I can't seem to fine where Lepidolite is located, am I missing something?

[TrailBlazer 143]

I have to mine 24 units of Lepidolite, and I'm fairly new to mining as I do a lot of combat.

Some direction of how to find Lepidolite would be greatly appreciated.

And if there's not an in-game mechanic to find this and I have to go to a third party source, I swear to god, Frontier, I'm going to cry.

 

[metatheurgist]

Doesn't the blurb in the commodity market give you an idea of where it's found?

If it doesn't, how hard is it to check the 3 types of ring that can be mined?

 

[TrailBlazer 143]

Doesn't the blurb in the commodity market give you an idea of where it's found?

If it doesn't, how hard is it to check the 3 types of ring that can be mined?

Okay, so it's MY fault for the game sending me on a "where's Waldo" adventure. Good to know.

The game doesn't tell me to check the market and the market doesn't tell me where lepodite is exactly, I don't know the exact difference between Icy, metal, metallic and rocky and what has what because of it. Heck, gold can be found in both metallic and metal if I'm not mistaken so in short. so its a "No", to your first statment.

to your second statement, I'm not that stupid to fall for that, dude. Do you not know the amount of time it would take to go into a mining ring and mine, count the all the minerals and see if it's actually there? it's also RNG so I could mine in the right ring but not yield what I'm looking for and think it's not there.

All this technology on my ship and I don't have a tool to tell me what ring type yields what type of material, c'mon Frontier.

 

[JetsonRING]

I have to mine 24 units of Lepidolite, and I'm fairly new to mining as I do a lot of combat. Some direction of how to find Lepidolite would be greatly appreciated. And if there's not an in-game mechanic to find this and I have to go to a third party source, I swear to god, Frontier, I'm going to cry.

EDDB.io: https://eddb.io/commodity/56

 

[Sapyx]

The good news is, if it's a "mining mission" for lepidolite, then you don't actually have to mine it yourself. Lepidolite, like most Mineral-class commodities, should be available for purchase at any Extraction economy station. The mission might say that you should go and mine it yourself, but they're lying.

Note that not every "mining mission" has this workaround. Some commodities (eg. painite, platinum, osmium, samarium) can only be found by mining. But missions to "mine" water, bromellite, lepidolite etc can be treated like a regular trade mission.

Also note that this "you don't have to actually mine it" principle doesn't apply to mining CGs. If a CG says they need mined water, then shop-bought water simply isn't good enough.

 

[TrailBlazer 143]

EDDB.io: https://eddb.io/commodity/56

I appreciate it, but do you know of an in-game way of find Lepidolite? is there a menu I'm missing?

The good news is, if it's a "mining mission" for lepidolite, then you don't actually have to mine it yourself. Lepidolite, like most Mineral-class commodities, should be available for purchase at any Extraction economy station. The mission might say that you should go and mine it yourself, but they're lying.

Note that not every "mining mission" has this workaround. Some commodities (eg. painite, platinum, osmium, samarium) can only be found by mining. But missions to "mine" water, bromellite, lepidolite etc can be treated like a regular trade mission.

Also note that this "you don't have to actually mine it" principle doesn't apply to mining CGs. If a CG says they need mined water, then shop-bought water simply isn't good enough.

Whoa, didn't know that, I really appriciate it!

 

[metatheurgist]

to your second statement, I'm not that stupid to fall for that, dude. Do you not know the amount of time it would take to go into a mining ring and mine, count the all the minerals and see if it's actually there? it's also RNG so I could mine in the right ring but not yield what I'm looking for and think it's not there.

All this technology on my ship and I don't have a tool to tell me what ring type yields what type of material, c'mon Frontier.

Well, if I was adverse to looking at external sites, I'd actually play the game like I was a miner. I'd load a big ship up with prospector limpets (no mining equipment), fly to different type of rings and just poke the rocks with prospectors to determine their composition. When I had the info I wanted I'd reconfigure the ship and actually do mining. Lepidolite is not rare so you should have an answer fast.

