How to locate Exobiology and Geology in Odyssey

Everything is new in Odyssey/Horizons Live when it comes to finding geological features and biological specimens on planetary bodies.

This guide will help you find what you're looking for.

First, choose the right planet

After you've scanned the system, look in the system map for the planetary bodies.

You can land on anything with a blue semi-circle. If planets ALSO have a blue bubble around them, they have an atmosphere.

There are many planets with atmospheres that you cannot land on, either due to atmospheric pressure or gravity or both. The blue semi-circle is the key.


You can select planetary bodies then use the icons on the right side of the system map to identify any with geological or biological signals.

Fly to a suitable planet and map it.

Interpreting the surface heatmap

After you've mapped the planet, and before you exit the Surface Scanner UI, note the 'Next Filter' and 'Previous Filter' displayed near the top.

The default is 'All', and you'll want to cycle through the filters until you find the one you need. e.g. Stratum.

Each time you change the filter, the colour map on the planet will also change.

The light blue and dark blue areas can be ignored. You're looking for the teal coloured zones as shown below.


Sometimes half the planet will be covered in teal. Other times, there are specks here and there. But my hundreds of hours doing exobiology has proven that dropping into the teal zones has the highest chance of success.

Bookmarking areas

Once you exit the glide, you'll need to fly around at between 100-200 metres of altitude at a modest speed. Keep an eye out for the feature you're looking for.

Some players use the external camera, positioning it beneath the ship and controlling their flight from that location.

When you find a suitable sample, land.

If you're scanning exobiology, and you spot a sample from another species when you're still scanning a previous one, take a screenshot from inside the ship - this will store the coordinates so you can return there later.

[LT.Smokin]

I cant play elite dangerous without geological and biological signals.
Game was playeble with these signals
Put those signals back

[praetor93-imp]

Hi Sighman. Wonder if you can help me with something? I want to install ED Observatory, but into which folders do I add the files (before unzipping them)?. I got 2 files from Github, (but naff all by way of what to do next) one is 'Observatory Setup', the other is 'Observatory Core'. (Right now in my downloads folder). So, do I just run them from there or add them into a folder in '/mypc/steam/...' (etc) and unzip file 2....or something? Not having any success getting a response in community. Just wanna make sure I get it right - i'm a player and somewhat 'aged' (Original 84 Elite Commander)..haha. Do you have a dummies guide to setting this up? Any leads on other easy add-ons for bio exploring also appreciated - the 'herald' vocal advisor sounds helpful too regarding distances from last sample. Thanks in advance.

[Sighman]

I'd add that a program called SRV Survey will show you if you've travelled far enough from the previous sample(s), whether you're in the ship, srv or on foot.

[Planewalker]

Ship/SRV has a gps to the right of the wave scanner; the text is a bit small so easily missed.
When on foot, your compass at the top will show distance to other samples. (small curly thing)

[clif9710]

Thanks. Does the bookmarking work from the SRV as well? I'd think that would help to determine how far away from one sample of bio one had traveled, to know when one is far enough to get another sample.