J is for Jumponium. I had this crazy idea of reaching the extreme edge of the galaxy and then go around it in 80 days… Not really, just kidding. The idea was to go around using only jumponium-enhanced jumps and stay as much as I can at the edge, where there are no more stars to reach further out.
I had no idea what the edge was like, of course. But I knew I’d like it because my favourite things when exploring are: areas navigated only with jumponium, driving the SRV, and have at least half of my skybox completely black. My usual hunting grounds were extremes roughly around the bubble where I looked for untagged catalogue stars. This would be a different kind of adventure.
And because I love FAQs, here have one.
TL;DR: if (attention_span < 3sec) { skip_thread } else { read_FAQ }
Why am I doing this?
It’s a challenge. It’s an endurance race. It’s also one woman’s personal journey and I’ll leave it at that. Obviously, I’m not the first to have been on such a journey. Allitnil did it in the past, and as far as I understand commander Valije is currently doing the same thing—albeit I didn't know that when I started my journey—but he’s way ahead of me. As I said not the first and no bragging rights there, but really I couldn’t care less about bragging rights.
How am I doing this?
It’s simple. When I am at a system on the edge—roughly on the galactic plane—I use the galaxy map together with the FSD boost tool on the second tab to find the next reachable system that is also on the edge. Given how sparse the rim is, the galaxy map highlights immediately potential targets. I always start from the J3 boost position and after I’ve found the next system I want to jump, I check distance, check if I can save boosts by using a lower grade, check if there is a system I can jump with a lower boost before reaching the target I’ve selected, and if applicable I figure out if I can jump directly by reducing my fuel. Finally, when I’m happy that some—or none of the above happened—I jump to the next system. Rinse and repeat.
I say simple but there were cases where I felt lost, directionless, and running in circles, especially when the direction changed from counter-clockwise to clockwise when following the arm around. The main trouble was the initial position of the camera when the galaxy map opens. Eventually I adapted but every now and then I do catch myself running in circles. The new trail line in 2.4 is my favourite QoL change, as it will be extremely helpful in avoiding such situations.
And of course, all of the above mean that I plot one jump at a time. Goes without saying that I stop often to collect materials. SRV prospecting is a fun break between jumping.
My commander’s name is Aura Lorell and I fly in FleetComm.
What am I using?
My lovely Anaconda is called Aurora. I have an 18T fuel tank and my range is 64 Ly. I carry two SRVs, just in case I mess up and lose one. I have two AFMUs that remain always disabled, 1D power distributor with no boost capability, and a 4D shield generator. I have no heat sinks (never used them) or mining lasers because, really, most of my jumps use materials that cannot be mined from asteroids.
Outside the game I use the lovely EDDiscovery, Captain’s Log for the awesome overlay that sums up my scanned planet in an amazing way, EDEngineer that is my material manager, Excel to collect as many useless stats as I can, Discord to talk to friends. I send everything to EDSM, EGO, and EDDN using EDDiscovery, and yes I’m one of those naïve explorers who don’t care if someone steals her undiscovered systems. Occasionally, I use Voice Attack and I considered streaming some of my journey but I don’t think it’s going to be very exciting to watch me jumping from system to system on the rim or bouncing with my SRV on planets, so that idea went on ice.
Useless statistics?
I love collecting useless statistics. Here’s some:
I started from Notus, the south meridian, on 7 August 3303. It took me 39 days to reach my fourth waypoint, Pernicious, the eastern meridian on 15 September 3303. I used a total of 877 boosts consisting of 227 J1 (basic) boosts, 261 J2 (standard) boosts, and 389 J3 (premium) boosts. The total travelled distance when I reached Pernicious was 92,644.99 Ly. It took a total of 1,048 jumps, I’ve driven a total of 3.67 MM in those 39 days, and collected 4,764 materials. I’ve landed 187 times. I had one accident where I face-planted an enormous gas giant I was scanning (who put that GG there in front of my ship?).
Stats for entire journey so far (updated to include waypoint 6):
Waypoint? Waypoints are for expeditions.
Of course they are! Waypoints are lovely. Every expedition no matter the size needs at least one. And since I love to pretend I’m on an expedition—albeit with a single person—I have five currently. I’ll add more as I go along. Here’s a handy table with my waypoint info (and my chance to throw more useless statistics at you):
Maps or it didn’t happen!
3D Map from waypoint 5 (bottom right corner) to waypoint 6:
3D Map of the entire journey:
2D Map of the entire journey:
3D map of the entire journey to waypoint 5
3D map of the journey from waypoint 4 to waypoint 5
2D map of the entire journey to waypoint 5
2D Map to Waypoint 4 courtesy of EDDiscovery:
3D Map to Waypoint 4 courtesy of EDDiscovery:
What would I change if I could?
