🚀 Tips to become a seasoned explorer

Some people never get into the exploring "career" either because they don't get the zen-like space knittingTM appeal, or don't know how to do it optimally to make lots of money.

Let's try to rectify that.

These tips are mainly aimed at Odyssey players, but many points also apply to Horizon's and "Legacy mode".

The Vibe

a.k.a. the art of zen.

You may feel like there are only so many planet types to land on and so things get boring. Yes, it will be good to get some more types and more exploration game mechanics in the future (e.g. see my other Google Doc for things I'd love to see improved in the game including nerdy geology science and surface mining of the rocks), but just as in real life, there are unique combinations of the terrain geometry and texture/reflectivity/colour, gravity, atmospheric lighting, time of day, position of nearby planets/stars overhead, position in the galaxy affecting the skybox, orbital speed, eclipses, geological phenomena, biologicals present, rock scatter, standing rocks and giant boulders, etc., etc.

Even after 9+ years I still get new vistas every few days that make me stop and say, now that's cool, I'm going to stay here a while and chill, and collect some materials and listen to some chill music while I watch the star set over the horizon then log off for the night.

Before Heading off

a.k.a. the art of perfect planning, preventing piss-poor performance.

• Go to a Pioneer Store at a station and pick up an Artemis suit, needed for the bioscanning on foot.

Tip: After the Thursday server downtime a lot of Pioneer Stores have some pre-engineered and pre-upgraded suits, shop around a few to find one that has a few buffs, once someone buys it, it is gone! No other on foot equipment is needed during exploration.

• Visit a raw materials trader. Stock up with FSD boosting "jumponium" type materials (enough for say for 10 or more premium synthesis jumps at least, because there are not a lot of neutron jumps in the bubble), trade away some of the lower-rated materials like iron, carbon, etc., because those are easily collected on any planets you visit later. I often leave these lower-rated materials at about 150 out of 300 available. This strategy also means that I have plenty of things I can always scoop up in an SRV without being "full" as a little side quest for additional things to do to avoid space madness.
  Note: FSD synthesis boosting suggested here is only for helping to quickly get away from the inhabited bubble where there are not a lot of neutron stars to boost with. This just gets you into more uncharted territory earlier – most of the time neutron and synthesis jumps (and big jump range in general) are not required and not the point of exploration for profit or the vibe.
• Maybe equip a repair limpet controller and AFMU for internal repairs if you are particularly prone to lithobraking into planets, or expect to do hundreds of neutron star boosts (as they slowly degrade modules, especially if you also overheat).
• I usually also equip a research limpet controller and some cargo space for synthesising limpets, for little side quests when I discover suitable notable stellar phenomena etc., some of which have life which can be probed.
• Also equip an SRV for driving on the surfaces just for fun or in case you find something worth (or for role play) collecting, like shipwreck escape pods or containers of platinum or Guardian ruins or Thargoid surface sites – as well as for travelling between longer-distance biological samples.
• As of late 2024, also equip a frameshift drive (FSD) with supercruise overdrive (SCO) to enable yeeting yourself within a system at a much higher speed. This makes travel to more distant bodies within a system that are worth scanning a lot easier.
  Note: Watch that heat and fuel use though – less of an issue if you also buy a "designed-for SCO" ship. E.g. The Mandalay.
  Tip: SCO drive can also be useful for quickly partially draining your fuel reserves for optimum jump ranges, but be careful, don't leave yourself in a situation of needing to call the Fuel Rats! See https://fuelrats.com

Route Plotting and Manual System Selection

a.k.a. the art of treading where no one has gone before, or how to get your name permanently on discoveries and make bank.

• Don't just head in a straight line to something particularly obvious in deep space. Other commanders are also drawn to touristy spots like nebulas like moths to a flame, as well lore sites and inhabited (Human, Guardian and Thargoid) areas, and big heavy mass stars and black holes. As a result the "paths" to these obvious places are very well worn (largely discovered and mapped and biologicals first-scanned – so no first scanned x5 payout bonuses for you).

Players tend to stick to the shortest path (and fewest jumps) from the bubble to Colonia, etc. using neutron star highways, "colonia bridge" and route plotting services like https://spansh.co.uk etc.

When you look at aggregate players log data you see that as a group our behaviour is largely predictable and not very adventurous at all, see https://edastro.com/galmap  for example:

Instead, take a long and winding road in three dimensions (i.e. including above and below the flattened plane of the milky way) to your destinations, which should also just be nondescript regions in the black. Visit the big high traffic places for sure, they are worth visiting, but go the long way around where others are unlikely to have headed.