Another immersive in game way of finding out is to hang around places that buy mined goods and ask the miners flying by.

 

[cmdr milesred]

the huge clue aside, you say you mostly do combat...I have to ask where? extraction sites? that is one of the more common combat areas and as long as you have been in some you will have likely seen the stuff being mined floating around. if not or if you can't remember, then another quick option would be to hop into a few of each ring type and just see what the npc's are mining, much faster to do that than to go and mine for yourself...and bring a manifest scanner so you can see whats on the mining ships already too.
You can also use a pirate tactic to locate stuff you want simply by hanging out with a manifest scanner at extraction/refinery stations and scan all the ships coming and going and see some carrying lepidolite...then follow them when they leave again to see where they are going...
You can also use the galaxy map and use the filter for it or show trade route to see its flow and then follow the from arrows...or go to a station that buys or sells it and see the text for it, there it tells you where it imports it from.

All that aside, as I told many others that have problems finding things for various mission...don't take a mission to go get something that you know nothing about...Just like IRL, if someone tells you he can give you tons of money for something...its probably a good plan to know where you can get it first. And the commodities in this game are laden with various clues for new players and more experienced players have seen most of these clues as well as have likely come across all the various commodities at one time or another.

Things like osmium, samarium, platinum as well as many other mined items used to also be available as mission rewards...for some reason fdev thought this was an exploit so they changed that. but you can still find some things like platinum canisters on planet surfaces as well as a few other things that are hard to find

 

[Lestat]

One thing I notice when Exploring. Having both Advanced Discovery scanner and Surface Scanner. It gives a general idea of ores at the extraction site.

 

[TrailBlazer 143]

One thing I notice when Exploring. Having both Advanced Discovery scanner and Surface Scanner. It gives a general idea of ores at the extraction site.

Really??? Okay, I'm going to do that and see. I'm trying my best to play Elite Dangerous without using outside sources (Ironic that I'm here, huh?).

 

[TrailBlazer 143]

Well, if I was adverse to looking at external sites, I'd actually play the game like I was a miner. I'd load a big ship up with prospector limpets (no mining equipment), fly to different type of rings and just poke the rocks with prospectors to determine their composition. When I had the info I wanted I'd reconfigure the ship and actually do mining. Lepidolite is not rare so you should have an answer fast.

Another immersive in game way of finding out is to hang around places that buy mined goods and ask the miners flying by.

Thanks, I'll consider doing this. (and hopefully you mean ask Player miners and not NPC ones )

I know my problem can be solved with a click on my computer but I really want to just sit down and play Elite for what it is and leave the spread sheets in Real Life, you know?

 

[cmdr milesred]

One thing I notice when Exploring. Having both Advanced Discovery scanner and Surface Scanner. It gives a general idea of ores at the extraction site.

interesting statement, I have yet to see a ringed body that says anything other than what type the ring is. the only exception would be a ringed landable body.
If you refer to metal rich, rocky, etc...that's only a partial clue as to whats in the ring. there is no listof any specific minerals unless the body is landable.

 

[bkrownd]

Most current games are designed with the idea that you will consult the internet for all manner of essential informations. Opinions may differ on that, but it is generally the way of things now.

 

[metatheurgist]

Thanks, I'll consider doing this. (and hopefully you mean ask Player miners and not NPC ones )

I know my problem can be solved with a click on my computer but I really want to just sit down and play Elite for what it is and leave the spread sheets in Real Life, you know?

You like to play how you play, nothing wrong with it. Yep, ask players but it would be good if FD got around to basic NPC convos so we could stuff like this.

 

[TrailBlazer 143]

You like to play how you play, nothing wrong with it. Yep, ask players but it would be good if FD got around to basic NPC convos so we could stuff like this.

NPC Convos would be the best expansion to the game to be honest, space wouldn't feel as lonely and we could learn in-game.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I don't know the exact difference between Icy, metal, metallic and rocky and what has what because of it. Heck, gold can be found in both metallic and metal if I'm not mistaken so in short. so its a "No", to your first statment.

