Newcomer / Intro how are people finding meta alloys?

[glaukos]

Before you tell me to google it, I already have. Let me run down the answers I found.

"They're everywhere." No, they aren't. The system in Witch Head where I am based has multiple planets with multiple barnacle sites, but every single one that I have visited is dead. So I decided to check nearby systems, and after jumping around at random to a dozen different systems in Witch Head, I did not find a single system with any thargoid barnacles. So no, they are not everywhere.

"Canonn has a spreadsheet listing all the sites..." Maybe? It's hard to tell, because I can find multiple spreadsheets from Canonn online that list barnacle sites, but they all appear to be out of date. One of them explicitly says that it is no longer being updated. The other one that I found following links that were supposed to lead to the updated sheet still shows many sites in the Pleiades as having meta alloys, but my understanding is that after the Enclave II the Pleiades sites no longer have meta alloys. The sheet is locked down so that you can't filter anything, so that makes it much less easy to use than it could be. But if I go through their sheet and find a site in the Witch Head that their sheet says is supposed to be currently ripe....it's dead. No meta alloys.

So how does anyone find meta alloys? Barnacle sites aren't common enough that you can just stumble on very many of them at random, and every single site I've ever found is dead. And I can't find any online source of information that is accurate or up to date.

Edit:
Oh yeah, and the other answer from google, "Just go to Danielle's Progress." I'm looking for more than just one meta alloy.

 

[Para Handy]

There is a thread about active barnacle sites in the aliens forum, go from this post for latest finds?:

Meta Alloy Ripe Barnacle sources

Palin's old attacked base. probably been there a while but the elusive goid was only noticed to be different tonight. Palins base under attack from scouts, but a interceptor can be noticed leaving with a scout escort rapidly upon instance opening. It has now been scanned by some fast pilots...

forums.frontier.co.uk

There is also a site with a list:

Service Unavailable - Elite Dangerous Utilities

elitedangerous.hozbase.co.uk

 

[Habu2u]

https://eddb.io/commodity/114
Hope this helps
Regards

 

[glaukos]

Thanks, the forum thread about barnacle sources is active and being updated. The "site with a list" appears to be pulling from the canonn spreadsheet and is similarly no longer accurate or up-to-date.

 

[Rick6549]

"Where are the meta alloys ?" thread thread anyone ?

 

[JetsonRING]

Helps if you know what to look for. I know you are looking for meta-alloy, but when you are driving around a barnacle site in your SRV and see one on a spike at a barnacle forest, or even on the ground after shooting it off the spike it does not scan as meta-alloy. It scans as mining fragment. It does not show up as meta-alloy until you return it to the ship's cargo inventory. Then it shows as meta-alloy.
When you go to a barnacle site, if the spikes are producing you should look for a large pod growing in a spike. The pod will be significantly larger than other pods on spikes in the area. Shoot the large pod off the spike and when it hits the ground, target it to make sure it scans as a mining fragment. If it scans as a mining fragment scoop it up and return it (transfer cargo) to your ship. Once transferred to the ship it should show up in your ship's Inventory as a meta-alloy.

PS: I got my first meta-alloy for the Fish Lady at a Barnacle site on planet Hyades Sector AQ-Y D81 C2. It's a ten or fifteen minute slog from the star to the planet but still a lot quicker (only half-way to Maia and less expensive) than going all the way to Maia and buying one but, I am not sure if barnacle sites are producing meta-alloy anymore. If you are trying to farm meta-alloy for profit you might be out of luck as I read some posts a while back saying the barnacle sites have stopped producing. o7

 

[Krieger]

I bookmarked a few Thargoid structures near the Pleiades that I got from the Canonn spreadsheet ages ago. I go there for meta-alloys and Thargoid materials every now and then and they still work. 2 weeks ago I got 10 meta-alloys there to unlock the Interceptor bobble head.

Same in Witch Head. During the II and maybe 2 weeks later I found several Barnacle sites (using FSS) in the freshly colonised systems and they contained meta-alloys. You should have no problems finding them there too.

An observation: A fully grown (ripe) pod on a spire will always give you 1 meta-alloy (labeled 'Mining Fragment'), however, there seems to be some RNG involved in the smaller (unripe) pods because they sometimes give me meta-alloys too. Maybe 1 in 5 or so but still worth it to shoot all the spires with unripe pods as well.