Welcome to my guide to finding Ammonia worlds! This was adapted from my guide to finding Earth-like worlds, but it seems there's more and more of an interest in finding Ammonia worlds as well. If you read this little text, you'll know how to improve your chances of finding Ammonia worlds. Note that nothing below will guarantee that you'll find one at your next destination: at the end of the day, it's still dependent on the luck of the draw. But you can rig the odds in your favour.
First off, some basics about star luminosity, primary and main stars, and system mass codes. You can skip this part if you already know what those are.
Also, about useful utilities:
So, now that you know that, let's start. Where to look?
First off, decide your answer to a very important question: do you want to go for quantity or quality? Do you wish to find many Ammonia worlds, or would you rather find rare ones?
In the time it might take to find one of the rare or very rare kinds of AWs, you might find twenty "standard" ones. Keep this in mind when searching. On the other hand, people are much more likely to remember such planets, and visit them too.
Have you decided then?
"I want to find all the Ammonias!"
"I want to find my special little Ammonia world!"
Also, about single primary star and multiple primary star systems. (See the terms above in case you're not certain what this means!)
"So, what are my odds?"
Now that you've (hopefully) decided what to look for, let's see some tips on how to recognize Ammonia worlds. Well, with the FSS, this'll be a short one!
"I've found an Ammonia world and scanned it, what now?"
"Alright, I've done all that, what to do now?"
That's around all there is to know at the moment then. Thanks for reading!
Sources and credits:
First off, some basics about star luminosity, primary and main stars, and system mass codes. You can skip this part if you already know what those are.
When you look up the exact star types which are listed under a tab on the galaxy map (or in the journals, via third-party apps) when a system is selected, you'll see stars listed as "G4 VAB", "A9 VI" and so on. Out of these, the first letter is the star type, and the number after it is the star's luminosity. It goes from 0 (most luminous) to 9 (least luminous). This can help you gauge what to expect, and can be quite important when you're visiting class A stars - more on this later.
The part afterwards refers to the stellar classification of the star. For the purposes of finding Ammonia worlds, this can mostly be ignored, as there's very little difference (in Elite) between VA, VAB, VB and so on: the one exception to this is VZ. Those systems tend to have much worse chances of containing valuable planets, due to being younger and brighter than their counterparts.
About primary and main stars: I use the term "primary stars" when I talk about stars in a system which co-orbit a common barycenter, and are not in orbit of another body. If there's only one star in the system, it's a solitary (primary) star. The main star of a system is the one that's visible in the star class filter on the galaxy map, and is almost universally the most massive star in the system, and as such, the one you'll arrive at. (There are a few exceptions, mind. Mostly hand-crafted systems, but extremely rarely, procedural ones too.) Now, before you visit a system, the galaxy map will only list the primary stars there: stars which orbit these will be hidden until you get there. For example, you might go somewhere where the galaxy map only lists a Black Hole, only to find that there are red dwarf stars orbiting the main black hole as secondaries. You can also tell by the star's name: a primary star will end with a letter (in a multi-star system), like "Bla Blaa AA-A h0 B", a secondary star will end with a number.
Out of all these, the main star has pretty much always the highest influence on the system, so to speak.
As for the system mass codes: the names of procedurally generated systems have plenty of clues in them, like their position within the galaxy, their position within the sector, and the total mass of the system. Here's an example system name:
Wizz AR-D d1-42
The bold letter is the system mass code. It goes from A (least massive) to H (most massive). The mass code denotes the total mass of the system, and is useful for various things. First, most main star types fall very well into one mass code: for example, the vast majority of class F main stars are in mass code D systems. (The exceptions are G stars, which are split 50-50 between mass codes C and D.)
Second, as the higher a system's code is, the higher its mass is (duh), and this in turn can mean that the system itself will have a more interesting configuration. Put another way, a code H system will likely have more bodies and larger variety than a code B system will. There are other factors to consider, of course, such as how, as you'll see later, mass code D tends to have the most Ammonia worlds, and how the various mass codes are distributed throughout the galaxy. See the "Mass Distribution" charts on EDAstro.com.
