Anachronism Stew: A Guide to Fossils

After recently acquiring a place of residence, you've decided that a giant T. rex skeleton would look really great in your home. That's all fine and dandy, but where will you hope to find such a creature in the depths of space?

Well, the good news: There is a T. rex skeleton in space.
The bad news is that it will require a lot of work to obtain.

With pick and brush in hand, it's time to dig into the wonderful world of Prehistory!

What's the Pay-off?

Aside from decorations, Fossil Hunting has two achievements tied to it.

Alien Archaeologist

• Restore a complete fossil.

and

Them Bones

• Unearth 55 unique fossils.

If you're into decorations, Fossil displays make excellent conversation pieces and really spice up the domacile.

This could be you, aspiring Archaeologist/Paleotologist!

Getting Started

The first thing you'll need to do is upgrade your Inventor's Table. Don't worry, this is pretty simple. It just requires:

• 5 Silver Bars
  
• 10 Tungsten Bars
  
• 10 Glass

All of these materials can be obtained after besting the Erchius Horror.

After obtaining your new Engineer's Table, you'll need to craft a ultra-rad totally spectacular awe-inspiring Fossil Station! This requires:

• 20 Cobblestone
  
• 5 Dirt
  
• 10 Tungsten Bars
  
• 20 Wood Planks

After obtaining these easily obtained materials, you'll be set to understanding how the fossil system works!

Understanding Fossils

There are three types of Fossils: Small, Medium, and Large.

Small Fossils

Small Fossils are the most common type of fossil, consisting of comparatively "boring" subjects such as ammonite shells, fossilized eggs, and triliobites. However, they take the least amount of pieces to assemble, only 1, and their display case is the cheapest to craft. They also take up the least amount of space.

Medium Fossils

Medium fossils are a step up from small fossils; they require 3 pieces to assemble. However, they depict the full skeleton remains for all of the playable races [barring Novakid], as well as some interesting specimens. Their display case takes up a bit more space compared to small fossils, but they can still be easily set up side by side.

Large Fossils

Large fossils are the big daddies of the Fossil system; they are comprised of five seperate pieces, all of which are relatively rare. Their display stand also takes the most resources, as well as taking up the largest amount of space. However, don't let this distress you; Space T. rexes are flipping rad.

A full list of fossils will be available at the end of the Guide.

Things You'll Need

Before you go spelunking caves, it's important to be armed with the tools of the trade! Unlike most things in Starbound, Fossils require more than smashing to loot. In fact, attempting to mine up a fossil chunk with your Manipulator will cause it to drop comparatively less rad bones. Your previously crafted Fossil Station will be needed to craft everything related to fossils.

Brushes

In order to begin extracting fossils [more on that later], you will need a handy supply of Brushes.

• Basic Fossil Brush: The run-of-the-mill, low cost Brush. Can be easily crafted for 1 string and 5 wooden planks.
  
  
  
• Advanced Fossil Brush: The intermediate Brush, craftable with 1 silver bar, 2 wood planks, and 2 string.

• Master Fossil Brush: The best, but most expensive, Brush. Can be crafted with 1 gold bar, 2 wood planks, and 3 string.

Personally, I use only the Master Brush, as it ensures the greatest odds of a successful excavation. Each Brush can only be used once, so making every brush count is of prime importance.

Aside from Brushes, a few tools that may be useful for excavations include:

• High-Power Digging Tool: Fossils are only found within cave systems and subterranean locations. Having a good Matter Manipulator or Drill makes it easier to find new caves once you're finished excavating an old one.
  
• Light Source: Let's face it: caves are dark. As such, it's nice to have a light source to illuminate any Fossils nearby. On harmless planets, I'd reccomend the Xenon Pack for all your illumination needs, but elsewhere? You'll probably need a lot of torches.
  
• Grappling Hook: A lot of fossils are suspended a fair deal off the ground. A Grappling Hook or plenty of Rope allows you to easily reach otherwise tricky digs. For the added benefit over simply using blocks, a Grappling Hook will also help you descend potentially fatal falls.
  
• Plenty of Food: Make no mistake; fossil hunting eats a good deal of time. If you're playing on Survival, you'll need good food to sustain you through the dig. Carrying wheat and a cooking table with you allows you to make non-rotting food on the go.
  
• A Pet: While excavating, you are unable to attack or deal with otherwise annoying threats. A powerful monster captured with a Capture Pod can deal with those annoying bats as you try to chisel out your specimen.
  
• The Spike Morph Ball: A non-essential, but highly useful Tech Upgrade, that allows you to crawl back up to high locations, onto ceilings, and avoid ground-bound enemies as you hunt for more fossils.

All of the above items are not neccessary, but highly encouraged.

Hunting for Fossils

With your brushes all set, it's time to hit the Underground Depths! However, where do Fossils reside?

From my experience, Fossils are found in every planet type, although somewhat more common on more hostile worlds. Fossils are found a fair way under the surface, but above the molten core of the world. Fossils seem to be more common in underground sandy areas, presumably because Sedimentary Rock encourages fossil formation.

Fossils are background objects that do not impede movement, similar to paintings. They can be forcefully broken by mining them, dropping roughly three Bones.



There are a variety of fossil shapes, but all of them share the same drops.

Excavation

Once you've found a fossil, sidle real close to it with your Brush equipped and hold down the action button. After a good few seconds of solid dusting, you'll enter the Excavation Mini-Game.

Yes, obtaining Fossil requires you to be good at the Mini-Game.

