Finding (or not finding) materials on the planet surface

[Cap'nHadok]

Really?? Seriously??

I have wasted an entire afternoon trying to obtain engineering modification materials on planets.

I have done the research;watched videos;read blogs. Finally got the hang of deploying the SRV, tooling around, eyes glued to the scanner. The only thing that shows up on this is...my ship.

I used EDDB database to find a metal rich planet. Did the DSS..yep got exactly what I want (Carbon). Landed near a site of Gelogical interest (don't get me started on how nearly impossible that is) deployed the SRV, but could not find anything. Did it all twice.

What's going on? Does Frontier seriously think that this activity rates as fun???

Basically, I'm going to have to pass on all the modifcation malarkey, cos without materials (which CAN ONLY be found on planets) I can't do anything.

What am I missing? How can you find dead cert planets and sites where you do not have to mess around wasting one's life?

Help me, I'm losing the will.

[Kosevich]

All materials are separated in 3 categories.
Encoded data
Manufactured
Raw
First one can be found in crash sites, scanning any NPC ship (mostly not security ships) / scanning Frame Shift Wakes.
Manufactured - destroying ships / visiting emissions, mostly high grade.
Raw - laser mining asteroids / can be found on planet surfaces and collected by RCV.

[Greg]

Some times you have to drive a ways on the surface before the scanner picks up a signal.

Before you reach the atmosphere throttle back in supercruise, go into the detailed surface scanner and launch a probe or 3. Make sure you have scanned the surface 100%. If you can't find what you are looking for then I have no info for you.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Biological sites are better than geological sites if possible.
Are you sure you're using the SRV radar well?

[Kosevich]

First of all dont push yourself to do things you dont like. Collecting lots of high grade materials at once is poitless as mostly sure will kill all emersion. Dont set a strick goal to collect all materials in the game at once. Try different approaches, find what you want.
If you have some questions about SRV, here a good guide about planetary exploring:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=640949154
P.S. Disable drive assist as soon as possible (default Z).

[Kosevich]

There is some ways to aquire all engineer matrials in few hours, but do you realy need that?
What main purpose you try to achieve right now? What module you want to upgrade?

[ShelLuser]

I share your frustrations... been there and done that (partly).

From what I've learned there's no information - at all - about any of those findings in-game, meaning that we'll have to rely on 3rd party websites to get the info on where to look. Except for one thing: economy types in the galaxy map.

For example: if you're looking for metallic materials then it makes sense to focus on star systems which have a 'refinery' type economy, then check those planets to see if you can find anything to extract.

I've learned that another way to get materials (though it doesn't make sense to me) is to go pirate hunting. I've blown up a few ships and discovered that they dropped stuff. At first I assumed it was cargo (commodities) but I've also got materials. Something which didn't make much sense to me because if I blow up (happened recently when I got overwhelmed with enemy NPC's) I didn't seem to have lost any materials... I guess E.D. is weird like that.


For what it's worth I also stopped with searching and collecting materials for now and moved my attention to getting the permits for the Crom & Sirius systems, for now that's a lot more fun for me. It'll take effort, but at least you can find out on how to get those on your own.

Note: I'm somewhat new myself (then again... 150 hours in?) but I can't help get the feeling that the effort/award ratio is far off when it comes to the engineer & guardian quests. I could be mistaken, sure, but for now that's my take on it.

[LoboFH]

Scan the planert surface of rocks with geological and/or biological sites, land in those spots, you will get more materials this way than with the SRV radar on random spots.

[Petrus Magnus]

Randomly driving around on a planet is one of the old ways of getting raw materials it still works but is very slow.

What you need to get is a Detailed Surface Scanner.

This will let you shot probes from your ship at a planet to find points of interest (POI) that you can then lock-on to in your left panel and go down to, land at and mine.

Look for volcanic or biological POI on planets that have the raw materials you need.

The the current meta for raw material gathering is crystalline shards these however may be to far for you if you are a new commander:
https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/bucrnx/guide_efficient_sources_for_raw_data_and/

[Agony_Aunt]

Its all about learning how to read the scanner. Once you get fast at driving and reading the scanner, you can collect loads of stuff quickly.

I can only suggest you watch videos of people doing it to get the idea.

My personal preference is for higher G worlds (close to 1.0 or over) with relatively flat terrain. They are great for bombing along at high speeds and when you blow a rock the materials tend to come down quite close to the rock. Sometimes you can just go to your left panel and collect everything without even moving.

If the best option is a low G world, then the way to "drive" on those is not to drive but to fly. Low G worlds are bad for grip and if icy then doubly bad. Small bumps will send you into uncontrolled flips if you have speed. And driving slowly over bumpy terrain takes a lot of time and really slows down material gathering. So, have some fun and learn to fly with the SRV. On really low G worlds you can get some really good speed by angling forward and using your thruster to gain height and speed. (PS: Full pips to ENG)

[Prismix]

I tend to get a lot of carbon whilst mining, i would even go so far as to say that i often get more that way than by specifically searching on planets and i'm good at reading the srv scanner.

More than anything i have learnt that you won't always find what your looking for at a specific site despite indications to the contrary, just like real life :)

[malorob]

if you have wasted your afternoon playing elite you should give up now.

playing games in general are a waste of a persons time.
i for one have wasted over 2000 hours in elite and if the game ended today what would i get back from it.....

Nothing.

dam game took me 3 months to get to beagle point and back. and then it drove me to the edge of insanity " grrrrrrr... space madness" could not play the game for at least 6months"
and the worst is after 1000 hours i brought another account.
and i am back in the game again.

one thing elite has taught me is too Mellow out relax take a chill pill what ever and say good bye to your life

[frank2351]

If you go mining for a bit in a few different spots you'll have all these base matels in no time. Don't go out grinding for materials. Just play what's fun. You'll find the materials along the way or get other materials from your gameplay that you can then trade in.

Going out and looking for that one rare material can quickly turn into a nightmare. Don't do it. Carbon is really not that rare. You'll find it somewhere anyways. Looking for it specifically is a waste of time.

Also if you land on planets for materials: around geological sites you can find more of that stuff.

Also the system info screen will tell you the composition of planets after you scanned them. Make sure the planet you land on even has the desired element.

I'm out here looking for jumponium which is a completely different game ...

[Agony_Aunt]

By the way, some materials can be got while mining.

Carbon can be found in icy rings.

So, you can just go mining for LTDs and while doing that grab a nice amount of carbon and other stuff on the side.

[9InchNail]

https://youtu.be/-4HClk1cRIo
This is my way to go. Collect the high grade stuff and trade the rest. For the required mats for the uprades. Check Inara website and make a shoppinglist what you need to trade for at the materials traders. Choose a home system with all traders in short jump range. Mine is Ohm City in LHS 20. Data trader right there, manufactured and raw just one jump around. Ohm is also great for Hi Res farming. Hi Res Site close by.