Newcomer / Intro Exobiology - a 2023 updated guide

[KrixtinaViperX]

Hi, I saw that most of the Exo guides are quite old and a bit lacking (eg they recommend using a SRV) so over the past ~2 billion credits I've picked up I wrote this. Hope it helps and additions welcome

Bacteria - on the flat bits outside of craters - not visible on night vision, dark puddles ~200m, become their natural colour ~100m

Fonticulua - flat bits outside craters / rocky terrain - giant mushrooms

fumerola - on rocks on flat bits

osseus - on rocky parts of large flat plains. look like big standing round flat mushrooms. Easy to confuse with rocks, but are much rounder. Night vision helps ~300m

fungoida - on high mountain sides, very small, night vision helps little dots ~200m, more define ~100m

tubus - on plains

tussoc - on plains in mountains - small grasses, fly low

electricia - on plains

concha - hilly / rocky. pretty small.

frutexa - plains / rockside in mountains / hilly area - fly low - bushes

cactoid - rocky hills, small round pebbly things


prerequisite:
An Artemis suit. The basic keyboard mapping for the sampler/scanner is 5.

A planet landeable ship with a surface scanner. Small is better, faster is much better. I use an Imperial Courier (https://s.orbis.zone/m51g) which boosts to ~850 and max speeds at without boost at 600 - it allows me to get down to the planet, cross the planet and if I can't find a sample back off the planet and back down somewhere else as fast as possible. Going to the next place is really easy. Take a shield generator - you will bump quite a bit on landing and you may misjudge your landing speed and hit the ground. A shield means you don't damage your hull.

Not really a prerequisite but very useful tool: Elite Observatory with Bioinsights + Botanist. Configure it by going to the Core menu item and then clicking on Bioinsights (where there is a useful legend button to show you what everything means). Click on Observatory Botanist to turn it on. Underneath click 'start monitor on Observatory launch.

Odyssey

How to:
In system view, check planets with an atmosphere (you can see the atmosphere around the planet) and landable (there is an extra quarter arc around the top left of the planet)
You can tell if a planet has biologicals in the system view, 3rd tab on the right Planetary Information under Features at the bottom it will list if there are biologicals

Fly towards the sunny side of the planet, so you can map that and land on it later.
Map the planet with the surface scanner (shoot the probes to the white targets on the 4 corners and one at the back will usually map the whole thing) and if there are multiple biologicals select the one with the least surface area. Chances are high that the signals will overlap and you will find all the signal sources around the same place.
Look out for the greenish grey colour - too blue and too light indicate there are biologicals in the area, but the greenish blue indicates where they are. The heat map other guides talk about isn't really a heat map, it's a colour map and the green gray is the colour you want for the selected biological.

As you approach the planet, switch to combat mode now and again and think about the type of biological you are flying towards and what kind of terrain is best for finding them. Aim for that terrain.

Walk up to a biological, sample it (using 5 on the artemis suit). You need to take 3 samples of the same biological after each other and all the biological types have a different distance you need to travel before you can sample again (or you will get an insufficient diversity error). The lights on the sampler canister increase with each sampling so you can see how many samples you have in the canister.

Tips and tricks:
The high payouts are caused by making a first footfall or first to land. When you see a planet, there are 3 firsts: first discoverd, first scanned and first footfall. If First footfall is missing (and this still happens pretty close to and sometimes even in the bubble!) and there are biologicals then you will get a first discovery bonus of 4x the hand in prize. When you hand in, you will first get the normal prize and then after you have handed in you will get the first discovered page with the big payouts.

[big payout.png]

If you are pootling around discovering a sector, in the galaxy map go to User Data mode and turn on the filter to show only not visited stars.

Biologicals group around a certain area - if a star sector has a group of biologicals, the chances are high that other stars in the neighbourhood will have the same types and groups. Bookmark systems with good exobiology planets and look around these bookmarks.

If the planet > ~4000Ls away from the sun, don't bother, the light will be horrible and make it tough to find stuff

When approaching a planet, it's 70% at the 7 second mark, then 50% when the planet fills the reticule. When the planet fills the cockpit surface scan it. Land by going 50% and aiming at a point within glide range. If it's a small planet you may have to decrease your thrust before you reach the drop off points.

