't mind waiting and doing other stuff till you can afford a propper Asp Explorer or a Diamondback Explorer do so.
if you want to head out straight away, you could start out with an Adder. sure it's not the greatest ship but it'll get you around

This one is similar to the one I made my first explorations with:
https://coriolis.io/outfit/adder?code=A0p0t3F5l3d2sdf3---02020l2tv63u2i24-.AwRj4lldqA%3D%3D.Aw14MyQTALAjMWwg..EwegLCAMUgHDBTAhgcwDYJCAjJPNpIg%3D

and it's reasonable cheap.... if you faceplant into a stellar body ^^

and I highly recommend to check out the Exploration section of the official forums, great and very helpfull bunch of people there.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/forums/elite-dangerous-exploration/

Till then fly safe bud,
o7

[Salt Strider]

It's still worth getting set up for making money during explorations (you'll be wanting some state-of-the-art exploration ships for when you become a pro at it. Make sure you get yourself an SRV (or land rover, if you will) if you have the Horizons DLC, use your Discovery Scanner as well as your scanner for mapping terraformable worlds (these are worth the most). And always "Honk the Horn" (D-Scanner) when visiting new systems. Have fun, and keep an eye out for anomalies.

[Ting Ting]

So how do you upload what you find to EDSM/EDDB

[Charlie88]

https://wn.nr/GbzKkn

[Ting Ting]

Well that's a spam site.....for a competition

[Noob Van Noob]

Originally posted by CMDR Ting o7:

So how do you upload what you find to EDSM/EDDB

The easiest way to is download EDMC or ED:Discovery. They're third party tools that scan your journal and upload to EDDN/EDDB/EDSM

EDMC: https://github.com/Marginal/E♥♥♥♥♥♥♥Connector/wiki
EDMC autouploads from journal, but there's plugins you can download for more features.

EDDIscovery: https://github.com/EDDiscovery/EDDiscovery/wiki
ED:Discovery does the above, but also comes with more features like 3d and 2d maps of the galaxy based of EDSM info, exploration tools, engineering/mat tools, etc.

[Ting Ting]

i have the market connector, its just a black box that says update. had the game about 2 weeks now, lot to learn, ill try get my head around this so i can start giving back to the community, thanks

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by CMDR Ting o7:

i have the market connector, its just a black box that says update.

Does it also have your Commander's name and the ship that you are flying? After installing it you have to do some login voodoo, to link it with your game.

[Charlie88]

Originally posted by CMDR Ting o7:

Well that's a spam site.....for a competition

Yep, just put it on there.... ignore it if you so will

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Sapyx:

You don't need weapons at all on an Exploration ship.

Well, a small mining laser can be useful, just in case you run out of jumponium, there are no landable planets, but there is a ring with the required materials. Its a rather niche situation though, and probably only a concern if you are going far out on the edge.

[Charlie88]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Originally posted by Sapyx:

You don't need weapons at all on an Exploration ship.

Well, a small mining laser can be useful, just in case you run out of jumponium, there are no landable planets, but there is a ring with the required materials. Its a rather niche situation though, and probably only a concern if you are going far out on the edge.

I managed to make it to colonia and back within a day using the neutron highway and only found my FSD at 41% when i reached colonia and 42% when i got home