SRV Guide

Hello CMDRs my name is CMDR Frumple Sklump and this guide is written to assist players on their adventures on the surface of planets. It's my aim to impart knowledge on SRV operations to veterans and new CMDRs

SRV Basics

The SRV is a powerful tool. Here are some Tips I've gleaned over time.

Tips

• Make sure you bind your handbrake key, the handbrake is instrumental in driving around with any degree of accuracy
  
• Turn off your lights when you are using your wavescanner. On a planet that is bright and with your lights on, it can be very difficult to scan down your POI
  
• You can adjust your PIPs on your SRV. PIPs in your system increase your shield. PIPs in ENG increase your boost duration, and finally PIPs in weapons increase how long you can fire your weapon
  
• Your shield only protects your SRV from hostile fire, not running into objects
  
• You can scoop cargo at any speed, having your cargo scoop does not affect how your SRV handles
  
• Using a Mouse and Keyboard is more difficult to drive the SRV. I'd recommend a controller or HOTAS
  
• Do not forget to scan targets before you engage so you do not become wanted
  
• Mind the gravity, higher gravity worlds hurt, a lot.
  
• Bumping into another SRV with their shields up make for pretty interesting lighting
  
• SRV turret range is about 812Meters

SRV Mouse and Keyboard Quick Reference

SRV Deployment

1. Ensure you have a vehicle bay fit
   
2. Land on planet
   
3. Hit the number 3
   
4. 
   
5. Select Deploy

Basic Land Controls

E = Throttle Forward
Q = Throttle Back
A = left
D = Right
Assign a Key to handbrake using the key binds in the option menu

Aerial Controls

W = Pitch Down
S = Pitch Up
A = Roll Left
D = Roll right
Space = Thrusters

Weapons

U = Deploy SRV Dual Repeater turret
Mouse = Rotates direction of turret
Right Click = Lock target, hold to scan
Left Click = Fire Weapon

Miscellaneous

Home Key = Cargo Scoop
L = Lights, tap to toggle between off, low and high beam
Arrow keys to adjust PIPs
I suggest assigning your head movement to the tilde key ~ if its located next your 1 key

Boarding Your Ship

1. Head towards your ship, if you dismissed your ship you can recall it with the 3 key menu
   
2. Drive under your ship slowly until you see the box on the bottom right that says boardship lights up
   
3. 
   
4. Hit 3 and select board ship, any cargo in your cargo hold automatically goes into your ships cargo hold

Wave Scanner

The wave scanner is what you will use to scan down objects. All objects that you can interact with have a specific signature on your wave scanner. Use this website to aid you in identifying particular sounds. It comes complete with the sound the object makes as well as the objects wave signature.

http://wavescanner.net/

How to find Points of Interests

Whether you are exploring or trying to find a certain item on the surface of the planet you will want to find points of interest. To find a point of interest follow these steps.

Steps

1. Climb to an altitude between 2KM - 3KM
   
2. Continue to press your page up key bind to zoom your minimap out
   
3. Depending on your color scheme you will need to look for Blue Circles on your minimap
   
4. Approach Blue Circle and land on edge ( As you get closer to the surface the POI circle will start to fad out. The POI is still there though)

Tips

• If your are exploring planet surfaces for POIs I recommend to fly on the dark side of the planet. When you fly on the dark side of the planet you will be able to see lights thus reducing the time searching for the POI
  
• Ensure you have cargo space on your ship if you find any cargo

1. Area where POI is located
   
2. How far you have zoomed in or out of your map (Page up / Page Down)
   
3. Your grid location and gravity of the celestial body you are landing on
   
4. Your altitude
   
5. The ammount of acccelertation that your heading towards the planet. You want to keep that out of the red. This is affected by your ships mass and the planets gravity

Types of POIs

From WIKI: http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Point_of_Interes
Photos : Mine

• Ship wreckage. If any Cargo Canisters or Occupied Escape Pods survived the ship's destruction, they count as legal Salvage. A Cargo Rack containing Materials may be present too.
  
  
• SRV and Skimmer wreckage. If there are any cargo canisters or occupied escape pods, they count as legal salvage.
  
  
• Cargo cache. Unclaimed cargo canisters, legal salvage for anyone who retrieves them.
  
