Newcomer / Intro An Easy Guide To Elite Dangerous Exobiology...

[CMD Malandark]

Can a MOD please move this Guide to the Guides & Tutorials Sub Folder Please.
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An Easy Guide To Elite Dangerous Exobiology...​ Written by CMDR Malandark 10/01/2023

Introduction... ​

With the release of the Odyssey DLC came a new progression rank for Exobiology. Unlike the progression rank of Exploration where you advance in rank the more Cr's you earned from discovering star systems and planetary body's (such as Suns, Planets & Moons), to progress in Exobiology you need to discover Alien Life Forms that currently look like strange Plants / Cacti / Ant Mounds etc. At present, the following ranks in Exobiology are:-

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Exobiology Ranks

Directionless Mostly Directionless Compiler Collector Cataloguer Taxonomist Ecologist Geneticist Elite, Elite I, Elite II, Elite III, Elite IV, Elite V

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To progress in rank you will need to find and then collect Genetic Samples from the Biological Lifeforms that you find and then sell these samples to an Orbital or, Planetary Station that has a Vista Genomics facility. Small Refinery outposts usually do not have this facility. There many reasons why this Exobiology progression is worth spending your time on, but two main reasons is for the huge payouts earned for sold Genetic Samples, the other, is to attain the rank of Elite and above. Prior to the release of Odyssey, attaining the Elite Rank in any profession (such as in Trading, Exploration etc.) was the ultimate title a commander could earn, however, since the release of Odyssey, there are now an extra 5 levels numbered Elite I, Elite II, Elite III, Elite IV, Elite V that have been added to the main game core professions.

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Minimal Requirments...​	Medium sized ship, I use an AspX since it's a multi-purpose vessel, ideal for use in many professions, especially in Exploration. It has a great view from the cockpit which is very handy for landing on planets with rocky and steep surfaces and for spotting Alien Lifeforms from high above the ground while flying ( I'm looking at you Bacterium! ). Your chosen ship does not have to be 'engineered' with an enhanced Frame Shift Drive (FSD), the standard vanilla Class 5 (FSD) is fine.
	Artemis Suit. This is very important as this suit is the Only suit equipped with a Genetic Sampler. You can buy this suit at most Orbital & Planetary Stations at the Pioneer Supplies Facility.
	Planetary Vehicle Hanger. If your vessel is a AspX for example, then it can easily hold a double capacity Planetary Vehicle Hanger to hold 2 Surface Recon Vehicles (SRV). 1 will be a spare just in case something bad happens to it while travelling on a planet / moon. The extra weight to carry two SRV’s instead of one is minimal. You could go out without carrying a SRV and just use your Artemis Suit instead to explore, but you will soon find out that climbing or descending inclines for example is not always possible due to the steepness of the terrain, where as an SRV climbs and descends most inclines within reason. It's just an added safety feature to keeping you alive.
	Fuel Scoop. Since you will be spending most of your time outside of any nearby populated star systems, being able to refuel from 'scoopable stars' (Star Classes O, B, A, F, G, K, M are all suitable stars from which to refuel from) is a must. You should also seriously consider equipping the biggest class of fuel scoop to your vessel regardless of the cost. The bigger the fuel scoop, the quicker you refuel and the less time you spend next to star that can easily seriously damage your vessel in an instant of miscalculation.
	Detailed Surface Scanner (DSS). The Detailed Surface Scanner is an optional internal module that fires disposable probes (which are unlimited and do not require restocking like ammunition or limpets) at a planet, moon, or planetary ring system in order to acquire detailed cartographic and composition data. This is your planetary mapping tool. Using this module will allow you to scan & map individual Planets and Moons in order to see where a particular Alien Lifeform can be found on the targeted planetary body. Don't even consider going out hunting for Alien Lifeforms without this module!