I like to fly around looking for more biologicals with my landing gear down. You can slow down quickly by throwing out your landing gear and cargo scoop.

Land your ship in front of the biological you want to sample (because you get out of the back facing backwards) and sample. Some people recommend using the SRV to look around, but this is a total waste of time. Setting up the free cam alone takes time and the SRV is not very easy to drive. Get back in your ship and fly to the next biological, land near it and sample again is much faster. Also the SRV can be very buggy, sometimes leading to you needing to go back to the loading screen because the screen goes black when you get out. When reloading the game, the SRV will be back at the ship - which can be a long long walk away. And recalling your ship takes a lot of time too. I understand some people enjoy driving around with their SRV. So do I on occasion. It's about having fun! I'm not saying you shouldn't, I'm saying it's slower.

Wait for the sample to register on the screen by elite (Observatory Botanist will register faster!) before getting back into your ship and searching for the next sample. When you have 3 samples, wait for the sampler canister replacement animation to finish before sampling again or getting back in your ship.

Find the perfect height for your graphics cards settings. Too low and the renderer doesn't draw everything and certain objects (bacteria!) are hard to see. For my graphics card I need to be above 70m and the sweet spot seems to be ~230m for bacteria, ~150 for Fonticulua and for tussocs ~40. This allows me to see bacteria as darker spots / black puddles very easily on most terrain, which then resolves into the actual colour of the bacteria as you get lower (which can make them difficult to spot)

Find the perfect spacecraft speed for your graphics card settings. I need to fly at ~100, much faster than that and it redraws the grid sometimes.
Check at what height / speed it redraws rocks etc
Sometimes it helps to land at a place, get out and the game will populate the area

I understand that for some people in the Graphics options - Quality - Terrain Checkerboard rendering needs to be set to on for certain biologicals to appear

If you are having trouble finding something, turning on the composition scanner will make the HUD flash and make a sound when a biological is under your reticle. This is pretty short range. To do this you need to turn it on under a fire group, then deploy your hardpoints.

(This is the flash you will see)

Upgrades to get for your Artemis suit: extra sprint, extra jump, extra battery. To get a good suit, use this forum thread:The Great Pre-Upgraded Gear Sharing is Caring Thread https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-great-pre-upgraded-gear-sharing-is-caring-thread.576352/

Other sites:
https://github.com/Xjph/ObservatoryCore - Elite Observatory Core (including Botanist)

https://edjp.colacube.net/observatory - Elite Observatory Plugins (including BioInsights)

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...ology-scanner-of-a-cmdrs-artemis-suit.612191/ - ArtemisScannerTracker a plugin

https://github.com/psychicEgg/EDHM/tree/main/Odyssey/3rdPartyMods/BiomeOverlay - Changes the colours of the DSS colour map to make it easier to distinguish the biome target colour

https://ed-dsn.net/en/exobiological-flora/ - information about the types of biologicals with pictures

https://trello.com/b/9GYkLyVc/odyssey-surface-biology - information about the types of biologicals with pictures

https://cmdrs-toolbox.com/billionaires-boulevard - Billionaires Boulevard - a list of sites in the bubble where sampling will make you good creds

https://browncoat.freelancers.net.nz/ed-bb/ - tracker that remembers your progress on the Billionaires Boulevard

https://spansh.co.uk/exobiology - a route planner to find loads of exobiology

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...vf62ILHpbYzdZpJ53CqPHn3qlA/edit#gid=344475511 - Codex NSP and Bio requirements - what types of conditions are needed for different types of biologicals

 

[Jack Winter]

Let me add that the best DSS is the pre-engineered that you can buy from human tech brokers: https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/...canner#Engineered_Detailed_Surface_Scanner_V1

It's also useful to have the composition scanner enabled when looking for bio or geo, as it will beep when you ship is pointed at a feature, and it can also be used to see what kind of feature it is and give a codex entry.

