Document for farming grade 4-5 Materials for engineering

CMDR Alyssa Evanline

CMDR Alyssa Evanline
https://docs.google.com/…/1gG4SLhbET4-v7v2ahB2swT2AWw…/edit…
Okay folks. This is about as finished as its going to get. Here is a document detailing exactly where you should farm grade 4-5 materials for Encoded, Manufactured and Raw. With the raw, it even tells you which sites you should go to, and which ones you should avoid.
Also, as a PSA, IGNORE DAVS HOPE. ITS AS RELIABLE AS PETER MOLYNEUX
If you have any suggestions, feel free to PM me or comment here.
I hope you enjoy this
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Aashenfox

Aashenfox
Hm...This is obviously great work for the community, thank you. The problem is the 'right' way to get materials in this game, as per your spreadsheet, isn't the most efficient way. The best guide anyone can write at the moment (and it's mercifully short I don't need to copy paste it, I can type it every time) is the following...

Data:

Go to the Jameson Cobra and hit the 4 nodes, logout, login and repeat. This is so fast it's hilarious. You fill your adaptive encryptor captures in 10 mins even if you're slow, then go trade them and repeat. This beats any targeted method of data gathering, by miles.

Raw:

As per your guide, the bio shard sites are the way to go, except they don't produce selenium, as you noted. The best way to get selenium is to do the old style prospecting on Prthi 2A, and hit all the rocks you come across.

Manufactured:

Until FD fixes the states system which is currently not working (for example, in an independent system in Outbreak state, you can get an Outbreak HGE, which should contain pharmaceutical isolators, but it doesn't, it contains CDCs, a Federal superpower item, simply because there exists a fed factoin in the system. Similarly, we are seeing the rare materials from the wrong HGE states as well.

The best way to farm any manufactured material currently is to go to the core of imperial space and farm for imperial shielding, because it doesn't share its loot pool with anything else (as CDCs do with prop comps, for example), so you can once again fill your imp shielding really fast and then go trade.


This doesn't invalidate your guide for people who want to do it the proper way, but it's worth mentioning that the state of the game currently means that these shortcuts are much better for one's overall enjoyment of engineering. Once again, thanks for the effort. We (GARD) have a HUGE raw materials gathering guide to bubble systems on our private forum, compiled by cosmicspacehead from data we've collected since 3.3 dropped, which I would be happy to share with you to pad out your non bio raw sites. You should also add a field of the reserves state (pristine, etc) of the system, as this affects the ratio of needle crystals to lower level mats, and dramatically affects the chances of finding metallic meteorites when doing the old style prospecting.
 

varonica

varonica
I've used this one quite a bit in the past, although it is slightly outdated now;

docs.google.com

Elite Dangerous: "Scavenger" 3.1

docs.google.com docs.google.com

Aashenfox said:
As per your guide, the bio shard sites are the way to go, except they don't produce selenium, as you noted.
Click to expand...

I never bother to search for a particular raw mat these days, I just max out the high grade raw mats from crystal spike sites then use the mat trader to trade for what I need.
 

CMDR Alyssa Evanline

CMDR Alyssa Evanline
Aashenfox said:
Hm...This is obviously great work for the community, thank you. The problem is the 'right' way to get materials in this game, as per your spreadsheet, isn't the most efficient way. The best guide anyone can write at the moment (and it's mercifully short I don't need to copy paste it, I can type it every time) is the following...

Data:

Go to the Jameson Cobra and hit the 4 nodes, logout, login and repeat. This is so fast it's hilarious. You fill your adaptive encryptor captures in 10 mins even if you're slow, then go trade them and repeat. This beats any targeted method of data gathering, by miles.

Raw:

As per your guide, the bio shard sites are the way to go, except they don't produce selenium, as you noted. The best way to get selenium is to do the old style prospecting on Prthi 2A, and hit all the rocks you come across.

Manufactured:

Until FD fixes the states system which is currently not working (for example, in an independent system in Outbreak state, you can get an Outbreak HGE, which should contain pharmaceutical isolators, but it doesn't, it contains CDCs, a Federal superpower item, simply because there exists a fed factoin in the system. Similarly, we are seeing the rare materials from the wrong HGE states as well.

The best way to farm any manufactured material currently is to go to the core of imperial space and farm for imperial shielding, because it doesn't share its loot pool with anything else (as CDCs do with prop comps, for example), so you can once again fill your imp shielding really fast and then go trade.