The part afterwards refers to the stellar classification of the star. For the purposes of finding Ammonia worlds, this can mostly be ignored, as there's very little difference (in Elite) between VA, VAB, VB and so on: the one exception to this is VZ. Those systems tend to have much worse chances of containing valuable planets, due to being younger and brighter than their counterparts.
About primary and main stars: I use the term "primary stars" when I talk about stars in a system which co-orbit a common barycenter, and are not in orbit of another body. If there's only one star in the system, it's a solitary (primary) star. The main star of a system is the one that's visible in the star class filter on the galaxy map, and is almost universally the most massive star in the system, and as such, the one you'll arrive at. (There are a few exceptions, mind. Mostly hand-crafted systems, but extremely rarely, procedural ones too.) Now, before you visit a system, the galaxy map will only list the primary stars there: stars which orbit these will be hidden until you get there. For example, you might go somewhere where the galaxy map only lists a Black Hole, only to find that there are red dwarf stars orbiting the main black hole as secondaries. You can also tell by the star's name: a primary star will end with a letter (in a multi-star system), like "Bla Blaa AA-A h0 B", a secondary star will end with a number.
Out of all these, the main star has pretty much always the highest influence on the system, so to speak.
As for the system mass codes: the names of procedurally generated systems have plenty of clues in them, like their position within the galaxy, their position within the sector, and the total mass of the system. Here's an example system name:
Wizz AR-D d1-42
The bold letter is the system mass code. It goes from A (least massive) to H (most massive). The mass code denotes the total mass of the system, and is useful for various things. First, most main star types fall very well into one mass code: for example, the vast majority of class F main stars are in mass code D systems. (The exceptions are G stars, which are split 50-50 between mass codes C and D.)
Second, as the higher a system's code is, the higher its mass is (duh), and this in turn can mean that the system itself will have a more interesting configuration. Put another way, a code H system will likely have more bodies and larger variety than a code B system will. There are other factors to consider, of course, such as how, as you'll see later, mass code D tends to have the most Ammonia worlds, and how the various mass codes are distributed throughout the galaxy. See the "Mass Distribution" charts on EDAstro.com.
Since the 2.2 release, the game stores a log of in-game events and information in the so-called Commander's Journal, or journal for short. Various third-party programs can read and process these to give you useful information, and also to automatically submit stellar data (which the journal also stores) to fanmade databases. I'd recommend EDDiscovery and EDMC, especially for uploading your data for the benefit of all explorers.
So, now that you know that, let's start. Where to look?
First off, decide your answer to a very important question: do you want to go for quantity or quality? Do you wish to find many Ammonia worlds, or would you rather find rare ones?
In the time it might take to find one of the rare or very rare kinds of AWs, you might find twenty "standard" ones. Keep this in mind when searching. On the other hand, people are much more likely to remember such planets, and visit them too.
Have you decided then?
"I want to find all the Ammonias!"
Well, in that case, change your star class filter to class F only. For Ammonia Worlds, class K main star systems are a close second to this... But both are less numerous than Ammonia Worlds around Herbig Ae/Be star systems. The catch is that you can only set your star filter to Protostars, which will include the much more frequent T Tauri stars, which also have much worse chances for AWs. Going Herbigs alone would be the best, going through Herbigs + TTS together would be much worse. If you're in a location where most protostar systems are Herbigs instead, or if you can otherwise pick them out, then it's actually those that have the best chances. But using the star type filter to zoom around F (and K) systems could be faster. It's up to you how fast you can be - and also up to your location in the galaxy, of course.
Also, since systems with class F main stars are almost universally mass code D, you can just stick to those if you're in too much of a hurry to call up the galaxy map. As such, mass code D systems also tend to have the highest chances of containing Ammonia worlds, most likely due to not just their larger total mass, but their favourable star compositions as well. However, the difference between codes C and D is nowhere near as large with Ammonia Worlds as it is with Earth-like worlds. However, if you'd rather have better chances for a mixture of AWs and ELWs, you'll probably want to go FG, or FGK. Including A in there would be better for Earth-likes, but considerably less so for Ammonias.
