How to obtain Loadstone today

[gizmo6023]

There are a bunch of techniques published from pre 7.0 but I see no current info.
I have an empire to build and the pitiful drop rate of loadstone is cramping my style.
I have sent collectors to high use mining systems on repeat orders collect drops and nada.
Is the only way to get them now to spend hours in a mining ship busting rocks or the one in 10,000 chance some XEN ship will drop one when your gate trap pops them?

[db48x]

You could do a search and find the answer, but whatever:

Get in a nimble ship, like a fighter or scout. You can start your search right next to your personal HQ in Heretic’s End. There’s an asteroid field there that has asteroids with Ore and Silicon in them; you can of course search any other asteroid field if you prefer, but avoid Ice. Hit shift–2 to put your ship in scan mode. The nearby asteroids will now be colored by their content: orange for ore and blue for silicon. Fly up to a small one and take a look at it. You may need to fly around it, but you should see some lumps that are colored in a contrasting color (blue on orange or orange on blue). These are resource nodes. If you shoot them then they will drop more ore/silicon in total than the whole asteroid would drop when destroyed, plus they have a chance of dropping goodies as well. Carefully shoot only the resource nodes and use your container magnet to pick up any goodies. It shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes to find your first lodestone.

You can also find them at any Trader’s Corner. Each one you visit has a 10% chance of having lodestones in stock.

Sending ships to collect from mining areas was a good idea, except that the goodies you want only drop when you are in the sector yourself.

[Wraith]

Same way as ever

Pirate traders
And doing some mini game mining or waiting for npc to pop asteroids open

It shouldn’t take you hours more like minutes

Just find a pirate station or find a sector with a good amount of non empty asteroids

[db48x]

Pirate traders have the same 10% chance of carrying lodestones as any normal trader does. I only recently noticed that fact myself.

[Wraith]

not from what I experience if you want illegal stuff going to pirate station is definitely have a way higher chance

I can skip to 3 HAT/SCA pirate station trade and get way more lodestone and unstable crystal then going 3 normal traders station

[db48x]

Right, but lodestones are not illegal anywhere. Unstable crystals are, but lodestones are not.

[Wraith]

Originally posted by db48x:

Right, but lodestones are not illegal anywhere. Unstable crystals are, but lodestones are not.

what I'm trying to say is that they appear more in pirate station.

If you ever see pirate trader inventory they tend to have much longer list of goods and you tend to get lodestone in them more

[db48x]

No, they have the same 10% chance.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3120616748

This guy checked the game files to be sure. I’m sure you could repeat that research if you wanted to.

[Wraith]

I still think it shows up more in pirate station but thx for the link it has some cool info

[gizmo6023]

Originally posted by db48x:

You can also find them at any Trader’s Corner. Each one you visit has a 10% chance of having lodestones in stock.

Sending ships to collect from mining areas was a good idea, except that the goodies you want only drop when you are in the sector yourself.

So I just take a ride with one my mining fleets and direct my drop collection fleet to collect in the area around my miners. Leaves me to direct other things as well rather than sitting on the controls on a single ship getting P O because I got issued defective RNG dice.
Pirate stations have been a bust for the most part.

Does the being in sector requirement also apply to drops from enemies killed?

I used one of my massive stash of loadstone yesterday to craft an item

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3306578787

[Mr. Mutilation]

It doesn't take long manually. Go to some place with thick fields and they will drop 3 at a time getting them manually. Play the mini game or just nuke the rocks ...they drop. Heretics end or any Saturn, some place like that with thick fields. I don't see them often on auto looters, ever.

[Mr. Mutilation]

Also if you are trying to get them for pirate stations or traders. PArk a ship at each stations and warp in and out the zones to the ships at each station. Every time you re zone the traders restock.

[gizmo6023]

Originally posted by Kaishakunin187:

Also if you are trying to get them for pirate stations or traders. PArk a ship at each stations and warp in and out the zones to the ships at each station. Every time you re zone the traders restock.

I have 10 stations with parked ships that I was checking every couple of hours, haven't checked today as I am attempting to locate the advertised battle in Zyarth's Dominion. Lots of ARG fleets patrolling but no battle, I doubled my collectors on the gate to Matrix#598 so they are close by just in case.

[Mr. Mutilation]

Originally posted by gizmo6023:

Originally posted by Kaishakunin187:

Also if you are trying to get them for pirate stations or traders. PArk a ship at each stations and warp in and out the zones to the ships at each station. Every time you re zone the traders restock.

I have 10 stations with parked ships that I was checking every couple of hours, haven't checked today as I am attempting to locate the advertised battle in Zyarth's Dominion. Lots of ARG fleets patrolling but no battle, I doubled my collectors on the gate to Matrix#598 so they are close by just in case.

The station route is kinda like if you are missing one or two, not a good way to resupply. Get a small ship with a tech 2 mining laser and some good mobility and roll around in an astroid belt for like 20 minutes, you will have 10 + ez, I assume you are using them for emps, well this is what I do. I literally have a small mining ship just to top off lodestones. Selling emps isnt bad loot either. Happy hunting

[Venerable_Sin]

Originally posted by db48x:

No, they have the same 10% chance.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3120616748

This guy checked the game files to be sure. I’m sure you could repeat that research if you wanted to.

Thank you for sharing this. I didn't know this thing existed. What a gem!

Originally posted by gizmo6023:

Does the being in sector requirement also apply to drops from enemies killed?

I can say that you will still get drops from destroyed ships when you have a ship set to repeat order collect drops in an area where ships are destroyed often. I cannot say the loot table is the same out of system/low attention or in system/high attention. Sorry! Hope the info helps.

[gizmo6023]

Very informative, thank you.