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Optional Extras Worth Considering...​	In order of no particular preference..
	1 or 2 Heatsink Launchers. This launcher is a life-saver if you should stray too close into a star while fuel-scooping. If you find yourself 'trapped' within the star then pop a heatsink just before you exit in supercruise and you will not suffer any further vessel / module damage. Since we can now manufacture items such as Heatsinks while in our vessel, we can make new heatsinks on the fly as long as we have the necessary raw materials onboard. This being the case, we would only need 1 Heatsink Launcher on our vessel.
	Supercruise Assist Module. This is an optional module, that I use all the time and in every vessel I fly, however, for those always in a hurry this is considered too slow, to use, but it prevents the 'loop of shame' and will automatically place your ship in orbit of the planet it's targeted with or, if an orbital station is targeted, it will automatically drop you out of supercruise and place you around 8,000 meters from it.
	Auto Field-Maintenance Unit (AFMU) is a module that can be used to repair other modules within your vessel should any of them become damaged. Hard landings and flying too close to a star when refuelling are often the main causes of damaged modules. It does not repair a vessel's hull if that becomes damaged. From personal experience, I've recently started to use a Repair Limpet Controller instead of an AFMU since in hard landings my hull takes most of the damage (over 50% damage) and some of my modules have escaped with between 1% - 2% damage which is perfectly fine. If you do use a Repair Limpet Controller it will require allocating room on your vessel for a small cargo Rack ( i use a 8 unit cargo rack ) to hold my limpets in.
	Some Third Party Tools. These tools are safe to use in Elite Dangerous. EDDI V4.0.2 - EDDI is a Windows desktop program that can run either standalone or as a VoiceAttack plug-in. Actions like jumping to a new system, buying and selling commodities, entering a signal source, scanning a celestial object, and many more will trigger voice responses. EDDI uses the journal log and the Frontier companion API to obtain information and track your actions. Elite Dangerous Market Connector (EDMC) - is a third-party application for use with Elite Dangerous. Its purpose is to facilitate supplying certain game data to, and in some cases retrieving it from, a number of websites and other tools.​ ArtemisScannerTracker v0.2.5 - An EDMC plugin that keeps track of the exobiology scanner of a CMDRs artemis suit in ED:Odyssey​ EDSY - a complete redesign of the original Elite Dangerous ship outfitting tool formerly known as E : D Shipyard. Voice Attack - Voice-activated control over your PC games and apps. Cost $10. Works very well with EDDI as a plugin. This is what I use all the time.

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Now lets quickly look at the Exobiology Ranking System as recently revised by Frontier Developments with their title update 14.1 on December 7th 2022

Exobiology Ranking System...​

At the present time of writing this guide, Frontier Developments has not yet released the official data concerning how much Cr's from Exobiology is required to increase our Exobiology Ranks. However, based on commanders submitted data, some commanders have been able to work out a rough estimate of profits required from Genetic Samples in order to progress to the next rank in Exobiology. The following data is taken from Aunty Sledge Posting in the thread, Elite Dangerous Exobiology Rank Threshold Rebalance Information.

	While these figures are still estimates, I feel they will be close to the official figures once Frontier Developments releases them.
	As we can see, to reach the rank of Elite in Exobiology, we will need to earn around 8.4 Billion Cr's from our Genetic Samples!. Enough to buy a Fleet Carrier and equip it with some essential services!.
	The big question I asked myself when I saw the above table was: How many Genetic Samples do I need to find to reach the rank of Elite ? The answer is in the next section.

Exobiology Payments on Genetic Samples Submitted...​

For this I will use data that I have received for the Genetic Samples submitted to Vista Genomics. For reference, the timeframe for all this data collected is for just over 1 month, since I bought the Odyssey DLC early in December 2022 and at the time of writing this guide, it's now January 2023.

Putting aside the information on Unique Variants/Species/Genus logged, we can concentrate more on the payment rewards and how this effects Rank Progression in Exobiology.
From the above screen shot we can see that:- I have submitted a total of Organic Data Registered 190 Genetic Samples to Vista Genomics. Profit From First Logged is 2,006,051,200 Cr Profit From Organic Data (total) is 2,763,705,800 Cr

Notice how my bonus credit ( Profit From First Logged ) makes up most of my total profit ( Profit From Organic Data ) of 2,763,705,899 Cr, leaving just over 757 million Cr for the standard payments that had no bonus payments!