Personally I also mostly use a courier with shields when bio hunting, much prefer it to getting into the srv.

 

[KrixtinaViperX]

Thanks a lot, this is really helpful. I do have a question though:

composition scanner enabled

What is this thing and how do I enable it? I googled quickly and got some confusing answers which are not I think what you mean

 

[Fnord Velkor]

Thanks a lot, this is really helpful. I do have a question though:


What is this thing and how do I enable it? I googled quickly and got some confusing answers which are not I think what you mean

It is built-in to every ship and SRV - it needs to be assigned to a button in a fire-group. Hold button when it is over something you see a scan completing animation.

 

[Jack Winter]

Yes, it's built into the ship, and if you point the ship towards something on the surface the HUD element will light up and you'll hear a blip. It can be quite handy sometimes.

 

[aRJay]

Yes, it's built into the ship, and if you point the ship towards something on the surface the HUD element will light up and you'll hear a blip. It can be quite handy sometimes.

That last is a bit of an understatement, the flash from the display and the beep can be the only way you spot some of the bios when they are in full stealth mode. The only drawback is the lack of range.

 

[WildElf]

Great guide!

But telling people to look for the flat teal areas is extremely misleading. You lucked out that it worked. Flat areas are good for bacterium, but as you note, other plants like other areas. Had you been looking for Frutexa, you would have wanted the lighter areas. They like rocky elevations. Had you been looking for cactoida, it might have been flat or darker areas, they like flat areas and low lands.

It's just an overlay, not a heat map. The color variations are the underlying terrain. It has absolutely nothing to do with what's there.

You can see for yourself when you get Tussock and Osseus, or Frutexa and Fungoida, or any other mis-matched combos, using the same overlay pattern. The underlying colors do not change at all when cycling through different plants. If it was a hint about where to look, each plant would give you a unique color pattern, even when they share similar biome preference.

Instead, there seems to be up to three different overlay patterns per planet: low elevation & canyons, mid-elevation & plains, high elevation & mountains. And I've seen plenty of fungoida and frutexa overlays with teal solid blocks in areas that are not mountains and none are to be found there.

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

I didn't spot it, but did you mention "recepta" as bio?

 

[KrixtinaViperX]

It's just an overlay, not a heat map. The color variations are the underlying terrain. It has absolutely nothing to do with what's there.

You can see for yourself when you get Tussock and Osseus, or Frutexa and Fungoida, or any other mis-matched combos, using the same overlay pattern. The underlying colors do not change at all when cycling through different plants. If it was a hint about where to look, each plant would give you a unique color pattern, even when they share similar biome preference.

Instead, there seems to be up to three different overlay patterns per planet: low elevation & canyons, mid-elevation & plains, high elevation & mountains. And I've seen plenty of fungoida and frutexa overlays with teal solid blocks in areas that are not mountains and none are to be found there.

Thanks for your input! Above is an interesting observation (aside from you apparently having missed that I specifically state that it's not a heat map): I can only get three different overlays if there are a minimum of 3 different biologicals, that have to be different enough to warrant the 3 different overlays. It often happens that say there is a bacteria + fumerola + concha and the bacteria + fumerola will have one overlay and the the concha a different one. If there is only 1 biological, you only get 1 overlay. I have often enough seen overlays where you go to the greenish blue area and found nothing, so there is definitely a lot about the overlay that is misunderstood and apparently unknown.

 

[WildElf]

(aside from you apparently having missed that I specifically state that it's not a heat map)

I didn't miss it at all. You missed your own wisdom when described using the overlay as if it was a heatmap saying "Look out for the greenish grey colour". If you understand it's not a heat map, then why are you treating it as such? You directly contradict yourself by saying "isn't really a heat map, it's a colour map and the green gray is the colour you want". That's a heatmap. A "color map" is a literal map of colors, usually pixels for testing a display or a graphic design palette, not used for general data imagery. But you assigned a definition that's exactly the same as a heatmap.

Overlays are a binary, as you say (and then ignored). Which is why I say it's extremely misleading. You circled a single color and say that's the best way to go. A heatmap tells you "hot" or "cold" that way.