Broadly:
Ores are found in rocks
Metals are metals
Volatile and organic compounds are frozen in ice.

You can find out what category a good is (and its description may be useful too) by looking at the commodity market and guess based on that to go to the right place. (Metal-rich rocks are in-between rocky and metallic)

The out-of-game knowledge required is more "general geology and chemistry" than anything specific to Elite Dangerous.

It's not actually that big a deal to just go and check - there are only four ring types, and the commodities available are the same for all rings of a given type, so firing off a few prospector limpets will give you what you need. I think the only commodities you could plausibly miss that way after - say - 10 prospectors are "Low Temperature Diamonds" and "Painite" ... and one of those has a really big clue in the name about what sort of ring it's found in.

So it doesn't tell you upfront in-game [1], but it's not like it takes a long time to check. Similarly the difference between low, normal, high and haz RES isn't written down in game, but fifteen minutes bounty hunting in each will certainly get the idea across sufficiently.


[1] Elite Dangerous is in general based on a principle of "you find out how to do stuff by trying it and seeing if it works or not". This suits some people better than others - if you prefer to skip the "working out how to do something" stage and go straight to "doing something" then it's absolutely fine to look it up out-of-game. Personally I quite like that in general it doesn't constantly tell you what to do and how to do it - I wouldn't object in this case to the "obtained by mining" commodities having a "mined in X rings" addition in the commodity market description, though.

 

[TrailBlazer 143]

Broadly:
Ores are found in rocks
Metals are metals
Volatile and organic compounds are frozen in ice.

You can find out what category a good is (and its description may be useful too) by looking at the commodity market and guess based on that to go to the right place. (Metal-rich rocks are in-between rocky and metallic)

The out-of-game knowledge required is more "general geology and chemistry" than anything specific to Elite Dangerous.

It's not actually that big a deal to just go and check - there are only four ring types, and the commodities available are the same for all rings of a given type, so firing off a few prospector limpets will give you what you need. I think the only commodities you could plausibly miss that way after - say - 10 prospectors are "Low Temperature Diamonds" and "Painite" ... and one of those has a really big clue in the name about what sort of ring it's found in.

So it doesn't tell you upfront in-game [1], but it's not like it takes a long time to check. Similarly the difference between low, normal, high and haz RES isn't written down in game, but fifteen minutes bounty hunting in each will certainly get the idea across sufficiently.


[1] Elite Dangerous is in general based on a principle of "you find out how to do stuff by trying it and seeing if it works or not". This suits some people better than others - if you prefer to skip the "working out how to do something" stage and go straight to "doing something" then it's absolutely fine to look it up out-of-game. Personally I quite like that in general it doesn't constantly tell you what to do and how to do it - I wouldn't object in this case to the "obtained by mining" commodities having a "mined in X rings" addition in the commodity market description, though.

Thanks for all of this. It is greatly appriciated.

 

[Krash]

Really??? Okay, I'm going to do that and see. I'm trying my best to play Elite Dangerous without using outside sources (Ironic that I'm here, huh?).

glutton for punishment... do you also fly around blindly, guessing where to find weapon mods for your combat ships?

 

[Cmdr Ultra]

Really??? Okay, I'm going to do that and see. I'm trying my best to play Elite Dangerous without using outside sources (Ironic that I'm here, huh?).

If you play Elite for any real amount of time you are going to have to take off and land that ship 18,000 times.
You don't need to be flying around landing / taking off even more looking for modules etc...

Give into the dark side - use the third party sites. Imagine they are like Google in the future. Your spaceship will have Google. Use it.

 

[Krash]

If you play Elite for any real amount of time you are going to have to take off and land that ship 18,000 times.
You don't need to be flying around landing / taking off even more looking for modules etc...

Give into the dark side - use the third party sites. Imagine they are like Google in the future. Your spaceship will have Google. Use it.

I wonder if these guys would be happy if FDEV gave us an embedded, ingame screen to google. Immersion.