If we now take the value from (Organic Data Registered) 190 which represents the total number of Genetic Samples I have found and divide this with ( Profit From Organic Data (total ) 2,763,705,800 Cr we arrive at the following conclusion.

For each Genetic Sample I have registered with Vista Genomics I received around 14.5 Million Cr's per sample. Without the Bonus Credit my Genetic Samples would each be worth just 3.9 Million Cr's.

Now for the unanswered question from the previous section.. How many Genetic Samples do I need to find to reach the rank of Elite ?

( Organic Data Registered ) 190 Genetic Samples ( Profit From Organic Data ) is 2,763,705,800 Cr ( Target Cr To Become Elite ) is 8,426,250,000 Cr ( Profit From Organic Data ) Divide by ( Organic Data Registered ) Equals ( Average Cr Per Genetic Sample ) of 14,545,820 Cr (Target Cr To Become Elite ) Divde by ( Average Cr Per Genetic Sample ) Which means I would need to find a total of around : 579 Genetic Samples.

Where To Begin Searching For Biological Lifeforms...​

This is a choice you will need to make... If you wish to earn maximum Cr's and progression in the Exobiology Rank from your efforts then you will not want to visit any planet/moon that has 'First Footfall' assigned to it, as this will not give you the 5x Bonus Credit for finding any new Biological Lifeforms on that Planetary Body. Just to be clear, the more Cr's you earn from selling Genetic Samples, the quicker your Progression Ranks up, plus, the huge payouts you receive helps a LOT towards buying that shiny white Imperial Clipper or that 5 Billion Cr Carrier!

Planets and moons in Human occupied systems, i.e inside the 'Bubble' ( refers to an imaginary 'Bubble' that surrounds all human inhabitable star systems), along with particular bodies of historical significance will have First Footfall already claimed. This is why you will not see any 'First Footfall' labels in any system throughtout the occupied 'Bubble' or on any outside of the 'Bubble' planets that has historical sites on them.

So, if you are happy to for-go the Bonus Credits for all your Genetic Samples you can land on any planet next to, or very close to the 'Bubble' with Biological Lifeforms and collect on everything you find without having to travel very far. Even doing this for just a few hours a day/weekend will bring in a few Million Cr's. For this route I can highly recommend Spansh web based tool Expressway to Exomastery to help you plot a route close to your present location to help find a list of star systems that has Biological Lifeforms for you to collect. If you wish to push on and earn the maximum credits for your genetic samples as well as, faster rank progression then read on. Contrary to populour belief, you do NOT need to travel thousands of light years away from the 'Bubble', to find planetary body's with Biological Lifeforms on them AND that has no 'First Footfall' label assigned to them!. That's primarily for Exploration Expeditions where one of the many primary aims is to discover new star systems so that you can have your commander's name shown as being the 'first' to discover that system. Another goal of Exploration Expeditions is to Catalogue / Map undiscovered high value planetary body's such as Earth-Like Worlds, Water Worlds and High Metal Content Worlds etc. that brings in quite a lot of Cr's and helps towards the Exploration Rank of becoming 'Elite'. As will be explained later on, we will still be discovering some new, never-before visited star systems and becoming 'first' to set foot on new planetary body's such as moons etc. From personal experience, I start my searching for Biological Lifeforms from 1,000 Light Years (as measured from Sol). From the 'Bubble' I head at FULL Jump range in a gentle 'downward' direction from the Galactic Plain for 1,000 Light Years, then I change my Jump Range to Economical Mode via the Galactic Map and head in the direction of the centre of the Galaxy. Once I reach the 1,000 Light Year mark and travelling between different star systems in the shortest of hops, I find more and star systems that :-
A. Have planetary body's that have still not been 'Discovered' by previous commander(s) when they visited the star system, let alone been mapped. B. Are still as-yet, completly undiscovered! C. There far fewer Planets & Moons that have been mapped or even assigned with the 'First Footfall' label, especially on those containing Biological Lifeforms!.
At this point onwards, any Planet or Moon that has Biological Lifeform(s) listed as one of it's 'Features' and has no 'First Footfall' label assigned to it should always be investigated and catalogued. However, there is one caveat worth mentioning here. For planetary body's with 5 or more Biological Lifeforms I will still investigate and catalogue everything I find, even if another commander has already done this, simply because there is a chance I will discover a 'new', Biological Lifeform species/varient that I may have not yet come across before. I will still make a few million Cr's for my troubles.

