If I see a planet with 3 plant types, I usually land on the planet and scan them on foot. If there are two plant types, I sometimes scan them. If there’s only plant type on a planet, it’s usually bacterium and I rarely land on the planet to scan it. If I want to make the most money per hour of exploration/exobiology, should I bother landing on planets with only one plant type?
If I want to make the most credits per hour during an exploration/exobiology trip, should I land on planets that only have one plant type?
- Thread starter Branithar
- Start date
Only scan planets where the they have bio that has a value of at least 7m for a single bio, with that and 5 times bonus for first discovery gives you get 35m in bio for that single bio and planet, in practice I usually only scan bio like Stratum Tectonicas, which give over 19m base payout and thus nearly 100m with bonus, scanning planets with just bacteria will usually net you only 5m unless it's a rare one, which is not worth it for the time and effort you put in. If a planet has 3 plant types and they are each only worth 1m base each you are wasting a lot of time, if a planet has Tectonicas and bacteria I will usually only scan the Tectonicas, I may ping the bacteria with my composition scanner but only if I see it, I won't go looking. In practice the current system encourages cherry picking, but it is what it is.
So basically if it is one plant type and it's Stratum Tectonics or equally valuable bio, yes, if it's bacteria or equally low value, no. Learn the value of the bio so you save time not bothering with the low value stuff.
Elite Observatory will display values as you scan planets. Microsoft Powertoys will enable you to set EO windows to stay on top of a borderless Elite window. I will often land, scan the high value biology in a straight line out from the ship in SRV, then the next best value on the way back to the ship.
What you want is very hard to achive. You might not find any interesting planets for some jumps. Thus scanning all Bio's would have been recommended.
I think the greater than 7 million might be alright. Things might get boring on the way if you explore like that. I personally visit planets with 5 bio's and up. I do not care for a lonely stratum on a 1-2 bio planet so I skip them. I rather drive the SRV and take in the views and collect the multiple bio's in a srv trip. Even if there is no stratums. Sometimes I can not find one or two out of +5. They are usually hiding in the mountains. That is Oke. I dont mind leaving a bit on the table
tldr. The best tip is to use the Observatory. Decide on the spot.
Install Elite Observatory and the BioInsights plugin. It tells you after the FSS scan what plants (and their values) are likely to be found on the planets based on statistical analysis of the system details.
Several thoughts:
a) For maximizing credits per hour this is generally true. Whether it is the credits you care about, or you are desiring to rank up exobiology which is credit based.
b) I usually skip bio scanning planets with any number of bio if there is already a First Footfall.
c) There are notable exceptions. Planets with bio and NO atmosphere often have a unique bio worth scanning. It might not be worth tons of credits, but its unusual uniqueness makes it worth the effort. Also these planets the bio is usually a very easy locate and scan. Usually minimal effort is required.
d) If I am in a special area for exploration I will usually examine the bio on every planet. Even if it has only one type. Areas such as nebula often have unique bio not easily found elsewhere. Also systems in extreme locations. IMO cases like this the bio discovery is more important than credits or rank improvement.
Edit: Final Thought
After a while credits mean nothing. I have Elite III exobiology but I really don't care about the rank. I have over 2000 bio scans registered. A large percentage of these were done before the exobiology re-balance...so they didn't count for much. To me the rank is meaningless. I scan most bio when exploring +10K Ly from the bubble. Its just part of what I consider exploration.
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The other thing to think about when deciding to scan bio is the value of systems you don't visit because you spent 15/20 (or more if it's hard to find) minutes scanning bacteria worth 5m credits. You can jump through and FSS 5 or 6 systems in that time and you can make up your 5m credits that way in carto data, and you might be lucky and find a hi value bio or ELW/WW while traveling and you have already well exceeded any value you earned from the bacteria. In general I don't scan bacteria, unless it's a new find in the region and I don't land on planets that have already been walked on.
But as Greasetrap42 says, money becomes irrelevant eventually, I now rarely travel more than 30kls in system even for high value bio because exploring new systems is my thing, we all need to decide our own methods and make our own decisions. You've had some advice here, the most important is getting some tools to help you identify what's there, like Elite Observatory, so you should be able to decide for yourself what you want to do, but the most important thing is, do what you enjoy, and if that's scanning bacteria go right ahead, someones got to do it
But as Greasetrap42 says, money becomes irrelevant eventually, I now rarely travel more than 30kls in system even for high value bio because exploring new systems is my thing, we all need to decide our own methods and make our own decisions. You've had some advice here, the most important is getting some tools to help you identify what's there, like Elite Observatory, so you should be able to decide for yourself what you want to do, but the most important thing is, do what you enjoy, and if that's scanning bacteria go right ahead, someones got to do it