My bigger question is how to find them? DSS the planet then what? I know there are heatmaps but I can't figure out where and what means anything. And do biological contacts appear in SRV wave scanner? Otherwise covering any meaningful terrain on foot with the pulse wavey exo gun is going to be awful.
Geologicals: if the heatmap covers too much of the planet, the first thing to do is just fly down somewhere, anywhere within the marked area and look around. Often they're so widespread you'll see geysers or whatever from your ship in less than a couple of minutes flying near the surface. If not, fly up into low orbital cruise, and watch out for large scale features that are visible from far away: volcanic domes, calderas, distinctive pitted areas that look like planetary acne. Nine times out of ten, those areas have lots of volcanic vents, etc. (rarely, you'll find an obviously volcanic area that's extinct).
It's a
bit more work than the discrete, marked POIs in Horizons, but it's a lot more engaging, and like I say, there is kind of a breadcrumb trail of clues to follow. It feels like you're really hunting geological features rather than just flying to a marker, and the rewards when you get there are much higher: geological features tend to cover a huge area and you could farm one for mats for hours if you wanted (once they iron out the bug where they always give one mat type).
Biologicals: they're very widespread inside the marked areas, you'll see stuff immediately as you come down, or shortly after driving around in the SRV. Some of the smaller, more hidden life types can be tricky to find (bacterial colonies, mainly), and it would be nice if the wave scanner could be tuned to help narrow the search, but that's the exception. Most of the time, stuff is easy to find.