When jumping into a new star system, never assume that all the planetary body's have been previously discovered. In the early days of Elite Dangerous many commanders would simply jump in, 'Honk' and then jump out into the next star system. 'Honk', or 'Honking The Horn' refers to the way commanders, once they arrive in-system, would simply hit the button on the in-game Discovery Scanner and move along, thinking this would automatically reveal all the planetary body's within that system. The process is referred to as “honking the horn,” because of the distinctive noise that the scanner makes when activated.

​ Biological Lifeforms... (Summary)​
There are around 21 Planetary Species of Biological Lifeforms to the best of my knowledge.
Known Species	Known Genus
Aleoida​	Aleoida arcus Aleoida coronamus Aleoida gravis Aleoida laminiae Aleoida spica
Amphora Plant​
Anemones​
Brain Trees​
Bark Mounds​
Bacterium​	Bacterium alcyoneum Bacterium aurasus Bacterium bullaris Bacterium cerbrus Bacterium informem Bacterium nebulus Bacterium omentum Bacterium scopulum Bacterium tela Bacterium verrata Bacterium vesicula Bacterium volu
Cactoida​	Cactoida cortexum Cactoida lapis Cactoida peperatis Cactoida pullulanta Cactoida vermis
Clypeus​	Clypeus lacrimam Clypeus margaritus Clypeus speculumi
Concha​	Concha aureolas Concha biconcavis Concha labiata Concha renibus
Crystalline Shards​
Electricae​	Electricae pluma Electricae radialem
Fonticulua​	Fonticulua Campestris Fonticulua digitos Fonticulua Fluctus Fonticulua lapida Fonticulua segmentatus Fonticulua upupam
Frutexa​	Frutexa acus Frutexa collum Frutexa fera Frutexa flabellum Frutexa flammasis Frutexa metallicum Frutexa sponsae
Fumerola​	Fumerola aquatis Fumerola carbosis Fumerola extremus Fumerola nitris
Fungoida​	Fungoida bullarum Fungoida gelata Fungoida setisis Fungoida stabilis
Osseus​	Osseus cornibus Osseus discus Osseus fractus Osseus pellebantus Osseus pumice Osseus spiralis
Recepta​	Recepta conditivus Recepta deltahedronix Recepta umbrux
Sinuous Tubers​
Stratum​	Stratum araneamus Stratum cucumisis Stratum excutitus Stratum frigus Stratum laminamus Stratum limaxus Stratum paleas Stratum tectonicas
Tubus​	Tubus cavas Tubus compagibus Tubus conifer Tubus rosarium Tubus sororibus
Tussock​	Tussock capillum Tussock caputus Tussock catena Tussock cultro Tussock divisa Tussock ignis Tussock pennata Tussock pennatis Tussock propagito Tussock serrati Tussock stigmasis Tussock triticum Tussock ventusa Tussock virgam
I highly recommend paying a visit to the Deep Space Network for a more detailed analysis on all known Biological Lifeforms and more.

 

[CMDR NoBull]

Are we allowed to collect the same species from multiple planets and sell for credits? I am at a planet where I have not been before and all of the species are telling me "already collected and sold. ??

 

[Untilting]

Are we allowed to collect the same species from multiple planets and sell for credits? I am at a planet where I have not been before and all of the species are telling me "already collected and sold. ??

Yeah, I've often found the same species on neighbouring planets, for instance, and that all works. It's only the same species on the same planet that gets the red warning.

You absolutely sure it's your first visit to that planet?

 

[wolfhelius]

A small ship is much preferred.