Engineers Hints for finding Arsenic

Javert

Volunteer Moderator
Javert
Hi all,

Any hints for finding arsenic?

I watched a video from Dr Kai where he directed me to Cupiat 1B at particular coordinates, mentioning that there will be arsenic in most drops.

However, I am there and after picking up materials for nearly an hour and about 20 drops, I found only 1 with 1 piece of arsenic.

Am I doing something wrong?
 

CMDR R SWIPE

C
Nope. Doing nothing wrong. That's the RNG wizardry. You may go 20-30 without getting anything, then get 4-5 in a row.

Tarasa 7 D A gave me some arsenic. 2.9% there, about as high as you'll find (Cupiat is 2.7%, close).
 

supaxi

S
Now that people have had plenty of time to wander around in rovers, are they going to start adding these synth materials to stations? I assume the whole point was just to get people to use the rovers so how about making it optional if you are willing to pay?
 

Javert

Volunteer Moderator
Javert
Thanks.

Is there any trick to finding particular materials in particular areas on planets e.g. in craters and such like, or is it just random once you are on a particular planet?
 

Codger

Codger
There's a spot in Upsilon Phoenicis at the Lava Spouts beacon, where you can find arsenic. It's still very RNG. I've been lucky and found a bunch in a short time, and unlucky and only found a few in an hour. But it's an alternative, and a fun place to visit.

System is Upsilon Phoenicis, the first planet. Look for a Beacon in your nav panel, it's called "Upsilon Phoenicis Lava Spouts". Land there, carefully, it's a 1.72G planet. Target the crystalline fragments you find around the lava spouts. They sometimes drop arsenic. I also got some ruthenium and selenium.

Here's a vid of me doing it. Skip to 11:55 to just see the arsenic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfyoY2kPcK4

- - - Updated - - -

Javert said:
Thanks.

Is there any trick to finding particular materials in particular areas on planets e.g. in craters and such like, or is it just random once you are on a particular planet?
Click to expand...

There does seem to be some correlation with large craters and finding metallic meteors, but in my experience it's not a huge difference. I prefer to search flat areas, where I can cover a lot of ground quickly. That works best for me.
 
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BarbusMaximus

B
What Artigan said! I spent hours looking for arsenic with the broken SRV scanner and then followed the above advice regarding the spouts and found arsenic (and ruthenium) within an hour. All I can add is sometimes the crystals take quite a bit of shooting from various angles before they drop their contents.

My only concern is Fdevs will read these posts and decide to nerf Upsilon Phoenicis.
 
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Mikey2305

Mikey2305
I have found loads of arsenic and never ever used an SRV. Not even once.

It can be found inreasonable quantities in rocky asteroid belts by targetting those with medium materials. I got mine at HIP 20277 planet 7 p. This was 4x3 equals 12 pieces in about 30 minutes and 3x3 the time before
 

Makya

Makya
I wonder how much you can trust the surface scan results anymore. Originally, I thought the percentages were fairly accurate in terms of material hit rates. However, I went on a recent arsenic hunt on a planet that said it had 2.9%. It also had polonium at 0.6% and a 1.5% of another material I didn't need. On four separate visits I had the same results - I was literally tossing polonium out trying to find arsenic. One metallic I found had four polonium fragments and one arsenic. I found far more of the 1.5% material as well.

Remember in the first release of Engineers when polonium was harder to find than an alien ruin (ok, a bit of exaggeration)? I would have killed for a planet like this one. Now I can't help but wonder how accurate the material percentages are and if certain materials have be "adjusted" because they are more valuable in the current blueprints. But then again it may just be my bad RNG luck. Anyone else noticed this?
 

Zieman

Zieman
Makya said:
I wonder how much you can trust the surface scan results anymore. Originally, I thought the percentages were fairly accurate in terms of material hit rates. However, I went on a recent arsenic hunt on a planet that said it had 2.9%. It also had polonium at 0.6% and a 1.5% of another material I didn't need. On four separate visits I had the same results - I was literally tossing polonium out trying to find arsenic. One metallic I found had four polonium fragments and one arsenic. I found far more of the 1.5% material as well.

Remember in the first release of Engineers when polonium was harder to find than an alien ruin (ok, a bit of exaggeration)? I would have killed for a planet like this one. Now I can't help but wonder how accurate the material percentages are and if certain materials have be "adjusted" because they are more valuable in the current blueprints. But then again it may just be my bad RNG luck. Anyone else noticed this?
Click to expand...
Yes, I had the same impression when I last hunted fro Arsenic.
 

fruitbat

fruitbat
Javert said:
Hi all,

Any hints for finding arsenic?

I watched a video from Dr Kai where he directed me to Cupiat 1B at particular coordinates, mentioning that there will be arsenic in most drops.

However, I am there and after picking up materials for nearly an hour and about 20 drops, I found only 1 with 1 piece of arsenic.

Am I doing something wrong?
Click to expand...