Also, since systems with class F main stars are almost universally mass code D, you can just stick to those if you're in too much of a hurry to call up the galaxy map. As such, mass code D systems also tend to have the highest chances of containing Ammonia worlds, most likely due to not just their larger total mass, but their favourable star compositions as well. However, the difference between codes C and D is nowhere near as large with Ammonia Worlds as it is with Earth-like worlds. However, if you'd rather have better chances for a mixture of AWs and ELWs, you'll probably want to go FG, or FGK. Including A in there would be better for Earth-likes, but considerably less so for Ammonias.
In this case, you have two choices. If you have any specific kinds of configuration in mind, then you can restrict your search to that. For example, want to find binary AWs? Stick to more luminous stars, as they'll have wider habitable zones: set your filters to class A and F. Want an AW that orbits some planet as a moon? Go survey class B stars from the lower end of the luminosity range: they rarely contain an AW, but if they do, chances are good it'll be a moon. And so on.
Don't know what exactly you want to find, you'd just be open to all? Disable route planner filtering by star class. You might get lucky and bump across an Ammonia world orbiting a T Tauri protostar, or a class L dwarf, and such - although the chances of this are very low.
Don't know what exactly you want to find, you'd just be open to all? Disable route planner filtering by star class. You might get lucky and bump across an Ammonia world orbiting a T Tauri protostar, or a class L dwarf, and such - although the chances of this are very low.
Also, about single primary star and multiple primary star systems. (See the terms above in case you're not certain what this means!)
If there's only one star in a system, it makes the habitable zones fairly simple. Various utilities can even calculate you the distances at which planets might be habitable - for Thargoids, in this case. If there are multiple stars, the situation becomes a lot more complex. The stars will generally "extend" each others' habitable zones, which is good, but stars being too close to each other might "clear out" planets, which is bad. So it's really a gamble. Overall, your chances of finding an AW around a solitary star might be slightly (but not much) better, but an AW (and other bodies too) in a more complex system will likely have more interesting orbits.
At the time of writing this (2020. December 4), Commanders have uploaded to EDDN 389,274 Ammonia worlds in 58,477,593 uninhabited systems. Calculating from those, and ignoring the scenarios of systems with multiple AWs, if you pick a destination system entirely at random, you'd have a 0.67% probability of finding an Ammonia world there. Doesn't sound too good, does it?
However, keep in mind that you can have a higher probability around in systems more likely to contain Ammonia worlds. (Rough approximations could point to a 2.5% probability around the most likely candidates.) Also, as long as the chance isn't zero, given enough time spent, you will eventually find what you're looking for.
Of course, these are just how probabilities are: you might stumble upon three Ammonias in three systems in quick succession, or you might end up having visited 500 systems and found none. If it's any consolation, know that both have happened to other Commanders before. If you haven't found what you're looking for, you'll just have to keep looking.
However, keep in mind that you can have a higher probability around in systems more likely to contain Ammonia worlds. (Rough approximations could point to a 2.5% probability around the most likely candidates.) Also, as long as the chance isn't zero, given enough time spent, you will eventually find what you're looking for.
Of course, these are just how probabilities are: you might stumble upon three Ammonias in three systems in quick succession, or you might end up having visited 500 systems and found none. If it's any consolation, know that both have happened to other Commanders before. If you haven't found what you're looking for, you'll just have to keep looking.
Now that you've (hopefully) decided what to look for, let's see some tips on how to recognize Ammonia worlds. Well, with the FSS, this'll be a short one!
As you no doubt know by now (unless you're entirely new to the game yet, in which case, hey, thanks for reading this guide so soon!), the FSS's "Filtered Spectral Analysis" graph tells you exactly what kinds of bodies there are in a system. There's a specific range for Ammonia Worlds there, roughly between A and N in the word "Analysis" - so it would be "ANalysis". If you see something there, there's at least one AW in the system.
