Gas Giants - what's worth looking for?

Heavy Johnson

Heavy Johnson
I very frequently (read: almost always) skip over gas giants when exploring. I feel like I've pretty much seen 'em all.

So what's out there for giants that you look for when exploring? What kind of oddities have you found?
 

EtherealCereal

EtherealCereal
Oversized ring systems are more than enough to catch my attention, that's for sure.

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And of course, I'm working on trying to iron out a technique for hunting down helium-rich gas giants so I go out of my way to look for those as well.
 
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Reido

Reido
If you're looking for a little extra cash, the Type II gas giants used to, and AFAIK still do, pay out quite well. I've seen it mentioned somewhere that Frontier have plans for gas giants in the future, so maybe that's the reason for the much higher pay out for the two's.

On the other hand, if you're looking for something a little out of the ordinary, try looking for Helium-rich gas giants. They're on the rare-ish side, but if you come across one system that has one or more, then the chances are good that one or more of the neighboring systems also have them. This type of gas giant only forms in young star forming regions where the age of the stars are ~1 billions years old or less. One of the reasons I like coming across these is that the systems they're in are usually crazy large with dozens and dozens of bodies in all kinds of strange combinations and orbits.

If you're out looking for the real rare birds, try finding a Water Giant. These are very rare to come across, at least for most us :D . This type AFAIK is just about one of the rarest bodies to find in the game.

Happy hunting


Reido, (CMDR Andrew Reid)
 

mtt9999 [Parabolus]

mtt9999 [Parabolus]
Yes if you are only looking for money then skip them. But that tends to be a boring way to explore and imo is a reason why many cmdrs give up on exploration so early.

I look for record breaking gas giants. I try to find the largest or smallest ever discovered - that gets me really excited. I also like to find hot Jupiters - gas giants that are less than 50ls from parent star. Can get great photos there. It's funny I think I scan more gas giants than high metal content worlds (which I find to be quite boring)

- Cmdr Parabolus
 
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Straha Yeagar

S
I have been on my own personal expedition to largely unexplored sectors between the spiral arms, and am trying to find as many different things as possible in each sector...checklist with every discoverable thing such as start type, body type, volcamism type, etc and the gas giants are some of my favorites. The Helium Rich and Type V have been the toughest for me so far. Found plenty of water giants. Going to have to add the Green Monsters to my list now...
 
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Mengy

Mengy
When it comes to gas giants I personally keep an eye out for unusually pretty looking ones. Preferably with nice coloring. So many gas giants look so very similar, I wish they had more variety. I've never come across anything as unique as those bright green ones posted above, but I keep looking for more of them! Usually the best I can find are really nice deep red ones, or some that have a high variety of color banding.
 

Straha Yeagar

S
ibanix said:
Welp, now I have a new goal: Find one of those gas giants.

Still trying to find an ELW moon, but that's a different story.
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I just pipe some Gordon Lightfoot on vinyl through my ships speakers and sit back in wonder and amazement at what all is oout there...
 

Redfox

Redfox
ibanix said:
So what's out there for giants that you look for when exploring?
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I like it when moons are situated withing the ring(s).

Plus, I've recently developed a thing for Helium-rich Gas Giants over the last 2-3 weeks. Bagged 100+ so far.

Here's an example of both in one shot :D
BSjRqsR.png
 

EtherealCereal

EtherealCereal
Sounds like those of us who know 'the trick' all pretty much have the same idea. Not sure if it's to do with position within a sector or what but I've had luck finding them in the same locations within any given sector.

I will agree that if you find one, check the nearby systems and also make note of the subset you found it in because I've had good luck finding them within those subsets even across different sectors. Also, if you notice that regular gas giants have a higher-than-usual concentration of helium in their atmospheres (30%+) there's a good chance the neighboring systems will have gas giants that are actually classed as helium rich.
 
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Redfox

Redfox
straha20 said:
Ok...so where the hell are you finding them? Star type, etc...?
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EtherealCereal said:
Sounds like those of us who know 'the trick' all pretty much have the same idea. Not sure if it's to do with position within a sector or what but I've had luck finding them in the same locations within any given sector.
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Something along those lines. I'll need a few more days of trying to figure out a pattern for the find-first-one-in-cluster part. Will post a follow-up, even if I don't come up with anything.

mono said:
Water giants seem quite elusive.
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Usually they are the small, brownish Gas Giants on the outer edge of the system. They're not very common, but if you look out for the short, odd fella at the fringe you'll find one/some soon enough.
 
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