Fastest Exploration Profit$

Arkenbrien

Arkenbrien
I've heard it said that the fastest way to earn money by exploring is to only quickly sound the fog horn while the waiting for the FSD to recharge, then jump away. Don't even bother doing detailed scans.

Obviously, this is the most boring, repetitive method to "explore", but in terms of raw credit per hour, is it faster than scanning anything of interest in a system? Is detailed scanning worth it in a monetary sense?
 

EddyRockSteady

EddyRockSteady
Fastest is to scan neutron stars and black holes. Literally hundreds of millions out there. Hit a field and they're about 1LY or so apart, thick as thieves.
 

CMDR AKIRA MASAKARI

CMDR AKIRA MASAKARI
Arkenbrien said:
I've heard it said that the fastest way to earn money by exploring is to only quickly sound the fog horn while the waiting for the FSD to recharge, then jump away. Don't even bother doing detailed scans.

Obviously, this is the most boring, repetitive method to "explore", but in terms of raw credit per hour, is it faster than scanning anything of interest in a system? Is detailed scanning worth it in a monetary sense?
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Surface scans are not monetary worth. You use a lot of time supercruising to scan range, and got only 50% increased payout per object. So yes, monetary wise the fastest way is jump like if there's no tomorrow and just blow the horn. It can payoff to scan a neutron star if that was the landing point.
 

Jackie Silver

Jackie Silver
CMDR AKIRA MASAKARI said:
Surface scans are not monetary worth. You use a lot of time supercruising to scan range, and got only 50% increased payout per object.
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You get six times the return for a detailed surface scan that you do for just sounding the space horn, plus you get an additional 50% bonus if you're first to scan.
It's certainly worth it to scan nearby 100% metal worlds, class II gas giants, and any of the terraformables/water worlds/ammonia worlds that are within easy travel.
 

CMDR AKIRA MASAKARI

CMDR AKIRA MASAKARI
Jackie Silver said:
You get six times the return for a detailed surface scan that you do for just sounding the space horn, plus you get an additional 50% bonus if you're first to scan.
It's certainly worth it to scan nearby 100% metal worlds, class II gas giants, and any of the terraformables/water worlds/ammonia worlds that are within easy travel.
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Good to know, i understood wrong. Yes, definitly the factor is scan distance.
 

mossfoot

mossfoot
Morlock5K said:
A true explorer isn't in it for the profit but the glory of discovery!..... but profit is nice as well!
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Truth. Profit is a bonus. Elite rank is earned by finding stuff, not farming neutrons.

Mind you, I use neutrons as waypoints when travelling long distances - profit bonus and I know it's time to check my map again, without feeling like I'm just in it for the creds ;)
 

Jackie Silver

Jackie Silver
CMDR AKIRA MASAKARI said:
Good to know, i understood wrong. Yes, definitly the factor is scan distance.
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Yeah - it's hard to say precisely, but you'll get about 10,000 credits for scanning a nearby 100% metal-rich world (or 15,000 credits if it hasn't been discovered) which is considerably more than the payout you'd get from just space-horning a typical M dwarf system. Generally 100% metal-rich worlds will be right next to the star because they require very high temperatures so they're usually in scan range and you only need to point the ship at them. Class II gas giants are worth similar amounts and will often be close enough to scan without moving, so they're worth having as well.
You can potentially get up to about 100,000 credits for an undiscovered Earth-like world... it's harder to say that it's worth while (from a money-grubbing point of view) to go out into the boondocks just to hunt down some Ammonia world though.
 

Arkenbrien

Arkenbrien
Hmmm. So basically what I've been doing, then. I've been sounding the horn, scan the star while looking at system map, make a note in journal, then scan everything interesting if within ~100 ls, then leave.

I have been known to travel 500k ls for a single WW, though. ;)
 

dognosh

dognosh
Arkenbrien said:
Hmmm. So basically what I've been doing, then. I've been sounding the horn, scan the star while looking at system map, make a note in journal, then scan everything interesting if within ~100 ls, then leave.

I have been known to travel 500k ls for a single WW, though. ;)
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Any way you do it is correct, so is the way you said, and jackie and others have !!! :)

For me : I honk, scan entry star, and go to any EL/WW no matter the distance, or within 1000 Ls , if farming neutrons.

I am a true explorer on the way to the neutron fields(18000 LY) and back(another 18000), the neutron fields is something I do to try to get closer to Elite.
I remember the ELITE rank was around 79M Exploration CR, then it was 100M, now I hear it is around 150M, I don't know :)

some numbers :
Metal Rich 7600-11650
WW 22000-32000
WW+ TC 28000-65000
EW 61000
Neutron 37000
BH 37000-44000

add 50% to all the above if you are first :D
 

kryss

K
sensible thing to do is to just scan the realy valuble ones, honk, activate fsd and cancel if the sys map shows a water world or an earth like - distances and time are just so vast when you do decide to come back in to hand in - and thats another chore in itself.
 
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