How to find asteroids for deep core blasting

Greetings miners!

I have read several comments that asteroids with fissures - ie those that can be blasted open with seismic charges - are very hard to find. I had similar thoughts myself, until I found this technique that seems to turn them up fairly readily (6 this morning in pretty quick succession).

The method relies on the fact that the rocks with fissures shine a bright golden colour when scanned with the pulse wave analyser. They are indeed uncommon as a proportion of all asteroids, but the pulse wave analyser has considerable range, especially at the higher classes - go for class A if you can. To exploit this property, do not fly through the ring as you would have done when using prospector limpets exclusively to find valuable rocks; instead, fly high above the ring, then look down and use your pulse wave analyser to scan a large number of asteroids.

Asteroids with cores also have a distinctive shape. It appears that there is only one crackable asteroid of each type (thanks YinYin), likely for animation reasons. You may sometimes find other, smaller asteroids with a similar golden colour; it helps to learn the shape of the core asteroid so as to avoid the red herrings.

In a metallic ring you are looking for this:

kchJPK8.jpg


The asteroid in the centre of the HUD has a valuable core and fissures that can be blasted. Note its unique green-gold border and dull bronze colour, which are not shared by any other asteroids. There is an asteroid next to it on the right with some surface deposits, but no core. At this distance, such asteroids do not show up on the pulse wave analyser at all, making it easy to spot the rocks with cores. Here is a view from much closer in:

5YKdxtV.jpg


Now we can see how the asteroid with the core has a very bright gold colour. Note also its ovoid shape and that it is medium-sized. Observe the asteroid to the right, which looks similar in colour at this distance but does in fact have no core (I checked). A prospector limpet reveals the goodies:

gTNRrjW.jpg


Note the 'Core Detected' notification in the lower left panel reporting the asteroid's properties.

Here is the crackable asteroid type in an icy ring:

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PrcRxcp.jpg


If you cannot see any rocks like the one in the first picture, stay high above the rings and boost along as fast as possible. You will cover ground quickly and be able to scan many asteroids. Use headlook mode to check out rocks that are not on your flightpath, or go FA-off and point your ship around in different directions if you are flying something that doesn't have great cockpit visibility. I turned up 6 cores this morning in Delkar (pristine metallic ring) without much looking - and I wasn't even in a hotspot. You will find all sorts of new materials that sell for more than 200kCr / ton. Just be sure to withdraw to a safe distance in time before those charges detonate...

Happy blasting Commanders!
 
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By that I meant the tactic of staying high above the rings and boosting along quickly, pinging the pulse wave analyser as you go. This enables you to scan lots of asteroids quickly so you can find the rare ones with a core in a reasonable amount of time.
 
I'll have to give this a try. One thing I've experienced is there are no good asteroids around the center of the hot spot. I need to be at least 200km away from the center before I run into good asteroids.

I think FD needs a balance pass on the colors so the good asteroids are a little brighter - or make it an engineer upgrade. This morning I shot 60-70 prospector limpets are very bright asteroids, but only 6-7 had fissures, and only one had the hot spot material. I'm not sure the hot spots are working as intended either.
 
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I tried this technique a couple times, for several hours, and it failed miserably. It was just as bad as I was getting before. Half the time that super bright asteroid would just have 100% of its low reserves water. This was in a hot spot in a pristine icy ring. I also had to engineer my power plant just to handle the A rated PWS.

But then I'd read about CMDRs mining 20 million an hour and thought they must be making it up until someone replied that you need to recognize the shape of the asteroid. So I went out again with half the limpets and did a little experimenting. After about 10 prospector limpets I figured out that I only needed to look at the "knobby" asteroids - the ones that look a bit like a bunch of grapes. I'd use the PWS to identify asteroids with high yields, then go take a closer look at the knobby ones. If they had fissure cracks, I'd shoot off a prospector. In an alexandrite hot spot, every core was either alexandrite, opal, and one time bromellite. I ended up dumping excess limpets, and then excess opal, to make room for more alexandrite. I made 30 million in that one trip, which is about 3 times what I made in all my previous attempts at mining.

So bright yellow on the PWS doesn't mean it's a core asteroid - just that it has a high yield. And according to the pics posted above, it looks like the core asteroids have a different shape in rocky rings. Well, that's my experience anyway, for what it's worth.
 
I haven’t tried in an icy ring yet but thanks for the useful info. I started getting some false positives myself and began to lose a bit of faith until I saw a video explaining that the deep core asteroids are a) very bright and b) not small. So (in metallic rings anyway) it’s important to judge the size of the rock as well its brightness. I’ll update the OP, and will give this a try in icy today.
 
Yeah. There is likely only one asteroid cracking animation per material type. So only one asteroid shape can be cracked.

By the way there are 6 shapes per type in total. Another fun way to find some is dropping into belt clusters and checking if one of the asteroids rotates. Because only core asteroids in clusters rotate. So no scanner required.
 
Yeah. There is likely only one asteroid cracking animation per material type. So only one asteroid shape can be cracked.

By the way there are 6 shapes per type in total. Another fun way to find some is dropping into belt clusters and checking if one of the asteroids rotates. Because only core asteroids in clusters rotate. So no scanner required.
Great shout with the shape - I reckon that's right. Just after I read your post I found another core rock and checked the shape against my pictures above - it was the same. So for metallic rings it is the medium sized ovoid shaped rocks we are after.
 