Range! Give me more range. Before I started I could have:
How is it out there?
It’s lovely. The galaxy is far, far away and after the first 200 boosted jumps, the memory of plotting automatically for more than one jumps, fades away. I hear that in another galaxy you can plot like that. I wonder how that feels.
I love the blackness of space in almost all directions. And I know people moan about the dark side on planets not being dark and I think they are unfair to the dynamic lighting the game has. Go to a planet’s dark side that is facing the intergalactic void and then tell me how black, black is.
One thing that I find very odd—disturbingly odd—is how well defined the edge of the galaxy is. It suddenly stops and there are no more stars further out that I can see. I often speak with Jackie Silver and she has mentioned that the galaxy halo is missing from the game. I can only assume that systems further out may have been part of that halo but I can’t be sure as I am no Astronomer, Astrophysicist, Astro-anything. I just play the game.
How long will it take?
It will take as long as it takes.
Am I really, really going all around, in this way?
Probably. Probably not. Who knows?
Where to, next?
My next waypoint (5) is Magellan’s Star. From there around the edge of the Perseus Arm, over the gap between the arms and on the eastern edge of Sagittarius-Carina Arm towards Ishum’s Reach. I’ll be posting updates on this thread.
See update after reaching waypoint 5 here.
Waypoint 6 is tentatively set to NUEMAI RL-Y D0
See update after reaching waypoint 6 here.
Waypoint 7 is Asterous - The 'Northern' Meridian - Iorady JO-Z d13-0
I had no idea what the edge was like, of course. But I knew I’d like it because my favourite things when exploring are: areas navigated only with jumponium, driving the SRV, and have at least half of my skybox completely black. My usual hunting grounds were extremes roughly around the bubble where I looked for untagged catalogue stars. This would be a different kind of adventure.
And because I love FAQs, here have one.
TL;DR: if (attention_span < 3sec) { skip_thread } else { read_FAQ }
Why am I doing this?
It’s a challenge. It’s an endurance race. It’s also one woman’s personal journey and I’ll leave it at that. Obviously, I’m not the first to have been on such a journey. Allitnil did it in the past, and as far as I understand commander Valije is currently doing the same thing—albeit I didn't know that when I started my journey—but he’s way ahead of me. As I said not the first and no bragging rights there, but really I couldn’t care less about bragging rights.
How am I doing this?
It’s simple. When I am at a system on the edge—roughly on the galactic plane—I use the galaxy map together with the FSD boost tool on the second tab to find the next reachable system that is also on the edge. Given how sparse the rim is, the galaxy map highlights immediately potential targets. I always start from the J3 boost position and after I’ve found the next system I want to jump, I check distance, check if I can save boosts by using a lower grade, check if there is a system I can jump with a lower boost before reaching the target I’ve selected, and if applicable I figure out if I can jump directly by reducing my fuel. Finally, when I’m happy that some—or none of the above happened—I jump to the next system. Rinse and repeat.
I say simple but there were cases where I felt lost, directionless, and running in circles, especially when the direction changed from counter-clockwise to clockwise when following the arm around. The main trouble was the initial position of the camera when the galaxy map opens. Eventually I adapted but every now and then I do catch myself running in circles. The new trail line in 2.4 is my favourite QoL change, as it will be extremely helpful in avoiding such situations.
And of course, all of the above mean that I plot one jump at a time. Goes without saying that I stop often to collect materials. SRV prospecting is a fun break between jumping.
My commander’s name is Aura Lorell and I fly in FleetComm.
What am I using?
My lovely Anaconda is called Aurora. I have an 18T fuel tank and my range is 64 Ly. I carry two SRVs, just in case I mess up and lose one. I have two AFMUs that remain always disabled, 1D power distributor with no boost capability, and a 4D shield generator. I have no heat sinks (never used them) or mining lasers because, really, most of my jumps use materials that cannot be mined from asteroids.
Outside the game I use the lovely EDDiscovery, Captain’s Log for the awesome overlay that sums up my scanned planet in an amazing way, EDEngineer that is my material manager, Excel to collect as many useless stats as I can, Discord to talk to friends. I send everything to EDSM, EGO, and EDDN using EDDiscovery, and yes I’m one of those naïve explorers who don’t care if someone steals her undiscovered systems. Occasionally, I use Voice Attack and I considered streaming some of my journey but I don’t think it’s going to be very exciting to watch me jumping from system to system on the rim or bouncing with my SRV on planets, so that idea went on ice.
Useless statistics?