  
• Buildings and a cargo cache.
  
  
• Buildings and Automated Mining Extractors. Guarded by Defence Turrets in addition to skimmers.
  
  
• Buildings and a lone Data point.
  
  
• Crashed Nav Beacon, which can be scanned as a data point.
  
  
• Crashed probe, which can be scanned as a data point.
  
  
  

SRV Missions

Mission of Mercy

1. Reference guide on how to find POIs
   
2. Scan and kill any sentrys
   
3. Collect Escape Pods
   
4. Turn in mission

Tip:
Save any extra pods you get for future missions.
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Safety First

1. Reference guide on how to find POIs
   
2. Scan Sentrys
   
3. 
   
4. Engage and destroy until mission is complete

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Installation

1. Go to designated System
   
2. Go to designated Planet
   
3. Land 2KM from base
   
4. Deploy SRV
   
5. Once you approach the base you will notice a red square on your minimap. As soon as you enter the area you will get a trespassing warning. If you stay any longer you will become hostile to the base and the Sentries and turrets will open fire on you
   
6. Search for Comms Relay
   
7. 
   
8. Scan Comms Relay
   
9. Drive 2.5KM to recall your ship and depart

Tips

• The Comms Relay is normally at one of the high points of the outpost. If the planets gravity is low enough you can drive up an angled building to main road and drive to it.
  
• An alternate method is driving fast and using your boost to get the Comms Relay

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Surface Salvage Retrieval

1. Reference guide on how to find POIs
   
2. 
   
3. Do not engage Sentrys
   
4. Collect Structural Regulators
   
5. Turn in mission

Tips

• Be sure to save any extra Structual Regulators that you get for future missions
  
• Ensure you scan Sentrys to see if they are wanted. If not, do not engage
  
• If you stay in the Security Area too long you will incure a fine from local authorties (Fines can be payed off at any station)
  
• Structural regulators cargo capsules look like standard Capsule

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Surface Resupply

1. Upon acceptance of you are given the cargo
   
2. 
   
3. Go to System specified on mission
   
4. Land on designated station to deliver cargo

Tip

• Simple mission, biggest problem you'll have is you might get interdicted. If so, just submit (By putting your throttle to zero) to reduce cool down of your FSD to 10 seconds. If you fight the interdiction and lose your FSD cooldown will be 30 Seconds. Enough time for you to die.

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Deliver Trade Data

1. Accept Mission
   
2. Fly to designated system and station
   
3. Turn in

Tip

• Another simple mission. Mission is good for earning reputation and influence as well as increasing your trade rank

Gathering Materials

Materials

There are a total of 6 sources you can collect materials from. Each of these sources can yield different types of materials used for synthesis. Below is a link that you can click that will have a breakdown of all the materials you can get.

• Common Outcrop - contains non metals
  
• Metallic Outcrop - contains metals
  
• Bronzite Chondrite
  
• Mesosiderite
  
• Metallic Meteorite
  
• Cargo Rack

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Materials



Mesosiderite


Bronzite Chondrite


Outcrop

To gather materials all you have to do is shoot the outcrop. Once the outcrop is shattered it was spew 1-4 pieces of resources. Depending on the gravity on the world and incline they might bounce far away and down hill. Once the material is settled you can deploy your cargo scoop and scoop them up. Be sure that you have the material targeted. Unlike in space you can drive as fast as you want over the material with out fear of wrecking it.

You can hold up to a quantity of 300 of combined materials. Once you discover new materials it also contributes to your exploration rank. In the unfortunate event you get killed in your SRV or space you still retain your material as well.

BARNACLES!

-BARNACLES!

Eventually you'll want to go out and explore to find some Barnacles. Lucky for us there is a persisent one that everyone can visit. I suggest visiting these barnacles in solo mode. You can harvest all the materials your self as well as see the majestiy of them unspoiled by others. You will need a ship that is capable of fuel scooping to reach this location.