There is exactly 1 type of asteroid (1 for each ring type) that can be blown up. Its always a medium one and it looks always the same. Only this particular Asteroid can have fissures. this shows FDevs limitations pretty much
 
this shows FDevs limitations pretty much

Yeah. That's an art asset creation limit.

The concept, modelling, animation, effects and sound design teams only had time to polish the minimum: 3 of them.

Perfectly fine to me.
 
A tip to save on prospector limpets. When you spot an asteroid with your pulse analyzer and want to see if it has fissures you can just fly up to it and check the rock out instead of using a prospecting limpet. The fissures are pretty distinctive. This doesn't make them anymore common or make it faster to find them, but it saves limpets.
 
By that I meant the tactic of staying high above the rings and boosting along quickly, pinging the pulse wave analyser as you go. This enables you to scan lots of asteroids quickly so you can find the rare ones with a core in a reasonable amount of time.

Good advice, and nice illustrative images in your first post, thanks for that. I came to very similar conclusions last night, and I'd add one simple thing that should be obvious from your images... do this in the planet shadow with night vision - as soon as you emerge into the light, the Pulse Wave scanner becomes all but useless.
 
I'll have to give this a try. One thing I've experienced is there are no good asteroids around the center of the hot spot. I need to be at least 200km away from the center before I run into good asteroids.

I think FD needs a balance pass on the colors so the good asteroids are a little brighter - or make it an engineer upgrade. This morning I shot 60-70 prospector limpets are very bright asteroids, but only 6-7 had fissures, and only one had the hot spot material. I'm not sure the hot spots are working as intended either.

Around the center, maybe not, but I found one at 75 km distance, so your 200 km radius is a little high.
 
Greetings miners!

I have read several comments that asteroids with fissures - ie those that can be blasted open with seismic charges - are very hard to find. I had similar thoughts myself, until I found this technique that seems to turn them up fairly readily (6 this morning in pretty quick succession).

The method relies on the fact that the rocks with fissures shine a bright golden colour when scanned with the pulse wave analyser. They are indeed uncommon as a proportion of all asteroids, but the pulse wave analyser has considerable range, especially at the higher classes - go for class A if you can. To exploit this property, do not fly through the ring as you would have done when using prospector limpets exclusively to find valuable rocks; instead, fly high above the ring, then look down and use your pulse wave analyser to scan a large number of asteroids.

Asteroids with cores also have a distinctive shape. It appears that there is only one crackable asteroid of each type (thanks YinYin), likely for animation reasons. You may sometimes find other, smaller asteroids with a similar golden colour; it helps to learn the shape of the core asteroid so as to avoid the red herrings.

In a metallic ring you are looking for this:



The asteroid in the centre of the HUD has a valuable core and fissures that can be blasted. Note its unique green-gold border and dull bronze colour, which are not shared by any other asteroids. There is an asteroid next to it on the right with some surface deposits, but no core. At this distance, such asteroids do not show up on the pulse wave analyser at all, making it easy to spot the rocks with cores. Here is a view from much closer in:



Now we can see how the asteroid with the core has a very bright gold colour. Note also its ovoid shape and that it is medium-sized. Observe the asteroid to the right, which looks similar in colour at this distance but does in fact have no core (I checked). A prospector limpet reveals the goodies:



Note the 'Core Detected' notification in the lower left panel reporting the asteroid's properties.

Here is the crackable asteroid type in an icy ring:





If you cannot see any rocks like the one in the first picture, stay high above the rings and boost along as fast as possible. You will cover ground quickly and be able to scan many asteroids. Use headlook mode to check out rocks that are not on your flightpath, or go FA-off and point your ship around in different directions if you are flying something that doesn't have great cockpit visibility. I turned up 6 cores this morning in Delkar (pristine metallic ring) without much looking - and I wasn't even in a hotspot. You will find all sorts of new materials that sell for more than 200kCr / ton. Just be sure to withdraw to a safe distance in time before those charges detonate...

Happy blasting Commanders!

An interesting technique which clearly works for you. I will give it a try !
 
The roids with cores will be the brightest gold from distance as you get closer and keep scanning they develope a black grid pattern which in the core roids will be REALLY black and all over the roid.

They aslo have a wierd green tint in places and some red but the green tint is most noticable.
 
The roids with cores will be the brightest gold from distance as you get closer and keep scanning they develope a black grid pattern which in the core roids will be REALLY black and all over the roid.

They aslo have a wierd green tint in places and some red but the green tint is most noticable.

It is said that 1 in 12 men and 1 in 500 women are red/green color deficient. I wonder if some are affected with this color scheme?
 
Anything to get me to blow an asteroid up!
Tried mining today for the first time since the updates and found nowt Boring and tedious flying. All I wanted was to experience the surround sound of the explosion first hand. :-(

Away 'till Friday, but will certianly check this out. Thanks :)
 
It is said that 1 in 12 men and 1 in 500 women are red/green color deficient. I wonder if some are affected with this color scheme?

I am one of them, sigh. I am having real problems finding the right asteroids. In one session i used 60 prospectors to find one. I have got a little better since then, i will try this method.

o7

Max
 
It is said that 1 in 12 men and 1 in 500 women are red/green color deficient. I wonder if some are affected with this color scheme?

It constantly amazes me just how many people who work in 'visual industries' still do not understand some very basic things concerning colour combinations. Hey FDev... we pretty much banned Blue text on Black backgrounds for lectures and presentations over a decade ago - great choice for the new Analysis Mode! Especially given the age of a fair portion of your demographic.
 
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