This doesn't invalidate your guide for people who want to do it the proper way, but it's worth mentioning that the state of the game currently means that these shortcuts are much better for one's overall enjoyment of engineering. Once again, thanks for the effort. We (GARD) have a HUGE raw materials gathering guide to bubble systems on our private forum, compiled by cosmicspacehead from data we've collected since 3.3 dropped, which I would be happy to share with you to pad out your non bio raw sites. You should also add a field of the reserves state (pristine, etc) of the system, as this affects the ratio of needle crystals to lower level mats, and dramatically affects the chances of finding metallic meteorites when doing the old style prospecting.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the offer! But we just wanna stick with the grade 5's for raw materials for now, as filling up on them is fast and trading down is extremely profitable. Have a good one ^~^
 

Aashenfox

Aashenfox
varonica said:
I've used this one quite a bit in the past, although it is slightly outdated now;

docs.google.com

Elite Dangerous: "Scavenger" 3.1

docs.google.com docs.google.com



I never bother to search for a particular raw mat these days, I just max out the high grade raw mats from crystal spike sites then use the mat trader to trade for what I need.
Click to expand...
It's very out of date, but some of it is still valid.

Like I said, there's no need to trade for selenium, you can prospect it in fair quantities on Prthi 2a and when you get tired of that trade to top up.
 

CMDR Alyssa Evanline

CMDR Alyssa Evanline
Aashenfox said:
Yeh, what do I know. lol. This is a long standing grade bug.

For the purposes of gathering there are no g5 raws, a g5 graphic makes no difference. Do you know why Selenium isn't available at any bio sites? I'll be impressed if you do.
Click to expand...
As far as I know, its due to planet generation. Selenium comes up as a grade two when bio sites are generated
 

Aashenfox

Aashenfox
Good enough, I give you a pass. It is indeed because the game sees it as a g2 under all circumstances except trade (even the engineering recipes use it in g2 positions).

Good luck with the spreadsheet, as you see, the old spreadsheet has already been posted in this thread, you would do well to take the things that are still valid from that as well.
 

Aashenfox

Aashenfox
schlowi123 said:
A small question: wWhere is the core of imperial space?
Click to expand...
I usually go to cemiess and start from there. Then I just keep going to large systems nearby, ngorungo is a good spot near to cemiess. Add a third system and do the triangle, the timing should be about right to get new spawns.
 

MrFailfactory

MrFailfactory
The form is very clean, direct, and easy to read for what you are looking for - thanks OP, and please thank any who contributed to it for me as well.

These Bio-Shard sites that have been mentioned - are they something new, or are these a specific Bio site type that has been in the game for years? I've only seen Brain Trees with my own eyes, even though the FSS allows for far quicker discovery than in the past, hence the question.

Riôt
 

Speedcuffs

Speedcuffs
MrFailfactory said:
The form is very clean, direct, and easy to read for what you are looking for - thanks OP, and please thank any who contributed to it for me as well.

These Bio-Shard sites that have been mentioned - are they something new, or are these a specific Bio site type that has been in the game for years? I've only seen Brain Trees with my own eyes, even though the FSS allows for far quicker discovery than in the past, hence the question.

Riôt
Click to expand...
Crystalline Shards, Elite Dangerous Wiki, various planets, two systems, raws sorted. Trade all your other G4 raws for Selenium before you set off.

Thanks Factabulous. (y)

Encoded, go to Bug Killer or Jameson's crash site, scan and re-log, visit nearest encoded trader (Possibly Diaguandri).

Manufactured materials: Yah, good luck with that. You'll need it!:unsure:
 
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Darty

Darty
For selenium, HIP 83204 3 b a has 5% selenium, 1.3% arsenic and 1% zirconium. arsenic and zirconium are the only other materials alongside selenium that drop from crystal fragments at geological sites on that planet. HIP 83204 3 b a has the highest ratio of selenium to the two other mats that drop from the fragments of any planet within 2000lys of the bubble, so it has the best chance of dropping selenium from one of those fragments. Its about a 70% chance mathematically, and from my experience (filling all the way up on selenium once from 0 and getting hundreds more over several other trips) the chance of getting selenium is about 70% too.

So what you do is go to geological sites 10, 1, 2, 8, 7, and 14 and break all the crystalline fragments. You should get tons of selenium. Go to those sites first because they have the smoothest terrain of all the sites I have explored.

As for data, megaship data piracy probably beats out the crashed cobra just because it gives g5 mats of 3 different categories.
 

varonica

varonica
MrFailfactory said:
The form is very clean, direct, and easy to read for what you are looking for - thanks OP, and please thank any who contributed to it for me as well.

These Bio-Shard sites that have been mentioned - are they something new, or are these a specific Bio site type that has been in the game for years? I've only seen Brain Trees with my own eyes, even though the FSS allows for far quicker discovery than in the past, hence the question.

Riôt
Click to expand...

They came out with the beyond update, so relatively new, you haven't missed them all these years. Brain Trees and Cone Fungus have been around longest so you are much more likely to have seen those.

Scubadog said:
Sadly, most of this is not helpful to those of us living in Colonia. There are no Dav's Hope, Jameson crash, or Orrere site equivalents out here.
Click to expand...

There are plenty of bio sites around for raw materials though, so at least you have those.
 
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