I ve done a lot of combat and trading and I am now thinking on moving to exploration.Just wanted to know how much money should I expect to be getting from it ?
How profitable is exploration ?
- Thread starter lycan6under
- Start date
It's not. Do it for a change of pace, or because its something that you find interesting. But if money is your primary concern... stick with trading. Nothing else compares.
At first, you will make very very little. As you get the hang of it, and learn what to look for (and what not to waste time on)... then you will do a little better... and make very little (instead of very very little).
At first, you will make very very little. As you get the hang of it, and learn what to look for (and what not to waste time on)... then you will do a little better... and make very little (instead of very very little).
Last edited:
Not very.
I made about 2 million in about 12-15 hours. It's not awful, but, as with almost everything that isn't trading (or rather exploity looking edge cases) in this game, it's not as profitable as trading.
I probably could have made more if I was after the money. The main aim was to see some things, so I didn't scan some areas which would probably have earned me some more cash than I got. Quite a few metal planets, and even stars, went unscanned because I got a little bored about 8 hours in so wanted to concentrate on going places.
I made about 2 million in about 12-15 hours. It's not awful, but, as with almost everything that isn't trading (or rather exploity looking edge cases) in this game, it's not as profitable as trading.
I probably could have made more if I was after the money. The main aim was to see some things, so I didn't scan some areas which would probably have earned me some more cash than I got. Quite a few metal planets, and even stars, went unscanned because I got a little bored about 8 hours in so wanted to concentrate on going places.
Last edited:
Good for you. Exploration isn't well paid, but you get to see more sights that the average A->B trade run.
Unless you've got an advanced discovery scanner on board it's difficult to tell what's worth scanning when you first jump in, so you can spend hours scanning things that aren't worth anything. I found it a nice change of pace and a heck of a lot of fun trying to spot points of light moving against the background stars with the basic and intermediate scanners, but it's quite inefficient time-wise. Even with the 1.5mil super scanner on board it's quite a slow way to make money, although you begin to make more as you learn what's worth flying over to and scanning and what isn't.
Best place to start is this thread, which has pretty much all you need to know: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=81653
Yup - you can see the same station 20 times and make a profit, or you can see things like this, and come out with pennies in comparison (especially once you've paid your wear & tear): https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=91147
-- Pete.
-- Pete.
IMO an advanced discovery scanner and a detailed surface scanner are requred to make any money from exploration. You want to be able to jump into a sector, sound the foghorn, then check the system map while scanning the sun. You don't want to be messing around looking for planets, or scanning icey rock after icey rock.
Old-school parallax surveying technique. It used to take time and sharp eyes to fully survey a system - kids today don't know how easy they have it!
-
I rather miss it, but I will admit to having succumbed to the temptation of an Advanced Discovery Scanner.
If you want to earn money effectively, just keep trading rares or something else. If you have fun in exploring systems, to find something interessing, where no one have been before you (except of NPCs, they are everywhere) try exploring. I like the typical explorer feeling. I just made a three hour trip to a nebular, to find some unique Systems with some very interesting planets and stars. I only get about 100k, but it was fun.
Ah, all that time surveying icy worlds orbiting red dwarves. I thought I was helping civilisation, but nobody cared
I make a point of exploring all of the UNEXPLORED places in the system, you could miss something nice, but I'm not in it for the money, which is why I'm driving a beat up Adder, rather than something schmancy.
1,300 systems visited, ~250 detailed scans netted me 4,5 million.
How many hours?
Around 4 days of playing. Six hours of sleep per night. Ate cup noodles in front of pc.
So 72 hours maybe..
It's not a great money-spinner, but as someone else already commented, I'm not in it for the money. It's fun just exploring - I went all the way from LHS 3447 to Alpha Centauri, and netted enough to pay for some decent upgrades to my Eagle en route. I'm now back at LHS 3447, planning to head coreward. There are loads of unexplored systems out there, the only problem might be getting somewhere that's at least 20 LY away from my search area which will buy data. Hmm....could jump out to 20 LY + from LHS 3447 then do a bit of exploration/survey, then come back to flog my data. That might work.
Yep Exploration has netted me a nice amount especially if you can find planets. Don't waste time scanning rock bundles around stars, these don't increase your reward much if anything! Instead scan the star, then use the Discovery Scanner to sweep the system before jumping to the next star. if your D Scanner finds planets then scan these then move on.