I have often enough seen overlays where you go to the greenish blue area and found nothing, so there is definitely a lot about the overlay that is misunderstood and apparently unknown.

I'm sorry I said you were misleading when it was just minunderstood, then. Certainly I don't think there was intention behind it. The whole thing is inaccurate at times. Ignoring the times where plants can be found outside the overlay (so I've heard, I have never bothered to test this). It most often covers too much ground.

It certainly is confusing as a result. An overlay should be a binary yes/no. Instead, we get a binary maybe/no.

Your examples of going to greenish-blue areas and finding nothing was almost certainly this. They're giving us the type of overlay that reveals what's underneath. The color gradations are elevation and slopes, nothing more. In this case, light colored areas are highlands. Dark blue areas are low canyons. Non-uniform colors are rocky. Bacterium, Tussock, and other plains lovers can be found in the flat teal as you describe, but only a few work that way. Many of the common ones work this way. You just happened to pick an example that did. But things like Stratum and Osseus might be there, but are probably more common in dappled terrain (Osseus definitely is). And you'll never find Fungoida or Frutexa or Tubus there.

Some planets aren't even flat enough to get the solid "greenish grey". But you can still find Bacterium and Tussock and other plains plants. In those cases its easiest (for me) to flip the overlay off for a moment, to see what's underneath. If it looks flat enough, it's a good place to try.

Other times, a plant only appears in certain biomes, differentiated also by terrain color. I've had light brown sands be completely devoid of Tussock Move to the dark brown on the same planet, and there's Tussock everywhere. But according to the overlay, they are all flat teal areas. The overlay often erases biome distinctions, but they are important for plant distribution.

I'm sure you've seen a Fungoida overlay that might cover a big chunk of the planet. Within its vast coverage, there are only a few mountain ranges. You won't find the Fungoida in the flat teal. The overlay won't even distinguish mountains from other highlands a lot of the time. You can scour all the steppes that the overlay shows as a flat color, but you won't see any Fungoida until you hit the mountains. Foothills and mountains often look the same, but without the overlay you can see one has steeper peaks. All the while, the overlay often gives no distinction between these locations, but Fungoida will not be in them darn hills.

Two good combos to try it out with are Fungoida and Frutexa. I've almost never seen them without a matching overlay. While they both can be found in mountains, especially mountain valleys, Frutexa can be found all over the slopes and foothills around a mountain region too. It is usually pretty obvious (and aggravating) and how much more Frutexa there is and the wider variety of places to find it. But the overlay won't give any hint that there's a difference. It won't point out heavier concentrations, with any colors because it's not a heatmap.

 

[KrixtinaViperX]

I didn't miss it at all. You missed your own wisdom when described using the overlay as if it was a heatmap saying "Look out for the greenish grey colour". If you understand it's not a heat map, then why are you treating it as such? You directly contradict yourself by saying "isn't really a heat map, it's a colour map and the green gray is the colour you want". That's a heatmap. A "color map" is a literal map of colors, usually pixels for testing a display or a graphic design palette, not used for general data imagery. But you assigned a definition that's exactly the same as a heatmap.

Wow. I literally state: "The heat map other guides talk about isn't really a heat map, it's a colour map and the green gray is the colour you want for the selected biological." A color map is defined as "a set of values that are associated with colors. Color maps are used to display a single-band raster consistently with the same colors. Each pixel value is associated with a color". The value of the color seems most likely associated with the likelihood of the availability of the biological you are looking for - which explains my high hit rate looking for biologicals using the method I describe. No, it's not 100% but it is pretty close (definitely over 90%). Your explanation of colours only being linked to elevation and there being 3 maps per planet is contradictory at best. There does seem to an overlap between the display of elevation and the display of biological likelihood in the overlay. However, the overlays can differ wildly depending not on the planet, but the type of biological selected in the DSS screen for that planet. Sometimes the overlaid areas on the planet are absolutely tiny and cover a very small part of the planet. Finally, unless you are an encyclopedia remembering exactly at what elevation each biological belongs to, the overlays would be useless. Occam's razor suggests that my theory - which is easy and useful, especially for people starting out with this, does not need correcting.