Follow these Steps:

1. Navigate to Pleiades Sector JC-U B3-2
   
   
   
   
2. Navigate to the first planet in the solar system
   
   
   
   
3. Approach planet and try to get to these cordinates as close as possible 21.91, 96.97
   

   -View from 100K

   
   

   -View from 50K

   
   

   -View from 13K

   
   

   -View From the Surface

From here you can scan and shoot them. When you shoot the barnacles they will explode into materials as well as drop "Meta-Alloys" The MA look like eggs. Reference the picture below. The MA also take up cargo space so be sure to carry at least one cargo rack. When I shot all the spires they only yielded two MA for the whole cluster. The barnacles are in a canyon, and also have a unique scan and sound.

The spires of the barnacles yields 3-5 materials. Make sure you have room in your Synthesis Inventory to carry more materials.

Conclusion / Change Log

• Published 13MAR2016
  
• Added TIPs portion 13MAR2016
  
• Added new mission Surface Salvage Retrieval 14MAR2016
  
• Added SRV Basic Controls 14MAR2016
  
• Added mission Surface Resupply 15MAR2016
  
• Added note on SRV Weapon range
  
• Added TIPs to Installation SRV Mission 16MAR2016
  
• Added Deliver Trade Data SRV Mission 17MAR2016
  
• Added Crashed NAV becon picture 20MAR2016
  
• Added lone datapoint picture to POI section 26MAR2016
  
• BARNACLES! added 26MAR2016
  
• Out Exploring: I will not update guide for another couple weeks, leave suggestions in comments please. 1APR2016

[aversion]

this took a bit of thinking on my side but thought you could add this to the guide. in order to collect any cargo in an SRV, you first have to target the cargo in turret view and then scoop it up. its super weird.

[Colonel Crow]

I know that this is kinda old, but I'd like to say: Moving pips to and from the ENG system also affects your SRV's acceleration as well as thruster duration, to a noticeable degree. Meaning, an SRV with 0 pips to ENG won't accelerate as fast as an SRV with 4 pips to ENG.

[Blind Cartographer]

......you had me at Frumple Sklump

[scotfusion]

Outfitting has been the major issue with me and SRV. I cannot outfit one. I tried everything I could for months. Im too frustrated with the game to play it, because it is the only thing I think about after the game finaly loads, is getting an SRV. I cant equip a Planetary Vehicle Hanger, I cant find and SRV. The UI does not match the UI I see for SRV outfitting. Ive been on the forums for a while. I'll always check for solutions, but I cant play this game until I find a solution to this issue. The problem is not the game, the problem is me, and I just dontknow what to do.

[Jinx]

Hey, where can i buy a SRV even, and nice review

[darthsutius]

I believe that barnacle has expired, though I'm not sure, everytime I go to it, all the spires are destroyed. I did spot another one not very far from it though, but it's probably not permanent. There was also a crashed conda not far from that.

[DAOWAce]

I copied my keybind file and reset it to default X52 binds, then copied the SRV controls over.

Tested it, found it was very awkward to drive, regardless of assist on or off. I just can't get used to turning with a joystick. Ended up rebinding everything to keyboard/mouse and turning assist off. Drives almost like a buggy in pretty much every other game with vehicles. Turret control with the mouse is a bit off, feels like it's kinda emulating an analog stick; not so great, but manageable..

Why they didn't have dual binds with a joystick like they did with normal space flight is beyond me. Makes me want to check how the default KB/M controls are laid out.. though that is listed in this guide, isn't it? Looks awful. Might check it out anyway..

Off to try and figure out how to complete this mission.. and refuel my SRV.

[Gaardian]

If your using a hotas its fairly easy to bind your keys. I'd even recommend it.

[DAOWAce]

I finally got an SRV after all this time; go and land on a planet after getting a few high paying missions to mess with a base and... nothing. It doesn't move. The only thing I can do is change PIPs and deploy cargo scoop.

I check my controls and.. nothing is bound.

Well, this is annoying. If I reset my binds to get the defaults back, I reset all my other custom controls that I can't remember what I've changed during the year of owning the game.

I guess I'm going to find out how to save and load keybind setups and try to get the default X52 binds copied over for the SRV. Pretty stupid that they never got added when Horizon's was patched in.

[Gaardian]

Yeah, I got to do a major update now thanks to the patch! :)

So any updates you'd like to see please message me or put in comments. Thanks for all your help. I really appretiate the views and input. Don't hold back. :)