So what are we looking at here?

It's important to remember Excavation is essentially a logic puzzle. The core principle is that there are a number of bones hidden in the square segment, hidden beneath stone and dust. You are equipped with several tools that chisel out stone in varying shapes, allowing you to access the dust beneath them. You can swipe dust away with the Brush tool, which is free to use and should be used to clear all dust immediately.

There are a few important rules to remember when excavating:

• All the Fossil Pieces are connected horizontally or vertically.
  
• You are given a limited number of Tools.
  
• You automatically forfeit the Excavation if you are
  
  • Moved sufficently away from the Fossil.
    
  • Die while Excavating
    
  • Press the Escape Key
    
  • If any chisel hits any bone fragment, the Fossil is broken.

A few tips for excavating out Fossils:

• Take your time! Rushing can cause you to accidentally misclick, costing you the find.
  
• Use each tool efficently! Sometimes, you may need each and every one in order to uncover all the pieces.
  
• If you find a Chest in the Dust, always prioritize freeing it last. If you fail to uncover the Fossil, you will not earn the Chest rewards.
  
• Excavation plays similarly to Minesweeper crossed with Tetris. Reveal the bones, don't hit the bones, and clear everything else.
  
• Don't waste a tool just because it clears out the most stone. Sometimes, this will uncover nothing, and end up being a waste of your time.
  
• Using a tool on a section of Dust that has a fossil under it will break the fossil, costing you the game! Always dust away immediately.

After successfully clearing the Mini-Game, the Fossil and Brush will be destroyed, and a random Fossil Piece will drop. If you uncovered a chest, whatever was in the chest will also be rewarded.

It's important to note that, when you're playing on Survival, Fossils will be dropped on death! Be careful on your ascent to the surface!

Display

Once you have all the Pieces needed to assemble a display, head to the Fossil Station to craft some display cases.

There is one display case for each Fossil Type: Small, Medium, and Large.

• Small Fossil Display: Used to showcase small Fossils. Can be crafted with 3 Gold Bars, 20 Wood Planks, and 15 Glass. Requires only 1 Small Fossil piece.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Medium Fossil Display: Used to showcase medium Fossils. Can be crafted with 5 Gold Bars, 25 Wood Planks, and 40 Glass. Requires 3 different Fossil pieces of the same Specimen.
  
  
  
  
  
• Large Fossil Display: Used to showcase large Fossils. Can be crafted with 30 Gold Bars and 150 Wood Planks. Requires 5 different Fossil pieces of the same Specimen.
  
  
  

To fill a display case, interact with it and fill the display with the required pieces. After a little fanfare and jingle, the Fossil will be on display and gated off with classy velvet rope. Inspecting it will yield a little information about the Specimen, such as how the beforementioned T. rex made it to Space.

Once filled, a display case can be picked up with the Matter Manipulator and placed again without assembly. This also means you can't exchange exhibits using the same display.

List of Fossils

Below lists every Fossil currently available in Vanilla Starbound.

Small Fossils

• Amber
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Ammonite
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Egg Fossil
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Fern Fossil
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Fish Fossil
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Footprint Fossil
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Mysterious Alien Skull
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Penguin Fossil
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Sabertooth Skull
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Trilobite

Medium Fossils

• Alpaca
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Apex
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Avian
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Avioscale
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Floran
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Frogg R.I.P Pepe, Killed by the Normies
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Glitch
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Human
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Hylotl
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Unidentified
  
  
  
  
  
  

Large Fossils

• Ixodoom
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Ophidaunt
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• T. rex
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Chest Rewards

As mentioned before, while Excavating you can find little chests hidden in the dust. Always prioritize digging these up last, as if you fail to successfully unearth the Fossil, you will not unlock the chest anyways.

If you succeed in uncovering both the Find and the Chest, you'll be rewarded whatever is inside. So far, items found are:

• Teleporter Cores
  
• Auto Chips
  
• Tech Chips
  
• Manipulator Module
  
• Upgrade Module
  
• Musical Instruments [in particular, I found a Saxophone early on.]
  
• Pet Collars
  
• EPP Upgrades
  
• Vanity Items
  
• Seeds

If you find an item in a chest not on the list, comment below and I'll add it.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this guide!

New Fossils may possibly be added in a later update, so expect them to be added when completed. Also mentioned in the Starbound Kickstarter thing for Fossils that they'd be useful for more than just display, so when that gets added, I'll be sure to report it to this guide.

Space T. rex admires your dedication for reading the entire guide.

[Randal]

did i see a mod that brings these creatures back to life, Jurassic park style... or am i imagining things

[Randal]

are the fossils you receive totally random or are they linked to planet difficulty or terrain depth for example

[Shades2hot]

Pepe comment's a little weird but i like this guide. fun and informative

[Lyric Drake 591]

lol

[SHOPPIP]

you can get clothing from the chests sometimes so can you add. clothing. to Chest Rewards

[shamble]

Nice, this'll really help!

[Patrick The Nobleman]

Here you go Doom12384, the fossil configurations:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1183142718

[Doom12384]

There are only so many fossil configurations. For example, if it's 0/9, you always know that it's a T-shape. Maybe you could add images of the unique configurations to the guide to help out. I believe there is a 9, 11, 15, 16, and 17. I think that's all of them

[saifthesword]

Thanks

[thecheesyexperiment]

AN easy way to get to the surface with all the fossils is to beam to your ship, if possible, then beam back to the surface of the planet.