Note: Often it can also be disadvantageous to go TOO far above or below the plane (more than say 750LY), because the stars get sparser there, and with greater jump distances there are fewer options... which again leads to seeing many other CMDRs names having already visited those stars. If the jump distance even at economical routing is over 50 ly then the chances are you should head a little bit back toward the galactic plane.

• Quickly get some distance from inhabited bubbles. 2000LY away from Sol for example is a good exploration "starting" point. Neutron star jump boost or FSD premium synthesis boost to initially get out to more uncharted territory is often a good strategy for this. As mentioned earlier, stock up on "jumponium" materials via a trader before setting off, as neutron stars are pretty rare close to the Sol bubble.
• Filter the galaxy map to O, B, A, F, G, K, M, type stars and non sequence (for neutron stars). These have the highest chances for interesting atmospheres and life. Note I often leave O types off, as I tend to find they are rarely conducive to much life.

Be sure to also click the apply filter to route toggle!

• If you have a max engineered/guardian-module jump range, the chances are you will have a very similar jump range as many other players, this can lead to the route plotting algorithm ushering you into the same systems as other players.
  
  Keep seeing the same player names over and over again along your supposedly random route, making you feel like what's the point?
  Everywhere I go CMDR JoBloggs has been here before me, nothing new here.
  
  If you feel that happening, manually target some random small jumps along your otherwise plotted route. After that smaller jump, go back into the Galaxy map and the route will re-plot and usually result in no longer seeing JoBloggs-discovered systems any more. Repeat as necessary.
  You can also manually select a system based on mass as described later.

• When you have reached a far enough distance from the bubble I recommend to also start regularly switching to economic route plotting rather than furthest jumps... again keeps you from bumping into CMDRs who have been fast plotted through that area.

System Mass Indicator

Another method to avoid systems with a high likelihood of previous visitors along your route, and one that is rarely discussed... is to pay attention to the mass-identifying portion of the system's name.

• Very massive systems (those likely to have a lot of planets or massive central star and/or a black hole, have names with the final few characters such as Dxx-x, Exx-x and I think up to the maximum Fxx-x (there may also be some H mass systems). Other commanders often target these very massive systems first, so you will likely find these have already been visited and all the high value bodies mapped and first footfall biologicals scanned already.
• Cxx-x systems have a decent chance of multiple planets and life and less chance of previous visitors. So, when jumping I keep an eye on these mass categories for systems, often skipping some systems on my plotted route (e.g. if I see the next jump is an Exx-x system) I manually target (i.e. not rerouting) a system ending in Cxx-x along my route (or select one off the current route -- example as shown above).
• Lower mass type Bxx-x systems I will usually ignore, except when you are in an area that people seem to have already mapped even all the C type stars, and who knows, maybe Raxxla will turn out to be in one of those!

System Star Count

The lower mass systems (C and B types) may have a greater chance of including lots of planets (and therefore opportunities for profit) if they have only a single star - i.e. more of the system's mass might be planets rather than several massive stars in an otherwise low mass system. For example:

Profitable Planets and Biologicals to Scan

a.k.a. the art of maximising your profits.

• Discovery Scan (a.k.a. honk) everywhere, and always check the Full Spectrum Scanner (FSS) in particular for Earthlike and Ammonia and Water worlds - as they are worth travelling out to if they are close by for a Detailed Surface Scan (DSS) probe to get decent payouts up to about 5 million for a couple of minutes to travel and DSS scan (much less travel time needed if you also have a SCO frameshift drive) – especially when they have not also been DSS mapped by other CMDRS, but are often nice to visit up close for the views regardless of profit.
• Other valuable planetary body types are the high metal content types that are viable for terraforming. I will often travel to them to DSS scan them if they are close by, e.g. within 1000 light seconds from the star (or even 10000 if you have a SCO frameshift drive is only a minute flight away). These are harder to spot though, you need to visit the system map and look at the properties... unless you use a helper tool which I will discuss later.
• FSS (Full Spectrum Scan - radio scanner) all the bodies in a system for detection of Odyssey life signs which are both profitable to go visit and hand-scan, and helps complete my OCD-like completionism and little endorphin hit from getting new personal Codex entries. Again the 3rd party tool mentioned later really assists in this effort.