In case you're not entirely sure whether you're in the correct range, check the "Signal Analysis" part in the bottom right: it tells you what range you're currently tuned to, and exactly what you're going to find there.
If you don't wish to memorise every possible part of the graph, a handy visual help is to overlay an image of the entire FSA spectrum on top of the game. I'd recommend using MattG's EDJPO for this, which you can find here - it's currently in beta, but works fine.
In case you're not entirely sure whether you're in the correct range, check the "Signal Analysis" part in the bottom right: it tells you what range you're currently tuned to, and exactly what you're going to find there.
If you don't wish to memorise every possible part of the graph, a handy visual help is to overlay an image of the entire FSA spectrum on top of the game. I'd recommend using MattG's EDJPO for this, which you can find here - it's currently in beta, but works fine.
"I've found an Ammonia world and scanned it, what now?"
First off, if it has any moons, do scan them too! Especially if it has more than one. When you submit your find to various databases, having the scan data of the moons will be important too. Plus you want your first discovery tag to be on the moons too, don't you?
It's also nice to check the distances of the moons from the planet, and if they are landable, then to check the view as well.
You can also map the Ammonia world for considerably more credits, and an extra "First Mapped By" tag on it. Since the planets themselves aren't landable, there won't be any POIs down there that you can resolve into locations, so these are all you'll get for your extra time spent. Many Ammonia worlds are small enough that the efficiency target is set at 6-7 probes: if your DSS is engineered (it doesn't even have to be maxed out), this is trivial to achieve. If you do, you'll be rewarded with +25% more credits.
If you're lucky enough to have found an Ammonia world that has a moon which orbits it very close (which only happens under special circumstances, mostly when the AW orbits a large body as its moon), then chances are good that the moon itself will have volcanism. In which case I'd definitely recommend mapping it too, then landing at a POI and making some good screenshots there. Such arrangements are very rare, after all.
Finally, if you're not in a hurry, you might want to search the area for other Ammonia Worlds too, especially in the same subsector or "boxel". You can tell this from the system name: the only thing to change would be the last number after the mass code.
It's also nice to check the distances of the moons from the planet, and if they are landable, then to check the view as well.
You can also map the Ammonia world for considerably more credits, and an extra "First Mapped By" tag on it. Since the planets themselves aren't landable, there won't be any POIs down there that you can resolve into locations, so these are all you'll get for your extra time spent. Many Ammonia worlds are small enough that the efficiency target is set at 6-7 probes: if your DSS is engineered (it doesn't even have to be maxed out), this is trivial to achieve. If you do, you'll be rewarded with +25% more credits.
If you're lucky enough to have found an Ammonia world that has a moon which orbits it very close (which only happens under special circumstances, mostly when the AW orbits a large body as its moon), then chances are good that the moon itself will have volcanism. In which case I'd definitely recommend mapping it too, then landing at a POI and making some good screenshots there. Such arrangements are very rare, after all.
Finally, if you're not in a hurry, you might want to search the area for other Ammonia Worlds too, especially in the same subsector or "boxel". You can tell this from the system name: the only thing to change would be the last number after the mass code.
Fly around, admire your new planet, make lots of screenies with your ship or your Commander in front of the AW? It's up to you, really. I'd just want to make note of one thing: don't submit the system / planet info to any public databases before you sell the data and get your first discovery tag on the body! Although it has only happened a couple of times so far, people can automatically scrape these databases for new untagged finds, and nab them before you get back to and sell the data. It's not like submitting the data would be urgent anyway. So, if you're using any utilities that automatically upload data to public databases, I recommend turning that feature off, and doing the upload only after you've tagged your finds.
That's around all there is to know at the moment then. Thanks for reading!
Sources and credits:
- @Jackie Silver and others for their work on deciphering how system names are generated and the galactic structure
- not used here per se, but worth looking at nonetheless: @Orvidius 's map charts generated from EDDN data
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One of them even had two, another one an AW and two WW.
