Locked out from FSD grade 5 - nerf it or buff it - or really a tale of a tail hung in shame

[Nerwan]

That's not an option for me; my Asp has no weapons (to keep the weight down). I've gotten very good at the interdiction mini-game. It's been many months since the last NPC interdicted me. (I mostly play in Solo.)

Since I have now reached my engineering goals, I hope I never have to do this again.

I have a multi-purpose Asp which is fully armed. Has a shield of around 250 with 30% damage resist to all damage types and can jump 47LY despite also having a size 2 lightweight hull reinforcement to give it integrity of around 680. It's well capable of defeating any of the smaller NPCs or a T-9 although I wouldn't fancy taking on an elite Conda in it. Lightweight weapon mods are your friend.

 

[Tomx]

There's no need for combat. I gathered plenty of Chemical Manipulators in the Deciat system, from Unknown Signal Sources, specifically Combat Aftermath Detected ones. These are easily farmed.

Travel back and forth between the 1st and 2nd planets, scanning every USS you see. 2-4 will spawn for each one-way trip (of about 50 ls). Fly a little past the destination planet for the last USS to spawn. Sometimes I also shuttled between planet 1 and 4 or 2 and 4, depending on which was closer.

About 1/4 of those USSes will be a Combat Aftermath and about 1/3 of those will yield a Chemical Manipulator and occasionally, you'll get 2. Enter normal space if you see a Combat Aftermath. Use your left UI panel (3rd tab) to quickly identify the available materials. I typically gathered about 16 Chemical Manipulators in under 2 hours.

Arsenic is available on several moons in the Deciat system, 2 of them are near Farseer. I was able to scan wakes at the station closest to the main star and got quite a few Datamined whatever wakes. I engineered a 56 lyr FSD for my Asp (stripped and with a lot of engineered low-mass modules) even though I mostly stayed in the Deciat system.

Granted, I spent 8 weeks engineering, but I really wanted to go on the Distant Stars expedition. During that time, I gathered enough materials for about 250 level 5 engineering rolls for my FSD, mostly in the Deciat system.

Occasionally, in the Deciat system, an NPC would try to interdict me, so stay on your toes. Try to win the interdiction mini-game (don't submit), so that the pirates don't repeatedly try to interdict you.

Doesn't this lead to you being unpopular in Deciat and therefore make going to farseer to use those rolls difficult?

 

[disorganise]

So just an update of thanks to all the tips here.
I found a couple in the Deciat uss's to get me going.
After a long time of earning I was able to spec up a Conda to a reasonable level and went convoying. Had to wait till 2.3 though cos they were apparently bugged.
Lost many a figher and half the Conda before figuring out how to read the sensor thingy to be alert to T9s launching their own fighters.

After a while I "graduated" to resource extraction sites and knocking off the pirates to build the combat rating and collecting the occasional mat.

For anyone interested, there is a guaranteed method of getting the chem manipulators without combat. Dav's Hope. It's a persistent ground base POI that has a number of different mats laying around.

 

[Major Klutz]

I was about to mention Dav's Hope. You can just pick 'em up off the ground. No combat and no hunting for USS.

 

[Cmdr-Wotherspoon]

At the risk of breaking immersion, one of the best ways to get the materials you're looking for is to pin the blueprint(s) requiring those materials. The game then knows what you're looking for and will increase the number of random events that include those materials as a reward.

You still need to investigate the appropriate USSes of course - but it should be fairly obvious which ones you need to investigate.

 

[disorganise]

At the risk of breaking immersion, one of the best ways to get the materials you're looking for is to pin the blueprint(s) requiring those materials. The game then knows what you're looking for and will increase the number of random events that include those materials as a reward.

You still need to investigate the appropriate USSes of course - but it should be fairly obvious which ones you need to investigate.

Is *that* what pinning is for? I never saw it explained anywhere and it didn't seem to do anything so I've ignored it......until now.....G5 dirty drive you shall be mine.

 

[Jaiotu]

I've found several in the Formidine Rift and in the Conflux at the abandoned settlements located out there.