• Often the FSS scans will also just show a body that looks interesting, it might have no financial value, but just looks very rare e.g. in colours and terrain, so still 'worth' a visit.
• Some of the Odyssey biologicals are very profitable to scan on foot. In particular the Stratum, Clypeus and Aleoida types etc, and the x5 bonus multiplier when you are the first to scan them on that particular planet or moon. You can easily make 100 million from one 15 minute surface and scan visit.

• DSS (Detailed Surface Scan - launch probes) interesting bodies (i.e. ones with life or other things not seen before) the key thing to note is that after probing, the resulting blue overlay shown on the surface from orbit is NOT a heatmap as such, any darker or lighter colour differences are just indicating the underlying terrain type, e.g. smooth plains, craters, rocky, mountainous, sandy, icy, etc. Certain biologicals are more typically found in certain terrain types, e.g. bacterium typically in smooth flat plains.

With experience you get to learn which terrain areas to narrow your search to more quickly find what you are looking for based on the type of biological and underlying terrain within the blue area that they are typically found.

In the following example the darker blue patches may correlate with slightly raised areas, the lighter blue is general flat smooth sandy areas. So this gives you some information to go on, which might be relevant to:

• the biological type indicated in that area (in this example probably bacterium and some grasses, etc.)
• the size of ship you will be trying to land (e.g. Anacondas have extreme difficulty landing in mountainous areas), or
• how easily you will be able to drive in that area with an SRV.

This is not a heatmap - it's more a general search area with underlying terrain type indications - the terrain for the bio type is more important.

• When you have been out in the black for any length of time and/or have collected a lot of valuable data, start becoming aware that if you die, you lose everything you have collected! Become very cautious, no hooning when you have been collecting data for ages. Also, if you are returning to inhabited space to hand in your data at a station's Universal Cartographics and Vista Genomics I would suggest going to some backwoods system first (or a carrier out in the black), not straight to an area known to have a high degree of gankers like Shinrarta Dhezra… Alternatively, start a session as a private group or solo when you get close.

You do not want some murdering yahoo ruining months of work and billions in credits!

Other reasons to explore

a.k.a. the art of it not just being all about the money.

Find and visit:

• notable stellar phenomena, with their volumetric clouds, some with electrical storms and floating life in the space around planets and rings (which are often able to be research limpet-sampled).
• Black holes, nebulas and densely-packed star areas.
• Mysteries like searching for Raxxla (probably in the Sol bubble), or the Landscape Signal near the core.
• Other historical lore sites, wrecked ships, beacons, ruins, etc., which often have discoverable voice-acted logs to collect and then replay anytime in your Codex.
• The 3rd party tool discussed next can assist with these efforts too.
• Completionism. visit all the types of things already discovered in the Codex for your current galactic region. Get that little endorphin hit with the new codex entry recorded. After many years there's still many types of things I've never seen for myself before.

Elite Observatory - Free 3rd Party Helper Tool and Plugins

a.k.a. the art of having a virtual science officer on board, alerting you verbally of things you might otherwise miss. Fascinating!

There are many 3rd party tools available (such as the excellent EdCoPilot), but the one that I personally prefer specifically when exploring is Elite Observatory, and its plugins. Among other things it provides:

• Voice prompt alerts you to the interesting, profitable, and unique things to visit, that you might have not spotted visually from the quick FSS scans including planetary collisions, shepherd moons, moons extremely close to rings, bodies in very close orbits, ringed landable bodies, signal sources including comms beacons, listening posts and notable stellar phenomena.
• A plugin to list nearby entries of the Galactic Exploration Catalog.
• Gives you alerts to the likely chances for a body to have highly profitable biologicals or those not seen before in your personal list of seen Codex entries.
• You can configure other custom rules with scripts to alert you to things that you personally find fun, like I have a rule to alert me to hot landable worlds extremely close to the parent star. I like to have an occasional face melting visit on foot and test out the Artemis suit, while reenacting scenes from Sunshine (2007) 🌟😬
• All of this variety and voiced alerts helps to make exploring less space madness inducing, immersive, and interesting. It really breathed new life into this whole aspect of the game for me. Literally game changing!

One other thing I really like for exploring, head tracking (OR VR). Makes flying around and looking for those biologicals a lot easier. Personally I use a Tobii5 tracker, but others are good too.

Anybody have other suggestions to add to the list, pop them in the comments.

Happy exploring Cmdrs, o7

🫡