Having recently done @200 rolls (in 2 different efforts) on my exploration conda, I tried many different ways, but I found Cupiat is the best. Its the only place that i have found that arsenic will drop from all types of signal contacts. Be prepared to find more polonium than arsenic though, go figure that one out.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Makya said:
I wonder how much you can trust the surface scan results anymore. Originally, I thought the percentages were fairly accurate in terms of material hit rates. However, I went on a recent arsenic hunt on a planet that said it had 2.9%. It also had polonium at 0.6% and a 1.5% of another material I didn't need. On four separate visits I had the same results - I was literally tossing polonium out trying to find arsenic. One metallic I found had four polonium fragments and one arsenic. I found far more of the 1.5% material as well.

Remember in the first release of Engineers when polonium was harder to find than an alien ruin (ok, a bit of exaggeration)? I would have killed for a planet like this one. Now I can't help but wonder how accurate the material percentages are and if certain materials have be "adjusted" because they are more valuable in the current blueprints. But then again it may just be my bad RNG luck. Anyone else noticed this?
Click to expand...

Ditto. I think the drop rates for everything from data to materials to elements are off.
 

Mystweaver

Mystweaver
Nelina said:
How about using https://eddb.io/body ?
Works nice for me, especially if you are looking for more than one material.
Just enter Arsenic in the Material Finder and your currently System under Reference System.

While in SRV you will find the most Arsenic in mettalic meteorite and meserodites. How to identify ? use http://www.wavescanner.net/ !

Hope that helps...
Click to expand...

This is by far the most efficient way that I use to find every material.

I would like to also recommend a method I use to find those deposits

In typical RNG fashion, unless someone has a more concrete method from observed deposit spawns, they are random.

As such I find that the quickest way to find deposits is to land on part of the planet at is as flat as possible. When landing, note the heading that leads you through said flat-area. Once on the ground, check your scanner for and signals and clear those; I have found that it matters very little which deposits you go for - with the exception of metallic meteorites which always have the best chance. Meserodites do seem to have a higher drop chance of the rarer mats, but I have got them from outcrops too.

Once you have cleared the area around your landing site and the scanner returns few or no signals, put your foot down and get on the heading noted when landing. If you just drive straight-ish if you don't spot anything within the first few minutes, just slow down and do a 360. Something is normally there... if not get back onto your heading again. Rince and repeat and you should find plenty of mats.

You may find people recommend landing in craters or in mountainous areas for higher chance of Metallic Meteorites.. Whilst this "may" be true, you can't travel as fast in that hilly terrain - hence the flat land approach.

artigan99 said:
There does seem to be some correlation with large craters and finding metallic meteors, but in my experience it's not a huge difference. I prefer to search flat areas, where I can cover a lot of ground quickly. That works best for me.
Click to expand...
Artigan99 confirms this method.

Good luck.

P.S. If you find a Metallic Meteorite deposit, there is almost ALWAYS three in that area not just one. The other two may not appear as a signal on you scanner, but you should still hear the signal as you pan around. Sometimes even that doesn't hold true, but they are still there. Either get in the turret to look around or go to your debug camera (the new Camera system in 2.3 should help greatly to spot these when released as well (hopefully FDev will have fixed the wavescanner so they do show up)).
 
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MottiKhan

MottiKhan
Mikey2305 said:
I have found loads of arsenic and never ever used an SRV. Not even once.

It can be found inreasonable quantities in rocky asteroid belts by targetting those with medium materials. I got mine at HIP 20277 planet 7 p. This was 4x3 equals 12 pieces in about 30 minutes and 3x3 the time before
Click to expand...

Which ring were you in? I tried the inner ring and got none after a couple of hours mining. Also, should I ditch the refinery? Maybe that's interfering with mat collection.

I'll try the outer ring tonight.

(I also tried the ship at Orrere. Lots of other rares, but no arsenic after 2 days of re-instancing. El-nada.)
 

racer1

racer1
I find Upsilon Phoenicis frustrating myself. Loads of ruthenium and hardly any arsenic lol. It didn't feel any faster either, although I didn't actually time it. I prefer to hoon around on the flat in an SRV.

My favourite system for Arsenic is EGGR 431, just happens to be where I was based for a while and it has lots of moons with Arsenic plus other stuff. Drop rates always seem reasonable.
 

BostromNZ

BostromNZ
My biggest tip for planet prospecting for any material is to filter planets by the gravity and look for planets that have a gravity close to 1. Then find a big plain, set a compass heading and drive. You can cover much more ground in high(ish) g planets than low g planets where you're spinning and floating all over the place.

That and obviously know your wave scanner well.
 

CMDR CODY

CMDR CODY
Got all mine right on Decait. The scanner you tubes dont do a good job of explaining the scanner screen broken into 3 areas, horizontally. When you see lines in the lower third, follow them until they get smaller. When they are about an inch side to side, you will see the rock out your windscreen.
 

MottiKhan

MottiKhan
Limoncello Lizard said:
You can mine for arsenic in the metal rich ring around the planet Ross 467 1. It's a rather nice earthlike that happens to have 3% arsenic in the ring.
Click to expand...

+1 Thanks! I'll give that a try after I give the Phoenetics (sp?) one more go. Spent hours driving around and finally got 1 arsenic. So 3 in my hold. I figure one more trip around the lava spouts and I can refit for mining.
 
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