Greetings miners!
I have read several comments that asteroids with fissures - ie those that can be blasted open with seismic charges - are very hard to find. I had similar thoughts myself, until I found this technique that seems to turn them up fairly readily (6 this morning in pretty quick succession).
The method relies on the fact that the rocks with fissures shine a bright golden colour when scanned with the pulse wave analyser. They are indeed uncommon as a proportion of all asteroids, but the pulse wave analyser has considerable range, especially at the higher classes - go for class A if you can. To exploit this property, do not fly through the ring as you would have done when using prospector limpets exclusively to find valuable rocks; instead, fly high above the ring, then look down and use your pulse wave analyser to scan a large number of asteroids.
Asteroids with cores also have a distinctive shape. It appears that there is only one crackable asteroid of each type (thanks YinYin), likely for animation reasons. You may sometimes find other, smaller asteroids with a similar golden colour; it helps to learn the shape of the core asteroid so as to avoid the red herrings.
In a metallic ring you are looking for this:
The asteroid in the centre of the HUD has a valuable core and fissures that can be blasted. Note its unique green-gold border and dull bronze colour, which are not shared by any other asteroids. There is an asteroid next to it on the right with some surface deposits, but no core. At this distance, such asteroids do not show up on the pulse wave analyser at all, making it easy to spot the rocks with cores. Here is a view from much closer in:
Now we can see how the asteroid with the core has a very bright gold colour. Note also its ovoid shape and that it is medium-sized. Observe the asteroid to the right, which looks similar in colour at this distance but does in fact have no core (I checked). A prospector limpet reveals the goodies:
Note the 'Core Detected' notification in the lower left panel reporting the asteroid's properties.
Here is the crackable asteroid type in an icy ring:
If you cannot see any rocks like the one in the first picture, stay high above the rings and boost along as fast as possible. You will cover ground quickly and be able to scan many asteroids. Use headlook mode to check out rocks that are not on your flightpath, or go FA-off and point your ship around in different directions if you are flying something that doesn't have great cockpit visibility. I turned up 6 cores this morning in Delkar (pristine metallic ring) without much looking - and I wasn't even in a hotspot. You will find all sorts of new materials that sell for more than 200kCr / ton. Just be sure to withdraw to a safe distance in time before those charges detonate...
Happy blasting Commanders!
I have read several comments that asteroids with fissures - ie those that can be blasted open with seismic charges - are very hard to find. I had similar thoughts myself, until I found this technique that seems to turn them up fairly readily (6 this morning in pretty quick succession).
The method relies on the fact that the rocks with fissures shine a bright golden colour when scanned with the pulse wave analyser. They are indeed uncommon as a proportion of all asteroids, but the pulse wave analyser has considerable range, especially at the higher classes - go for class A if you can. To exploit this property, do not fly through the ring as you would have done when using prospector limpets exclusively to find valuable rocks; instead, fly high above the ring, then look down and use your pulse wave analyser to scan a large number of asteroids.
Asteroids with cores also have a distinctive shape. It appears that there is only one crackable asteroid of each type (thanks YinYin), likely for animation reasons. You may sometimes find other, smaller asteroids with a similar golden colour; it helps to learn the shape of the core asteroid so as to avoid the red herrings.
In a metallic ring you are looking for this:
The asteroid in the centre of the HUD has a valuable core and fissures that can be blasted. Note its unique green-gold border and dull bronze colour, which are not shared by any other asteroids. There is an asteroid next to it on the right with some surface deposits, but no core. At this distance, such asteroids do not show up on the pulse wave analyser at all, making it easy to spot the rocks with cores. Here is a view from much closer in:
Now we can see how the asteroid with the core has a very bright gold colour. Note also its ovoid shape and that it is medium-sized. Observe the asteroid to the right, which looks similar in colour at this distance but does in fact have no core (I checked). A prospector limpet reveals the goodies:
Note the 'Core Detected' notification in the lower left panel reporting the asteroid's properties.
Here is the crackable asteroid type in an icy ring:
If you cannot see any rocks like the one in the first picture, stay high above the rings and boost along as fast as possible. You will cover ground quickly and be able to scan many asteroids. Use headlook mode to check out rocks that are not on your flightpath, or go FA-off and point your ship around in different directions if you are flying something that doesn't have great cockpit visibility. I turned up 6 cores this morning in Delkar (pristine metallic ring) without much looking - and I wasn't even in a hotspot. You will find all sorts of new materials that sell for more than 200kCr / ton. Just be sure to withdraw to a safe distance in time before those charges detonate...
Happy blasting Commanders!
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