 

[WildElf]

Wow. I literally state: "The heat map other guides talk about isn't really a heat map, it's a colour map and the green gray is the colour you want for the selected biological." A color map is defined as "a set of values that are associated with colors. Color maps are used to display a single-band raster consistently with the same colors. Each pixel value is associated with a color".

... yes. I know. I said all that. To you. Do you understand what you are quoting? Raster is a type of digital imaging. Color maps are only used to translate different digital images. They have nothing to do with data science reprentation. Heatmaps, on the other hand, are exactly what you keep reinforcing is what you are actually talking about: "A heat map is a 2-dimensional data visualization technique that represents the magnitude of individual values within a dataset as a color. The variation in color may be by hue or intensity. "Heat map" is a relatively new term, but the practice of shading matrices has existed for over a century."

"The value of the color seems most likely associated with the likelihood of the availability of the biological you are looking for - which explains my high hit rate looking for biologicals using the method I describe. No, it's not 100% but it is pretty close (definitely over 90%).

Confirmation bias explains this much better. It's why it only works 90% of the time instead of 100%. If it was a system they put in as a "colour map" (aka heat map using correct terminology) then it would work 100% of the time. It works 90% of the time probably because a) the most common plants appear in plains, so the majority of cases happen to work, and b) you aren't actually measuring your success rate and double checking the overlay color after you've found something and it's not really 90%, but feels like it works most of the time.

You still haven't gone back to a Fungoida and Frutexa planet, I can tell.

Your explanation of colours only being linked to elevation and there being 3 maps per planet is contradictory at best. There does seem to an overlap between the display of elevation and the display of biological likelihood in the overlay.

It seems that way because it absolutely is that way. I've not seen a planet with more than 3, except maybe when one of the tiny speckle ones appear, and of that, I can't be sure. I could very well be wrong, maybe there is a planet with 4, or even 5 different overlays. I would love you see your examples that prove the contradiction!

However, the overlays can differ wildly depending not on the planet, but the type of biological selected in the DSS screen for that planet. Sometimes the overlaid areas on the planet are absolutely tiny and cover a very small part of the planet.

Yes, because those plants appear in different elevations and terrain types. Again, find a Fungoida and Frutexa world. It will be obvious, once you break out of this stuck thinking.

Finally, unless you are an encyclopedia remembering exactly at what elevation each biological belongs to, the overlays would be useless. Occam's razor suggests that my theory - which is easy and useful, especially for people starting out with this, does not need correcting.

If you truly wanted to embrace Occam's razor, then you would combine the overlay theory with the list of plants and what biomes they appear in, and leave it at that. Those two combinations work great. Look at the Overlay. Check. Cross reference with the terrain for the specified plant. Double check. Easy peasy, money will roll in.

Instead, you are adding complexity and eventual confusion with the "colour map" that's actually a heat map. It contradicts your list that plants appear in certain terrains, when the flat teal does not represent many of those terrains.

 

[KrixtinaViperX]

Oddly enough, fdev agrees with me:

Newcomer / Intro - Biological heatmap - help please!

Hi all, are there any experts who can tell me what the different shades of blue / green mean on the planetary surface biological heat map? They don't seem related to terrain features, height etc as they either appear, or don't, at certain altitudes with colour varying a lot at the same altitude...

forums.frontier.co.uk

which is a discussion about how the heatmap (which isn't a heatmap) works.
Fdev reiterates this in

Issue Tracker

issues.frontierstore.net

 

[El Guido]

Let me add that the best DSS is the pre-engineered that you can buy from human tech brokers: https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/...canner#Engineered_Detailed_Surface_Scanner_V1

It's also useful to have the composition scanner enabled when looking for bio or geo, as it will beep when you ship is pointed at a feature, and it can also be used to see what kind of feature it is and give a codex entry.

Personally I also mostly use a courier with shields when bio hunting, much prefer it to getting into the srv.

I like the dolphin for that job, because you can land with the flora in your right hand window. And your exit point from the ship is on the right, at the ship's forward end. Very handy.