I love collecting useless statistics. Here’s some:
I started from Notus, the south meridian, on 7 August 3303. It took me 39 days to reach my fourth waypoint, Pernicious, the eastern meridian on 15 September 3303. I used a total of 877 boosts consisting of 227 J1 (basic) boosts, 261 J2 (standard) boosts, and 389 J3 (premium) boosts. The total travelled distance when I reached Pernicious was 92,644.99 Ly. It took a total of 1,048 jumps, I’ve driven a total of 3.67 MM in those 39 days, and collected 4,764 materials. I’ve landed 187 times. I had one accident where I face-planted an enormous gas giant I was scanning (who put that GG there in front of my ship?).
Stats for entire journey so far (updated to include waypoint 6):
| Travelled duration (days) | 76 |
| Travelled distance (LY) | 180,050.04 |
| Basic boosts (J1) | 457 |
| Standard boosts (J2) | 510 |
| Premium boosts (J3) | 736 |
| Total boosts | 1,703 |
| Total jumps | 2,050 |
| Landed times | 380 |
| Materials collected | 9,004 |
| SRV distance driven (MM) | 6.69 |
Waypoint? Waypoints are for expeditions.
Of course they are! Waypoints are lovely. Every expedition no matter the size needs at least one. And since I love to pretend I’m on an expedition—albeit with a single person—I have five currently. I’ll add more as I go along. Here’s a handy table with my waypoint info (and my chance to throw more useless statistics at you):
| Waypoint | Name | Galactic Map Reference | Day system reached | Travel time in days | Distance from previous WP in straight line | Distance travelled from previous WP | Total distance travelled |
| 0 | Notus - The 'Southern' Meridian | Hypuae Euq ZK-P d5-0 | 7 Aug 3303 | 0 | 0 LY | 0 LY | 0 LY |
| 1 | Amundsen's Star | Lyed YJ-I d9-0 | 16 Aug 3303 | 9 days | 11,024.64 LY | 17,954.18 LY | 17,954.18 LY |
| 2 | Sepositus Beacon | Angosk OM-W d1-0 | 25 Aug 3303 | 9 days | 11,626.00 LY | 16,285.43 LY | 34,239.61 LY |
| 3 | Arm's End | Hypau Aec IO-Z d13-0 | 28 Aug 3303 | 3 days | 7,792.99 LY | 12,183.03 | 46,422.64 |
| 4 | Pernicious - The 'Eastern' Meridian | Plae Eur IC-D d12-0 | 15 Sep 3303 | 18 days | 8096.73 LY | 46222.35 LY | 92,644.99 LY |
| 5 | Magellan's Star | Ood Fleau ZJ-I d9-0 | 1 October 3303 | 16 days | 20,564.51 LY | 32,802.13 LY | 125,447.12 LY |
| 6 | Unnamed | Phai Fruia AA-A D0 | 22 October 3303 | 21 days | 10,933.94 LY | 54,602.92 LY | 180,050.04 LY |
Maps or it didn’t happen!
3D Map from waypoint 5 (bottom right corner) to waypoint 6:
What would I change if I could?
Range! Give me more range. Before I started I could have:
- Remembered that I only have G4 sensor mod.
- Remembered to fit a 2A overcharged power plant instead of 3A.
- Considered 3D shields and see the difference in range.
- Considered dropping the 2T of fuel tank and keep 16T together with the 1T secondary tank.
- Filled my empty slots with AFMUs so I never have to collect AFMU refill materials (although I hope I won’t use AFMUs much and probably two is more than enough).
How is it out there?
It’s lovely. The galaxy is far, far away and after the first 200 boosted jumps, the memory of plotting automatically for more than one jumps, fades away. I hear that in another galaxy you can plot like that. I wonder how that feels.
I love the blackness of space in almost all directions. And I know people moan about the dark side on planets not being dark and I think they are unfair to the dynamic lighting the game has. Go to a planet’s dark side that is facing the intergalactic void and then tell me how black, black is.
One thing that I find very odd—disturbingly odd—is how well defined the edge of the galaxy is. It suddenly stops and there are no more stars further out that I can see. I often speak with Jackie Silver and she has mentioned that the galaxy halo is missing from the game. I can only assume that systems further out may have been part of that halo but I can’t be sure as I am no Astronomer, Astrophysicist, Astro-anything. I just play the game.
How long will it take?
It will take as long as it takes.
Am I really, really going all around, in this way?
Probably. Probably not. Who knows?
Where to, next?
My next waypoint (5) is Magellan’s Star. From there around the edge of the Perseus Arm, over the gap between the arms and on the eastern edge of Sagittarius-Carina Arm towards Ishum’s Reach. I’ll be posting updates on this thread.
See update after reaching waypoint 5 here.
Waypoint 6 is tentatively set to NUEMAI RL-Y D0
See update after reaching waypoint 6 here.
Waypoint 7 is Asterous - The 'Northern' Meridian - Iorady JO-Z d13-0
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