Bubble exploration is a very lucrative career option in Elite Dangerous. It’s suited to those who like the idea of exploration but perhaps lack the experience or credits to delve into the deep black and wish to hone their skills within the safety of civilisation. It also suits those like myself who actually have delved into the deep black and found it much less exciting than advertised and seek instant gratification for my exploration exploits.
Your ship.
Bubble exploration can be done in any ship that has a basic discovery scanner attached to it and that includes the Sidewinder you’re ‘born’ in when you first start the game. Fit the budget 300 credit fuel scoop and you’re all set to start making credits. From that point you’re looking to simply upgrade your equipment to make your career more profitable and efficient.
The bubble explorer doesn’t require any fancy engineers or multi million credit ships to make an impressive profit but the following is the optimal set up.
• Ship with a 20ly Jump Range
• Detailed Surface Scanner
• Advanced Discovery Scanner
• Fuel Scoop (optional)
It costs in the region of 2.5million credits to get a Sidewinder, Eagle or Hauler set up like this but a bubble explorer may want to take advantage of their lifestyle to make some side profits along the way. A passenger cabin and/or a cargo rack can often be an advantage when you encounter less profitable areas of space and that’s going to require a bigger vessel like the following...
• Adder
• Cobra
• Viper IV
• Dolphin
Ultimately light, quick, economic ships ‘feel’ the best suited for bubble exploration. It’s nice to be the little guy.
How to operate.
A bubble explorer is one of the few professions that can thrive on in game resources which grants a nice feeling of independence and purpose. The first step is to pull up at the nearest station or outpost and boot up the galaxy map, you need to be docked in order to access Universal Cartographics and plan your first move.
The galaxy map will now offer you the feature of buying exploration data from Universal Cartographics for any undiscovered systems that surround it within 20ly.
The more expensive the data is to buy the more lucrative the system is going to be if you go and explore it yourself. There’s no guess work or luck involved with bubble exploration, every jump you make is 100% focused on both profit and discovery.
This system is just 8ly away, it’s worth 10,683 credits. That means it’s going to be worth around 110,000 credits for a simple honk with the advanced discovery scanner. A full detailed surface scan of the system will be worth between 850,000 - 1m credits.
Don’t buy the data, add a bookmark and head on over yourself. You can turn a simple station or outpost into an advanced radar to plan surgical exploration moves.
Doesn’t look like much right? It was worth 850,000c for five minutes work. It has an ammonia world but its terraformable planets were the icing on the cake.
Jackpot!! A 19,000 credit system is going to be worth 200,000 credits for a simple ads honk and around 1.8-2m for a full scan. I’ve seen systems going for 30k when there’s water worlds involved.
There’s many advantages to local exploration.
• It’s profitable, sometimes insanely so...
• It’s quick
• It’s 100% safe from npc piracy
• Exploration data is very valuable when you want to become allied with a specific system.
• It’s cheap and easy to set up in any ship
• It’s perfect for expanding your market network for the engineer Lei Cheung (a great engineer)
• Great career for a newcomer, which is why I posted this here.
Your ship.
Bubble exploration can be done in any ship that has a basic discovery scanner attached to it and that includes the Sidewinder you’re ‘born’ in when you first start the game. Fit the budget 300 credit fuel scoop and you’re all set to start making credits. From that point you’re looking to simply upgrade your equipment to make your career more profitable and efficient.
The bubble explorer doesn’t require any fancy engineers or multi million credit ships to make an impressive profit but the following is the optimal set up.
• Ship with a 20ly Jump Range
• Detailed Surface Scanner
• Advanced Discovery Scanner
• Fuel Scoop (optional)
It costs in the region of 2.5million credits to get a Sidewinder, Eagle or Hauler set up like this but a bubble explorer may want to take advantage of their lifestyle to make some side profits along the way. A passenger cabin and/or a cargo rack can often be an advantage when you encounter less profitable areas of space and that’s going to require a bigger vessel like the following...
• Adder
• Cobra
• Viper IV
• Dolphin
Ultimately light, quick, economic ships ‘feel’ the best suited for bubble exploration. It’s nice to be the little guy.
How to operate.
A bubble explorer is one of the few professions that can thrive on in game resources which grants a nice feeling of independence and purpose. The first step is to pull up at the nearest station or outpost and boot up the galaxy map, you need to be docked in order to access Universal Cartographics and plan your first move.
The galaxy map will now offer you the feature of buying exploration data from Universal Cartographics for any undiscovered systems that surround it within 20ly.
The more expensive the data is to buy the more lucrative the system is going to be if you go and explore it yourself. There’s no guess work or luck involved with bubble exploration, every jump you make is 100% focused on both profit and discovery.
This system is just 8ly away, it’s worth 10,683 credits. That means it’s going to be worth around 110,000 credits for a simple honk with the advanced discovery scanner. A full detailed surface scan of the system will be worth between 850,000 - 1m credits.
Don’t buy the data, add a bookmark and head on over yourself. You can turn a simple station or outpost into an advanced radar to plan surgical exploration moves.
Doesn’t look like much right? It was worth 850,000c for five minutes work. It has an ammonia world but its terraformable planets were the icing on the cake.
Jackpot!! A 19,000 credit system is going to be worth 200,000 credits for a simple ads honk and around 1.8-2m for a full scan. I’ve seen systems going for 30k when there’s water worlds involved.
There’s many advantages to local exploration.
• It’s profitable, sometimes insanely so...
• It’s quick
• It’s 100% safe from npc piracy
• Exploration data is very valuable when you want to become allied with a specific system.
• It’s cheap and easy to set up in any ship
• It’s perfect for expanding your market network for the engineer Lei Cheung (a great engineer)
• Great career for a newcomer, which is why I posted this here.
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